#she made a show about the princess of hell and somehow the fandom talks about vox more

[gods-favorite-autistic]

It’s pretty clear what kind of fandom Vivziepop has acquired when she has a whole show where the main character is a female character who is in a sapphic relationship and yet somehow 90% of the male characters are loved or at least talked about by the fandom more than her

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Hazbin Hotel Men - Take care of you

warning : fluff, hurt/comfort, crying, no use of Y/n, fem reader

Characters : Alastor , Angel Dust, Husk , Sir Pentious, Vox , Valentino

Info : So it is here my first work for the hazbin hotel fandom and I'm very excited. I'm in it again after watching years ago the pilot, the first few episodes of hb and the great/amazing music video adict. So have fun everyone and enjoy it ;)

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Alastor : A smile always graces his lips and even if you're not used to it, he's quite disturbed when his loved one doesn't smile too. They've been through a lot together, but when he walks through the corridors of the hotel from his broadcasting studio and finds his darling sad, even crying, the static goes out of his voice for a moment. He will always worry about his darling, the only one in his dark, twisted heart. ,,Darling, what's wrong...who should I make scream?" he asked, his claw-like fingers resting on your hands, the strange charged static running through you strange yet familiar. Almost judging and somehow tickling. He would listen quietly to what was on his darling's mind and let a soft song play over his wand, the song that had played when he got the letter. Your letter of admiration in such a cruel place as hell the radio demon had marveled at. ,,Or I'll just stay with you mhhh a little show?" he asked, gently wiping the tears from your cheek with his fingers before pulling his sweet tone from the bed and flicking the room into a reddish dance hall. The radio waves turned to a song and he gently guided his darling around the room, brushing away her tears with each turn, reminding her of the things they had together. The time they had together, the things they had done for each other. His special affection, his gratitude and his love that belonged only to her. ,,You know I'm always with you darling, no matter what," he reminded his heart before leaving a gentle kiss on the back of her hand as the music faded.

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

Angel Dust : Angel Dust knew best what it meant when it came to money. He had lived it hell he was in that vicious circle and knew what it was like to be exploited for money almost every night. But in all this fire and poison he had found his own drug, so to speak. The one that had helped him when he was down, when he needed a break, when he couldn't sleep after night after night. She had sacrificed herself, Val had practically thrown herself at the throat, had taken it upon herself to become the number two in the business, something "enough" as Valentino called it. But Angel knew better than anyone that something like this didn't just pass you by. Which is why, with a warm tea in his hands, the spider heard the quiet knock on the door before he heard the ,,Come in." He didn't have to look to know that the runny makeup was from tears and other things. ,,Hey princess, come here," he murmured, putting the tea on the side table before slowly putting his hands around her. Never firm enough that she couldn't resist, always calm enough to show her that he didn't want what the others in the store wanted. The words flowed slowly over her lips and even though they both knew there was no point in talking about it, it felt good. It eased the pain and Angel was able to wipe away her tears before he gave her the tea. Because if there was one thing he had learned, it was that a cup of tea could work wonders in a few minutes and make you feel warm and safe. ,,I promise this will all end soon," he murmured, letting his beauty lay her head on his chest and he smiled gently as he saw the trembling of her body lessen with his calm heartbeat. At least they would both have something like hope for a while...a moment of calm and peace in the vicious circle.

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Husk : The clinking of glasses was something that could always be heard at the bar, either when the former overlord was sorting, washing or serving the glasses. The bottles made about the same sound but darker. But something still filled his bar: sniffling and sobbing. The sadness of his favorite, lucky clover, sitting at the bar with his head buried in his hands. He had just blown away to take another order because everyone else was already off to Satan's place. The beating of his wings could be heard as he hurriedly came over to her. He didn't need to look at the sad face, ,,I know you've given everything we all know that" he said and reached for the right drink he knew her favorite order was the one she had brought him back when he was lucky. He handed her the drink and slowly and gently took her hands from her face before she took the drink with a slight look of gratitude. He nodded in acknowledgment as he saw them both just sitting there for a moment, he slowly wrapped his sweat around her waist and pulled her a little closer, placing a wing on her shoulder. Knew the feathers were something she wanted. Because he was right, she let her fingers wander over the pattern. She finally gave in and told him about her yet another failed attempt to get money and power for the hotel, maybe even a few free ones, but nothing had worked. Instead, only the usual cursing and swearing...as the cave was true. Without happiness and kindness. ,,But our happiness and togetherness will last forever," he said and handed her one of his golden dice before the two of them rolled it over the wood of the ceiling. But in fact, when Husk pressed a gentle kiss on her cheek, both dice landed as doubles. They knew that together they had the best luck they could have as a couple.

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

Sir Pentiuos : The airship's engine was loud, but the serpent demon was able to distinguish between the sound of an engine, the cracking of eggs and the sobs of its first officers. Turning away from the steering wheel, hoping that a cherry-scented bomb would not be thrown through the windshield, he made his way into the interior of his airship. ,,My beauty? Are you in here?" he asked as he looked into the individual rooms of the ship before he heard her from the craft room, where she was mostly developing her weapons. Weapons that had often led them both to victory, but this time it didn't work out. it was the third time in the last week that they had been caught by the bombs. He saw her sitting on one of the tables with another broken weapon in her hands, a mistake she took to heart. ,,Ohh darling please don't I'm here come here" he whispered and his forked snake tongue wetted her cheek lightly as he pulled her into an embrace. The kiss on her cheek made her smile as she saw that the serpentine demon was a little pink in the cheeks himself. His cuteness that he mostly didn't know about always cheered her up, he would always manage somehow. His snake tail curled around her body and his slightly scaly skin felt warm when she put her fingers on it. He knew his scales soothed her and his words dug into her like the bite of a snake. He slowly put her weapon aside and cuddled her again, encouraging her. ,,Shall I fetch the eggs? A big party, my dear, maybe a party," he suggested with a smile and shortly afterwards he lifted her into his arms before the two of them went to the little ones. The family sat down together and soon instead of crying, laughter and joy could be heard as Sir Pentious stood by their side.

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

Vox : Voices can get loud, programs can get loud and with the three Vees it can get very very loud. If not the models, then Val's employees or hookers suffer from this. But this stress for new eriesn, new porn shoots and new clothes became too much for every demon. And when Vox went back to his office/broadcasting station he had, as always, an overishct on everything. A look at everything and everyone, but a look at the one screen he always had closest to him. Just a second later, he showed up in her room using his skills to make the viewers go haywire. They were always surrounded by noise, so he knew how good it was to have silence. ,,Hey button we'll take care of the ratings later...what do you need mhh?" he asked taking her cell phone from the one she was using to monitor the other ratings. He used his hands to pull her towards him, moving her slightly around the room, not necessarily dancing but playfully looking for that spark. ,,Come on, tell dear Vox what it is? Something special you want me to take care of?" he offered a small spark on her body, seeing that she smiled briefly knowing she liked it, that little shock that made her heart beat faster, drove her nerves and dispelled her fear. ,,You know no one can do anything to the four of us, we're different...and hot," he reminded her, laughing with her as his mood brought her back to her proper self. She felt the loaded kiss on her lips briefly but like catching up on a television. Before they moved across the room they shared a drink and she rested her head against his shoulder as they looked across the cave knowing that if they all stayed together she would stay with Vox he would never leave her and everything would work out in the end.

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

Valentino : Obscene noises, neon pink signs, and a reclamation board and TV that gave a taste of the videos and movies that would come out if you went to the brothel in the compartment that belonged to Valentino. In this particular business, one thing mattered above all else. Stamina. Stamina if it was going to be a long night with twenty guys, stamina to film it all, stamina to count the money at the end and stamina when you were in hangover. It was exhausting for the employees and for Val, but especially for the assistant. The brothel mother, designer, scriptwriter and partner of the moth demon. It all just became too much at some point, which is why it took the Overlord a moment to realize that crying wasn't what he knew. In a flash of his smoke and the flutter of his wings, he made his way to their shared room. ,,My sweet kitty, what's wrong? No inspiration shall I fetch Angel or our favorite maybe Vox?" he suggested with a grin and took a puff on his cigrette as he approached the bed. Sha, however, that this only made him more depressed and his grin diminished as he extinguished the cigarette in the smoke and came to her, his wings blocking out the bright pink light from everywhere and the two of them a little darkened. Quiet and just the two of them. ,,Too much...I know it's a bit too stimulating sometimes," he mumbled, trying to find the right words, still not the best at taking care of others in his egocentric worldview of sex and money. But for her he would give anything and he could feel how it bothered him not to see her smiling, not shining with inspiration. He held out his hand to her for permission as she slowly cuddled up to him. ,,Here just the two of us just here and no one else just us" he whispered quietly trying not to hold her too tightly but not too loosely as the wings wrapped around them both like a blanket. As they both listened to each other's heartbeats, the sweet smell of Valentino was familiar but reassuringly true. It was just that hold they b oth needed in a place where they knew there was no going back.

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

[sassy-ahsoka-tano]

DADDY ISSUES - Part Six: 7 Rings

Character/Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Prompt: Your first payment arrives in exchange for taking care of Elvis, but it's nothing like what you expected. [ Fem!Reader ]

TW: some mentions of sexual themes but that's all!

Rating: Pg-13 || Word Count: 4776

A/N: big changes big changes coming for y/n 👀

Song Rec: 7 rings - ari

This is Part 6 of Daddy Issues. Find the rest of the series here!

[ masterlist | taglist ]

🦋 mila

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After the show, you and Trixie run back to your room as quickly as possible. Trixie doesn’t fully understand what’s happening, but she trusts you enough to follow along without asking too many questions. Once you get back to the hotel room, you walk her through the entire night and explain everything, including how different Elvis seems to you now than you remember.

“He was like a completely different person,” you explain, gesturing crazily. “When he first proposed the idea to me in Burbank, he was teasing and playful about it. He was seductive and charming and even kind. Tonight, he was selfish and animalistic. He just wanted me to please him and that was it. Before tonight, I felt special, like he wanted me, specifically, to be his sugar baby, or whatever the hell I am to him. But tonight, it was like he didn’t care about me at all. I could have been any old groupie or fan and it wouldn’t have made a difference. It was like he enjoyed torturing me.”

“Hmmm,” Trixie hums, her gaze dropping onto the bedspread. “I mean, to be fair, your role as sugar baby is to please him and serve him. You’re there for his pleasure and he pays you in some way, right? Wasn’t that the deal?”

“I guess. To be honest, I don’t even know. The whole situation has been very unusual and confusing,” you shrug. “Part of me feels like shit, like I was taken advantage of somehow. But the other part of me still wants him so badly that I wouldn’t dream of turning back. There’s this curiosity that hasn’t been satisfied and I don’t…I don’t even know what it’s searching for.”

“You don’t have to make any decisions tonight. Just sleep on it and get some rest,” Trixie replies, fluffing up the pillows and the covers. You climb into the bed. “We can talk through it tomorrow if you want, when you have a clearer mind.”

You nod and Trixie flicks off the light, settling into the mattress next to you. You lie in silence for a few minutes, your eyes wide open as your brain turns in rapid circles of confusion.

"Trixie?”

“Mhm?” she hums into the darkness.

“Thank you,” you whisper. She reaches for your hand and squeezes it reassuringly.

When she releases it, you shut your eyes and try to settle in for bed. It seems useless at first as you toss and turn, seeing nothing but Elvis every time you close your eyes. As hard as you try to redirect your focus and imagine other, more happy and less stressful things, it always returns to him. Over and over replays the sexy smirk that rested on his face, the rise and fall of his hairy chest, the way his fingers gripped tightly into your hair, his deep gravelly voice as it edged you on…

You jolt awake as a nightmare that you can’t really remember comes to an end. You exhale sharply and shake your head, sitting up in the bed. You glance around confusedly when you realize that Trixie is no longer sleeping next to you. Peering around the corner, you can see the door to the bathroom shut tightly. After rubbing the sleep from your eyes, you get out of bed and pad toward the closet to get dressed for the day. You lift out your clothes and groan when one of your socks falls onto the ground. As you reach over to pick it up, your eyes lock onto something sticking out from underneath the door to the hallway.

You snatch it up and hold it so that the small strip of light shining in from the shades falls on the writing. You immediately recognize the script on the front, that familiar clumsy Princess that you’ve now seen too many times. You run your thumb over it, biting your lip as your brain imagines what might be on the horizon for you.

“Good morning, sleepy head!” Trixie’s voice makes you jump and so does the bright light that shines through the window as she flings open the shades. “Ooh, what do you have there?”

You glance down at the envelope and shrug.

“It’s from him.”

“Well, come here and open it!” Trixie shouts excitedly, patting a spot on the bed next to her.

You follow her lead and plop onto the bed, ripping through the tape that’s sealing the envelope. You tilt your head as a pair of keys falls out onto the bedspread. Allowing them to stay there, you read the letter first.

“Sugar,” you glance up at Trixie who bites her lip to stifle an excited laugh, “It was a nice surprise to see you yesterday. I enjoyed our time together and look forward to what comes next. For now, I owe you something that I’ll have delivered this evening around six o’clock to your new home, room 734 in this building.”

You pause with furrowed eyebrows and glance up at Trixie who shares your expression. You continue reading, hoping the rest of the letter will answer your multitude of questions.

“Also as part of your first paycheck, I’d like you to have a look around today and decide what changes need to be made to the room. Anything you like, I’ll have it done,” you shake your head. “It’s signed ‘D?’”

“Daddy,” Trixie suggests with a shrug. “What is this about your new home? Does he expect you to…live here?”

You shake your head, disbelief and panic starting to settle in your chest.

“Um…I don’t know. I guess that would make sense. I hadn’t considered how our arrangement would work, logistically speaking. It would be a pain to have to tote me out here to Vegas every time he wanted to see me but…oh god, what the hell is happening? Okay, no, you know what,” you jump up, rummaging through the closet to search for the rest of your outfit. “I have to go talk to him immediately. I can’t move my entire life this far across states just so he can have me give him blowjobs whenever he needs it.”

“I don’t think that’s what he means,” Trixie says but you shake your head as you pull your clothes on.

“No, no. I’m going down there to talk to him right now.”

Trixie sighs deeply.

“Well, I’m coming with you,” she says, hopping up to get dressed as well.

Trixie can barely keep up with you as you race down the hall and into the elevator, impatiently tapping your foot while you wait to be taken down to the ground floor. As soon as the doors open, your panicked adrenaline pushes you out and toward the showroom. To your surprise, there are no guards standing by the doors this time but you figure it’s because it’s not even eleven in the morning yet. There’s no reason for Elvis to be down here that early, considering the first show doesn’t start until eight p.m.

You blow through the doors but get stuck by the ones near the side of the stage. They’re locked tight and you wrap your knuckles against them, waiting impatiently for someone to hopefully open up. After a few moments, someone thankfully does. To your surprise, it’s Jerry’s friendly face. He smiles handsomely.

“Hey there, ladies. Can I help you with something?” he asks, staring expectantly at you.

“Oh, uh, yes actually you can,” you say, smiling curtly. “I actually need to talk to him about this.”

You hold out the letter and Jerry takes it from you, unfolding it to read the print inside. You keep talking as he does.

“I’m super flattered and I would really like to continue the…arrangement,” you say, resisting the urge to cringe at your own words. “But I have to go back home to Los Angeles. I have a good job there and I really need to keep it to pay rent and stuff, so-”

“Oh, no you won’t need to keep the job. Don’t worry about it,” Jerry responds, waving his hand dismissively.

“Okay, well I understand that but I need the job to pay my rent and bills,” you respond with a shake of your head.

“Excuse us, won’t you?” Jerry nods toward Trixie who steps backward. 

Jerry sighs and gently takes your arm, steering you around to a more secluded corner. He smiles and stares at you with such soft eyes that you’re a bit taken aback.

“Elvis will make sure that you’re taken care of. There’s no need to worry.”

You release a slightly frustrated breath and recenter yourself for a moment before responding.

“I understand that but I’m not just gonna quit my job. I need a steady income and I need a place to live. I can’t just move my whole life up here in a couple of days,” you respond with a sharply raised voice.

Jerry holds up both of his hands and gently pulses them toward you.

“I understand, Y/N. This is all probably a lot to take in. I’m here to help you, please believe me,” he says and you take a few deep breaths. There’s no reason to be upset with Jerry; he’s not the one asking you to relocate your entire life. “I’ll talk to Elvis and get everything worked out. For now, I suggest you just go home for the week and decide what you want to do. In case you want to come back, that’ll also give you time to get packed and settled before you move here. As always, I’m sure he’ll understand if you decline. But, I really think you should at least take a look at the room first.”

He holds out the keys that were stuffed inside the envelope and jingles them with a quirked eyebrow. You sigh frustratedly and snatch them from him.

“I guess I can do that.”

“Good. You still have my card, don’t you?” he asks and you nod. “Give me a call later this week with your decision and I’ll take care of it after that, okay?”

You nod and thank him quietly before quickly walking back out to the casino floor. Trixie jolts to a stand as you come back out, her arms thrown up in anticipation of your report. You both climb into the elevator and hit the button for floor seven. While you wait, you give her a quick summary of the conversation.

“Well, that’s nice of him,” Trixie comments. “At least they’re both being cordial about the whole situation.”

You nod in agreement as the doors swing open in front of you.

“734…” you mumble repeatedly to yourself as you trudge along the carpeted floor until you find the room.

It’s in the corner of the hotel right where the penthouse suite would normally be. You glance at Trixie in disbelief before twisting the key into the lock and pushing into the room. Your breath immediately gets sucked out of your throat as you both stand and stare around the massive room. It’s bigger than the apartment that you both share back in LA and comes with a living room and full kitchen. You step into the room and take everything in, sliding your fingers along the marble countertops and gently pressing on the soft cushions of the velvet couches and recliners in the living room. It’s the most luxurious hotel room you’ve ever seen and something that’s so far outside your budget, you could never dream of it existing in the first place.

“Y/N, you have got to come look at this!” she shouts and you run into the next room.

Your mouth drops at the size of the bedroom and the amazingly large and soft bed that rests in the middle of the room. Trixie has already flopped onto the mattress with a huge smile on her face. You join her excited expression and walk further into the room. A glass chandelier hangs above the bed, illuminating the space. As your eyes take everything in, you notice a full-size bathroom attached which includes a jacuzzi bathtub and an absolute monster of a closet.

