#people playing stupid as if they genuinely can't understand why he would be so upset

[sallysellsseashellssundays]

The Doctor cries over losing Jenny, a daughter he had for the span of one day and no one bats an eye

but people will call him whiny/annoying and fail to understand why he grieved the loss of Rose, a woman he fell in love with, and who traveled with him across a regeneration

Make it make sense 😠 

[prettypinkporkchop]

Can I request a Paul x reader where Paul imprinted on reader but they just fucking hate him because reader and Paul where like each other's worst enemy's before he shifted and Paul has to convince reader that he's not the worst person on earth

B

R

U

H

YESSSSSS I GOTCHU

The Love side

Paul Lahote.

Your enemy.

All through school, he has hated you, and you've hated him. It's because he had beaten up your good friend. Not only that, but he was a player, and you HATE players. He tried to get in bed with you once at a party, but you slapped him.

"Oh, you've done it y/l/n. Watch yourself, little girl." He spits and shoves past you. "Fuck. You." You turn around. He stops, faces you, and then smiles. "I will make you regret that."

He sure did. Every day, he would make fun of you. He threatened to beat up your friend again just to make you mad. His exact words were, "I don't hit women. But I will make y/n cry."

One day, he stopped showing up. He was gone. It was the best feeling ever. You were free. When he came back, you were angry. You had a class together, and you ended up locking eyes.

That is when everything fell apart. Now, you have to be around him. He has to be around you. His mean attitude has slightly changed. But, you give him attitude which upsets him. You kind of love making him mad in hopes this stupid imprint thing goes away. Your dynamic annoys the pack. They wish you guys would just shut up and be a healthy relationship.

Here you guys are, in his truck.

"You are one stupid boy, Paul." You yell at him because you saw a girl he had fucked in high school. "Don't be childish. She means nothing." He growls and starts the truck. You step out and make your way down the rocky dirt road.

He jumps out too and grabs your elbow. "In the truck, now." He says sternly. You push him back, but he doesn't budge. "Don't call me childish when YOU are the man whore!"

"Why does it matter to you anyway?!" He yells and steps closer to you. His breathing is rough. "Because you imprinted on me, and I'm jealous. But I'm mad, and I know I mean nothing. You will hurt me, too." His breathing slows down. "I'll never hurt you. You need to understand that." He says quietly.

That night, you knock on Paul's bedroom door. He HAS to have you at his house during the night, or else he can't protect you due to territory issues with the vampires. Thankfully, you sleep on the couch.

He opens the door, and you stare at him with annoyance. "Ya know, the couch is very uncomfortable." You cross your arms. "Bro, I'm not in the mood. Just take the bed." He pushes past you. "I'm not sleeping in your nasty bed. I'm going home." You argue. You walk back to the living room to put your stuff in your bag. He grabs your arm with a firm grip, pulling you up to face him. "You're not going anywhere." He glares. "I. Hate. You." You hiss. Something in his eyes changed. "I don't like when you say that." His voice is still stern. You scoff and cross your arms. "Dude, like I care. You're a piece of shit. You're only keeping me around so that you don't have to deal with the physical pain of being away from me."

Something inside Paul had caught on fire. His heart is actually breaking. He can't take this anymore! He does love you.

"Can you at least stay with Emily? Kim?" He asks softly. "Okay." He sighs of relief, and you notice how genuine he seems.

'It's only because of the imprint.'

He drives you to Emily and Sam's.

You and Emily ended up staying up watching movies on the couch. You guys ended up having a deep 3 a.m girl talk.

"I'm just so mad about it being him!" You groan in your tired state. She yawns and nods her head. "I know, sweetie. Just tell me, would you ever change your mind about him?" She adjusts the blanket over her.

You take a big deep long breath, thinking.

"Mm, he'd have to really show me. He's hurt so many people. He played with girls' hearts. He was a fuck boy! Geez." You put your hand over your face. "Well, let the universe take part. Sit back and see what happens. Be nicer to him. It's not a forced bond. There's always been something there." She smiles.

You wake up to Emily cooking in the kitchen. You sit up and walk to the table, sitting down. "Oh! I hope I didn't wake you." She awkwardly bites her lip. "You did, but it's because of food, so I'm not complaining." You giggle.

You realize you look bad. Pajamas, hair's a mess, no makeup.

You go to their bathroom with your bag and fix yourself up.

You step out and see the pack sitting around. You see Paul looking down at his hands that are placed on the table.

Emily's advice plays in your head. Be nicer. You will be, but you won't give in until he shows he's a good guy. You refuse to get hurt.

You walk up to him and kneel down beside him. He looks down at you, confused. "You alright?" You ask kind of nicely? He looks surprised and smiles at you. "Uhm, I will be." He breathes out.

His brown eyes are stuck on yours. His mood has lifted a bit because you acknowledged him and somewhat showed you care. This is a good sign to him.

You stand up and see the boys side eyeing you and eating. "Y/n, I left something on my couch for you. You actually left it." He looks up at you.

What could you have left?

"Thanks." You say dryly. Paul stands up and pushes the chair in. "I'll drive you." He offers. Kim notices your face. She stands up and puts a hand on your shoulder. "I'll take you, y/n. I'll drop you off at home after you pick it up."

You look at her and nod your head, "thank you." You smile.

Being somewhat nice to Paul is hard.

You open the door to Paul's house and walk over to his couch. There's a brown paper bag with handles. You open it up.

Inside is a tiny black box. You open it, and there's a necklace. It's a beautiful necklace that you have been looking at for a while. It's expensive as shit! "No. Fucking. Way." You mumble. Under the necklace is a note. You pick up the necklace, placing it down on your lap, and open the piece of paper.

'I swear, when I think of you, the mountains before me move. Believe me when I say this: I love you.'

You forget how to breathe. Your hands become shaky. You put the note down and open the bag again. A fluffy blanket that's swirled and tied with ribbon into a bow. In the ribbon is another note.

'For when my blanket is too gross for you to sleep in. I promise I do clean them.'

You giggle a little bit. You dig inside again, and there's a bracelet. He definitely made it.

You put on the necklace and bracelet. You put the blanket back in the bag and walk back to Kim's car. "What was it?" She asks. "A blanket!" You giggle.

You're settling in at home. You did laundry, some work on your laptop, and made yourself food.

You sit on your bed, scrolling through tiktok. Your phone dings.

Paul: how are you feeling?

Y/n: good. Thank you for the gifts.

Paul: you're welcome, beautiful. I have a question.

Y/n: what

Paul: date?

You groan in annoyance. Your mind plays out every mean thing he said to you before phasing. All of the girls he had hurt. The innocent dudes he fought because they breathed wrong.

But, his beautiful eyes. His sexy face. His body. His hands. His smile. His laugh. His electrifying touch.

Y/n: it's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to be yours.

Paul: I know. I'll wait forever.

Y/n: did you make the bracelet?

Paul: yes ma'am. I'm sorry if you don't like it. I can redo it for you.

What a suck up!!!

Y/n: it's perfect.

A couple of days later, the pack is at Jacob's house. They're helping him fix up a motorcycle. You, Emily, and Kim join in.

You girls sit on lawn chairs near the garage. Emily looks at your wrist and smirks. "Things going well?" She asks. You lean back in the chair and sigh. "I mean, I'm being nice.... enough. He's showering me in gifts. He's trying to take me on a date." You roll your eyes. "What's so bad about that? He's showing you he wants you and only you." Kim says. You know this deep down. But, it doesn't change who he was... is. You don't know anymore.

Paul, Jared, and Sam make their way to you girls. Paul smiles at you and gently grabs your hand. You leave it like that for two seconds but wiggle your hand out of his grip. He doesn't say anything.

"I want to show you something, if you'll let me." He looks at you with almost a pleading face. You get curious and look around his face for any sign of something bad.

It's just sweetness. You can feel the passion radiating off of him. "Okay, Paul." You actually say his name without anger.

This makes his heart jump. His stomach does a flip. He just wants to take you by the hand and kiss you.

You lock your fingers with his and stand up.

He leads you into the woods. "There's a specific spot. You okay?" He turns to face you. You guys have been walking for a hot while. "I'm fine." You lie. Your feet are killing you. He squints at you and then walks to you. He lifts your bridal style. "What the hell?" You squirm. "I can tell your feet are hurting. Let me help you."

Finally, you guys get to this stream of water. There are rocks planted perfectly like a path. The sound of the water is soothing. There is a tree that has fallen, which is where he places you down.

"I was patrolling and found this. It made me think of you." He sits next to you. You look over at him as he watches the stream.

"Ya know, I never meant to hurt those girls in school. I was punishing myself." He sighs. You turn your body to his. You're shocked he's opening up.

"I never hated you. I was trying to stop myself and you from ever falling. But I've always liked you. I was just young, dumb, oblivious." He looks at you. "I'd do anything for you. I hope you believe me. I'm sorry for how I was. I will forever live with that guilt, and I deserve it. I deserve no pity. But, I am so sorry." He shakes his head and his eyes get watery.

You fall.

You fell.

You love him.

"Oh, Paul." You grab his face and kiss him. He's taken aback but kisses you back. His hand wraps around your wrist gently.

Later that night, you are at his house. You are sleeping on the couch again. You are staring at the ceiling and can't stop thinking about him. His lips taste so good. His touch is like fire.

You get up and open his door slowly. His room is dark, and you can hear very quiet snoring. You make your way to his bed. You crawl under the blanket next to him. He slightly groans and shifts. He turns around, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling your back into him. Your butt is against him. You lift your head and turn it. You can't see his face, but you feel his lips on yours. The kiss is rough, and his hands slide down to your hip, near your ass. He pulls away and nuzzles his face in your neck. "Not yet."

You wake up, wrapped up in his arms and content. "I love you." You mumble to Paul. "I love you too, my girl." He kisses your cheek.

[sometimesraven]

re: the ableism in Dot and Bubble

I understand it almost certainly wasn't Rusty's intention for the "can't walk without the arrows" thing to be ableist, but the implications are there and it was so, so hard to watch.

As I said while liveblogging, I've noted that reliance on tech like Google Maps has caused a regression in skills like navigation and a frustrating refusal to even try. I'm frequently faced with that fact as I live somewhere you have to use your eyes to see and most fast food delivery drivers just Cannot Find Us bc the GPS goes wild and they can't follow the directions I always give them so I inevitably have to go out to find them myself. Believe me, I know what he was going for with that part of the script.

However.

When you exaggerate that point to the tune of "she literally cannot walk" without the aid, and then instead of it being deeply disturbing to the two 'kind, helpful' characters (Doc n Ruby), they actively roll their eyes at her and it's played as an "omg how stupid is she" moment, you have to see how that looks.

Let's reframe it: someone you've met was raised in a cult. A very insular, very strict cult that they literally have never seen outside of. At this point in time you know nothing about them but you do know they're in a very insular, very closed-off society. One day they tell you they have no idea how to,,,,,, idk, wash themselves without assistance. If your first instinct is to laugh at them and roll your eyes like they're overexaggerating, you're an ableist.

I struggle to believe anyone like the Doctor wouldn't perhaps initially react with confusion/incredulity but then, after realising this person is 100% serious, go "oh my god that's horrible okay uh let me try to walk you through this and teach you how".

It's a horrible, cynical response that would maybe track if at this point the characters already knew she was an entitled pissbaby. But they don't and that's why it comes across so terribly.

Especially when there's no indication that this is a side-effect of her entitlement and she's literally insulting herself "I'm so stupid!" and genuinely upset and frustrated that she can't even walk in the face of actual death. And yes, she miraculously can walk again once she meets Ricky but it wasn't because she was ignoring the Doctor's advice because racism because he had not given her any. She had literally zero clue how to walk without assistance until Ricky guided her.

This isn't a refusal to learn a skill based on entitlement, this isn't a heavy-handed metaphor, you have given this girl a disability (even if it is psychosomatic, it is still a disability). And in a time where social media + youth entitlement is being blamed for an increase of ADHD, Autism, chronic illness and DID diagnosis-seekers (among other things, but those are the ones people are most aggressive against) that just does not look good At All.

Russel could easily have made it so that they just had no idea how to navigate without the bubble and refused to learn.

Maybe at first show it as genuine frustration on Lindy's part that she can't find anything without guidance but slowly show that no, she's perfectly capable, she just doesn't care to learn.

Hell, you could have everything play out the same way but have her genuinely get offered help to begin with by the Doctor and ignore it, only for Ricky to say the same thing to her later and she gets it immediately.

