#or the werewolf reveal

[fogsy-feel]

Debating on whether or not I should just post the Sterek Fic. It's at 20k and not even remotely done (was supposed to be a oneshot) but now it's looking like I might have to post it in chapters.... which would put ANOTHER wip on my ao3

[thatsbelievable]

[barkencyde]

seeing werewolf packs in media joking around and acting wolflike/doglike in their human forms always makes me so envious. id kill to have a close family like that, where we may all still look human but none of us actually are and canine behaviour/communication is seen as normal and not weird. i often feel kind of isolated from my family because of how much i have to mask or tone down my canine behaviour to appear normal to them. i hope some day i can find a pack like this where i can fully be myself and be surrounded by people who are the same :-)

[uhhh-ghouls007]

Put that down!!

[tswwwit]

Here's a stupid meet-the-sibling thing from Portal AU!

Dipper checks his watch for the third time in two minutes, foot tapping nervously against the pavement. Mabel’s usually one to run late, but not this late. 

Twenty minutes have passed since they were supposed to meet up at this coffee shop, and between the fact that his twin’s always eager to see him, and the odd magical blips on his radar in the last hour, he’s starting to wonder if she’s gotten herself in trouble. Again. 

Driven by worry, he checks his phone again - the regular one. No texts, no missed calls. A second check shows nothing on his other phone either, which is arguably just as worrying but for different reasons.

Dipper slumps back in his seat, rubbing at his eyes. 

Great. Exactly what he needed. As if this whole conversation wasn’t going to be weird enough, now he’s got more to stress about. A sister in trouble, maybe, and a magical incident, probably. Not to mention who would obviously get involved with one of those, just to add the cherry on top of a messed up situation.

He’s just about decided to get up and start investigating when he hears the shout.

“Dipper!” 

Jerking up from his seat, Dipper turns towards his sister’s voice. 

Mabel runs down the sidewalk, arms raised and waving wildly, sending her bracelets banging against each other as her earrings bounce along with her steps. She doesn’t slow down as she approaches, instead throwing herself forward until Dipper has to catch her hug with an ‘oof’ of effort. 

He hugs her back in response and gets squeezed so hard it nearly takes the breath out of him, including a brief moment where he’s worried that her earrings will catch on his clothes. 

After a moment he pushes her back, smiling. How long has it been since he’s seen her in person? Four months? Five? From the occasional phone call he knew she was doing well, but it’s good to see her looking so happy in person.

“It’s good to see you.” He gives her a big pat on the back, and gets a ‘bwomp bwomp’ in return. 

“You too, bro-bro.” Mabel steps away, then blinks in surprise. “You look great! Is that a new look?” She gives him a once over, then beams, patting her cheeks. “Oh my gosh, that’s perfect timing!”

“Well, I-” Dipper plucks at his shirt - it’s not that different from his usual, just better fitted. 

So, he may or may not have gotten a lecture on fashion. A very long one. Followed by several insistent recommendations about his outfits, including having a literal pile of clothes dumped on him out of nowhere. He didn’t think it made that big a difference. But maybe it does?

“Okay, okay, I know you had something important you wanted to talk about, but listen.” Mabel rushes to speak, bubbling over with enthusiasm. Dipper lets her take his hands and clasp them tight as she bounces in place. “I just met. The hottest guy.”

“Ugh,” Dipper groans, shoulders slumping. Not another shitty crush. He thought she was over those by now. Still, if it puts his own thing off… “What kind of jerk is it this time?”

“Okay, one? Not a jerk! And two: He’s not for me, you dork!” 

“Wait, what?” Dipper holds her at arm’s length, staring. 

“So like I said,” Mabel continues, giving him a Look. “I met this guy, and we got to talking, and he’s, like, super fun - but clearly into dudes. So I sorta mentioned a certain brother, and guess what! He likes magic, and monsters, and he even says he has a thing for nerds!” She lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It’s perfect. You’ll love him.” 

With another groan, Dipper drags a palm down his face. 

