#so angry that they would just ASSUME the worst in the situation instead of just fucking texting me!!!!!!

[annabelle--cane]

this is a difficult thing to have conversations about because it provokes really strong reactions in people for completely valid and understandable reasons, so please feel free to hit da bricks on this post whenever you want, but I do want to try and analyse the jonmartin slaps. we get three across 160, 169, and 172, and a line addressing it in 173, and then it never happens or comes up again. none of them come out of nowhere, and they mostly fly under the radar until 173 because they all broadly fit the "slapping someone out of a trance in an emergency" trope, but each of them slowly decreases in urgency.

the first time, the apocalypse starts up and martin comes back to find a passed out jon, can't wake him by making noise, and strikes him in a panic. this makes sense, this is a man who has entered a supernatural coma before and martin had no idea what was going on, so of course he'd jump to something desperate.

the second time, they're in a burning building, jude arrives while jon is still mid-statement, and when making noise doesn't work martin slaps him out of it. this makes sense, they were there for jude and if jon didn't come back to himself then she likely would have hurt them, though martin knew that her powers against them were limited.

the third time, jon is getting pulled into into a repeating statement instead of coming out on his own like usual, so martin speaks once or twice to try and get his attention, and then slaps him out of it. this... again, it makes sense, jon was getting trapped, but there was no immediate peril like before, martin just got freaked out and wanted to leave quickly. he seems to get that it was harsh because he apologizes for it, but they don't linger at all, martin just starts in on them having to leave immediately.

the last time it's mentioned is when they're on night street, during what is one of their most intense arguments. jon tries to talk about the suffering of the children there for longer than he needs to in order to make a point, martin cuts him off, and he pointedly says, "thank you for not hitting me this time." it never happens or is brought up again.

to our knowledge, jon doesn't say anything about the slapping until 173. he's not a guy who's known for speaking up when things upset him, he was amiably working with daisy within about a week of her trying to kill him, so it makes sense that he would just sit with this comparatively more minor thing. however, I do think it's relevant to note that, at this point in their relationship, martin will sometimes voice his feelings and boundaries (not listening to statements, not consenting to mind reading, worrying when jon expresses discomfort with his body), while jon doesn't. from the couple of times he does talk about his feelings this season, I think that tendency comes a few places: he has a hard time being aware of his emotions at all, he doesn't know how to evaluate his emotions' importance in comparison to others', he assumes his emotions are obvious and thus people already act with full knowledge of them, and the topic is just hard to make himself talk about. from what he says in 173, I think the slaps bothered him the entire time, but he made himself be fine with it until he was upset with martin for unrelated reasons and finally let it out.

as for martin's side, I do not think the slaps came from any kind of suppressed desire to hurt or wield power over jon. we've seen him when he's angry at jon, this isn't how he acts, he gets shouty and indignant but never violent. I'd even go as far as to say he doesn't do it in 173 because he's genuinely upset at jon and the situation they're in, and it would never occur to him to deliberately inflict pain on someone he cares about to assert control over them. the connecting line between all of them is fear from something that he wants jon to help him handle. the apocalypse starts, he is stuck inside one of his worst nightmares, and he's paranoid that the web took control of him. he's someone who is "always following, never leading" (170), and he gets tunnel vision when something scares him and his "leader" isn't there.

jon did need to be pulled out of all three of those situations, and words proved insufficient, and maybe a quick jolt of pain was the only thing that could have worked, but martin doesn't seem to consider what that would feel like from jon's pov. in my experience of relationships, if there's ever an unavoidable emergency where you do actually need to cross a line that you never would otherwise, you talk about it afterwards. you do a debrief where you say "I'm really sorry about that, I didn't see another way, I'll try and be better prepared next time." they do this for problems they have later on (177, 198), but martin doesn't do that here. jon's point-of-view just doesn't seem to occur to him. when jon expresses discomfort, he drops the tactic without a word; later, when he needs to anchor jon in the panopticon, he talks him through it before it can get too far. so, it's not about a lack of care for jon's feelings.

I think it comes down to a few things: a) his occasional tendency to treat people as a means to an ends and not think about their perspective. he's so glued to putting others first most of the time that when he stops, he can't find a middle ground and forgets that other people can have feelings about his actions. b) his problems with conceiving of himself as a person of any importance who is capable of doing anything, especially of doing harm. as a concept, "hurting jon" is the thing he would least like to do in the whole world, it is his nightmare scenario and literally the culminating moment of his tragedy. he finds it almost unthinkable, so the idea that he does it casually when he's scared doesn't cross his mind. one of his central worries at this point is that jon is now so powerful that he no longer needs martin, how could he hurt someone like that? he's not anywhere near a comparable level of importance, it's not like he has his own domain that he's not aware of because jon told him about it and he immediately rejected the information. he's powerless and could never bring himself to hurt the man he loves.

I just. think it's an interesting microcosm of some of the lows of their relationship. once the problem is discovered martin instantly takes the note and doesn't put it on jon to explain himself further or assuage his guilt, they are willing and able to adapt, but it still comes from some of their bedrock flaws. martin doesn't understand that he can hurt people, and jon has such an inflated understanding of his capacity to hurt people that it sabotages his self-worth and his ability to respond to pain and displeasure.

[sunshine-zenith]

I know it's already been said by multiple people but Dev needs a therapist and maybe some anger management.

Ding ding ding Dear Anon, and it gets truer every time someone says it

Listen. This kid kinda sucks, he’s hard to be around, but it’s because he’s a kid in a crappy situation with crappy luck and zero life skills to manage it. Like the sleepover episode — of course people went to Hazel’s sleepover over his, he tried to steamroll over her sleepover in the first place and he’s already well known for being a jerk. BUT when no one actually shows up to his sleepover, he doesn’t have the capability to think “oh, this is a consequence of my actions, I need to adjust my behavior going forward” because no one’s ever taught him to think that way. Instead, let’s be real, this is just going to become a painful core memory that’ll only keep hurting decades later if he doesn’t get help to compartmentalize it

He’s been raised to believe care is conditional and transactional — him hoarding the pudding until someone does him a favor, him giving out merchandise on his dad’s behalf to make his dad happy, him assuming that one argument would completely shatter his friendship with Hazel, etc

He needs someone to help him work through his trauma, someone to help him learn how to manage his emotions in a healthy manner so he doesn’t blow up or automatically assume the worst when faced with negative situations, someone to set boundaries with him and teach him how to set and understand his own boundaries. Shoot, he needs someone to just love him and care for him unconditionally and for him to know this

Otherwise, he’s just going to be another Dale.

I remember being a kid and seeing the episode where Dale is introduced and reunited with his dad, and I remember for the longest time expecting Dale to also show up when Doug did, only to be disappointed when he didn’t. Dale from the original series needed someone to help him through his trauma, and clearly, Doug never did that. Instead, it seems he just neglected Dale from there and left Dale to stew, to turn his trauma into unhealthy coping mechanisms, needing exploit like he was exploited and needing more and more money at the cost of everything else. I know kid me would be devastated if they saw this and I know adult me will be devastated if Dev ends up following in his father’s bootsteps instead of being helped out of this cycle

Dev’s needs only highlight how unfair the godparent system can be for both him and fairies. He’s a spoiled rich kid, he doesn’t need wish fulfillment, he needs guidance, and the thing is, Peri is trying to give guidance. He’s trying to set boundaries and give advice, but he’s also too inexperienced at this (and being steamrolled by his own parents) to do it properly. Dev should’ve been matched with a godparent who has experience with angry and hurt children instead of being given to the vulnerable new guy who hasn’t been trained for this

And I’m pretty sure Peri and Dev being separated at this point will only serve as a bounce off point for more trauma for both of them — we still don’t know how the whole Timmy thing affected Peri, but we do know he values being a godparent, and losing his first godkid (especially one as hurt and fragile as Dev) would be crushing. And when Dev got Peri, it was basically the universe telling him “this is an adult that is here just for you, who will not be pulled away by technology or greed and who will not intentionally hurt you. He cares about your happiness above all else. A third of his official title is ‘Parent’ and he is yours” — simply replacing Peri would only diminish this statement, and losing this entirely, even if his memory is wiped after, would probably only scar him

Get 👏 Dev 👏 A 👏 Support 👏 Team 👏 ASAP

[itsabouttimex2]

Hi there did they ever just consider putting a backpack leash on y/n in the Demon Child AU JTTW gang? Also did y/n ever kid kidnapped and held for ransom by many demons to try to get the monk by saying we'll let her go in Exchange for him( I also know he had alot of demon um demon suiters that instead of wanting to eat him apparently wanted marriage dam the monk got accidentally rizz)

Taken Aboard: Restraints

It’s not impossible that the gang would decide to to utilize some form of restraint after enough troublemaking by Y/N- in place of a leash, though, I imagine that Tang Sanzang would actually use a length of fabric to swaddle Y/N.

The event that caused him to decide you needed such extreme supervision?

(He was not happy.)

“Little demon,” he calls, looking down at you expectantly. “Hurry along now- you know what is expected of you before we enter a town.”

“…Master, this is embarrassing.”

“Please hurry, little one. We’ve so much to do, and I would like to get on with it right away.”

And after a little bit of huffing and puffing, you do as requested- and use the 72 Transformation to assume the form of a helpless babe, your mass-displaced form falling snug into his arms.

The Great Monk wraps you in a length of silk that he affixes around his torso and shoulders, leaving your now squishy body squashed against his soft chest.

Not only does this (frankly humiliating) transformation allow Sanzang to sneak you about without scaring any villagers, it also prevents you from running off to cause trouble.

Jokes on him, though- every last bachelorette from the village has one response to a very pretty man bundling around a cute baby:

As for getting kidnapped… yeah, the Journeyfam isn’t putting up with that shit. Not when their master gets snatched up every other day and nearly sautéed and stewed. I mean, operating on the thought that Y/N is very explicitly a demon- horns, fangs, tail, etc- the child has at least some means of self-defense.

If they do get snatched, I can’t imagine there’s a situation where Y/N doesn’t at least leave their assailant battered and scarred, which doesn’t help the demon when three angry demons and a furious dragon break down the door. And Tang Sanzang; to his credit, makes a fair effort to soothe his disciples and quell their fury… but it’s going to be much too late for anyone who decided to lay their hands on the honorary little sibling of all these furious souls.

Outside of kidnapping? I’d like to imagine that Y/N, as a child (potentially female, depending on you or your OC’s gender) in Medieval China, might be eyed up by more… unsavory individuals.

“How much?”

Sanzang turns to find the source of a casual voice, looking at a sweat-stained farmer leaning over a fresh chicken corpse. The laborer takes a moment to wipe his bloody hands, then folds his thick arms.

“How much for the kid? Seems strong, and has some muscle. I could use another pair of hands on the farm.”

And Sanzang is so genuinely appalled at the simple manner in which genuine slavery is being spoken of here, as though you are a commodity and not a thinking, breathing thing all your own. He offers no retort or reprimand, instead choosing to take you by the hand and hurry off into the crowd- not that Wukong won’t have a few “words” to share with the would-be purchaser.

But that’s not even the worst possible scenario for the gang to face-

No, the worst is proposed child marriage.

All it takes is one rich man/woman to decide that they want an “exotic” spouse, and that the little demon child with a pair of magical restraints is their “safest” way to get it.

I don’t even think Sanzang would have time to comprehend what his disciples were doing before it was over- he’s too busy reeling over being offered literal bricks of gold in return for an actual child.

And obviously his answer is a hundred firm “nos” and a dozen chants of “go to your nearest monastery and pray!”, each one delivered with increasing fervor…

Or, it would be- if his disciples hadn’t solved the matter themselves before he had regained the use of his tongue.