Idk, anything beyond literally disabling her. The show does a great job at humanising her before showing us that she was a monster all along, but I feel like Rusty himself forgot that he was still representing a Whole Entire Person (something that people on all ends of the political spectrum do All The Time: "person is bad therefore [___ism] is okay in this instance". Ableism especially)

[rose-morose]

I finished Harley Quinn, and I've got to rant about Kite Man for a second

(Harley Quinn spoilers and very very long and bitter hatred under the cut)

it fucking boggles my mind that Poison Ivy would go out with this rich, incompetent, ignorant, heteronormative, entitled, arrogant, borderline, if not outright, misogynistic trust fund child who is a massive cunt, and seemingly the antithesis of everything that she stands for

most of the time she seems to find his clumsy and ignorant conduct to be endearing, which is actually understandable, but beyond that and a positive review of the sex (I think I can't remember) it kind of seemed like she wasn't fully invested in their relationship

this isn't even a "she's out of his league" thing either, he is just genuinely a terrible terrible person, and I think many people give him far more credit than he deserves

putting aside his goofy kite motif, his naive demeanour, and his clumsy antics he just has a dull shitty personality

when they first met, Kite Man spent an entire evening making unwelcome advances on Ivy despite her clear and succinct rejections of every effort he made, stole from her, and then he took Ivy asking him for an emergency ride back to her apartment to literally save the lives of children that HE poisoned for no reason as not only validation of his relentless advances, but the beginning of what he believed to be a "date" in his deluded rotting brain

upon arriving at her apartment, unprompted, he disrobed and waited for her in her bedroom to have sex, and when Ivy asked him why, his response was along the lines of 'that's usually what happens after a great date when you go back to the girl's place'

Ivy was understandably upset by this, so what happened? what changed? in what mad world is this given any amount of consideration to even be tolerable, let alone acceptable behaviour?

"I'll do all the heavy lifting so you don't have to break a nail." fuck this twat he sucks, and this is only episode 2, the first fucking episode that he is in

"I'll protect us babe!" dude fuck right off she is literally the most powerful person in the room

"If my girlfriend sees me hanging out with you hot young coeds she is going to be green with envy." people still call women attending uni "coeds" that's fucking insane, someone just put me out of my fucking misery

HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HER FUCKING NAME! "Poison Gertrude Ivy" 0/3 fucker not even remotely close, and he doesn't learn her name until after the third fucking time he asks her to marry him

so what if it's played as a joke, it's still true

what am I missing here? why is this guy getting a pass, not just from Ivy, but from the fandom at large? why is there such widespread admiration of this asshole?

I tried watching the Kite Man spinoff show to figure out what people see in him, but it honestly just made him look even worse if that's possible, and while the entire show has not yet been released, it is set after the conclusion of Kite Man and Ivy's relationship so it's not even that relevant

if anyone from the Harley Quinn show deserves a spinoff it isn't this cunt

this shitty excuse of a human being maps out their entire future without consulting Ivy, self admittedly stalked her, constantly does things that she explicitly asks him not to do (admittedly Harley is also guilty of this), mansplains simple bullshit to her constantly, and takes not even the slightest bit of interest in anything remotely associated with Poison Ivy, he doesn't even really seem to know that much about her

on paper I can't see why the hell she even seems to like him at all seeing as she repeatedly rebuffed his initial unwelcome attempts to hit on her, was embarrassed to be seen in public with him, did not tell anybody she was dating him, constantly comments on how fucking stupid he is, rejected him every time he tried to take the next step in their relationship, and before they got together the nicest thing she had ever said to him was along the lines of, 'you're almost tolerable when you are completely silent' and yet in practice Ivy seems to be very loving and affectionate towards him, she even attributes her recent bout of happiness to him

yet Kite Man himself admits that he had to repeat every step of their relationship over and over and over again because she constantly rejected him at every turn

and she was the only one putting any effort into their relationship, always doing things to make him more comfortable or happy and in return occasionally getting a ride and that's it, he just breaks down and starts crying when anything doesn't go his way

Poison Ivy deserves so much better than this cunt who weaselled his way into her life, not the other way around

I saw something from a showrunner about how this iteration of Poison Ivy has self esteem issues that may have lead her to date someone who isn't worthy of her just because he was nice to her, but I don't see how he was nice to her

he's usually polite, sure, but he is super misogynistic, he asks her to drop her name to get things that he wants, he is super arrogant and full of himself, and he seems to objectify her every time he tries to give her a compliment

and that hardly explains why so many fans are all for this terrible relationship, normally supporting unhealthy relationships in media because you want to see them improve and evolve is fun, but this guy does not change, he doesn't even think that he needs to change

and I think most of the show's fans are for Harlivy, which is a relationship that isn't super healthy but is compelling and improving and is fun to root for, but why do I see so many people saying that the writers should have kept going with Kite Man and Ivy?

I don't think it's outright homophobia, or at least the majority isn't homophobia, but I just don't get it

now did Kite Man deserve to be cheated on? I don't think so, that's just a pretty shitty thing to do to someone, but why the fuck was he even here in the first place?

I guess the heart wants what the heart wants or she didn't think she deserved better or whatever, but fuck why does anyone tolerate this asshole? is incompetence really that charming?

maybe I just don't get it because I'm aroace, but regardless of what you think of the relationship or the character, Kite Man is undoubtably a shit person and a complete asshole, that doesn't make him a bad character, just a bad person, and I wish more people that liked him as a character would recognise that, it's fine to like characters that are bad people, but don't outright deny it

just my final thoughts, I would love to take this opportunity to assure all 0 readers that have made it this far that I am not genuinely upset and do not take issue with people that like a fictional character that I don't like ok thanks bye

rant over

[unhappy-last-resort]

thoughts on latest cn chapter? If you read the translations

Because it's WILD

Okay, so I do try to avoid a lot of stuff on the CN story, unfortunately, I have been made to see some of it anyway and I've been wanting to talk about the way EN players have been acting for a hot minute.

Spoilers ahead, if you don't wanna know, don't read. I'm also forgoing my usual hand written note for this because I have too much to say

Before I start, if I have gotten something about the game story wrong, please don't tell me or be kind enough to hide it under a keep reading divider, I really do not want to know more about the story than I already do. This is the second time I have been spoiled about something I really wanted to experience first hand, thank you.

First of all, I do not understand the freak out about the kiss. Lucia has always been romantically interested in the Commandant, her Affection story in Plume is basically her working up to asking you out on a date, it has been well known and established that this woman loves you, this isn't coming out of left field and the people who are complaining it's destroying her character are people who likely didn't pay attention to it in the first place.

Secondly, the way people are acting like two fem characters confessing suddenly makes all their headcanons invalid, or is going to stop the masc characters from having a chance...ridiculous. It's literally implied that Camu was going to kiss you, if not more, in his affection story and if he wasn't interrupted. He's also not the only masc character to be implied to have feelings towards the Commandant and they all still have those romantic tones in their past, current, and future events (and in some coating descriptions too).

Calm down please and go write/draw your Commandant having hot gay sex instead, what happens in the game has as much affect on your daydreams as you want it to.

Thirdly. The complaining about the writing suddenly being bad.

Do you think the CN players would also not be complaining about it? I've been in a few gacha communities and this attitude of acting like the CN playerbase is too stupid to know what a good game looks like is racist.

Yes, they're from a different culture from you, but we're here to play a video game. Do you think they don't like the game for the same reasons you do? Do you think they can't tell when something is poorly made, or poorly written in a game that has been flourishing for months?

If the story was genuinely badly written, I think we would see a lot more of the CN playerbase complaining, but what I've seen instead are people being moved by it.

Aside from that, stories in live service games don't usually become "suddenly" bad, there are generally signs beforehand and you'll notice it starts to taper off before it hits rock bottom. If it was bad, then there should have been some complaints about it dating several months prior to now.

Lastly, and most importantly. We don't have the full story yet. I just heard the rest of the story, or at least the second half, just became available for CN players. Why are we spending so much time crying about a story that isn't finished and that we can't even read for ourselves yet? We're only getting little snippets of the story and we're already making judgements while not having context and you would be surprised how much having the context and being able to follow the events of a story by yourself instead of hearing about it from someone else changes how you view it.

I highly doubt that they're going to leave so many drastic changes, or deaths, of characters and not explore them. I doubt they're actually throwing these characters away, let's wait and see where this goes because they're clearly gearing up for something big.

Tl;dr relax, go enjoy the stuff that's on global instead of freaking out about stuff that's ten months away, if the story or game actually does go downhill, you won't be the only player in the world who will be upset and Kuro is known for taking feedback, we can deal with it when it comes up.

[autumn-foxfire]

Movie 12! Time for the middle finger at Gosho's decision to try and make Shinichi tone deaf movie! Although he recently realized doing so would mean Shinichi couldn't understand the sound of the phone call so he once again changed his mind. We love a consistent writer.

And it starts off with a bang! Literally!

Shinichi and Ai showing us they have the superior relationship in the series in the introduction, as always.

And of course its followed by the lackluster relationship between him and Ran.

Ran: Do you want to come?

Shinichi: Sorry Ran, I can't go.

Ran: But maybe you can! (and keeps asking when Shinichi informs her again that he genuinely can't)

Shinichi finally: I just told you I can't so please stop meddling in my affairs.

Ran: Oh I'm just a meddling karate idiot am I (he didn't say that), well I'll insult you in turn and then hang up on you.

Such a great and romantic relationship guys! It's not even playful teasing, it's Ran pulling a hissy fit because Shinichi isn't doing what she wants him to do and got upset when he got a bit annoyed she wouldn't take no for an answer.

This is one of my favourite movies just because of the music.

Reiko has no chill. Poor Agasa, he puts effort into those quiz. Though Shinichi also finds them stupid so he can't win anywhere.

I love the Detective Boys, they went to a celebrity singer and asked for her help and somehow got it XD

LMAO Shinichi quickly trying to get in Ai's good books after he told her she was a bit stuck-up like Reiko by telling her he meant she was a pretty as her.

Oh my god Ran, he just told you he couldn't join you and to stop asking him when the answer wouldn't change, there's no reason to take your anger out on Sonoko for it.

Why are they calling it a fight?! It wasn't a fight, Ran was behaving like a brat because she didn't get her way. Don't blame Shinichi for this. He usually is the ass to Ran but this time the fault is all on her. God they really can't resist making their relationship god fucking awful even in movies.

I need them to understand what tone deaf means. You can't have perfect pitch and be tone deaf because being tone deaf means you can't tell the differences in pitch and Shinichi can. He just can't sing, there is a difference.

Genta deserved to be poisoned, really. He's lucky that it wasn't deadly in nature.

Reiko, if you're planning to talk to Genta's parents about how they raised him, she should do the same for all the DCMK parents. Give them the verbal whiplashing they deserve.

I love murder happening as classical music plays. So fancy.

Awww poor Takagi, he got intimidated by Reiko.

Once again I repeat myself, the people don't have to have a link to Shinichi (or Ran) in order for him to want to protect them. This is a boy who will save murderers and serial killers because he views life as precious and I hate when the act like he would need a reason beyond that to protect them (I know they're implying that he only wants to help her because she's the reason he and Ran stopped arguing when in middle school which makes me want to gag).

Shinichi kept the shooting secret too because Reiko wants him too (and also because he's probably interested in knowing why the culprit didn't shoot when he had a great shot).

I love they just let Kogoro accuse a man of serial murder and the police did not ask him for his reasoining and evidence before they took him to the man's home.

Shinichi bonds more with Reiko than he does with Ran. It makes sense, considering how much alike she is to Ai who is a much better friend to Shinichi and him to her than either he or Ran will be with one another (at least how they're written in canon).

Detective Conan is so insane. In no other anime will you have a shrunken teen knock a phone off its reciever and then imitate the sounds of the phone buttons in order to call the police for help. Oh they were stranded in the middle of a lake near a dam I should add. Also for once Shinichi wasn't off tune XD

Shinichi and Reiko are cut from the same cloth, lying to the police to get their own way. And both of them know each other did. Shinichi isn't wrong, Reiko is so much like Ai.

Oh fuck off Shinichi, you don't give as much of a shit about Ran as you like to believe you do and we all know it.

I mentioned in a poll earlier the oldest song I know is Amazing Grace. I am not ashamed to admit it was because of this movie.

I appreciate the movie naming the music that is being played.

And fuck off Ran as well. Don't make this movie about you and your shitty behaviour.

Another great part of this movie, Reiko helping Shinichi stall for time, Ai telling Shinichi about Satou's plan and Satou getting to be the one who stops the criminal from blowing the hall up. For a change, the female characters have their moment to shine in very important ways. Even Sonoko gets a moment. Ran... someone get her better writers.

And it's quite sad that this case was caused by a misunderstanding between two people.

YES. SHE AND SHINICHI ARE PARTNERS IN CRIME.

Shinichi, why are you rewarding Ran's bratty behaviour from the start of this movie. She does not deserve it and needs to learn to accept that Shinichi told her no.

Anyway, a great movie. Remove the forced relationship between Ran and Shinichi, especially Ran's shitty behaviour, and it would be an almost perfect movie for me.

[ariawritingstuff]

In defence of:

Gale,

Spoilers ahead

Buckle up because this is gonna be a long one

I actually did a little searching to try and figure put why people don't like gale, just so I can cover all the bases. Splitting this into two categories, category 1, "you missed the point" these are in my opinion stupid reasons to hate gale the character, whether they're flaws in game design or you just dont get the point I am getting genuinely annoyed with these reasons. and category 2, "you know what that's fair" this series is called "in defense of" so I'm still going to make an argument in defence of these qualities, it's just that these are much more reasonable complaints.