“This closet is seriously bigger than our entire kitchen,” you mutter as you walk all the way into it and spin around with your arms outstretched.

“Y/N, this space is…literally amazing,” Trixie says, disbelief crossing her features. “And did he seriously offer to redo the entire room to your liking? That’s like a full makeover to create your ideal bedroom.”

Your eyes are still wandering around in awe as you take in everything that you’re seeing. The space really is gorgeously large and ornate. You could never, ever dream of affording something like this. It’s everything you could have wanted and more. And you can’t deny that your heart soars at the idea of redoing the room to be exactly how you want it, everything perfectly as you’ve always imagined it to be. But what should you do? Is quitting your job and leaving your entire existence and stability up to a celebrity as fickle as Elvis Presley really the best choice? Everything feels like a risk that could pay off big time or send you into financial and emotional ruin. You groan and flop onto the bed, covering your face with your hands.

“Trix, what do I do? I don’t know what to do,” you say as you feel her weight dip down on the mattress next to you.

“I think you have to give it a shot,” she replies.

You uncover your face and sit up, glancing over at her with slumped shoulders. You knew that would be her answer and yet, it’s the one thing you don’t want to hear.

“But there are so many risks. What happens if it all goes wrong?”

“Then I’ll be there,” she says, gently taking hold of your shoulders. She turns you to face her and smiles sweetly. “Like I said before, you could really use the money and I really can’t see a bad side to this arrangement. Well, other than sacrificing your moral compass. But! This is Elvis Presley we’re talking about, Y/N! I can’t imagine he makes these offers to just anyone.”

You release a breath and nod in agreement. You’ve tried to stay strong until now and do the right thing. You’ve tried to be responsible and morally correct and respectful but each little clause added to the arrangement has made it that much more appealing. It’s become an offer that’s almost impossible to refuse. The safety of financial security, the relaxation of not having to worry every second of every day about paying off debts. And the gifts, the ideal room, having everything you could possibly want or ask for, things that you could never ever afford if you had to pay for them yourself. Not to mention the price you’re paying is hardly a price at all. The desire and desperation you felt last night is unmatched to any other that you’ve felt in your life.

“Besides,” Trixie continues, shaking you out of your trance, “if you’re really about to be this rich, then you’ll have no problem flying me out here every few weeks to come and stay with you!”

You smile, leaning over to hug Trixie. You squeeze her tightly and she returns the action. When you release each other, you glance at your watch and sigh.

“Alright, well I guess it’s decided. I’m officially doing this. As for now, we only have a few hours for fun until we have to drive all the way back to LA, so we should get going.”

You and Trixie had only taken off two days of work so you need to be getting back soon. Not to mention that you’ll need to figure out how to rectify your employment situation. You and Trixie both stand to leave.

“Hey I wonder what the other gift he has for you is.”

“Gift?”

“Yeah, didn’t he say in the letter that he’s giving you something else too?”

“Oh…I guess he did, didn’t he? I forgot with all of this drama,” you reply, chuckling dryly.

“He’ll have to send it to you, I suppose, since we’re driving back tonight.”

“Well, he certainly has no problem sending me gifts through the mail, does he?”

Trixie laughs as you walk arm in arm out of the room. You both spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon exploring the strip and packing up. The car ride is less than enjoyable considering you spend most of it in a tense argument with your boss over the phone. You attempt to explain your situation to him but after almost an hour of begging on your part and bickering on his, you wind up quitting out of frustration. Even though you’re definitely experiencing some panic by the time you hang up, you’re honestly relieved to have it over with.

You’re both completely exhausted when you get home and pass out almost immediately when you climb into your respective beds. The week ahead of you winds up being a busy one as you get settled with the rest of your job issues and pack up the things you’ve chosen to bring with you at the end of the week. You called Jerry a few days after returning home for more details and he gladly provided them. He’s sending a driver for you and Trixie so that you can all bring up your stuff and get settled into your new home at the International Hotel. Apparently, you’ll only be required to stay at the hotel while Elvis is in residency there. Whenever he travels to other locations, you’re free to go back to LA if you want.

He also gave you the number of the designer who’d be redoing your new room at the hotel. You and Trixie spend almost two hours on the phone with them as you describe your ideal room. You’ve been assured that all of the changes will somehow be made before you arrive on Sunday morning. You find it all hard to believe considering it’s already Thursday, but you suppose that when someone as wealthy and famous as Elvis wants something done, it gets done pretty quickly.

Miraculously, everything else is already taken care of. You’re all packed up and ready to go, although you’re still having a decent amount of anxiety considering you don’t have any friends or contacts in Vegas. Trixie continuously reminds you that she’s only a phone call away but a phone call just isn’t the same as one of her warm hugs.

Nevertheless, when the day rolls around for you to depart from the apartment that you’ve grown to love so much over the past few months, you’d be lying through your teeth if you try to say that you aren’t excited. As you pull up to the International, your heart is practically beating out of your chest with excitement. Trixie helps you carry loads of your stuff inside and, soon, Jerry and a few of Elvis’ handlers are also helping tote your belongings into the hotel. You awkwardly thank them as you fumble with the keys to the door out of nervousness.

Your mouth drops to the floor as the door opens to reveal your new room. Elvis really wasn't lying. Everything has been done exactly as you requested. All of the colors are perfectly what you imagined, the decor is exactly what you’ve always wanted, even the small details like a vase of flowers on the side table and the stack of magazines resting on the coffee table are perfect. Right next to the magazines, you notice a small package with a note on top of it. You walk toward it as the handlers continue to file into the room and drop off your boxes and things.

“Ooh, the gift,” Trixie says, placing down a box and dusting off her hands while she comes to stand by your side.

You eagerly rip into the package, tearing the wrapping paper off to reveal a small blue velvet jewelry box. A smile spreads across your face as you open the box but it quickly drops when you see the contents of the package. It’s a large silver ring with the letters TCB spelled out in diamonds across the band. You recognize it as a reference to one of Elvis’ favorite catchphrases: Takin Care of Business.

You gently lift it out of the package and turn it in the light, watching as the gems sparkle. Your eyebrows raise as you glance at Trixie but she’s too preoccupied with staring at the ring. It’s the most beautiful piece of jewelry you’ve ever seen and as you slide it onto your middle finger, it somehow fits perfectly. You close the box and shakily reach for the note, overcome by the quality of the gifts so far.

“Sugar, I’m sorry this gift is a bit late but you insisted on running home to LA. Jerry explained your concerns and I hope that I’ve made the necessary arrangements so your home here will be comfortable. I also hope that I’ve shown you how much I’d like you to stay here with me. Please consider this ring an endowment, one that I expect to be worn on your finger at all times from here on out. I hope it fits just like a glass slipper. Now that you’ll be around here more often, it’s necessary that everyone knows you’re not available. Makes things easier. Meet me tonight in the dressing room and we can take care of business. Earlier than last time. D.”

You can’t avoid the smile that spreads across your face as you glance at Trixie. She wiggles her eyebrows and then returns to sorting some of your boxes. You smile down at the ring before returning to finish your chores. Within a few hours, you have most of the boxes sorted into which section of the hotel room they’ll be unloaded into. Trixie gives you lots and lots of hugs and says her goodbyes before heading back to her own hotel room for the night. Once she’s gone, you have several hours to start unpacking before you need to meet Elvis downstairs.

You put on some music while you unpack, put away, and organize everything into its place. You only make it through a couple of the rooms before you check the clock to see it’s about time for you to get downstairs. You quickly change into a long black dress that you once wore to a friend’s wedding and refresh your makeup and hair before making your way downstairs. Just as you’re running out the door, your eye catches on your purse and you remember the lingerie stuffed inside. You’d never even bothered to take it out from last week. You pull the strap over your shoulder and head downstairs, hoping you remember the way to the showroom.

This time when you approach the security guard at the door, he just smiles and stands to the side, allowing you entrance into the showroom without question. You thank him and enter, glancing up at the various doors along the way as you try to remember which one leads to Elvis’ dressing room. You feel silly as your eyes land on the massive black letters on the outside of his door. Of course you know which room is his, everyone does. You breathe deeply and knock on the door three times, just as you had before.

You’ve been fine all day, busy with the stress of moving all of your stuff, your life, four hours away into a place that isn’t even a home but a rental for the time being. But now, as you stand in front of his door re-reading the letters E-L-V-I-S over and over, your heart starts to pound in your chest and your gut aches.

After a few seconds, the door clicks open and Elvis swings it just the way he had last week, open enough that you can see him but too closed for you to enter without being close to him. Immediately, a smirk spreads across his face as he looks at you. You stand still, resisting the urge to shake under his scrutinizing gaze as his eyes trace your figure up and down.

“You bring that from home?” he asks, gesturing to the dress. Panic suddenly begins to pang in your chest and you nod nervously. “I like it…but you need a better one. I’ll take care of it. You better come in fore it gets too late.”

“Thank you,” you murmur quietly as you duck under his arm just like you had the last time.

This time, with a bit more confidence, you gently place your bag down on one of the armchairs and fold your arms over your chest as you turn to face him. He’s in a dark red robe with the initials EP on the lapel, the same red robe that he’d worn the first time you’d met him. Well, technically the second time you’d met him but the first time he’d proposed this little arrangement. As usual, the robe is mostly unbuttoned, forcing your eyes immediately to take in his chest and torso as you look at him. He gestures for you to sit and you obey, plopping down into one of the chairs as he takes the one opposite you. A few moments of silence pass as you wait for instructions. None come.

“Uh…” you awkwardly start. “Do you want me to just go ahead and get started?”

You cringe at your own words and how transactional they sound. You feel incredibly uneasy; you have literally no idea what you’re doing. To your surprise, Elvis laughs, his beautiful smile lighting up his face. He leans back in the chair with a sigh. You watch with a gulp as his legs spread open. You can’t help but sneak a peek down at his crotch. Unfortunately, with the loose-fitting robe, you can’t see much.

“It don’t sound too sexy when you say it like that, darlin,” he says with a singular chuckle. You smile and shrug.

“Sorry. I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m new to all of this.”

He leans forward onto his knees, scratching his long fingers over his chin for a moment. Then, he holds up a finger.

“Would it help if we talked through it, set down some ground rules or somethin?”

“Actually,” you respond, almost immediately as you perk to attention. “That would be extremely helpful. I don’t want to disappoint you, but I just…I don’t know what to do.”

“I understand,” he says, relaxing to lean back again. “So, shoot. What questions can I answer for ya?”

“Okay well,” you respond and then pause, taking a moment to collect your thoughts. “How often will we…meet like this? Are there other rules or things I should be doing? What do you want me to do when I come down here? Will it be the same thing every time or do you want a variety of things? When-”

“Woah woah, girl,” he says, holding his palms out towards you. You feel heat creeping into your neck and cheeks as you sheepishly grin and clamp your lips shut. “One at a time, love. We’ll meet bout once a week or so. Now that you’re here, it’ll be easier. As for rules and things, I’ll send ya a lil note fore every show and let ya know what I want, any specifics or whatever. When I send you jewelry, I expect you to take advantage of that; wear it, flaunt it. I ain’t spending that money for fun. What else did you say?”

“Uh…what do you want me to do wh-when I get down here? D-do you want the same thing every time or should I surprise you, or…”

“Just relax, darlin. You’ll learn what I like soon and it’ll all get easier. Just do whatever comes naturally,” he responds with a wink.

You feel your insides flip at the thought of learning what he likes, at the thought of pleasing him again. Your brain starts to fill with the memories of what he sounded like when you were pleasing him, sucking him off so well. His moans and groans, the way he grabbed your hair in his fingers.

“Anything else you wanna know?” he interrupts your thoughts.

You pause, thinking for a moment when a thought pops into your head, it feels like a dangerous question but one that needs to be asked. You heave a deep breath before speaking the words out loud.

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

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[captnjacksparrow]

I just got into the fandom and I love it so much. However, there are parts where I just cringe. I’m going to be completely honest when I say I can’t see SS being a thing, a healthy one at that. A rumor said that Sasuke always had feelings for Sakura but he didn’t know how to show them because hatred blinded him. I just... find it utterly bullshit. Hell, even I do ship narusasu, I tried to be open minded and not fall too far off canon or the characters. I don’t understand how Sasuke had those feelings for her when all he did was shown the opposite and it felt genuine. He seem always annoyed and pushes her away. She kept forcing her feelings on him when he makes it clear that he’s not interested. I don’t hate the ship because it’s not my ship but because it’s extremely toxic. It feels one-sided (Sakura’s side) more than anything and it’s makes it hard to believe he had those feelings for her. I mean, on the second episode of season five, she confessed and poured out her heart and he blew it off. I cringed hard and was beyond disappointed because she’s making it about herself. That’s literally how I feel about their damn “relationship”. She made it about her and her only. When he’s hurting, it’s about her. It’s so annoying and it makes me see how self-centered Sakura. When she said she understood Sasuke, I wanted to scream (I nearly did but my family is sleeping and I don’t need a lecture.) She doesn’t know Jackshit about Sasuke besides he’s the only survivor of his decease clan, he’s a loner who cares only about himself, and he’s attractive. She’s just like every other fangirl expect she’s on his team. I’m trying my best not to hate her but Damn she’s really pushing it. Anything that annoyed me was that she made it seem like they were dating, again making it about herself and her feelings. She sent Naruto to get Sasuke for her benefits, so she can keep him. Again, disregarding Sasuke’s feelings and what he wanted. Naruto should’ve said “I’ll bring him back because HE wants too, to keep HIM safe, not for you.” I just can’t with this ship. I’m still wondering why the hell is it even a thing? Also find it beyond pitiful how she stayed with Sasuke in Boruto when he left for 12-13 years?! No note. No checking up. Nothing. Hell, Sarada doesn’t know how her own father looks like or the truth of her mother. Both of them were miserable and I find it absolutely ridiculous when SS shippers still say “they’re in love” or they’re OTP. If that’s what true love looks like (good thing it’s not), then I’d die single. I can’t be the only one who thinks this ship is just as bad as Harley Quinn x Joker.

First off, Thanks for this lovely ask @larrycherry04 ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I've always wanted to write about this and your ask is the perfect timing.

Disclaimer: SS shippers, Sakura fans!!! Don’t read  this post!!

Me being an SNS shipper, I am just going to write this from a non-SNS perspective. Meaning, I am going to consider Naruto and Sasuke are just friends or rivals. 

Bear with my lengthy answer.

Where do I even begin?

A rumor said that Sasuke always had feelings for Sakura but he didn’t know how to show them because hatred blinded him.

I think this rumor is from a light novel called Akatsuki Hiden or whatever shit. But for me, it looks like a pathetic attempt to convince those horny women shippers who would pay any money to read a romance which mirrors their own love life where they desire an ‘unreachable & handsome’ man who has this ‘cool & overbearing’ aura and carries this ‘bad boy badass’ vibe. They would do anything to get the attention from this boy. Until this point is where the reality ends. 

What they really wants to happen and fantasize is somehow that handsome man, one day, will look only them and recognize their love and becomes a ‘soft’ guy who would bring the heavens for them and treats her like a princess. That fantasy led them to buy these novels and believe everything while completely disregarding the canon material. And those novels are aimed at these type of women.

You must have been wondering now, ‘I have seen these type of shit somewhere’!!!!!

That’s right.

50 Shades of Grey, Twilight, Beauty and the Beast, 100′s of K-Drama, C-Drama follow this shit romance trope and it’s regrettably fucking popular. 

In other words, Don’t believe anything apart from the canonic resources. 

Let’s dissect the canon materials about SS.

TEAM 7 

This is how it all started

Does anyone see anything positive here???? 

Well, I am not.

Sakura wanted to impress Sasuke. Since, Naruto always picks fight with Sasuke, she badmouthed Naruto in the hopes that Sasuke will recognize some common ground with her which may develop into a friendship. But she shot her own foot. 

[Regardless, I hated her here and she never redeemed herself, for her being completely insensitive & oblivious towards Sasuke’s life, the boy she loves]

Technically, Sasuke should have said ‘You’re Annoying’ towards Naruto for kissing him before the class and tying him up later. Here, Sakura is simply badmouthing another guy. He, somehow, find this very annoying than anything Naruto did earlier. 

Sasuke always had feelings for Sakura but he didn’t know how to show them because hatred blinded him.

Am definitely not seeing any feelings here.  

ZABUZA ARC

Alright, much later, somehow Sasuke started to integrate into team 7 and started to see them as a Family. No denial here. He started to care about everyone in his team at some point. Which was evident from the way he thought to himself, ‘That was Sakura’s voice... What is Kakashi doing?’

But does it means he hopelessly fell in love with her??? Nope. 

It’s just a team camaraderie where he was worried about his teammate. If he has special feelings towards her, he should have said ‘I must go save Sakura’ or something along the line. 

But, later in that episode, he went on to die for Naruto and even at his dying moments he didn’t think about Sakura or Team 7. It was all about someone else.

Even seconds before falling into Naruto’s arms, Sasuke was smiling with no regrets. 

It was funny very later that after he got up from his temporary death, rather than consoling her like ‘Sakura, Don’t cry. Am alright’ or anything, he was asking ‘Where’s Naruto?’. LOL.

Even much later, when Sakura was asking him about a date, he bluntly said ‘I refuse’.

So, you’re telling me, throughout this arc, a boy blinded with hatred can able to pout, play childish games, train and die for a boy but when it comes to Sakura he can’t show his feelings???

Sorry, I don’t see romance here. Not in this arc.

Whether you agree or not, every parent has their favorite child, every child has their favorite parent. Even within your family, you always have a special person.

For Sasuke, Itachi was that person in his real family. Sakura was not that person in his Team 7 family. It was Naruto.

CHUNIN EXAMS ARC

This arc is where those SS shippers celebrates a lot and I know why. Remember earlier I talked about that shitty 50 Shades of Grey romantic trope??? The following scene vaguely falls under that pattern.

A guy loses his control because of a cursed seal and beats up the guys who hurt one of his teammates which happens to be a girl and calms down after seeing the girl. 

That Infamous back hug. 

I understand why SS people lose their mind with that scene. And I don’t blame them. I am going to throw their own proof at them.

So, this First databook, tells us that he finally sees both Naruto and Sakura as comrades and his heart softens from the path of revenge, a little bit.

Definitely, Sakura’s tears or love towards him stopped his rampage. But nothing says about whether Sasuke loves her back.  