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

The hidden story behind these few seconds.

(Originally, this post was going to be about "Meet the Parents Part 3," But I feel that since I was focusing so much in Jeff and Rio's reaction, so I decided to make a little post about her.)

I had been looking at this and thinking about it a lot, and hearing the dialogue and reflecting about the story. This moment means A LOT.

I see a lot of videos about Spider-verse, which I imagine makes sense considering how much I love this movie.

And in videos, in tiktoks and online as well, I had seen a lot of people been confused as to why Gwen tried to talk to Miles's parents instead of dipping out.

And you know what? I think the answer is in these few seconds, and what she does after.

Let's give context at this scene.

Gwen had realized that the Spider-society is bullshit, and not just because the system is corrupt, but also that canon can be defied, which means she can also help Miles defy canon if necessary. She knows she owes him that much, and she wants to make it up to him.

So she goes to 1610, wanting to talk to him to tell him the news, probably apologize and say that she is on his side.

Except, that there is no one.

But that's not the only thing, she also listens to his parents talk about the situation.

She hears them talk about Rio trusting Miles, and being her idea to let him go (something Gwen of course didn't know.) Jeff may be angry, but you can hear that he is scared.

But funnily enough, what else he says?

Look, is Jeff over his head and thinking the worst of Gwen? Yeah, and I will talk about it on the other post.

However, let's see this from Gwen's perspective.

Because she went to see Miles, she didn't look after the Spot, which went to Pavitr's dimension, and Miles followed her, then the joke villain became extremely powerful and threatened Miles. Now Miles is in who knows where, with Miguel and Spot hunting him down and his family.

Now, do I blame Gwen? No, she couldn't have predicted this, and she is a teen that is hurting and afraid. While I think she needs to apologize to Miles, I can't be mad at her (especially when she is doing all of this to MAKE IT UP TO HIM!)

But do I think the girl who couldn't had known debris was going to fall on top of the lizard, and that would be enough to make them human (because Gwen didn't know this was a human mind you,) and still feels like she failed him; would feel this is her fault?

Oh what do you think?

And let me tell you, NONE of this is helping.

Gwen knows that Miles has a crush on her. She has seen the drawings, how he acts around her, what other people say. And now his mom, who saw them together for just a few minutes, can tell that Miles was shining around her.

That has to be a gut punch.

She knows Miles did what he did to help her, as well as because he is amazing. And she wants to be with him obviously, even if she before felt she couldn't.

And to top it all of, she is being confronted with the fact that Miles was right about his parents.

Let's remember that while Rio and Jeff assumed the worst of Gwen, she did something similar.

So she is confronted with the fact that Miles is in the right about trying to save his dad, and that his parents are probably worth telling the secret (not to mention that now she knows there was still hope with her dad), and that if she hasn't interfered, none of this would had happened.

And she says so herself.

And this, is why she is doing it.

Remember how I mentioned earlier about people tho didn't understand why Gwen did this? This is why.

She feels guilty, she feels horrible that she put Miles in this mess, and that Miles's parents are feeling this torn about this ordeal.

Sure, you could argue it may be better to not mention anything to his parents, to dip out and find a way to fix this mess before they know.

But I think she feels she owes Miles and his parents this much; she knows how much Miles loves his parents, and would probably appreciate a head-ups to them if it is necessary.

You know how I mention this was the scene where Gwen probably realized how right was Miles about his parents, and probably gained a new appreciation for them? I wonder if we would have the inverse scenario next movie.

Of Miles's parents realizing Gwen means well and adores their son, and would do the impossible and more for him.

If you like my work, please share and support me in ko-fi if you can, if not, please share this post!

[polarspaz]

Steve10 AU TIDBITS 1

-Steve obtains the Omnitirx at the end of Season 2. Jake and Mila aren't born until the end of season 4, but after they are born Steve quickly moves out of his parent's house before they can find out about them. With Hopper's help, Steve manages to get a halfway decent trailer out in the woods, allowing them some semblance of privacy.

-In the beginning the Omnitrix is very temperamental and will sometimes trigger without Steve's input. By the end of season 3 this stops, as the Omnitrix has fully merged with his DNA and body at this point. But until then, this causes a lot of awkward moments for Steve, especially when he's in public and only has literal seconds to hide before he transforms.

-This is how Robin finds out about Steve's situation. While working at SCOOPS during a rush hour, the Omnitrix starts beeping. Panicked, Steve tells Robin he's going on break before rushing into the back room, but she not having it, especially when there are twenty angry customers in line scowling back at her. She darts after him, ready to rip him a new one, but instead she see's him transform into a giant fish monster.

-Steve immediately tries to plead with Robin not scream, but he's having a hard time doing it considering he currently can't breath. ((The damn watch had turned him into RipJaws, an alien fish that could only breath underwater)) Still, he tries to calm her down between pained gasps, promising her that he wasn't going to hurt her, but also begging her not to cause a scene. Then, just as he's about to pass out, he feels her grab his arm, drag him over to the sink, and shove his head under the gushing faucet.

-"You so owe me an explanation fish boy!"Robin snaps at him, but she ironically sounds more concerned than scared, so Steve considers this outcome a win. By the end of the shift Robin gets the low down and to his shock and suprise, promises not to rat out him out, but in exchange he has to drive her to work.

-Steve's parents find out about Jake and Mila a year and a half after they are born. At this point the kid's are able to take on human forms thanks to the Omnitrix, so his parents have no idea they are part alien, but that does little to quell the fallout that happens next.

-Mila and Jake look older than they are, meaning his parents assume that not only had Steve been hiding these kids for at least 3-5 years, but that he had also gotten someone pregnant when he was just a kid himself. The worst part though was when Steve couldn't deny their accusations.

-Part of Steve had been hoping his parents would accepts Jake and Mila even without knowing their origin. That they would looks past the obvious questionable situation and love his kids no matter what, but that apparently wasn't the case. Seeing their outright rejection, Steve realizes he can't trust his parents any further, and just let's them assume the worse of him. They could believe whatever they wanted, as long as Jake and Mila were safe, along with their secret.

-In the end, Steve's parents disown him and leave. Steve is left with a crying Jake and Mila, and honestly Steve wants to cry with them too, but he focusing on calming them down instead. After an hour, the two kids pass out from exhaustion and Steve is alone in the bathroom, puking up his guts from stress.

-But an hour later, to Steve's astonishment, he finds Hopper and Joyce at his door looking worried beyond belief. Before Steve can even ask how they know, Joyce immediately envelopes him in a big hug, causing him to cry a little. But Steve happily returns the gesture, immensely grateful and happy to know he isn't alone in this.

[demonqueenart]

im just gonna be so genuine and say i love you but i dont understand what racist remarks you're talking about and it's really frustrating for me to hear people talk about this like its so serious when i havent seen anything at all thats bad. im white so i think i may have genuinely missed things but could you please just give me some examples? i really am trying to understand where you guys are coming from its just getting hard because everyone is just getting mad at each other whenever they talk about it. i know people are mad bc of something dan said about not being able to come on tour to third world countries and possibly something he said in like 2011 when he was in his crazy fake tan phase? i just really am not seeing anything here that i think would get people so worked up and i would love to understand better

Hey anon, I understand where you coming from. And I really appreciate you trying to understand better.

To be really honest, why things have blown up now is because of the upcoming tour. It’s not really about why they couldn’t go to the other continents when they’re planning to do 32 shows in US, even though that’s also fishy af cause they could’ve easily dipped into Mexico, and the route they using feels like they’re avoiding latam specifically. The way that they handled this with poc fans is the problem, because while they’re being excited from the tour or whatever, they have not once tried to explain why they couldn’t go to poc fans (or the majority of us that is. Some of us might live somewhere else.)

The way they keep retweeting and being hyped about the tour, while basically intentionally avoiding talking to us is just.. it hurts. Most of us complain about this, and even more expressing how they just need dnp to give them an explanation. But never once did they do it. Instead, they even launch more trailer lol. And I know they saw it, there’s a lot of us and they like snooping on social media anyway. It makes us feel like we’re not part of the tour, that it wasn’t meant for us. And it was actually the first time I questioned if I was really a part of this community at all.

Turning back to phandom with that state of mind, it can feel like everyone is abandoning you. Because just like dnp, everyone is only talking about the tour, and not about how this exclusion needs to be addressed. It’s understandable why people would feel angry when they just keep being ignored like their voices didn’t matter. But I know now, just because people didn’t interact with me, doesn’t mean they didn’t want to be there for me. We just might come from a different place. (Btw, if you’re western and you have poc friends who’s affected by this, please reach out to them. The reason why I’m still here rn is because of all my friends, western friends included, saying they’ll be there for me throughout this racism thing. They might be angry and hurt, and even assume the worst of you. And I won’t ask more than you can do. But saying you understand (or at least empathize the situation they’re in) and that you will support them no matter what, will help them a lot.)

Dan clearly carry a micro aggression around latam, and the fact that this still occur in wad really says a lot about how they’ve not grown from that. When dan said brazil and mexico were 3rd world country on was, that makes us feel like he’s looking down on us. And the fact that they have avoided latam specifically without giving any reason why they couldn’t go, well, there’s only so many things you can assume is happening under the surface. This makes us feel like they’re looking down on us, and that they’ve never seen their poc fans as equals.

The reason why the old stuff was brought up is because this isn’t the first time this has happened. Dan has made a lot of racist remarks, and while it’s understandable to slip up from time to time, and even more understandable why he might be afraid to actually apologize and own things up, it doesn’t excuse the patterns that are being repeated here. When he doesn’t take accountability to his past mistakes and keep repeating the patterns of racism and exclusion, that indicates he’s going to keep oppressing us forever without ever acknowledging it. And THAT is not okay.

We don’t want to cancel them, never once do we want that. We only want dnp to hear us and actually talk to us about this. They are not beyond redemption, but it’s going to be hard for them to open up considering the past fifteen years of them not doing that. So the only thing we can do at this point is to be more opened up about their racist remarks. We’re bringing up past mistakes now, because there’re still a lot of people who have been affected by this, and them not bringing it up is not going to make all that hurt go away. So I suggest, we should bring it up, not to cancel them or demonize them! But to acknowledge it exists so that we can heal from it. We can learn to love dnp despite being flawed, and normalize how to take accountability to make this place safer for poc. These voices can’t be avoided because that’s also a form of exclusion in this community. I want everyone to feel welcomed here, so I’ll listen to their voices when they need it. That way, there will be a place for poc to belong in this space. We can learn to include each other in, or at least I hope so :3

*also, this will be very funny if this ask turns out to be dnp, but whatever lol xD Hope we can catch up someday whoever you are (✿˵ ꒡3꒡˵)৴♡*

[aboutdifferentthings]

Jess never stood a chance with Lorelai. 

I have read a lot about Lorelai trying to be nice to Jess and trying to help and what a douche bag he was because of the way he talked to her in 2x05. I will not say that he was not  harsh and rude but, honestly, I get it. In fact, I do not only get it, I find him quite restrained during the episode until it is just too much. His wording was far from best but  he was completely right about he said.  

What happens in 2x05 is  what sets the path of their relationship because as Lorelai herself said once.  

And Jess is not what she wants him to be. She wants Jess to be like she was at his age but he is not and that is what she never gets. 

She has a bad disposition towards him even before she meets him. She tells Luke  if he needs her she will be there but it just sounds forced because she only says it after not getting him to say she is right.

But what I think is the key are these two sentences.   

