#so if they refuse to revoke it for whatever reason there’s not much that can be done about it

[arolesbianism]

I’ve been having a rough few days, but I’ve been feeling a bit better so I decided to make some lil thingies for some spiraling upwards kitties :3

[writtenbynath]

Can a hypnotist make you do things you don't want?

It's a complicated question and everyone always wants to ask it. In order to answer, you have to understand what hypnosis is and isn't.

It's not mind control. The hypnotized person doesn't accept everything the hypnotist says without question, and will not simply do whatever the hypnotist tells them. Following hypnotic suggestions is a skill that can be learned, and not everyone is good at it, which is why stage hypnotists spend so much time weeding and finding the talented people in the audience.

Hypnosis is a way to learn and quickly connect ideas together. You can learn to feel disgusted when you smell a cigarette. You can learn to connect happy thoughts to healthy food. You can learn to disconnect panic and anxiety from the things you fear.

An ethical hypnotist will tell you that you can always unlearn the things a hypnotist has taught you, and you can always refuse a suggestion. This is a skill that might require some practice, with the hypnotist or by yourself.

However, if a hypnotist plans on making you do something you don't really want to do, they may omit telling that you can refuse, or they may even tell you that you cannot refuse. Which is an idea you can connect in your head: hypnotist -> can't refuse.

Another thing an unethical hypnotist could do, is to make you forget things, or make you believe things that aren't true. He could try to make you believe he is your husband, and attempt to make love to you, for example. Or he could make you not feel anything, and then fondle you, and ask you to forget. He could make a trained soldier believe he is back on the battlefield and hand him a gun.

A really skeevy hypnotist I know would tell his subjects "I'm always right" which sounds ridiculous the first time you hear it, but if repeated enough times it becomes exceedingly difficult to disagree.

Whether these things actually work, depends on the skill of the hypnotist and the amount of trust and authority the subject believes the hypnotist has. Meeting a man on the street who hypnotizes you, is unlikely to be able to create the effects I describe above. But making several appointments with a trusted hypnotherapist might.

Fact is, too many people don't know that hypnosis is just a tool to quickly learn things. Too many people believe that hypnosis is some kind of mind control. And that belief strenghtens the hypnotists who might want to take advantage of others in their position.

Of course hypnokink can be consensual; it's a lot like rope in many respects. Once the scene has started, the bottom's ability to consent or revoke consent is impaired, so the top should stick very strictly to what was negotiated.

So, can a hypnotist make you do things you don't want? The truth is many people can make you do things you don't want. Your mother or your primary partner can probably make you do things you don't want. There are many social situations where people assume or coerce consent. Luckily, in most of those situations, the damage caused by ignoring consent is not very great. If someone in public touches your shoulder without your consent, the damage is minimal. The reason why we insist on clear, uncoerced consent in kink, is because we take risks that could cause far more damage than in vanilla life.

The risks when doing kink, can range from physical injuries to psychological trauma, including rape and death, because we don't just play with dangerous tools, but also with power dynamics, heplessness, humiliation and sex. No matter how many safety precautions we take, only you can judge whether you can still take more, and there are moments when that judgement is impaired, and we have to trust on our partner(s) or spotter(s) to make sure we'll be ok. When we are that vulnerable, that's when clear uncoerced consent really matters.

Clear consent means that your partner explicitly says that they want to do this with you. Talking about what you want to do together and how you want to do this, makes sure that there is clear consent. Sure, maybe, kinda, and ok are not clear enough, enthusiasm is much easier to understand than half-hearted responses. But uncoerced consent, that's where things become complicated.

We live in a society where saying No is difficult because it's so often considered rude, especially if there are power dynamics at play. So, clearly making it known that you do not consent to this, is sometimes considered rude. Then, there is also persuasion, being friendly and charming in the hopes of getting consent, social pressure from friends or spectators who expect you to consent, and the fuzzy head we can get during a scene. All of that can lead to coerced consent.

So, can a hypnotist make you do things you don't want? Yes. And so can a rope top. And so can your friends when they're trying to encourage you. The trick with kink is to be risk aware. To be aware when consent may be slightly coerced, or slightly unclear, and to check in. To give your partner the safety and the space needed to revoke consent, and to end the risky shit as soon as possible when consent is revoked.

The trick is to be constantly aware that your partner can end whatever you're doing together, to immediately comply with that when it happens, in order to minimise any damage, and to understand that is for the best.

[fatuismooches]

SLIDES SHADES ON, KICKS DOOR DOWN AND FALL ONTO YOUR FLOOR, GUESS WHOS BACKKK!;!!;

🌕💗!!!!