Damn it. He knows that she worries about him finding someone since he’s always on the move. Between trying to keep up with the jobs, and tracking monsters, and everything else in his life, he rarely has time for a break. Mabel playing matchmaker isn’t new. Only her choice of candidate, which sounds strangely.. On point?

Hell, a while ago - less than two months, at that - he might have welcomed an intro to this guy, whoever it is. It wasn’t like he was meeting a lot of people himself. 

But oh god. The timing.

“Look, I’m glad you thought of me, but-” Dipper starts, holding up his hands in defense.

“Oh no. Nope! No more of this ‘too busy’, or ‘probably not my type’ stuf. I vetted him Dipper,” Mabel insists, lower lip pouting out - oh god, the puppy eyes, he has to turn away -  “You’re on the road all the time and all alone all the time. So if you aren’t gonna try and meet someone, I gotta have your back.”

Dipper tilts his head back, shuts his eyes, and prays deep down for strength. 

He didn’t want to open with this information. It’s a pretty long story, one with a lot of twists and turns, even some bits that she’s going to feel very ‘I knew it!!’ about. But a little sisterly smugness is way, way better than getting dragged into a date with some guy. 

Even if Dipper turns it down first thing, it could end… Pretty badly. 

He opens his mouth to say so, and gets interrupted by hands clapping on his face, forcing him to meet her eyes.

“Oh my god, don’t look now.” She whispers, turning him back to look at her when his head instinctively swivels. “But he’s right here. I didn’t think he’d show up this soon!”

“Why shouldn’t I look at the guy you’re trying to hook me up with.” He says, flat. It comes out a bit garbled from the pressure on his cheeks.

“Because you’ll freak out thinking he’s out of your league! And he’s not!” Mabel insists, shaking him urgently. “Just be cool for once, okay?”

Dipper has never, ever been cool for a single instant in his life. He doesn’t know why his twin thinks he’s even capable of it. Add on the multiple reasons he can’t exactly flirt with some random dude that Mabel met on the street, and it’s a recipe for infinite awkwardness. 

Before he can explain why this is a bad idea, on so many levels, Mabel straightens up. 

“Hey, glad you made it” She beams at a point over Dipper’s shoulder. “Let me introduce you to-”

A cheerful laugh interrupts her, high and bright. It lingers longer than it should, seconds past the point where it’d be appropriate - then two firm hands clap onto Dipper’s shoulders, squeezing tight. 

“Well, well, well, well, well!” The voice behind him oozes smug pleasure. The grip on his shoulders tightens briefly, then slides down to his biceps in a slow, appreciative stroke. “So this is the famous Dipper Pines, huh?”

The voice, the touch. The smug, amused tone of someone pulling off an amazing joke that nobody’s caught onto yet-

Yeah, that all tracks. 

Dipper doesn’t resist when the man whips him around, frowning up into the beaming face of Bill goddamn Cipher. 

“Boy, you weren’t kidding! He is cute!” Bill exclaims, expression perfectly surprised and delighted. Like he’s never seen this face before in his life. He turns towards Mabel. “And you say this guy’s single?”

“Yep!” She gives a big double-thumbs up. Another person might mistake the way her eye’s moving as a twitch, but it’s just a million winks at Dipper, packed into too small a space. 

Bill lets out a low whistle. “Dang, that’s a shame.” The grins creeps up another fraction. “A smart guy woulda snagged him up the moment they saw him in person!”

Dipper lets out a strangled sound from his throat. Despite the… everything, his face feels hot, turning pink with embarrassment.

He glares at this smug, double-talking jackass. Bill beams back at him with unashamed delight.

From the side, Mabel hisses in annoyance at his reaction. She gestures towards Bill insistently, waving over his body, his arms. She points at his face twice, eyes wide like Dipper hasn’t seen it yet.

But there’s no point in her pointing. Dipper’s well acquainted with every part of his boyfriend. 

Including his tendency to not mention important facts.