Much later, Sasuke also stops his cursed seal on his own after thinking about worried Sakura and a screaming Naruto (Who don’t know about this seal thingy at that time). 

Well, whatever. That databook has another funny fact, that too in the same page. 

LOL. Weird!!!! This accidental kiss unravels Sasuke’s heart ❤️❤️???? 🤣🤣🤣

So, influencing Sasuke’s heart can be attributed to both his teammates,according to this databook. Atleast upto this arc. There are no special feelings for Sakura alone, guys. 

Proof?

If Sasuke really considers her in a romantic light (this is after that back hug), he doesn’t have to do this at all. Believe me, Love is all about subconsciously or purposefully enjoying or feeling little touches. Those touches can be through eyes, memories or physical. Sakura is delighted with his touch because she loves him but Sasuke just see her as a comrade and keeping his distance but this time very politely.

If Kishi really likes these couple, he doesn’t have to make this scene at all. It’s not just this one instance, he rejected her twice very bluntly before this saying ‘Don’t cling to me!!!’, ‘Sakura, you’re heavy!!!’. 

If you say her back hug is a token of romance, then I can say ‘this’ kiss is also a token of romance. You can’t ignore one while keeping the other.

Anyways, at the end of the arc, Orochimaru is the best judge to identify who can change Sasuke’s heart. And that person is not Sakura.

DEPARTURE

she confessed and poured out her heart and he blew it off. I cringed hard and was beyond disappointed because she’s making it about herself. That’s literally how I feel about their damn “relationship”. She made it about her and her only. When he’s hurting, it’s about her. It’s so annoying and it makes me see how self-centered Sakura. When she said she understood Sasuke, I wanted to scream (I nearly did but my family is sleeping and I don’t need a lecture.) She doesn’t know Jackshit about Sasuke besides he’s the only survivor of his decease clan, he’s a loner who cares only about himself, and he’s attractive.

You know what, Larry??? You are 1000% right. 

But, atleast, I thought she was genuine in the first part of the proposal, like saying ‘Revenge is not good’.....bla bla.. Because, Revenge will never satisfy a person completely and I agree. Then she took a 180 degree by saying ‘Take me with you, Sasuke-Kun. I’ll make you happy’. This is where I lost it entirely. ‘Alright Bitch, So you really don’t care about his revenge or health. As long as you have the chance to get inside his pants, you are okay with it. So you are okay with Sasuke going to Orochimaru as long as you are with him..... Fucking Shit!!!!’  This is not okay at all. 

How did Sasuke respond?

“Why should I have to tell you anything”

“I’m telling you to keep your nose out of my business”

“Stop bothering me over everything I do”

Ummm..... where I come from, this screams ‘Irritation’ to me. Added to it, throughout the whole conversation he never saw her face. There was evidently no pain or anything from his face. On top the cake, here comes the cherry

“You really are...annoying”

This is where he saw her face throughout that painful confession before knocking her out. Umm... When you love someone or atleast feel for someone, you will look in their eyes and speak some farewell words before you leave. Or atleast show some pain??? There’s visibly nothing from Sasuke’s face. 

Alright, I know what SS wankers will pull out here. That Databook 2 with some vague words. I am going to throw this at them. 

Again, like I acknowledged before, he considers her as a comrade and part of a family. So, her existence also eased his loneliness. But you have to look at the word choice here. “The one that filled his lonely existence was Sakura”. It’s not the ‘Only’ person. Before he left he said ‘Thanks’. Meaning, Thanks for all these days. That’s all between us. 

This piece was about the Team 7 picture. So he acknowledges, he was not alone during his genin days because of his companions and Kakashi (so it’s not just Sakura to ease his loneliness). Whatever he said to Sakura was real. 

So can we safely confirm “You’re annoying” is real????

But what’s really interesting is the way Sasuke projects himself before Naruto. I am going to refrain myself from attaching all those rollercoaster of emotions flowed throughout the fight in VoTE 1. Otherwise, it will become an SNS post. 

However, this particular scene caught my attention.

Ummm.... Initially Sasuke walks without looking at Naruto. Then he looks back and answers him. 

Naruto was pretty much asking the same question as Sakura. “Why does it come to this?”

But Sasuke pauses and surprised for a moment and asks him pretty much “Why do you care about me?”

Why couldn’t Sasuke do the same with Sakura???? Kishi can pretty much make a panel or two rather than making some insulting panels.

Anyways, If they throw the databook, then I can also throw the same.

Alright, can someone explain the highlighted sentence for me???? Because I want to confirm whether I have a blurry vision.

Here, Sasuke is trying to punctuate Naruto as a different person from the rest of his companions. ‘his companions as well as that with Naruto’, I mean, Come on!!!! Naruto is also one of your companions along with Sakura. Why differentiate????

‘The village, companions, Naruto,....’ . Again....He is differentiating his home (village), companions (his friends), and Naruto. So who is Naruto for him? What is the need to make exception for Naruto? It’s very clear he is placing Naruto at a high pedestal for some unknown reasons.

Before this Databook dissection, remember I said something about saying Goodbye, ‘ When you love someone or at least feel for someone, you will look into that person’s eyes and speak some farewell words before you leave‘

Sasuke is doing exactly that here in this scene without saying anything.

Am sorry SS shippers, you can scream all you want about Sasuke knocked her out and left her on the bench. But there was no emotional distraught when he left her. Sasuke seemingly spent a longer time staring at Naruto than looking at Sakura when she confessed. 

OROCHIMARU HIDEOUT

Well, there is nothing I can say about here for SS. He pretty much saw her and said, “Sakura, huh?”.. And that’s all. He didn’t give two shits about her. 

His attention was completely on someone else. 

UNDER THE BRIDGE

She sent Naruto to get Sasuke for her benefits, so she can keep him. Again, disregarding Sasuke’s feelings and what he wanted. Naruto should’ve said “I’ll bring him back because HE wants too, to keep HIM safe, not for you.”

Naruto pretty much said the same thing in this arc, Larry. Naruto, in part 1, was happy for Sakura feeling the same about Sasuke as him, that is ‘To bring him back’. And also sad that his crush really loves someone else. But after Sakura gave up on Sasuke and faking her confession, Naruto decided, ‘Alright, I want to save him personally. I don’t care about our promise anymore”. 

This is where, SS ship goes into a crazy ride and it’s not a positive one.

Sasuke was on a rampage. He lost the ability to differentiate between his friends and foes. He stabbed Karin. And when he find her alive, he was about to Chidori her. 

And then comes the pink princess, full of lies and deceit. And Sasuke being impatient and disgusted with her lies, he does this

Well, in part 1, she had a degree of power to change his heart. But not here. He, instead, got riled up more and even tried to kill her without a warning and that too by not looking at her face. Pathetic!!!!

This scene screams ‘Trust issues’ from both sides. 

Did it stop here???

Fucking Shit!!!!!! Is there any people who still ship this nonsense?. If you are a Sakura fan, you should hate her for the lack of trust and backstabbing the person she loves, 

If you are a Sasuke fan, errrrmmm.....I have nothing to say. You know what to do. 

There is nothing positive here, that can make me ship them. He is killing her like a Mosquito.

If you truly loved someone in the past, even in your darkest moments, you will be honest and you cannot fake before that person.   

Proof??

Here, Sasuke had a clear resolve to kill his brother, Itachi. He lived for this moment for about 8 years and immersed himself in Darkness for 3 years with Orochimaru. He could have run away, dodge or look away from Itachi. But Sasuke simply couldn’t!!! You know why?? Sasuke loved Itachi once more than anything in this world. At this moment, he is letting all those defense loose and embracing the moment and see what Itachi was about to do. Because somewhere in his heart he trusts Itachi. 

But killing Sakura doesn’t make Sasuke feel anything. She is just another victim like Danzo or Karin or all those Samurais or a fucking mosquito!!!!

So you are telling me that Sasuke had feelings for her but kept it hidden all along and still tried to kill her like a pest???

Give me a fucking break!!!!

And you all know, who changed Sasuke’s heart here in this scene. It was not Sakura. There’s absolutely no reason for Sasuke to listen to that person and what’s more, Sasuke even made a promise (despite being in darkness, he had it in his heart to listen to that person) to destroy Konoha only after killing that person .. 

WAR ARC

Well, this is the arc where Sakura behaves like a rabid dog on heat waiting for Sasuke and shamelessly trying to wag her tails. But Sasuke didn’t give two shits about her, not once or twice but multiple times.

MOMENT 1

An explosion was about to kill the whole shinobi alliance and this dude wants to save Jugo, his companion and Naruto, the person who will challenge his Revolution, his rival and the one whom he wants to kill. Why only Naruto??? Why not Naruto and Sakura???

Pink cherry Queen doesn’t even crossed Sasuke’s mind.  Because he already threw her away in part 1. 

MOMENT 2

Alright Bitch!!! The entire shinobi alliance was dying on the other side of the battlefield. And this asshole is doing a clownshow before Madara just to get inside Sasuke’s pants????

I mean, Come On!!!! 

Well, if Sasuke truly likes her, he should be the one to have catched her or atleast should have asked her, ‘are you alright??’ 

I am sorry, where are the romantic feelings???

MOMENT 3

ROFLLLL🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

For the first time, Kishimoto is trolling those Sakutards through Sasuke’s words, what we, readers were right about all along. He is calling her useless here. And still these fake feminazis trying to ship her with him???

Don’t you guys have any self respect??? If so, this should be the moment to jump out of this trash ship.

MOMENT 4

Geez!!! You are still on this ship????? 

He clearly doesn’t want to save her at all. The hawk can clearly lift 3 people. Sasuke is not even making an effort here. 

And you are still yapping that he is blinded by darkness??? 

MOMENT 5

This is the moment SS calls it as ‘eyesmex’... While in reality, he was just looking at her and silently thanking her for helping him out. Do you know what is a real ‘eyesmex’??? I will attach it at the end.

If you guys pull this as true love, then he should have stayed in the same love till the end. But Sasuke has other ideas. 

This is the one of the funniest thing in this arc. LOLLLLL

Instead of being relieved that Sakura was saved, Sasuke was wondering about Kakashi’s Susanoo.....and Sharingan. 

Do people still think he cares about her????

MOMENT 6

Am cackling here, while dissecting the sorry state of this ship guys 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣!!!! If something good happens to me because of SS , it’s just the way you guys are making me laugh by making a clown out of yourself!!!!

Do you guys know something? There was a man named Itachi. Before massacring his clan, the very first person he killed was his ‘supposed’ Girlfriend, named Izumi. I wouldn’t say Itachi loved her like a lover boy. It was just one sided on her part. He just talks to her when he finds a spare time and considers her a good friend. 

Do you know how he killed her? 

By putting her in a ‘Tsukuyomi’. And what kind of Tsukuyomi, you ask?

Can you see how he fulfilled her dreams gracefully before he was going to kill her???

Why didn’t Sasuke do this???? Why particularly select a murdering genjutsu????

MOMENT 7

He said it, finally.

He don’t love her at all. There was no hidden feelings. He admitted from his own mouth. 

One day later, after the final VoTE battle ends.... After exchanging some intense feelings and even crying tears of happiness with Naruto....

Sasuke tells Sakura, ‘Sorry’....

Ummm.... That’s all???

All those negative shits happened before cannot be solved by just simply saying ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thank you’. If someone has an ounce of self-respect, they should know this is not OKAY at all...🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

Am Sorry, but Sasuke was just being politely blunt, kind of insincere towards Sakura and turned his attention somewhere else in a matter of minutes. He was not even bothered by Sakura’s tears here. Instead staring at someone on his left. Remember I talked about touching the person physically and visually?

Sasuke is subconsciously or purposefully touching someone on his left through his eyes. Definitely it’s not Sakura. You know who it is. Remember SStards’ infamous ‘eyesmex’... I seriously believe this is a perfect example of ‘eyesmex’.

All these intense looks and feeling pain still doesn’t serve Sakura, even after pulled out of darkness. If there is a moment, where SS wants to shine, then this is where it should be. He should have told her, how he missed her all along, how he felt about hurting her, should have wiped her tears and some corny shit. But instead, Sasuke went for a long ass monologue for his friend and talking about sharing his pain. 

What about your kween’s pain???? 

You don’t have to ship SNS. But you should know where Sasuke’s priorities are. 

It’s not Sakura. 

Sasuke said ‘Sorry’ to Karin too. ‘Thank you’ to Kakashi as well. 

And what’s even more pathetic is, still Sakura wants to get inside Sasuke’s pants by accompanying him. Bitch, you can help your village, console your best friend Ino who lost her father, try to surpass Tsunade, improve your skills or whatever... Why bother him???

So, if you really think ‘Thank you’ as a token of love, then I can’t help it but term Sakura as a rabid dog who waits for her master to come home and throw some bones whenever he finds time. Your standards for a romantic love is piss poor and you will suffer just like Sakura in Boruto with just emptiness. All Sasuke did was poke her forehead just like Itachi which symbolizes keeping someone at a distance. He also said the same words to her just like Itachi said to him many times ‘Mata kondo da’ meaning ‘Maybe next time’. And we all knew that next time never came for Sasuke. 

Now all we see is a Sasuke as an absentee father in Boruto for which I don’t blame him. He was never a marriage material in the first place. Sakura and the Manga Editors forced him and she is paying for it. 

Hell, Sarada doesn’t know how her own father looks like or the truth of her mother. Both of them were miserable and I find it absolutely ridiculous when SS shippers still say “they’re in love” or they’re OTP.

All I want to say to SS shippers is, Your Ship Has Sailed Already. You cannot expect Sasuke to go lovey dovey towards Sakura with a 12 year old daughter around and for fuck’s sake, this is not a romance manga, it’s a battle manga. So stop dreaming about this kind of non-existential romance and pull yourself altogether.

[fromthefishbowl]

Can you elaborate on how they don’t see Marwan as a person please ?

Okay, so... here's the thing: most, if not all, the people who claim to be constantly working against racism in fandom are, themselves, so fucking racist it's incredible. Racist and xenophobic and antisemitic and overcompensating like hell because they know they're shitty people but actually working through their problems is too hard so they have to pretend it's the others, who are racist and xenophobic and antisemitic.

They pretend to like Marwan because they can use him as a prop for their internet wokeness and virtue signalling, and they pretend to care about racism in fandom spaces because it's one of the easiest ways to gain attention and followers. But we all have seen what they do when one of them is outed as being actually racist to the point of using racial slurs against MENA people: they fall into silence and make excuses and then get mad when people won't let them move on as if nothing happened because they think they didn't do anything wrong ever. Sending death threats, rape threats, insults, harassment, writing slurs against the people they pretend to be campaigning for... all this shit is normal, to them.

Their attitude towards people like Marwan pops out when they interact with actual MENA and Muslim people: they belittle them, insult them, send them links to articles written by white Americans about how to discuss Islam.

Just look at how they write Nicky: they perceive him as "white" - lmao - so they use him as the token racist character that can embody their dumb thoughts about Joe/Marwan - which... again, it's incredible how xenophobic these people are too. Like, it's clear that they are in this fandom because "brown man give us brown points uwu" and they couldn't give a shit about any of the characters, not even Joe, because if they actually cared they wouldn't have propped up an artist who draws him a thousand shades darker than how he actually is -. So Nicky, the character who is canonically always shown as being head over heels for Joe, turns into a racist, ignorant gremlin uncaring of his husband's culture and who doesn't respect him.

Like... even the whole debacle of "if Nicky rapes Joe it's fine because colonialism" is so fucking stupid. These people just like to imagine Joe/Marwan being abused. It's a fetish they turned into morality. Like... it's fine if you want to be fucked by Luca, you don't have to make up a discourse around it. You're fine with the thought of being dicked down by Chris Evans, you should be fine with the thought of being dicked down by Luca Marinelli too. Literally the only difference is that you're xenophobic and it really shows.

But to go back to Marwan... I was talking about it with a fandom friend, and they said that they like to "defang" him and his characters: they are scared of him, so they need to neuter him, take away from him any characteristics that make him """big""" and """scary""". It really says something, the fact that Len the Defender of the Weak Moroccan People and Undiscussed Maghrebi Princess, in that long ass post about how much of a victim she is, talked about MENA men being dangerous thugs and used Majid as inspiration: she couldn't make him defenseless and small and uwu, because Majid is aggressive, hot headed, a criminal - which... what a fucking shallow read of his character, my god - so he scared her and was the first thought when she came up with the idea of "lemme write a woe is me post and include how dangerous and unruly the MENA men I know are".

So when they write Joe they make sure to eliminate every possible thing that scares them. Canonically, Joe is protective, active, aggressive when people hurt his family; he is open and charismatic and loves deeply, but he also doesn't forgive easily; he hunts down Keane with the specific purpose of murdering him for having shot his husband and insists that Booker needs to be exiled for a hundred years for what he did; he is not religious in any possible way, and when he swears, he says the names of Catholic saints. But he can't be these things, because Marwan is a brown man - fuck, how much I hate relegating people to their race. So fucking American, I swear - and if a brown man does these things then he scares them, so they turn him into this... weak, demure creature who cannot get mad because otherwise it's racist, who cannot stand up for himself and his family because otherwise it's racist, who cannot do this or that because otherwise it's racist. They make him religious to the point of being almost a fundamentalist, but orientalize Islam by taking away any restrictive aspects and make it all flowers and rainbows. They write Joe as the stereotype of the Noble Savage: he can only be positive things because somehow he hasn't been corrupted by the evil white civilization to the point that he even lets his husband insult him. Ooooh, how big is their Joe's heart!

And the same thing is applied to how they want people to perceive Marwan: he's just a widdle boi. When people were joking about him being a Dutch fuckboi - which... he is, he really is -, they were going mad and saying it was racist. Why would it be racist? How? Because Len told you about that stereotype about MENA men she got completely wrong? Marwan is a charismatic, handsome guy who clearly knows how he looks and who works in an industry where he is constantly around people who are as beautiful and charismatic as him. He is aware of how good looking he is. He talked in interviews about how he likes to "chat up girls". He makes fun of it himself, and yet we can't talk about it because "Brown man with a sexual life they can't control" scares them, it makes him an actual person and not just a picture or a video they can reblog with dumb tags about his looks immediately followed by racial slurs.

They defang him. They neuter him. They take away his humanity because, if Marwan were human, he'd have "bad" characteristics too, and they just can't have that because then he'd become scary again.

And like... let's always remember that when Len saw him with a look she didn't like and that made him look like probably 50% of MENA men who are over a certain age, her first instinct was to insult him with a racial slur and think it was something cute to do.