You missed the point

He eats your shinies

He thinks we're dating

He's so horny (yes I have actually seen it said)

He's sensitive about his performance

Talks about his ex

You can't kill him (yes this is a real complaint)

He's defensive early on (yes I've actually seen it said)

You know what that's fair

He threatens to blow himself up when things get hard

Is an insulting know it all

He talks too much

I thought the romance scene was platonic

He violated mystras boundaries

He eats your shinies, so you can let astarion give you a -1 debuff to like everything for at least a day, but you have to have that dancing lights cantrip necklace? Really? I once saw someone complain that he doesn't go get his own magic items and I'm like fam, it's not his fault your hogging all the loot. I'm sure if you just let him spend a portion of the money you found together he'd spend it on the magic ax no one else can or wants to wield. Narritively speaking gale can and does obtain magic items on his own, ypu are just keeping them all and he just doesn't consume the magic in the items he's using until you give him permission. He's not eating your frostwalker boots he's asking you if it's okay for him to eat his own frost walker boots.

"He keeps hitting on my character and gets pissy with me when we aren't dating" that's a glitch not a character flaw, and it can and does happen with other characters. They only think your leading them on because the game told them you are in a relationship. He's not being clingy, your relationship is coded into his memory on accident.

Aside from Wyll and maybe Astarion, Gale is like the least horny character. It's easy to get his approval from him when playing a good tav, so he can develope a pretty major crush pretty easily depending on your choices and how buggy the game feels at any particular moment, but having a crush is not the same as being horny. The man will not even kiss you until he thinks it's literally his last night alive. You are the one oversexualizing him at this point.

This one's smaller and a bit more of a spoiler, but if after you sleep together and he asks if it meant anything to you he gets bothered when you say "it was fine." Here's what I need you to understand: Gale was not asking about his sexual performance in this moment, he was asking about the emotional meaningfulness to you. That's why it's so upsetting to him. He put his heart out there and you responded with apathy. He tells you he's a bad kisser. As far as physical performance goes he knows he's out of practice that's not what bothers him. This one is my least favorite I think.

Mystra wasn't just his ex, she is the goddess of a domain that is a major part of Gale's identity. I know there's the grooming argument and I don't entirely disagree with it, but I don't think she met him as a child. She still holds sway in his life in act one when she has discarded him and obviously she is directly involved with him act 2 onwards. Like if my ex showed up and said "the world would be better off with you dead, here's the means to end it" I might want to talk to someone about it. Also really important here, he only brings up his relationship with mystra in the context of your own relationship if you prompt him, he only compares your relationship with her IF YOU PROMPT HIM. In fact if you ask him directly to compare you to her in bed he refuses to. For Gale to obsess over mystra, you have to.

You can kill him there are just consequences. Gale the character doesn't have the orb for self preservation in fact as soon as Mystra tells him to blow himself up he is so ready to do it. If your really want him dead you can leave him to die in the portal, or chew his arm off as durge. Leave him in camp til act 2 and give him no shinies and he'll leave or you can tell him to get lost if you do give him shinies, or kill the tieflings and he'll leave, and if your like "no I'm not playing an evil tav" why are you so hells bent on killing a party member then? You don't have to accept him into your party in the first place. You're not stuck with him I promise.

He's defensive early on? Bitch where? He's one of the most friendly early on, he just doesn't want to talk about his deepest shame and biggest secret and that is so fair.

That rounds out the stupid reasons to hate gale now we can talk about the more reasonable complaints

He threatens to blow himself up when he's upset. Not really, he does warn against upsetting him, but mostly thats because strong emotions can actually upset his condition and blow everyone up. That's why he won't kiss tav when he says the thought of kissing him is "most welcome" karlach has a similar condition, but she doesn't warn when she's getting upset, she just bursts into flame. There is one point after your night together , and the orb is temporarily sealed, if when he asks about what it meant to you and you respond with apathy, he says not to shake the vessel of the orb, but that's less about "I'm mad I'm going to blow up" more of a "a literal goddess told me to kill myself to save the weave, I have very little to hold onto right now please don't be cruel to me"

Gale is a bit of a know it all and it can be insulting, but 1, he only gives information because he thinks its relevant or useful. He doesn't do it just to make himself feel smart. He says things that are insulting sometimes, but 2, he's been alone for like a year, and before that he wasn't talking to mortals for goddess knows how long. Also It seems that the people who hate gale for being a know it all love Astarion for the same reason.

If you don't like a certain characters party banter or speaking during dialog scenes leave them at camp. Putting "he uses to many big words it makes him seem pompous here as well" same solution.

Larian realized that the romance scene with Gale needed to be a bit more blunt, so now it specifies platonic vs romantic thoughts, so there is no longer confusion. But also he's not the only character who's romance scene is a little ambiguous.

And finally I once saw someone get hung up on the phrase where gale says he "violated mystras boundaries" but in reality that boundary is kind of I a grey area. Her boundary was that he was not allowed to learn something, that kind of goes from boundary setting to controlling behavior, the only thing that keeps it teetering on the edge is that she is magic, and so what gale was learning about was a part of her, sort of, not really because shadow magic is separate from her. What I think is weird is that regardless of how questionable the boundary was in the first place Gale recognizes that it was a boundary and recognizes that what he did hurt someone he cares about and expresses remorse for it. He uses the word boundary explicitly because he knows the weight that word carries and applies the same gravity to his actions. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone is willing own up to them and Gale does.

[novkovsky]

this show literally ruined my life, cursed my entire family, and left me in tears, but I don't regret any of it

final thoughts, opinions, and spoilers under the cut

okay so I no longer hate august. in fact I sympathize with him and I feel like I understand him more through his growth and development. yeah he did so some really shitty and fucked up things that I once thought were unforgivable, but I found his arc to be the most compelling. in the end he got what he wanted but lost what he loved. a perfect contrast to willes arc in season three. honestly I don't really think august is fit to be king and filling that role is going to fill him with immense regret and probably traumatize him further, and its such a bittersweet ending for him. like he's a shithead but he's MY shithead.

I don't think wille abdicating the throne is immediately going to fix all his problems. that boy still needs so much therapy and time to heal. hell they all do. but I watched them in that moment, probably the happiest he's been in months and I felt that relief, the peace they gained from it. and maybe the aftermath will be hell, but I feel it was worth it.

and simon- omg simon. that boy is so full of love and compassion in a way that I haven't quite seen before in television nor in real life, and i deeply admire him for it. He really said

"to love someone is firstly to confess: I'm prepared to be devastated by you," UGHHHHH

but he took that chance anyways, and either he's really stupid and naive or capable of showing bravery that not many people can. also, omar rudberg is a phenomenal actor, and he captured simon so well. Like I genuinely believe no one else could have played simon but him. like that boy is going to go on to do great things, and I'm totally here for whatever he chooses to do.

omg I was actually so convinced wilmon wasn't endgame. like they really had me in the first half of 3.06 and honestly I would have been upset but I was also okay with it. I felt like they had made peace and were content with saying goodbye BUT NO THEY TRICKED ME. WILLE ADBICATION LETS GOO!!! but no I really thought he was going to abdicate (because regardless of being with simon I felt like he still would have done so) and maybe we would see a flashforward of them meeting again years later when they've both healed from all that trauma.

speaking of trauma, I can't imagine going through any of that at the age of 16-17. like therapy for the next ten years NOW- like this show is so nuanced, and you really see these characters and their flaws and their dumb and impulsive decisions, but that's because they're still kids. like you really see their fuck ups and bad decisions but you also see their justifications and why they're making these decisions and if they're wrong you understand both sides and their frustrations. like it's not black and white I feel like this is something american media can't seem to get right.

one thing watching this show has taught me is that life doesn't end when you're 17. even though then and there it feels like everything, and It feels like it's all that matters, but you grow up and people move on and are capable of change.

anyways my heart has been put through the wringer, and I'm emotionally devastated in the best way possible.

(quote earlier from Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body)

started watching young royals 🤭

[grapefacegrfa]

I literally couldn't do anything until I typed this stuff out because I didn't wanna forget the idea hngjfkdkeldjskbfja

.

"Pretty Boy"

Scenario: Leo reacting to his lover gently cupping his cheek and calling him "pretty boy" after a rough day.

⚠ There is some angst in this⚠

☾ As confident as this boy may appear, he genuinely can't believe that you wanted to be with him of all people. He isn't super smart like Donnie, he's not big and strong like Raph, or emotionally mature like Mikey. Sure, he makes jokes about how it's obvious why he'd be your favorite, but he seriously can't figure out why you chose him. Not that he would ever actually tell you any of this of course.

☾ Yet after a particularly rough day, it just sorta came out. Specifically the evening that him and his brothers came back home from the Maze of Death and you had heard of the story about how the four of them almost died because Leo wanted a picture on the Wall of Champions.

☾ You weren't necessarily upset with Leo, but you did decide to confront him about him. He played the situation off as a joke at first, but after after asking him what the big deal was about the photo, he snapped.

☾ "It's not just about some stupid picture! It's about the fact that I'm useless to my family and especially my brothers! Yeah, I get that I'm annoying or whatever, but it's like I'm just so expendable! Donnie's the brainy one, Raph's the smash-y guy, and Mikey's the one who's good with feelings and stuff. I'm nothing without them, and I don't bring anything to the table. I just-" A quiet hiccup escaped from Leo's lips as hot tears streamed down his face. "I just wish I was worth something."

☾ After waiting patiently for Leo to finish with his rant, you slowly stepped forward to move closer to him and place a hand on the side of his face. One of your fingers caressed the fabric of his mask and you looked up at Leo, as if silently asking permission to take off his mask.

☾ Leo seemed to notice what you were doing and reached his hands behind his head to untie his mask, sliding it off of his face. Your hand gently cupped his cheek and your thumb slowly traced along the red crescent on the side of his face.

☾ "Leo, I can assure you no one thinks that way of you. You're far from useless to anybody, but I'm also not trying to criticize you for feeling the way you do. It's okay to feel that way, but I hope you know that you're extremely important to all of us. You're always there for the people you care about and always try your best to cheer them up even in their darkest moments. You always do whatever you can to protect the people close to you and you're such an amazing strategist. I know it's easy to go down into a negative spiral like that, but you're worth so much to all of us. Especially me." You place your other hand on his other cheek, looking up at the red eared slider with a soft smile. "And I'm so happy that you're here, pretty boy."

☾ Leo had to take a few moments to process what you had just said. Mainly because of the extreme lack of validation he's recieved in his life, but also because someone as sweet as you was saying such kind things to him. He didn't feel as though he deserved it, and he definitely doesn't believe that he deserves you, but shortly after your words finally sink in, the warmest and dorkiest smile graced the turtle's face. Even though tears were still falling down his face, he placed one of his hands over yours and his eyes closed as he leaned into your palm.

☾ Leo still doesn't understand why exactly you put up with him or treat him so kindly, but whatever the reason, he was just happy to know that he meant something to at least someone.

[dragondemoness]

Chiaki, Mahiru, Mikan, Aoi, Akane and Celestia with Male reader who has a -Sen Yarizui-like personality from Ben-to.

Personality

Sen has a great love for half priced bentos. She believes that brawls without the intent of getting a bento is mere violence and one with violent thoughts can not win. She has her honor and pride and was ready to fight against East Wolves even though she was gravely injured. Although she can be overconfident, stubborn, and even clumsy at times, she has a kind heart, as she doesn't judge people by their preferences, nor does she tend to bear grudges. She also has good manners, always having gratitude for the bento she earns and trying not to be rude. She is very intelligent and acts as a mentor , teaching new lessons not just about bento brawling, but also about life. She also deeply cares for her friends well being and often shares bento with them. She once stated that she hates boys who leave an injured or upset girl alone, and often wants him to do the right thing before he goes on to do other things.

Other than bento brawling, she seems to enjoy reading magazines, as she has several of them in her room. However, when she reads out loud, she reads in a monotonous tone. She also has experience in knitting, as she sewed Yoh's pants back together. She is exceptional at board games and wins several times in a row against Yoh and Hana, even though she is rather poor at video games. She doesn't show much emotion through her expressions although she blushes from time to time. When she gets angry she throws the source of her anger out of the window while making sarcastic excuses with an expressionllaid back.

While she may seem cold like a kuudere she's just incredibly laidback.

This took way longer than it was supposed to aaaaaaa

I couldn't think of anything for Celeste, so I took her out. Sorry about that!

Chiaki, Mahiru, Mikan, Aoi, and Akane with a Male Reader Who's Like Sen Yarzui (Ben-To)

Chiaki Nanami 

"So... You fight other people for bentos? Are they really that good?"

Confused and also curious

You remind her of a fighting game character, which makes you cooler in her eyes

She'll never understand why you would wanna beat other people up over a bento, but hey, to each their own

She might even watch you sometimes

But if you're being ridiculous about it, she'll stop you and lead you somewhere else

She's glad you don't brawl for the violence

You genuinely appreciate what you earn, which she finds to be admirable

She doesn't mind your kuudere behavior, she's kinda like that too

Your stubbornness and overconfidence might make her mildly frustrated, but she's well aware of your kindness

But one time, when you were playing together, you got angry and threw one of her controllers out the window

Never wants to play with you again

You tire her out a lot, but she still loves you

Mahiru Koizumi 

"What? Why would you wanna fight people over a bento?! That's just stupid!"