These sentences show how Lorelai has no faith in Luke doing this but guess who is a great communicator? Guess who is going to be able to straighten him out with her charm? Yes. Exactly.

When Lorelai and Jess meet Jess is being polite enough.

He says ‘hi' he waits (more or less patiently) while she says her daughter can show him where the wilding takes place   ( half joking, assuming he is wild). He goes after  ‘the class is dismissed’ line. She gets upset. She was expecting him to  laugh around her jokes because she was being cool and nice?  He is angry, he is hurting, he has all the right not to be happy but she is not taking that into account because she is in the ‘I know what to do’ mode. 

When Jess meets Mia, he acts more or less the same than with Lorelai . It is not personal, it is how he is feeling.

However the difference between Mia’s and Lorelai’s reactions is huge. I am Happy Lorelai found Mia, I wished Jess had found someone like Mia too.    

Luke and Jess make it to the dinner (the worst of the nightmares for a socially awkward teenager)  but he stills holds it. Lorelai’s face when she does not get him to be supper happy because he got invited to her house with a bunch of strangers after being kicked out from his home says it all. 

She is so ready to fix this boy and his situation because she knows.  

Jess still behaves when he meets Sookie and Jackson and he gets to interact with Rory and ask her to bail with him ( he needed hardly one minute to ask her to walk around with him or sit on a bench and look at their feet, just saying). 

He stays, and he would have made it to the table but he needed some air, and he took the beer and she finds him. If she would have just said. - Sorry Jess no beer allowed today, we are waiting for you at the table, I am sure  he would have come in ( not in the best mood, probably but he would have). Instead she goes with the fake tone again, half joke, over acting ‘refreshing’ and from there to the you are not hungry. And Jess talks. 

He says he is not hungry but she does not listen and she ‘guesses’ ‘you do not want to be here’ and he talks ‘I doesn’t matter’ but she is still not listening, she goes on 'in Star Hollow'…. Of course he doesn’t want to be in Stars Hollow, he wants to be home, and she does not get it because she ran away from home and was happy to find Stars Hollow and Mia and she assumes it is the same for him. She run from home but Jess wished he had one. And here comes it, The little advice….  

No Lorelai, you have not been there. This kid was abandoned by his father when he was a baby, this kid has been kicked out of his home by his neglecting addictive,  abusive mother because he was being a nuisance she didn’t need. You have been in a bad place but it was a different place, you have not been in his place. He is not playing the ‘my parents don’t get me thing’ he is not maybe screwed,  his feelings are not maybe valid instead his parents do not love him, he has been living in a traumatic situation you can not imagine all his life, his feelings are totally valid. Are you really telling him he is lucky? Yes, she is.

Here is the thing, she tried to be Mia but the problem is that she is not being genuine. She is doing it because she wants to be the cool understanding adult who totally gets this rebel boy and to show Luke how well she can handle the situation and how clueless he is, but it backfires because she is the one being clueless:  Jess is a high sensitive boy who is going  through a lot and she has zero empathy with him. She patronizes him and what happens is that he can see through her, he can feel no connection, he could never trust her because she thinks she already knows everything so she does not listen, she has zero interest is what is really going on with him.

You can see the change of expression in Jess’ face the second Lorelai says Luke is very special. He detects something but she is so absorbed in her own discourse she can not read Jess and she still has the audacity to say ‘you are so lucky’. That is the last straw. He snaps at her with the 'you are naive or you are getting some’ but really, what did she expect? 

She expected him to say: ‘yeah, thank you, you are right I will give it a chance I am sorry I took the bier’. And when this does not happen she wants to smash a pie in his face and decides he is screwed forever. 

She is completely overreacting because she can not believe he has not surrender to her. And she decides to hate him from here to the end of times. She will never accept he might have a good side. She will hold onto this conversation and build her own image of Jess. No matter if he, Luke or Rory try  to change her mind, she will always think the worst of him. 

Let me show you what Mia tells Emily about the day she met Lorelai.  

And what Emily answered.

Emily would have wanted Lorelai to find someone who did not listen to her and sent her home. She never listened to Lorelai. Lorelai never listened   to Jess (and very little to Rory). Lorelai wanted to be Mia  but she turned out to be Emily.

 He never stood a chance with her. 

[fortheloveofarchons]

Let’s wear Xianzhou outfits and not tell Caelus

Special mention to @uniqua-2273 on tumblr for giving me a puff of motivation to finish this chapter!

Inspired by @b02owo on Twitter (X) and also @not_update_2.0 on Instagram go and check out their amazing Dancae artworks!!!!

C.W.

Chapter is written before version 2.4 of H:SR update

Fluff and humour

Caelus being a menace

Dan Heng being a softie

March 7th appears

Pom-Pom and Welt Yang mentioned

.

.

.

“You are the worst best friend ever, March 7th! I hate you!!” 

Caelus cries out loud, completely cocooned in March 7th’s large, soft blanket, covering his entire body on her bed. The weight of his emotions presses heavily on him, and he pulls the blanket tighter around himself, seeking solace in its warmth and security. His body was curled into a tight ball beneath the layers, his face completely hidden from view, only the faint sound of his loud, muffled sobs breaking the silence. 

“For the love of Aeons– Caelus! Get out of my bed!!” March 7th shouts at the large, pink cocoon, where Caelus hides himself in there. March tightly grips the fabric of the blanket, and immediately tries to pull it out of Caelus’s grasp. 

But Caelus didn’t budge. Instead, he clutches the blanket even more tightly, his fingers gripping the fabric as if it were a lifeline.

“LET GO CAELUS!!!” 

“YOU KNOW WHAT RHYMES WITH THE WORD ‘BETRAYER’?!?! NEVERRRRRR!!!!!” 

Such a clear sign that the trailblazer wasn���t ready to emerge from his makeshift fortress. 

With Caelus’s strength besting her, March 7th could only stop pulling the blanket as a sign of defeat, feeling her arms and fingers sore from all of the pulling. An archer and swordswoman can only go so far as to obtain agility, but not strength. 

Yunli would digress, but Yanqing would agree. 

Getting the train conductor Pom-Pom angry would be a huge risk if the blanket was ripped off. 

Puffing out large breaths, all March 7th could do was to walk out of the room in resignation, the door sliding open for her. 

Coincidentally, she finds someone outside waiting for them. 

“Dan Heng?” March 7th asks. “What are you doing over here?” 

“I heard screaming.” Dan Heng answers, his eyebrows drop low over his eyes as he tries to understand the situation. “While Pom-Pom was busy fixing up the omni-synthesiser with Mr. Yang, I decided to come and find what the ruckus is all about. Best not to enrage Pom-Pom with your loud noises and settle this as soon as possible, after all.” 

Dan Heng tilts his head a bit to the right, seeing through the wide, open gap of the door is a large pink cocoon. 

“...I’m assuming that’s Caelus on the bed?” 

“Uhh… you mean my bed!” March 7th corrects him, puffing her cheeks in frustration. “Ever since I’ve been wearing this outfit that Master Yunli brought for me, Caelus has been giving me the bombastic side-eye whenever we go out! When I confronted him about it, all he did was just whine and cry and complain– and then proceed to jump onto my bed and wrap his whole body with my blanket! Now, he won’t even get out of my room!” 

The bells that hang around March’s double bun bows ring and clink in response to her frustration. 

Dan Heng could only let out a sigh so long that March thought that his soul was going to get extracted. Truly a normal day in the Astral Express. 

“I’ll go and talk to him.” 

Dan Heng presses the button, and the door slides completely open, revealing Caelus tightly bundled up in a thick, cocoon-like blanket. Only a tuft of dishevelled silver hair peeks out from the bottom. The rest of the blanket is pulled up over his head, leaving his face hidden. 

Without a word, all Dan Heng could do was to sit at the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight. He reaches out, his hand hovering just above the blanket, unsure if his touch will be welcomed or rejected. He’s being careful to not attack the beast, but to tame it. 

“Caelus?” He gently pats the blanket. 

All Dan Heng gets is a soft sniff in response. 

“Are you okay? You haven’t eaten breakfast since this morning, and I heard the commotion so…” 

Caelus shifts slightly, but he doesn’t turn or speak. The air in the room is thick with frustration and sadness. Dan Heng could see the outline of Caelus’s hands clutching tightly under the blanket, white-knuckled and tense. 

“Go away.” Caelus finally speaks out. “Get out of my room.”

“...You know that this is March’s room, right?” 

“If you’re here to convince me to come out, I won’t. You and March 7th… are all betrayers to me!!” 

“Betray?” Dan Heng’s eyes glared at this information before him, frustration evident in his eyes. “Caelus, please elaborate on that. Just what exactly do you mean by this?” 

“You are March both have customised Xianzhou outfits!” Caelus finally explains, his mind trying to block out the images of his friends in their Xianzhou outfits, and how the comparison gnaws at him. “You guys didn’t tell me that! Do you know how left out and inadequate I felt?!”  

Imaginary crows caw at the distance upon hearing Caelus’s reasons. 

“...That’s it? Just because you didn’t get to wear a special Xianzhou outfit?” Dan Heng clarifies the situation once more. 

“Uh, duh!!” Caelus replies, rolling his eyes under the blanket. “It's not my fault you've been travelling longer than I have. Same goes for March! Of course you two would be this close to the point of wearing matching Xianzhou outfits… I feel as lonely and left out as Mr. Yang.” 

Dan Heng could’ve sworn he heard a loud sneeze in the distance. 

Dan Heng combs the back of his hair with his hand, half-relieved that he could finally know what Caelus’s motives are, but also half-frustrated that Caelus would cause such a ruckus because of something like this. Still, Dan Heng could understand how it feels to be left out. From the moment he chose to not join them in Penacony, most of his life was spent covering his body with his blanket, the faint glow of his phone screen casting a soft light in the dimly lit archives room. He remembers how as hours ticked by, his eyes would always flicker over to the messages on his phone, filled with photos and videos captured by his friends from places in Penacony. 

He remembers how the pang of loneliness would often hit him, sharp and unexpected. Like the crimson sword that Blade stabbed him right in the chest. 

Seeing Caelus like this… only made Dan Heng understand where he’s coming from. 

“Caelus, how about you borrow one of my outfits?”

Immediately, the sniffling stops.  

“R– Really…?” Caelus enquiries, hiccupping his words. “Could I really wear them?” 

“Well, yeah.” Unexpectedly, the idea of Caelus wearing his clothes feels oddly intimate. He did not notice how his cheeks flushed a light pink as he continued his sentences. 

Dan Heng clears his throat, trying to muster a casual tone. “I don’t have a lot of Xianzhou clothes, so you can either pick my usual outfit, or the outfit I’d wear as Imbibitor Lunae–”

“Give me your Imbibitor Lunae skin!!” Caelus exclaims, already popping out from under the blanket, his face breaking into a wide, cheeky grin. 

Dan Heng almost jumped from the bed, his body tensing due to Caelus’s unexpected enthusiasm. One of March’s plushies was pushed away by Dan Heng’s surprise, landing on the floor with a small thud. 

But that moment immediately simmers down when Dan Heng notices that there are no red lines under Caelus’s eyes. 

“I… Weren’t you crying just a few minutes ago?”

“Doesn’t matter!” Caelus reaches out to Dan Heng with his hand, gesturing for him to hand him that outfit. “Give me that skin right now!” 

“...Please don’t call my outfit as a ‘skin’.” 

[mari-lair]

That’s a lot of questions, but I’ll try my best to answer them all!

.

Aoi doesn’t care about an individual perception of her, she genuinely has no interest in a stranger because she always assumes they have bad intentions. They want to hurt her: It does not matter if they are jealous or worship the ground she walks on, they they will hurt her. Which is a sad way to view the world, so she defends herself.