So there’s the reason she was late. The reasons for the magic pulses - of course his stupid demon wouldn’t give him any heads up that he was already planetside. And the reason why the guy she met was oh-so-conveniently into nerds, especially ones related to Mabel friggin’ Pines. 

Why did Dipper think mentioning his family was a good idea? It’s only given Bill more chances for chaos. 

Or in this case, a really stupid prank.

“Now let’s see,” Bill says, more contemplative now. His eye roves over Dipper, head to toe. “What else you got going, kid?”

But. Okay, the attention’s nice. It’s never not been nice, even when it’s been creepy and strange and inhuman. 

Maybe playing along a little couldn’t hurt?

“I-” Dipper starts rubbing the back of his neck. If he looks his boyfriend in the eye while lying like a rug, he’ll never pull this off. “Well, I-”

“Oh! Like I said, he’s really into magic. Like you!” Mabel interrupts, bouncing in place. Her voice lowers, as if sharing a secret. “He does freelance work, y’know?”

“Is that so!” Bill’s mouth forms a perfect ‘o’ of surprise. Dipper half expects him to clap a hand to his cheek in astonishment. “Why, I never! A monster hunter? Right in front of me?”

“You betcha!” Proudly, Mabel sets fists on her hips. All too eager to hype man her brother before he’s said anything himself. “On the track of a dangerous criminal and everything!”

“Wow!” Bill, looking suitably impressed, somehow avoids having his pants set aflame from the sheer force of lying. “I bet he’s a nasty customer, too! A real devilish fellow!”

God, the puns hurt. Dipper can’t help but make a face, which gets another disappointed look from his sister, and a sinister gleam starts building up in Bill’s eye - 

Alright, that’s enough. 

Lying to Mabel would have been bad enough - but between their discussion and Dipper not getting a word in, Bill’s getting so full of himself that he might just explode. And that needs nipping in the bud, immediately.

Dipper shoves Bill back a pace, brushing off his shirt. He gives this asshole the full narrow-eyed glare and, ignoring the aghast look from his sister, flips his asshole boyfriend off. 

“Hey!” Affronted, Mabel takes a step in, taking his arm. “What the heck, Dipper?”

“Mabel, listen,” Dipper starts, only to get shushed by his sister and turned to face Bill by said asshole.

“And you’re feisty as well? Jackpot!” Bill beams, taking his head in his hands. “Now, let’s see about the rest of ya.”

Before Dipper can guess what that means  - or even ask - Bill tugs his shirt up. The only reason it doesn’t come completely off is because Dipper recognizes the motion and jerks his arms down in time. 

“Hey!” He struggles with Bill’s grip on his shirt, planting a palm on Bill’s face as he leans in for closer inspection. “What the hell, man?”

“Yep, that’s a fighter alright! Real nice view!” Bill says, after lingering too long ogling unwillingly exposed flesh. He lets the shirt drop - Dipper spends a second straightening it out - only to grab onto his butt next in a full-palm fondle. “Aha! Now that’s where it’s at!”

It’s so like Bill to start flinging compliments while completely breaking every polite convention known to man. He can never do anything straightforward. Possibly he’s allergic. With a swear, Dipper grapples with his jackass boyfriend again, trying to retain some semblance of dignity. 

Mabel stands off to the side, mouth agape. Silently staring between the two of them, too stunned to react. 

Clearly she wasn’t expecting this kind of crap. And honestly? Dipper can’t blame her. Bill’s pretty good at covering his asshole tendencies when he wants. 

Dipper can handle it, though. He’s already halfway pried the groping grasp off his butt when Bill’s other hand rotates to the front, taking hold with alarming swiftness. The high-pitched yelp he lets out is, thankfully, only from surprise.

“Hey!” And that gesture must have finally shaken Mabel from her shock, because now she looks offended. “Bill! What are you doing?”