She finds the subject of bento brawling to be stupid

What kind of idiot would get themselves hurt over a damn bento?

But at the very least, you don't beat people up for the purposes of beating them up

You have a sense of honor, which Mahiru appreciates

And at the end of the day, you're satisfied with what you earned, which is good I guess

Mahiru does always scold you when you come back with bruises after a brawl while she either patches you up herself or calls Mikan

Your stubbornness can be frustrating, but she's the same way, so she can't really judge

Mahiru doesn't understand you or what you do, but she still loves you

Mikan Tsumiki 

"S-So... You b-brawl other p-people for b-bentos...? I d-don't understand..."

She is severely worried about you

She gets worried every time you leave

The second you come back from a brawl, she's all over you, asking if you're alright and immediately dragging you to her office to patch you up

One of these days, she'll have a whole ass panic attack I swear-

She's horrified for you, but she's glad that you appreciate what you earn, and that you're not some violent, sadistic crackhead

That doesn't stop her from worrying though

She's gonna be stressing out 24/7, but she loves you anyway

Aoi Asahina 

"So... You brawl people over a bento? Why?"

She doesn't understand why you do this, but it sounds cool

She might watch you once or twice, out of pure curiosity

Then when you're done, she's taking you to go get patched up

She'd be cheering you on when she watches you

But not all the time

She loves you, but she's not canceling a swimming race to go to one of your matches

She loves that you appreciate what you earn, and that you're genuinely kind, despite your kuudere behavior

But your stubbornness and overconfidence can be a little frustrating

But she loves you anyway

Akane Owari 

"...Can I join?"

She'd wanna brawl with you

Partially for the action, partially for the bento

So many of your dates are just you tag-teaming a bento brawl, then sharing the earnings

She has a lot of fun doing it

The bento brawlers are no match for you two

You're the dream team, the dynamic duo, partners in crime

You get my point-

And sometimes, you even train together

All for a bento

Then you patch up each other's injuries

Like you, she also appreciates the bento(s) you earn

She appreciates everything she earns

When it comes to your stubbornness and overconfidence, she doesn't mind too much because she can relate

Y'all have the best of times in your relationship

10/10, Ultimate Power Couple

[jademakean]

𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

Timothée Chalamet x Reader

𝑷𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔.

｡･:*:･ﾟ

  Drizzles of water began coating your body as you rushed to your best friend's porch, hurriedly knocking on the wooden door.

The extra holiday break from school allowed you to spend more time with Pauline, meaning: chaotic sleepovers

“Hello?”

You looked up meeting a pair of green eyes you hadn't seen in a long while. “Timothée?”

Once the slender figure came to the realization of who was waiting at his front step, his mouth went agape mirroring yours.

You both had been close since you were little. You became friends with Pauline in middle school and met Timothée through her. From then on you were a trio and would do everything together, but that all changed.

Him, being three years older than you meant that he'd go to college first and in the end, there would simply not be any time for you both to be together. You did try to hang out once every two weeks but his college was way too far and he needed to spend his time focussing on his studies. It ended in a bad note, with many hurtful words shared.

Before you knew it, Timothée had you in bone-crushing embrace  “I haven't seen you in months, more than a year maybe! God, I missed you.”

“Why didn't you tell me you came back?” you couldn't hide the slight disappointment of him not thinking about letting you know. “I wanted to but I switched phone numbers and my sister wanted me to surprise you instead. I just didn't know I was going to see you this soon.”

Though you both shared your relief in seeing each, there was some strange tension in the air.

“I gotta visit my aunt right now but we should celebrate tomorrow or something.” He suggested, breaking the silence.

“Yeah totally. I'm sleeping over anyways so we'll probably see each other after dinner. Just be careful, the weather seems to be getting worse.”

“Oh yeah of course. If you need some clothes you can get some from my room, they're in a box on my bed. I know that Pauline's clothes are too small for any human being to wear.”

You giggled at his over-exaggeration nodding “Thanks. Stay safe.”

Once the door shut you felt your mood change. It's not like you weren't happy to see him, you were, but not being able to have the same connection you once had made your heartache.

“DJ Paulina in the house mother fuckers!”

You jumped at your best friend's sudden outburst but laughed nevertheless.

“Holy shit, you're wetter than the pacific ocean!”

You roller your eyes “Really? Damn, I wonder why. It's alright though, Timothée allowed me to borrow one of his shirts.”

“Wait you already saw Timothée?”

“Yeah, he just left.”

Paulina grimaced slightly knowing how hard it might've been for two introverts to reunite after a long period of time, let alone after they had a fight last time they were together. She quickly changed the subject not wanting to upset you.

That didn't mean she wouldn't plan on rebuilding your bond.

۵

The snaps of thunder kept you awake and the heavy drops of rain overtook your mind.

As the time pasted you began wondering what would happen if there was a monster under your bed, if a ghost yanked you by your leg, or if the shadow of the hanging coat was actually a person.

Full-on scaring yourself.

And Pauline's sleep talking was not helping the situation.

Both of you spent the day baking, eating and watching movies. Though it's not how most teenagers take up the opportunity of an empty house, it was more than enough for you two.

What was irritating you at this precise moment was the fact that you were exhausted during the day and still are, except you, can't bring yourself to actually fall asleep.

Creaking sounds were heard throughout the room as your feet made contact with the wooden floor.

You grumbled making your way to the kitchen for a cup of fresh cold water.

The bright electronic clock on the stove displayed the time. 2:23 A.M.

You were so dazed and distracted by the clock that before you could fill your glass with water, the cup fell on the counter.

You felt your heart stop the second the loud sound emitted throughout the quiet space, fearing you'd break your best friend's parent's glass. But once you realized that everything was still stable, you proceeded to finish your plan.

“What are you doing still awake?”

Your body jumped at those words. You turned to see Timothée with hooded eyes and slumped figure, clearly more than half asleep.

“Sorry, I'm a light sleeper and the thunder was keeping me awake.”

“Do you want to sleep with me?”

He smiled softly with a droopy gaze

Not gonna lie, initially some inappropriate thoughts crossed your mind, but vanished once you remembered how every time you had trouble falling asleep, you'd get in his bed and he'd make conversation until you fell asleep.

“Sure.”

Timothée was probably too out of it to understand why it had taken you so look to answer, which you were grateful for.

He lazily intertwined your fingers and led you to his room.

It looked the same as before, maybe some items we're missing so he'd be able to decorate his new apartment, but other than that, still the same.

You hesitantly laid down turning your body away from the curly-headed boy. You felt yourself heating up as last time you shared a bed you were a quite innocent 15-year-old, and to be fair you've always seen him as a bother figure.

But two years have passed and he was now 20, it felt like being with a stranger even though he wasn't.

“You alright?”

He mumbled quietly

“Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.” You chewed your lip anxiously. You've never been good at confronting people.

“Is there a reason why you got mad at me when you left. All I remember was you telling me how we couldn't be friends because of all the work you had and how you couldn't handle too many things at the same time. But in the end, you suddenly got mad at me and it ended in a huge fight.”

You could tell that Timothée was now fully awake, definitely not expecting you to mention the topic at this time of night.

“Well, in all honestly I knew you wouldn't want to give up on our friendship. I've always seen you as a loyal strong friend and I didn't want to disappoint you by continuously bailing out on our plans.”

Thought his solution was a stupid one, you understood what he meant. You would most definitely get let down many times and eventually get mad at him, even if it wasn't fully his fault.

“I understand. Just-- Just don't do that again. I'd rather have a relationship with you even if we rarely saw each other, instead of not seeing you at all. I miss being with you.”

Timothée's heavy arm hugged you closer to him. So close you could feel his gentle heartbeat against your back.

“I'm not as much of a mess I was back in the first year of college. I have more spare time, even if college is too far we can face time and meet once a month.”

It was nice to witness his change in attitude regarding the situation, he's now more open-minded and optimistic.

“Is that why you seemed so tense when you saw me today?”

You suddenly felt yourself redden from slight embarrassment “I mean yeah. I kinda overreact a lot, but you know that. I didn't even recognize you, you've changed and I didn't know how to feel.”

You felt chest shake from a deep chuckle as you played with his fingers “Is that a good thing?”

He was making you flustered and he knew it.

“I mean, yeah. You look mature for a 20-year-old. When you were 18 you still had your baby face- it's not a bad thing at all, but now you, um, okay I'm just going to stop talking.”

Once again, Timothée's body shook slightly from his laughter which eventually died down.

There was silence once again, the downpour was hitting the window aggressively but managed to make you feel calm. The heat that radiated from the man's body was wrapping you in a warm blanket, his cold breath tickling your neck.

“How do you see me?

The silence was halted by your simple question “What do you mean?” his raspy voice asked, not understanding the question very well.

“Before you said that you saw me as a loyal friend. How do you see me now?”

Timothée turned your body to face him “Well, you've changed as well. You don't look like a little kid anymore.”

You hummed in response staring into his eyes. The moonlight was shining through the window behind Timothée, illuminating his hair, making it look as though he was wearing a halo around his head.

“Has anything interesting happened while I was gone? House renovations, dead grandma, boyfriends..?”

You had to cover your mouth from bursting out laughing “How the hell do you go from dead grandma to boyfriends?”

The boy shrugged his shoulders waiting for an answer “I had a boyfriend for a little while but it didn't work out.”

Timothée nodded for you to keep going

“He treated me differently when we were around his friends, kinda like he didn't want me. We would get into a lot of arguments and I just wasn't happy. So I ended it.”

He took your hand caressing it carefully with his thumb. You knew he was trying to make you feel better though you weren't actually sad about the breakup. You decided not to say anything against it since his action-filled your heart with butterflies.

“He's an asshole for doing that.”

“Yeah well, most of them are.”

There was a small pause in the air before Timothée spoke up again

“I wouldn't do that to you.”

You were taken aback from his sudden confession. You expected him to joke around about some dumb stereotypes.

“If you were my boyfriend, or just in general?” you asked genuinely curious to which he answered:

“Both.”

You being the anxious human being you are, decided to play it off as a joke. Like always.

“Yeah right, you would never date me, you might as well be one of those extra frat boys that-”

“Why would you assume I wouldn't date you.”

You were becoming more and more agitated, not fully grasping the meaning of his words, and why he was now saying it.

“I've always adored you. The reason why I never said anything is because I'm three years older than you and didn't want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Why are you saying this now?” You shuttered out as he moved closer to your body.

“I didn't realize how much I loved you until we separated. Now I'm realizing how much time I wasted.”

Timothée began breathing heavily, his eyes focusing on the different features your face held.

“Would you date me now?”

He nodded, not trusting his voice to speak. “Even if we wouldn't see each other often?”

He nodded once again, this time speaking “I haven't seen you in two years and I still have feelings for you, they won't go away even if I tried.”

Timothée let his fingers gently brush against your lips studying them thoroughly making your mind hazy.

You were so focussed on each other that the background noise was now muffled.

Your mouths were agape wanting one thing and one thing only.

“Can I kiss you?”

He whispered breathlessly. If he wasn't studying you so closely he would have missed your little nod.

But he didn't miss it.

The second the small gesture was caught, was the second his lips made contact with yours.

The kiss was heated and desperate, your eyebrows furrowed hopelessly from the connection. Tongues soon intertwining as Timothée held himself on top of you for better control of the situation. Not giving you room to escape.

You sighed through your nose not being able to break from the kiss, not wanting to break from the kiss.

His front pressed flush against yours, allowing his hands to travel all over your body with no hesitation.

You mumbled Timothée's name against his lips before you broke apart. “Did I go too far?”

You smiled at his worried state “No, I loved every second of it.”

He copied your smile resting his forehead on yours “Sorry, I could help myself.”

He laid on his back before you cuddled to his side, leg wrapped with his and head resting on his shoulder.

Timothée observed your crimson cheeks and swollen lips. He wanted to tease you about it but he knew damn well that he looked the exact same.

Sleep eventually took over you. The soothing sound of the storm was the last thing you heard, and the motion of Timothée's chest calmly rising and falling was the last thing you felt.

[sweetestlamb]

Bring Me To Life

Summary: Kang Sujin has never had anyone to turn to, hiding behind a façade her entire life. Someone begins to peek behind the mask. 

Author’s note: My two favorite characters in TB are Seojun and Sujin, both characters who are honestly treated like trash by the writers. I cannot begin to tell how upsetting it was to see Sujin’s character assassination or how painful it is to watch her being physically abused knowing that the writers will not give her therapy or a true happy ending. She’s just here to be beaten and vilified. Seojun, I won’t even rant everyone knows what the problem is (idk who told them we wanted to see Start-Up the high school edition.) So I wrote this after watching the most recent episode and hating most of it for these reasons. I don’t know how far it’ll go or how often I can update, but I need my two babies to have a happy ending preferably together because the visuals are just a dreammmm. 

