#really theorizing was fun! i just need a break before I ruin it

[bereft-of-frogs]

hey. look at that! they figured out a framing device, good for them.

ok no that sounds really snarky but I really like how the episode ends with both sisters about to get a bigger picture of the night of the fire (Osha, already prone to visions, diving into the Force under the helmet, and Mae hearing Sol's side of the story), as a lead in to the flashback. I know there's been a lot of theories floated around that Sol/someone manipulated Osha's memories....but I actually think the flashback episode is presented as being true to life. I think if this was meant to be on a tight Osha perspective (with a fundamentally altered memory), I don't think we'd have also gotten scenes that she had no way of witnessing, like the conversations between Aniseya and Koril, or the advisors scene after the girls have been sent to bed. And I don't think whoever manipulated her memories would have left in the part where she hears the scream from the coven, as presumably they're killed. Like that seems like a big clue you'd try to remove if you were trying to convince someone that a bunch of people died in a fire and not in some single concentrated act.

so I do think that the next episode will be the same way: roughly everything on screen is as it really happened, an objective version, but given their current orientations to the truth, it will change the twins' perspective in different ways. Osha has been completely trusting of Sol and blaming Mae: finding out Sol was more at fault that she believes could shift her vengeful anger onto him (and make it easy to manipulate her into a darker turn). Mae blames the four Jedi, but might understand their perspective better (because I'm still on team the Jedi 'thought they were doing the right thing' and made mistakes but were generally acting defensively, rather than in cold-blood slaughter 🙄) and be willing to forgive.

But yeah, this double framing device actually works for me. Almost makes up for not having one last flashback episode.

Anyway now it is time to ✨log tf off✨ because it is a long weekend, I think I need to stop theorizing before I spin myself off into chaos, I'm pretty confident with my general expectations, if not the details — but I should stop overthinking this...and also some of the theories floating around are ✨upsetting me.✨(...Vernestra/Indara/Sol as the Sith master, any variation of 'the Jedi came to Brendok to purposefully cold-blooded massacre the coven, no nuance' (there's a bunch of variants of that I'll be really disappointed if they end up being true), Qimir is Imri (stahp), Sol broke Osha's brain and that's why she can't use the Force (reddit, she's seen struggling before she even meets Sol, what are you even doing—), Indara faked her own death for some reason, etc etc.) And that means it's time for a break! Touch grass! Or....tree. Lake. I'm going to go look at a lake. Peace, see you next week

[frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers]

D23: Frozen content breakdown | Breakdown/ Analysis

What a day it was yesterday! So much content we were flooded with and especially for us with the Frozen 3 and 4 update! I'm sure you all know the latest deets but I would like it to break it all down and guess what it could all mean. So be prepared to read a lot! ❄️

[long post alert]

Frozen III logo

A couple of hours before the Frozen panel had begun, we were given a first look of the logo for Frozen 3:

It features the four elements symbols and two snowflakes too for Elsa and Anna as the fifth spirit. The III had a purple - pink gradient to it and the background had a spring scenery south blossom/ sakura trees and mountains far behind. Some of us predicted before that Frozen 3 would be set in Spring given Frozen being in winter/ summer and Frozen 3 in Autumn.

However, some people didn't believe this logo was real. But after the panel, Josh Gad put it on his stories and as a post on Instagram, the announcements and reveals made at the panel.

This must mean that it's real. But a more accurate, rendered logo was also revealed at the Panel and that Gad had also shared in his post.

So my conclusion is that the first one is a working title, a concept of what it would be like when it's promoted. The second one is a mix of the first Frozen logo and the second movie's logo combined being more 3D but still with a frozen effect. This logo is the official used rendered one whilst the first one is just a concept based on the implied spring theme of the movie. Both are real.

Frozen questions left unanswered

When the Panel began we were given a flood of questions on the board that were the questions the fans had after Frozen 2, aka the questions that were left unanswered. Here they are:

Who gave Elsa her powers?

Why doesn't Anna have powers?

Was there a fifth spirit before?

What kind of Queen will Anna be?

Will Kristoff be a King?

Do they [Anna & Kristoff] want kids?

Where are Kristoff's parents?

How did Kristoff meet Sven?

How can Sven be so old and still so virile?

Why is Olaf alive?

What about Marshmallow and the snowgies?

Is it “Hoo Hoo” or “You Hoo”?

What are Elsa's powers still growing?

Why are their castle ruins throughout Ahotohallan?

Where do the nature spirits come from?

Do we still need to beware of the Frozen Heart?

Who is the Frozen Heart?

What happened to Hans?

These questions will most likely be answered in Frozen 3 and 4, as they are confirmed to be a two part film. These are actually really good and interesting questions we have that we do need to have answered. I actually want to try and analyse (and answer them for fun!) them because some people might feel some have already answered so why the need to answer them again?

Who gave Elsa her powers?

We already know that Ahotohallan is where her powers come from. That's the source along with the other four spirits. But they probably felt like they didn't make it clear enough. Some people before Frozen 2 had theorized that there was a Snow Queen who gave Iduna something that caused Elsa to have powers. Maybe there's more to Ahotohallan than we know.

Why doesn't Anna have powers?

This isn't addressed in the movie other than the fact that Elsa and Anna are both the fifth spirit and the bridge which has two sides. But why doesn't Anna, I believe that's because the fifth spirit's role is to create balance between the powerful and the powerless (in a literal magical form). The fifth spirit was never just one being I don't think. It was always two to have one with powers and one without and have the two form a deep unbreakable bond so that humans and magical entities would look at them and see that though different, they can get along and have peace amongst each other, and live in harmony. If both were magical it would defeat the objective of creating peace between the two different types of beings

Was there a fifth spirit before?

I think yes because in the Myth VR on Disney plus, it was revealed that there was a fifth spirit before Elsa and Anna but after it created harmony with the other spirits and humans, it disappeared creating disharmony in the forest and caused the spirits to rage. Then the other four spirits managed to calm down until they were raged again by King Runeard's war between Arendelle and Northuldra. Even if this isn't canon I still believe there was one. I think it's important to know because it could be important with the journey Elsa and Anna next go on.

What kind of Queen will Anna be?

Her own kind of Queen. She will continue to bring peace and joy to Arendelle while also supporting the Northuldra tribe as her statues unveiling had suggested. She won't try to be Elsa. She's not Elsa. She's Anna. She may be the fifth spirit But whether or not she realises that she'll help maintain peace between magic and humans will Elsa's support too.

Will Kristoff be a King?

If Anna does abdicate from the throne then yes. To be exact he would be a king Consort. At the end of Frozen 2 we saw Anna greet the public as Queen and unveil the statue of her parents and kids. That wasn't the coronation which is confirmed and this confirms it too as it asks will he be king? and not is he king? I loved Elsa as Queen but she probably felt that she couldn't take care of Arendelle as she had to restore and look after Northuldra/ the enchanted forest and felt Anna deserved it after she had scared her and Arendelle twice without a doubt.

Do they [Anna & Kristoff] want kids?

That's a question that none of us thought of? Do they want kids? I think they do but will find it hard to do if there's threats and danger around. Anna definitely would be a lovely mother and Kristoff and lovable dad. But I don't think we'll see them have kids so soon, at least not in the beginning of the movie, like we won't immediately be introduced to them I don't think.

Where are Kristoff's parents?

A question we've been asking since the first movie. All we know is that he grew up as an ice harvester. He seems to have grown up independently with Sven. I can't even guess the answer because I'll probably be wrong anyway.

How did Kristoff meet Sven?

Another question regarding Kristoff's backstory we've been longing to see. It's nice to see they're including Kristoff's backstory now. The first two movies were about the sisters backstory and development arcs (and 3 and 4 continue that) but now we can finally learn about Kristoff!

How can Sven be so old and still so virile?

No clue! I never noticed that actually. I never thought of why. I don't know much about reindeer so I didn't know that Sven was so old yet so virile. Perhaps when he was young he was injured and the trolls may have healed him giving him a longer youthful life. I'm certain the trolls have a role in this if it's magic related.

Why is Olaf alive?

Why not how!! Another really interesting question that I can answer. We all know how he is alive because we saw Elsa bring him back to life but why was he brought back? He's still an important part of the sister bond and individually he has much more in him than we have seen. Plus he's Olaf and we love Olaf!

What about Marshmallow and the snowgies?

I believe they all too, along with the ice castle and all other permanent creations of Elsa, got restored either automatically after Elsa's return or by hand when Elsa got the chance. They too are as iconic as Olaf is. I hope they return in Frozen 3. They're so lovable and cute - it would be a fun addition to the movie.

Is it “Hoo Hoo” or “You Hoo”?

I always thought it was... “Yoo Hoo” because that's what people say. Hoo Hoo is an owl's line lol and one says that.

What are Elsa's powers still growing?

Just as we grow individually sometimes in height, in character, in what we feel, powers are no different. They grow as we grow inside. And Jen Lee has previously said that her powers will reach a new height in Frozen 3.

Why are their castle ruins throughout Ahotohallan?

I think they are referring to Ahotohallan as a castle and inside and out it looks ruined. During Show Yourself Elsa has to lift things up and add things to get across to the place where the memories are held. I theorize that the previous fifth spirit may have done something to Ahotohallan or to its power and caused chaos that caused Ahotohallan to have ruins in it. Ahotohallan probably was the previous fifth spirit's castle and when it went rouge Ahotohallan may have been left abandoned and ruined.

Where do the nature spirits come from?

Ahotohallan is where their powers are from. But perhaps it's more complicated than that and it needs to be addressed for lore reasons. There's more to Ahotohallan than we know.

Do we still need to beware of the Frozen Heart?

Oooooh!! My favourite question along with the next two. Do we? We must be if it's even a question at this point?

Who is the Frozen Heart?

Who? Frozen Heart is a person?! It was literally Anna in Frozen but metaphorically it was Elsa. Maybe someone else will be the Frozen Heart. Hans? Kristoff? A new character/ being?

What happened to Hans?

A question we've needed answering since Frozen and one that Hans fans have been trying to answer. His backstory based on official and unofficial media is that he has 12 brothers but they all or at least most of them treat him poorly along with his dad because he's the last child and last in line to the throne. That means, they think Hans as unworthy and unless of anything. So why did the Queen and King have another child? Probably as an accident child or just because. I'm sure the Queen is loving. He was sent back at the end of Frozen to his home, the Southern Isles so they can deal with him themselves and they did. As punishment they made him do chores like sweep up horse poop as seen towards the end of Frozen Fever before Elsa's giant snowball accidentally yet subconsciously hit him causing his major injuries. The southern Isles didn't immediately know where the snowball came from. But what happened to him after that? In a poster in the new Frozen Park in Hong Kong, it is revealed that Elsa and Anna invited the Southern Isles among other kingdoms to celebrate a year since Anna sacrificed herself to the Elsa and the Kingdom.

Hans couldn't come because he was injured. But his return is almost certain in Frozen 3 with his rise in unofficial/ canon media. Will he return as a villain or a redeemed hero is to be determined. I don't think he should return as a villain. If he did he would have taken his revenge out during Frozen 2, as he would have been recovered by then. Seeing the concept art of Frozen 3, which I'm about to go onto, it looks like we'll see mythical beings and a world bigger than Ahotohallan. Hans wouldn't fit as a villain in the expanded world of magic because he doesn't seem to be interested in magic in that greed sense. I think he'll be redeemed and help them in their new quest. Perhaps he does have tied with magic in his ancestry as we know nothing about his family.

All these questions are ones that the team feel like they need to answer in the next two movies and I think that's good. Along with showing something new, we get answers from questions we've long waited for too. And I think it's a good strategy for them to tell us the questions we've been asking so that they can answer it in the movies. They're letting us know that they can hear us and want to fulfil our wishes while telling a new story. It's good communication in my opinion.

Frozen 3 concept art and new release date

Jennifer Lee also revealed the concept art of Frozen 3. I'm sure there must've been dozens of art but this one may have been the direction they're headed in.

We have a beautiful calm colour palette that reminds me of dawn/ dusk of spring. Trees are on either side, golden light beams from behind a mystical palace in the left centre. Flowers and leaves present hinting at a Spring setting. Anna's on a horse with Olaf and Elsa on the Nokk on the river both heading to the palace-like place. The scene is set at night as the aurora borealis/ northern lights can be seen arising from the castle. Perhaps this castle has some connection to the northern lights. In the Lego Northern lights series, the trolls crystals are the ones to cause the northern lights or have a connection to them. I don't think the Lego series is canon but I do wonder if the trolls will have a role in this too.

Elsa and Anna are in their Frozen 2 attires, Anna in her travel one and Elsa in her fifth spirit one but with boots (for practical reasons). That doesn't mean that's their final look. Frozen 2's early concept art had Elsa and Anna in their Frozen looks. Olaf looks worried as he points to something off scene.

Just below the direction in which he points, in the river, lies a shadowy creature. It could be that that's the shadow of the creature Olaf points to. The creature appears to have horns and hold a staff/ spear with a sharp end.

Just below the palace-like place is a land. I was going to say Ahtohallan but the silhouettes are different.

So it seems like this place is unknown. If they went North in Frozen 2, perhaps Thai time they're going south, which is why Hans could appear. But that's just a guess.

During the panel it is also revealed that the release date is November 2027 having it moved back by a year from its original 2026 release date. 2027 seems quite far away just when we felt we were getting closer to Frozen 3 but we'll just have to be patient and hope we get some other Frozen content released meanwhile.

Frozen: Winter Festival short form series?

That's everything that was revealed regarding Frozen 3, but no word on the series that was revealed by dolls and their descriptions. I believe since the movie got delayed by a year, probably to spend more time developing the two part movies (which is a good thing so we avoid the mistakes caused by rush in production for Frozen 2), the short form series will be delayed by a year. That would mean the announcement could be closer to time in next year's D23. That or they wanted to announce the series later. The dolls are to be released in September and the series is said to be released this fall. That is of course unless they have delayed it by a year but we'll have to wait and see if anything gets said before September otherwise consider it delayed by a year (😭).

And that's all the information given to us for now. Frozen 3 looks so good and promising - the vibe of spring with a deeper fantasy element is making me extremely excited! New places, new seasons, new characters, expanded lore, possible character returns, new looks and more!! Can't wait!! And yeah though my patience is sad that Frozen 3 had been delayed by a year, I'm glad because it means they can spend more time on the movie, to develop it properly and not repeat the same mistake they made with Frozen 2 with no good planning and a rushed development to the run up of the movie.

And the Frozen: Winter Festival I'm also excited for. I think Frozen needs a canon series in its franchise.

The future looks big and bright for the franchise! ❄️

Any new info or details I have not mentioned please let me know! Any questions for me please feel free to drop them in the "Ask" box

[mysteryloversbookshelf]

The Afterparty: Vivían & Zoë

How are you fellow sleuths doing now that the mystery has been solved? I’ll miss the weekly theories and fun but I can’t wait to see how they’ll up the theatrics and clues in season three. Now that the mystery is solved here are my takeaways from the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHO KILLED EDGAR MINNOWS

This episode was full of laughs, drama, and new beginnings and I enjoyed all 31 minutes of it. They surprisingly fit a lot into this episode so I'm going to break it down into parts:

Lights, Cameras, Action!

Someone on Reddit said they wanted to see S3 be an afterparty for a film adaptation of Xavier's murder and it looks like we're getting just that! Seeing Keke Palmer show up had me screaming internally! She's going to be a perfect Danner and I need season 3 now so I can see her mind movie. Also Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe too?! Like they better give this show all the budget money because they're about to sweep award season. I hope they do get Alia Shawkat to play Chelsea like someone suggested since it's been joked about already that she and Ilana Glazer look alike (I personally don't see it though).

"Fetch that, bitch!"

Zoë fighting Colonel and throwing him out the window took me out! The way she was spinning him around and etc and that whole encounter being a horror story was brilliant. And the fact that he survived by landing on Isabel's trampoline?! He really is a hellhound! I love how someone just had that theory earlier that Edgar mentioning a devil was a response to looking out the window and seeing Colonel bouncing lmao.

Travis Becoming the House

Travis beating Sebastian at his own game was so rewarding to watch. The big theories floating around were that he either recorded the confession and sent it to the police or that he was secretly an investigator, but I really like this ending. Now he got back the money lost and in my mind, he took a trip to meet Weronika in person and they hit it off.

Love is in the Air

Happily Ever Aster, indeed! Aniq and Zoë both proposing to each other was so cute and I love how she was the one who proposed first. I don't know if the rings were meant to show the engagement was still on or if they've already married, but I personally don't care to see a wedding between the two. I'd rather hear they had a great ceremony that was drama free and keep it moving. Hannah and Grace living happily ever after is so sweet because we all know how tv writers love to kill their gays or find some other way of ruining their ending. I need them to show up in a future season happy with a quirky little Wednesday Addams type of baby please! And last but not least, Vivian and Feng. You can tell that they both really love each other and I love that not once in the season did we see Feng holding the affair over her head. Like they're really ride or die for each other and I love that for them. And now that Feng's fees are cleared, they can travel and see the world together since they weren't able to before when Vivian danced with Ulysses. Speaking of Ulysses:

Ulysses Killed Edgar

I didn't want to believe it was him because it really did seem too obvious, but that's the same thing that happened with fans last season right? Although last season I did guess Yasper and that was me watching without knowing of any clues or that the subreddit existed (and I watched it like a week before season 2 so there's that). So everything was exactly as a majority of redditors theorized:

-He brewed the tea during the extremely long shower in Aniq's mind movie

-The whiskey glass was poisoned and accidentally swapped when Feng had Edgar taste the baobing; So Feng being high on adderall in the found footage video was correct

-It did all come down to Ulysses wanting Feng out of the way so he could be with Vivian

-He is delusional as all get out which does mirror Yasper's delusional story in S1

-When he ran to Feng and Vivian's room he expected to find Feng dead hence the shocked expression

-He had a knowledge of the devil's trumpet from his work as a shaman

What was missed was that Grace said she hated whiskey in episode 2 and he was swabbing a whiskey glass in his mind movie so that went right over our heads

Danner said he knew Grace wasn't his daughter so I applaud the writers on fooling me bc I spent the whole season thinking there was a paternity thing going on and nope, just Ulysses being a delusional buncle who is now headed for prison!

I find it so funny though that even though I changed my mind on who the killer was, I still figured out that he was sus because of the koumiss. But I'm a bit confused now bc he gave Travis the koumiss infused dutch babies but he used his horn to brew the tea so where did he store the rest of the koumiss? Did he have two horns? Because he tried to stop Vivian from drinking from it but this was after the days' events played out Does anyone know?

The End

All in all, this was an amazing season and I had so much fun sharing theories with you all and getting to talk about the show weekly. Season 3 is about to be off the chain so when the time comes we've got to More Horse it up! See you all then!