Her attitude is a big wall that says “If I don’t care about you or your opinion, you can’t hurt me”. 

She detaches herself from it all, preferring apathy over being vulnerable and opening herself to be hurt. This lack of confrontation, this apparent lack of care (she doesn’t seem to ask even simple things most kids would in her situation “Why are you bullying me?”) makes her feel arrogant, which feeds into people’s bad view of her and prove her trust issues right, which gives her more reasons to believe she is right and became more arrogant.

Akane was always there to stop anyone from going too far when messing with her, so she can look down on others even when they got aggressive without fearing for her health. She can’t be hurt emotionally in her indifference, and she doesn’t care about physical injuries, not when the most she’ll get with Akane around to protect her is a scratch.

So she keeps this up to the point Akane genuinely starts believing she is a tough girl that doesn’t care when people are mean to her.

But she does.

She just pushes it all away, and pretends she is above it all. Growing genuine in her arrogance after training herself to not care all the time, convinced the way the world sees her doesn’t matter, because they don’t matter.

Aoi can’t use this defense when she already cares about someone, but she still naturally assumes the worst of people when it comes to how they view her, so something as small as a petty fight with someone whose views she deeply values can be extremely hurtful.

She is scared.

“Akane hates me, he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, he never liked me in the first place!"

She is also visibly angry: She hates that she cares, she hates that she can’t hide it. Notice how she doesn’t say anything or try to run after Akane. She is trying very hard to convince herself she “Doesn’t care”, she wants so badly to ignore Akane, or to hate him, but she can’t do either, so she defaults to being angry at herself.

The reason Akane finds her crying so cute is not because the tears look cute, is because it shows how much she cares about him. Under all that bravado and arrogance Aoi is a sensitive girl who wants to be loved, and she is very attached to the people she considers friends, she can act tough all she wants but if a loved one says "I hate you" she is so distressed she cries.

Aoi hates how sweet and 'weak' her heart under all her icy defenses. Akane finds it cute.

Akane was her only friend for most of her life, so the person she pays the most attention to, and the one she compares herself to the most is Akane.

Akane is the direct opposite of her: People are unfair to Aoi and she react by closing her heart so no one can hurt her. People are unfair to Akane, making him do annoying work without giving him anything in return, and he reacts by loudly acknowledging people are being unfair instead of bottling up any discomfort, and trying his best anyways instead of running away, keeping his heart open and wearing his emotions and feelings on his sleeves. 

Akane doesn’t care about others opinion of him, he’ll swing his bat like a crazy person at school and be rude as fuck to people he just met, but he help other because he wants to help, he is a nice person.

In comparison to Akane, Aoi feels selfish, cruel, and cold. She only ever cares and worries about her close friends because their opinions matter to her.

Akane is someone even she, with all her walls, can’t help but love. And since she is the oppose of him... Is easy to come to the conclusion she is unlovable. She may not care about a stranger calling her a slut, but she can see people don’t like her. Again and again, people always find some problem with her.

She hates herself too, so she is convinced even the people that claim they love her don’t care about her, they just love the sweet personality they come up with after seeing her pretty face, and they’ll hate her when they realize there is more to her than a cutesy smile.

She is unlovable by design, so she assumes the only reason her friends don’t hate her yet, is because they don’t know her true self.

The “cute, sweet, and friendly, popular girl with a pretty face!” is loved. She is Nene’s best friend, the girl all the guys want and all the girls envy.

But Aoi? The arrogant and distant coward that is scared of caring too much? She isn’t loved by anyone. She is sure she will be rejected if she act honest, so she doesn’t even try.

Her life was never a “perfect life”. 

Aoi is either by Nene's or Akane’s side. She isn’t close to anyone else.

The manga is in Nene’s point of view so her situation is narrated through rose tinted glasses: Nene lives in a fantasy world where Aoi’s life is perfect since being popular is Nene’s dream, so Aoi’s popular life must be amazing! Right?

Nene can’t break this view. Even when the truth stares her in the face. She does not change her view.

Aoi was a wreck when she tried to apologize, but she does regret trying to kill Nene, she wants to apologize, so she tries her best to get out of her comfort zone and face her biggest fears for Nene: She is willing to have a confrontation instead of hiding

Instead of asking Aoi how she feel, or making any questions about her behavior, Nene immediately dismissed all of Aoi’s actions. Nene doesn’t want to deal with Aoi’s problems, she just wants her popular bubbly friend back.

Their hug in chapter 96 means Nene embraced the “popular girl bff with a pretty face” and rejected Aoi. 

Aoi is hurt by this, but she is a coward, so she accepts it, pretending nothing happened. (I go into more detail about Nene’s views, and why Aoi doesn’t open up: Here.)

Despite all her flaws, Aoi is not nearly as bad as she sees herself as, she is mostly insecure, desperate to be loved even when she feel like she doesn’t particularly deserve it. 

She is harsh on herself, wanting to keep all her emotions under tight control, but she is sweet to her friends, she genuinely loves them and tries to fight her bad habits. She wants them to be happy! 

She’ll get invested in topics she doesn’t personally care about, because she knows Nene likes it, and worry about Akane’s health for the simple reason that she cares, she wants the best for them.

Her sweet side clashes with her bad habit to always assume the worst.

Despite being a sweet girl at heart, caring about others is still very painful. It does not come easy for Aoi, who has trained herself to be isolated from her peers.

She wants her friends to look at her, she wants to be important and be reassured she is loved! But even when she is shown love, she doesn’t believe in it

She convinced herself they don’t care about her, just like all these strangers don’t care about her. And she is arrogant enough to believe she is always right, so if she can’t see this ‘wonderful girl’ Akane sees, it just means Akane is the wrong one. That this isn’t her insecurities talking, Akane is the one lying, he is the one that doesn’t truly love her. 

 Aoi believes she has misled him just like she had misled Nene, and she wants to talk about it, she wants to be honest, she is so tired of hiding her flaws! But she is too scared to risk losing the love she is given so she will keep hiding, she’ll keep lying to herself that it doesn’t matter, as she has done since she was a small child.

All the things that she claims to hate about Akane, the things that make her feel envious, and lacking in comparison, are also what she wishes she had, things she genuinely admires about him. Things that make him so special and “easy to love” in her eyes.

The idea Akane isn’t lovable does not compute to her. She never says “he is not my type” even when she is neck deep in denial because to Aoi, only an idiot wouldn’t see how lovable Akane is, and Aoi is too arrogant to lower herself to the level of an idiot.

She adores him so much that even when she believes the “cute humble and popular Aoi” is the only Aoi he’ll ever love, she can’t let go. She keeps him at arm's length to not get too attached, but she can’t bring herself to truly run away, to reject him point blank.

She wants him after all, when we get a glimpse of her alone with her defenses down, she melts just from watching him work hard.

She wants them to be closer (unrelated but I can’t get over how she went “watching Akane from my window isn’t enough, let me lean on my balcony, so we are closer.”)

She wants them to be side by side. She wants to accept his confessions. But she is too scared to admit even to herself that she is smitten.

Opening up is hard for her after all, and admitting he cares about him so much? That’s terrifying. 

So she runs. 

Because if Akane gets too close he might see her flaws, and if her “unlovable self” make him stop loving her, if her flaws make him leave her, she will crumble.

When her usual defense of “I don’t care, you can’t hurt me!” isn’t effective, her second one is to distance herself from what is hurting her so she has some ‘control’ of the situation.

The drug no.6 gave her may have lowered her empathy, but “discarding people so they can’t hurt her” and “running far far away” has always been an itch she had. She always dismisses any stranger from her life, because she doesn't need them. She always runs away when she is hurt.

Is a desire born from the ugliest, most selfish, and insecure parts of her heart, something her kinder and friendlier side never allowed her to act on. But it is a part of her, the one she hates: this is the “unlovable Aoi” to the extreme, fully out.

Is a part she constantly tries to hide, but is always there, as important to her character as her kindness. A part of her that is resentful of the world and wants to stop caring altogether, to hide and hide forever, make it so only she can hurt herself.

She assumes if Nene asks Akane out he’ll accept, despite how much Akane only focuses on her, so she spends a week without going to school to spare herself the pain.

She accepts Akane “have been lying and secretly still likes Lemon” right away because of a silly ghost game, going straight into depressive mode and running away from the pain.

She genuinely wants Akane to be happy, and while she wants him to be happy with her, she hates her possessive nature, using her usual defense mechanism and trying to convince herself she doesn’t care about him, that he is disposable.

She doesn’t want to hurt anyone but she is arrogant, so she doesn’t protest or do anything to show she likes Akane (even when its obvious), going “I hope you’re happy” and running before she says what she really wants and ‘ruin their fun’ and ‘give her feelings away’.

She wants control over the situation: To leave before others ‘inevitably’ leave her. And Akane knows.

But he genuinely like her for who she is, he know how sensitive she is under her smile, so he always run after her to calm her down.

Akane is her biggest weakness and Aoi despises feeling weak and out of control. So her crush on him is a two edge sword.

She genuinely believed Akane doesn’t love her real self, but she also used it as an excuse to have control over her crush, to justify her lack of courage to pursue a relationship. 

She is still the same scared kid that cried when Akane said he hates her and got mad at herself for crying about it.

She is too arrogant to admit Akane has control over her feelings even when her composure is shattered.

Part of her genuinely doesn’t want to care, she wants to raise her walls and keep Akane away so he can’t hurt her! That is why she stabbed him and tried to throw him away in the first place.

She tries so hard to use her usual “I don’t care about you, so your opinion can’t hurt me” strategy with him, it's frustrating that it doesn’t work. 

She is a flustered mess by the point Akane start gushing about a flaw she hates so much and makes her life difficult.

The reason she is uncomfortable with Akane is because she is uncomfortable when she can’t control her emotions. And Akane? He could make her blush even when his approach was so tactless she dissociated from his shower of  neverending compliments, so this assertive approach, practically forcing Aoi to accept that he likes her for who she is and that she can’t run away from his love no matter how hard she tries, it’s as much of a dream (she always wanted to be loved fully) as it is a nightmare (he is too direct! He does not give this poor coward a break!!).

He doesn’t allow her any escape. He is taking her far far away from her comfort zone. Her panic is completely and utterly genuine. Help her cause she does not know what to do.

She isn’t able to give him a verbal answer when Akane asks “Do you like me, even just a little bit?” but Akane never expected an answer.

He only acted so bold in the first place (holding her and kissing her neck) because at this point, he already knows she loves him.

Aoi doesn’t deny his claim, she doesn’t use meaningless excuses like “We can’t marry because that would make me Aoi Aoi” , she just... cling to him, holding on.

Only after she hugs him back (which is a silent “I love you too” in this context) does Akane go for the kiss.

Let's compare when Akane tries to kiss her to a similar scene where she is genuinely uncomfortable so I can show you she is more nervous and flustered by his advances than truly scared or uneasy.

In chapter 24 Hanako possessed Nene and tried to ‘seduce’ Aoi. Aoi had no idea supernaturals exist at the time, and she even goes “Nene-chan...?” to show she fully believes this is Nene, not some ghost possessing her friend. 

There is a lot of focus on Nene’s reaction, an attempt to make it comedic, but Aoi is extremely uncomfortable with this forceful behavior.

Aoi likes Nene, Nene is one of the two people she considers a friend, but she hated this: She is sweating, there isn’t even a hint of blush on her face, and she keep her hands far away, having her back on a wall. She likes to hold hands with Nene, comfortable being touchy with her friend, but in this situation, her instinct is to lean away. She doesn’t want it. She is uneasy.