The rain crashes down loudly from aggrieved storm clouds bellowing above her in the sky, the chilled condensation plastering her thin satin pajamas to her trembling body. She had to get out, the pain in her cheek numbing and electrifying all at once.

How dare she tell him that she didn't want to get married, want to stand on her own two feet without a man giving her value?

His hand had flown across the room before she could sidestep the blow, the fragile glass filled with water in her hand- the very reason she'd left her room in the dead of night- shattering into jagged pieces as it collided with a greater force. Just like her.

She hadn't been trying to eavesdrop but it was hard not to hear him chuckling deeply on the phone, offering up his only child like she was an item on a menu.

"Yes we should set them up. It seems Suho isn't interested and she should marry young, that's when women are worth the most."

Nausea rolled like waves in the pits of her stomach and before she could think logically, her feet were sprinting into the living room, air barely filling her lungs as she stared at the man she'd never once thought of as a father. The last time she'd made the grave mistake of calling him daddy he'd smacked her so hard that was how she lost her first tooth. He'd been father ever since or Mr. Kang. She tried her best to avoid him at all cost, she would never be good enough and it was getting harder to hide the marks he left behind.

It was difficult to remember clearly what occurred seconds after her refusal to marry a man she didn't know left her lips, his fist connected and she was knocked back onto their coffee table the sharp edge cutting at her cheek. As she looked at him, anger painting his face a demonic red, fear crippled her and her hands twitched desperately wanting to wash them raw. Then he grabbed a thick marble ashtray from the table and her instincts took over and she was out the door, running as fast as she could, knowing her life was at stake and she couldn't afford to stop.

When the cloud in her head cleared that was when she found herself at the bus stop.

Judgmental whispers breeze by her ears as people passed by with umbrellas, shocked to see the young girl crying in her pajamas at the stop, but none stopped to offer her help or inquire about her situation, happy just to pass judgement. She ignores them all, panicking racing through her blood until she's unable to breathe, choking on nothing as she twitches in the harsh air. Her throat constricts as she screams at herself, breathe. 

Breathe.

BREATHE! 

But it's useless as her body shuts down, forgetting how to do the basic function, she sways as she starts to feel light headed from the lack of oxygen and with a final wheeze she collapses. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He signs as he weaves past cars moving far too slowly, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he marginally misses nipping a car to the left of him, easily dragging his motorcycle away with the fluid movements of his body. He glares up at the sky before cursing, "Fucking weather report didn't say anything about a sudden rainstorm." If he'd known he would have stayed home, always hating the rain. It brought back bad memories.

Halting at a red light, he puts his leg down for balance bouncing slightly in place. Pulling the shield up on his helmet he glances around, recognizing the area easily, before something in his peripheral catches his attention, a lump on the ground. Tilting his head he revs his trusty iron steed to live, riding over to the direction of the mysterious mass on the wet ground. As he gets closer his heart falters, it's too evident now. 

It's a person.

Jumping off his bike and pushing out the kickstand he flings his helmet off, his hair immediately drenched under the downpour as he races over to help. As he nears the figure, it becomes clearer it's a woman wearing what looks like sleep clothes. Momentarily he wonders if this is a crazy person and if he should just mind his business but a frightening image of his little sister unconscious on the ground and no one coming to her aid flashes in his mind.

"I'll just check if she's breathing and call an ambulance. That's all, if she tries to attack me I'll just ride away." He takes a deep breath, collecting his courage before closing the gap between him and the unconscious woman.

Crouching beside her, he reaches out a hand hesitating before sighing and shaking at her cold shoulder. No response. He shakes harder now, watching the motion quake through her entire body, but still she is unresponsive.

"Hey! Hey! Are you okay? Wake up, you're scaring me!" He starts to jiggle her with both hands, before he crawls into her space not caring about his safety any longer, the idea that this unknown woman might be dead is making him nauseous. People are always dying without his permission. It's so frustrating.

"Wake up! Come on!" He shouts at the figure now holding both her shoulders and turning the woman over, lifting her face from its place on the ground, cradling her limp body in his lap. After two more vicious shakes, she starts to cough and groan in his arms. Relief swims through his veins as he watches her come back to life, anxiously watching as her dewy long lashes flutter open and he's caught in a lifeless deep gaze.

"Han Seo-Jun?"

It takes a long pause for him to register that the woman has said his name and then a longer moment to recognize who she is.

"Kang Su-Jin?" He replies in genuine shock, taking in the wom--young girl in his arms. She's shivering so violently that it's becoming difficult to hold onto her, vibrating out of his hold before he grips her tighter, whipping off his jacket without second thought and wrapping it around her. Goosebumps raising on his skin as his body mentally berates his lack of survival skills.

"What are you doing here?" She looks at him bewildered as if the stranger occurrence is his presence and not her own.

He squints his eyes looking back at her, "I could ask you the same thing. I found you unconscious here. I thought you were...." He trails off unable to utter the rest of his sentence.

"You should have left me here. Maybe I would have. If I was that lucky."

"What? Are you crazy, you want to die? Did you do this to yourself, what are you on?!" He roars at her, rage flooding his system as he shouts at the stupid girl, how dare she try to kill herself and leave her body for him to find? He wishes he had taken a different route, that he'd never come across her. He was in no state to comfort someone who was suicidal, still too raw and hurt. What was so hard about living that made people want to do that? Hot tears gather in his eyes as he abruptly pulls away from Sujin, unapologetic as she tumbles to the ground without his support.

She starts at him, stunned before righteous fury twists her features and she roars back at him.

"Who are you to judge me! I didn't ask you to help me, leave me alone!"

He glares back at her ready to yank his jacket away and run away from her but a small movement stops him, as she's screaming at him a small muscle twitches in her cheek bringing his attention to said cheek. It's nearly purple, standing out obscenely on her pale skin and then he notices the split lip and the bruises on her neck and he's so ashamed of himself he could bawl.

He deflates before speaking to her, "What happened to your face? Who did this to you?"

He doesn't know what kind of look he has on his face but before his questions can even settle between them she's sneering and twisting away from him, throwing his jacket on the ground before making her escape. Unprepared for her sudden departure he reacts too late, before chasing after her. It's easy to close the distance separating them with his long legs and within seconds she's merely inches in front of him, he reaches out a large hand to grab her wrist but hesitates recalling the bruises littering her frame. Instead he races past her, blocking her with his body swerving to the left and then the right when she tries to dodge him. They play this cat and mouse game before she finally gives up, glaring up at him with moist enraged eyes.

"Why do you care? We aren't even friends!"

Her piercing shout rings in his ears as he looks down at her passively. He can't answer that question, doesn't know what brought him to this area so late and not understanding why he was the one to find her in this condition. He doesn't know why he cares. But maybe things could have been different if Se-Yeon had someone to chase him. Maybe he'd still be alive...

So he answers her honestly.

"I don't want anymore people to die."

To his complete shock she starts to cry, tears falling rapidly from her eyes before she crumples to the ground, the rain pounding on her head and he stands still unsure of what to do before he drapes the jacket he'd rescued from the ground over her head, shielding her from most of the thunderous downpour. When she looks up to see the jacket protecting her, he almost falls backwards as her head slams into his chest, her tears simmering hot on his chilled body. It's almost painfully uncomfortable but he doesn't move away. Letting her cry on his chest, his shirt is soaked anyway this makes no difference.

He doesn't know how long they are crouched there on the ground, so dark that the sidewalk is completely devoid of anyone else, it feels like they are the only two people left on Earth.

"If we stay here you're going to get a cold."

He voices his concern but the only reply he receives is a gross sounding sniffle and he grimaces, knowing that his poor shirt is probably damaged beyond repair covered in snot and tears.

Sighing he starts to repeat himself before she whispers, "I don't have anywhere to go."

"I can take you home." Her fists tighten in his drenched shirt, he can practically feel the fear wafting off her, he'd assumed the marks on her face were from a possessive unhinged boyfriend but her reaction makes him uneasy. He tries to push those unpleasant thoughts to the corner.

"What about your friends? Why don't you call Su-ah or Ju-Kyung, I’m sure they’ll help you.” 

She stiffens in his arms before shaking her head in decline.

"No. I can't let anyone else see me like this. I don't need them looking at me the way you did, like I'm a sad pitiful puppy. I never want anyone look at me like that again."

He can respect that, he never wants to appear weak in front of others. It was easier to become angry and lash out rather than showing your true heart, nobody could hurt you that way.

"Then what? Where do you want to go?"

"I have nowhere to go. I'll stay here until morning. I'll be fine, you can go."

He looks at her dumbfounded, what kind of man would leave a battered woman alone in the rain? He wasn't raised by animals, damn it.

"Let's go." He makes a point not to touch her, their only point of connection are her hands twisted in his shirt.

"What?"

He bulldozes past her confusion, looking at her with what he hopes are comforting eyes.

"I'm taking you to my house. I can't just leave you here."

"Are you crazy? Don't you live with your mother and sister, what will they say?"

He winces at the logical inquiry, he had already considered that himself, thinking of his mother's subsequent smacks and his sister's teasing once they learned what he'd done but still deciding that he has no other choice. He can't just leave her here.

He shrugs, "That's my problem to worry about. I'm not leaving you here, I'd really like to get out of his rain. Let's go." He repeats himself harder, pleading with her.

She looks away and he's prepared to throw her over his shoulders and face the consequences when he hears her response, "Okay. Let's go."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It's a quiet ride back, the engine rumbling through the aching bones of her frozen body. Han Seojun. The last person she ever expected to see after being roused from her panic induced collapse. Her arms tighten around his thin waist as he swerves around a car, adrenaline and fear battling for dominance in her body. When her fingers accidentally brush across wet bare skin she quickly moves her hands higher, fighting the embarrassment that washes over her.

If he notices she can't hear his reaction over the roar of the motorcycle.

When they finally pull up to a small apartment, she loosens her hold on him cracking her frozen digits.

"You didn't need to hold that tightly, I wasn't going to let anything happen to you. I ride this everyday you know."

She doesn't reply focusing on getting off the bike, swinging her leg over and hopping off not graceful but effective, a small proud smile spreads on her face before she gazes back at him.

He stares back before shaking his head, as if lost in a daze before he stomps off for her to follow.

Wordlessly she trails behind him, feeling foolish in her duck pajamas, a gift from Su-ah.

When he pushes his front door open, letting her in first she steps out of her sopping wet house slippers standing awkwardly looking around.

"Stay here. I'll get towels so we don't trail too much water."

She nods at his command, gazing at the floor and seeing how much water is already pooling around her feet.

"Here." He hands her a fluffy pink towel, she raises an eyebrow at the color.

"It's the guest towel. I wouldn't give you my towel."

That makes sense, sharing towels is far too intimate for the relationship they have. That being none. 

She rapidly towels at her hair, before running the towel down her body and wrapping it around her waist.

"You can use the bathroom. It's the second door on the right. I'll bring you dry clothes."

She steps cross the doorway, finally entering his home. Before she turns back to him staring directly into his eyes, "Than.... You didn't have to do this." She loses her confidence but his answering smirk lets her know he understood enough, with that she walks to the bathroom locking herself inside.

The sight of her bruised face in the mirror makes her pause, reaching up to finger at the stark purple mark on her cheek. She's crying before she can control her emotions, tears dripping into the sink as she remembers her night, how close she was to the end despite what she said to Seojun she wanted to live. As her father stood above her ready to snuff her out like a mere nuisance in his life, she realized with a burning passion how desperately she wanted to live.

A soft knock drags her back to reality as she rapidly wipes her tears away.

"I'm leaving clothes by the door. You can come out whenever you're ready. I'm making tea."

When she hears the light steps of his feet moving away from the door she opens the door a crack, picking up the neatly folded pile of clothes. Sending the boy a mental thank you before closing the door quietly.

It's clear that these clothes belong to Seojun, draping off her body, too large for her frame, a black T-shirt with a microphone on the center and sweatpants that cover her feet as well, he'd even remembered to bring her socks. Instantly she feels her body warming as her body temperature returns to normal. 

Folding her wet clothes and splashing water on her face then using the towel to rub it dry, she exits the bathroom walking towards the light she sees assuming that's the kitchen.

"The water's almost done boiling. Sit down."

His deep voice greets her as she follows his orders and takes a seat.

"Are these your clothes?"

"What? Oh yeah they're mine, sorry my sister locked her door. They're very old though, I haven't worn them in years I thought they would fit you better." He eyes her as he says the last sentence, "I guess it didn't make much of a difference I'm just too tall and manly for my own good."

She scoffs at his narcissistic comment rolling her eyes "Tall and manly my foot. You're so skinny I could probably pick you up with one arm."

He immediately turns at her comment, affronted look on his face, "Shut up! It's hard for me to put on weight, I'm not that skinny."

He places his hands on his hips, looking down at himself before puffing his chest out to make himself appear broader, it's so ridiculous that she can't control her reaction.

Sudden uncontrollable laughter.

She laughs breathlessly, folding onto her lap trying to contain her giggles but his scandalized look makes her laugh harder and she has to stuff her face in her elbow to prevent herself from waking his family.