[spiderwcd]

sour | b. barnes

pairing: bucky barnes x avenger! reader

summary: you and bucky met on unforgettable terms and have hated each other ever since. of course this doesn’t stop tony putting you together on a mission. will this break the frozen later in each other’s hearts for each other?

word count: 2.6k

warnings: murder, violence, some cursing, mentions of sex, cursing, steamy makeouts,

gif not mine !

you awoke as the same as yesterday, full of hatred towards the world. yet you try to save it everyday with your team. you woke up of course especially hating james buchanan barnes.

ever since we discovered him, you weren’t so fond of his presence. everything and anything he had to do was irritating like a bug bite that won’t to stop needing to be itched. you wanted to strangle him every time he spoke, slap him every time he worked out in front of you, you could of course go on.

you hopped out of the bed in the minimalistic room. you wandered from the mattress towards the attached bathroom. you felt heavy that day, almost sluggish. you huffed out some air from your chest and stared hard in the mirror as you rubbed you sore head. you quickly did your morning routine before becoming any more sick of yourself.

you escaped your small and empty room after changing as soon as you could into the bot so empty one outside. you ended up in the kitchen where natasha and steve were talking. you ignored their presence as you grabbed a cup of coffee and some yogurt from the fridge.

“so, y/n,” natasha began. you perked up your head towards her. “i heard tony might have new missions for us today.” she explained. you shrugged slightly.

“what now?,” you scoffed slightly. “he need us to clean the park?” you rolled your eyes softly as steve chuckled slightly.

“no actually, i heard it was more serious this time,” steve added to our conversation. “heard it was something about spies this time.” your ears perked up and you shot your head up.

“seriously? i bet you tony is gonna bench me again,” you theorized. “he always has it out for me i swear to god.” you grumble.

you take a long sip from your freshly brewed coffee and felt your spirit uplift shortly as you awoke. you felt happier to be awake this time and talking to your friends. that was until bucky entered. you were angry that he walked in without a shirt and dared to wear only a pair of black joggers. you rolled your eyes as you placed your cup of coffee before walking away.

“i’m gonna work out.” you sassed as you quickly left the kitchen before any words could be spoken back.

bucky returned the favor by rolling his eyes back. he knew your hatred towards him. he remembered the day clearly, you were fighting him and he knocked you out and nearly killed you. but steve and natasha saved the day. of course you tried to forget that and become close to him as she was close to her other team members. instead bucky gave her an icy glare and ignored her. so instead of becoming friends, they found it easy to hate each other.

as you disappeared away, bucky scoffed and looked back at the two other people in the kitchen. “i cant believe her, she barely gave me chance and already hating my presence!” bucky ranted as he grabbed a cup of coffee himself.

“well to be fair bucky,” natasha began. “you did give her the cold shoulder when she tried to give you a chance.” she commented.

“yeah but still,” he replied. “that was when i was still brainwashed by hydra. she should know better.”

steve hissed slightly as he reminded him the first date ordeal. it was odd because tony invited everyone to go to his favorite club and y/n found herself a dance partner and as he placed a hand on her waist, bucky showed up and nearly broke the guy’s hand. y/n hated him for ruining her night and she left to get drunk and grumble about how much she hated him.

“oh come on,” bucky blurted. “that guy was making her uncomfortable!” natasha gave him a raised brow before bucky sighed.

“okay maybe i just didn’t want him touching her.”

he couldn’t deny in the end of the day, he had developed a not so small crush on you. he dreamed to even become close to her. he was supposed to be hard and tough and somehow let himself fall for someone who hates him.

before the conversation could go on any longer, tony’s voice came over the intercom as he mentioned the meeting. everyone stopped what they were doing and went to the meeting before tony could argue with them.

everyone grumbled their way to the meeting room and sat in their usual spots next to everyone they usually talked to. you sat next to natasha and wanda per usual wearing your work out clothes.

“i know everyone doesn’t want to be here,” tony began. “but deal with it.” he finished.

he began to explain how the spies in a popular celebrity restaurant and how they were beginning to build nuclear weapons in the basement of this hotel/ restaurant.

“now here’s the kicker,” he sighed. “we can’t really get in, we’re all to recognizable to the public. we need someone new out there.”

everyone began to look around before landing their eyes on you and bucky. you realized what was going on and your eyes widened.

“uhm i’m down to do this,” you raised your hand. “only not with him.” you motioned towards bucky.

“it’s not up to discussion,” tony stopped. “you do this with him and that’s it.”

before any of you could argue with the billionaire, he walked away ending the meeting. you huffed out in frustration as you stood up and walked away.

later that day, you received an invitation to the restaurant. wow thanks tony. you knew it was your time to shine. you had to pull out some emerald green party dress from the back of your closet for this one. you never were the type to party. even before becoming an avenger.

you decided to clean your looks for the night, you did your hair and makeup and felt clean and almost human again. but you snapped out of it and marched towards the meeting room. there you were met with bucky in a all black suit. a blush crept in as it was suited for him, but bucky was also shocked at your appearance, you wore a opened back silky emerald green party dress that hugged your curves amazingly.

he cleared his throat as you were met next to him. “you clean up nice.” bucky grumbled.

“you too, barnes.” you smirked slightly as you both made your way to the limousine with tony inside. he explained the plan simply to both of you.

get away from the party and once done, one goes upstairs to where the terrorists have the launch codes and panels. other goes to the basement and disarms all the guards and somehow eliminates the launch from succeeding. then tony ends explaining with,

“then at the end, both of you get a room and squash this beef you guys have going on by simply sleeping together.” you both stare at tony with disgust and horror as you pull up to the front of the building.

“good god kill me.” you whispered as you got out, tony yelled, ‘use protection!’ causing you guys to become flustered and quickly walk away from the limousine.

both pair of eyes wandered around the room and noticed the fancy party going on. everyone was too focused on their own thing as both you and bucky nodded and split into different directions. you wandered to the elevator towards the upstairs to a specific room.

tony explained how a signal was being traced from the 5th floor and you’d have to use some electromagnetic machine to find them. or whatever tony and bruce explained to you. you discreetly pulled out the small machine from the clutch you held and your hand wandered through the hall, still keeping an eye out for any guests and possible intruders.

your eye caught the door next to the wide balcony opening at the end of the hall. it glowed a dark blue underneath the crack of the white door, illuminating through the hall.

you cautiously pointed the machine and it went crazy. this has to be it. you pulled out your gun from the clutch and you threw it to the side as you pushed the door slightly open. you noticed at least 5 people in the suite. some guy was typing at the large computer and talking in a foreign language towards the guards, clearly not doing their job.

you scoffed softly. these were simply just idiots. you knocked out the first guard easily. it wasn’t too hard to knock out the other big guy too. you decided to tie up the guy way the computer. you needed some answers.

“why nuke the place huh?” you asked as you plugged in the flash drive given to you. you began decoding some firewalls as the terrorist began talking.

“small talk doesn’t suit you,” he smirked. “where’s your boyfriend?” he asked you back.

“i ask the questions here,” you raised a brow. “and he’s not my boyfriend.” you continued typing vigorously as you disarmed the codes.

“good so you won’t mind when we put a bullet between his eyes?” he smirked. you sighed and stopped typing. you turned around and squatted in front of him.

“i may hate the guy,” you began as you grabbed his hair to reveal his beaten face. “but he’s still my teammate. i’m a team player.” you spat as you let go of his face and it hung low as he chuckled dryly.

“you know you’re pretty tough for a who-.” before he could finish the sentence, bucky came in with a gun and silencer. he shot the guy straight and point blank before he could even finish the sentence.

“we have to kill the bad guy you know, y/n.” bucky snarky comment didn’t make you flinch.

“yeah but it was quite fun hearing him talk non stop,” you sighed as you sat back down and began typing yet again. “almost like you.” you smirked. bucky rolled his eyes and watched you breakthrough the firewall.

“why do you hate me?” bucky asked as he examined your beautiful features. you scoffed.

“you should know this.” you replied coldly.

bucky shifted his stance and raised a brow. “yeah but you should know that was just my mind being all freshly blended.” he sighed.

you stopped typing and sat up and turned to face the brunette. “bucky, and i mean this from the bottom of my heart to the bottom of my ass,” you stood up and towered over him. “you are the most stupid and naive man i’ve ever met. you hate where people despise you and yet you never bothered to get to know me. therefore bucky barnes, i hate you.” you put on a fake smile before you sat back down.

“wow...,” bucky blinked completely dumbfounded. “i didn’t know you felt... so strongly about me.” he blinked rapidly.

you slightly scoffed at his comment instead of replying and there was a silence between you two as typing echoes the room.

“got it,” you finally said as you stood up. “finally disabled all the weapons and it should be ready to be removed from basement and just in time for tony and the gang to gather these.” you finally said as you removed the flash drive.

bucky looked at you in awe. how could you gather all your emotions and just focus so easily. you quickly got out of the room and began walking down to the elevator with bucky. the floor began moving downwards as it stopped at the next floor.

some clearly bad guys, loaded the lift and you notice the guns. they were suspecting you two were involved.

“kiss me.” you whispered into his ear. his hairs stood up on the back of his neck at the comment and made his throat go dry.

“w-what?” he whispered back.

“just do it!” bucky grabbed your face and pulled towards him as he began slowly kissing you. you hated to admit that your stomach gave you butterflies. your bodies slowly melted. the bad guys became uncomfortable and just waiting for the lift to finally stop at the next floor.

as they exited and the doors shut, you let go and heaved for air. you let out a sigh as you wiped your face. you looked over at bucky and he had lipstick smeared on his lips. you chuckled a bit as you noticed this and he looked confused.

“you have lipstick smeared everywhere.” you noted as you guys finally made it to the first floor.

bucky blushed as he rubbed off the lipstick on his face and cleared his throat. he didn’t know what that was about but he wanted for more.

you guys finally made it to the parking lot as the car tint delivered stood. tony and the crew should be here any minute, but you two needed to get out before any one shows up. your job was considered done.

you threw the keys at bucky as he swiftly caught them in his natural hand. you waited for him to unlock the door. you began to get into the car and both of you zoomed out of the parking lot.

both of you made it back to the compound and you two finally let loose of the disguise and sat at the bar.

bucky cradled a scotch in his metal hand as you held some vodka and cranberry in your own hand.

crickets could could be heard of how quiet the compound was. it never got this silent. usually someone would start something and it would be a comfort thing after a while. bucky finally broke the silence.

“why did you kiss me?,” he asked sheepishly.

“i mean mostly to get the guards uncomfortable.” you raised a brow.

“yeah but why would you kiss me?,” he questioned. “i mean you could’ve started arguing with me or crying to make them uncomfortable, but instead you kissed me.” you finally noticed it and a blush crept onto your face.

“well uhm.” you started as you were lost for words. “i really don’t know bucky.” you chuckled dryly. you placed your glass onto the marble table as bucky did the same with his.

he strutted to you with any confidence he had from the crazy night or the scotch gave him. he was now next to you.

“admit it,” he suddenly said. “you don’t completely hate me.” he smirked.

your breath hitched in your throat at this. “are you crazy bucky?”

“only for you, doll.” he softly replied as he leaned closer to you.

fuck it.

you gave in and kissing him the second time that night. all the excitement gathered and you let out any hatred you had for him all those years.

“i don’t hate you,” you breathed out. “i wanted you, but i knew i couldn’t.” you finally let out. it was like a weight lifted with these words.

bucky slightly moaned into the kiss as you jumped up into his arms and wrapped your legs around him. he felt electrified and trapped under your spell.

“i called it.” tony let out. you both quickly pull away and you noticed the gang all standing at the door. you blushed and let go of bucky standing on your feet quickly.

“shut up stark.” steve told him as everyone walked in exhausted as they sat down on the couch.

bucky quickly cleared his throat as he leaned into your ear. “you tasted so sweet.” you coughed at your own saliva (and a bit of his) at this comment.

“you’re so dead barnes.” you whispered towards him.

[ootahime]

what is utahime’s role in the future? — a prediction (manga spoilers)

part 2 (unedited)

part 1 is here!

let’s continue answering the question: is utahime weak?

chapter 135

what preparations is utahime making? like i’ve mentioned before, i theorize that she needs to charge up in order to use her technique. since momo and the other kyoto students are fighting on the front line to buy time for utahime, i believe that they trust that their teacher’s ability can help turn the situation around.

what do the students think of her? do they think she’s weak?

chapter 128

mechamaru manipulates the circumstances in a way that allow him to keep the kyoto people away from danger. this has more to do with how much he cares about his classmates and his teacher rather than seeing them as incompetent sorcerers who can’t hold their own. notice how he says “EVEN utahime”.

chapter 128

kamo thinks mechamaru doesn’t have that much faith in the Kyoto students—but this isn’t true at all! he knows who the enemy is and has a grasp of how dangerous they are. he just wants to keep his friends safe. besides, kamo is a semi-grade 1 sorcerer which means he’s more than capable of defending himself against curses. but since he’s being kept safe too, it suggests that this is not a matter of keeping weak people away from fighting :)

chapter 41

this seems a bit off topic but let’s talk about the misogyny in jujutsu society. momo points out to nobara that the women from the zenin clan are expected to be perfect. the misogyny runs so deep to the point where some women aren’t allowed to even fight. you may think that this is just about the zenin clan but it’s about society as a whole. that’s why nobara responds to momo in a more personal sense. she doesn’t care about the boys versus girls issue because she embraces all aspects of herself. she loves herself when she’s strong, and she loves herself when she’s dressed up and beautiful. if it only applied to the zenin family then nobara wouldn’t have responded the way she did.

in the chapter before, nishimiya explains, “even if a girl has skills, if she’s not cute, she’s looked down upon. of course, if she’s only cute with no skill, it’s the same. women sorcerers aren’t expected to be skilled, they’re expected to be perfect.”

some of the female characters in jujutsu kaisen apply to this. for example, maki and mai. they’re looked down upon because one can’t use a cursed technique or see curses, while the other’s cursed technique is weak. in chapter 148(?) naoya says the only thing maki had going for her was her face, but it’s ruined now so she’s nothing. the zenin twins fall under the “cute but not skilled” category in jujutsu society. before we can put utahime into a category, let’s examine mei.

i promise this will all connect so please bear with me LOLLL let’s move on to mei. we find out that mei has the ability to control crows. she deems this ability as weak because it’s simple and doesn’t have much attack or defense power.

she convinces herself that a sorcerer’s worth doesn’t revolve around their CT. by following this ideal, she soon found herself at her limit because you can only hone your physical abilities to an extent. she said she was crushed because she thought that her weak CT would forever stunt her ability to grow as a sorcerer. but because of all the training she did in order to not rely on her CT, she was able to combine her physical prowess with her technique to make what’s best of her ability to control crows.

mei is an example of a perfect woman based on the standards the jujutsu world has established for women. although she has a weak technique, she makes up for it with adept use of weapons and physical prowess. she found a way to incorporate this “weak” ability to make it something strong. she’s beautiful and powerful so therefore, she was promoted to be a grade 1 sorcerer. she is what a woman is expected to be in order to be acknowledged by others.

what about utahime? why couldn’t she follow the same footsteps as mei?

i can’t answer that because we don’t really know much about utahime so far. i can only speculate why. being a grade 2 sorcerer at 20 is not bad at all. but why is she stuck as a semi-grade 1 sorcerer at 31? that surely proves she’s just weak, right?

semi-grade 1 sorcerers are sorcerers who have performed well on missions with a person accompanying them. i feel like when utahime was on a mission to exorcise a grade 1 curse on her own (the final step of the grade 1 promotion process), something happened that gave her her scar and made her unable to fulfill the mission. it’s either that or she did complete the mission but her appearance is too unsatisfactory. can you recall what nishimiya said? if you’re cute and not skilled, you’re not good enough. if you’re not cute and skilled, you’re still not good enough.

in men, scars are a symbol of honor and strength. on the other hand, scars on a woman’s face are seen as an imperfection. as a result, those who are scarred are deemed imperfect and unsuitable for marriage.

gojo hates the way things are run because the higher ups are so close-minded. they make decisions on a whim and have no compassion for sorcerers who are breaking their backs on their orders. he wants to change jujutsu society for the better by raising the next generation of sorcerers to be as strong as him. the old-fashioned and narrow-minded attitude of the higher ups leads me to believe that utahime is stuck as a semi-grade 1 sorcerer because she is viewed as imperfect. utahime’s scar is most likely the reason contributing to her being held back. who would want to promote a woman who isn’t beautiful enough to be a grade 1 sorcerer?

she obviously has a lot to offer because she’s a teacher at Kyoto. todo, a grade 1 sorcerer, has never shown any sign of disrespect towards utahime despite the fact that he surpassed her in rankings. he trusts in her and believes she has some things she can teach him.

can we additionally address the fact that gojo respects mei? he refers to her as mei-san and says that there’s no way she’d cry because she’s strong. mei has a weak technique though? 🤔🤔🤔 controlling crows?!?!?! nah im jk, mei is strong with and without her technique, of course. since gojo respects someone like mei, a person who doesn’t have an out-of-this-world technique, i believe his view of someone strong isn’t solely based on their technique. when he calls utahime weak, he may not be insulting her CT. it’s just all jokes because in chapter 65, geto and mei join in on the fun too and pick on her. mr. hot shot knows that utahime is a valuable asset to his plans so he entrusts her with the task of unearthing the traitor(s). if she was so incapable of such a thing, why did he pay mei to do the same job? 🤔

*a lot of people think mei was actually paid by gojo to promote his students but that’s incorrect. it goes against everything gojo advocates for. he wants his kids to enjoy their youth because his was taken away. being a sorcerer is not a smooth job and no matter how many years you’re in the profession, it never gets easier. he doesn’t wish for his students to be thrust in a world full of hardship and loss, which is why he was so against yuuji and yuta’s execution. he works hard to preserve the innocence of his students. he doesn’t want yuji’s heart to break, not even once. why would he pay mei to promote his students to grade 1? that would automatically strip them of their innocence and youth and push them into a world full of burden and pain.

PHEW that was long. how does this all tie back to utahime’s future role in the story?

her CT will probably come in clutch in an important battle

she might be the one to help get gojo out the box (A REACH i know)

she will help gojo with his plan to overthrow and change jujutsu society as a whole

i don’t really have to dive into the first bullet point. as for the second one, look at what i found!

in the second opening, utahime is seen searching for something in a dim forest.