Now let's go back to chapter 69. There are a lot of similarities, both Hanako (who she assume is Nene) and Akane hold her chin before trying to kiss her and both have her backed into a wall. Akane should arguably be worst cause she hasn’t been touchy with him in years while she is constantly holding Nene’s hand, but not only does Aoi blush, she doesn’t try to run from her feelings like usual, she reaches for him, holding on to his jacket.

She isn’t confident, she is sweating and shocked, (which makes sense considering how chaotic her night have been) but there is light in her eyes: She is scared, but she wants to kiss him too.

She have craved to be closer to Akane for ages but this talk didn’t magically heal her issues, no matter how much she dislikes this part of her, she is still an arrogant coward at heart: This kiss is hard for her. Any sort of intimacy is. It goes agaist her instinct to hide and sabotage herself.

That’s why she always blushes hard and gets extremely nervous with Akane when he gets too close. Even when what he is doing isn’t forceful, it feels overwhelming to Aoi.

She needs to hold back the urge to run. She needs to fight the urge to think about the worst and trust him, allow Akane to have sway over her emotions.

She still have a long way to go, and I’m rooting for her.

[beanghostprincess]

I have this thought for quite some time, coming mostly from my twitter and Reddit interactions.

I kinda love the amount of hate I see towards Buggy. People hate how Oda loves this clown and keeps bringing him up, how he is getting more connections to story, how he gets that high bounty. They hate him because he doesn’t have powers, or isn’t smart.

And the fact that so many of them try to cope by putting Mihawk in place of Buggy is incredible. Mihawk is not some lost friend who is having insanely deep contention to shanks, BUGGY IS.

But I guess he’s not “cool and powerful” enough and they don’t get why shanks could be friends with “someone like that” (actual take I saw a lot).

I can’t wait for buggy to be more important just to see everyone lose their minds. If he gets to laugh tale, the best day of my life. And I’m not even that big on Buggy

These takes make me so angry because they're just??? Not true at all??? Most of these opinions come from the general audience and dudebros who don't take the time to analyze Buggy and just accept his character the way other characters see him. Instead of stopping for a second and thinking about why he does what he does and why Oda likes him so much, they just assume he's the lame clown everyone in the OP world thinks he is. Which is, in my opinion, extremely sad. And you don't even have to analyze shit?? Like, okay, I get it. Chapter 1082 is crucial for his character and perhaps if you don't read that you might think he's useless and Oda uses him too much for what he actually does for the story (bullshit, by the way, I'm just trying to find a reasoning behind their shitty takes). But after reading 1082??????????? Okay???? Whatever. Buggy haters get on my nerves, not because they don't like Buggy, but because they don't understand him.

Saying Buggy isn't smart is uhhh. It's just not true. The fact that he's constantly placed next to the biggest, most feared, and strategic pirates in the world just doesn't help him at all to prove that, tbh. I'd be scared af if I had gone through all the things he has, honestly. Like- People- People just ignore Water 7 and the whole thing with Usopp being a coward but wanting to be more than that because of his dream and that being scared doesn't necessarily mean something bad??? I think people just forget entire arcs and scenes to post these things. Buggy might not be the bravest but he understands the pirate world better than anybody and he's genuinely smart, he's just constantly placed in situations that force his character to be scared af (for obvious reasons) and everyone looks down on him for that. Which makes total sense for his character because his whole thing is feeling inferior and being compared to others when he has many talents himself. He isn't dumb, he just has the worst luck in the whole fucking world. Or the best. It sort of depends.

I think he lost his bravery and sense of adventure when he gave up on his dream, but now that he's being more confident in the fact that he could achieve it, we will see him using his full potential. And I am so, so excited for that. The speech he gives in chapter 1082 changed my life and it's easily my favorite chapter from the whole manga. I really, really hope they do something with that. I want him to have all the wonderful scenes he deserves.

And, okay, about the Mihawk thing: I don't agree with that that much? Like, okay, I can see people often making Mishanks relationship more than what it actually is, but tbf, Mihawk is barely a character here because Oda hasn't given him screentime of his own. He's always there for another character (Shanks, Zoro, Cross guild, etc). What we do know about him is that he went all his way to find Shanks and tell him about Luffy?? Like. Okay, babe, I know what you are. What we do know is that Shanks and him have something going on and I would really like to know WHAT exactly. I'm not even a huge Mishanks shipper but I completely understand why people like it. I prefer other ships like Shuggy and Cross Guild but, well, I don't think they use Mihawk to take over Buggy's place. I think they just want Mihawk to have some story because Oda barely gives him one. But I can see where you're coming from, though. I can see a lot of people using Shuggy's dynamic for them sometimes and it bothers me because these two have their own thing and they could easily just?? Ship both things??

People saying they don't understand why Shanks would be friends with somebody like Buggy is so funny to me, because we barely know anything about Shanks either, lmfao. He's the cool and powerful role model of the main character. He's literally the most cliché thing in the whole wide world, shut up. And I absolutely love him and he has wayyy more personality than these types of characters usually have, but I am tired of seeing takes like this as if Buggy wasn't one of the most interesting characters in this manga. But, also, Shanks would just?? Kick these people's asses for this shit. Saying you don't understand why Shanks would be friends with Buggy is just admitting you think the same way people in-world think about him, which is just admitting you don't understand his character. At least people in-world think that way because they don't know Buggy's story. You know Buggy's story. You should know why Shanks is friends with him and cares so much about him. But also?? Even if Buggy truly was a fucking loser with no talent and no dreams. Saying Shanks needs a reason for being friends with him is so dumb. Have you considered that... Sometimes... Most of the time... People don't have a reason for being friends with somebody and you don't need to find a reason for somebody's love?? Like- Perhaps Shanks just fucking loves Buggy because that's his childhood friend and he doesn't care about his abilities or talents. Perhaps he just loves him for who he is. I don't think it's that hard to understand, honestly.

You're not that big on Buggy, but I am. I really am. He's probably getting a tragic ending with Shanks but I do not care. If he ever gets to Laugh Tale or- Or if he ends up believing in himself finally. If he gets closure with him (which he will get, because Oda loves these two too much to leave them without closure). I will be the happiest person in the whole world. My mind and body say "Luffy king of the pirates!!" but my heart cries of happiness every time I think about Buggy being the king. I love him so fucking much.

[undiscovered-horizon]

hello, hope ur doing okay! can I request a morpheus x reader, where they just got engaged but reader had bad experiences in their past relationships, so they open up with morpheus and he reassures them, telling them that he would never hurt them, they're safe with him, something like that :) thank you <3

[TW: mentions/descriptions of abusive relationships]

Whenever Morpheus got angry or irritated, he had a habit of remaining calm - impressively so. Sometimes, his unwavering composure was a lot more frightening than if he was to raise his voice even by a single decibel. To be fair, you thought that more often he appeared disappointed rather than angry but, for the record, it was quite difficult to read his emotions with utmost certainty.

Perhaps it was that unsureness that had put you in that fateful situation. What the mind doesn't know, emotions like to fill in with the most probable interpretation but such guesswork is only that - a lucky guess that sometimes happens to be correct. Due to a series of unfortunate and, frankly, aggravatingly unfair events, your guesswork always pointed towards the worst, making you assume that unless someone was undoubtedly and vividly happy, they were surely upset with you. In the past, through less-than-satisfactory relationships, it was the perfect defence mechanism, saving you whenever it could. Around Morpheus, however, it was about as useless as an air humidifier in a Finnish sauna. But reflexes do not care about reason.

You had already forgotten what the argument was about. Maybe you asked him something? Or wanted him to explain something that was beyond your understanding? Or perhaps you had done something wrong? Whatever it was, it had left your thoughts long ago. Now, there was only one goal in your mind: don't make him angry. The more you tried to calm yourself down, the more obsessive that thought became. Soon, you couldn't even hear Morpheus's words through the stereotypical repetition of that one sentence as though your mind retracted from reality to focus on survival; as if it wasn't your fiance in front of you but a starving, angered bear.

"You can't possibly understand," Morpheus ended his monologue. To silently accentuate that he was over your little misunderstanding, he suddenly leaned in really close. That thin, pasty and expressionless face towered over you like a scarecrow that cackles at pesky birds.

Aside from 'don't make him angry' there were no other thoughts in your head, so it wasn't a conscious effort that made you turn your head away from Morpheus and quickly shield your chest with your hands. Truthfully, until he spoke again, you didn't even know you did that.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a low, breathy voice as if that thought was never meant to leave his mouth. Maybe he's voice broke slightly or maybe it was only your imagination.

Firstly, you turned your head again to look at him. His eyebrows were furrowed and the skin on his nose was almost scrunching. Then you looked down only to see your arms pathetically shielding your chest as if you had been expecting an assault in the immediate future. What the Hell am I doing?, you asked yourself but those relatively calm thoughts were quickly replaced with another avalanche of panic and obsessive repetition: he's angry, he's angry, he's angry, he's-

"I'm sorry, you're right, I can't understand," you blabbered frantically. "I should... I should just go. You're busy."

"Wait." The sound of his husky voice vibrated down to the marrow of your bones. Or maybe you were panicking enough to be trembling. It was hard to say at the time. Morpheus's hand reached out to grab your wrist but just before he could, something inside him decided to retreat. Instead, his index finger trailed the exposed skin of your palm. "I have never raised my hand against you," he stated softly.

"I know, I never thought you would," you answered quickly. Don't make him angry. "It's just me being weird, you know?" you let out a nervous laugh. "Nothing to do with you, I'm just stupid, no need to worry but I'd totally understand if you didn't want to deal with it and just left, I mean-"

"Why would I do such a thing?" he interrupted your frightened rambling.

"What?" you stuttered out. Dream's question did not fit the scenario you were expecting to be living out at the moment. Was he... not going to call you stupid? Weird, you thought, they always did.

"Why would I choose to leave you?"

"Well, I'm not exactly your league, am I?" you shyly suggested although such hesitance was unnecessary: he wasn't stupid enough to not had had noticed. "You're a literal god, Morpheus. I can't give you anything you don't already have but I surely will introduce you to new kinds of misery. I tend to do that..." your voice trailed off awkwardly.

Then, you felt his cold, bony hand gently holding your chin. In a tender and yet decisive manner, he forced you to look at him. "There is but one thing that you possess and that I wish to have also: yourself. The only misery you could bestow upon me would be your leave." His eyes had the colour of storms, of seas that rage againt proud sailors; the mirror of the wrath lurking in human dreams. Morpheus's hand let go of your chin but the absence of his touch did not last long - the back of the very same hand anxiously caressed your cheek. "I have never loved you by chance. All of my affection I have given you on purpose."

Continuing its tender travel, Morpheus's hand rested on the nape of your neck. There was a moment of hesitation in him before he gently pulled you into a chaste yet kiss - in some strange way, it was affection rid of bodily pleasures but bursting at the seams with promises unspoken and confessions unmade. He desperately wanted to prove, both to himself and you, that he was beyond all the people you had the misfortune to love once. Yes, Morpheus's hands were scarred and bloodied enough to tenderly hold your fearful heart. He was one of the Endless, after all, so it surely would be beneath him to torment you simply because he could. I am better than that, he convinced himself, I have to be.

Although he remained certain in those thoughts, there was that quiet pesky voice in the back of his head as if a mouse's squeaking that kept asking him over and over again:

Are you?

Are you?

Are you?