After a few minutes of random spasms of laughter she finally peers back up at him.

He looks just like he did outside when she'd smiled after successively getting off his motorcycle.

"What? What are you looking at?"

"Nothing. I just never see you smile at school."

"Well you never do anything worth smiling about." She quips back, wondering if she'd gone too far but he doesn't reply beyond a slight smile that's gone too fast to even be titled that, he places her steaming cup of tea before her sipping at his own after blowing on it.

They drink in comfortable silence.

She's the first to rapture the silence, "I don't need pity."

"I don't pity yo--"

"But thank you. Thank you for stopping. Thank you for this, thank you."

He stares wordlessly before nodding, a slight blush on his cheeks before he hides his face in the cup of tea. She doesn't bring attention to it.

"You can sleep in my room. It's the door next to the bathroom."

Humming she looks up, fatigue hitting her like a brick at the mention of sleeping.

"Where will you sleep?"

"I have a perfectly good couch, don't argue you're sleeping in my room. That's final. It's better that my mother doesn't see a strange woman on the couch when she wakes up."

Well, she can't argue with that logic.

"Okay." Drinking the last of the soothing beverage, she stands up walking over to place the cup in the sink.

"Good night." She starts to walk back in the direction of the bathroom, seeing another door next to it. Seojun's room. Twisting the doorknob she pushes it open, before she hears his voice from behind her.

"If you need anything I'm right outside."

Blinking her tears away, she nods without looking back, too vulnerable with his palpable concern.

When she lays her head down on his pillow, his scent fills her senses and she falls into a deep restless slumber feeling safer than she has in long time.

Tomorrow will be horrible.

But tonight, she will allow herself to breath easy knowing that someone is on her side.

[stray-kids-react]

An intimidating soft 99 liner male member, joining the group.

Masterlist

...

Bang Chan

° You weren't the most kind looking person in a crowd to say it lightly, but you've grown use to people being cautious around you.

° When meeting Chan for the first time, he tried to remain a calm composure. Even though his eyes showed every worry he had in his head. Whether it was about you or not.

° You were only a few years younger than your new leader, but he seemed much more approachable than yourself. Even though you were honestly just as sweet as him.

° Chan is a very open minded person and wouldn't care if you looked like a care bear or freshly released prisoner, all that mattered was your personality and manners.

° He knew that you wouldn't do any harm once the first word left you mouth, your tone soft as you became a shy blushy mess in front of all of them, especially Chan.

° He introduced you to the band soon after, taking you aside to reassure that he'll be there for anything you need. You've never seen someone be so comfortable around you, it was a refreshing feeling.

Lee Know

° Would be the member to take the most time to warm up to you, regardless of how you looked. He can be a bit distant.

° You had to make the first move when introducing yourself, ending up sharing a dorm with Minho. He didn't seem to be intimidated by you at all, you were shocked.

° Minho's glances towards you as you spoke it felt like he could hear every thought in your head, as if he knew immediately what you truly were like.

° He may seem like he doesn't pay attention to you at first, but once someone tries to tease you he'll be right at your side. He truly does care, just not great at showing it.

° He'll try to open up to you more, showing more of his chaotic side or introducing you to his cats. Both of those scenarios being major steps into your friendship.

° Thinks you will be an amazing asset to the band, and will treat you like everyone else. Teasing you playfully and chuckling softly as you begin to get a bit annoyed, but will make it up to you with small cute habits.

Changbin

° Is the member you'll relate to the most, since he is an intense rap god with unique features. But he's honestly a huge softy.

° You opened up to him first, knowing you would have some things in common. You just felt comfortable around him, you couldn't explain why, but it was true.

° After the first week of staying there, he couldn't get enough of you. You were a soft little brother to him that he just wanted cuddle everyday and everywhere.

° Does a lot of lives with you, a giddy smile on his features as you talk about stories of your childhood. Everyone notices the adorable friendship, and Stays ship it.

° With a mixture of Changbin's baby voice and aegyo, with your soft voice and cuddly behavior. It will melt everyone's hearts, especially the fans who ship you two.

° Changbin can get protective over you, especially when JYP critiques you on something stupid and unnecessary. He'll usually send a glare their way, with the occasional correction comments.

Hyunjin

° You are honestly more intimidated my Hyunjin than he is of you, due to his determined mindset and all round skills.

° He will admit to being a bit cautious around you on the first few days of your arrival, and he truly does feel bad for judging you just by your appearance at first.

° Would ask Chan what you were like, and once he was told that you weren't a threat of any sort it calmed Hyunjin down immediately. Even if he felt guilty afterward.

° The next day Hyunjin invited you for coffee with him, ending up liking you much more than he expected. You were very sweet and made him laugh nonstop throughout.

° He will not tell you his first thoughts until your friendship is solidified and can't be broken, he would feel terrible if he ever hurt your feelings. Since you are a literal angel.

° Hyunjin has a soft spot for you and you are the only person he doesn't stiffen up against when you hug him. It may be due to your close friendship or the underlining guilt he has, but either way you are his weakness.

Han

° Would act completely himself around you, completely unsure if you would be nice or not. He is always genuinely himself.

° Your striking gaze could strike him a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he doesn't let that show. Not until he gets to know what you are truly like.

° Jisung would feel all of his nerves calm down once you beamed him a shy grin, his efforts to make you feel welcomed working out better than he had planned.

° Introduced you thoroughly to each member, starting out with himself. Explaining that it is an honour for you to meet him, his tone amusing everyone.

° Can't help but adore how cold and rough you look, just because you are honestly just a soft squish. He likes your duality and thinks he could use you as a body guard one day.

° If you get a role of a vocalist, he will look at you as if he is in love. Going on his knees with a hand over his heart, making you become a giggling mess during the recording of the different tracks.

Felix

° Body full of tattoos? Hugs. Pastel kawaii? Hugs. Alien? Hugs. 7ft tall? Hugs. 4ft tall? Hugs. He literally does👏not👏care👏.

° Felix will only judge if he likes someone or not once he gets to know them, and if you are mean to him in any way... I'll pray for you, because everyone is whipped for this aussie.

° But since you are an actual softy with a cold outer appearance, he doesn't mind. You'll probably be surprised by how calm he is around you, especially when he cuddles.

° Felix can relate to you on some level, seeing as people who don't know Stray Kids will usually just notice his deep voice and hot visuals. But he is actually a cuddle bug.

° Doesn't want you to feel like an outsider just because you are new, so he'll invite to bake brownies with him and play video games afterwards.

° Felix will be your favorite dongsaeng even if you don't admit it, everyone will know this as a fact. But no one is upset over it, and actually find it adorable how much Felix effects your heart in small ways.

Seungmin

° Isn't the type to judge someone from their appearance, but it also a bit hesitant on you since you are so new and fresh to the group.

° Seungmin and Minho are similar in the fact that they would take the longest to warm up to someone, regardless of what they looked like or how popular they are.

° Jeongin would be the one to form a connection between you two, making each other hang out with him at the same time so you both could get to know each other.

° You and Seungmin are friends now, but it was hard to get there due to both of you being introverts. It was especially hard to try and hang out due to the hectic schedule.

° Seungmin took you aside while the other members were getting ready to head back to the dorms, he admitted to being glad that you joined the group and became his Hyung.

° Seungmin may be more on the quiet side, but that doesn't mean he's judging you by anything. It just means he's drained out from the schedule and is naturally a bit introverted, which you now understand.

Jeongin

° Jeongin is an absolute fluff ball Maknae, with an evil side... But usually very soft. So you couldn't help but fawn over him.

° You were worried about what he would think of you, finding you creepy looking Ro thinking you aren't idol worthy. But he was very welcoming about the situation.

° You baby Jeongin quite a bit, asking him if he needs help with anything or sometimes just cuddling him. But he doesn't mind, especially when he's tired and clingy.

° A memory that sticks out in both fo you heads is the time Jeongin came back from practice, dragging himself into your dorm. Falling asleep immediately in your bed.

° Jeongin appreciates how generous you are and hoe much you care about him, but sometimes he secretly worries that you don't care of yourself as much as you should.

° Even though you are older and have a bigger responsibility to protect Jeongin, he will help you out just as much as you help him. Many see your brotherly friendship adorable, and fans ship it very often.

[we-dragons]

I'm from a different dimension actually Chapter 9 Damian x reader

"What is this place, why is it shaped like a T?" We stand on an island with this enormous building smack in the center of it the sunset shade casting a large shadow over us, I can't get over how ridiculous it looks. Or contemplate my confusion, Nightmare makes an unimpressed huff and nuzzles back into my shoulder.

"Titan's tower."

"why would this be a good place to hide? It's the most obvious building here, I ran with you for several days I'm beginning to think I would be safer under my floorboards." He walks up to the doors and pulls out a card holding it in front of the circular panel. It beeps and a clicking noise comes from the door.

"Believe me this would be a better place for you." I sigh a form of any and all anxiety pools in my body, but I still meet him at the now unlocked door.

"Alright fine but you need to explain to me why here of all places."

"When we get inside." The doors swing open, the area behind it lights up leading to what I assume is an elevator. I'm pulled inside not giving me a chance to look around. "Hey!" He doesn't answer but pulls us into the elevator, I don't see him push a button but we almost immediately move up. It's fast but not as fast as the one I had to go down for training at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Though the feeling is familiar and I start missing my classmates all over again. I rub the wrist that Damian was holding to dragging me here. Nightmare growls at the space moving him and interrupting his nap. The space stops and the door opens to an open space that looks like a large living room. a white angled couch a large kitchenette and an impossibly large TV by open glass windows. The room has several people all staring at us, my anxiety hits me tenfold and I take a step back. A hand is at my shoulder the moment I do and pushes slowly while moving itself. The doors close signaling that I'm truly stuck here, a woman with Neon pink hair and bronze skin zooms up to us.

"It's so good to see you, and I see you brought a friend. Richard has been looking all over for you."

"I know that's why you can't tell him we're here." I'm pushed forward. "She's a mutant possessing the X-Gene, my father wants to interrogate her for the information, she needs to stay here till a better solution becomes present. Can she stay here?"

"Well of course she can stay-"

"What?!" Nightmare jumps from my arms and hisses. I walk backward, taking in this new information. "How did, you find out when-when." Fear creeps how long had he known how much trouble was or might be in. But he didn't mention this. but then again why would he. How does he know about the X-Gene though, from the research I did there were none here with it. The closest there was were Metahumans but even they didn't have anything close. My back hits the wall and I return to the world Nightmare growls standing guard in front of me. Everyone who was in the room now stood in front of me, a boy that was green from head to toe, another girl in a purple cloak and unitard, and another boy with something attached to his back. The pink-haired woman steps forward, but Nightmare swats at her yowling as a warning to keep away. She raises her hands in surrender but looks at me.

"There is no need to be afraid, I knew people like you, Jean Grey, Cyclops. they came here by accident once a few friends and I helped them get back. It would have been 7 years ago now." Damian steps forward Ignoring Nightmare, guilt is painted slightly on his face he tries to coax me from the wall. "I'm sorry I knew since the time you showed me, I checked my recorder after that visit and played it back home in front of everyone. I was to find out more from you and report back after we scanned those samples that healed me. When we were ready I was supposed to bring you back with me for interrogation with confirmation of your mother's research." Something snaps inside me and I glare at him.

"So all that was for those stupid journals. Wow, for how long were you faking nice. No, don't tell me it'll just feel worse. " I put a hand on my face willing the emotions of confusion to stop. A crackling noise makes its self known in front of me followed by screams.

"Holy Crap that thing has tentacles coming from its face!"

"Ahh!"

I gasp at the sight Nightmare had gone full flerken and is attempting to drag Damian in. I lunge at Nightmare dragging him across the floor. He lets go of Damian but he hasn't changed back to cat form. "Nightmare No! Calm down I'm fine I swear it! Stop!" The black fuzzball retracts his tentacles and hisses at the crowd.

"I'm sorry, he gets like that when he sees me upset sometimes. Not sure if you have them here but he's half flerken, they look like cats but they're quite deadly." I set Nightmare down and he crawls behind my legs once again hissing particularly at the green boy how has gotten closer, he turns into a green cat making Nightmare run in the process. Damian limps forward his leg is bleeding through his suit. I would let that heal naturally if only wounds inflicted by Nightmares in the flerken form never heal normally on their own.

"Y/N these are the Titans, the one mimicking your," he waves his hand in the air as if to find the world. "flerken is Garfield." He points to Nightmare being chased my the green cat attempting to lose him. The bronze woman glides forward stomping a foot from me the others followed behind.

"Hello my name is Starfire you can call me Kori, this here is Raven," She points to the purple girl then moves her other hands to the boy. "and this is Jaime. We are pleased to have you here Y/N." She grabs my hand pulling me away from the middle of the room where I had landed. "Now let's get you settled in I'll talk to Damian for a bit after." Nightmare notices my leaving and jumps onto my right sholder hissing at the green-skinned boy.