*i read an analysis about opening 2 and apparently this just symbolizes her looking for the traitors. that makes sense too.

in chapter 144, this scenery pops up right before they enter master tengen’s base(?) the branches are thicker than in the opening but it gives the same vibes to me. i think utahime will be the one to break gojo out.

why utahime? well, gojo is their best shot at stabilizing whatever the fuck is going on right now. she knows it’s a crime to unseal him, but she wants her students to be safe so she’ll probably risk it. plus, gojo’s flashback starts with him breaking utahime and mei out of a building with a barrier.  i think utahime breaking gojo out of the prison realm will make a perfect parallel :3

that theory is a massive ass pull I KNOW. it’s just fun to think about. it’s likely that kurusu hana will be the one helping yuuji and megumi out with that.

if utahime isn’t the one freeing gojo, she will definitely come face to face with the other traitors.

ive read numerous Reddit threads and tons of users think she’ll play a small role in the story—nothing too significant. i’m perfectly content with that as well. i never expected her to be gojo level or anything like that LMAOO. as long as we get to see her technique in action, i will be satisfied 😮‍💨

——

i feel like there may be a few things i missed but i tried to include everything i could think of. the organization of this post is quite off but im too lazy to rearrange it in a way that makes it more coherent LOL. thank you so much for reading. ill probably analyze gojo and utahime’s interactions in the manga and anime next :-)

[marieanneline]

wait wait hold up i am actually seething about the reveal

ya boi's not a dabi stan. at all. the only reason i'm remotely interested in his character is if he's actually related to shouto and how that would affect hero society in general. i remember reading the training camp arc, seeing him being one of the villains there, him saying todoroki's full name, and thinking "SIBLINGS?????" because agshdfjlk their EYES are SO SIMILAR!! i really want to give credit to horikoshi being able to portray their similarities from artstyle alone because that's talent.

(it's more apparent in the anime since you see the eye color— but appearance-wise, shouto takes after rei and dabi takes after enji the most, so this definitely isn't the best photo to prove my point...)

anyways,,,, dabi's ideals of heroics fall in line with stain's ideals and so we all already theorized how if he was the long lost big brother touya, it would be because of the fact that his father really wasn't a hero. this makes sense. and so, we're all fucking right. props to us, really, and props to horikoshi for all the foreshadowing because i had fun :)) in terms of story and plot, i think this reveal is fantastic.

alright, on to why dabi is a dick

(i'm assuming this was his choice and no one pressured him after all)

the todoroki family is on the road to recovery!!

- shouto finally visits his mother back in season 2 and visits her every chance he gets. you see the effort he makes and it's nice to see him change from season 1 to 2 (early-roki!!)

(guys he even sends her letters- look at that sparkle by his face!! he's sweet :)) and rei's smile!!!!)

- enji (whether we wanted it or not, i don't mind much personally) is trying to atone for everything he's done to his family

- natsuo, who originally wasn't fond of shouto because he had their father's attention (although he does come to the horrible realization that shouto was one of the most unfortunate) and mother's attention (because she wanted to protect shouto), has a closer relationship with his little brother now (can you believe he didn't even know shouto's favorite food was cold soba until ch. 192?? i was sobbing). he really regrets the prejudice he had against shouto and he's trying to be an actual brother to him now.

- rei's almost recovered enough to be released from the hospital!!

- fuyumi and her idyllic "happy family"– wHICH, BY THE WAY, ALMOST CAME TO FRUITION. their mother coming home, shouto connecting with his siblings, and enji being not-the-way-he-was-before is the best outcome they could have hoped for. and it was happening.

and i realize that all of that setup is for this very moment

this? this. this. this is being broadcasted. to everyone. that means the citizens know that their new #1 hero is directly related to a member of a really bad villain organization (i almost called it a terrorist group oop-).

by ruining endeavor, the citizens faith in heroes will collapse. this also affects shouto's reputation as an upcoming hero, and i am so terrified of what this could mean for him. imagine your career ending before it even started, just when you found your passion for being a hero again. all that progress he's made for himself since starting UA could be seen as pointless to him and i would hate for him to retrogress like that because it's not his fault. i would absolutely hate it if the media starts bashing shouto for being related to a villain, when he was also a victim of abuse.

seeing this look on shouto's face is making me dehydrated istg i'm fucking SOBBING— he doesn't even look angry!! in the last few chapters he was angry and worried for his friends, teachers, father maybe, other heroes... but he just looks sad. and the fact that the panel chooses to show the left side of his face is.... there's so much to unpack.

but yeah, this is being broadcasted. does fuyumi know? the cameo she had showed her working so maybe not. natsuo's cameo showed that he was at a lecture, so he also probably didn't see.

but rei did. that's like- that's the person i would want to keep this from the most.

the effects of this entire reveal genuinely scare me. how will this affect rei's mental state? she'll realize that what enji did is actually so much worse. their first child being a villain?? i'm terrified for how she'll react, she's doing much better in recent chapters after all. her kids are visiting her, shouto sends her letters to keep in touch, and enji sends her flowers and respectfully keeps his distance. i really don't want this reveal to result in a relapse. and if she does relapse, then fuyumi's ideal of a happy family is once again out of arms reach. the future of their mother finally coming back home is so far away again and it's genuinely so heart-breaking.

:(

plus— how will fuyumi's little elementary school students react to her being related to a villain? will the school fire her because of her connection to a villain and how that might cause concerns for students and parents????

it's also hard to say exactly how this will affect shouto and natsuo. natsuo was the closest to touya when they were kids so what would his whole opinion be of what touya's become? will he have a moral crisis?

in terms of moral crisises, i guess i'm more concerned about shouto. the boy knows he wants to forgive his father, but this is just making it so much harder. and after this, will he still want to? and finding out that his own sibling is a villain... remember the stain arc? there were some parallels between midoriya's, iida's, and todoroki's positions in the last chapter and i'm worried about what that could foreshadow. from that arc alone, we know that shouto doesn't agree with stain's views at all [i forgot what he said but it was really compelling]. we know that dabi's a stain follower though, so will this disrupt shouto's sense of justice? i hope not.

but family has always been kind of a weak spot for shouto, hasn't it? i hope this doesn't affect his resolve to be a hero because i do think that there's a way to– somehow– not have a corrupt hero society and i want him to fight for that.

touya being a villain is perfectly valid though, i don't doubt that. it's just disheartening to address that while every other todoroki was working hard to become a normal family, here's their oldest brother, who's not really dead. what's going to become of that altar at their house now?

learning the extent to touya's hatred towards endeavor is truly terrifying. we know enji is or was a horrible person and his redemption arc is based on the very fact that he can't be forgiven, despite some of his family trying their best to do so or at least get over it. but the fact that touya has even thought about killing shouto? that's just. ouch. touya's definitely gone through too much abuse, and all of the todoroki family problems are because of enji's bad parenting. but this does not justify murder and especially that of his younger brother, who also got the brunt of the abuse.

needless to say, i am a fool. i don't know if anything i just said will ever be true, but the important thing to take from whatever the heck i just shat out is that all of this is/could be a result of this reveal. it's the fact that dabi seems to have no sympathy. it's the fact that he doesn't care if his blood related family crashes and burns. really, if this is solely about endeavor and what he did, there's no need to bring the rest of the family into this. rei was sent to a hospital for god's sake. shouto has a scar. it's excessive and unmoral and although questionable ethics and values are key traits of a villain, it doesn't justify how much he's hurting the todorokis.

(look at this shit eating grin he has. no remorse. he really doesn't give a shit about the others but I DO and I'M so SAD)

and assuming that the whole "endeavor's wife admitted into hospital" was swept under the rug in terms of media, will that suddenly come back to light? because it shouldn't. maybe it should be known that she's in the hospital because of marital abuse but either way rei should not be dragged back into this disaster, and neither should the rest of them. there's also a chance that the media will accuse rei of having abused her kids too, which is messed up for different reasons. they're trying so hard to have any semblance of a normal family, and if dabi's way of revealing this to the world ruins that in any way then i hATE THIS REVEAL ASDFGHJKL—

[goldenvicious]

Vs: Hop + Enter: The Knight, Mammoth, Barbed Wall and Joan

As I left Bollonlea Stadium, Opal stopped me. She asked if I could walk with her to Hammerlocke to help with some errands. I need to go through Hammerlocke to get to the next gym anyways, so why not? Once we arrive, we both walk towards the center of Hammerlocke and- oh hi Bede.

He thinks I'm here to make fun if him for losing his sponsor and his status as Gym Challenger. I would, but I'm too tired right now. He hasn't given up though. He still has to become champ in order to help out the chairman. While we were talking, suddenly Opal rushed him. Pink, Pink, and more Pink! She has taken a liking to him and decided to take him in after Oleana and Rose threw him away. They both left towards Ballonlea, with Bede now being Opal's apprentice. Well. That was an unexpected turn of events.

As I was heading towards Route 7, I encountered Sonia. She's been doing research on the ruins in Stow-on-Side. She still questions what kind of Pokemon the sword and shield were, as well as where they are now. She wants to take another look at the tapestries in--

Suddenly there's a loud explosion. Oh no, not again!

Sonia: "Are you kidding me?!"

Even Sonia is fed up with it! It sounded as if it came from Hammerlocke Stadium. I think that's where Rose's Power Plant is, right? All of a sudden, Sonia's Power Spot Detector went off. Leon ran towards us, asking if we're alright. Leon theorized that Rose is testing something again. Sonia worries that Pokemon may start dynamaxing in the middle of Hammerlocke, so Leon calms her down by saying that he'll tell Rose her worries. Knowing Leon will get list, Sonia goes with him. They both send me off to Route 7 while they go deal with this mess. After they left, Hop arrives from the Train Station. He's been trying to catch up to me, but got all sorts of messed up in the forest and during they gym mission. He wants to meet up on Route 7 to battle and get motivated. We both head to Route 7. He tells me that he's gonna try a new strategy to see if this team's better than his last one.

You are challenged by Pokemon Trainer Hop!

His first pokemon is a Trevenant, and I lead with Goldeneye. This is a baaaad matchup, so I switch to Snips. Unfortunately, Trevenant used Confuse Ray. Fortunately, Snips pulls through and KOs Trevenant with an Air Slash.

His next Pokemon is a Boltund, so I switch to Dig Dug. Dig Dug outspeeds and knocks them out with a High Horsepower. His next Pokemon is Cinderace, so Goldeneye comes out again. A single Snipe Shot is enough.

His fourth Pokemon is the mighty Snorlax, so Striker is sent out to eliminate him. Brick Break KOs in a single hit. Finally was Heatmor. I sent out Vee to finish the fight. Vee used Dig, avoiding the Slash and Knocking Out Heatmor the following turn. Hop is a little frustrated about his loss.

Hop reminisces about watching Leon on the TV before he started on this journey. He though of Leon like a bright star, too strong to even look at directly. But now, he can tell just how strong he is, and what Leon's got that he doesn't. But Hop's getting stronger, too. Not as fast as I am, but that's fine. He thanks me for the battle and heals my team.

I think I know ehat he really wants: he wants to battle Leon, to take on his brother and win. He wants to be the one to take on and beat The Unbeatable Champion. He says that we'll have another chance to battle in Circhester after he gets his badge, and runs off. I decide to catch my encounter for this Route, a Karrablast I named The Knight, and Flew back to the Wild Area to catch more Pokemon. The first area I was in was Hammerlocke Hills, where I found a Swinub in the Grass. I caught them in a Quick Ball and named them Mammoth. I sent them off to the PC and went looking for my next Target.

Than, in the Stony Wilderness, I found a Raid Den with a really Cool pokemon: Ferrothorn. I debated with myself if I should count this as my encounter, and I finally decided for it to be my capture for the Stony Wilderness. I chose Vee and entered the Raid Den.

Ferrothorn Appeared!

Dynamax Energy filled my Band as I sent out Vee. My partners were Catherine and her Togepi, Noah and his Qwilfish, and Kit with her Dhelmise. I dynamaxed Vee and went for a Max Flare, dealing Massive Damage and setting up Harsh Sunlight, but Ferrothorn Survived and set up shields. Qwilfish attacked with Waterfall, dealing 1 point of damage but breaking a shield. Ferrothorn used Max Steelspike on Togepi, but Togepi Survived in 1 HP due to Focus Sash. Dhelmise used Shadow Ball to break a shield and Togepi used Life Dew to heal any damage We've taken. Ferrithorn uses Curse to boost their attack and defense, but dropping their speed.

Vee uses Max Flare again, breaking the last 2 layers of shield and dropping Ferrothorn's Defense and Special Defense harshly. Qwilfish used Waterfall, Dhelmise used Giga Drain, and Togepi used Life Dew. All Ferrothorn did was use Tackle on Vee and use Curse. Vee's Final Max Flare Takes out Ferrothorn.

It's time to capture Ferrothorn. I decide to use a Heavy Ball. I enlarge it with Dynamax Energy and threw it. One shake. Two shakes. Three shakes. And Capture. I name her Barbed Wall and send her to my PC.

I hail a Taxi and make my way to the Isle if Armor for my final capture here before I get the ability to swim. I go to the Courageous Caverns and find my toughest encounter yet: Druddigon. I start the battle with a Quick Ball, but it fails Immediately. Goldeneye suffers a Slash in the process. I switch from Goldeneye to Vee to use Will-O-Wisp, but Dragon Claw deals over half if Vee's HP. I switch from Vee to Snips, taking 0 damage from the following Dragon Claw due to the Fairy Typing. Snips uses Yawn to make Druddigon drowsy, taking the following slash well. Snips uses Aura Sphere to deal good damage and Druddigon tries to set up with Hone Claws, but falls asleep. Air Slash puts Druddigon to yellow, and Aura Sphere to red. I throw a Dusk Ball, and it Succeeds. Dragon Age joins the PC. I spend a lot if time finding some more Digletts. Afterwards, I fly back to Hammerlocke to make my way through Route 7 and 8.

While traversing Route 8, a wild Pawniard jumped out of the Grass and stood in my way. I just grabbed a Quick Ball and threw it. She was captured immediately. I guess she really wanted to be caught. I named her Joan, after that one knight in history that also had a Bisharp. She was quite Timid though, so I sent her to my PC.

I eventually made it to Circhester and decided to heal up than explore the city first. I got some items, solved a berry-related murder mystery, got a few TMs, and bought some clothing. I went to the Gym Lobby and found Hop there. He lost against the Gym Leader, despite doing what Leon did in battles. He decided to give me the Gym Leader's League Card so I know who I'm up against. Hop has to figure out what to put on his team once and for all. He leaves, and there I stand in the Lobby.

The Gym Leader will be difficult if Hop couldn't beat them.

Team:

Striker the Urshifu

Level: 43

Item: Rocky Helmet

Ability: Unseen Fists

Moveset: Wicked Fists, Brick Break, Iron Head, Brick Break

Vee the Flareon

Level: 43

Item: Silk Scarf

Ability: Flash Fire

Moveset: Fire Fang, Dig, Double-Edge, Will-O-Wisp

Princess the Tsareena

Level: 43

Item: Expert Belt

Ability: Queenly Majesty

Moveset: Trop Kick, Triple Axel, Rapid Spin, U-Turn

Dig Dug the Excadrill

Level: 43

Item: Wide Lens

Ability: Sand Rush

Moveset: High Horsepower, Smart Strike, Rock Slide, Stealth Rock

Goldeneye the Inteleon

Level: 44

Item: Mystic Water

Ability: Torrent

Moveset: Snipe Shot, Scald, Shadow Ball, Focus Energy

Snips the Togekiss

Level: 47

Item: Leftovers

Ability: Serene Grace

Moveset: Dazzling Gleam, Air Slash, Aura Sphere, Yawn

[professionalranter31]

What is this kid?

As Izuku lands, he tightens the cape to keep Eri close.  The raid just went straight out window with Nighteye injured and Mirio losing his quirk.  He is honestly just running on his instincts at this point and trying to ignore the pounding in his head.

A giant monstrosity bursts out of the ground and Izuku sees Overhaul at the center.  He growls and activates Full Cowling ready to fight to protect the little girl who is clinging to him shaking in absolute fear.  Taking a step he rushes forward and kicking Overhaul into the sky and jumps after him delivering a quick punch.

“Don’t you-” Overhaul tries to say something but Izuku doesn’t care and hits him again.

Down at the ground Uraraka and Tsuyu have gotten Nighteye there and watch the fight in awe but notice something that doesn’t look right, “Why is there steam coming off of Deku-kun?”

Another hit to the madman and Izuku just keeps getting angrier ‘Why won’t he just stay down!?’

As Izuku continues to hit Overhaul more steam continues to come off of him until a burst of it covers both Overhaul, Izuku and Eri until the trio see the little girl falling from the sky still holding onto the cape as though it were a life line.  Tsuyu quickly jumps and grabs the little girl and as she comes down she sees the cape ‘Did Overhaul mange to grab it?’ near the knot it was torn.

As they look up they see a giant shadow begin exit the cloud.  Overhaul plummets to the ground and another blur rusher after him with steam coming from it.  Another hit and the blur seems to grow bigger but then another explosion of steam appears as Overhaul hits the ground.

He gets onto his monstrous feet and tries to move and grab Eri when a large blur hits him away.  A large stomp was heard as growl escapes whatever is in the cloud.

Suddenly, a large gust comes from within the cloud and blows away the steam revealing the creature that stands where Izuku should be.

Towering even over Overhaul in his monstrous form stood a green scaled dragon.  Spikes trailing down the back ending in a spear-like tail the muscles rippling with scarred flesh.  Upon the head adorned five sets of horns the slit eyes a vibrant green.  Another growl escapes the beast’s throat showing the maw of razor sharp teeth before it bellows a monstrous roar that shattered the windows leaving those closest to it to cover their ears and alerting those that are currently underground.

Taking a charge the dragon headbutts Overhaul back into the air and with mighty push of it’s wings follows when green lightning flows over the creature in some areas taking shape of the scars.

“DEKU-KUN!?!?”

Izuku in his new form punches Overhaul with his paw before quickly headbutting the Yakuza leader again.  As he goes further in the air smoke begins to leave Izuku’s mouth before he breathes out a torrent of fire straight at his enemy.

As Overhaul screams in pain Izuku hits him one more time and forces him to crash once more into the ground where he disconnects from the ally he combined with.

Trying to get up Overhaul reaches for his gun hoping maybe he can salvage this situation when the dragon lands in front of him.  The other heroes coming out from underground they stop and gape at the site before them of towering dragon leaning its giant horned head to growl at their main target of the raid who is shivering in utter fear.

Overhaul begins to raise the gun with quirk erasing bullets loaded inside when black tendrils burst out between the scales of the dragon and grabs his hand while new tendrils grab the gun and the other cartridge of bullets.  Raising his free hand he tries to bring down on the face of the dragon when another tendrils stabs through the palm of his hand spins rapidly creating a hole in his hand.  His once captive arm is let go but before he can try and heal himself his hand is stabbed again and the process is repeated.

Multiple tendrils take the gun and bullets; and cover them into a sphere and begin to squeeze breaking everything throwing the ruined weapon into the sky and Izuku breathes another torrent of searing flames completely destroying the dangerous weapons.  As he takes a breath a third explosion of steam escapes from him and there he stands human again at least somewhat.  Before anyone can ask questions, the green-haired boy falls to the ground unconscious.

~A couple hours later~

At the hospital Aizawa, Toshinori and Inko stand on in a hospital room.

“I thought his quirk was super strength not turning into a god damn dragon!” Aizawa suddenly screams out frustrated since none of this makes sense.