[sin-of-sloth-my-ass]

The Fallen Fairy Pt.2

A/N: I’m glad I’m not the only one who taught this fandom is way too quiet 🥺 Thank you all so much for the support! There will be two more parts after this 💕

Warnings: spoilers

Genre: neutral? (I’m not very good at this oops)

Previous ~ Next

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Meliodas had left shortly after checking in on you, telling you he'd seek out Merlin, so they could conduct a plan.

You frowned as you witnessed Gowther use absolute blackout on Britannia and wondered what could've possibly caused it.

You refrained yourself from going there, knowing that Merlin and Meliodas were in the capital and perfectly capable of handling the situation.

As you predicted, everyone had soon returned to the bar, with only Merlin and Meliodas acknowledging you in your usual spot. Somehow it always went over all the others head that you were usually seated there.

You could hear the commotion from inside the Boarhead. From Gowther that turned out to be a doll to how insensitive Meliodas was towards Elizabeth.

You could hear Slater trying to cheer up the princess, so you decided to join as well.

"If push comes to shove, I'll protect you, princess Elizabeth." You vowed as you slid down the roof and landed in front of her.

"(Y/N)-san!" She gasped at your sudden appearance.

"Meliodas can be a knucklehead sometimes. Please don't seek truth in his words" you told her to which she nodded your head. "Now I suggest holding on because Merlin is about to take us on a trip"

As the words left your mouth, Hawk-mama shot up in the sky and flew in the global direction that you presumed was Camelot.

"Merlin how could you! We left (Y/N) behind! Now she doesn't have anyone after King left without saying goodbye to her either" Diana fumed, which strangely warmed your heart. It had been a while since anyone sincerely cared about you.

"I'm here, Diane" you smiled as you laid your hand softly on her shoulder.

"(Y/N)! Where were you?" She cried as she flung her arms around you, taking you a bit by surprise. When was the last time someone hugged you? You brushed it off, thinking she just was this affectionate towards you because you reminded her of King.

"My usual spot on the roof" you sheepishly let out as you pointed upwards. You chuckled at her visible confused expression "I'll show you once this is over"

You could hear a distant roar, making everyone's gaze snapped towards the direction of the sound "looks like we finally made it to the party"

Meliodas defeated the demon without hardly breaking a sweat, leaving you to rekindle with Arthur and his men.

The small talk was soon over as Galan made its presences known to everyone, whipping a part of Camelot in the process.

"Ooh it's my lucky day, Meliodas and (Y/N) in the same place" Galan taunted as he took notice of you as well. "I could take you back and blackmail Zeldris. Even better! I could just kill you now and rile him up. Maybe he'd finally fight me with that power leaned from the Demon King."

"What..." You heard Diane mumble beside you in confusion as he looked between you and the demon.

Meliodas interrupted Galan's taunts by charging right at him.

In the heat of the fight, you all got messed up pretty bad. Even more so if it hadn't been for Gowther.

Everyone was currently retreating in the castle, getting their wounds treated by the healers that were located there.

You had lost a lot of blood by jumping in front of Meliodas when Galan wanted to strike. It left you with a nasty wound that ran across your stomach and a broken sword.

You had woken up due to the commotion King was making about Diane losing her memories, not even sparing you a second glance.

Hurt flashed across your face for a mere second before you returned to your Stoic posture. You had hoped that somewhere along the lines King had started to view you as a friend, but it was clear that you that were only his sub-ordinate. Only a royal guard that had always vowed to protect the Fairy King. Nothing more, nothing less.

King wasn't Gloxinia, he didn't care if you got hurt as the past Fairy King did. It was expected of you to protect him with your life, so why should he?

Nobody had noticed you waking up, not even when you sat up straight and hissed at the sudden burning sensation at overtook your body. Nobody did, except for Slater "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was laying on death's doorstep" you groaned silently as you pulled up your shirt slightly to inspect the wound.

"Careful not to reopen it. You've lost a lot of blood" he warned at which you snorted "You should've seen me when my wings got torn out. Anyway, how are the others doing?"

He quickly gave you a rundown on everyone's wellbeing to which you gave a small nod. "Seem like we're going after Diane. Let's go, (Y/N)-san"

Slater picked up Gowther before picking you up as well "I'm fine, Slater, I can walk"

"mhm and Gowther has emotions" he replied as he followed the others back to the Boarhead.

"Aah, Tinkerbell! You're awake" Meliodas beamed at you as Slater sat you down to which you quietly thanked him.

"It appears so" you confirmed as you shifted in your seat until you found a comfortable position. "Princess Elizabeth, could I ask you to go to my room and look for a small veil in my drawers that contains a blue like paste? If you could also bring some bandages along with you that would be great"

"You still have that stuff?" King asked as he tore his gaze away from the window to look at you.

"My King, how was your trip to the Fairy King's Forest?" You asked, ignoring his previous question.

"Ah, Uhm, eventful," he said scratching his neck, guilt suddenly flooding his senses as he realized he never told you goodbye or where he was headed.

"Is this the one?" Elizabeth rejoined the group right on time to break the heavy tension that was slowly seeping through.

You pulled your shirt over your head, exposing the nasty looking wound and your bra in the progress. King's cheeks immediately turned crimson as he quickly looked away "Y- (Y/N)! At least warn us when you're about to do something like that!"

You raised your eyebrow at him unimpressed, seeing as he was the only one that had a problem with you doing so. "Sorry, my King, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

You grit your teeth as you placed the paste on your wound before wrapping yourself in the bandages Princess Elizabeth got you as well. "I remember that stuff from back in the day, that hurts like hell"

"Still does" you agreed with Meliodas as you got dressed again.

"I can sense Diane up ahead" Merlin stated, catching everyone's attention, but your senses got overwhelmed by the familiar presence of one man.

Unknown to you, he had also sensed your presence from miles away, a smirk playing at his lips. He knew Galan couldn't defeat you that easily.

"Whatever you think you're doing, don't" Estarossa warned him as he noticed how restless Zeldris was growing.

"Keep out of this. I'm going to recollect what's mine"

[soranis-sunshadow]

Hordak can’t catch a break even on his birthday...

Oh fandom, you really like this sort of drama don’t you? 

A few days ago, on Hordak’s birthday, there was this ‘interesting’ post in the tag – since, apparently it’s impossible to get any peace even on that day.

I was  too tired to answer it at the time after being on call the day before so, here’s my delayed answer to all of that:

First off: this post has this bit in it when asked what that person dislikes about SPOP.

 He doesn’t need to get a redemption and he doesn’t get one in the show. 

None of his actions constitute a redemption arc. The man merely acknowledged his personhood and freed himself from his master and God. That’s what his arc was about: the right to have a personal identity. 

He gave himself a name and wanted to be his own person. That’s it. That’s all he wanted.

The man was merely freed from Prime’s influence- an influence he was born into since he’s been specifically manufactured to serve as a disposable mass produced soldier and worshipper of Prime.

 If the argument that Catra was “forced” to commit crimes and thus she is not completely guilty of them since she was under duress – then the argument doubly holds for a person who has been directly programmed and conditioned to do so under the threat of death or mental rape (purification).\

Even while away from Prime, he was still conditioned to obey and brainwashed by Prime’s cult. He literally knew nothing else – he was not meant to. It’s how indoctrination works.  

Prime’s clones aren’t people to Prime, they are tools. Those clones, while cut off from Prime still want to serve and please him: That’s what Wrong Hordak’s purpose in the show is- to show us just that.

Hordak is not considered “OK”  because Entrapta likes him. Hordak is merely shown – by Entrapta that he could live apart from his cult and have worth outside what Prime tells him he has. 

Just like real life cult victims, he needs an outsider to help him see a way out of the cult. The nature of indoctrination and brainwashing makes it impossible for the brainwashed person to know they are brainwashed unless someone points it out.

Now for my favorite thing:

and

oh and

Oh boy… this makes me just so damn uncomfortable.

To offer a bit of context as to why. I have never been on social media before SPOP or in any fandom and as such, I have never encountered the ‘all men are evil’ discourse that seems to infest these places. It’s been quite a bit of culture shock for me. 

What is it that makes anyone think it is ok to judge a person because of an accident of birth? (being born male)

Why does hate for 50% of the human population get such a free pass on these platforms? Misandry is just as terrible as misogyny. You are being biased against another human because of their gender. I don’t care that males are perceived as ‘privileged’ – that doesn’t make it ok to be terrible to them unprovoked. 

How does hating all men help achieve equity?

Do you realize that this sort of discourse is exactly how you radicalize people against the very cause you are championing? You breed hate and adversity for the rest of us who actually want to to have a discussion on the topic. 

I’m a feminist myself (in a country where feminism is hard-work) and let me tell you, making all men hate us does nothing but push away potential allies and make it a lot harder for our voices to be heard.

Feminism is about equality, not women dominating.

Now onto the second post: the one comparing Catra and Hordak with the question of which of them is a better person. 

This whole war orphans that were personally abducted and tortured into serving the horde HC that some ppl have is really starting to get boorish. This has been going on for more than 6 months. 

I have no idea why everyone thinks he went down chimneys and stealing babies left and right while cackling villainously. The man had a busy schedule of brooding in his lab, wallowing at his inability to use insulated cables and having his device blowing up in his face with the occasional Skype call to Shadow Weaver to see what the Horde is doing. 

And yet, to a part of the fandom, this is what he looked like:

( @bat-burrito​ made this one and it’s glorious) 

And if you don’t believe me about the lab recluse thing, you don’t have to, the show pretty much states it for me. 

and 

+

Hordak is a recluse that stayed in his lab and let the running of the Horde and most operations to Shadow Weaver and later Catra. He did not personally abuse anyone and he is not the origin of the cycle of abuse.

Shadow Weaver was a child grooming manipulative woman before she even joined the Horde – she did this to Micah while she was not “evil” or presumably abused by Hordak.

Even if you want to HC that Hordak abused her somehow, he is still not the one who started the cycle: Horde Prime is. 

The whole fandom seems to forget about the eldritch monstrosity that created a whole army of brainwashed slaves to worship and die for him. Prime is the one that sent Hordak to die and gave him the motivation to try to prove himself worthy of life and love. If you want to point fingers, point them at the origin of all of this. This fandom has a strange Prime blindness. He is never talked about when it comes to being the start of all of this.

If Prime didn’t exist, Hordak wouldn’t exist. If Prime hadn’t sent Hordak off to die, then his clone wouldn’t have accidentally ended up on Etheria. None of the things in the show would have happened.

Adora would have died of exposure in a field, the monarchies on Etheria would have continued as they are and the planet would have continued to exist in despondos. 

He is a dictator, yes. So are the princesses. Monarchies are dictatorships where the ruler is born into power. Hordak gained his through military might while Glimmer was born with hers and enforced it with tradition. I don’t really care to play “who’s the better dictator”. The princesses have their power because of the runestones- magical rocks put there by the First Ones to channel the planet’s magic and use it as a weapon. How come no one talks about that?

Do you think a king/queen keeps their crown without effort or subjugation of their subjects? 

Also, Hordak had never interacted with Catra before SW dragged her before him to be judged. He was indifferent to etherians in general and didn’t seem to care which of them were his underlings so long as the operations were running smoothly. He was more focused on his portal and returning home than on anything else. He did not set out to “ruin lives” or quest for power. What he wanted was to return to his deity and become a mindless part of the whole again – that is as opposite to power hungry as you can get.

Catra was directly abused by Shadow Weaver throughout her childhood. That makes Shadow weaver responsible for 100% of that abuse.

Catra was found in a box by Adora and adopted by Shadow Weaver. Hordak didn’t know or care that she existed.

He is responsible for the war, he is responsible for the war casualties and the property damage. He is not responsible for Shadow Weaver being a terrible person and mother figure.

Again with the orphan thing. We have 5 cadets in the show. 

Adora was found in a field. 

Catra was found in a box. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio are unexplained. The only lizard ppl we see in the show are in the Horde or the Crimson Wastes. The other two could just as well be the children of some of the soldiers. 

I may harp on about what a bitch Shadow Weaver is – the reason I do so is because she is legitimately terrible to the two girls in her care.

I was the unfavorite growing up, I WAS the Catra in my family who could do no right while my sibling was the golden child. I don’t however hate Shadow Weaver. She is a cartoon character in a show and she does the things she was written to do. Hell, she is a very compelling and believable villain. Her motivations are clear and she is consistent. Her voice actress portrayed her splendidly and her character design is superb. I like her but that doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge her role in the story. I don’t however make up parts of the story to make her more evil than she was or treat my headcanons about her as absolute fact. 

Again, sigh: Prime is the worst villain in the show. He is quite literally Nyarlathotep and does this to planets: 

 This to people: 

and this to the people he created to serve, worship and love him: 

How is that not worse?

I love Catra and it genuinely annoys me when people erase her agency or try to paint her as one-dimensional victim. Catra was an antagonist for most of the show and she rocked it! She was 400% more efficient at it than cloneboy. Give the queen some damn respect and recognition! Catra had a lot of agency and her actions moved the plot of the show more than those of the protagonists. (they were mostly reactive).

Catra pulled the lever of the portal in a moment of distress after a breakdown, a Shadow-Weaver related breakdown because that’s how trauma works.

Hordak didn’t make her do it, he didn’t send Catra after Adora either. These were Catra’s choices. They came from a place of hurt but they were her choices still.

The portal was a means of transportation, not a weapon. Building it was not Catra’s mission, it was Hordak’s. He built it so he could contact Prime and either summon him here or go home –whichever course of action Prime wanted. Again, Hordak wanted to go back to this:

...

The only person who knew the device was dangerous was Entrapta and she tried to warn Hordak about it. Catra was the one who stopped her, violently so, then sent her to die on Beast Island- the fate Entrapta saved her from a season ago. Catra then tried to have Hordak open the portal before it was ready.

When he wouldn’t – she pulled the lever herself because that is how desperate she had gotten at that point, to show Shadow Weaver how wrong she was. That is how hurt Catra was by her mother figure’s betrayal and abuse.

Don’t take that away from her. Don’t call it curiosity or naivete or whatever. She knew the portal was dangerous but she wanted to prove Shadow Weaver wrong so badly that she didn’t care at that point. She had been pushed that far. 

Catra’s actions led to Angella’s death but she was not directly responsible for it. She didn’t activate the device to kill Angella, it merely happened accidentally. Catra was however glad it happened and wanted to profit from the aftermath of her death.  

Hordak didn’t care or plan to kill Angella personally. There is no in-show moment where any of that is portrayed. Since he doesn’t care about the specifics of running the horde seem to know what they are conquering at the moment, it seems that that was usually a task reserved for his second in command. 

^ - troop movement ordered by Catra

Hordak doesn’t even know what his own army is doing.

Again with the Hordak “drilling into orphan’s minds”… I seriously doubt that any of them had ever seen him out of his lab or that he came up with the propaganda himself.

Manipulation is more Shadow Weaver’s game not his. For all of Hordak’s faults, he is not deceptive or manipulative. If anything, he is woefully incapable of spotting lies. (it might have something to do with him being born in a society where lies were almost impossible because of the hive mind and Prime being able to browse his thoughts at a whim- as such, it wouldn’t be a skill he would have been able to develop).

Hordak canonically despises deception and lies.  I really don’t understand where this image of a manipulative and cunning Hordak comes from. He wouldn’t be able to plot himself out of a paper bag if his life depended on it.

First off.. S4 Catra was his equal, not his subordinate. Don’t take that away from her. She earned it.

He doesn’t look that threatening here... 

And again:  Prime created the system. He made clone slaves and programmed them to serve. His clones have hardware installed for the express reason to facilitate his control over them. He has a religion in place to make sure their thoughts do not stray from his purpose. I am legitimately boggled by this fandom’s tendency to completely forget about his existence.Does anyone really think that these people that are born “prechipped” and programmed to know nothing but Prime’s Light are really knowledgeable about human morality?

That they would know that conquest is bad when that is the express reason for their creation? 

If I were born in that situation, I’m not sure I would have known any better. Hell, if any of the clones even try to disobey Prime, they would get either mindraped (erased) or killed for the effort. They really have no choice, even if they knew that killing in Prime’s name is wrong (they don’t) they really can’t do anything about it. They have no choice but to be what they were made to be. I find it personally abhorrent when these designer slaves are held accountable for what Prime has made them do.

And to the people that say Hordak was free of Horde Prime once he was stranded on Etheria.. That is not how indoctrination works. The fact that I can’t go to church this Sunday because I’m locked in the house and can’t find the keys doesn’t make me an atheist.

Hordak was serving Prime even on Etheria. He keeps mentioning it to both Entrapta and Catra. He started the war because that’s what he thought Prime wanted of him and that’s what he’s been programmed to do. Personal and informed choice really doesn’t factor into his decision at all.

He is not sympathetic because Entrapta likes him. Notice how I haven’t brought up his relationship with her up to this point?

He is sympathetic because he literally had no choice but to do the things he was indoctrinated into doing. He was build and programmed for it, just like all the other clones. They are not able to deviate from that because of the way Prime functions and rules over them.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests. He attempts to emulate Prime in order to project authority in the only way he knows how but since those are some really big shoes to fill, he is woefully inadequate. 

If Hordak had been power hungry, he would have stayed in despondos and ruled his own faction. Being away from Prime is the most powerful and autonomous he’s ever been and yet, he wants to throw all of that away in order to be a powerless, nameless part of the whole. What Hordak wanted was to be enslaved by Prime because that’s what he had been created for.

“vengeful” – and how did Hordak manifest this vengefulness? Who did he take revenge on in the series?  

“apologize” – when and where in his 3 minutes of screentime would he remember everything after 2 mindwipes, realize that the whole worldview he had since inception is wrong, realize that he had been mistaken into doing the horrible things he did and then go to all of the characters and apologize for it?

Would anyone be convinced of that had it happened in 3 minutes? I’d rather they don’t redeem him than do a shit job at it.

Very true. He’s not a better person. He’s just a person in an impossible situation. Both Hordak and Catra were handed a raw deal, I don’t understand why everyone insists on pitting them against one another. They both did bad things and they were both in horrible situations. The specifics don’t really matter since neither of them would have done the things they did had they been more fortunate.

This is the exact reason for which I don’t hold Cara’s actions against her. Catra’s only model of success was Shadow Weaver. She emulated her abusive mother figure because she had no other example and because she wanted to please that woman. It does not excuse the way Catra acted but it explains it.