“Cute, smart, decent body - he’s just like you said! The whole package!” Bill gives his handful a friendly jiggle, looking thrilled to have found a part to grab where he can’t get smacked away lest there be collateral damage. He turns towards Mabel with a grin. “How’s twenty bucks sound?”

The alarmed “What the hell!” from her comes out at the same time as Dipper’s offended, “Only twenty?”

“Oh, no no no,” Mabel waves her hands rapidly, the sleeves of her sweater nearly covering them in the rush.  “He’s not for sale, what the heck!”

“Oh, of course!” Bill releases Dipper’s crotch to smack himself dramatically on the forehead, shaking his head. “Because he’s his own person! With his own life decisions and everything!” His expression turns serious, nodding as if he actually cared about that fact. “No problem, Shooting Star! I’ll just kidnap him instead.”

A sudden swipe behind Dipper’s knees sends him into a swearing fall. One that’s quickly interrupted as he’s scooped up into Bill’s arms, startled and staring into an excited smile. 

Bill gives Mabel a perfunctory half-bow, bounces Dipper in his arms once - then starts sprinting down the street. 

To Mabel’s credit, there’s only a half-second pause before she follows.

“Help! Brother-napping in progress! Stop, you creep!” Mabel shouts, almost louder than Bill can manage. With some effort, Dipper peeks over his shoulder to see a flail of color trailing behind after them, one sweater-clad arm shaking in fury. “You better let him go, or you’ll regret this!”

Bill cackles louder, chest shaking - and one thing about being a demon is that he can really book it when he needs to. 

Dipper finds himself clinging to his ‘kidnapper’ tight, just to feel more comfortable about not being dropped. Not that he needs to worry about that. Even sprinting full-out and laughing, Bill’s not even breathing hard as he flees the wrath of righteousness. 

Dipper thunks his head against his awful, stupid boyfriend’s shoulder, and rolls his eyes. 

Welp. He’s not sure what else he expected. 

Bill’s always going to be Bill, after all. An evil, bored, antagonising force, bent on finding the funniest thing to do and jerking people around by it at every turn. And a vengeful, chaotic asshole. 

It’s hardly surprising that he and he took offense at someone arranging dates with his boyfriend. Whether or not Mabel knew their situation doesn’t matter in his view. It’s the principle of the thing - and, of course, a chance to be a total dick. 

But all things considered, it’s hardly the worst case scenario. 

Bill could have laid on the charm, gaslighting her into thinking he was a different kind of guy. Something that would make their introduction easier - and have her totally ignoring Dipper’s warnings about what kind of guy he is. 

But freaking her out was too funny, and that showed his true colors. And thank fuck for that. The last thing Dipper needs is another handsome guy charming her into a series of Bad Ideas.

As they round a street corner, Dipper uses the momentum to kick a leg free, planting heel against pavement. Bill slows as he tries to both stop him from falling and continue dragging him along. 

“Aw, c’mon,” Bill chides, making a valiant attempt to pick Dipper up again. “Let’s ditch the sibling and get moving! As far as she knows, I’m gonna do all kinds of dastardly things to ya. Terrible ones!” His eye glimmers, briefly unfocused - and Dipper takes the moment of distraction to get both feet on the ground. “Aww, hey!”

“Not a chance.” Dipper says, less annoyed than he’d like. He dodges another grab by stepping neatly to the side. “You’ve had your fun. Now at least try to behave for like, five seconds.”

One look at Bill’s face says that he’s not done with the fun, or at least thoroughly annoyed at its interruption - which means Dipper has to sweeten the pot. 

“I’m sure she’s panicking as we speak,” He adds, rolling his eyes at Bill’s look of pride. “And it was kinda funny. But at least try to good impression, jackass.” Resting a palm on Bill’s arm, he offers a shy smile. “Please?”

“Hmmm.” Bill hums thoughtfully. A second later, he shrugs. “Eh, sure! Probably wasn’t gonna get much mileage outta dragging it out anyway.”

Yep. Another win for Dipper Pines. He’s getting good at this demon-wrangling stuff. 