“Aizawa, I don’t understand this either, but there is no need to lash out.  Ms Midoriya can you explain the quirk of young Midoriya’s father please?” Yagi decides to try and get to the root of this connundrum they are currently experiencing.

“T-this wasn’t what was on-n the donor’s-s inform-”

“Wait, donor?”

“O-oh um, my husband wasn’t f-f-fertile and well I-I had always really wanted a child so I had gone to a sperm bank and asked for an insemination from someone with a fire quirk so it could be like it was o-our own child but well when Hisashi f-found out what I had done h-he left.  T-t-turned out he had cut his tubes a-and never wanted a-a child.” Inko manages to get out through her worry for her son as she looks to him on the bed.

Izuku is now sporting the same amount of horns as his dragon form.  Scales litter his body now and x-rays showed that he now has a new organ which they theorize is for the fuel for his fire breathe.

“I’ll have Recovery Girl run a DNA test to see who the sperm donor is so maybe we can get some answers.” with that Aizawa and Toshinori leave the room in the hopes of getting some answers.

~One hour later~

Toshinori and Aizawa sit before Recovery Girl waiting for her to tell them the results.

“Midoriya’s DNA is a bit strange right now but I managed to isolate what I was looking for and for some reason he has four biological parents.  I have yet to call the three donors yet as I figured you would like to know who they were.  First, we have Ryuko Tatsuma AKA the Dragon Hero Ryukyu so one part is solved on Midoriya’s quirk.  Secondly, we have Taishiro Toyomitsu AKA the BMI Hero Fatgum, I have yet to figure out how this factors into his quirk yet.  Finally, we have Enji Todoroki AKA the Flame Hero Endeavor which explains the fire breathe.”

The room is currently silent as the two teachers absorb the information they have just been told.

A/N

Welp, that’s it people.  One piece of information I couldn’t tell you guys is that the sperm bank was a front for the HPSC to try and create powerful quirks for the future and Inko’s request was perfect for them to try their hands at combining multiple pieces of DNA.

@musicfeedsmysoul12  @anastasian-dreamer 

Have fun with this!

If you got any feedback for me on how I can improve my writing you can tell just don’t be rude about it.

[dukeofonions]

“Because I was one of them.”

“Oh, okay cool.”

Or alternatively: Why Virgil’s confession has lost it’s impact.

Exploring the Dark Sides (Part One)

Something I realized the other day is that a lot of my current issues with this series wouldn’t exist if there was a consistent uploading schedule. 

You see when there’s a steady stream of new content flowing I’m more inclined to just go with the flow and not spend so much time looking back analyzing things I’ve already floated past because why should I when there’s so much new stuff ahead? 

But say that stream suddenly comes to an abrupt stop and I’m left sitting with nowhere else to go. At that point I start looking back, noticing little things that I hadn’t noticed during my initial trip down this metaphorical river. I now notice all the jagged rocks, how shallow the water actually is, etc. 

And while this doesn’t necessarily ruin my experience over all, I’m left scratching my head wondering whose idea it was to come to this place anyway. Sure it’s not the worst place to go floating, but surely there’s a better place with deeper water and less hazards. Just an easier way to float along where one doesn’t have to worry about the stream suddenly ending. 

I don’t know where this metaphor came from but to sum it up: since there are such long waits (years now) between actual Sanders Sides episodes and there’s a lack of new content to take in, I’m left looking back over what we have now and during my little look backs I’ve begun to notice some things that cause issues with the latest additions to the series. 

Some of the more interesting things I’ve noticed revolve around the three resident “Dark Sides” and how they’re written in the series. While a lot of it is really good and I think they’ve got some of the best moments in the series, there’s also a lot of little things that pop up that, when looking at the series as a whole, don’t make a lot of sense. 

Which is why I’ve begun this little series where I do a little deep dive into some of these things I’ve noticed and break them down to see if I can try and make sense of it, and this post is going to focus on Virgil.

More specifically, Virgil’s confession to being a former “Dark Side” and how it’s kinda lost it’s thunder.

As per usual, this is all my own opinion and you’re free to agree or disagree as you see fit. Of course I get pretty salty but I try to avoid getting too negative because where’s the fun in that? 

Anywho, on with the show! 

I’ll admit, despite my problems with the concept of “Dark Sides” as a whole, I genuinely loved the subplot of Virgil hiding that he used to be one of them from Thomas.

From a story telling standpoint they do a good job with the foreshadowing, leaving plenty of clues for the audience to find and it all pays off at the end. It’s also unclear at first whether Roman, Logan, and Patton know (Spoiler alert they do) and there’s some close calls via Janus and Remus dropping hints in front of Thomas which cause Virgil to freak out and adds some tension to the series. 

It also provides a bit of a mystery around Virgil, Janus, and Remus as while it’s clear that the three have some kind of history together we’re never told or shown explicitly how their relationship was. Of course, we’re given plenty of hints, but we have yet to know what life was like when Virgil was “one of them” and it gives the audience more to look forward to and theorize about. 

And of course, the actual reveal itself is amazing. The acting, the music, the complete silence after Virgil confesses and him looking like he’s about to cry as he sinks out is just *cheff’s kiss* perfect.

So what exactly is the problem here? 

The foreshadowing? There’s just enough to get people theorizing but still plenty of room for people to speculate without spelling everything out. 

The reveal? What can I say, I don’t have any complaints here. It’s definitely one of my favorite scenes from the series and I can’t find a single thing wrong with it from a technical stand point.

But as mentioned before, I started thinking about it more, and after taking everything we know about Virgil and "the dark sides" into account, this question suddenly came to mind:

Why is Thomas so shocked by this?

Think about it, when Virgil first appeared he was a little bitch. He was kind of the first antagonist of the series. Not evil per say, but compared to the other Sides he was a little shit who enjoyed bringing Thomas down. He was very much what one might consider a "dark side."

He wasn't ever trying to act like a "good guy" in order to earn Thomas's trust or anything, he was very open about what his role was and how it’s just who he is. So really, Thomas's reaction should have been something along the lines of, "Oh, okay. Makes sense."

Of course, we do see Virgil change over time and we learn that he isn't as bad as he seems (even though that seems questionable now) but that should have made his "past" even more obvious.

Like, Thomas, the guy had a whole acceptance arc because he was a bitch and no one liked him. You were literally there throughout his entire journey, it shouldn't surprise you that he was once part of a group you consider to be "evil."

Well okay, maybe Virgil just wanted to be honest regardless of whether or not the "dark sides" are actually evil or not. Who knows? Maybe he chose to confess when he did because he saw how horribly Remus had been affecting Thomas and seeing as he felt as though he'd failed to protect Thomas from Remus and Janus, figured he might as well try to protect Thomas from himself as well.

Which, okay, if that were the case then that could explain Thomas's reaction. He'd just met Remus, saw him at what could he his worst (we've only had one actual episode with Remus so who knows how bad he can get?) and while he learned that he's actually pretty easy to deal with and isn't as scary as he thought, who's to say the reverse couldn't happen with Virgil?

He saw that he wasn't as bad as he thought, but when you look at how nasty Virgil's been lately, who's to say that couldn't happen? It's been said that Virgil, as Thomas's anxiety, is manageable and isn't as bad as others. But we've literally seen Thomas say that he's afraid of what Virgil could do and so he just kind of has to let him do his thing in order to avoid all the "bad stuff" he could do.

According to Thomas: "There's a lot that Virgil could do that I don't want him to do. He knows exactly how to push my buttons. But he is who he is. All we can do is try to listen to him as best as we can and adapt to his needs."

(For anyone who wants to watch the clip here's the time stamp Embarrassing Phases 20:31)

Uh, yeah, that sounds super healthy there. But I'll get into my issues with that little message in another post.

Just before this though, Roman had asked Thomas if "He's (Virgil) going back to being scary can I go back to calling him names?"

Thomas responds by telling him as he's leaving that he still has to be nice to him, before Logan expresses that he's glad (or relieved) that Virgil didn't go into Thomas's "girl phase" which just hearing it being mentioned seems to stress Thomas out. Then finally after Logan leaves Patton explains that while he's trying to respect Virgil's wants and still be a good friend, he feels like he just makes things worse which is where Thomas attempts to reassure him.

Except his advice is to just, let Virgil do what he wants so he doesn't hurt them? And while he says they need to work with Virgil it doesn't seem like he's requiring Virgil to work with him as well in order to not make his life miserable?

Hm, is it possible that my answer as to why Thomas reacts so strongly to Virgil being "one of them" lies within my least favorite episode in the series?

Perhaps Thomas was already starting to be afraid of Virgil before the whole confession in DWIT, and has gotten to a point where he's forcing himself (shown by him telling the others to keep "being nice to Virgil" despite how he treats them) to just take whatever Virgil throws at him in order to spare himself from whatever worse things Virgil could do to him?

That, added with everything that happens in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts, where Thomas witnesses a Side of himself that appears to be worse than Virgil, could have set him on edge. And if Remus, who he considers a dark side, who he openly admits to hating and is so afraid of him that he loses sleep, then just how bad could Virgil be if he was ever at his worst?

With all that in mind, yeah. It does make sense why Thomas would react the way he did and why he'd be cautious of trusting Virgil in the future.

Except, none of this has actually been confirmed within the series and is purely speculation and since we still don't have the season two finale, we really have no idea what Thomas actually feels towards the situation since he kinda brushes it off at the end of DWIT by doing the outro.

But wait... we actually do know how Thomas feels. In fact, we already know how the issue is resolved!

Looks like it's time for-

How Asides Ruins Everything!

You all remember when Asides was first announced, right? These were meant to be shorter, lighter videos that took place outside of the current series and were meant to give us content in between the long breaks for regular Sanders Sides episodes that also wouldn't get in the way of filming said episodes.

Well we all know how that little idea turned out seeing as it's now been a year since Putting Others First and they decided that we needed to have two Asides episodes before the finale that were apparently essential to the "plot" even though the current plot in Sanders Sides has nothing to do with Thomas getting a boyfriend but I digress.

But you know, I wouldn't be as upset about the Asides causing us having to wait longer for the actual story to pick up again, if the Asides episodes didn't ruin the actual series!

How did it manage this? Well, let's just look at Virgil here and the entire point of this post which is, as the title states, why his confession has lost its impact.

And the answer? Well, at some point the writer's decided that the best way to resolve the new conflict between Thomas and Virgil was to have them indirectly make amends by using some random character that is clearly just a stand in for Virgil and use this character's "confession of a past they weren't proud of" as a way to discuss the situation and Thomas's feelings on the matter just to have Thomas indirectly assure Virgil that they're still "okay" and it doesn't bother him.

So according to Asides, Thomas is just fine with Virgil despite his confession. And as we see in the following Asides episode, they're still cool with each other!

So what was the point of that dramatic confession, which was being built up towards throughout pretty much all of season two, just to have the characters indirectly discuss it and make amends like it was nothing???

Why should the audience care when it all just gets brushed aside (ha) like it's no big deal?

Everything was in place for Virgil's reveal before the Asides came into the picture. You had the build up, you had the pay off, there was the suspense when Virgil was completely absent from POF, and then you would have had him confronting Thomas and the two having to directly come to terms with this new information.

But nope! Let's just have them sit awkwardly by each other on the couch while they watch Frozen in onesies while everyone keeps talking about some random character whom the audience has never heard of before that we're supposed to figure out is meant to represent Virgil and Thomas is all "Nah we're still cool bro."

What's supposed to happen now? Janus is supposedly a "good guy" now so why would he bring up Virgil's past to get under his skin? And if he still does why would it bother Thomas since he's already come to terms with it?

Look, even though I've got my problems with the concept of "dark sides" as a whole, it wouldn't have mattered to me if they'd at least committed to telling a good story here with Virgil's past because I was genuinely interested in that.

I freaked out when he told Thomas, and initially I thought we weren't going to see those two interact again until the finale where Virgil would finally have to face Thomas and we'd get to watch how he comes to terms with it. And if Asides hadn't been a thing and we had gone straight from DWIT to POF it looks like this was the direction they were headed.

But instead we're basically told (not shown) by Thomas that he's fine with Virgil. And the reason as to why Virgil's not in POF despite being on good terms with Thomas?

"There was just no reason for him to be there."

Really? There was no reason for Virgil, who was directly part of the discussion that led to POF in the first place, to be present during the aftermath of the decision they all had helped Thomas make?

There was more reason for him to be there than Logan and he still showed up! They had the perfect explanation set up for them in DWIT: Virgil had just revealed his past to Thomas and due to being afraid of how he'd respond (or just wanting to give Thomas space and not stress him out more) chose to remain absent from the conversation.

That actually makes sense and lines up with the story but nope.

The "Dark Sides" and Virgil's past with them was one of my favorite things about the series. The mystery surrounding it all and Virgil trying to protect Thomas from them while keeping his own history with them a secret was a brilliant concept thats just kinda fallen flat on its face.

The long waits between episodes don't help, and how they're rushing through certain aspects within the series itself along with Asides coming in and muddling things up, I don't really care to be invested anymore.

Why should I when there's a chance anything interesting they come up with will just be glossed over like it's no big deal?

It's hard to make a final judgment here in regards to Virgil's current arc when we still have no conclusion in sight. But from what we've seen from Asides, which is now integral to the plot of Sanders Sides, we kinda already have our answer.

Thomas and Virgil are just fine with each other. We learned that Flirting With Social Anxiety takes place right after POF and that Virgil already knows about Janus getting on Thomas's good side so there's no suspension with him finding out about that either.

All that's really left with him is his troubling relationship with Patton but I don't even care about that anymore. They've hardly addressed it at all and given what we've been seeing I doubt the conclusion to their strained relationship won't be satisfying either.

I don't know what the finale, or the rest of the series, will hold concerning Virgil. While I hope that things will turn around and get better, at this current rate it doesn't seem likely.

Episodes are still taking years to make, and the ones we're getting are just distracting from the main plot or taking things away.

Virgil isn't the only character suffering from this, but at least he's not as worse off as others.

Which is why in the next installment of this series, we'll be taking a look at a little, yellow snake and how one of the characters with the most potential ended up being the most underwhelming parts of the series.

[luminary-gremlin]

Wilford’s Escape Room

After a few months of planning and building, the escape rooms were ready for action. Host and Google wanted to keep this project a secret until they were done, even from their loved ones. Some days were incredibly hard especially the further away they got into the project, their loved ones worried with how often they’d come to their bedroom exhausted. Well, Host exhausted from using a ton of magic, Google borderline 1% battery at times. Eventually Host had to explain to his love ones that he and Google were working on a project but it was essential to keep it a secret and assured them he’s just tired from putting time into it and that he wanted it to be perfect.

           Now, though, the rooms were done and Host and Google were trying to find out who would be the perfect candidate to try out their escape rooms. They both really wanted their lovers to try it out. However, they were going to need someone for the others to see, someone to bring word out to the ego public. A charismatic gentleman of sorts. They both lit up when they realized the perfect ego to do the job.

           “Goooood evening ladies and gentlemen and all configurations of being, my name is Wilford Warfstache and today I am here in an escape room oooo~!” He wiggled his fingers at his handheld camera with a grin before looking around the room.

           The room was glitzy like one of his sets where he interviews his guests. Google had made sure to search him for any and every weapon, not wanting anything to ruin their hard work. Wilford was informed about his time limit and was told to have fun and so there he was, livestreaming in front of all the egos who watched eagerly.

           Wilford decided to walk over to an interesting pair of feathers at his feet and sat down, the sign beside it read “Don’t move a muscle for 3 minutes”. Wilford smirked and looked at the camera.

           “Well, looks like there seems to be some playful games. You know I talked about some ideas with Bimmy boy about adding some tickly challengEHEHEHEH!!!”

           A feather swept over his toes, causing the man to pull away out of instinct. A sound played as a gloved hand grabbed his ankle and held it up and a soft scrub brushed appeared and scrubbed itself on Wilford’s bare sole.

           Wilford tried his best to get the camera on his foot, but he was shaking with laughter from the sudden increase in intensity. Host and Google snickered to themselves as the showman squirmed and flailed.

           “The Host can see how Google fell in love with the bombastic man, he surely is entertaining.”

           “Told you he was the perfect candidate for getting the word out.”

           Soon enough the gloved hand let him go and set Wilf aside for when he was ready again. Wilford panted and caught his breath, fanning himself.

           “A-ah, I see. So with some challenges are timed, so you have to use your time very wisely. Remember, you only get 1 hour in this, and I have 45 minutes left!”

           “Told you we should have poked him while he went on rambling through his intro and waited for all the egos to join in.”

           “Oh hush you, like you’re any better mister ‘I’m going to take my time in the tickle tunnel’.”

           Wilford decided to come back to the “don’t move” challenge at a later point and found a bar above his head. He reached up and hung from it, only his toes touching the soft fuzzy ground. A small door slowly began to rise little by little. Soon a pair of glove hands hung from the bar and went to town squeezing Wilford’s side.

           Wilford cackled and dropped his arms, causing the door to drop. Wilford chuckled awkwardly and looked at the camera, “Ihihi guess I might be in here for a while. These escape rooms are no joke, but it’s really fun!”

           Wilford then spent the hour trying both challenges, each time getting a little bit closer to the goal. Finally, Wilford managed to grab the box behind the door of the bar challenge which revealed a key and after mastering the other challenge revealed a riddle. Just as Wilford was about to read it out loud, a loud roar pierced the walls of the chamber and a door opened up, revealing a pink manticore, except its tail was fluffy on the end.

           The manticore pounced on Wilford eagerly, using its catlike tongue to move his shirt up and lick his belly like tickly sandpaper, its mane tracing over his hips and thighs while his feet fell victim to its tickly tail.

           Wilford dropped his camera and laughed heartfully as if the manticore was some sort of pet. The egos watching commented coos and thoughts about the room, theorizing what awaits for them. Once Wilford was cleaned up, the manticore cuddled up with him lovingly and Host picked up the camera.

           “We all are just dying to hear your reactions about our little project. Perhaps Wilford will have a better time getting a hang of it after his break. After all, there were still so many challenges left and we spent so much time on all these rooms~”

[ladykakata]

Helluva Boss Episode 5

MUUUUCH better than Cherubs. Got a couple of thoughts under the cut

Stolas is going to die. His lullaby to Octavia has that lyric about ‘when I’m gone’, and I have a feeling that Octavia’s interest in taxidermy is going to factor into that. I’ve made a ton of inaccurate calls, but that’s one I’m thinking of right now.

Moxxie really doesn’t get a goddamn break. I want a moment in a future ep that showcases his strengths. We know Millie is a bruiser, and we know they genuinely love each other, but damn let the poor little guy show why Millie picked him over some over-macho meathead.

If Moxxie is also from Wrath, I really want to see his parents. I’m getting the idea of more genteel Old South parents for him with, y’know, the vile slavery overtones.

I saw what you did with Carmine carvings there, very nice.

I love Striker’s sound design, with the snake rattles and crocodile/alligator hissing. Very nice.