_____________________________________________________________

I honestly don't know how to feel, to be honest, I should have guessed it so it's my fault. I could have left him and then this wouldn't have happened, but then he would have died in my apartment. Could have been more hostile, but then he definitely would have gone with the kidnapping strategy and I would be already in the hand of batman. Now I'm in the known world of their superheroes, the superheroes know about the Crows and they know about the X-gene. That information can go from good to bad in minutes. Though Kori did know about Jean and Scott, though it was years ago they have traveled through many universes with a small team. I would have been about 10 when this happened and my mother didn't take me there for classes till I was 12. In their lectures, they didn't mention anything like this they did bring in Doctor Strange to teach those of us who could understand how to perform magic. I Now I'm sitting on an insanely comfortable bed knees curled up to my chest just reminiscing. I have been told to use my abilities only when necessary as not to attract any unwanted attention. But what did I do, I screw up my chances of living normally till Doc Strange can pull me back only to find I'm not in my home where I should be. Everything was going so smoothly till now.

The door opens behind me and by the almost silent footfalls, I can tell it's Damian. Nightmare has jumped into my arms forcing me to let go off my legs and watch as the boy drags a chair to face me.

"I suppose you want the whole story now," I said barely looking at him.

"I wasn't going to talk about that yet."

"What did you think you would find in the journals that my mother wrote?"

"An answer on how to stop the Crows."

"You most likely will."

"Than what's in them."

I sigh looking him dead in the eye, pulling myself together for this.

"My mother didn't only study history, in my dimension, she studied all sorts of fields one day she was asked to study something and was gone for almost six months. We hardly heard from her but just enough to know she was alive so naturally when she came back she swore me into secrecy. She explained that she had gone to another world entirely, she studies with them and when she came back more time had passed than when she was there. One journal explaining how she got the and how to get in and another explaining what she found, and the rules for everything she experienced there. She learned things no human should know and kept it from the people she worked for and everyone else. She-she found Avalon, lived among the fey in return for her curiosity and genuine interest they helped her make a guide and history of all fairy and Fae both the pure and the equally disturbed." I reach in my bag and pull out the books from missing from the very research my mother so loved. One being ordinary leather-bound and the other two bear a glowing purple gem on both sides of a very purple dark Tome thick and pooling with some sort of energy as the gem. I give him a serious look gripping both books. "She left it to me but I haven't read them yet, I...I couldn't bring myself to. It might be better used in your hands anyway. Though I shouldn't I still trust you for some reason, so under the conditions that you only use what you find for the better of those in need you may find your information. The journals, however, will stay within my sight understood." He nods, I start to give the leather books to him he stops me.

"I don't want to see them before you," He takes the books from my hands and places them back in the bag. "If you are convinced that I should still read them, then I will convince where ever you wish to study them." He sits on the bed next to me staring out the window. "What I want to talk about is how we get Father not to view you as a threat and as a friend. I went over it with Starfire and we both agree this is the best option." He pauses before he continues. "We're you a hero in your world?"

"You want me to do hero's work and gain a positive reputation so that he's more willing to work with me than slowly forcing out of me."

"Yes."

"How do you know about the X-gene?"

"It was in our database from when Jean Grey and Cyclops had visited. They helped take down an invasion of the skrul and took them back with them to their own dimension. Father took some DNA samples to work with and ask about their abilities. There are entire folders on the subject alone." He pauses again running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Not for that, for everything else."

"Yes that is very much on you but it's also on me. But if I had left you with Crow poison in your blood you would either turn into an undead flesh puppet in my room or die. That would not have gone down well for either of us. I was also mostly upset you broke my window and wanted compensation," I see him visibly tense and clench his teeth. "and didn't even bother to say thank you."

"I Fixed your awful goddammed window isn't that thanks enough." He glares at me.

"Was it? After all, you did spy on me and report it to the Dark Knight." I fall back onto the bed. "There's no getting out of this now might as well get used to it."

"You shouldn't be this comfortable with what's happening, I wouldn't"

"Then why are you smiling ya weirdo, It's almost creepy."

"Tsk, just hand me your computer so I can pull up Star Trek, I would like to finish and begin the movies." I hand him my laptop and he walks over to the wall in front of the bed.

"Um, you know we watch on that computer you making a get away with."

"Yes but the enormous 4k TV is here." He pushes a button I didn't even see before and as promised a TV appears. He smirks at what I assume is my expression. He opens my computer and within minutes Star Trek is cast on the TV. "Please hold your applause till after the show."

"Did you just make a joke? Are you joking now?"

"Aren't I allowed to have a sense of humor?" I Look at Nightmare who has the same thought in his head and I look back at Damian.

"Nope, Nada, No way."

"You know, you're the only one who has talked to me that way and lived."

"I should consider myself lucky then huh."My gaze falls to his leg, It's poorly bandaged so I pull my scales and Med-kit from my bag. " But before I forget I need to treat your leg before your tissue becomes necrotic. You can watch while I work, but you need to swallow one more of the "glittered plastic"."

_____________________________________________________________

"How do you make them?"

"The scales?" I pause stoping the wrap on the angry-looking tentacle mark on his skin.

"What do you think I was talking about?" I smile evilly.

"I thought you were talking about my jokes and wonderful sense of humor." I tie off the bandage and put away my first aid kit. "But If you must know it has to rain first, and I have to be in it. The acidity in the rain is was caused the scales to form but there has to be enough of it. In Gotham, the rain has plenty of it, It soaks into my skin and drains my health which is why I was sick for so long. In return for taking my health, the scales form with healing agents that even baffle me. Normally I would take one and feel fine after but someone decided to take them."

"Do you pull them off?"

"Takes too long and much too painful, I just pour scalding hot water on myself and they pull away from the skin. I clean them and there you have it. Health restoring scales." He stares at me, like I said I pour milk before cereal and then pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds in that order.

"Aren't there better ways to remove them?"

"Yes, but those are back at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters I couldn't pack it with me so I had to find other methods."

He silent again so I put my stuff in the closet, take my Suit out from the bag, and place it on the hanger, the vibranium fibers shimmer in the soft lights then I stuff the rest of my things in there. I have to tell Professor Xavier what's happened on the check update next week with any luck the multi-functional com-piece found the data by now and I can see what they already know. I inwardly sigh, closing the closet and making my way back to the bed. I see Damian drawn into the scene playing on the screen, Data has made his sacrifice saving the Enterprise. I wasn't expecting to last the cleaning to last that long, but then again the poisons from the suction cups dug deeper than I thought. I put some more things away in drawers even though I didn't have much to bring. "We probably should head to bed, I imagine I have to do a proper introduction and demonstrate some form of my power."

"Yes, probably." He gets up grabbing the two scales I gave him for when he starts feeling pain again. Moving swiftly to the door, he takes one more look back then leaves. My eyes fall on Nightmare who sleeps soundly on the end of the bed. I Climb into the warm comforter letting the warmth surround me. I don't even notice myself drifting till all I can hear is static signaling that tonight was going to be a dreamless one.

_____________________________________________________________

"What exactly can you do?" Starfire walks me down to the center of a metallic room filled with weapons and tools, no doubt the training room. I look around more absorbing the room but still answer the question.

"If I see something I can almost instantly learn it or adapt to it, powers, fighting styles, languages I just have to see or hear it. I've had to control it in order not to learn everything and overload happened one time was not pretty."

"What do you mean by almost instantly?"

"Things like shape-shifting are hard to master, but if I concentrate enough I can alter my physical appearance though it takes five minutes to get there and can't hold the form very well after an hour. The first time I saw someone change form my body tried to copy it but I broke my hand instead. But oddly enough I can learn most other powers and knowledge just fine."

"Really? Well just to check could you copy this?" Starfire lifts her hand and green energy forms around it. I lift my hand to match hers and form the same energy in my body, though not green It's a lilac purple. "Sorry still have trouble getting the colors right." The woman stares in awe at my hand, the knowledge of how to use the ability is stored in my memory. I turn my hand light off and look around. She had given me the tour of the building and probably saved this for last to test what I can do. They did the same at XSFGY and had us fight in the ever-changing challenge/training room. I hear the door open and two cheery voices call out.

"Hey Y/N, about to train?" Garfield, the boy in green calls out from the railing where the door is accompanied by Jamie how still looks half asleep.

"I was just about to test her now, could you all stay there, I'm going to pull the full immersion-based training." She floats to a podium on the far side of the room. the area around me pixelated before stilling into a jungle heat and all. Monsters appear from the undergrowth enough level but not easy looking. I raise two fingers to the sky and strike lightning on them Increasing the voltage when one didn't go down, I even open a few portals in the body to warp holes from the flesh. It took about a few minutes to finish and for the simulation to fall. The dark misty cloud vanishes when I flick my wrist. I hear cheering from the side, I turn to face them everyone was now there.

"No way! Did you just see that!!" Jamie is now wide awake sharing an amazing look with Garfield, Raven is a little shocked, while Damian holds a stoic face. I feel a hand on my shoulder and follow it up to the orange-haired woman. I don't catch that she isn't stopping and is dragging me out of the room. With the way her hand had angled, I dragged out facing the other people in the room. She moves so fast that they get so small to quickly "You did excellently today, I'm so happy to welcome you to the team! We shall celebrate with a feast fit for kings and I shall cook it."

"Wait!"

"Kori!"

"Aw hell no!"

"YOU COOKED THE OTHER DAY!"

They all start running after us, shouting and trying to stop the woman. I feel refreshed after getting the OK for using my powers finally releasing some of the tension I've felt. I feel exhausted though, probably anticipating all the social interactions yet to come.

[dakotablackwood]

Silence [Pt. 2]

Part 1, Part 2

Warnings: Unsympathetic Virgil, deception, manipulation, physical pain, bottled feelings, disguised violent threat, murder mention/joke, cursing, insults, hatred, Phonophobia [Fear of loud noises]

Ships: Loceit??? Who knows??? DLMP, other ships TBD

Prologue: It all got to be too much for Deceit sometimes. He's a flawed side, defective, useless. He isn't supposed to have these fears. He isn't supposed to flinch every time he drops something. He isn't supposed to have a panic attack when the dryer at a fast food restaurant is just a little bit too loud. It only gets worse when Virgil decides to mess with him. He thought Virgil would get better after being with the light sides. He didn't think Virgil would do anything to harm him. He couldn't hate Deceit so much that he'd hurt him, right?

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

When he woke up, he almost thought it was all a dream. Well, he hoped it was. As distinct hushed whispers came into focus, he knew it wasn't. If that wasn't enough, the texture of his bed felt….wrong. He didn't want to move, he didn't want to open his eyes, he didn't want to do anything to give the impression he was awake. It made him sick just thinking about the look on their faces. He'd honestly rather spontaneously combust than have to deal with their hatred. They probably thought it was a joke, some tactic to gain their trust. That would be fine, at least they would leave it as that. Maybe it would be better that way. 

Suddenly, a specific comment caught his attention. It was quiet, and he seemed to be the only one who heard it.

"You always screw things up, don't you?" 

Deceit's eyes flew open, and he was sitting up in just a few seconds. He regretted it immediately. Not only had he caught the others' attention, but he was now dizzy with how fast he'd gotten up. His mind blurred and his vision gave out. His body started to sway while he held his head, waiting for it all to stop. 

A hand settled firmly on his upper arm. He couldn't comprehend it until a few seconds later, but when he did, he noticed that it hurt. It burned, really. As the dizziness subsided, he was able to look up and see Virgil, Logan, Patton, and Roman all standing over him. All he could focus on, though, was Virgil's hand over his arm, barely even touching him. 

Deceit had fallen back, landing on his pillow at some point in his dizziness. He hadn't felt it at all, which was weird, but then again he was really dizzy. Normally, he would've cared about the fact that he wasn't in his own room. He would've been appreciative of the attention he was getting, if it weren't for the searing pain of Virgil's hand on his arm. He was so confused. 'How is he doing that? What did I do? What is happening?'

The pain made him bite his tongue, flinching and moving around uncomfortably. 

He opened his mouth to speak, and as soon as he did, Virgil pulled his hand from his arm. Deceit gloved hand went to rub his skin where the side had touched him, "Why- how did you do that?"

Virgil mocked confusion, as if he wasn't speaking to the master of deception, "What do you mean, snake face? Are you already trying to mess with us?" He glared, but to Deceit, it meant 'shut up, no one will believe you'.

Deceit just rolled his eyes, not wanting to play these games. All he wanted was to know why he wasn't in his room anymore and how the hell he got here. He looked at the others, scanning each of their faces. Patton's was concerned, ever loving and caring. Roman's expression displayed uncertainty. Logan's was calm, but his eyes. His eyes showed concern. Genuine concern. 

One of the things Deceit can do is see true emotion through people's eyes. He was able to see how someone truly felt, if they showed it or not.

Even so, he thought even the others could see Logan's emotions if they tried. They were always so strong, but somehow, the others never saw them. They never saw how truly emotional Logan is. It seemed so obvious to Deceit, but the other seemed to have his emotions so covered up that the others just didn't quite notice it. It was so confusing to Deceit. How did they not see it?! He was upset and almost crying, how did no one notice?