“Hey!” Mabel rounds the corner, steps clearly flagging. She leans against he building, then glares at Bill. “You can’t just-” 

Then she leans over, bracing herself on her knees as she tries to catch her breath. Dipper’s surprised she caught up this fast, but it wasn’t without effort - he thinks one of her bracelets is missing, and her hair is a mess. 

Dipper offers her a hand, but she waves it off. There’s a thoughtful sound behind him, then arms circle his waist and drag him back into Bill’s grasp. 

“So. I see you’ve met Bill.” Dipper says, finally. He glares a bit over his shoulder as Billtugs him closer to settle in, chin tucked on his shoulder. Probably wearing the very smuggest smile he owns.

“Dipper, I’m sorry,” Mabel blurts. She’s still catching her breath, face red as she flails her sleeves in inarticulate protest. “I didn’t know-”

“That he was an asshole? A jerk? A totally weird creep?” Dipper holds up his hands before she can apologize again. “No, it’s fine. I already knew that. He’s… actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

She pauses, taking in their position. How Dipper’s not struggling, or swearing, or hexing the shit out of his ‘kidnapper’. The worried frown turns more… contemplative. The lightbulb flickers. 

Dipper takes a steadying breath. 

Here goes.

“Mabel, this is… Bill Cipher.” He gestures at Bill, then shoves his head away from his neck before he can leave a hickey. “He’s my boyfriend.”

Mabel boggles at him. There’s no other word for it. Eyes wide, mind clearly racing as she ties in what just happened with how Bill looks and what she thought everything was like just five minutes ago. 

She takes a second, before finally landing on, “What?”

Yeah, that’s a reasonable reaction. 

But if they got along earlier, they’ll… probably get along okay, right? Now that Bill’s got the initial bullshit out of his system, they might even have stuff in common. 

Thank hell for that. Romance is kind of her thing, of course she’s interested. Good thing too. Compared to the rest of his family, Mabel is easy mode. 

Only a second later she claps her hands to her cheeks, gasping hugely. Dipper can almost see the questions about to burst out.

“Let’s go back, get some coffee, and I’ll tell you everything.” Dipper smiles, but speaks before she can start interrogating them on the street. He shrugs Bill off, getting his hand seized in the process. He squeezes it back.  “Trust me, it’s a long story.”

[blaiddraws]

surprise! I'm doing whumptober apparently. first one is an alt prompt, "secrets revealed". looks like someone caught were-zoroark zisu at a bad moment 🤔

[a-sunset-outside-my-window]

fic rec friday

A Little Misunderstanding

by birdyhands on Ao3

I have a headcanon that Lily’s period happened to line up with the full moon for a while leading to her realizing Remus’s moodiness, sickliness, increased affinity for chocolate, etc. that occurred once a month.

Seeing as Lily came from a muggle background I figured that ‘werewolf’ might not come to mind immediately for her and hence was born this fic in which Lily realizes Remus’s monthly habits before the rest of the marauders do and comes to the conclusion that her friend is transgender.

Ft Lily being a good friend, Lily being protective, Remus being both paranoid and thoroughly confused, the rest of the marauders being oblivious teenage boys, and all the resulting awkwardness and hilarity.

Lily’s not perfect but she’s trying, transphobia doesn’t exist in the wizarding world cause I said so, and jk rowling can suck my dick.

i love them, they are so sweet and fluffy with each other! i honestly have so much love for fics like this

favourite tropes included are:

lily being a good friend

werewolf reveal

remus is a sweet little bean

inappropriate use of potions

that really shouldn't work but somehow does

werewolf angst

fluff

found family

wolfstar of you squint

the marauders being good friends

as always leave lots of love and kudos to the author and have an amazing rest of the week <3

[bisexualmultifandommess]

Laura’s expression after Ryan says “Maybe Neither” about Dylan and Kaitlyn looks like such a “yeah that’s bullshit” expression to me lmao

[avirxy]

I ofter monster hunter sketches

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

The Werewolf | 1956

[werewolfsmile]

I need to know your thoughts on what was going through werewolf!Eliot's mind wen the team was filming Howl Force, the werewolves-attack-NATO movie in "The Stork Job"

Ohhh myy goodnessss I completely forgot about that!!!!!!