I really don’t understand why some people want Catra punished. I’d rather she get love and help. That is what she needs. In time, she will want to do better and be better by herself. She doesn’t need to be forced, heavens know, she’s been forced enough as it is.

They are really different. Catra got an abusive, shitty and violent childhood. Hordak got this:

He was literally robbed of a childhood. 

She was taught by Shadow Weaver that weakness gets you killed. Hordak was not allowed to have emotions to begin with, or thoughts of his own, or a name...

Comparing to victims of abuse to see which one of them is more likable is such a strange concept to me.

Catra was robbed in s5 too. I don’t hold that against her. I  blame it on the writers. S5 could have been a lot better. 

[redteabaron]

Different anon… Here is the thing though, Drogo/Dany isn’t a parallel to sansan. People who make that comparison either lack severe reading comprehension, which is not surprising for this fandom, or they want to use it to validate sansan. (Tyrion was the older guy Sansa was forced to marry. Dany and Sansa have opposite journeys and their marriages are a part of that.) But sansan’s mirror is Jorah/Dany. Book!Jorah is an older guy who has a creepy obsession with a teenage girl. He dumps his trauma on her, he projects onto her. But he is also her advisor, her confidante early on, his protector. There are also the same BaTB elements sansans love to talk about. She even refers to him as her bear. But he was lusting after her ever since they met and then he assaulted her. He forced himself on her. She is uncomfortable with his actions, but she doesn’t possess the necessary language and she doesn’t understand consent (we know this because of how she frames her relationship with Drogo but also how she expected Lhazareen women to be ok, even be thankful for being married to their rapists, and her dubcon relationship with Irri) so she recontextualize what happened and chastise Jorah for kissing her not because she is a teenager and he shouldn't and she didn’t consent to but because she is his Queen. That's the language she has, so she expresses her discontent, disapproval, rejection with that. Sandor was verbally, psychologically, physically abusive to Sansa but he also occasionally protected her in King’s Landing. He lusted after her, made sexually inappropriate comments to an 11 year old child but he was also the only one in KL to have honest conversations with her. Then he assaulted her, held her at knife point. She was afraid of him kissing her, killing her, she had nightmare about the assault which she clearly registered as a sexual one despite what his fans claim his intentions were. Sansa has a habit of romanticizing/redefining these things. Sansa thinks Arys Oakheart was preferable, that he was kind because he beat her less hard than the other Kingsguard. She remembers Tyrion as someone who were kind to her, someone better than Joffrey even though he molested her and she had him in her nightmares too. She separates Littlefinger and Petyr in her mind because just like with the other men before him the thought of her sometimes-protector at the same time being her abuser is too much for her. Just like Dany she recontextualizes what the Hound did to her and turns the assault into a song to cope with it.

These two pairings has the same dynamic, the difference is fandom’s response to it. (The slight differences are that Dany had actual amiable feelings for Jorah -not romantic love or sexual feelings but friendly, sisterly love for him- and she as a Queen had a lot more agency than Sansa as a prisoner had. She isn't as powerless as Sansa, she could have easily banished him, punished him, even ordered his death.) But no one in fandom writes essay after essay why and how could and should Jorah and Dany end up together. It’s an outrageous suggestion. Dany is a main character, she is the heroine. She is a Queen. Why should she ever end up with someone as lowly as Jorah? Someone as old, as ugly as Jorah? But Sansa, meh she is not an important character. And she needs to be punished, first because she was a child making childish mistakes. Secondly, she is shallow, she refused to be raped by her older, ugly husband. So she needs to end up with an older ugly guy to humble her. Even when the author expressed his distaste of the trope of a noble girl running away with a lowly guy in medieval stories, nah that doesn’t matter here. Sansa being of high nobility, a princess won’t have any factor at all who she’s gonna end up with. They had to keep assuring themselves that she is not a main character so she could even end up with a villainous character, that she is not a Stark so she could end up with people who hurt/fight against her family. The hypocrisy of this fandom, and their selective reading is most clear when it comes to these two “couples”. Almost all sansans (whether it is the actual shippers or those who think it’ll happen because well it’s Sansa what else she’s gonna do besides being a reward bride for some hideous guy) hate Jorah/Dany (as they should) while trying to justify how and why Sansa should end up with the hound. Let's forget the abuse and pedophile, let's assume those never happened, even then it makes no sense. There is not a narratively satisfying way, a logical reason how Sansa could be with Sandor. But they ignore all that because it doesn't fit in with their vision, with their interpretation of the books and characters. Because admitting Sansa is a main character and more than a reward for their pedo fave has a ripple affect, it challenges all their theories, they all crumble. And they just can't let go of their 2 decades old theories, they just have to be right, they must be right. That's why they all took the show's ending as a personal offense, especially the QiTN Sansa. I just can't wait for the books!

Yeah, agreed. jorah and sandor are mirrors of each other. I mean I hope they both die without any glory or honor, personally. I don't really care if they have sacrificial deaths for the greater good - or whatever framing the show had intended - jorah and sandor were also whitewashed and made more pitiable/likeable.

Whenever dany x dr*go is used to validate literally ANY pairing, I am suspish. In particular when we acknowledge that dany absolutely couldn't consent - she was 13 iirc - and was sold off by her abusive brother to a man twice her age, but Sansa reimagining her trauma about Sandor's assault to something less traumatic is considered being hateful to Sandor because he's unattractive. (And I never really listen whenever ppl give me shit or deny it was assault; pertaining to my job, I'm pretty fucking aware what assault or intention-to-assault looks like, and I think most ppl do to, they just seem to lose awareness when it comes to their ships or certain characters).

I think it has to do with Sansa being the archetypal "Pretty Popular Girl" - the one who like feminine things, sort of fussy, likes feminine colors and just in general is feminine. She seems to remind people of the classic mean popular girl we saw popularized in 1990s-2000s high school movies - the one who gets her comeuppance in the end when the non-feminine girl somehow triumphs in whatever way, or she's the one who learns her lesson and stops being quite so feminine, or hooks up with a most-popular guy. The Mean/Pretty Popular girl has to be humbled in some fashion. Fans who don't like her, tend to view this as a way for her to pay for the error of her ways.

Like being a prisoner of war. Or not wanting to fuck tyrion. Or not wanting to run away with sandor.

I mean...all of asoiaf, beyond the politics and magic, is all about trauma and the human response to it - which is varied and depends on circumstances, personalities, and a lot of other things. One of the more vile things GOT did was whitewash jorah and tyrion the way they did imo. Jorah was a predator, circling Dany, regardless of whether she thought of him fondly, he just happened to not be violent towards her - she cries when he forces a kiss on her. Tyrion was a predator who molested her when he acknowledged she was a child "but he wanted her anyway". I've seen a lot of ppl react more sympathetically towards Dany. I haven't seen much recrimination against dany for refusing him the way we see sansa being hated for not wanting tyrion or sandor, hell, even petyr.

But - Sansa, imo, in the larger or at least circles of the fandom that have been around longer, is a more ideal whipping girl for the outlet a lot of ppl crave. See again the popular girl trope. She can't fight, she has no magical creatures, she is not a Chosen One of any kind. She has her wits and her ability to observe and adapt who has no choice but to navigate survival surrounded by people who have more agency and power than she does. That's it. I guess in a world of amazing abilities and magic and warfare, this is very boring, particularly when she doesn't weaponize her femininity or sexuality, where she's beautiful without being dangerous or magical or erotic. And I guess ppl feel that because of that, she needs to be punished for not being as extraordinary as she should be, OR, because she was the "Mean Popular Girl" (she wasn't) she must be humbled, and the ones to do it are the ones she refuses.

It's really delicious knowing they don't get "to have her" 🤢. Hopefully they just both fuck off to the ends of the world or die, idc they deserve zero thought.

[ruffboijuliaburnsides]

OKAY so last night i said something in tags about “ask me about my thoughts on atla post-canon polyamory” 99% because I had typed a bunch of shit in the tags and then accidentally CLOSED THE TAB thus losing said tags, so that was a bummer, BUT like 3 different people reached out wanting to hear about it so HERE GOES. (thanks to @taibhsearachd for rambling this out with me last night)

SO. this started bc we got somehow on the topic of how much we really disliked the whole Aang/Katara kiss at the end of the show.  Not because we’re against them kissing (Aang had to already have turned 13 by then, an innocent kiss is perfectly reasonable for a 13yo in my opinion), but because the placement of the kiss made it so... CENTRAL. We were talking about how we would’ve liked the kiss to have been earlier, preferably before the big finale, and then like... they still could’ve had a soft romantic moment on the balcony but it could’ve been like.  Hand holding or sitting together with Katara’s head on his shoulder.

And Birdie mentioned she’d always liked Zutara back in Ye Olde Tymes because the whole “Aang and Katara get together when they’re barely 13 and 15″ thing just seemed... really untenable if we’re going with endgame, AND it made a lot of sense to get Katara and Zuko together politically, especially since there’s nooooo princess up north anymore since she turned into the moon and all. But the resurgence of the fandom (thank you for once Netflix!) has opened our eyes to ZUKO AND SOKKA and that’s fuckin amazing but now we’re back to square one in re: Aang and Katara. But then I realized that we can fix all of this with a) allowing for healthy breakups of relationships that don’t work yet but might work when the people involved have grown/processed things, and b) extensive polyamory.

And so here’s my thought:

Aang and Katara break up for a while probably not long after the end of book 3.  They’re fucking kids, they’re traumatized kids no less, and they both have a lot of shit they need to deal with both personally and in the world that isn’t really conducive to “baby’s first serious relationship”.  They’re still friends, they view it as “well... let’s maybe try again in a few years if we’re both still interested”.  All their friends are aware of this and supportive and in the end it’s healthy for both of them bc their traumas and coping mechanisms didn’t always play nice with each other even BEFORE all the fallout from the finale and having to take on more responsibility in the world and such.

Zuko properly gets with Sokka and Suki during this time, though there’s no talk of like. Marriage or anything. Yes, Sokka’s politically got the same sort of appeal as Katara, but the thing about politically advantageous marriages at that level is there’s sort of the assumption that you’ll be, y’know, having heirs, so Sokka’s not really cut out for that and Suki flat out refused to be official Fire Lady or whatever.

So once Katara and Aang are older, like Aang’s 17 and Katara’s 19 and Zuko’s sitting over here at 21, and his advisors are all “ok but seriously Fire Lord Zuko, we really should look into at least a BETROTHAL of some sort” and he just sighs, and they’re bringing up all these Fire Nation ladies and he’s like “no it’s gotta be more diplomatic than that, she shouldn’t be Fire Nation” and so one of them’s like “well, uh, that water tribe lady you’re friends with, she’s set to be a pretty strong leader as she gets older, that would be a good way to do it.  Or that blind Earth Kingdom--” “NOT TOPH.” “ok but seriously, tho, think about it your majesty”

So Zuko’s torn because he really does like Katara, and she’d be an amazing Fire Lady in addition to being an amazing... whatever her title would be down in the Southern Water Tribe (I definitely picture her and Sokka basically being the leaders of the pan-tribal council - he handles military and adjacent stuff and she handles the rest).  But Katara’s with Aang again FINALLY not that they’ve made a big deal of it outside their friends.  BUT he knows that y’know... people can be with more than one person.  Hell, look at him and Sokka and Suki, right?

So he goes to talk to Aang like “I want to make sure I run this past you so she doesn’t have to try and do it, because I’m the one even bringing it up, and it’s obviously up to her, BUT here’s the sitch”.

And see, the thing about the Air Nomads is it really doesn’t make sense to me that they’d have the same kind of ideas about like.  Monogamy and parenthood and relationships as other nations, ‘cause like.... the kids are clearly raised communally.  Like, I vote ‘you probably know who your parents are but really all the adults are your parents, maybe you get an extra cake from them on your birthday but that’s about it’ for the most part. And y’know being with who you want to be with sort of thing. Sure you’ll have people you might be more committed to, but by and large the general consensus is “love who you love, whoever and however many people that is!”

So Zuko’s all prepared to angst for even ASKING if Aang would mind playing technical second fiddle in an heir-producing/marriage/inheritance/etc sense to HIM, ugh what if Aang hates him for even thinking it? and Aang’s just like “oh yeah that’s cool dude, if she’s down go for it! You wanna talk to her together? I don’t mind being there to reassure her it’s ok, and that you weren’t asking me permission to ask her so much as you were making sure it wouldn’t upset me if you did, and all that” and Zuko’s like “...what. I.  Ok sure?”

And Katara does like Zuko, she just y’know, also liked Aang and didn’t want to GIVE UP Aang, but Zuko’s like “it’ll be good for our people, and I’d never make you stay in the fire nation full time you have your own responsibilities and also you don’t have to stop being with Aang or even like hide it or anything, it’s not like people don’t know I’m with Sokka and stuff, it’s just, y’know, OFFICIAL HEIRS and stuff” and so she’s like “Oh!  Oh, yeah, that’s good, we can have a couple kids and stuff”

But ofc they end up a lot closer than “just a couple kids” but it’s sweet!  She has kids with Zuko and kids with Aang and really as long as one of them turns out a firebender (can the avatar have a kid of any bending type? NO ONE KNOWS but Zuko’s advisors are prepared to accept it at this point) so long as they end up with A VIABLE HEIR that Zuko will claim etc etc.

And of course Zuko and Sokka and Suki have a couple kids whose parentage is uncertain not that they really CARE, and Suki and Aang aren’t really into each other romantically but when they’re a bit older they discuss it and decide to have a kid just so they can have a shot at a potential airbender baby, because heck yeah rebuilding the airbenders, might as well get some extra genetics up in this ish.

And these kids are all largely raised together in this big pack of like 10 kids of varying ages who move between 2 or 3 different homes, and Zuko rules the Fire Nation and Sokka and Katara lead the southern water tribes, and Aang does his Avatar thing, and they all spend as much time together as possible with the kids and Suki and some of her girls from Kyoshi Island are the main people ALWAYS THERE for the kids.

And there’s at least one kind of each bender in the group (bc you can’t tell me it’s 100% you have to have a bending parent, considering neither Katara’s mother or father were benders, so one of Suki’s kids is DEFFO an earthbender) and they’re a chaotic bunch and sometimes the Gaang forgets which one of them provided the genetics for which kid but really it doesn’t matter bc they’re ALL the kids’s parents, and all the kids are ALL their kids, and it’s a big happy messy disaster of a polycule that the Fire Nation nobility and advisors despair over, but they can’t deny that it seems to be working out pretty well and that the Fire Lord is good at his job and pretty damn happy, so they don’t bitch too much about it.

...Also at some point Sokka and Toph discuss dating and end up sort of doing it for a while but then going back to being friends, but she does ABSOLUTELY get him to father one of her kids, which she then declares firmly she made out of a rock and bended to life, and most people are preeeeetty sure she’s full of shit but can’t fully discount the possibility and only the Gaang knows the truth.

so yeah that’s my avatar polyamory thoughts, it is not canon-compliant with legend of korra but who cares this is my imagination and headcanon and LoK doesn’t play into it at all. *nod*

[sylvanfreckles]

Don’t Look (FebuWhump 23)

Fandom: Supernatural Summary: Sam and Dean are ambushed and captured by a powerful demon with an ancient lineage. Help is on the way...if they can survive.

(CW for some body horror/sores. Basically, skip if something like rashes and sores would upset you. It’s not terribly graphic, but I know this can be a real phobia for some people).

* * *

“This is obviously a trap, Dean!”

Dean rolled his eyes and sandwiched his phone between his head and shoulder, flapping his fingers at Sam in the universal “won't stop talking” gesture. Sam didn't look impressed.

“Look, man, it's just a bunch of demons,” Dean replied. He checked the clip in his gun, tucked a couple spares into his belt, and reached for an angel blade. “Don't see what has you so worked up.”

“Will you please just wait for me?” Cas's voice was strained, and Dean could practically see the impatience in every line of the angel's face. “I'm less than two hours away.”

“Are you talking while driving?” Dean smirked at Sam, though Sam just shook his head and started double-checking his own gear. “Always the little rebel, ain't ya?”

He waited while Cas spluttered in outrage. “We'll be done before you even get here,” he said, talking right over whatever point Cas was about to make. “And, hey, they've got a drive-in movie theater in this town. We can make a field trip, I think they're playing one of the new Star Wars movies.”

Cas was still talking when Dean hung up the call. He shoved the phone into his pocket with a chuckle, then caught Sam staring at him. “What?”

Sam shook his head again and shoved the trunk of the car closed. “Would it kill you to wait for him anyway?”

“And miss all the fun?” Dean slapped his brother on the arm. “Dude. It's demons. Practically kindergarten stuff for us.” Anyway all the big players were downstairs—or dead—so it wasn't like they had anything to worry about.

His brother was still bitch-facing about it when Dean shoved him down the path toward the abandoned hotel. “All right, I'll buy him a root beer float or something, and he'll get over it by the time that little rolling droid he loves so much shows up on screen.”

“BB-8?”

“Dude, I'm getting second-hand embarrassment just knowing you know that.”

Sam turned around and spread his arms out, walking backward down the path. “At least I don't know all the Starfleet captains by first name.”

“Hey, Star Trek is an important part of our cultural history,” Dean retorted, shoving his brother in the chest to keep him moving. “Star Wars is for nerds.”

* * *

The old hotel was empty, apart from the faint dusty of sulfur on some of the decrepit furniture. There were some tracks in the dust, which was a little weird for a bunch of demons, Dean had to admit, but the tracks were recent enough to prove there was demonic activity here.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Dean pulled it out and made a face at it, swiping over the icon to ignore the call.

“Dude, he's probably worried,” Sam whispered.

“Yeah, he does that,” Dean shot back. He turned his phone off and shoved it back into his pocket. “He does that too damn much. We can handle one little nest of demons.”

Predictably...at least for Cas and Sam...and Dean, too, though he was loathed to admit it...they could not handle the “little” nest of demons.

The tracks lead them down to the old pool house, but before they'd even crossed the yard they'd been swarmed. The brothers had fought valiantly, back-to-back, and taken out a handful of the attacking demons but there were just too many. They were overwhelmed, hauled into the pool house, and tied to a couple of rusty old poolside chairs.

Dean jerked against his bonds—he could probably work himself free, given enough time. One side of his face had swollen up and his lip was busted up. Sam wasn't much better off, between the gash on his forehead bleeding enough to cover most of his face and the obvious dislocation to his left shoulder.