I always wondered why Blitz looked so different compared to other imps. We’ve seen very small and ‘simple’ designed imps like the ones in Loo-Loo Land, we’ve seen intermediate design and size imps like Millie, Moxxie and Millie’s parents/Sallie May, and we have Blitz plus Striker, who are much taller and more elaborately designed. Striker has complex eyes and longer spines on his tail, and Blitz has his very elaborate horns. There’s a theory that Blitz is born in Lust due to his headstamp, and I’m curious if there is any particular reason imps vary in size, other than purely design reasons. Don’t get me wrong, there are common design rules, like red skin of various shades (Striker is quite pale, Millie is a lot darker), white blotching on their bodies in various places, a spade tale, female imps seem to have dark hair and dark horns with white thin spacing, whereas male imps have white hair with black and white horns in which the colour ratio is even. Legs seem to be split between goat hind legs (Moxxie, some bg characters) and straight legs (Millie, Blitz, bg characters). I personally like the idea that those with goat hind legs have fallen Cherub ancestry. But when it comes to size and elaborate design, there seems to be big differences, and I want to know why.

‘His Hellhound’ made it sound like Loona ‘belonged’ to Blitz, which I’m not surprised she took exception to. Verosika referred to Vortex as ‘my new Hellhound’, and Vortex referred to their relationship as purely professional when talking to Loona about her beef with Blitz and how he didn’t care.With Verosika, her reference was sounding like ‘new Hellhound’ was the same as bodyguard, and Loona isn’t just an employee or someone disposable. Still frustrated she ruined Moxxie’s chance to be cool.

Stella berating Striker for failing to kill Stolas IN FRONT OF OCTAVIA is fucking cold man. Sure, Octavia had her eyes closed bopping to her music and clearly couldn’t hear or see what her mother was talking about, but jesus christ. Fun fact; I skipped a little to see the end whilst in the middle, and thought Stella was arranging to have BLITZ killed before I got the context for the gun. I mean, some people theorize she’s doing it in front of Stolas to prove he doesn’t listen to her (which ... I think he might have twigged when she was staring at him, but that’s just me) but doing that in front of Octavia, who loves and respects her dad, is stone cold. You’re a bitch, Stella, I said it. I’ve seen enough Snapped: Women Who Kill and Deadly Women eps to know your game.

We know we’re going to Lust later, and we know that there’s that shot of Stolas sadly eating breakfast. I am wondering if it’s a flashback to how he MET Bltiz, rather than going to cheer himself up. We’ll see. I’ll also need to check the frame where Blitz is on the ground and someone is standing over him, because before people thought it was Verosika, I am wondering if that’s Striker instead.

EDIT: I spelt Millie’s sister’s name wrong, it’s Sallie May not Sally Mae as I assumed

[harringrovetrashrat]

Pretty Boy

“This is so boring.” Heather popped her gum, smacking slightly, and blew a curl out of her eye. She and Billy were in her dorm, studying together. Her roommate Robin was lounging in her loft, ignoring them, but it was a comfortable thing. Billy sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Switch it up then. Stop with Stats and work on Bio or something,” he suggested. He turned the page in his Art History book, trying to focus.

“No, I mean,” she scoffed, “I mean, like, studying is boring. We should take a break.”

“I’m not taking shots Heather--”

“I’m just saying--”

“I actually need to finish this--”

“Well, I need to do something else--”

“Oh my god,” Robin groaned, leaning over the side of the bed. “Whatever you guys do, would you be quiet about it?” Billy stuck his tongue out and she rolled her eyes before turning back towards the ceiling. Heather eyed her, tongue swiping over her bottom lip unconsciously, and Billy smiled slightly. She was so obvious.

“Hey,” he suggested slyly, “Didn’t you say you had a new lipstick you wanted to show me? Said it screamed Fuck Me?” He ignored the slightly choked sound that came from Robin’s loft and instead focused on Heather’s rapidly flushing face. She gave him a look that said I know what you’re doing, but stood and went to her dresser anyway.

“It’s this gorgeous red, and I also have a gloss I thought would look good with it, but I wanted your opinion.” She pulled out a tube and Billy tossed his textbook to the side, leaning back slightly. He caught movement from the corner of his eye and saw that Robin had turned so she was facing the room and not the wall. He smirked to himself. Lesbians were so oblivious to each other, it was almost infuriating. Almost. “Alright,” Heather said, popping her lips. She turned and gave him a bright smile. “What do you think?”

“Oh yeah, girl,” he said with a grin, “That’s a fuck me red, if I’ve ever seen one.” It was a bright red, like Christmas holly or a cartoon candy apple. The gloss looked like it was close to dripping down her chin, shimmery and sheen. Billy licked his lips and Heather’s grin turned sly.

“Oh I have the best idea.” She grabbed her makeup bag and plopped back beside him on the futon, turning to face him. Billy raised a brow.

“What?”

“We’re giving you a makeover,” she said with delight. Billy rolled his eyes.

“Heather--”

“Oh come on! Please? It’s 2019,” she begged, pouting. “Guys wear makeup now and you have the best eyes for makeup I swear. I am so jealous of your lashes you don’t even know, Billy.” He laughed at that, and then shook his head.

“Alright, fine. You’re right, I do have amazing eyes.” He heard shuffling and a thump, then Robin was behind Heather, a wide grin on her face.

“This is gonna be good.”

“Pull your hair back,” Heather said, tossing him a baby blue velvet scrunchie. He pulled his hair into a pony on the crown of his head, watching her pick through her various makeup bags. “Alright, close your eyes, Billy,” Heather cooed, picking out an eyeliner. He did, reluctantly, but his heart thudded in excitement. He’d never really tried out makeup before. Sure, he’d done eyeliner and some mascara, because he did have the best eyes for makeup, but anything more? His father had made sure he knew there’d be hell to pay if he ever tried. And once he got to college, well, he’d been too busy with schoolwork and keeping his scholarship that he didn’t really think about what it meant to be out from under his father’s roof. To be in control of himself. It wasn’t like he really wanted to do drag or anything either, but he’d always loved how he looked. Spent too much time staring at himself in the mirror, probably. And he knew, he fucking knew, that he’d look good in makeup.

“If you make me look like shit, Heather, I’m taking all of your scrunchies,” he warned, a smirk pulling at his lips. He heard her gasp, offended.

“You’ve seen my makeup--”

“Yeah, exactly,” he teased.

“I’m gonna give you orange eyeshadow if you don’t shut the fuck up,” she hissed.

“I’d still look good.”

“I dunno, Hargrove,” Robin drawled. “You’re not looking at this orange.”

“Dunno when I asked for your opinion, Buckley.” She snorted at that, and he imagined she probably rolled her eyes too. Billy liked Robin. She was quick witted, funny, and had a really special knack for making ‘dingus’ sound like a compliment. Also, she was friends with one Steve Harrington.

Steve was something else. He and Robin had been friends in high school, making the move out to Berkeley together. He’d helped Robin move in, like Billy had helped Heather, and the minute he had seen him, Billy had been obsessed. Steve was cute, fucking adorable, and then he’d run his hand through his hair and Billy had nearly short circuted imagining doing that himself. Then Steve had opened his mouth and proved himself to be so far out of Billy’s league. He was kind, goofy, but also stubborn and loyal, like a puppy. He was smart, if not a little naive, and he was funny. Pretty much the perfect fucking package.

But Billy knew that he’d ruin him. That he’d taint the goodness that was inherently in Steve, so he kept his crush to himself. And it proved fucking helpful just last week, in late October.

“Halloween is fine enough, I just had a bad breakup with my ex at a party in high school last year and it’s just a little tainted still.” Steve frowned as he sucked on the joint. Billy watched his lips intently, snapping his eyes up as Steve handed it to him.

“Oh?” Billy busied himself with taking a hit so he wouldn’t ask. He wasn’t sure Steve wanted to talk about it.

“Yeah,” he sighed, still looking up at the ceiling. “She got really drunk and kinda, let me have it? Then slept with someone else?” Billy exhaled sharply, eyes widening slightly. He ignored the clenching his chest at the revelation of it being a girlfriend.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Steve croaked. “We made up, but like, it’s not a great memory anyway.”

“Well,” Billy offered, licking his lips, “We could hang out if you want. On halloween. Nothing big. Just get stoned and watch some horror movies or some shit.” His stomach was full of butterflies and he tried to squish them, trying to keep his hopes fucking down. Steve was most likely straight, and Billy really should have seen this coming. Still, it was kinda like a date and he’d never really been on a date before. Not with a guy, at least. Steve smiled a little.

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Billy’s heart fluttered in his chest before sinking when Steve said, “Could I bring Robin?”

“Yeah, of course.” And that had been that. Billy had taken that as a rejection and tried his darndest to not think about Steve and his long fingers, longer legs, and his mesmerizing brown eyes. He didn’t do a very good job of it.

“No, no, no.” He zoned back in to Robin and Heather bickering.

“But the blue would look so good with his eyes!” Robin said.

“Well, duh,” Heather replied. “But gold fits Billy so much better! See, if I do golds and this coral here, his eyes will just pop!”

“Okay, okay,” Robin relented. “But if his eyes are gonna be all done up, you should really add some highlighter.”

“Oh yeah,” Heather nodded, “You’re so right.”

“Do I get an opinion?” Billy said, eyes still closed.

“No,” the girls replied in unison, and he smiled.

--

Steve was having the worst fucking day.

He’d spilled his coffee all over his notes that morning, had been late to his shift at the school store after a shitty phone call with his father, and was now being sexiled from his own dorm. He thunked his head against the hallway wall, wondering if the world could just swallow him up.

Plus, he’d been anxious about not hearing as much from Billy the past couple of weeks.

When he had invited Robin to the Halloween hang out, she had laughed at him for a full minute. He was confused until she brought up that Billy had been asking him on a date. Which didn’t make sense because Billy was obviously straight. Not that Steve was one to go on stereotypes, but Billy was a natural flirt and he’d just figured he was comfortable enough in himself to flirt with guys too. That he didn’t mean it. Because, well, look at him.

Billy was the kind of hot that slapped you in the face. When Steve had first seen him, muscles bulging as he carried a box on his own, his mouth had gone dry. He hadn’t looked away from his ass until Robin coughed pointedly. Then they had talked, and Billy had been smart and charming, and Steve was a sucker for both of those things. Hell, he’d gotten fucking hard listening to Billy theorize about his English homework a month ago.

And then Robin had rolled her eyes and said that Billy was gay as fuck, that he and Heather were best friends, not dating like Steve had assumed. So Steve held his head in his hands and groaned. Robin had laughed at him again, but told him that she would come if he really wanted her to.

“I mean, I want it to be him being interested so bad,” Steve groaned. “But what if you’re wrong?”

“Trust me,” she had dead panned, “I’m not.”

But Steve had made mistakes before. He’d been so positive about Christian, and that had ended so poorly. He really didn’t want to take any other chances. So she came and brought Heather, who Billy had invited. And it had been a fun evening and Steve had thought that maybe, just maybe, Billy was into him.

But then they hadn’t talked for a while, what with midterms coming up, only meeting when the whole group got together for study sessions with alcohol. It wasn’t super unusual, but Billy and Steve had been texting regularly, pretty much everyday, and suddenly it took him hours to respond, sometimes even a day or two. It wasn’t like it was pressing stuff, but Steve’s earlier hope and excitement at Billy’s possible interest was quickly dissolving.

And what sucked is he couldn’t even complain to Robin about it. Because she would fucking laugh at him and remind him it was his own damn fault. It also didn’t help that after he’d gotten a C and B on his last tests (which were some of his best and most steady grades in years, thank you very much), his father had used the phone call to resume his quest to get Steve to major in business instead of social care. Had talked over Steve’s excitement with disappointment in his voice that Steve still hadn’t chosen ’the right career’.

Steve sighed, thunking his head against the wall again, feeling sorry for himself. He needed a pick me up. He needed a drink. Robin was good for both. He took a deep breath and made his way to her dorm, wondering if Heather was there too. She was always good for a drink and maybe seeing Robin fail to talk to her crush could make him feel minimally better.

Also if she had just so happened to message him earlier that Billy was there to study, that was no one’s business. Steve would have gone there anyway.

He knocked when he arrived, waiting to come in since he hadn’t texted ahead of time. Robin opened the door, a weird and intense smile spreading on her face when she saw him.

“Oh no way,” she breathed. “This is perfect.”

“What?” Steve furrowed his brow. She pulled him into the room, smile still wide.

“Steve’s here!” She announced, way too perky. Steve started to get nervous.

“Oh great! He can tell me what he thinks!” Heather cheered. There was a strangled sound from next to her and once Steve had his bearings, he focused on Heather and-- promptly choked on his own spit. Billy was staring at him, hair up, face fucking glowing. Heather had her makeup spread out on the bed between them, her red lips pulled into a cheery smile. But Steve couldn’t focus because Billy’s lips were also so red and shiny and his eyes were breathtaking--

“So?” Heather asked, a knowing grin on her face. Steve opened and closed his mouth, trying to get back the ability to talk.

“I think he likes it,” Robin chuckled. Steve gave a nod, swallowing thickly. Billy was blushing, Steve could tell by the tips of his ears, and he let out a shaky breath.

“Uh, y-yeah, it’s great. It’s, uh, really great!” His voice shook a little because Billy’s fucking lips were just like, there.

“Thanks!” Heather said, ignoring the way Billy and Steve were staring at each other. “I could do your makeup sometime!”

“Sure,” Steve replied absently, not listening to a word she was saying. Heather rolled her eyes with a smile and crossed her arms.

“Oh my god, I actually can’t take this anymore, just fucking get it over with!” She said, exasperated but having fun. Both boys snapped out of their trance, looking at her with furrowed brows. Heather and Robin locked eyes before rolling them. “You think he looks fucking hot, right?” She directed this to Steve, who spluttered and turned bright red.

“O-Oh, I, uh, yeah? Uh, I mean, uh--”

“This is so embarrassing for you,” Robin said, almost in awe.

“Shut up,” Steve hissed.

“Uhm.” Billy’s voice cut through the tension, and everyone’s attention turned to him. He looked to Steve, still blushing. “You think I look hot?” Steve opened his mouth and Billy, obviously flustered, cut him off with, “I mean, of course you do, I’m a fucking snack.” He sniffed, trying to act unaffected. Heather looked to Robin, wondering if she should put them out of their misery.

“He also wants to suck your dick,” Robin added, making Steve gasp and turn on her, shocked.

“Robin! What the fuck!”

“You do?” Billy’s eyes were wide, but excited. Steve looked at him, shocked.

“What-- I-- Well, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head and smiled a little awkwardly. Billy smiled.

“Holloway, I need to talk to Steve in your room for a--”

“Oh no, you are not making out in here--”

“Oh come on,” Robin said, grabbing her arm. “Just use the fucking futon, you animals.” And she closed the door behind her. When Heather and Robin returned, having grabbed some pizza and beers for the evening, Steve and Billy were on the futon; Steve’s hair was wild and he had lipstick and gloss smudged around his lips, while Billy’s, lipstick ruined, were stretched into a smug smile.

“I think it’s time you two talked.”

[whetstonefires]

Sephiroth, 1, 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 20. I find your take on him so interesting! (And kind of sad too...)

Oh gosh this is so many! Haha okay, here goes.

1.Their physical weak spots

Huh. He’s programmed to be literally impossible to damage in the one actual fight in the Nibel flashback, the dragon. I theorize this might have been his first-level Limit? But of course you can’t use a Limit unless you’ve been injured first. (Apparently they reversed this in the Remake which is a major thematic change and I don’t like it? Anyway tho.)

So on one level his physical untouchability is part of his trademark and there’s a temptation to say ‘none’ and be done with it.

Normal human weak spots, I imagine, he’s not as alien as all that. The throat is the throat, I mean. His disinclination for wearing shirts may suggest an indifference to thoracic damage, but between his tendency to not get hit at all and the existence of healing magic that doesn’t necessarily mean much.

The vertical pupils which can dilate much further than normal would make him particularly vulnerable to flashbangs used in a dark or even dim environment. I assume Wutaian ninjas exploited the heck out of that. :D

2. Their emotional/moral weak spots

Abandonment issues was a big one, I think, and all the huge gaping vulnerabilities created by being a child with no one to love, or who loved you.

Thinking outside of Shinra’s standard pathways is a matter of some anxiety to him, in Crisis Core–his idea of resistance is ‘find my friend first and then oops fail to kill him they can’t prove it was on purpose’ and then later ‘turn down the assignment to find my friend and kill him.’ There’s just, a lot of emotional dependence on a toxic structure indicated by his behavior patterns.

I’m sure that was deliberately instilled, but it’s not that hard. His superpowers aren’t Superman scale self-sufficient until after he ‘dies’ once, and capitalism does what it does. He’s not much less dependent on the Company for survival than the average worker, and more so for identity.

Morally he was disadvantaged by being a corporate supersoldier with Hojo as his parent–the details of his upbringing have never been clarified but they sure didn’t put him anywhere outside Shinra enough for him to form external attachments, or even powerful internal personal ones prior to the rather shaky ones he managed with two peers sometime in adolescence, which leaves fairly few possibilities really.

Anyway morally he’s nothing but weaknesses, even before he got tangled up with The Thing From The Northern Crater and decided he was God and should consume all life. ^^;

5. Guilty pleasures 

You know, I don’t think even pre-evil Sephiroth did guilt much? Waste of energy, and (see above) he wasn’t socialized for it, it’s counterproductive in a soldier. The ‘guilt’ in guilty pleasure is really a species of shame though, and anyone with that much pride is vulnerable to the opposite, even if they weren’t exposed to someone like Hojo growing up….

You know, it was probably novels? He was a reader, and one of the most personal things we know about him from the OG is the deep impression left by Hojo’s furious rant about how inappropriate it was to use poetic expressions about magic. Even ‘magic’ was too sentimental for this domineering science twit.

So, every so often growing Sephiroth would get his hands on a piece of fiction, and the quality wasn’t necessarily great because it was whatever he could pick up in the break room or wherever, but he’d hole up out of sight and scarf it down. Even once he had his own living space and salary and could buy whatever books he wanted and store them, he’d pick up novels on the sly and get rid of them once he was done, like someone was going to catch him. One of the things he used to pick out of the ruins in Wutai during the looting was books.

He always felt a confusing mess of jealousy and scorn about Genesis’ Loveless thing. That he could just like it like that, constantly, right out in the open, where anyone could laugh at him. That nobody had ever taken it away.

Less tragically, I think sometimes he’d go home and watch bad TV. Whatever Midgar’s stupidest soap opera was. Sephiroth caught enough of the reruns to know most of the main plots. He had an opinion about who the father of Jaqueline’s baby should have turned out to be. He would never admit this.

9. Humiliating memories

Okay, as touched on above repeatedly, he grew up with Hojo, who loves breaking people down and laughing at them, so he’s probably got a lot of these.