[so-long-soldier-writes]

Kinks & Cuddles

kol mikaelson x reader

summary: comforting kol after he faces his mother's rage

tags: hurt / comfort, mentions of abuse, cuddling, mild smut, mommy kink, blood drinking / sharing

word count: ~1.6k

note: this is inspired by a michael langdon fic i read years ago. i felt the kink fit kol, too. linked on my ao3 if i can track it down. also, i’m publishing this drunk :)

“Hello, love,” Klaus greets as you enter the mansion, “I assume Rebekah’s called you for the intervention?”

You nod, “is it bad this time?”

“One of the worst I’ve ever seen.”

You purse your lips, wondering how you’ll tackle it. 

“Of course,” he continues, “we could just leave him like that. Eventually he’ll snap out of it and go on a killing spree to deal with his emotions instead.”

“No, I’ll get him better before it comes to that. It’ll be okay.”

“Alrighty then. Oh, but Y/N?”

“Hm?”

“He may be hungry. There’s bags in the fridge if you need.”

“Thank you, Klaus.”

“I’m only a phone call away if you need anything.”

After giving him a polite smile, you make your way up the stairs to Kol’s room.

Ever since you’ve started dating, you’ve become more involved in the Mikaelsons’ family business, which, unfortunately, includes their mother’s torment. It isn’t uncommon for the witch to punish them like children, no matter how old they are. Most of it is yelling, but there are times you’ve seen her be more physical, too. Elijah’s the only one who hasn’t been on the receiving end of her, but that’s because he’s never the troublemaker. And while he can often calm her down mid-argument, sometimes, his efforts are futile. 

This is one of those times. Yesterday, Esther had gotten so angry at Kol that not even Elijah could stop her rage. You hadn’t been there, but his siblings recounted it to you. He had come back from The Mystic Grill a little drunk and the woman was furious, yelling about how he could’ve attacked someone and wouldn’t have been able to properly heal and compel the person away. Kol tried to defend that he wasn’t that drunk, but the defiance earned him a slap to the face. The boy gave up instantly, retreated to his room, and hadn’t been out since. As for their mother, she had left early in the morning, no note nor anything else. This unpredictability isn’t unusual for her, but it sure is maddening. 

After Rebekah and Klaus had searched the entire mansion for their mother and found no trace, they called you. You have become sort of like a guardian angel to the family - saving them on multiple accounts, helping them through tough situations, and comforting them after episodes with their mother. Yes, it’s Kol that you’re dating, but you love the rest of them like siblings. 

Their mother, of course, doesn’t know how close you are with the family. There’s no way she would allow it - not for someone to know the family secrets, nor for someone to love Kol the way you do. At the very least, she’d put a boundary spell around the house to prevent your entry; at the worst, she’d set out to kill you. The siblings wouldn’t put it past her. 

“Kol?” You ask gently as you reach his door. He only groans, muffled by his pillow, in response. “It’s me, baby. Can I come in?”

“Fine.”

You’re just as quiet about turning the knob and sitting beside him on the bed. “Hey, you.” You brush your finger down his cheek. “You look quite cuddly.”

He doesn’t answer, opting to bury his head deeper into the pillow. His hair rests messily against it, and his eyes are closed. Strong arms keep it in place under his head, and the way that they’re flexed shows off his back muscles, which peek out from under the blanket. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay. That’s fine. Is it okay that I sit with you?”

“Yes.”

“Mmkay, good boy.” You murmur, cuddling up beside him. “I’ve got you. You’re safe with me.”

He’s quiet for a minute, then asks, “who called?”

“Bex, this time. She’s worried about you.”

“It was her last time.”

“I remember that. And it was you that called me.”

“Y/N?”

“Mhm?”

“Why do you always come when we call?”

“Because I love you all,” you reply instantly. “You’re the family I never had. Except for you, though,” you boop his nose, “because I love you in a different way.”

“I love you, too. Hey, um… can you do that thing you were doing last time?”

“What thing?” You try to rack your brains to what you did last time you comforted your boyfriend. 

“This.” He haphazardly moved a piece of your hair as an example. 

“Ah! Yes, I certainly can.” Immediately, you reach up a hand and pull it through his hair, playing with the locks, and massaging his scalp. 

“Thank you. Feels nice.”

“Good. I’m glad. You need anything else?”

“No, just cuddles.”

“Okay.” You smile. Before you know it, you’re both fast asleep. 

◇◇◇◇

You’re not sure what woke you up, but some hours later, you’re disturbed from a deep sleep. One of your hands still rests in Kol’s hair, while the other lies under your own cheek. When you open your eyes, though, instead of him being at eye level with you, his head is ducked down to your breasts. Before you can ask anything, you sigh involuntarily as you feel your nipple being tugged between his teeth. His tongue is swirling around your breast, wetting it, and then releasing it to flop back to its sideways position. His head then dips to take it in his mouth again, repeating the process. 

As soon as you come to your senses, you try to find your words. “Kol?”

No response. 

“You okay, baby?” You run your hand back through his hair. 

This seems to wake him up, quickly. He snaps out of an apparent trance, removes his mouth, and refuses to look at you. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I should’ve asked. I’m sorry, mommy. I’m really sorry.”

“Hey, there,” you hook a finger on his chin, “no apologies, you’re perfectly okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

He finally looks up at you, “but I touched you without asking.”

“It’s okay, baby. In fact, I’m glad you found the comfort you needed. That’s why I’m here.”

“You’re not upset?”

“Not at all. Do you feel better?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Good. Good boy.” His body shivers at the praise. “Do you need-” You stop mid-sentence. “Did you call me ‘mommy’?”

His face pales. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” His head drops back to the sheets in embarrassment, “I don’t remember.”

“Kol…”

“Please don’t hate me.”

“Oh, pumpkin, I could never hate you! Actually, I find it endearing.” He swallows hard enough that you hear it. “Did you mean it?”

His eyes narrow, “Mean it as in…?”

“As like… was that a slip of the tongue, or was it something you’ve wanted to say?”

“I…I…”

“It’s okay, Kol.”

“I meant it.” He wets his lips. “I just… every time you come help me after mother yells at me, you make me feel safe. Like how a mother should. I don’t know why exactly it makes me want to call you that, but… it does.”

You tilt his chin back up again, and this time he obeys, “to make you feel safe and to love you are all I want to do, Kol. And yes, those are jobs your mother should be fulfilling, too, but if she won’t, I’ll gladly take on both roles.”

“Wait, really? It doesn’t bother you?”

“Not at all. And you already know I love it when you suck on my breasts, baby. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you…”

“You can say it.”

“Thank you, mommy.”

“Of course,” you kiss his head, “mommy loves you. She’s here to take care of you. And, speaking of, are you hungry?”

Before he can answer, his grumbling stomach gives him away. 

“Ah, so it seems.”

“I don’t want to go downstairs, yet. Please don’t make me.”

“Oh no, no, no, you don’t have to. I’m not gonna make you do anything, baby. I know what it’s like to be in that kind of headspace, and you really shouldn’t go down there until you’re out of it. Not only do I need to take care of you now, but I have first-hand felt the embarrassment of being in public while in a special headspace, and I don’t want you to go through that, okay? No, we’re gonna stay right here.”

He blinks up at you, wanting to cry at how thankful he is for your understanding, yet having no words to say about it. You catch onto this and kiss his forehead. 

“Alright, baby, you trust me?”

“With my life.”

“Mmkay, I want you to feed on me, okay?”

“Wait - no, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t hurt me, Kol. I trust you.”

“But-”

“You need to eat, Kol. And I’m not leaving you, nor letting you go down there. Now, come on.” You lift your wrist to his lips. 

Slowly, he drags his teeth along your skin, still hesitant. 

“Feed, sweetheart.”

He takes a deep breath, then finally pierces his fangs into your skin. You gasp at the feeling, eyes rolling back in your head. 

“Good boy, keep going. Keep going.” You play with your hair as you encourage him. “Mommy’s got you. She trusts you.”

After about a minute, the color returns to his face, and he drinks with more confidence. Then, he stops, and immediately bites his own wrist to bring to your lips. You take it, watch your wound heal, and smile up at him. 

“Do you feel better?”

“A lot better. Thank you, Y/N, for the blood. And for comforting me. And for loving me. And for, y’know, not making fun of me.”

“I would never make fun of you. Nothing to be ashamed of, sweetheart. Do you need anything else?”

“More cuddles?”

“I’d love to.”

[merakiui]

m-mera………maid reader and master…….master azul…… b-but he’s the one serving us at night……help orz

OMG AND IN OMEGAVERSE…… OTL

Master Azul is so generous. Though you’re his maid, he allows you to do as you please so long as you continue to be efficient in serving him and completing your delegated tasks for each day. He reminds you that if there’s anything you’re unhappy with you should just say so and he’ll work to improve whatever’s bothering you. All of the servants admire and respect him. He’s very kind, always so benevolent, and so responsible. You’re among many who like your master. He’s gentle for an alpha (although you know that when certain negotiations are held within his estate he is anything but soft, more so calculated and cold and chillingly intelligent). His scent usually blankets the air when he uses it for intimidation factors, and it works wonders on those who are not as confident or fearless when discussing private matters with the Azul Ashengrotto. He’s even managed to strike fear into other alphas! That, and he has a pair of alpha twins who are just as terrifying and intimidating, if not more than your master, when they stand on either side of him. And when they’re together in their trio, they are the pinnacle of anyone’s worst nightmare.

Master Azul takes great care and caution in masking his scent when he isn’t using it to persuade others into signing all manner of contracts. Similarly, the servants are dutiful about wearing blockers and taking suppressants or modulators when need be. It’s to ensure the environment is safe and that no one will fall victim to biological imperative. To take extra steps, Master Azul even notifies the staff of when visitors will be coming (which essentially means that proper preparations should be made so weaker-willed servants won’t fall prey to his enticing scent). It’s as if he thinks of every possible problem and works out plenty of solutions to avoid disaster. Always so conscientious, but then you wouldn’t expect anything less of him.

Unfortunately, he can’t plan for every little mishap, as much as that irks him. The first time it happened was entirely your fault. You’d neglected to take your suppressants, having been so wrapped up in your duties that it failed to cross your mind, and so when Master Azul had yet another one of his negotiations and his scent hung thick in the halls it propelled you right into a terrible heat. To make matters worse, Master Azul had left his study after another successful discussion and was hit head-on with your cloying scent and, as if the world wanted to make your life troublesome, it threw him into a heat-induced rut. The both of you spent the next few days indisposed, isolated, and terribly irritable.

And when you finally broke free from the haze of your heat, the twins were at your door, all pleasant smiles, and suggested you come with them to have a nice, long chat with the master. And long it was. You’d apologized profusely, insisting that you would take greater care in remembering to take your suppressants, promising with all your heart that this would never happen again. To your surprise, Master Azul wasn’t as angry as you thought he would be. You were certain you would lose your job or, at the very least, receive some sort of punishment. But nothing of that sort ever happened. Instead, Master Azul had you sign a contract stipulating that you were to always take your suppressants and, in the event that you fail to do so and fall into heat again, you would be dealt with accordingly. What that meant, you had no idea, but you were frantic and desperate to remain in his good graces. So you signed the contract, assuming all would be forgiven and you would never have to worry about this situation again.

To be a spiteful cheat, Master Azul conveniently forgets to supply you with the batch of suppressants for next month. And like clockwork, your heat comes many weeks later, but this time he’s prepared. It doesn’t take too much coercion to lead you to his room late at night. It smells so thickly of him, and perhaps you should have questioned it when the door had opened and he looked like he had been expecting you, expecting the state you would be in, but all logical thoughts are slipping away, melting down into pure instinct. If you were in a clearer headspace, you never would have dreamed of crossing the threshold into your master’s room, nor would you ever allow yourself to be pinned to his mattress, looking up into his stormy blues. But your heat has you begging for it, for him, for the touch and presence of an alpha. And Master Azul is nothing if not benevolence personified.