Well. Now he was gonna have to apologize to Cas for going in without him AND for getting himself and his brother captured. And injured. It would have to be a root beer float and popcorn and downloading the rest of the Star Wars movies for the weekend.

The demons were lined up along the sides of the pool now. They'd put Sam and Dean on the side nearest the shallow end, looking down the length of murky, stagnant water. Dean exchanged a look with his brother—what now? They'd been captured and beat up and tied up for, what, the world's worst diving contest?

The water rippled. Dean stared down at it in shock when a woman's head appeared at the deep end of the pool. But she wasn't swimming, she was...walking? And each step brought her further and further out of the water, the algae and slime cascading off of her body without leaving a trace behind. She was tall, with long, wavy blonde hair that fell almost to her hips. Her body was wrapped in a flowing green dress with a plunging neckline that showed off her...er, other features.

And she was walking on the water now. Because of course. Dean rolled his eyes so hard he almost sprained something. While there was something otherwordly about this whole thing, it was so obviously some demon princess bitch pretending to be a minor goddess or something.

She reached the shallow end of the pool and just stood there, looking at them. Dean glanced down at her bare feet, which were resting on the rippling water as easily as though she was standing on solid ground. “Nice trick,” he commented, smirking up at her. “Special power or just full of hot air?”

The demon in the green dress tilted her head to study him—nice try, bitch, that's Cas's thing—and blinked, her eyes clicking to beetle-black. “I am Vephar. Lord of the waters.”

“I'm Dean,” Dean replied, ignoring Sam's hissed warning. “Lord of the highway.”

Vephar studied for a moment, then raised one arm to point at his face. Pain erupted from his forehead to his chin and his brother called his name in a panicked voice. Vephar turned to face Sam next. “Who are you?”

Gritting his teeth, Dean rolled his head back enough to make eye contact with his brother. Sammy was shooting him a panicked look, obviously concerned by whatever the bitch had done. God, it still hurt. Most of the time when these bastards attacked telepathically it was like a cut from a razor, or a punch that somehow bypassed your muscle to hit you right in the organs. This was just...this was wrong. It ached and burned and felt wet somehow.

“I'm Sam,” his brother finally said, when Vephar took a step toward him. “Just Sam.”

“And why are you here, 'Just Sam'?”

Sam shot a look at Dean, who tried to shake his head subtly. “We were just looking around,” Sam finally stammered out. “The-the hotel. It's abandoned, we thought we could find something to sell in it. You know, the market for copper wire is pretty high right now.”

Vephar tilted her head to the other side. “No,” she intoned after a few seconds. “You're lying.” She raised her hand again and Sam jerked back with a cry of pain. Now Dean could see why his brother had looked so horrified. Instead of cutting or bruising, Vephar had raised an angry-looking line of oozing sores on his brother's face. It reminded him of nothing so much as Nick's face when Lucifer was burning through him...or Cas when he'd taken the souls from Purgatory.

“I was once a grand duke of hell,” Vephar explained, walking back down the length of the pool. “I commanded my legions and churned the mighty waters. I rode the seas in glorious battle, until I was betrayed and bound in this place.”

Dean grunted, tugging at the bonds on his wrists as the urge to dig his fingers into his face became nearly unbearable. “Sucks to be you.”

Vephar turned back to face him and raised one delicate eyebrow. “Indeed.”

Then she raised her hand and Dean threw his head back with a scream as another line of pain lanced up the other side of his face.

“What's binding you here?” Sam asked. “Maybe we can break it? Set you free?”

She tilted her head again, her black gaze boring into Sam's. “You're lying again.”

“Sammy, no!” Dean surged against the ropes uselessly as sores burst into existence around his brother's neck. “You bitch!”

“Temper,” Vephar replied calmly, and then the horrible, burning, wet pain was streaking down his chest under his shirt. Every shift in position made the fabric of his clothing rub against the sores, until it felt like he'd covered himself in sandpaper instead of a t-shirt.

“I don't get much to play with here,” the demon bitch said. She had that damn hand up in the air again, her index finger extended, and she waved it back and forth between the brothers as though trying to choose which one to torture. “I hope you last longer than the last ones.”

Dean was steeling himself to shout—distract the bitch, insult her, make her focus all her anger on him to give Sammy a chance to escape—when the door to the pool house exploded inward.

“Cas!” Sam's voice was thick with warning as the demons that had been lining the sides of the pool turned to swarm the angel. Dean grit his teeth and refocused his efforts on freeing himself. Cas was good—damn good—but there were well over a dozen demons, and heaven wasn't exactly running on full power these days.

He saw Cas go down. Dean threw himself backward with a jerk, finally crashing the chair into the stained tile of the pool deck. Something in the chair had cracked and his ropes were a little looser, and he fought to break himself free.

“Close your eyes!”

Dean swore and tucked his head toward his shoulder, squeezing his eyes shut. Even then the burst of grace was almost enough to blind him. Damn, Cas hadn't done that in a long time. He hoped his friend still had the juice to recover from an attack like that.

Blinking back the sparks in his vision, Dean rolled onto his side and tried to push himself to his feet. He could see the smoking, empty meatsuits of the demons scattered in a half-circle around Cas, but Cas wasn't looking so good. He had sunk to one knee, and several bloody tears in his trench coat showed where the demons had gotten a few hits in before he'd smited them. Smote them. Whatever.

“Angel!”

Dean threw himself forward and tried to grab Vephar around the ankles as she stalked out of the water toward Cas. The smiting hadn't been enough to end her, though she seemed to be staggering a little and there was black sludge trickling out of her nose.

Cas struggled to his feet, but he was empty-handed—Dean could see a glint of silver just a few feet away, but Cas couldn't reach it before Vephar had a hand around his throat, backing him into the wall.

“I'm going to enjoy this,” the demon bitch sneered. “Angels are so much more...resilient...than humans. Don't you agree, 'lord of the highway'?”

Dean let out a cry as more pain tore through the side of his face. It felt like the sores were swelling, and his stomach nearly revolted when he felt liquid oozing down his neck.

“Hey! Bitch!”

Vephar whirled around, just in time to catch Sam's knife in her throat. Damn, but the kid had good aim. They'd been trying to copy Ruby's blade for years now, and while Sam had never come up with something to match it in power, the runes he'd started carving into the knife he tucked into his boot still did some damage.

The demon released Cas to tug uselessly at the knife in her throat. She glowered at Sam and started to raised her hand, but Cas tackled her from behind.

He'd gotten his angel blade back, during her moment of distraction, and drove it deep into her back, giving it a vicious twist as she screamed out her dying breath.

Dean collapsed in relief. It felt like the sores were still on his face, but the pain had faded significantly. It no longer felt like his skin was going to erupt and peel away from his bone—more like he had a bad case of road rash.

He rolled himself over to check on Sammy. The kid had only worked his right arm free and thrown his knife from there. He sagged in his ropes, panting for breath, but gave Dean a thumb's up when he realized his brother was looking.

Before he could roll back to check on Cas, a firm hand gripped him by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back. Dean found himself staring up at the angel's bruised, angry face. “Next time I tell you it's a trap,” Cas ground out, even as his fingers brushed feather-light over Dean's forehead to heal his wounds, “do me a favor and wait for me.”

Okay. Root beer float, popcorn, the rest of the Star Wars movies, AND another couple pairs of those novelty socks Cas liked so much. The angel had definitely earned it today.

* * *

You guessed it, Vephar is from the Key of Solomon. They’re described as being able to make the seas rough or calm, guiding ships to their destination, and killing by putrefying wounds and sores (fun!). They take the form of a mermaid, so I gave them a female meatsuit and the power to walk on water.

(For those of you who don’t know, the Key of Solomon is my favorite resource for extra-powerful demons. Vephar is the third I’ve used so far, so there’s just 69 to go!)

[idreamofplaid]

Christmas Present

Square Filled: Standing Sex

Characters: Dean x Reader; Rowena; Linda (OFC)

Rating: Mature

Tags: Voyeurism

Summary: Dean has reached a point in his life where something has to change.

Word Count: 1568

Created for @spnkinkbingo

A/N: This is Part 2 of Dean’s Christmas Carol. Read Part 1 Christmas Past.

The smell of brewing coffee filled the bunker’s kitchen while Dean rummaged through the refrigerator searching for something he could make for breakfast. With any luck, there would still be some bacon. He deserved some bright spot in his Christmas morning. After last night, he needed it even more than usual. 

Dean was not a stranger to troubling dreams, but last night’s dream brought things back to his mind that he had been careful to lock away. Allowing himself too many feelings would hinder his ability to do what his job required of him. Once, when he was young, he had played with the idea that maybe he could have more than a shotgun filled with salt rounds and an EMF meter. Sam had done it, he’d claimed a life for himself by leaving it all behind. That wasn’t in Dean. He knew hunting was deeply entrenched in his blood; it was just part of him, but maybe he could balance it with a life outside of hunting somehow.

Y/N had represented that life, but he had been naive to think that was possible. The first monster that came sniffing around seeking revenge made it unquestionably clear to Dean that Y/N was in danger as long as he was near her, so he left. He had made some lame excuse about his “job” being so demanding on his time that he couldn’t give her what she deserved. That much was true at least. The life he could have given her was in no way what she deserved.

He resumed his search for bacon and tried to push the thoughts of her away again. Yahtzee! There it was, hiding behind a pile of Sam’s salad vegetables. At least there would be something redeeming about this morning. Fortune must be smiling on him today because there were eggs too.

Dean set about cooking his Christmas breakfast. He cracked two eggs in a pan and started to stir them around then poured himself a cup of coffee while he waited for the eggs to firm up.Once they did, he added a couple strips of bacon to the pan. The satisfying sizzle of the bacon was a comforting sound to Dean’s ears. It was a familiar constant in his life. 

With eggs and bacon piled on his plate, Dean turned to make his way to the table. He was never the kind of person to scare easily, and at this point it was almost impossible to startle him; but the sight of Rowena sitting at his table came close. He finished chewing his bite of bacon and swallowed it. “Where’s Sam?”

Rowena brought her well manicured hand to her face and leaned on it. “Oh, he’s still in bed I would imagine.” She smiled knowingly. “Dear boy needs his rest.” 

Dean waved his hand. “Alright. Enough. I don’t need the details.” He sat down across from her with his breakfast. “Why are you here? Don’t you want to spend Christmas with Sam?” Dean was still growing accustomed to their relationship, but he thought he was doing a pretty admirable job of accepting it. Hell, he’d even be happy for Sam if this was what he wanted and Rowena could give it to him. 

Rowena lowered her hand and sat back. “Always so subtle.” She smiled and slowly blinked her eyes with a flip of her lashes. “I’ll get back to Sam soon enough. There’s just a little bit of business I need to take care of first.”

“That business is here?” Rowena gave Dean an affirmative dip of her head. “Go on. I’m listening.”

“Well, it seems you’re doing your best to try and dismiss your journey last night.”  Dean felt a stab of uncertainty shoot through him, and he focused on keeping his feelings out of his expression; but that didn’t work with Rowena. Damn witch powers. “Oh, it was real alright. You went to the past.”

Dean couldn’t even say that was impossible. His experience had taught him that basically everything was possible. That meant Bobby had really been here, or at least his ghost or whatever had been. He looked back to Rowena. He wanted answers, and maybe she had them. “What do you know about that?”

She glanced down nonchalantly at her fingertip running over the surface of the tabletop. “It seems you’re at a crossroads in your life, Dean.” She looked up to meet his eyes. “Not a literal one, of course, you’ve done enough of that. You’ve reached a place where you must make a decision, and I’ve been called upon to help you do it.”

Dean scoffed at that idea. “Yeah, right. And who’s going to call on you? I doubt God would have called on you even before he was a dick.” Dean remembered he was talking to his brother’s girlfriend and quickly settled down. “No offense.”

“None taken darling.” Rowena stood; her gaze was locked on Dean. “The universe has mysteries none of us understand yet, and something did indeed call upon me; thus here I am. I have been charged with showing you your life...as it is now.” She walked around the table and extended her hand to Dean. “Take it.” Dean put his hand in hers, and the bunker once again disappeared. 

This time he stood outside a rundown motel with Rowena. The door was a burnt orange color that hadn’t been fashionable since the seventies and the gold numbers on it read 117. Dean knew this place and time. It was last week, and this was where he’d brought the redhead from the bar. 

Rowena made a move toward the door and put a hand on the knob. Dean lunged for her, and put his hand on her arm. “What are you doing?”

Rowena rolled her eyes in her exaggerated way then smiled sweetly at Dean. “Going inside of course.”

He stammered, “But...but…” 

She laughed, amusement evident in her voice. “Have you gotten shy all of a sudden, Dean?”

He pulled his hand back. His expression was one of indignant confusion.  “No.”

Rowena tossed her head and turned the knob. “Good. Now come inside.”

Dean stepped through the door straight into a porno, and he was the star. The girl, Linda? Lisa? Laura? He couldn’t remember. She was against the wall; Dean’s mouth was on her neck, and the sounds she was making were loud enough that Dean wondered how he hadn’t heard them outside. 

Linda, he was going to call her that for convenience, was tearing off his jacket and his shirts. She raked her nails down his chest, and Dean watched himself lift his head. “You’re a fiery one. I like.”

Rowena cut her eyes to Dean. “Really?”

Dean didn’t respond. He was too distracted, and it wasn’t in an arousing way. The memory of last night was still fresh in his mind. He remembered the way Y/N had sounded, and it was nothing like this. The way she had said his name made his stomach draw tight and flutter with the anticipation of something better than good sex. This girl probably didn’t know his name, the same way he didn’t know hers.

Under different circumstances, watching a hot woman wrap her legs around him while he pounded her against the wall would have turned him on; but he wanted to hear Y/N, wanted to taste her, feel her, only her. This just made it perfectly and painfully clear he’d lost her. 

“Fuck!” Bar girl Linda screamed when she came. Dean watched himself rut up into her until he filled the condom he was wearing. Then he watched himself take it off and dump it into the trash can while she took off her clothes. They met at the bed and climbed on to start round two.

Dean said nothing, but Rowena wasn’t so quiet. “Ah, Dean. You’re very talented it seems.” She tried unsuccessfully to suppress a smirk. “Must run in the family.”

Dean turned away from what he was seeing and glared at Rowena. “Okay. That’s enough. Can we just go please?”

Rowena feigned innocence. “What’s the matter, dear? Didn’t you enjoy yourself? Certainly looks like you’re having a good time.”

Dean gritted his teeth. “It was fine. Time to leave.”

Rowena looked at Dean, her eyes penetrating to the heart of him. “Not fulfilling then?” She tapped his arm with her finger. “That’s the real problem isn’t it? This isn’t enough for you anymore. Your liasons have lost their sparkle.” She closed her arm around his. “Come along then.”

Dean closed his eyes, and when he opened them he was back in the bunker. Rowena was straightening her dress; the carton of eggs was still on the counter where he’d left them. Everything seemed normal, but there was nothing normal about this. A pain had been resurrected in his heart that he’d buried a long time ago. “Are you alright, darlin’?” 

Dean walked to the table, scooped up his uneaten breakfast, and took it to the sink.  “I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Rowena lifted her chin and smoothed her hair. “Very well then. It’s time I returned to Samuel.” Dean heard her, but everything sounded hollow. He stared at the plate in his hands and put it down on the counter. “Heed what’s happened, Dean.” Without another word she disappeared, leaving Dean with his cold bacon and eggs.

Everything Forever: @gambitwinchester @princessmisery666 @onethirstyunicorn @peridottea91 @logical-princey @emilyshurley @beenlovingromansincedayoneish @fangirlxwritesx67 @waywardbaby @atc74 @ledzeppelinsbonzo @shaniquacynthia @mariekoukie6661 @tumbler-tidbits @67-chevy-baby @fandom-princess-forevermore @terrarium-jpeg @emoryhemsworth @crashdevlin @heycasbutt @jules-1999 @mrsdeanfuckingwinchester @cosicas-cuquis @sammyimpala-67 @queenoftheunderdark @dean-winchesters-bacon @mrs-meghan-winchester @sweetness47 @timelordy-fangirl2 @hobby27 @awesomesusiebstuff @kickingitwithkirk @gh0stgurl @becs-bunker @sandlee44 @supernaturalgrandma @lonewolf471 @sea040561​ @dawnie1988​ @maddiepants​ @volleyballer519​ @outcastedangel​ @iknowwheremytowelis​ @kdfrqqg​ @lizette50​ @daisymoder72​ @sorenmarie87​ @oldfreakything​

Dean/Jensen Love: @deansyahtzee​ @flamencodiva​ @deanwinchesterswitch​ @waywardrose13​ @feelmyroarrrr​ @winchesterxfamilybusiness​ @focusonspn​ @akshi8278​ @ladywinchester1967​ @sgarrett49​ @wingedcatninja​ @coffee-obsessed-writer​ @adoptdontshoppets​ @team-free-will-you-idjiot​ @ellewritesfix05​ 