It always baffled him how the others could be so smart, so attached to each other, and yet they couldn't notice things like Logan's body stiffening (hurt, upset, angry) or him going silent (ignored, surprised). Deceit noticed these things, yes, but Logan's eyes broke every little external wall he put up for himself. He could have a cold hard expression, but be incredibly hurt or excited. 

He quickly snapped back to life when he heard Patton's voice suddenly, "Deceit, are you….are you okay? Yesterday was rough for you, I imagine." He chuckled softly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Deceit's eyes were still just slightly red from crying, and he could feel the dried tears on his face. He remembered every detail of last night and flinched, "Perfectly fine, Patton. I've been fine, last night was nothing. It was simply a burst of emotion that I obviously couldn't handle. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take my leave before you all start hating me again. I'd rather not be here for that part." As he stood, he finally took a look at the room he was in. Obviously Patton's, with blue walls decorated with rainbows, kittens, dogs, stars, and every other happy thing you can think of. There was a wall of pictures and memories from Thomas' past. They showcased big accomplishments in their host's life, like when Thomas got an award and when he got the lead role in a school play. 

The room was bright and happy, everything in it was something from Thomas' past that held value. 

Patton's room and Deceit's were very very different in that aspect, despite having the same layout.

Speaking of Patton, the side frowned when he went to leave, "Wait, ki- Deceit!"

At the mention of his 'name', the deceptive side turned to look at the bubbly dad. It didn't hurt that he didn't call him 'kiddo', it didn't, it didn't, it didn't, he wasn't a kid why would it hurt- "Yes, oh so loveable Morality?"

Patton crossed his arms, "Please tell us why you were so upset. We've never seen you cry before, we're just concerned."

He didn't know what bothered him so much about that little statement, but Deceit just hissed in annoyance, "Concerned? Really? Don't even try with that. I don't do anything that important, now go do your job and stop lying to a liar. Honestly Morality, you could've called me stupid to my face and it would've been less insulting." He could taste the lie on his tongue. It was a nice, rich honey-like substance. If it wasn't for the blatant, hurtful lie he would've appreciated the taste. He craves it, and this would've been a victory if it weren't for the pain that came with it. 

"Well, I care king cobra!" Roman said defensively, "I mean, come on! We're not part of a mean person, we can't completely hate you! Have a little faith in us man, we're not that terrible." The prince huffed, looking to the side like an insulted teenager. 

"Yeah, we're not going to like….kill you or anything." Virgil 'agreed', and somehow, no one noticed the sarcasm except Deceit. 

This just made the snake faced side uncomfortable. The way the other's eyes darkened, how Virgil's smirk looked sinister to only him. It all just made him want to throw up.

"Right, well, I'm going to be in my room. While I'm there, try to keep it down for me." Deceit asked casually before sinking out. He didn't feel comfortable anymore, and he didn't need to deal with this right now. As soon as he made it to his room, he groaned and went to go look for his hat.

Now, any other side/person would've thought Deceit's request probably had nothing to do with the reason he was distressed the previous night. However, that little statement had confirmed everything that Logan had hypothesized already. He knew why he was crying, and he knew exactly what that meant. Was he going to tell the others? No.

Now you might be thinking "why not?"

Because, put simply, the others had had enough of his explanations, lectures, and definitions. He didn't think they would understand or care about what it meant either. They would lose interest, ignore him, dismiss his information as invalid.

He really did care about Deceit. He knows more about Deceit than Deceit even knows he knows about. He knows Deceit knows more about him, too. Does he care? No. He actually quite likes how someone can see past his hard exterior. 

Yes, it was hard to be the logical side. It would be harder to do his job, though, if the others hated him. Which was why he felt kind of bad for Deceit in a way. While filming SvS, he had to step in and stop the other. Not because he wanted to be rude- despite how rude it might've came off as to Deceit- but because he knew the others wouldn't listen. He knew the snake side wasn't going to get anywhere, and it was better if it was stopped before the deceptive side felt just as bad as he did when he himself was ignored. It wasn't worth it to keep going, because it would only hurt worse the longer it went on.

He made a mental note to keep the noise level to a minimum.

After a few minutes of silence, he decided enough was enough and that they were wasting time, "We all need to resume our individual work elsewhere. We are not accomplishing anything standing here except for 'effectively' wasting valuable time. If we are done here, we should disperse, as I believe we cannot properly do our part in helping Thomas without moving from this specific spot. I will leave now, and I expect everyone else, excluding Patton, to do the same. This is Patton's room, obviously, so technically he's where he needs to be. Apart from him-" He was cut off by a groan from Roman.

"Alright, alright we get it! We're leaving!" Roman said before sinking out with raised hands.

Virgil just shrugged, leaving silently with a peace sign.

After the last of the two left, Logan sighed and finally sunk out. 

Back in Deceit's room, panic was starting to rise as he searched everywhere for his hat. He just couldn't find it, and he didn't have another one. He was hyperventilating as he checked the floor for the twelfth time, sweaty with fear. It had to be there. It HAD to be there. As he searched, he felt more and more vulnerable and defenseless without his hat. He was searching for hours, having destroyed his room in the process. He was crying again by the end of it, on his knees in the middle of the room. His hair was messed up, his makeup even more messed up than before. He wanted his hat so badly, it was childish. It was so so childish but he NEEDED it. It was his hat for god sake. It was one of the only things that gave him comfort, the only thing beside it being his gloves. He felt stupid, but he also felt so….exposed without that damn hat. Burn anything in his room, sure, he didn't care. The only things he ever cared about was his hat and gloves, so be it if everything else is gone. He was so annoyed, upset, anxious. All he wanted was his hat, was that too much to ask?

Back in Virgil's room, tucked discreetly into a drawer and covered by clothes, was a little black hat. Inside, hidden from the eyes of everyone, was a little embroidery of a two headed snake.

[thatsweetsexypsychotroyotto]

I'm Not a Bad Person- Chapter 6

SUMMARY: Troy Otto does have feelings you know. He's in the process of figuring them out; especially when it comes to his childhood friend, Jaymie. Whatever they are, they're rooted deep, and they're growing.

WARNINGS: Language, Warped thoughts, Violence.

WORD COUNT: Fuck if I know.

PAIRING: Troy Otto x OFC

AUTHOR'S NOTE: My plan is to follow along with the events of season 3, but with my OFC involved. I'll veer off plenty of times and probably switch shit up completely. Not sure yet. We'll be exploring different characters' perspectives throughout the series. I'm not great at this writing thing but I try my best. Hope you like it enough. All characters except my OFC don't belong to me.

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Chapter 6

(Jaymie's POV)

The next day, a memorial service was held to honor Charlene- Jeremiah's goddaughter. She was the pilot of the helicopter that Jake, Alicia, Luciana, and Travis were on. She survived the crash, but the dead got her on the way back to the ranch.

To be honest, I didn't like Charlie. She was such a bitch to me. It was because her dad had an affair with my mom, and her parents split up. So she took her anger out on me.

One particular day she was talking shit; telling our mutuals I'd end up a whore just like my mother. That was stupid of her, mostly because Troy happened to be walking by. He turned and made a beeline straight to Charlene and decked her; no questions asked. I laughed my ass off when I found out. Wish I could have seen it first hand.

Naturally, Troy got in sooo much trouble. Mainly because he hit a girl. Pretty hypocritical of Jeremiah, but he was a "Do as I say, not as I do," type of parent. So, Troy was grounded for a month. That didn't stop me from sneaking in to the Otto's house every single night though. I'd take him desert and we'd stay up till 3 or 4 in the morning playing cards and board games.

Anyway, after Charlie's service, it was lunch time. I worked the line with my friend Gretchen, scooping globs of mac and cheese onto everyones' trays. Madison and Alicia were approaching, and I heard a community resident giving them a hard time. I felt bad for them, until Alicia said that people should be harassing Troy instead of them. Madison responded, 'I think they would be if they knew what he had done.' I know what Troy did was fucked up. That won't stop me from defending him though. Nothing will. I guess that makes me fucked up too; and I'm fine with that.

Both Madison and Alicia stopped abruptly, making eye contact with me. They realized I was serving, and that I most likely heard what they said. I tried not to let it show that it bothered me, but I know my eyes looked sad.

Gretchen broke the awkward silence with her subtle humor and kind words. Then she invited Alicia to attend one of her "Bible studies" (which was actually just a handful of our friends getting together to drink and smoke pot). There was no hiding Alicia's reluctance, but Madison practically made the decision for her to go. I'm grateful for it, because I need to figure Alicia out. Is she trustworthy? Could I see myself becoming friends with her?

***

About 2 hours later...

(Jake's POV)

How am I going to convince Troy that he needs to stay away from the Clarks? Ever since T.E. began he's been harder to control. I need Jaymie's help on this. She's the only person who has more influence on him than I do.

I find the two of them working together on mending one of the crops' fences. Both their faces are plastered with smiles. They kneel, preparing to wrap extra barbed wire around the bottom of a post. I can't make out what they're saying, but Jaymie throws her head back with a vivacious laugh. She nudges Troy with her shoulder, and he retaliates with a playful shove, causing her to topple over. She counterattacks by throwing a handful of dirt at him. They're honestly adorable.

It's a heartwarming sight to watch my brother in normal-human-being mode; and genuinely happy. Jaymie's good for him. Except on occasion she tends to enable his psychotic side. Though I'll admit that many times his semi-sociopathic behavior has been in her defense. He saw nothing wrong with it when he ki- ...never mind. I don't want to think about that. Anyway, the pros still outweigh the cons by a long shot, and they really are a good match. I kind of thought they'd have gotten together by now.

Troy offers Jaymie a hand and pulls her back to a kneeling position. She tries to wipe the dirt off that she threw at him, but she's actually making it worse since her hands are covered in soil. They're still laughing when I reach them.

Troy notices my presence and his smile falters slightly. "The boar's back. Keeps digging up the fence posts to get to the cabbage. Could use an extra pair of hands tracking it tonight."

May as well cut to the chase. "Stay away from Madison and her family."

"They're my friends."

"They came here under my invite. They trust me."

"They came here not to get eaten. I wouldn't flatter yourself."

Jaymie snickers at Troy's response, then looks at me with a grin she tries to suppress.

"Yeah, but they're staying cause I said I'd protect them- from you.

"And how are you going to do that?"

I knew this would be difficult. "Please don't do this, Troy. Please. I'm the one who still believes in you."

"Well I don't need you to anymore."

"Yeah, you do. If the ranch knew what you really are-"

"And what am I Jake?"

I look to Jaymie for an assist, but she's clearly upset with me. She stands and stalks toward me, grabbing my arm to pull me away from the scene. "What the hell would you say that for?!" She scolds me quietly.

"You know he broke in to Madison's cabin and threatened Nick?"

"And you're dumb enough to believe she's not over exaggerating?"

"Do you have any idea what he was doing at the depot? Do you?" Her expression is unreadable. "He was murdering people, Jaymie; timing how long it took them to change."

She sighs. "Yeah, yeah I know."

"Then why are you standing here upset with me?" I don't understand. She's acting like it was no big deal.

There's venom in her response. "Because of what you said to him back there, about what he is. You act like he's some kind of monster, Jake. He's your brother! Why would you say that?!"

I cannot believe what I'm hearing right now. So much for getting Jaymie on my side. I walk passed her and reapproach Troy. "Do you really think you were helping those people out at the depot?"

"I think I was helping all of us."

Alright. This is going nowhere. Let's try a different angle: "Troy, when Dad's gone, this is all on us. We have to take care of this place. We have to lead."

"Together." His tone sounds incredulous.

"Yeah. But I need you to do something for me. I need you to stay away from the Clarks. Do you hear me?"

"Yep. I hear you."

"Do you mean it?"

"I always mean it, Jake."

There's nothing more I can say. I turn to leave, and as I pass Jaymie, I beg her in a commanding tone, "Please help me with this. I need you on my side. Troy needs you on my side. He just doesn't realize it." She narrows her eyes at me with annoyed inquisitivity. "Just, think about it, alright?"

***

(Troy's POV)

Jaymie's so pissed off at Jake. She's always got my back. It doesn't matter who it is or what it's about. I know she doesn't agree with everything I've done. She does try and steer me in a different direction sometimes. I don't listen to her as much as I probably should, but whatever I end up doing, she never ever judges me. She's the only one. God, I love that girl... Wait, what?

"You alright?"

"Huh?" I didn't even notice she was by my side again.

"Forget what Jake said."

"Wasn't even thinking about it."

"Good." She gets back to helping me with the barbed wires, in silence, until, "Maybe we should both avoid Nick and Madison. Just for now?"

"Nah, I'm gonna have Nick help out with the boar tonight." I feel her looking at me. "It'll be fine, Jayms."

She considers my words for a moment then nods. "Alright. Well, I gotta get ready for Gretchen's Bible study. I'm gonna try and get to know Alicia; see what I think of her."

I give her a half-hearted smirk. "Have fun with that." I'm just bummed out she's leaving.

"I'll see you later?"

"Yeah. Later, Jayms." I watch her walk away, lost in the thought I had just a minute ago.

*******