Pretty, cute thing. Diligent as you are, you are oh-so-foolish. Perhaps he should just knot you and claim you as his, bite that special little spot on your neck so you would be his in all aspects. Perhaps he should knock you up as well. He’s always wondered how much of your independence he could chip away if he gave you a child, took you as his, forced you to rely on him when it comes to your heats. It wouldn’t hurt to find out, right? :)

[whenits--notreal]

➼ Batman hits Tim shouting "YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING" in Batman (2016) issue #71 (1) (2). It is later explained that this [Batman spinning Tim's jaw] was a form of communication, a "language" which they had established between themselves beforehand. In this language, what Batman said roughly translates to "shut up". No, I'm not joking, this was later explained in issue #81.

➼ The exchange between Bruce and Damian in which Batman very much breaks character is from Batman (2016) issue #145. Spoiler alert: it's not Bruce. The whole dialogue went smthn like:

D: …is it really you? B: It is. D: prove it. B: After you moved in with me… you couldn't sleep. Nightmares. I'd sit in your room with you until you'd finally drift off. /The next day you'd always pretend like it never happened. D: Father… B: I'm back, son …and nothing can stop us.

Despite it not actually being Bruce, I included this for 2 main reasons: 1 ) because it's so obviously not Bruce and still his kids go [in the next panel] "So, the big question is… is it actually Bruce…" and 2 ) because it precedes a POV change to the actual Bruce who is trynna survive solo and is having a cute flashback in #147 (1) (2).

➼ The panel showing Bruce staying at home with a sick Jason instead of going on patrol is from Red Hood and the Outlaws (2012) issue #3. It's pretty self-explanatory, Jason was too sick to go on patrol so Bruce was gonna go alone, but then he changed his mind and cancelled patrol for the night. This is real big tho cuz he prioritised his son over his mission for once (1) (2) (3).

Context: RH and the Outlaws were in a situation where they had to leave their "most cherished memories" with this guy called S'aru as collateral and this was the memory that was taken from Jason (he doesn't want the memory back after they're done with their mission ☹). Also, the art is gorgeous.

➼ The one where B says that Tim isn't his soldier but his son is from Batman (2016) #127. It's an internal dialogue between him and Zur (the other Batman who is a bit bonkers). It's like when he's physically faced with the personification of his Batman persona and his mission, he is finally able to wrap his head around the fact that Robin or not, his kids are his kids, not his soldiers. Otherwise when it's just him, he kinda just ignores the fact and pretends that he doesn't feel/act in two completely conflicting ways when his kids are in question (1) (2) (3). He's a hypocrite and I'm still salty at the "In memory of -- Robin -- A good soldier".

Anyway, it's pretty heartwarming that this was one of the only instances in which he was able to keep the Batman of Zur-en-Arrh in check.

➼ The "I love you, dad" is from the 2016 Nightwing Comics #100 and while I have certain... qualms about Tom Taylor and his writing (don't get me wrong, he's a technically good writer and I enjoy reading what he writes. I just don't like what he's done with the bigger picture if that makes sense-- anyway), I really like this moment and B+N's relationship throughout the past few issues.

For me, Dick is a character with sooo much baggage to unpack and, honestly, I believe he's almost as emotionally closed off as Batman is, he just wears a smile while he's at it and believes the best of people where Batman assumes the worst. But when it comes to his own personal emotions, he bottles them up like he's Doraemon's pouch and has space to spare.

Here though, Bruce takes the initiative, taking off his cowl, and finally says what needed to be said long ago. With no miscommunications! In fact, Bruce delivers with eloquence! And he apologises! It only took Alfie dying...

Anyway, here're the panels: (0) (0.5) (1) (2) (3) (4)

(Added in a few extra pages because Dick was getting the recognition he deserves)

➼ Now following the comic with the heartfelt conversation and Nightwing appreciation, we have the sixth panel: Bruce knocking out Dick's tooth. Yippee. And that would be from Batman (2011) #7. Dick is angry at B cuz he swiped a tissue sample from him without telling him then B just backhands (Backfists? backpunches?) one of Dick's molars right out of his mouth (1).

The reason was that there was evidence in that very molar that Dick was selected by the court of owls when he was young to be trained as an assassin. (2) Now here's the thing, B had no evidence and instead of idk telling Dick about his thoughts (and this is all happening as Dick is going off at Bruce for keeping secrets) and taking an x-ray or smthn, he forcefully knocks it out.

And then they just move on like what just happened was okay. There's not even a hint of remorse or the like, instead, B just rebukes Dick for "underestimating" the Court of Owls. Bro, he was max 8 years old when he was still in the circus, why would he think something happened then? Anyway, Snyder has a real propensity for writing Bruce as a wacko imo.

➼ The next one really pisses me off. Bruce swiping Dick across the face and shouting, "DON'T YOU DARE BLAME ME FOR JASON'S DEATH! DON'T YOU DARE!" is from The New Titans (1988) #55. Let's put aside the fact that yes, it is his fault that a barely 15 y/o kid was trapesing the streets in glorified underwear and making enemies of psychologically challenged, overqualified, criminal masterminds and was eventually brutally beaten to death by one of said criminal masterminds in some twisted parody of a love confession.

Dick comes back from an off-world mission with the Titans 2 weeks after Jason's funeral. He ends up finding out about Jay's death from this little twat who I'm not even gonna bother naming and then after confirming the news he goes to comfort Bruce. He prioritised comforting Bruce over his own hurt at not being called or told in any way.

Bruce, in turn, takes to being an antagonistic asshole like they didn't both just lose the same person and subtly blames Dick for how things turned out. Dick goes, 'hey don't blame me' and Bruce goes 'DON'T YOU DARE BLAME ME' with a side of punch-to-the-face (1). Bruce then continues to rage at his own decision to take a sidekick (twice) but in a way that puts the blame on them (them being Dick and Jason), then he sort of disowns (?) Dick, and stomps out like the toddler that he is (2).

I could honestly never be Alfred.

➼ The page showing Bruce beating Jason is from Red Hood and The Outlaws (2016) #25. Jason shoots the Penguin (he doesn't die but neither B nor J know that) and Batman subsequently tracks him and beats him down like the loving father he is and Bizarro has to come save him (dk how much worse B could've done tbh) (1) (2).

Anyone with eyes would be able to understand why Jason finds it so hard to believe his father-figure loves him. Cuz he doesn't blood well act like it

➼ Next is Batman driving Dick Grayson to his new home or "hell" as he put it (weirdo?) after he officially made him his ward (consent wasn't included in the package). This is set in the Arkham Knight universe and is from All Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder #2. I'm not gonna link any more than that because the whole run stars a messed up Bruce.

Idk in what world, the symbol of Justice of a city would think it's okay to legally kidnap a recently orphaned child, gas them in your car, and call them "dense" or "retarded" when they ask the genuine question, who tf are you? And then he slaps him for grieving his dead parents because, and I quote, "Grief is the enemy. [...] There's no room for grief. Grief turns into acceptance. Forgiveness. Grief forgives what can never be forgiven. Never."

And then he attacks Alfred for feeding him because 'woe is me, I (voluntarily) survived on rats and without any help and I decree that this young 8-year-old does the same'.

➼ And finally, the last one (Batman beating Damian and sending him flying across the floor) is from the Battle of the Super Sons Movie. To his credit, Batman's body was taken over by this starfish-looking parasite thing.

Not a fan of the movie, personally. Not much to say either, I just put it there cuz one of the key aspects of the movie was meant to be Dami and B's father-son relationship (and the gif was kinda funny).

By the time Damian came along, DC writers half-realised that blatant physical abuse towards your kids was not cool.

Anyway, this turned out wayyyyy longer than I'd originally intended. I was just gonna cite the sources at first, and then decided to give context for those weren't gonna read the comics, and then a bit of my opinion slipped in towards the end ┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴ ...

Happy Father's day, ig?

[aloneinthehellfire]

hii I loved ur Billy x reader fic you did and I sort of have an idea for another one?

Something where Billy goes to the reader after his fight with Steve in season 2 and she helps him clean his wounds etc. I don't mind if it's established relationship or not, I just thought it would be cool to see his thoughts and stuff after the fight and maybe a lil redemption??

here we are, i hope it sounds good i kinda rushed to finish it during my uni work break oops

GREATEST FEAR

Billy Hargrove x Fem!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: After his fight at the Byers household, Billy Hargrove has only one place to go; to your trailer.

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: swearing, mentions of abuse (from parents), neglection, mentions of blood, like a really long intro for no reason, fluffy stuff

[A/N: this was definitely something different than i usually write so it was kinda fun but i apologise for it being awful]

set in ST2 (in this fic, Billy has been in Hawkins for at least a month longer than he is originally because I said so)

GREATEST FEAR

Billy Hargrove’s worst fear wasn’t predictable.

In fact, it would probably be the last thing someone would guess considering his reputation. And, after the fight at the Byers house, that fear was hitting him like a brick.

His greatest fear? The only person he loved seeing him for who he truly was. That person, being you.

It was true that Billy was far from reaching even the possibility of perfect. Not since his mom left. And certainly not since his dad took it out on his only child. For the longest time, he blamed his actions as a repercussion of his father’s treatment, validating these violent urges he had. And then he met you.

You were kind, and unbelievably smart, and you didn’t have a violent bone in your body. Billy remembers the first time he saw you, walking out of the school with a boy that Billy thought was too out of your league to be believable. You had worn a smile, laughing away as you shared something you found exciting. It wasn’t unusual for Billy to check out girls, but this wasn’t the same. He was utterly and completely mesmerised by you.

And all at the same time, he immediately decided who you were; some promising young girl that her parents prided on, growing up in a little cul-de-sac and practically having opportunities presented to her on a dish. In fact, he had presented his opinion to you after a partnered project forced you both to sit together during lunch. And, to say the least, he severely misjudged your situation.

“I’m sorry, what?” You raise your eyebrows at him, confusion flooding your face. Billy expected you to be defensive, angry even. Instead, you looked slightly amused.

“You’re telling me I’m wrong?” Billy chuckled, a little uncertain already.

After a few minutes of making notes on this biology project you were both meant to create, he had assumed you were judging his lack of knowledge in the area and decided to let burst his own thoughts on you.

“Uh…” You appear to stifle a laugh, looking back down at your page, “Yeah. Pretty much.”

You let out a laugh just as the bell rings and you quickly pack up your things. Looking back at him, you bite your bottom lip before laughing once again, walking away before Billy could even react to your response.

Billy had thought about that conversation for days. It became unbearable to a point where he had blurted his question to you one day, hoping you would shed some light on your amusement.

Rather than spill all your secrets to him, however, you had opened up over time. First, he found out you lived in a trailer with your dad rather than a cul-de-sac. And he thought you were joking about it for a while, constantly asking to visit your home for the project rather than his. When you finally granted his wishes, he was only half-surprised to see you were telling the truth.

Going inside the trailer let out the second truth, one that hit a little too close to home for Billy’s liking; your dad was an asshole. Right from when he stepped foot in that trailer, he was met with a drunken shout from the other side of the hallway, you tightening your lips and sending an apologetic glance at him before disappearing towards the noise. When you had come back, you simply smiled away whatever pain hid behind your eyes and led him to your quiet room to study.