Dean’s Christmas Carol: @moron225​

[softschofield]

a guide to the secondary characters of 1917

inspired by @a-beautiful-struggle-of-life because saying “i wanna fall in love with all these characters too omg” is just such an open invitation and i couldn’t resist ♡♡♡

sergeant sanders: “yes, well, sorry to disrupt your crowded schedule, blake, but the brass hats didn’t fancy it in the snow.” the sergeant of blake and scho’s platoon. the one to first introduce us to our boys so we have to love him for it

lieutenant gordon: “a couple of little treats.” he’s soft. i love him. he’s just the hype man of erinmore, like does he want to agree with another one of his proverbs? another one of his quotes? another one of his shakespearean monologues that he learned off by heart at eton? no. he’s so tired. he doesn’t want to hear another fancy sentence in his life. “wouldn’t you say, lieutenant?” he wants to say i could not possibly give a smaller fuck, sir, but can he? no. let him sleep

sergeant: “YOU’RE GOING UP A DOWN TRENCH YOU BLOODY IDIOTS” he doesn’t have a name but MAN did he have a cultural impact. like he changed my world with that line. the delivery? the poise? the hint of a snarl? no one else could ever and i’m afraid that’s just the facts. he was probably mad because he just had a tiff with leslie and he got the day of the week wrong. he thought he had it this time. he didn’t. he never does 

private kilgour: a bloody waste of space. THE softest boy. somehow managed a perfect :o in real life. how did he do it? no one knows. dermatologists HATE him. owns a cute scarf that he's managed to actually keep clean. probably has a blanket stashed somewhere. he’s just so, so gentle, he deserves nothing but good

lieutenant leslie: “for any sins thou hast committed.” you already know. you already KNOW. every time i saw this film there was someone who whispered “moriarty!” the first time it was me. he’s just so tired. a lieutenant shouldn’t be in command of a company. everyone is dead. his only friends are the orderlies he forces to hang out with him in his smelly dugout because all the other officers are in bits and pieces. the orderlies are trapped. they can’t escape him. gallows humour. he just needs a rest. we love him. was absolutely checking schofield out for the majority of their scene together. i've written about how they absolutely seem to have history and i'll say it again: they do. gay

the idiot who thought it was tuesday: one of the orderlies that leslie is holding prisoner solely to bully. when no one else is around they probably cuddle while leslie has a cry and the idiot who thought it was tuesday (TIWTIWT) comforts him and tells him he can do it

private atkins: “hey, it’s alright, it’s okay.” one of the two to find scho trying to haul blake’s body along. the gentlest giant. parry’s back-up, like he looks like he’d be in charge because he’s all big and tough-looking but then weedy, hot-headed little parry is the one doing the talking and atkins is just hovering behind him being soft. loves and supports his friends. they remind me so much of an iconic cartoon duo but i just can’t put my finger on it, but you just know they’d get into mischief because of parry and atkins is just “i don’t know about this” but of course he goes along with it

private parry: “you alright, mate?” he single-handedly made everyone in the cinema jump when some random english guy suddenly spoke when no one else was supposed to be around. he’s tiny but in charge and we truly do love to see it. lowkey feral vibes. you just know he’s a little bit chaotic and snarky and he’d challenge anyone twice his size to a fight, but he’s also gentle and worries about schofield so much when he doesn’t know him at all and i Love him the very most  

captain smith: “it doesn’t do to dwell on it.” the dad. the warmest, most calming dad. gives great hugs. he’s tired because he has to spend all his time trying to keep parry and cooke apart because if they ever met and conspired all hell would quite literally break out, like they’d be too powerful together and he knows it. has a cane for the aesthetic. he’s completely traumatised but he has to keep it together for personal pride and for his boys

colonel collins: “they at least could have retreated with a bit of grace, BASTARDS.” i quote him daily. he truly is just the stuff of legends. we love to see it 

colonel collins’ driver: “no, sir.” if he and lieutenant gordon ever met they wouldn’t even speak, they’d just fall asleep on each other. they’re both so exhausted by their superiors. when will they be free

private rossi: “welcome aboard the night bus to fuck knows where.” we love him!!!!!! we really do love him!!!!!!! scottish. soft. he and jondalar are best friends and jondalar teases him constantly. genuinely lovely, observant, empathetic. he talks about the pointlessness and bleakness of what they’re doing when no one else dares think on it too much in case they break down and i love him for it. probably goes home to become a war poet

private cooke: “HERE, DRIVER, HOW ABOUT YOU TRY TO KEEP IT ON THE BLOODY ROAD FOR A CHANGE” ABSOLUTE feral vibes. he’s just a public menace and we love him

private butler: “alright, alright, keep your ‘air on.” i really do just love him. he’s the one who tells the story about scott and beaufoy and eventually rallies everyone together to help scho push the truck, but to me he’s better known for being the scrawny little icon with the especially prominent red x on his sleeve and the moustache who’s just so GRUMPY all the time. like why is he so GRUMPY? i love him

sepoy jondalar: “i hope you get there.” it’s recognised in the script that he did the best impersonation of beaufoy, we love to see him excelling. gentle. loves schofield with his entire heart and he’s only just met him. there are a few iconic duos in this film - scho and blake, parry and atkins, bäumer and deserving more - and jondalar and rossi are one of them

private malky: “you could do with a new set.” my FAVOURITE!!!! the script says rossi says that line but i am CONVINCED it’s malky and i will stand by that. sounds like george harrison from the beatles. a soft lad who quietly teases cooke TWICE in one and a half pages with the most bashful kinda voice. he and cooke are another iconic duo. i love him so, so much. gay. they all are but malky especially. all the gays ride in that truck, that’s why smith, The Gay Dad, chose to put scho in with them

driver: “oh, piss off.” he and cooke have an iconic dynamic and it’s only one line long. you just know cooke is always giving him shit, it’s a running gag that’s famous throughout the whole company 

lauri: “chil-dren? you?” the queen of deserving more. she’s only something like 17 and she’s probably an orphan raising another orphan. if you’ve seen 1917 and don’t love her with your whole entire soul then you get shot on sight, like i literally do not make the rules. the softest, strongest girl. a lesbian

private bäumer: “ENGLÄNDER!” the king of not keeping his goddamn mouth shut. at least two people in this fandom ship him with kilgour and i am one of them. a soft twink. i love him. if he weren’t dying he would have loved being straddled by scho and i can’t blame him for that

private müller: “bäumer? BÄUMER!” the one who was throwing up. he’s like kat from all quiet on the western front, the older veteran who takes the fresh recruits under his wing. he did not deserve to lose bäumer like that and honestly the grief in his voice when he realises what’s happened HAUNTS me. i really do love him so much. he felt guilty about deserting. he had so much depth like every other character who was barely on screen for half a scene and i hope he made it out of the war and did okay

private seymour: “well he’s not one of ours.” i just love his accent, i’m sorry this one is purely selfish. but i do love him so much, he was instantly ready to LITERALLY pick scho up and just take him with them and that’s pretty iconic. like he was just going to adopt this random, half-drowned soldier who showed up out of nowhere with no rifle or helmet or pack. his now

lieutenant richards: “what the HELL are you doing, lance corporal?” my FAVOURITE secondary character. like i say that about all of them, but i love him, lauri, malky, rossi, and parry THE most. honestly has some of the most iconic moments in the whole film. that squint he does at scho after “what?”? the stuff of oscars. he loved scho so much. the fact that he so desperately wanted to believe that what he was saying was true breaks my heart. genuinely such a good person. i love him. he and captain smith are husbands and dads with a bunch of idiot children

major hepburn: “well done, lad.” he’s like, an actual disney character. like his face, his voice, they just scream disney side character. like a good version of the guy from the princess and the frog. i love him so much. he’s so kind

medical officer: “i have NO idea. move along, lance corporal” I JUST LOVE HIM!!!!! he’s so cranky!!!!! get him some scissors!!!!

[azurethevampire]

Not Alone

A/N: Happy Holidays to you all!

I recently found the tv show Peaky Blinders and me being me, I created my own character into the fandom during the very first episode. This was meant to be an introduction of sorts to that oc of mine but I decided this works just fine as a reader insert fic. Now, because I'm currently on episode 2 of season 2, there's bound to be mistakes and I hope I have made the characters even some justice. 

For what's it worth, I know nothing of Christmas traditions in the Shelby family so in this they just have a nice family dinner whereas the reader has spent their holidays quite differently before.

The reader is a child in Tommy Shelby’s care.

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Title: Not alone - a Christmas story of sorts

Summary: There is supposed to be a family dinner but you are nowhere to be found. Tommy is not happy. It's up to him to search you and find out why you made a run for it.

Warning: There are some curse words and talk of a person’s death by beating but nothing graphically described! 

Words: 2289

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Secretly, Tommy enjoyed this time of the year and especially this day, Christmas Eve. Everyone in the family had been busy with something or the other lately so there had not been many occasions when they all would be gathered into the same place for any other purpose than to speak about business. 

Today was the one day, one night when none of them was allowed to speak about business and the whole family would be around the same dinner table. And Tommy found the idea surprisingly relaxing this year. 

All thoughts of relaxation blew from Thomas Shelby's mind the second he stepped inside their home. His Aunt Polly greeted him at the door with an alarming look on her face. 

"What now?" Tommy asked, his voice strained like he didn't actually want to know the answer. 

"It's the bloody girl, that's what now!" Came the voice of the eldest Shelby brother. Tommy frowned, turning to face his brother who seemed almost ready to beat someone. 

Polly pushed Arthur inside. "Calm down, you idiot!" The oldest brother looked ready to protest but one look from the younger Shelby man made him huff and turn on his heels to march somewhere else in the house. 

"We can't find Y/N. She's nowhere in the house", Polly said. 

Tommy's lips tightened to a thin line. What the fuck was going on in that child's head?! If it had been any other time he wouldn't worry that much because he knew that despite you being only just shy of eleven, you could handle yourself better than most boys your age. However, lately, there had been some… disagreements in the area between some people. Because of this you, Finn and even Ada had been strictly forbidden from going out of the house after dark without one of the brothers or Polly.

Placing his cap back on, Tommy placed a reassuring hand on Polly's arm. "I'll find her. She can't have gone that far." With that, he stepped back outside. 

Now, if I were a little girl, where would I go, Tommy thought. Fortunately, he knew you better than you cared to admit and it didn't take the man long to make his way to the stables. 

A faint, flickering light shone from an empty stall in the back and Tommy made his way over in brisk space. He had every intention of getting you and showing you right then and there what exactly he thought about your disappearing act. Once he got you in his sight, every thought of punishments seemed to vanish for the time being. 

You were hugging yourself in the back corner of the stall, a candle half-burnt in front of you the only source of light. Even in the little light, Tommy could see the tears staining your cheeks. Had someone got to you, hurt you?

"Y/N, what's the matter?" 

 Not hearing Tommy get in, you got startled by his voice and looked up at him with wide eyes. You knew you'd be in trouble for leaving the house but you had sort of hoped the Shelbys wouldn't notice your absence this quickly. Trouble or not, you had no intentions of going back just yet. Averting your gaze and turning your head down to stare at the small flame, you said something so quietly that Tommy wasn't sure he heard you correctly. 

"Mind repeating that?" 

You shouldn't have. The change in the leader of Peaky Blinders' tone should have been enough to shake you out of whatever frenzy you had gone into. This time, you were having none of it. Thomas had walked in on you at the moment you had felt most vulnerable and you hated it. Hated yourself for giving in to tears. So, you told the head of Shelby family exactly what was on your mind. 

"Like you fucking care. Leave me alone", you repeated, a hard edge in your voice that you didn't know yourself you could muster up in the first place. 

You kept your eyes still away from him so you didn't have much of a chance to try and avoid the hand that suddenly grasped your arm in a vice-like grip. You let out a yelp as Tommy in one rough movement pulled you on your feet, stomping on the candle in the process so that the stick snapped in half and the flame died out. His other hand went to the back of your head, squeezing just enough that it didn't hurt but made you feel uncomfortable. 

"What the hell, Y/N?" He gave your shoulder a shake. 

The gravity of the situation started to dawn on you just then. You were so deep in trouble you didn't have words for it. No one talked back to Tommy the way you had. Not without serious consequences. 

"I know you know you're not allowed out alone after dark, so I'm going to ask this only once, and you better have a damn good reason for this - what are you doing here, Y/N?" 

You didn't know how to explain. Not in a way that Tommy would understand. So, you stayed silent, eyes cast down while the pressure on the back of your neck increased. 

Tommy started to be beyond angry now. Fine, if you wouldn't cooperate, he would teach you some manners, alright. "If that's how it's gonna be", he said darkly. You felt your chest tighten at the thought of the punishment Tommy would no doubt lash down to you. Taking a firm hold of your wrist, Tommy started to pull you with him. That seemed to get some life back to you. You tried to dig your heels into the ground to slow you down but soon you were out of the stall and near the exit of the stables. Panic flooded you. 

"No, wait!" You struggled in the hold of the man who had been like a brother to you from the day you were born.  

Tommy didn't relent, instead, he seemed to get tired of your resistance as he suddenly turned on his heels, and picking you up from the waist, he hoisted you over his shoulder. "You had your chance, princess." 

You felt your eyes burn as you gave up. "It was for Steve", you said, sniffing. 

Tommy went still. You could hear the shakier breath he took before muttering a few curse words. Steve had been your brother. When you were only a few months old your parents had died and your older brother had stepped up to take on the task of raising you. Your brother and Thomas Shelby along with Freddie Thorne had grown up together. When they went to war together, you had been left into the care of Peaky Blinders. When the war ended, none of the men came back the same. Your brother… he took it heavier than most. Ever since coming back from France, Steve had been getting weaker and weaker, growing more ill by every day that passed. Until, just a few months ago, your brother had been killed. Tommy and the rest of the Shelbys, save maybe Finn, knew who was responsible for your brother's death, but they didn't share the information with you. All you knew, was that some men came to your apartment and started beating the life out of your brother. You had managed to escape by biting the man who had been holding you, and you had run straight to Tommy. 

The Peaky Blinders were quick to get to your place, but Steve, who had already been weak in health, couldn't get over the beating. He had died a few hours later to his wounds. Steve and Thomas had made an agreement, unknown to you at the time, that should anything happen to your brother, the leader of the gang would take you to be his ward. You were relieved, of course, that you didn't have to leave the place you had grown up in and live with some strangers. Poor circumstances aside, you had liked living with Polly, Ada and Finn when the men were fighting in the war. But now? Everything was different. Tommy and the rest of the Shelby brothers were home and you had trouble settling in. You were an outsider in the tight-knitted family of blood and kin - and you were neither. 

Somehow, everything had been harder the closer Christmas came. Everything had felt… darker in ways you had never imagined you could feel. You missed your brother. 

Thomas put you back down on your feet and placing both his hands on your shoulders, he lowered himself to be at an eye-level with you. There was a hard edge on those blue eyes, one that you had seen many times before, but you also saw the barest hint of something else. Something that you - despite being just a child - knew not many, if anyone, saw in Tommy, especially these days. 

"You miss him, eh?" Even though the question was presented in a rhetorical way, you tilted your head to nod. Of course, you missed Steve. He had been your brother.  

Tommy heaved a sigh. “Is that why you choose today of all days to pull this escape act?” 

You hesitated. “No”, you admitted. “It’s a family night”, you continued more quietly, turning your head away. 

“Yeah, it is. So, Y/N, explain to me once again why you are not home with the rest of us.”

Your throat seemed to tighten up. “Yeah, well, I’m not family, am I?” You managed to choke out. 

Ah, so this is what this is about, Tommy thought. Taking a surprisingly gentle yet firm hold of your chin, he turned your head to look at him. “Listen to me carefully now”, Tommy began, “because I’m not going to repeat myself. You are a part of this family now, Y/N, whether you like it or not, and whatever it is that is going on in that stubborn head of yours, you’re going to forget it, come home and sit down to the dinner table with us.” 

Tommy’s words served to ease some of the tightness in your chest. You couldn’t help what you did next - you leapt forward and wrapped your arms around his neck. “But, Finn said-” you started to utter. 

“Finn? Since when has he had a say in anything that I have already decided?” Tommy pushed you back to look at you and interrupted sharply. 

“Never, but he said that this night was for family and since I’m not a Shelby, I shouldn’t be there… and I missed the holiday traditions we used to do with Steve… and it all just became too much, and - I’m sorry, Tommy!” You finally cried, the dam of tears bursting.

“Maybe you are not a Shelby by blood, but you have been family since the day I signed the papers.” 

You frowned. “What, what papers?” 

“The papers that say I’m your legal guardian.” 

You looked at him with wide eyes. All this time you had figured out that the agreement between your brother and Thomas Shelby had been purely verbal and not official in any way. All this time, there had been a small part of you fearing the day some police officer or parish workers would drag you away from Birmingham. You had never asked Tommy much about the agreement because you didn’t want to bother him or seem ungrateful for the fact that he had taken you in. But. Had you heard the man right? Were you really his, proper and legal? 

"Come on, what would Steve say if he saw you know, eh? All teary-eyed, and misbehaving on Christmas Eve of all days", Tommy said, the barest hint of teasing in his voice. He placed his hand back to your neck and pulled you forward until your foreheads were touching. "You are not alone, Y/N. Remember that." 

You sniffed and grabbed a fistful of his jacket as best as you could. "I will try", you promised. You then pulled back from him and wiped your cheeks with your hands. "How much trouble am I in?" You asked quietly, biting down on your lip. 

Tommy stood up and looked down at you. Your red eyes from the crying and the sadness, anxiety and the bit of innocence still left in you that shone from within you. He didn't want you to lose that last bit just yet. Besides, he knew how much your Christmas traditions had meant to you and Steve. Maybe, just this one time, he could let you off the hook. 

Offering you his hand, Tommy shook his head and ruffled your hair with his other hand. "Come home with me and you are off the hook - and I'll have a word with Finn, alright?" 

You didn't know what to say, so you just nodded and took the hand offered to you. As you made your way back to the house, you leaned on Tommy in a way you had never done before. 

Surely, the family dinner with the Shelbys differed in more ways than one from the customs you had had with your brother, but in the end, you realised it didn't matter. You still honoured the memory of your brother and you would never forget the holidays you two had spent together, just the two of you, but it was time for you to move on with your life. After all, what really mattered during this time of the year was that you were not alone. 

You were not alone or an outsider, and every single member of the family - even Finn - made sure to show you that you were exactly that; you were family.

[fairymadnessyeah]

A Bard in Kaer Morhen

Chapter 1: All Party Members are Here!

Find it in AO3!

Summary: After the battle of Soddon Hill and finding his surprise child, Geralt goes to Kaer Morhen to spend the winter and protect his company. What a surprise is he going to get when he finds he is not the only witcher who picked up strays and brought them to safety from the on-going war. Or that said person is so being so praised and spoilt by his brothers. He does care. He is happy for him. He is. ... ... Hm.

Notes: Hey! This is my first Witcher fic, so please be nice! I never had enough money to buy the games (I still don't) but I really got into the fandom when I watched the series! I re-visited it a few days ago and I couldn't get this idea out of my head! I doubt I will write another fic, not until I get enough to buy the book or the game, (probably the book, tho) or until the next season comes out. Sorry if this is too OCC, I tried to do my best!

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The scenery had turned into an icy and snowy deadland in what seemed like a blink of an eye. The travellers, a man with hair as white as the snow surrounding them, a girl who had been through hell and was still standing and two mages, one hurt and the other healing them. They had all come from a worse place though.

Sodden Hill had become a graveyard after the battle between Nilfgard and the mages. The reinforcements of king Foltest were keeping the attacking kingdom at bay, but it wouldn't last for long. People would say it was destiny that Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, was near to help the last surviving mages of the battle, but he only called it luck. Whether it was good or bad was yet to be decided. He had only been travelling with his Surprise child for less than 48hs when he came across a middle-aged woman and the mage from Temeria carrying an unconscious Yennifer.