The worst one is one time when he had a weak moment or an optimistic one, and asked out loud in words for something he really, really wanted, and Hojo said yes, and gave Sephiroth just enough time to get desperately excited and express gratitude before laughing at him and saying of course he was lying. Don’t be stupid.

That isn’t something important enough to bother with.

12. Grudges and vendettas 

‘Burning inside with violent anger’ isn’t there for no reason. From Nibelheim on these define him, and according to bonus materials of middling canon status he eventually sheds almost all identity elements but his grudges.

I think, based on the shape of his breakdown? That for most of his life he told himself that holding onto anger and pursuing grudges was a waste of time and energy. But that didn’t actually help him let any of it go, he just internalized and ignored things. Because he wasn’t actually not holding grudges, he was just reacting like someone who didn’t have any choices, and marinating in spite.

Spite against Hojo surfaces on the way up to the reactor in a way that says to me it’s a habit, almost a reflex. But it manifests in profound pettiness, and I think that’s the only way he normally felt he was permitted to act out against the people who really bothered him, though I’m also sure he channeled a lot of anger into unrelated killing. Natural thing to do when you’re a frustrated teenager who’s supposed to be killing people anyway.

By the time he did it in Nibelheim, it was an old habit.

The fact that he bothered to personally kill the Shinra President as his big debut says to me he was holding a grudge about his entire life against the person who commissioned him and declared the war and shaped the floating Midgar-world that defined his life. I think there were probably a lot of personal insults in there too, just because of the way Shinra Sr. seems to have conducted himself generally.

He’s a Donald Trump expy wouldn’t you.

Sephiroth is written as a much softer person in Crisis Core, almost absurdly so, but even there you can see him resenting Genesis and Angeal more than a little for abandoning him. It probably brought back his whole mess of feelings about Gast, who really did abandon him quite unforgivably but Sephiroth never knew the full circumstances, just that he was gone and later dead. There are signs he blamed Hojo, who doesn’t seem to have gloated openly about the murder even if he did make sure to inform the boy his favorite person was dead now.

And of course later on there’s Cloud, which doesn’t actually make that much sense until you loop in the retcon about Cloud throwing him into the reactor and cutting short his initial rampage. There’s the grudges he seems to have inherited from Jenova, against the Cetra.

It’s not out of the question that he killed Aerith the way he did in part because she was the thing Gast abandoned him for, as well as all the other less personal reasons. I sort of like to think so.

16. Dark secrets/’skeletons in the closet’

Of his own, as opposed to ‘about him’ that he found out about, I don’t think he really had many? He wasn’t much accustomed to privacy.

I think most of the worst things he did, as a human being rather than a transhuman monstrosity, were pretty unavoidably public; they were war crimes, and happened in front of some fraction of the rest of the army. He was praised for them.

There probably were a lot of dark things he never talked to anyone about, that weren’t really known, but except for outright humiliating childhood incidents like above he wasn’t particularly hiding them. He was just never in a position where it would have made any sense to him to bring them up.

Genesis wasn’t ever someone it was safe to be vulnerable around, and Angeal was uncomfortable with too much emotion, and besides they were fellow soldiers and it wasn’t like the things he didn’t talk about from the war were anything special, and he wasn’t going to complain about his childhood to them. And who else was there?

Dude needed so much therapy.

20. What-ifs/Alternate Timelines 

I go absolutely nuts with alternate timelines for Sephiroth. He’s so much fun to work with that way.

Lucretia and Vincent stole the baby and went on the run: Firo grew up kinda isolated in the woods with his parents but runs away at thirteen to fight Shinra because he’s so mad they had to leave Wutai because of the invasion. Parzival AU.

Ifalna recruited Sephiroth to her escape scheme and he wound up raising Aerith on the run, under the names Rith and Roth. Beloved Dust AU, that one’s actually online as you may very well know lol.

Vincent blew up the Nibelheim reactor with Hojo and Jenova in it when Sephiroth was six, and then later Midgar blew up as well and the Shinra world order collapsed, and the recently married Mrs. Strife adopted the weird lab kid. Later on Cloud pressures his big brother into starting an anti-bandit militia. Time Of General Strife AU.

Cute three-way blood brothers ceremony contaminates Genesis’ body with Sephiroth’s DNA and sets off his degeneration several years early, when they’re all teenagers and not nearly as famous, powerful, or fucked in the head. Brother and Brother AU.

And so on. ;}

[schrijverr]

I Wrote My Own Deliverance

Chapter 7 out of 10

Alexander Hamilton is reborn as Alex Hambleton. He is desperate not to make the same mistakes twice, but it seems he is stuck in the narrative, unable to get out. Familiar faces pop up all around him as he attempts to keep his previous life a secret and write himself out of the story.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: blackmail, bc Reynolds, though not for cheating bv I made Alex a decent person lmao. Tell me if I missed anything or if you want me to tag something!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was looking forward to the debate team. Arguing with his classmates was fun of course, but none of them could really match his wits and he hoped that the debate team would bring a challenge.

Luckily, or unluckily, he was not disappointed. There was another kid, tall Afro-American, introduce himself as Tom Jamesson that was on his team.

They shared opinions about the state of the economy, but their solutions were so different that it had soon turned into a screaming match to each other, while the others just witnessed their verbal tennis match with a horrified fascination.

It was only three meetings later that Alex realized he was looking at the reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson.

Tom, as he was known now, had quoted the Declaration of Independence at him like Jefferson had done in the past. Alex didn’t know if it was that or the cadence of the speaker that forced him to make the connection, but when he did, he had to force himself to not react.

He had not yet figured out if Jefferson had made the connection to him or if the other did not remember himself, but he didn’t really want to find out.

Somehow he had taken a liking to Tom. In this world they shared more opinions, though their approaches were still on the opposite sides of the spectrum, and he was a fun debating partner when the future of Alexs career and the country didn’t depend on the debates.

Tom was better than Jefferson and Alex wasn’t about the ruin the sort of friendship they had built up. So, he kept his mouth shut and tried to avoid using obvious Hamilton-esque phrasings as much as possible, even if it was difficult and he slipped up more often then not. It was hard not to fall back in old routines.

It was easier to keep suspicions of his back in his classes. Aaron was the only one going into law as well and he wasn’t about to create a stir between them, afraid of having Alex remember the duel that had gotten him killed.

As far as he knew the others had only taken the Revolution course last year for History credit, but Laurens was going to do medicine, while Herc was becoming a tailor again, though more fashion-y, and Laf was doing something with international relations. He had also gathered that Tom was doing architecture.

So, he was quite surprised to come face to face with Angie, or Angelica, in an economics class. She had sat down next to him and raised brow as she pointedly said: “You never showed up again after the party, not even with your friends.”

He looked at her like a deer in headlights as he answered: “Well, uh, we’re not really friends anymore, but are they doing alright?”

“I suppose, they are sad about you leaving, so care to explain why I have three heartbroken men that I have to listen to?” she asked.

“They were acting all weird about someone I don’t even know.” he told her the best lie he could come up with on the fly and a story she could confirm with Peggy, god was he glad for Peggy right now.

Angie wasn’t entirely convinced, so he added: “They all knew each other from another life and apparently also a guy named Alex, it was weird that they looked at me expecting someone else. I just needed to get away from it and then it was awkward. Besides, you punched me.”

That didn’t satisfy her completely, but enough for her to let it go and focus on the lecture. Leaving Alex a stressed mess as he prayed for himself to survive this course.

In hindsight it was a bit of an overreaction, but Alex was never known for being anything other then dramatic, so he let it slide.

It seemed Angie was still as sharp witted as always and she was a great study partner. It also seemed she had taken his words to heart, or maybe she just didn’t trust him to fuck over Eliza again, because she didn’t force him to socialize with anyone he’d known.

Instead they debated economic plans and compared notes. He would show up tired with two coffees and she’d force him to eat something in the morning classes.

They had a system that worked.

Not that it surprised Alex much, they had always been close. The musical had interpreted their friendship as romantic, but that had never been the case, they just clicked. And if there had been anything between them, that was now gone as she excitedly told him about her girlfriend.

It was good to have a friend like Angie.

She wasn’t afraid to call him out on his bullshit and after the years apart with her in London, she also wasn’t the most likely to recognize him, especially with how he adjusted his behavior in econ classes.

Alex still had a lot of opinions and the whole class knew, but he would wither when Angie send him a look during his tirades and leave it be.

Though, if later a smash dunk on said wrong person showed up in the school paper that Alex wrote for, or an essay about that weeks topic under his name, well, then that was his own business.

Life was actually going well for a change, which was why it should not have come as a surprise when it fell apart again.

He was working in the library when a guy came up to him. Alex thought he was a year above him, though he did not know his name. At first he pretended he hadn’t seen the other coming and tried to focus on his reading.

“Hello, Alex Hambleton, right?” it didn’t work, “I’m James, James Richardson.”

Should the name have send alarm bells ringing? Probably. But Alex was tired and hungry, so blissfully unaware he replied: “Yes, that’s me. Can I help you with something?”

“That depends on how badly you want a secret to be kept.” James told him.

The blood seemed to freeze in Alexs veins as he tried to remember where he had met this James character before and how the other could know who he had been. He was almost certain he had never seen the other and, as far as he was aware, he hadn’t been careless.

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Alex said, trying to play it cool, hoping his many years in politics had helped his poker face.

“Really?” James replied, as he nonchalantly leaned on the table, “I wonder what the board will think when they find out you’ve fucked yourself into the accelerated courses. Was Washburns dick as good as the girls theorize?”

“What?” Alex chocked out, this was not what he expected.

“Don’t play dumb with me.” James said, “Every Sunday you go out, you go to Washburns home and I’ve checked and apparently his wife is away on a case. He’s all alone and you just happen to visit each week.”

Mama M had been on a long case for her top client, who had sadly moved to the other side of the country, but none of them had thought to stop the Sunday Dinners, while she was away. And Alex was certain Washington had written that letter based off his skill, not his past.

He knew this, because he had asked him about thirty-two thousand times and read the letter himself about twice as many. And on top of that he had also gotten letters from his other professors, just in case.

James had nothing, just the fact that Alex had gone over to the Washingtons while Mama M was away, and that was pretty damning if you didn’t have the whole story.

“Not only that,” apparently James was taking his silence as guilt, “but I have also heard someone say that they’ve seen you with Washburn in his vacation home in Virginia over the break, while his wife was having tea. And before that, you got a hug, not very subtle, I have to say.”

He got out his phone and showed Alex two pictures. The first was of the hug by the car, the other of him leaning against Washington while he typed, Mama M cleverly cut out and the next one of them in the garden under the fig tree with lemonade laughing. They looked comfortable, and it was really up for debate how they related to each other based off the pictures alone.

“Those prove nothing and what you are saying isn’t true.” Alex argued.

“I think the board would disagree.” James replied.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Alex said, “You’ve got nothing and I did nothing, now leave me alone.”

“I will.” the dramatic pause was unnecessary in Alex opinion, “For a price.”

“Do I look like I have money to pay you hush money for something I didn’t do?” Alex couldn't have stopped the eyeroll if he’d tried.

“Maybe you don’t, but Washburn does.” James said, “Heard his wife was rich. Wouldn’t that be something, your precious Washburn paying hush money for an affair with his wife’s money. You just had to get laid, didn’t you.”

“If you want him to pay, why are you threatening me?” Alex asked.

“Because his little boy-toy will be more convincing then me. Maybe you’ll get on your knees to beg him to pay me, keep you in the little program you love so much. Maybe you’ll even cry.” at this point it was just sadistic.

“Neither me nor Washburn is going to pay you, fuck off.” Alex was pretty done with this.

“Well, then I hope neither of you are interested in a future career.” James said, “Hope you have a great excuse ready, or my money. I want 20.000 dollars on this bank account by tomorrow, you have till 8 AM.”

He slid over a piece of paper to Alex with the number of his bank account, before sauntering off like he hadn’t just blackmailed Alex in public.

Alex pinched his nose and tried to think. At this point he regretted not expanding his friend circle, because he could really use the support right now. There was already an idea forming in Alex’s mind, but he couldn't do it without permission of Washington.

Cursing he packed his bags, it seemed Sunday Dinner would be early.

Mama M tried to convince him to threaten James back with a lawsuit after he had explained the whole thing, but Alex just sighed: “He’s not going to budge, if we do that he’ll just think he’s right and push even more.”

“And we can take legal action against him.” Mama M argued.

“But the damage will already be done and we’re too late.” Alex countered, looking guilty at their slumped shoulders, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”

“And why would you say that, son?” Washington asked.

“I knew it was a bad idea to get acquainted with people I’d known in my past life, but I gave in and now I’m dragging you down with me.” Alex explained, “I saw it coming, but I still let the comfort blind me. So, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for that, dear.” Mama M said, gathering him up in a hug, “We’re just as guilty if you reason like that.”

“But-”

“No, no buts, Alexander.” Mama M told him, “We all made out own decisions and we have to face the music. We’ll make it through, don’t worry.”

“So, is that a yes?” Alex asked, unable to say anything else to that.

Mama M shared a look with Washington, who sighed, then nodded. She turned back to him and said: “Yes. We can still take legal action after that, if the issue doesn’t get resolved.”

They gave him some food and a lift back to campus, where Alex opened his laptop.

He had so much work to do and he needed to do it fast, he needed to be quicker than James, needed to save both himself and Washington, the only person he had ever willingly followed.

When he was done, the light was shining through the window and there was apprehension in his whole body.

He decided to text Angie, hoping she would understand. She’d always understood.

To Queen Angie [6:15]: Remember that punch?

To Queen Angie [6:15]: I might need a new one and I deserve it

To Queen Angie [6:16]: But pls be here for me this time

Alex clicked post and prayed for the best as he crawled under his covers to hide from the world, for once grateful for the quiet and glad Aaron wasn’t home. This was it, the moment of truth.

From Queen Angie [7:52]: Alex?

From Queen Angie [7:53]: Alex??

From Queen Angie [7:53]: Alexander?????

From Queen Angie [7:53]: God fucking dammit you asshole

That morning Columbia University woke up to a breaking news story.

[gra-sonas]

i think what will make me always sad is how this narrative (+ carina) ruined in some way the fandom. Fandom has always been a way to escape, create and have fun. But Malex fandom since ep 13 and even worst since s2 (for how badly they have written Michael and is no-caring for Alex) really put the fandom in a such state that no one can even dare to hope and everyone is ready to speculate for the worst outcome possible all the time. I can't believe this happened only with 20 episodes.

God, yes... Man, first the S1 finale that set us up with such a terrible canon mess for the hiatus. Not even fics were an escape bc that moment from 1x13 was turned turned into a full blown relationship sad gay!Alex had to compete against. It was written into sooo many fics (I get it, for many writing fic is a way to process canon, but as someone severely negatively impacted by how S1 ended, I wanted nothing more than to escape it...).

That’s why - strictly from a Malex shipper’s POV - I’m getting more and more anxious about the S2 finale. If Alex gets to stay with Forrest (and he turns out to be a good guy) beyond the finale, that means pretty much “goodbye Malex fandom”.

We’re facing another at least 9 months long hiatus, and if people keep liking Forlex as much as they do now, there just won’t be many reasons for people to create gif sets or art or write fic for Malex during the hiatus.

Because that would involve writing Alex having to break up with Forrest for some reason. Also, what would we make gif sets from, if Malex don’t share that many scenes, and the scenes they share, are mostly “unhappy"? 🤷‍♀️

If Alex and Forrest break up but Michael gets to stay in his relationship, it’s the S1 finale situation all over again - but after an entire season of Michael constantly picking someone else over Alex, people will probably feel less inclined to write them getting back together.

So preferably, 2 breakups should happen before the season ends. Maybe that would inspire fandom at least a little bit? Is it awful of me to hope for 2 breakups? (Yes, I am, sorry)

As for CAM “ruining fandom in some way”. I still vividly remember her reply to a question regarding the reactions to 1x13 (at the time we didn’t even know whether the show would be renewed)

Do you anticipate the reaction when you’re writing this? What do you think people are going to do tonight when they watch this episode? I don’t know what to expect, but I think I’m going to take a night off of Twitter. It’s the end of season 1; my intention was never to tie things up with a neat little bow, because it’s my job as the showrunner to make something that will carry on for several seasons. Trying to give it an ending that felt satisfying as if it was a series finale was just never what I would plan to do. I want people to spend their summer or hiatus wondering what happens next, theorizing about what happens next and writing fan fiction. I never intended to make people feel satisfied by the end of this one.

This right here is what has me worried. “Trying to give it an ending that felt satisfying as if it was a series finale was just never what I would plan to do.” Yeah, thanks we felt that. And it broke this fandom into a million pieces over the hiatus.

The thing is: we would’ve “theorized about what happens next and written fic” if S1 had ended in a more satisfying way. I’ll never understand the need of showrunners to destroy things in order to keep people on their toes. What the fuck is wrong with people liking your shows???

The funny (haha 😑) thing is, I think Max dying was meant to upset and “inspire” people. No one really cared tho, bc it was clear should the show be renewed, he’d come back, and in fics, Liz and Michael (and Kyle) were usually written as the ones figuring out to bring him back. Or it was simply stated “they had figured out a way to bring Max back months ago”.

So that character death had next to no impact on fandom (at least not the part I’m active in), whereas the way S1 ended for Malex had the blasting power of a nuclear bomb. I’m not sure this fandom would survive a second blast like that...

38 days until we know how it ends 🥺

[saiilorstars]

Rise Up

Ch.3: Lonesome Rogues

Previous Story: It Had To Be You || Current Masterlist

Pairings: Barry Allen x Female OC

Chapter Summary: The Snarts have made their way back to STAR Labs only this time they're in need of help.

Pronunciation of OC: Bell-en. The last syllable has an emphasis so it’s not pronounced like ‘Helen’ would be.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog​

Maritza Palayta knew by now not to expect many visits for her, from anyone. She counted herself lucky if Belén decided to stop by once a month. Having her mother sitting in front of her now was something beyond shocking.

"Mom?" the word tumbled from Maritza's mouth before she could even finished thinking.

Veronica stood on the other side of the glass, her facial features not as readable as they once were. She didn't know what to make of her eldest daughter now. She'd been there for Maritza's sentencing, head held high but nothing but disapproving of Maritza. Never in Veronica's mind did she ever consider her daughter becoming a metahuman and much less a criminal.

"I didn't expect you to visit me..." Maritza said after a minute of awkward silence. "At all."

"Should I?" Veronica's tone was cold, but Maritza knew she deserved it. In her mother's perspective, she ruined their reputation in the police department both in Central City and in Starling City.

"I don't know," Maritza answered honestly. "I don't let Axel visit, and I'm lucky if Belén decides to give me the time of day, so...to what do I owe this visit?"

Veronica closed her eyes, sighing. "If you haven't seen Belén already, I think you know what my situation is right now..."

"Ah," Maritza slightly raised her head. "Are you still bothering Belén about my son's custody? You know I left instructions, written out legally, of who I wanted to look after my son, right?"