Eliot took one look at the script and rolled his eyes so hard that it hurt.

He definitely encountered some local werewolves on the set and they all shared commiserating looks of can you believe we're producing this crap??

His training and discipline were the only things stopping him from interrupting filming with corrections every time the 'werewolves' did something completely inaccurate.

The pre-recorded howls used on the film set are not from wolves local to the region where the movie is set. Eliots tries really, really hard to let it go ... he can't.

"Wha- No! We're not changing the wolf howls just because you think it's the wrong wolf dialect or something. That doesn't even make sense."

"It's a very distinctive howl, Nate!"

"We're not even really making this movie!"

(fun fact: wolves actually do have different 'dialects' depending on where they live in the world!)

The only good thing to come out of that movie experience (y'know, aside from the con they were pulling) was knowing that none of the werewolf lore in the movie was accurate. Eliot doesn't have to worry about his secret being exposed in that way.

Later, when the Big Reveal happens, Hardison remembers this movie plot and how annoying Eliot was on the set when he wasn't conning Irina.

"Wait, Eliot, hold up. Howl Force is real??"

"Are you kiddin' me?? Y'think werewolves would have any reason to kill NATO troops? That movie was a disgrace!"

"I liked the howls."

"Dammit, Parker!"

Sophie is instantly bitter about the reminder of her lost reel.

[christinesficrecs]

Hi! Looking for a sterek fanfic. Derek is a single father and meets Stiles and they dating. Stiles doesn’t know Hale are werewolves.During the Hale family’s meeting, Derek’s son is injured and heals immediately. Stiles learns about werewolves. He is shocked and angry. Derek later explains he didn’t say about werewolves because he was afraid after Kate. He had an agreement with his family that he would introduce them his partner and if his family approved, then he would tell them about werewolves

Sorry! I remember reading one similar to this one but I don't think the plot matches.

[maybemockingbird]

Since my cozy horror, paranormal boys love romance web novel The Night Farm's first season is finally done on both Patreon and Tapas, I wanted to share the full wrap (small changes pending) to the physical edition with cover art by the amazing K. Lynn Smith! This series is perfect for fans of Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, and other cozy slice-of-life games and webcomics/manga, titles like Welcome to Night Vale, Gravity Falls, and Love Tractor. Pre-orders will open for the public on the 17th and include a small pre-order discount, a bundle of fun goodies, and you can upgrade to a coffee mug bundle, too!

I'm SO excited to share the physical edition with everyone, and I urge you all to check out the series on my Patreon (the book is available for $1 a month and season two will be coming along shortly) or my Tapas (on a several week delay). I ONLY sell my books through my website, so you'll have to buy directly from me if you want a physical copy, but I ship quickly and send goodies with every package!

[writing-whump]

Feverish cuddles

Just a fluffy thing with feverish Seline and the boys.

The door opened and closed with a thud way too loud for Seline's ears.

She wasn't sure what was wrong. Just that she felt like when she had low sugar after coffee or something super sweet - she was shaky, vaguely nauseous and brittle. But eating didn't help, in fact, the baguette she got herself on the way was sitting all weird in her stomach.

Too greasy. She already hated thinking about her, and it was just a half an hour ago.

The living room alight despite the late evening darkness.

Matthew was sprawled laying on the couch, taking every centerimeter of it while reading a book.

"You are still at it?"

Matthew grunted, not even looking up.

Seline hadn't expected him to be such a bookworm. He liked boxing and working out and looking at his muscled arms and abs in the mirror when he thought no one was looking. He was the towering kind of tough guy one could mistake for a bodyguard, with a perpetual frown and he was proud of it.

So how he could grab a book and spend three days unresponsive by reading it was a real surprise.