One reveal came after the other and Billy finally realised just how wrong he was about you. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to admit anyone could have any kind of life he did, that they couldn’t possibly understand his pain. But you did. Your mom left when you were young, too tired of her husband’s abuse to care for her child anymore. Which led to putting you in your father’s spotlight, bruises appearing on your skin instead. After a while, he had stopped and taken to drinking, but that didn’t heal any of the scars. And now you lived in a trailer with a drunken parent, having to take two jobs to keep the roof over your head.

All of that pain, and you were the sweetest person Billy knew. And Billy couldn’t use his background as an excuse anymore, not around you.

Which made knocking on your trailer door this particular night so much scarier.

The door swings open and your silhouette is revealed in the glow from your living room, hair a little messy, your work clothes still clung to your body. Billy winces; you clearly had only just gotten off from your night shift at the diner.

“Billy, what-” Your voice stops and your eyes widen, staring at the boy in front of you.

Billy’s lip was swollen, blood smeared across his mouth and cheek. His eyes were slightly droopy, making him look drunk as he swayed faintly on the step, curled hair clung to his sweaty face.

He had clearly been in a fight.

“Shit.” You mutter, gently pulling him inside and shutting the door behind you.

You turn around to see Billy has his head down, avoiding your eyes. From down the hall, the faint sound of the TV blared through the trailer and you sigh. Your dad always fell asleep watching TV, thankfully.

“Okay, we need to be quiet.” You tell Billy, guiding him to your room and softly closing the door behind you.

Glancing back as he sits on the edge of your bed, you furrow your brows. He didn’t look well enough to go home right now. So, you grab the chair from the corner of your room and prop it under the door knob, ensuring you were locked in. It was only a precaution; if your dad caught Billy in your room, you wouldn’t want to know what he would do.

Wordlessly, you fish the first aid box out from under your bed and place it on the bed next to you, sitting cross legged beside Billy and gently reaching to cup your hand under his chin.

“Can you please look at me?” You ask softly and slowly, but surely, his head shifts towards you, eyes never meeting yours. “What happened?”

You usually didn’t ask that question. It was almost an expectation for Billy to come to you with some kind of bruise he had gotten from a fight at high school. He would always greet you with a cheeky grin before apologising in a way that said ‘I’m sorry you have to deal with it, but I will probably do it again’.

But this look was different. This look held guilt. And that scared you.

“Harrington.” Billy finally spoke and you frowned. He and Steve clearly had it out for eachother; you’d witnessed it enough times at their basketball practices. But there was never an actual fight.

You quickly pat his hand, slipping off the bed only for a moment to dampen a cloth with warm water before quickly returning to your spot.

Gently wiping away the blood stains, Billy let out a breath, shaking his head.

“I fucked up.” He whispers out and you freeze.

“Fucked up how?” You question and he hardens his jaw. Your eyes widen, suddenly panicking. “Okay, Billy, I need you to answer me because fucked up can mean anything between ‘I said something I didn’t mean’ to ‘ I literally killed a man’.”

“I didn’t kill anyone.” He grumbles and you slowly nod, silently releasing a relieved breath. You never thought he would be capable of it, but you’ve noticed how he’s been acting lately. His sister, Max, has been making new friends and Billy can’t seem to accept that. You couldn’t tell if he was being protective or something much worse. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the only problem he had was with Lucas Sinclair.

“I lost it.” He admits, hissing when you apply a dab of alcohol onto his lip.

“Sorry.” You wince, pulling back and tilting your head at him when he shifts his body away. “Billy? What did you do?”

He lets out a groan before letting his back hit the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. You do the same after a moment, turning your head to his and waiting for his response. He still seemed a little dazed and you wondered if he had drank before the fight.

Billy was terrified to tell you the truth. In actuality, the last words Max spoke to him were haunting. And it wasn't because they were the same as his father's. It was because he did that to her. To his sister. He had let his anger take control of him, and it turned her against him. He should have been protecting her, not scaring her.

“I went looking for Max.” Billy sighs, running his hands down his face and ignoring the burst of pain from his bottom lip, “My dad made me, said I should have more responsibility with her. Got me so fucking mad.”

As he started to explain, he was allowing himself to feel more than he usually did. Before he met you, he had no one to go to after a fight with his dad. A year ago, Billy would never imagine to feel so understood, let alone feel.

“I’m guessing you found her.” You say quietly and Billy takes a breath, moving his head to finally meet your eyes. He hated that he had to tell you what he did.

He knew what he was doing was wrong, even after every punch. But knowing he was the one in control was what kept him going, what gave him that thrill. Billy didn't want to admit that too you, yet.

“She was at the Byers house.” He suddenly let out a spiteful laugh, clicking his tongue, “Harrington was there with some kids Max keeps hanging around. And the dude lied to me about it. I- I was already angry and riled up, I would have hit anyone that ticked me off, ya know?”

He knew you didn’t know. Whenever anything happened with your dad, you would blast it out with music from your Walkman. You didn’t go around picking fights for relief.

“Finally got in the house.” He nods slowly, turning back to stare at the ceiling. He couldn’t bear to see your face when he told you this. “Saw the Sinclair kid with her. And I know. I know we talked about it. I know how fucking wrong it is. But I- I just… snapped.”

“Please don’t tell me you hurt him.” Your voice was small and he squeezed his eyes shut, remembering how he threw the boy against the wall.

“I hope not.” He whispers out. “Harrington stopped me before anything else. God, then it was all some stupid blur. I lost it, Y/n. I really lost it. Max had to literally stick me with a needle to get me to stop. I-I don’t know if Harrington’s okay.”

There’s a silence and Billy thinks he’s done it. He thinks his greatest fear has finally claimed the room and he will never hear from you again.

And then he feels your hand sliding into his, gently squeezing. It wasn’t until he moved his head to meet yours that he realised he was even crying.

“Why don’t you hate me?” Billy asks with such confusion, you almost laughed.

“I really wish you could see just how much you could achieve if you didn’t let that asshole into your head.” You finally speak, your words catching him off guard. You let out a breathy laugh, “I hate what he’s doing to you. And I hate what you did. But I don’t hate you.”

Billy just stares at you for a while, eyes searching yours for any hint that you’re lying. But you’re telling the truth. He couldn’t see why you put up with him, lord knows no one else has. Each day he spent with you, he was starting to feel more human again, a little more like the boy he was before his dad ruined his perfect life.

“I don’t deserve you.” He whispers out with such sincerity, you frowned.

“Billy.” You start, shifting closer to him, so close you could feel his breath against your nose. “You deserve to feel loved. Everyone does.”

“I don’t know where to go from here.” He admits, shaking his head against the duvet beneath his hair.

“Well,” You sigh, laying your head down and staring at where your hands were clasped, “We’re gonna fix you up, wait til whatever drug Max shot into you wears off… and then we’ll talk about it.”

“Sounds good.” Billy yawns and you smile, making his own face light up. God, he loved your smile. “How the hell do you put up with all my shit?”

“Maybe I just like having you around.” You shrug, sitting up and finally letting go of his hand.

He props himself up on the bed, smirking. “Is that right?”

You walk over to your bedside table, rummaging in the drawer for one of Billy’s old shirts he had left behind before.

“Yeah.” You nod, glancing over your shoulder, “It’s for entertainment purposes.”

“Ah.” He laughs, shaking his head. He was starting to feel the bruises now, the drug obviously losing its power.

“Here.” You hand him a new shirt and finish tending to his busted lip, making sure it would heal with no problems.

“Thank you.” Billy says and you look up at him, a soft smile playing on your lips.

“Anytime.” You reply with a kiss to his cheek, kicking off your shoes and climbing under the sheets of your bed.

He changed his shirt slowly, trying not to show how much pain he was in, and threw the old one to the floor before glancing behind him. You had claimed your side of the bed and opened the covers out to allow him to lay down next to you. He didn’t have to be asked twice.

As soon as your beside lamp was switched off, Billy slipped an arm around you and you snuggled in, careful of his bruised skin.

Billy Hargrove would never admit it, but he didn’t mind moving to Hawkins. Especially since Hawkins had you.

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

IPKKND ft. Jalebi

Warning: In this Jalebi edition I will write a slight canon divergence for me based on existing material 😊 it’s not a diss to the original! It’s just little/big changes (taking reality into consideration) - a what if based on what we HAVE. Hope you enjoy

#2 The Reveal

Original

Khushi, after watching Arnav suddenly be kind to her and watching a news bulletin that talks about a man marrying another so as to his astrological ill fate falls on the new wife instead of the one he intends to love and marry, assumes an atheist Arnav would precisely do the same - hence why he married her.

To marry his true love Lavanya and have his birth chart misfortune befall Khushi instead. Thus Arnav is planning to kill her and Khushi decides to kill herself before he does it first. And this is all played for “silly” comedy.

Arnav saves her from killing herself and tells her the truth. Khushi later pretends nothing happened and chirps around until Arnav confronts her again and she gets angry on him and he disbelieves her story.

Jalebi edition:

Post Holi Arnav and Khushi are very raw and vulnerable. Khushi understands the tension between Shyam and Arnav and is very restless about it. Why would Arnav keep glaring at his beloved jijaji? What wrong could have happened? Oh no, did he know the truth? How could he have known?

Shyam gets further desperate in getting his hands on the papers, and Khushi notices further the tension between the men. She decides to ask Arnav about it but is interrupted with Arnav fake romancing her as they had Anjali witnessing them. Khushi feels all their intimate moments were a play!

Angry, Khushi demands why much she pretend to be a happy wife? She accuses him of hurting her but he accuses her of hurting him more.

Shocked at that, Khushi fears the worst. One, he must’ve known about Shyam. Two, during Holi she must’ve blurted the truth to Shyam.

With Shyam getting more insulting, Khushi straight up heads to Shyam and demands he tells the truths to Arnav. Shyam tries to use to opportunity to get her to sign some papers by Arnav, but Khushi refuses. Angry, Shyam decides to play dirty.

He mocks Khushi that she must be knowing why Arnav married her. Khushi is stunned and Shyam, honestly, tells everything. That Arnav saw what happened on the terrace, misunderstood it, threatened and blackmailed Shyam, and the point of marriage was to use Khushi against Shyam.

Shyam is happy seeing confusion in Khushi’s face but Khushi calls him a liar and storms off, not believing a single word she said. She wonders if he indeed marry her for this and that she could take him to visit her family but in anger if he reveals the contract marriage they’d be hurt further.

Exhausted, she asks Arnav why he married her, Arnav tells her and Khushi can’t believe it. She asks him not to lie but he emphasizes he isn’t!

Khushi is shattered and chooses to kill herself but Arnav saves her, traumatized, and begs Khushi to explain the situation to him instead of…

Khushi yells at him, the sheer audacity to ask for an explanation when he left no room for questions.

Khushi tells the truth and accuses him of coming to the conclusion he perhaps always wanted to reach.

About her, her character.

(images sourced from the lovely Indi)

Tagging: @butaneandthebeast @shiyaravi @shaonsim @thenainitaldisaster @maansiloves @muttonthings @sapnokiduniyaisalwaysbetter @bengudill @myloveforstuff @laad-governess @laadgovernorandsankadevi @leila1 @lostafpanda @magicfeltmybloop @honeybellexox @featheredclover @goals1024 @bigfatreader @simplycurlz @persephone-with-a-cat @chutkiandchotte @sankititaliya @ijustchangedmyname @noor1025 @bitchy-bi-trash @thecharlesboyle @thedupattaknowswhatsup @exosexosekai @arnav-aur-khushi @whateverworks21 @starzin8s

(This is my permanent tagging list - I’m unable to get a few names cause tumblr doesn’t let them??? So sorry about that and if you want to be added/deleted lemme know)