"Maritza, we both know that Belén is neither ready nor has the means to sustain herself and a child," Veronica remained adamant in that aspect. She viewed this as logically as she could and it was the simple truth. On her own, Belén was able to pay for herself and do her own things, but having a child was something completely life-changing. "You and I, we had our children at a decent age. At a time where we were physically, emotionally and economically ready to care for a child."

"Well, one of us was," Maritza corrected coldly. "Because I may have gone down the wrong path, killed people, but I was always there for my son no matter what. Can you say the same? Where the hell were you?"

"I accept my faults," Veronica lowered her gaze, surprising Maritza for a second there. She'd never won a small disagreement like that, ever. "And after seeing how each of my children have ended up...I realize I should've been there more. It's why I want to try and get close to Belén."

"Your words are nice but your actions say something else," Maritza sighed. "You want Belén, fine, but on your terms and that's not going to work, Mom. And that's the problem. Mom, I love you, I really do. In your own way I know you love us back but you are making the biggest mistake of your life. You lost Dad, Rayan, me...do you really want to lose Belén too?" Maritza so desired for her mother to see the errors she was making. She would want nothing more than the last remaining family of hers to be together.

Veronica swallowed hard and looked down. "I am trying-"

"No, you're fighting," Maritza corrected her softly. "Mom-" she laughed softly, "-stop fighting and help Belén instead. You think it doesn't kill me to know she's struggling because she has to raise my son? I wish nothing more than to change what I did, but I can't. But you...you still have a chance to mend your errors. You want to have a relationship with Belén? Prove to her that you are committed to seeing her perspective for once."

Maritza hoped her mother would heed her words because she was sure if Veronica kept going forth with her plan, Belén would never forgive her.

~ 0 ~

"So my mother has filed for custody of Axel," Belén sighed as she explained to Barry. The two were sitting on the steps of her front porch. Little by little, they had scooted closer to each other. "Like, she actually filed for it. I thought she was angry and bluffing but she wasn't. And you know she did it because I said 'no' to going back with her to Star City."

Barry was honestly shocked to hear what Veronica did. He never had the pleasure of meeting her and actually talking with her in a full conversation, but this was enough to put her on his bad list. "I'm so sorry Belén..."

Belén sighed and glanced at him with a sad smile. "I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to spread my depressive news to you."

Barry smiled back for a moment before assuring her everything was fine. He'd come by with the intention of asking her to lunch since they still hadn't had the chance of going on a date since their break up. But as soon as he'd taken a look at her face - which was after asking her to lunch - he saw something was wrong. And boy was he right.

He took her hand and gave it a gentle kiss. "We'll figure something out, Bells."

"C'mon. I'm 26 I don't know the first clue about being a pseudo-mother to a four year old. I'm selling my childhood house to keep up with bills. Maybe, on some level, my mom's right to file for custody..."

"You're doing everything you can, and you know what? If your mother is truly concerned then maybe she could help instead of doing...this!" Barry couldn't help the anger lacing his words the more he thought about Veronica's actions. "If she wants to fight, then let's make sure our fight is a damn good one."

Belén was smiling softly, and he had no idea why. The way he'd automatically joined her side with 'our fight' made her feel...warm. She missed that. A lot. "I'm glad you're around again."

The smile that came to Barry's face was automatic. His hand gripped hers and there was a moment where he thought he couldn't ever let go of her hand. "So am I."

"And...I'm sorry about the whole...date thing...I'm-"

"-I get it Bells," Barry reassured her again. "We can go another time."

"Are you sure?" Belén asked, still mighty guilty. It'd been some time since they technically were trying to be together again and it was rather hard to do when there were no dates involved.

"Yes! C'mon," Barry stood up and, with his hand still holding hers, made her get up as well. "Let's go to STAR Labs. Cisco might be done with the breach search, remember? Portals into another world might be something fun to see, you know..."

Belén dramatically sighed. "For nerds, I guess." Barry deadpanned her until she laughed. "Alright, let's go see this breach thing. I need to pick up Axel anyways."

~0~

Indeed Cisco had finished with the breach search and found quite more than he would've thought. Down in the basement of STAR Labs gathered the group save for Stein, Iris and Joe to look at the biggest breach of them all...which turned out to be out of 53 in the entire city. It resembled a blue, moving blob suspended in air over a small platform.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Cisco couldn't stop looking at the breach.

"It looks like a blob," Belén crinkled her nose. Cisco immediately shot her a look of offence for diminishing the breach's worth.

"Still can't believe what I'm looking at," Jay admitted.

"52 breaches in Central City, and the biggest one just happens to be in our basement," Caitlin remarked, totally unsurprised by the turn of events.

"We need a name for it," Cisco popped a finger in the air.

"It's not a pet, dude," Barry's words meant nothing for Cisco who was already on a brainstorming path.

"No," professor Stein walked in carrying a squared monitor hanging on a strap, "It's a wormhole."

Caitlin immediately turned for the man. "Professor Stein, what are you doing? Your blood pressure is 147 over 82! You could pass out again."

Stein didn't look the least bit worried over his condition despite the fact he had collapsed a few days ago while giving the group a lecture. "Oh, it's merely a few points above the 140 average for someone my age. Besides, I have some ideas I would like to contribute to this discussion, Dr. Snow."

"And I want to hear them. This isn't just a wormhole. It's my way home," Jay reminded them all. "Back to Earth Two."

"Jay, you really think that we can use this as some kind of bridge from your world to ours?" asked Barry.

"Zoom uses the breaches. Why can't we?"

"We don't know how. Everything I put through just bounces back," Cisco sighed.

Axel, who had been left sitting at a nearby desk looked up from his drawings he was working on. "Can we throw more things!?" he excitedly asked.

Not even waiting for the answer, he grabbed his crayon box and hopped off his chair to run for the breach. He and Cisco had taken turns throwing things into the breach earlier to see if they would come back and he was mighty disappointed when Caitlin came in to tell them not to do it anymore. He liked seeing everything they threw be bounced back at them.

"Cisco!" Belén exclaimed as the boy made a beeline for the breach, his arm already raised to throw the crayon box.

"Got him!" Cisco snagged Axel of his feet as he passed by him.

"Aw," Axel frowned. Everyone laughed at the young boy.

"I can't believe you," Belén shook her head at Cisco for yet again teaching something wrong to her nephew.

"If Zoom's using these breaches to transport people from Earth Two, maybe it takes a speedster," Barry suddenly theorized and gave a smirk.

"Barry don't-" Belén didn't get to finish when he sped out of the room. "He wouldn't…" she dared to think that Barry wouldn't be that impulsive.

But...Jay knew better. "Yeah, he is," he answered with eyes shut.

A second later, Barry sped into the room straight for the breach only to be thrown backwards. He landed in a small roll on the floor and groaned. "Maybe I'm not fast enough."

This time it was only Axel who burst into laughter. "Boom! Barry went boom!"

"Yeah!" Cisco gave him a high-five, missing Barry throwing them a mini-glare as he got back on his feet.

"I don't believe your speed is the entirety of the issue, Barry. It might be the breach's stability or lack thereof," Stein hypothesized more correctly.

"He's right," Jay nodded. "We need to think of the breach as a door, and on Earth Two, there's another door. In between, we have a hallway, but the hallway's constantly shifting, twisting, collapsing upon itself. And the doors keep moving with it."

"So we stabilize the door, we stabilize the hallway," Cisco understood the idea.

"And then I can jump through it," Barry beamed.

"Exactly, it would serve as a kind of cannon," Jay smiled but no one like Cisco.

"A speed cannon. Mm. We should hang out more," Cisco pointed at him, making the others laugh.

"Alright," Stein cut into the laughter. "No more tests today. All of you are leaving now, as am I. Cherish the gift of youth as I will go cherish my much needed nap." He motioned the entire group to get going. "Clarissa's already on her way to pick me up. Why not go get some coffee?"

"That is a fantastic idea!" Cisco agreed, already rubbing his hands together at the thought of some sweet coffee. "Jitters anyone?"

"You paying?" Belén teased.

"Can I get some chocolate milk?" Axel rushed up to Belén with his own hands put together. When Belén saw that she sighed do deeply.

"You have got to stop spending so much time with Cisco, buddy."

The others snickered while Cisco let out a mighty offended gasp with a hand over his chest.

~0~

Iris joined the group for some midday coffee and was excited to hear about the breach discovery, though not so much after she learned there 53 in their city. While Barry went to get their coffee, the others remained at the table chatting. Belén, however, was pulled away from the conversation when her phone started ringing. Seeing it was her mother calling, she dumped her phone into her purse and decided to go help Barry bring back their drinks.

"Need some help?" she asked him.

"Still waiting," Barry motioned to the barista running behind the counter. "You okay?" he noticed her anxious expression.

"Yeah," she said a bit too fast to be convincing. "Mom's calling and all."

"And you're not going to answer?"

"Not if I don't trust myself not to shout."

Barry thought that was fair enough. He pressed a kiss to her temple and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him. Belén smiled to herself and got to thinking about the fact they hadn't really kissed either.

What kind of getting-back-together is this? Belén wondered if Barry had thought about it too. If he had, then he was being really good about it.

"Order 20!" A barista slid a coffee on the counter then hurried to continue with other orders.

A blonde woman leaned on the couple's side to reach for her drink then offered a shy smile at them once they could see her clearly. Only a couple days were needed to learn that Patty Spivot was a shy woman.

"Hey guys," she greeted with a wave of her free hand. She seemed far more cheery than when they first met her (separately). It stemmed from the fact she was finally on the metahuman task force at the precinct.

"Hey, Patty," Barry greeted. He looked down at Belén and realized he never introduced them, not that they didn't know each other already. "Oh, this is-"

Belén chuckled and lowered his gesturing hand before he could finish. "We already know each other, don't we?" she looked at Patty who laughed as well.

"Yeah, she's the one that gave me the advice to continue hassling Joe for a spot on the task force."

"I've been meaning to congratulate you, actually," Belén said. "Barry told me Joe let you in. I'm sure you'll be great."

Patty sheepishly smiling. "I'm hoping." Her smile sort of faltered when she noticed Belén's injured arm was...no longer injured. "Sorry, um...how's your arm?"

"Hm?" Belén quickly looked at her perfect arms. Her metahuman abilities kicked in and aided her in healing quicker than a normal human.

"Oh, um, it's fine. It's still a little sore but since the bullet didn't actually hit my arm it healed quicker," Belén cleared her throat and looked at the counter that was being filled with their drinks. Patty seemed to buy it since she gave an 'oh' and smiled about it.

As Barry tried gathering all of the, together, Belén laughed and decided to help. "Bells, it's hot," he said and then motioned to her hands.

"Oh shut up," she playfully rolled her eyes and took at two cups. She glanced back at Patty who was taking a sip of her coffee. "Do you want to have some coffee with us?"

Patty's eyes snapped back to the two. "Hm? Oh, no thanks," she shook her head. "I was stopping here on my way to work. Another day? I owe you for your help."

"Sure," Belén beamed at the idea.

"Great," Patty stepped aside to let the two get on with their coffee.

"C'mon," Belén led Barry away. "I like her."

"I do too. She's lively and she knows her way around a crime scene," Barry said, missing Belén's sarcastic glance.

"Hmm, young, pretty, blonde and a nerd? Should I be worried?"

"Wh-what!?" At that point he nearly did dropped the cups in his hands. "I-I no! That's...that's not at all what I meant, Bells!"

Belén laughed as they approached their table.

"What's with you two?" Iris eyed them.

"Oh, nothing, just teasing Barry on his new girlfriend," Belén said calmly as she took her seat next to Axel.

"She's not-" Barry began rather adamantly before he realized this was just another play of hers. He sighed and shook his head. "That's not funny," he pointed at her with a stern finger.

"Seems pretty funny from my end," she said slyly and picked up her coffee.

"Hey, you guys think Professor Stein is okay, right?" Caitlin didn't even pick up her own cup before thinking yet again on Professor Stein. "I mean, Clarissa would call if there was anything wrong."

"Yeah, of course," Barry said to her, but apparently it wasn't enough to convince her.

She grabbed her phone and started getting up. "All right. I'm just gonna call and check in. I'll be back."

"Uh- I don't see that call going well," Cisco said right before he started imitating Stein. "Young lady, these repeated intrusions are interrupting what should be a speedy recov-" but in the midst of his mockery he bumped into a passing brunette woman. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

The brunette looked up and revealed herself as Lisa Snart who answered in her usual flirty tone. "Don't apologize. You can bump into me any day, Cisco."

"Lisa Snart," Cisco's eyes widened.

"Oh, hell no," Belén said outright annoyed. Meanwhile, Barry tried hiding behind his coffee cup.

"You here to double-cross us again, or are you and your big bro holding up coffee shops now?" asked Cisco.

"Auntie Belén," Axel once again tugged on her good arm. "Who's she?"

"Someone who needs to go," Belén answered loudly for Lisa to get the point. "I would think you and your brother would stay away from places where there's children present."

Lisa didn't respond in her usual snarky tone. "I need your help," she said instead.

"In your dreams, Sister Cold," Cisco nearly laughed.

"I think her brain was finally frozen," Belén stared at the woman. "You do realize we could call in the Flash and the Azalea at any moment, right?"

Lisa nodded. "Call him. I know you two have a thing, so call him."

Barry nearly choked on his coffee while Belén gaped. Iris just smirked - she kinda liked this Lisa Snart.

"Unbelievable," Belén looked away, her face rather warm. "Was it that obvious?"

Her response was a very loud scoff from Iris.

Cisco had been studying Lisa in the meanwhile and had noticed something was just off with her. There was an actual shred of fear sitting in her eyes, and...concern? Was that even possible in a Snart?

"You really want us to call then," he said in realization.

"I need their help too," Lisa confessed. "My brother's been kidnapped."

~ 0 ~

Of course very curious to see what Lisa meant, the group took her back to STAR Labs to get the full story. However, both Belén and Barry made the excuse they had to go take Axel somewhere else - they may have forgotten their excuse as soon as Lisa was gone with Caitlin and Cisco. Instead, they let Iris take Axel and the two beat the trio to STAR Labs to get changed.

"I saw it happen," Lisa swore. She stood in the middle of the cortex, explaining her situation to the group before they would send her off. "Last night, Lenny, me, and Mick were knocking over the cashier's cage at Central City Racetrack-"

"Does it physically pain your family not to rob people?" Belén blamed herself for being so surprised when she knew she was dealing with a family of criminals.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I never finished the job. After Mick torched through the side entrance, I looked back for Lenny and saw him getting thrown into the back of a van."

"And why didn't you and Mick follow?" asked Barry.

"I would have. Someone hit me from behind and knocked me out," Lisa gestured to her head. "When I came to, Lenny was gone, and Mick already made off with the cash."

"How do we know this isn't some kind of a trap?" Cisco logically wondered.

"If Lenny wanted Flash dead, he would have let Mardon, Simmons, and Bivolo take that honor, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," Barry mumbled, thinking of it as yet another logical reason not to help them again.

"Good. Then you'll also recall that you owe Lenny a favor for saving your life. Time to make good on that debt."

"Even if we wanted to help, how are we supposed to find him?" Barry asked honestly.

Cisco turned on his feet and walked for the desk. "Not a problem. See, when I rebuilt the cold gun, I didn't have time to place a tracker on it, so I devised a method of locating it by borrowing some military technology." He started typing on the computer. "See, the gun works the same as thermal imaging, only instead of infrared heat signatures, it's looking for ultraviolet cold signatures. Whoa, look at that. The gun's UV thermal reading was last picked up at 5th and Hoyt eight minutes ago."

"All right. Let's see if you're a liar," Barry said to Lisa before speeding out.

"I'm not," Lisa argued but he had already left.

"That's debatable," Belén said under her breath, but not as quiet as she thought because Lisa had heard perfectly.

As it turned out, Cisco was right on where to find Snart. However, they did not account for Snart being with his father. As a result, Barry ended up being nearly frozen to death. Thanks to Cisco's new addition to the suit, the ice melted into nothing and he was able to return to STAR Labs where he had half a mind to tell Lisa Snart off.

"So your brother was not kidnapped. He was pulling a job with your father," he sourly informed Lisa upon arriving.

Lisa was nothing but confused. "What? No, Lenny would never do that."

"Oh, just like he would never try and kill The Flash with his cold gun?" Belén pretended to think. "Do you know your brother?"

Lisa still couldn't get over the confusion. It was the first clue that perhaps she wasn't lying to them. "Are you sure it was my dad?"

Cisco pulled up a reference file of her father. Caitlin walked over to the computer hanging on the wall. "That's him. Lewis Snart. Convicted of larceny, armed robbery, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon."

"You have to believe me," Lisa pleaded. "Lenny would never work with him," she then added, like it was a secret no one in the room knew, "He's a bad guy."

"Did you miss the memo or something?" Belén honestly wondered if Lisa was just pretending she and her family weren't criminals. She was aware she was being ruder than usual but when it came to the Snarts she had no control.

"Why should we trust anything you say?" Caitlin crossed her arms.

Lisa stared at them a minute and then pulled on her jacket and blouse's collar to reveal a long scar running around the side of her neck. "I didn't get this scar being a criminal. I got it being a daughter," she mumbled and walked away.

The others, feeling a bit guilty, meant to follow her and get her back when Cisco stopped them. "Let me go. I got this," he made a gesture and left the room.

"I have to get to work," Belén knew she couldn't last long in the same room as a Snart. She was going to crack. "Every time I see a Snart all I think of is my sister's secret. Maybe the Azalea can take a rain check here."

"Don't worry," Barry said, understanding this wasn't one of her best moments. "We'll call you if something comes up."

Belén thanked him for it and took her leave. However when Barry got to thinking what she was planning on doing at work, he followed her out to the elevators.

"Uh, Bells, hold on a minute," his call stopped her in time. "About that article you, Linda and Iris are doing..."

Belén nodded, already knowing where this was going. She'd talked to him and the others about what they were doing and needless to say he was a little concerned with her decision.

"Barry, it'll be fine," she tried to say but he just couldn't agree so easily.

"I just don't think it's a good idea looking at where we are right now," he sighed. "You wanting to be the Azalea isn't the problem here, you know..."

"I do," Belén agreed, crossing her arms. "But if I live my life in fear because someone from another world decided to hunt me down...I'll never be happy."

"Datura is hunting you down for whatever reason and you letting the city know that the Azalea is alive might just give her more fuel to hurt you."

"Either way, Barry, she's coming to hurt me," Belén stepped closer to him, putting on her best encouraging smile for him. "Might as well let her know who she's dealing with."

Barry's lips briefly quirked into a smile. He loved hearing her so brave and sure of herself. He didn't want to be the reason it disappeared, but he just wished he could stop worrying so much.

~ 0 ~

Belén met with Linda to look over their almost finished draft. Since it was Iris' day off, they wanted to have everything finished for tomorrow so they could just give it another proofread and turn it in.