A wave of affection at the sight had her letting go of her back and wiggling out of her shoes and coat half-heartedly. She didn't have the energy to be neat or to go all the way upstairs to her room to change clothes.

Seline shuffled to the couch, leaning her knees against the edge.

It took a few long seconds of staring unmovingly for Matt to look up. "What?!"

"Move," she said with a grin.

"Huh?"

She rolled her eyes and then simply flopped right in top of him.

Matthew's breath caught as he moved his hands and book out of the way. Seline sprawled across his chest and waist, laying on top of him, side of her face pressed against his collar bone. "You can't have the couch all for yourself," she chided.

She felt Matthew's deep sigh under her ear, whole chest moving up and down. "You could have said something. I can expand the couch-"

"Nah, this is fine."

Matthew scoffed. "Yeah, for you maybe."

When she didn't move, he raised himself up with her on top, letting her flip backwards against the other end. He was mumbling something in that complaining voice of his that Seline knew was harmless at this point as he expanded the couch to the size of a twin bed.

He lied back down on it on his back, only to splatter for air like a cat, when she glued herself to his side again.

"You have space. Roll over there."

"Noooo. You are warm." She knew it sounded whiny and she didn't care. Her hands and feet were freezing, everything was uncomfortable and her bones weighed her down. No way she was giving up on any comfort in vicinity.

She threw her hand over his waist and when he grumbled but didn't move away, relaxed. When she closed her eyes, the world didn't spin as much anymore.

Her back was still cold, only her front warmed by Matthew's incredible body heat. She let her hand slide to Matthew's stomach, finding the rim of his shirt and going under it to naked skin.

That had him shooting up in panic. "Oww! That's cold! What are you doing?!"

Her lips curled, her blue eyes wide and glassy, blinking innocently.

Matthew growled something. "When is your boyfriend coming home? Go freeze him."

But he settled back down, which she took as permission to plant both of her hands under his shirt, warmth immediately spreading all over her.

Matthew's arm came sneaking around her back, letting him lie on his shoulder, his strong arm around her. Tugging her closer while he lifted the book with his other hand to continue reading.

Seline wasn't sure if she shouldn't be offended he wasn't paying her more attention...but he was warm and comfy. She slid her hands over his stomach, flat and warm and toned, breathing out. If he found it weird, he didn't comment.

She must have drifted off to sleep, cause the next thing she knew was Isaiah kneeling next to her on the sofa.

"Hey, what's wrong with her? Did something happen?" Isaiah stoked the top of her head.

"I don't know. Didn't say. She came, attacked me and didn't move since."

Isaiah chuckled. "Oh, yes, you such a helpless victim of her attack."

He cupped the side of her face and she groaned slightly.

"This is strange. She is always so chipper and happy, when she comes back from work." He threaded his hand through her hair.

"Take her. She is overheating me," Matthew said, turning another page.

She felt Isaiah's cold lips on the side of her forehead, making a happy little noise. He didn't move for a while though.

"Yep, she's got a fever."

Ah, that was it, then.

"Sel, would you like some water? Thermometer? Paralen?" Isaiah offered.

Seline didn't open her eyes, her eyelids were too heavy. But she knew what she wanted, turning around to reach for him.

Isaiah smiled. "Baby, come on. I'll get you to bed."

"No. Stay." A shiver run down her spine. She loved it when he called her that.

"I'll be right back," he said, amused and soft and concerned all at once. How could someone say Isaiah was unfeeling? She could hear so many things in his voice.

Isaish left, which elicted a whine out of her.

Matthew all but fumed next to her at the discomfort. "Geez, he just went to hang his precious suit. Get a grip."

Seline hugged herself tightly, cold now without Matt's arm around her. "Don't be mean. I have a fever."

She could tell he rolled his eyes, shifting on the bed all annoyed, but he put the back of his hand gently to her cheek after. "Just a little. Don't be so dramatic."

Then he got up to get a blanket from the other corner of the couch, draping it over her.