Triss was wounded too, but it wasn't fatal, and while the two looked as if they were seconds from dropping to the ground, they were still holding on. The middle-aged woman, Tissaia de Vries, explained everything that was going on once they were on safer grounds.

She told him about the war and the decision The Chapter had come upon, along with their little resistance and then asked for him to take the two younger mages with him. She had clearly noticed the girl with him was Princess Cirila, the lioness cub of Cintra, and that he was protecting her. He accepted, but only because he didn't have a choice. Even if Yennifer had left him, the two were still bonded thanks to the Djinn and Triss had saved his life back on Temeria. He owned them both.

The rectress didn't join them. (Not that he would let her). She said something about drawing the attention away from her pupils. Since they were more powerful and younger than her, and therefore played a more important role in the war than her, she would sacrifice being followed and found (and whatever came after that) to give them more time to escape the war. Geralt suspected there was more to it than that, but it didn't seem to be his place to say that.

After farewells' were said between Triss and the rectress (and the unconscious Yennifer), the four made their way towards Kaer Morhen. Yennifer rode on top of Roach, Ciri and Tress by her side and him at the front, leading and protecting at the same time. Yennifer didn't wake up until a week after they set off and it took them another two weeks to arrive at witcher school.

When she woke up, both Tris and him had to physically stop her from going back to Tissaia's side. They were setting camp in the woods when she sat up from the floor with a start. Ciri, who was closest to her, got quite a fright and a scratch, when she tried to calm the sorceress. They somehow got her soothed enough to listen to them and explain the plan for the time being. The kingdoms of the country that weren't below in Nilfgards' reign were holding their attack back, so until she and Triss were ready to join the battlefield once more, they were to stay with the witcher. He would take them to Kaer Morhen, a place filled with witcher during the winter, a place which Nilfgard would have to be crazy to attack. Once the two mages were fine, they were free to leave. Cirila would stay with him up in the north until there wasn't a bounty on her head anymore or she could protect herself, whichever happened first.

They continued their journey the next day, although the air around them a little tense. The first-week Ciri and Triss had talked lightly about trivial things, but with Yen now awake things had turned awkward. It surprised Geralt that the purple-eyed woman was not angry at him, or at least not showing it. After the disastrous Dragon hunt, he imagined the next time they saw each other, she would try to slit his throat. But, alas, she still hadn't tried. Maybe she was too drained to be bothered by it.

He was too in some way. Finding the little princess had drained in ways he never experienced before, and the silence of the journey was weighing on him, strangely. It had never bothered him before, the quiet. But even when the tension between the three women dissipated and the three chattered normally, the feeling was still there. As if something was missing. He didn't understand it. When Jaskier talked and composed whenever they had travelled, he never felt this way.

As they made their way towards his home, the three females got better acquainted. They would trade who would ride on Roach, though Ciri spent more time there. She was still gaining her strength back and this way, they moved quickly. The two mages didn't seem to mind, as they told her stories and fables of magic and spells, the girl opened up to them, even confessing that she believes to have magic of her own. Geralt already suspected it and was planning to bring it up with her once they were in Kaer Morhen, but Yen and Triss beat him to it. They taught her how to hide it and control it so that it didn't explode, but nothing more. Magic lessons were hard when you were on the run.

Unfortunately, when the three ran out of things about themselves to talk about they moved on to talk about him. Ciri was naturally curious about the man who was now her... protector? (Yes, let's go with that. Protector) And her curiosity wasn't satisfied with his grunts and one-word responses, so when he proved fruitless, she asked the two mages. Who was too damn happy about answering her, even if it was the correct answer or not. Besides, he was less than 2 feet away from them, they could at least pretend he was there, right?

By the time they arrived at the snow-covered mountains, he was all too happy to end their little journey.

"Well, look who it is, Geralt of Rivia," Vesemir greeted him with an embrace and a few strong pats in his back when they reached the gate to the fortress. "You know, for a loner, you have the most company this year," the old man jokes as he turns to his companions.

Vesemir welcomes the three females and they go inside. They make a small stop at the stables where they leave Roach before Vesemir shows them to their rooms. Geralt can see they are not the first ones to arrive, other horses have already been left there.

"So, is this where you were born?" Ciri asks as they walk through the old stone hallways.

"No," Geralt grunts. "This is where I was taught how to be a witcher,"

"Am I going to be taught how to be a witcher too?"

"No," he responds too fast. "You'll learn how to protect yourself, in case you need to," he says sternly. He should be more considerate with her, after everything that's been going on, but he can't help it.

"Don't worry, little one," Vesemir tells her. "You'll probably be able to do anything a witcher can. And with good timing, business has never been better for witchers!"

"Hmmm?"

"But I people hate witchers?" Triss asks as confused as the rest of them.

"Well, yes, they do," Vesemir agrees. "But compared to the last century, these two last decades have been wonderful for us. Ever since the great Epic Hymns about The White Wolf, The Butcher of Blaviken, Geralt of Rivia have been going around more and more people are requesting our services. Your tales are painting us in a better light. Your little bard is making our lives easier, you should really thank that little dandelion of yours," Vesemir tells them.

"Hmmm." if only he could. He hadn't seen or heard about Jaskier since the dragon fiasco. He had been busy, though. And after everything that had happened and had been said, he doubted his the bard would be happy to see him.

"Alright, this is your room ladies, right next to Geralt's," they finally arrive. "I will see if we have anything for you to wear and I'll make sure one of the boys brings you another bed. That thing might be big, but I doubt you three would be able to sleep comfortably," Vesemir tells them as they enter the chambers.

"Oh, no, please, that won't be necessary!" Triss tells the older man.

"We won't be here long," Yenn adds after Triss.

"Nonsense! It might not be as fancy here as a royal court or some other bullshit like that, but you are guest here! If my boys bring somebody here, they are special and they will be treated as they deserve!" the man declares and then turns to the younger witcher. "Supper will be at 10, you might want to take a bath before that," he chuckles and leaves, patting his shoulder a few times.

"Hmmm,"

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Geralt knocks on the door next to his chambers when it's time for dinner. Triss opens the door, letting him in. She is dressed in a simple, yet nice green dress. Probably made it herself. He doubted a place full of witchers owned something like that. When he comes inside, he sees Yen (also in a dress made by herself) braiding Ciri's hair in front of a mirror in the corner of the room. The princess, unlike the two mages, was wearing the clothes they used to give the younger witchers.

"Time for dinner," he announces.

"We are almost done, be a little more patient," Yenn tells him without taking her eyes off her hair.

"Hmmm,"

"What could you be so excited about? Having dinner with more brooding tall men?" Triss chuckles at her comment as Ciri smiles humoured.

"Hmmm,"

Yennifer sighs tiredly and a few seconds later puts the hair down. "Perfect," she compliments and the three start going towards the dining hall.

Geralt, while the three mages are blissfully unaware, has been losing his mind. Coming to Kaer Morhen is supposed to be a season for him to relax and be with his brothers, but ever since he arrived he keeps getting whiffs of nostalgia. Of honey mixed with cedarwood. Of cheap fragrance and dirt. Of the sweet aroma of dandelions. It brings shivers down his spine and it makes his chest ache. It reminds him of pubs and inns and life on the Path. Of a constant melody, right by his side, commenting and praising and joking, but most importantly, never stopping.

He must be losing his mind if a place like this reminds him of the bard. The only time he had ever been here was through his words. When his brothers asked him about Toss a coin and the bard who was telling the epic stories of his adventures. He had never brought Jaskiel here. At the moment, it seemed wrong to bring him to the cold and bitter snow of Kaer Morhen. So why was he smelling the bard in here? As if he was there? As if Geralt had never pushed him away.

"Do you hear that?" Ciri interrupts his inner musing. It makes everybody stop and listen.

On the halls of what should be a cold mountain, the soft sound of strings and music catches their attention. They all rush to the source. Or Geralt rushes as the other three follow him. Because he knew that music. He had heard it be sung in pubs, heard as it manifested in a melody, heard it born from a humming. As he opens the door to the dining hall, the cold stone hallway gets filled with light and warmth. The slow singing that had once been a slight whisper, is now in full blast as his brothers, probably drunk out of their minds, sing along. Or at least try, as the only man with an instrument and tuned voice strouts on top of one of the table, strumming his lute with careful fingers as if they danced around the stings.

"Toss a coin to your witcher,

O' Valley of plenty,

O' Valley of plenty,"

"Is that... ?"

'Jaskiel... ?'

[therodrigator6]

She-Ra Season 5... Let’s See:

Someone asked me just why precisely I ended up disliking Season 5 the way that I did, and yanno, I’m gonna lay down my honest thoughts here for ya’ll who follow me and mught be interested in my very particular take.

AND IT MUST BE SAID BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, my Ultimate view of the season... and I guess my final take on SPOP as a whole is Askewed, because by the final 2 or 3 episodes I began to skim a lot, just trying to END IT, so bear that in mind I guess.

I mean, there were a good bunch of things from this season that were very much disappointing to me.

I felt as though, many of the conflicts AND GROWTHS that had been established for the characters and their relationships, obviously I mean Bow, Glimmer, Catra and Adora were somehow... either modified, forgone entirely, or diminished for the most part.

One I’ll mention right now would be Glimmer’s and Adora’s. Leaving from season 4, the conflict within their friendship and the strain generated by Glimmer’s dispair of losing her mom, activating the heart and hurting Adora were, to my perspective atleast, played to be a BIG pivotal moment in the show, and a Huge deal in terms of the exploration of that relationship...

And it was resolved in a half minute teary eyed apology... I guess. Suddenly all the guilt on both parties fell away... No more LITERAL DISPAIR to have each other safe...

Then hanging off of those same conflicts.. Bow and Glimmer’s?? which, I personally appreciated the fact that we got to see Bow affected by Glimmer’s actions and we also got a taste of an ideal of redemption and atonement for one’s mistakes through Glimmer... but same thing? Half an episode of some RATHER OOC... harsh looks and words between them? And that was that.

It must be said, I liked a lot of the clashes brought up within the princesses themselves. Entrapta and Mermista’s scene with the antenna was very nice for me.

And oh Boi, the Big Fish.

Catra and Adora. This one just straight up hurt, AND NOT EVEN FOR THE REASON YOU MIGHT THINK!   I LEGIT... Would not have minded Catradora AT ALL, But I always set a high price for it.

Through the seasons, specially 3 and 4, I UNDERSTOOD that Catra and Adora had a very weird, askewed and very much not healthy relationship, one that, although was forged and maintained with much TRUE LOVE AND AFFECTION, also had a struggle of understanding. Both had erroneus views of one an other and of their love.

Ultimately, to not analize Catra and Adora’s whole turnabouts... by seasons 3 and 4, My understanding was that Adora was ready to move on from a person who had simply MADE A DECISSION, who, no matter how much she would try, would hurt her out of resentment.

And by season 4 I understood out of Catra, that she had burned all the bridges she could ever have, she was alone, she made her choice right?

So how could their romantic Love come to fruition? Again, this was very much MY particular understanding of their relationship, BY SEASON 3, ANY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE THEY HAD, I THOUGHT TO BE GONE.

So my... ideal? I guess, was: In order for them to be okay with one another again, both of them have to grow independently.

JUST ON CATRA ALONE? I had such big hopes for the way her redemption would’ve been met...  In my eyes, no matter how much hardship she had went through, she ultimately became a terrible person, fueled by a horrid desperation and emotional torment yes, but she still had choices, she chose.

To me, her redemption had to have been wanted out of an understanding that she would have to make up for ALL her wrongs, because she felt that would be the right thing to do in the end...

My big hope would’ve been for GLIMMER to teach her that.

That’s another thing I hated so MUCH about this season, 2 episodes worth of being in space jail, and they talked a total of 2 TIMES!!! :D And I guess that was enough :V

And Catra saves Glimmer yes... but not because it was right? SHE DID IT FOR ADORA!

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good moment to say Oh She Still Loves Adora.

BUT AGAIN, SO SHE REGRETS NOTHING??? NONE OF THE PAIN AND WRONGS SHE CAUSED TO OTHERSSSSS???? JUST TO PROTECT ADORA.

Go off I guess.

Then we move on to Adora... desperately and unconditionaly STILL wanting to save Catra, Which I sort of get??? But the reasoning the story gave me was... that it was Out Of Unconditional Love... again.  A PROMISE~

God I mean, to me that was such a terrible lesson to teach, a horrid message.

“All your wrongs CAN be forgiven, so long as I love you, and You love me back! We promised each other as much! :V”

Hell, Noelle said it herself at some point: “What happens when you’re the toxic friend?”

What happens when you are the person who is making others miserable?

What I would’ve hoped for, was for the answer to be: “That sometimes you end up burning bridges when you hurt those you love, and sometimes it’s impossible to rebuild them, but if you understand that what you did was wrong, and your willing to fix your wrongs and atone? You can heal, and you can heal others”

But what the show gave me... in my eyes: Was that “The Hurt you experience will lead you to do terrible things, but those who love you unconditionally will Always be with you, if You make them feel loved, no matter what!”

In the end apparently they were wholly in love the entire time, all is forgiven and must be forgotten. Happy ending for all.

These are just those 2 or 3 examples, there were other Themes that just felt outright dropped?

Catra and Adora’s refusal of Shadow Weaver as a parental figure for the fact that she was mostly their abuser for all their lives?

Naw forgiven, they still loved each other Unconditionally.

Catra’s growth outside of Adora?

Adora’s CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ON HER OWN AND THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW FOUND FAMILY TO LOVE AND PROTECT?

No they loved each other undonditionally, sorry.

TBH, so many of the interactions with the main characters felt as though they reversed to A Season 1 status, they did a full circle by just REVERSING everything ruegbsiusgsr

It legit FELT, like I was watching your Run of The Mill Catradora Fanfiction.

It was at the FOREFRONT.

And I mean, gimme my clown shoes and the trumpet red nose, but like, for the longest time, people had been saying “The Show is about Catra and Adora’s Relationship”, and WITH ALL THAT I SAW HAPPEN THROUGH THE SEASONS

I thought that was wrong.... I thought the core of this show was Friendship, ACTUAL FRIENDSHIP.

But alas it’s over.

I think... if I watched the season again? Knowing already what I’m getting into and doing MY BEST to forget season 2, 3 and 4? I’d prolly even enjoy it at face value.

Right now, I’m hesitant of even wanting to understand Catradora More and seek to enjoy the show as is? Just because this fandom (mostly outside of tumble happily) has shown me to be so... vitrolic with all the othe character conflicts and relationships outside of Catra and Adora’s, and the posibility that theirs, was not a good one.

So that’s that on that.

Knowing me, maybe in a couple days, maybe a weeK, I’ll watch the final episodes FULLY and just... make my peace with the show and move on in Fanon, WITHIN the smaller space I’ve chiseled out of fandom.

I’ll miss She-Ra for what it gave me, and I’ll Yearn for it, for what it could’ve been.

-As a sidenote: Hey, might not be my taste in the development of a relationship, but ATLEAST it’s a lovefilled WLW relationship in a cartoon show for kids, and that’s got some merit. so bye bye.

[ganymedesclock]

I found a version of the Silksong gameplay demo with clean video and audio (nobody talking over it) and, couple of thoughts:

Looks like the French Language version doesn’t have a lot of its text hooked up yet. To that end- it’s surprising how much of the game is nicely intuitable and legible without that.

It somehow didn’t hit me just how much of the Moss Grotto is bones. Where are all of these bones coming from, Pharloom. I am really not liking this implied massacre in your kingdom’s distant history.

Visually, a lot of Pharloom really feels like Ari Gibson doing a little dance of “look what I can do now!”- there’s a lot of small movement. Chains and lanterns sway faintly where in Hollow Knight they’re still objects; there are doors you not merely open with a lever but reopen every time you approach them, and they’ll shut themselves after a bit. It’s really neat to see- and it really lends more to the feeling of Pharloom being a living kingdom, to Hallownest’s uneasy grave.

Holy hell Lace looks like a nasty boss to fight. With the way she chains attacks she can very easily take two masks of damage per hit, and since the official demo presenters never got caught in her ‘pin flurry’ attack I didn’t realize she can just Star Platinum you down two masks. I have a sneaking suspicion that little giggle of hers when she defeats you is going to become memetic once more people are actually getting their hands on this game. Her voice is also a bit lower and more threatening than I was anticipating, and she seems to be tossing off quips / retorts of some kind about as much as she is attacking.

I wonder how they pitched that to Lace’s VA, since IIRC she was part of the fandom of the original. “Hey, we’re super glad to have you! You’re going to ruin Hornet’s tuesday and sound like you’re having the time of your life the entire time.”

It is nothing short of absolutely adorable how Forge-Daughter and Ballow are very clearly having a nice little chat that you interrupt. Even just listening to the voice grunts, it’s clear Ballow’s chattier to her than he is to you, while Forge-Daughter’s rather laconic. Also kinda cute how everybody with the bell helmets (bellmets?) has a metallic echo quality to their voice.

Overall it sounds like the boss themes- both Lace’s theme and what I presume is the generic one that plays for the Moss Mother- have a very strings-ish focus. The main theme of the game seems to have a harp as its primary sound.

Back to Lace- they really are making a point to rub those glowing flies she’s conducting in our faces, since she’s such a difficult boss, and they made sure that every time we go back to rechallenge her, while her dialogue doesn’t repeat, the flies show up again. It really does seem like they at least want us to believe at this point that Lace is the one who saved Hornet- which, so far, I see no reason to doubt (her dialogue- not present here- has her refer to the cage and Hornet “falling from” it when there don’t appear to have been any witnesses to Hornet’s arrival besides the cult members she probably killed when she tore the bridge apart). Which is an interesting stroke of complexity to add to her character right out of the gate- that she’s acting against us but... seemingly, not entirely so?

Also I know I’m a sucker for Princess Bride but, am I gonna have to be the one joking about them having a dynamic like Westley and Inigo Montoya’s first meeting? 

Lace “I could toss you a rope, but, I am just waiting around to kill you.” Hornet “That does put a damper on things.”

The sad noise Hornet makes when she goes into the lava hurts my soul. Especially because I know I’m gonna make her make that noise a lot until I get the hang of her platforming vs. Ghost’s. Sorry in advance Hornet.