"This is really good," Linda said after reading some of Belén's lines. "Your perspective on the Azalea's disappearance is really interesting."

"Thanks," Belén felt a little ridiculous for taking a comment about a piece she did about herself. "I just think the city should wonder if this woman was away for so long then maybe it's for a big reason."

"I think they'll believe it," Linda said with absolute certainty. "And you know what, maybe reading this might encourage the Azalea to come back."

Belén smiled at their draft. "I think so."

"Belén?"

Belén inwardly groaned when she heard her mother's voice. "Mom," she turned away from her desk to find Veronica approaching her. "Seriously? You can't do this at my job-"

But Veronica calmly raised a hand to stop her. "I'm not here to argue. I want to talk. For real."

Admittedly this did stump Belén for a minute. Her mother seemed calm, calmer than any time she'd seen her as of late.

"You can talk in the conference room," Linda suggested, nodding her head towards the empty room behind her. "No one will bother you there."

"Thank you," Veronica told her before walking towards the room, leaving not much of a choice for Belén.

"I'll be back soon," Belén promised Linda then followed her mother. She closed the glass doors and readied herself for whatever her mother threw at her.

"Bells, your mother's here…" Caitlin's eyes were widened as a gesture that she was pretty nervous of Veronica's appearance.

"Belén, please. I have a proposition," Veronica came out with it in one go, however Belén had a different idea of what she meant by a proposition.

"If it's me and Axel getting out of the city then you can forget-"

"I want to stay," Veronica surprised Belén so much that for the next minute Veronica had free range in the conversation to say what she needed to. "I've been going wrong about this, and I get it, and I'm sorry. I'm just...I've lost my kids, and not just from the divorce, but from life. Rayan's gone, Maritza's gone, even David's gone. And I thought that staying away was the best thing. I've always done better when I'm alone..."

"How'd that work out for you this time?" Belén crossed her arms, unable to keep her resentment at bay. "Because for us it didn't go too well."

"I was wrong," Veronica knew those three words would become part of her daily vocabulary. "I have never been very good at expressing my feelings and when I do they're always in the wrong manner. But you just have to know that I do love you, okay? You're my daughter, how could I not?"

"I have never doubted that," Belén said quietly, shifting on her feet. "But you have never, ever, tried to see things from another person's perspective. Everything always has to be your way or it just blows up."

"I know, I see that now," Veronica nodded her head. "That's why I want to stay here in the city, and change, so that I can be that mother you need. I know things will never be perfect, but I want to try."

"You say that now but by Sunday you'll be back to your regular self," Belén remarked.

"Not this time. I mean it. I already made calls to SCPD to transfer here."

Belén's eyes widened. "You...you did that?"

"Mhm. I'm hoping to get transferred here, at the CCPD. And look," Veronica went back to her purse where she pulled out a manila folder, "this is something else I think could be good for both of us." She walked up to Belén and held out the folder.

Eyes glued on her mother, Belén took the folder and opened it up. She skimmed a couple of lines which resulted in a contract...and proposition?

"What the hell is this?" she looked up.

"I want to buy the house off you," Veronica declared. Belén's mouth fell open once again. "It's clear you and I can't live together, and maybe it's for the best now. You're a young woman who, as you've said, is trying to make her life now. You're selling the house and I would like to buy it."

Belén's eyes nearly popped out from her head from how wide they were.

"And-" Veronica continued with a gesture that Belén should keep looking through the papers, "-I want you to sign Axel's custody over to me, but-" she raised a finger when she saw Belén opening her mouth to argue, "-with conditions. I honestly don't think you are ready to take on the responsibility of a child. It's not that I think you are incapable. I just think you're too young for this."

"I am-"

"Belén please just stop being stubborn and view things logically for a moment," Veronica pleaded. Belén snapped shut the folder but adhered to the request. "You're at the starting point of your life. You just had an accident, your job is barely beginning, and I even hear you're starting a relationship again, and all that gets complicated when you have a child to look after. Tell me you haven't gone crazy looking for babysitters? Axel goes to school now and that can't be easy when it's only three hours a day. Plus, I can't imagine the sleepless nights you've had trying to look after him. He's four and he doesn't have his mother anymore. I know you're trying, but...it has to be hard for you, right?"

Belén bit her lip, her initial annoyance subsiding when she got to thinking. Of course there'd been days where she just couldn't find someone to look after Axel while she went to train for the aerial show or even just to go to work. There were sleepless nights that often had her nearly falling asleep at work. Then there were moments that she just didn't know how to talk to Axel, especially when he asked about Maritza.

"I'm not trying to take Axel away from you. On the contrary, I want to stay here in the city, live in the old house with Axel where you and I can make plans to see each other more often. I'm going to get old eventually," Veronica smiled lightly, "And when that time comes, you'll probably have a family of your own and then you'll know how to care for Axel and your children. It'll be your decision to have them."

Belén re-opened the folder to look things over again. Her mind was fumbling with different ideas but they were all screaming at her to agree. This was the closest thing her mother had ever done to benefit her and Belén couldn't find it in her to disagree when her mother seemed to be honest. Because in the end, she did love her mom and she did want to form some sort of relationship before it was too late.

~ 0 ~

Returning to STAR Labs (as the Azalea), Belén came to quite a sight. Lisa was sitting on a stool with Barry and Caitlin, the former as the Flash and holding some sort of whirring device in front of Lisa's neck.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Belén walked over to them.

"There's a bomb inside Lisa's that her father put," Caitlin responded then moved on to tell Barry, "Once you hold it steady with the magnet, I can surgically excise it."

Cisco came running into the room shouting for them to stop. "Put the magnet down! This is a really concentrated bomb. It's gonna combust if it's exposed to magnetic friction and an oxidant."

Caitlin and Barry retracted one large step away from Lisa who shared the same confused face as Belén.

"In English please?" Belén asked them.

"Air. Uh, the bomb will explode if it comes in contact with air," Barry replied.

"Scientific minds. Can we confer, please?" Cisco motioned to be followed into a side room.

"Yeah, I'm not scientific but I don't want to be near her," Belén mumbled and flashed an apologetic smile at Lisa. "This time no offence."

For once Lisa smiled back.

"What if Flash speed extracts it?" Caitlin wondered once they were in a separate room.

"Nope, it's too risky," Cisco shook his head. "I'm gonna find a way to get it out. I just need a little time."

"But you could lose track of Snart and his dad," Belén pointed out.

"I wish we knew what he was gonna steal next and when," Barry said, thinking. It only took a moment for an idea to pop into his head. "Maybe I can get them to tell me. Their tech guy is dead, so I'm betting they're gonna need a new one. I should infiltrate Lewis' crew."

Belén burst into a fit of laughter but abruptly stopped when she met Barry's offended face. "Oh, you weren't kidding?"

"No, I wasn't," Barry frowned.

"You're gonna pretend to be a criminal?" even Caitlin was surprised of the idea.

"How hard can it be?" Barry shrugged, not thinking about it too much.

"How do I say it nicely…?" Belén mumbled, thinking for a minute before coming up with, "...you're kind of a dork."

Barry tilted his head at her. Was this the best she could come up with? And she was trying to be nice. "Well, as long as you're being nice."

Belén smiled. "You know I mean that affectionately, but...you just have a thing about you that screams…"

"Nerd?" Cisco finished, or blurted.

Belén laughed again. "That's the word!"

Barry shook his head at them. "Thanks guys, really."

"Oh, c'mon," Belén couldn't stop laughing however and so Barry left the room before they added more to his apparent persona.

~0~

"He actually went through with it," Belén couldn't say she was surprised Barry went through with his idea to pretend to be a criminal and tag along with Snart and his dad.

Caitlin laughed as the two walked for the cortex holding respective cups of coffee in their hands. "I think he might have done it just to prove us wrong."

When the two women returned to the cortex Cisco had devised a new way to retrieve the bomb from inside Lisa. He had fashioned a gun-like device with a fitted clear tube sticking above from it.

"What exactly are you gonna do to me with that thing?" Lisa hadn't stopped staring at the big gun she knew was going to be aimed at her pretty soon.

"Operating pressure on this is over 1,000 PSI. This will easily suck the micro-bomb out of your neck and into the barrel of this with one high-powered sho," Cisco tapped the top of the gun. "There is one slight risk."

"Besides shooting a high-powered weapon directly against my neck? "

"The gun does use compressed air," Cisco admitted and looked at the other two women.

Lisa reached a hand on his arm and softly said. "I trust you, Cisco."

"Maybe that's one thing we have in common," Belén smiled at Cisco. "Do your thing. But, uh...we'll be over here," she gestured to herself, Axel and Caitlin.

Cisco nodded a thanks and moved a bit to the side to finish the last bit of the gun. Almost at the same time, Belén's cellphone went off. She took it and walked to the side to take Iris' call, not that she had much of a conversation since Iris was in a fit.

"Bells? I need you!" Iris blurted frantically, worrying Belén she was in trouble.

"What? What is it!?"

"It's just...my dad told me that...that my Mom was actually alive and-"

"He what?" Belén's mouth fell open. "She's...like...breathing-alive?"

"Oh yeah, the whole thing. Please, I just...I really need someone I can talk to with 'mom problems'. Didn't even know I could have those," she mumbled in the end.

"Y-yeah, don't worry. Are you home?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll be right over," Belén promised and hung up. "I have to go but I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Is everything alright?" Caitlin asked once she detected something was off in Belén's tone.

"Yeah, um...I hope," Belén pushed herself up from her chair. "I'll be back later, promise."

"We'll handle things," Caitlin assured.

Belén thanked her once more and hurried to find Iris. Like the woman had said, Iris was sitting at home completely alone. She had Axel coloring at the dining table actually quiet. She had pulled up several of her old albums that happened to contain some of her mother's pictures. It was all completely crazy to her. First, she thought her mother was dead and now apparently Francine was more than alive. But then...her father told her that Francine was dying. How was she supposed to think when there was all that behind it?

She nearly jumped from the couch when she heard someone knocking. She opened it up and was relieved to find Belén on the other side. "Thanks for coming, Bells."

"Yeah, of course," Belén walked in but not before giving her a hug. "I can't believe your mom's alive."

"Me neither," Iris said and closed the door. "I didn't have anyone to talk to about this. I mean, I tried getting through to Barry but he wasn't answering-"

"Oh, he's off being a criminal," Belén waved that off and headed into the living room. Iris made a face behind but filed that under 'ask later'.

"Bells, I'm so confused. I saw her today," Iris stopped by the couch, allowing Belén to sit down first. Belén reached for an open photo album with a picture of a baby Iris and her mother. "Like...she was there, and…" Iris shook her head, still unable to believe it.

"How is she?" Belén thought to ask.

"She's...put together," Iris took a seat beside her. "My Dad said that...she used to be a drug addict. She was put together and I told her...to go away. That's what I said to her."

"I think that's completely understandable. I mean, if she left…"

"Oh, she left," Iris said with a bit of resentment in her tone. "She just got up and left and then suddenly decided she wanted to see me again." But even then Iris knew that wasn't the complete truth. "She's...sick. That's what she told my dad. But...I don't know if I can believe her. She's made my dad lie this whole time who knows what comes out of her mouth now."

"Well, you're a reporter, research her," Belén instructed. "You're the daughter of a cop, and a badass of a reporter. This is your perfect talent. Use it."

"And if it turns out to be true?" Iris asked quietly. "If my mom...is dying...what do I do?"

"I can't tell you what to do," Belén shook her head. "I mean, you see the problems I'm having with my own mother, but if Francine came back at this moment...she probably wanted to make amends before she…" made a gesture and sighed. "But you have to be really committed. You can't do it out of guilt. It's okay if you don't want to know her because the truth of the matter is, while biologically she's your mother...she was never A a mother to you. I think she would understand that."

Iris nodded. "Yeah," she mumbled.

Belén stared at her for a minute before reaching over and hugging her again. "Come here!" Iris smiled as she was rocked a bit by the woman. "If you want we could research together."

Iris truly thought about it for a minute but went against it in the end. "I need to do it alone. But thank you so much."

"Don't worry, I understand," Belén nodded her head. "But you also need to understand that I'm gonna hug you for five more minutes."

Iris laughed.

~ 0 ~

At one point in the heist he was being forced to pull, Barry wondered how he would rub it in Belén's face that his plan had gone right so far. She thought he was too dorky to actually play off being a trained techy criminal. She so owed him, that much he knew.

Now as the Flash, he appeared to Snart and his father right at the end of their heist, ready to stop them. Both of them were getting ready to leave the vault with all the diamonds they found.

"Only place you're going is back to Iron Heights, Lewis," Barry spat at the older man he really disliked, and not just because he had shot him five minutes ago.

Snart raised his cold gun at Barry but did not shoot. Lewis, on the other hand, just smiled. "Ah, you wanna bet?"

That was the question wasn't it? Barry raised a hand to his earpod. "Do I wanna bet?

"Do not bet!" he immediately heard Cisco's shout. "Give me a minute."

"Tell me this, what kind of man puts a bomb in his own daughter?" Barry started to ask, hoping Cisco wouldn't be too long.

"A very rich man," Lewis smirked. "Shoot him, son." But as Snart failed to do so, Lewis pulled out a small, silver device that Barry assumed was the controller of the bomb inside Lisa. "Kill him or you'll never see your sister alive."

Barry wondered how this could play out where both he and Lisa got out alive. Thankfully, he didn't have to think for too long before he heard Cisco's 'okay'.

"Lisa's safe," he told Snart. Almost on reflex, Snart redirected his cold gun at his father and shot him square in the chest.

Lewis fell on his knees with nearly his entire body covered in ice. "You're working with The Flash? I thought you hated him?"

"Not as much as I... hate you," Snart responded, almost trembling from the hatred he felt for the man now dead on the floor.

Barry cautiously moved up to Snart and gently pulled the cold gun from his hands - to which the other man didn't even fight for. "Lisa was safe. Why did you do that?"

Snart looked up with cold eyes. "He broke my sister's heart. Only fair I break his."

~0~

With the Snarts' dilemma finished - however badly it was - the rest of the team called it a day. Belén hadn't stopped by STAR Labs anymore due to the time, so she left Iris' place with Axel and returned home. She put Axel to bed, with the promise that things would be looking better for them now. He was certainly excited to learn his grandmother would be staying in the city. His excitement deterred his sleep but eventually, after two or three bedtime stories, Belén got him to fall asleep.

She had to admit, the idea of having her mother around - on good terms - was something that made her smile.

Her thoughts about the new arrangement were interrupted when she found her dining table decorated with candles and dinner she'd most certainly hadn't cooked. (She may or may not have bought Axel take out and called it dinner).

"This is a surprise," she admitted when she saw Barry standing next to the table. He was holding one azalea in his hand and was wearing a nice outfit.

"The many perks of being a speedster means I can basically be a ninja," Barry smirked which just made her laugh. He moved up to her and held the azalea out for her. "I know we didn't have a chance for a nice date outside and I know it's just harder for you right now, so...I thought maybe a house-date might work better."

"House date," Belén repeated with a soft chuckle. "Thank you for that." She took her azalea from his hand and gave it a sniff. "And thank you for my flower. My deadly, poisonous flower."

"Yeah, keep that away from Axel..."

Belén playfully rolled her eyes and gazed at the dinner table. "Thank you for this. All of it. I really love it. I'm just sad I'm not better dressed."

"What are you talking about? You're looking lovely as usual," Barry dramatically gestured at her.

"Barry, stop," Belén laughed but Barry continued on with his compliments, from her hair to her shoes. Eventually she managed to quiet him down only to keep Axel from waking up.

The two sat close to each other at the table and started on their dinner. It was from the same restaurant they visited on their first date.

"Good points, Mr. Allen," Belén pointed her fork at Barry. "Only this time I'm not going to spit anything out."

Barry nearly laughed when he remembered her spitting out a spicy meal she'd ordered on their first date. "I thought it was cute."

"It was awful. I'm surprised you didn't walk out there and then," Belén reached for a sip of her drink.

"Why would I? You were gorgeous then, and now I know you're the best thing that could ever happen to me."

Belén lowered her fork for a moment to smile at him. "You're smooth tonight. Thanks."

"I'm just glad you're smiling again," Barry passed a finger under her chin, widening her smile.

It was then that Belén realized she hadn't told him about her mother's latest visit that day. "My mom stopped by again..."

"Oh, Belén..." Barry figured Veronica pushed her again and was prepared to comfort her.

"No! Um...things actually got better," Belén felt weird just saying that sentence about her mother. She was so used to always having problems with Veronica. "She um, she...she made a proposition. She's buying the house from me. She's going to live here, actually, with Axel."

"She still made you give up custody?"

"No, uuh...I agreed," Belén nodded. She drew in a big breath before explaining her reasoning. "I love my nephew, I do, but I'm fully aware that I'm not ready to take care of him nor any child for that matter. I'm trying my best but if things keep going the way the were...I'm going to drown, Barry. I'm just...I'm not ready for it and I just want Axel to be okay..."

Barry set his hands on her shoulders to keep her from going into a long ramble that would eventually turn her face purple due to lack of oxygen. "I get it. You don't need to explain it to me."

"I don't want you to think I'm giving him up like if he were nothing."

"I would never think that. I've seen firsthand how much you love him. If you're making this choice it's because you're sure Axel is going to be okay. He's going to be good."

"I think he will be," Belén said with absolute certainty. "Mom's transferring to the precinct so she'll be around. Who knows, maybe this is our chance at actually having a relationship."

"I'm really happy for you, Bells," Barry said, taking his hands off her shoulders. "I'm glad Veronica finally came to her senses."

"Well..." Belén cleared her throat. Barry noticed her shifting on her chair and wondered what else she had to say. "She didn't come up with it entirely on her own. Maritza...actually inspired her." Barry's eyebrows raised together in shock. "I know," Belén chuckled lightly. "I was just as surprised as you were. Mom told me she visited Maritza and that Maritza basically called her out on everything."

"I mean...that was..." Barry couldn't even find the proper words to commend Maritza for her actions. It certainly brought a lot of happiness for Belén and that made him see Maritza in a new light.

"I'm thankful," Belén bit her lip nervously. "I'm basically getting a second chance with my Mom thanks to Maritza."

"I'm happy for you, a lot," Barry smiled.

Belén stared at him for a minute with a soft smile. "Yeah, things are finally getting better for me."

She got up from her chair and surprised Barry by sitting on his lap. She looped an arm around his neck and pressed her lips to his for a kiss. It was a much awaited kiss that was filled with feelings - some of those feelings were from the very day they'd broken up. Barry wrapped an arm of his around Belén's waist, keeping her steady as well keeping her close to his body. His free hand came to rest on her cheek and repeatedly stroked circles over her skin with his thumb.

They remained like that for a couple minutes until they felt their feelings for each other had been rekindled.

They gazed at each other with the same dazed smiles until someone spoke up.

"I need more dates like this," Belén spoke for the two of them.

Barry thought the same thing and went ahead and kissed her again.

Dinner was pushed back for a couple minutes.