Isaiah came soon after, sliding under the blanket beside her.

Seline wrapped herself around him immediately. He was warm, smelled of coffee, chocolate and coconut and let her press her face against his neck.

Isaiah rubbed the top of her back, between her shoulders, the other hand hooked in her hair at the back of her head.

Matthew turned on his side, towards them, the book rustling in his grip. But he was closer now, his stomach and chest against her back.

Seline was basically sandwiched between them both, warm from all directions. The little discomfort of the fever and shakiness was still there, but the tension melted away, her chest filling up with warm fuzziness.

She sighed contendly.

@bellysoupset

[cowboysuperhero]

werewolfed his ass

[coraniaid]

In a better world -- a world where Riot Games were happy to spend millions more dollars on a third season of Arcane, and also to spend some of that money on hiring more talented writers -- Season 2 would actually properly commit to Caitlyn's descent into evil. (Well, relative descent: she was already a cop after all.)

She shouldn't have just been a passive puppet or an innocent naif being led astray by the bad Noxians. She should have actively been involved in setting up all the detention camps and checkpoints in Zaun, and in crushing internal dissent from people loyal to the surviving Council members and empowering her own loyalists in Piltover. That's the direction she seemed to be heading in at the end of Act 1, and then she just ... didn't. She thought better of it when the cameras weren't on her, I guess. There's nothing wrong with having a timeskip between Act 1 and Act 2, but there is something wrong if all the interesting character development happens implicitly during this timeskip.

And equally we should have seen much more of Sevika trying to mold Jinx into a figurehead to rally Zaun behind. (More of Sevika generally, to be honest. Does she ever even learn that Jinx is the one who killed Silco?) We should have actually seen Vi struggling to cope in a world without the support of either Cait or her sister, instead of her just being passed from one to the other as the plot required. (The prison sex scene in Act 3 is fun, but the context and pacing around it is ridiculous. And I think that's just emblematic of Vi's arc all season: she's part of Cait's story, and part of Jinx's story, but the show doesn't do anything like enough to make those two versions of Vi consistent from one scene to the other.)

In this reimagined Season 2, Act 1 could have stayed mostly the same, but Act 2 should have lasted longer and gone further, replacing almost all of canon Act 3. I'd spend more time on Jinx's jailbreak sequence, cut the Singed/Warwick/Vander stuff until much later -- I think Jinx finding out more about Silco and Vander's past is fine, but I wish it didn't dominate her arc this season quite so much -- and have Vi and Jinx reunite at Viktor's camp later for some other reason. Maybe give Lest an expanded role as representative of some kind of underground opposition to Caitlyn's rule in Piltover in Mel's absence. And then, rather than Cait switching sides again the minute her ex calls her cupcake, why not have her react to finding out that Viktor is harboring Jinx -- the woman who killed her mother, remember? -- and ordering the camp stormed to capture her? She's a military dictator: we can surely at least let her be responsible for some dead children.

Then, with the penultimate episode showing things at their bleakest, with Vi and Cait and Jinx all at violent cross-purposes, with Viktor possibly dead and Jayce and Ekko and Heimerdinger all still unaccounted for, we can have the last episode be ... more or less the exact canon episode 7 we got. That episode was the best of the season, and would have been a great place for a season-ending cliffhanger too (with Ekko not knowing how bleak the world he was fighting to return to had become).

All the other stuff the season was trying to cram in -- Vi and Jinx learning their father was (sort of) still alive and reuniting again; Singed suddenly having a role in the story beyond 'hangs around with Silco looking sinister sometimes'; Mel being abducted and (somehow) learning magic; the (presumbly much more interesting to people who actually care about LoL lore) stuff about the Black Rose; Ambessa launching a coup of her own and trying to take over Piltover by force; whatever was going on with Viktor's visions of Skye and his grand plan to 'evolve' humanity into an army of mindless zomies --could have happened in a putative Season 3.

A Season 3 which I wouldn't have watched, because all that stuff is pretty silly.