BUT AHHHHHFHDH LATIN DOTTORE STILL MAKJNG ME LOSE MY SHIT

and so many of the other posts that i was binginf just now too oh em GEEEEEEE, specifically fragile/coma reader comjng back to sumeru and all that AHHFHEHHHH

ANF ALSO I CANT BELIEVE U REMEMBERED ABT MT EXAMS AND STUFF 😭💗 i got my results recently!! A* EEEKFK back on the grind tho unfortunately

also rlly rlly thinking bout dottore randomly giving fragile reader academic/research-y things to do cus he knows they crave and miss the days where they could get on wit their stuff YKKK??

also omg sometimes i’m scared to like send any kind of brainrot in cus what if someone else has said a similar thing AND AHHDHH

but yea also thinkjng bout tutor zandik + akademiya reader MNNNFFNF

ALSO ZANDIK X POET READER i feel like zandik from like the akademiya days wojld be all poetry’s stupid 🫤 but like one day findinf readers lil poetry notebook whilst tryna find his own research in their dorm and flipping through and finding it littered with references to cerulean blue locks and vermillion irises..and maybe just maybe, poetry isn’t so bad after all

smooches i’ve missed bombarding ur inbox

SMOOCHESSSS :( <33333

🌕 ANONNNN AHHH IVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!! I'm so glad you've been doing well, congrats on your exams!! I'm glad your hard work paid off, such a scholar 😍 But you better not overwork yourself that hard again! ALSO. DON'T BE AFRAID TO SEND ANYTHING IN!! I LOVE!! hearing what you have to say okay?? Ily 🌕 anon!! PLEASE BOMBARD MY INBOX. I LOVE IT.

HAHAHA it seems like a ton of Dottore brainrot has been infiltrating your brain huh 😅 Dottie speaking Latin really revolutionized ours brains hngg bUT WAIT I LOVE YOUR IDEA. THAT'S SO CUTE. Oh my gosh newdndow how do I phrase this. He knows you still have a love of knowledge and other things you used to be so into :( But nowadays it's died down since you don't think you're cut out for that stuff anymore, even though you miss it. Dottore being the one who respects and acknowledges your intelligence the most would not let you think that way! He'll let you indulge in as much knowledge as you want to. It's far better here anyway, with no restrictions. He'll even let you sit on his lap while you flip through his notes and try to analyze them. Okay and bear with me, this sounds strange but he would make up fake scenarios/brain teasers for you, and these would be PAGES long and you'd have to figure out the answer and report back to him 😭

Also made me think of this angsty af scenario of the day you officially got kicked out from the Akademiya... The sages and profs were so unsympathetic with your condition despite multiple proofs and notes of it being real... no matter how much you begged and sobbed, they refused to accommodate you and revoked your position in the school. Yes, it could be absolutely freaking brutal in there with the workload of assignments and all, on top of your illness too, but you still had dreams. Dreams that you were working so, so hard to pursue... you were trying your best, why couldn't they work with you? You go back to your room to try and pack since they want you out but your stuff just ends up strewn on the floor while you cry. When Zandik comes back you don't even bother hiding your tears or the reason behind them. You can see he's absolutely furious and about to let pure foulness leave his mouth but you interrupt him with a few simple words - "Zandik, just hold me, please." You don't want to hear any words at this moment, because you know nothing will be alright, but at least his touch grounds whatever is left of you to this world.

Okay moving on... Nah I need tutor Zandik. If he saw my dumb ahh while doing math... gone 😭 HEHE I love this trope... i can imagine initially being very serious about trying to learn. But then their tutor is this cutie? Welp, all of that going down the drain. Though, I think it would be pretty sweet if reader ends up learning anyway. Because the professor's way of teaching is so outdated or simply doesn't work for you but somehow when Zandik explains it you're like ?? oh! That's so much simpler! Another possibility - reader purposely flunking so they can get assigned to Zandik for tutoring 🤭 Bro would be flabbergasted that you're wasting both his and your time... because you thought he was... c-cute? Disgusting.

YEAAAA I ADORE DOT AND POET READER I THINK IT'S SOOO ROMANTIC 😭❤️ lmao yea that man would think poetry/non-academic writing is sooo boring like why would you even waste your time on that 😒 You gave up LONG ago trying to convince him why you love it so much but all of a sudden he becomes a teensy more receptive to it... i wonder why? Totally not because he freaking read every single one of your poems, from the serious to silly ones, most definitely not because he found one named after him with a bunch of sweet references... he doesn't care but they were not that bad... he guesses.

[conchelle]

Another thing about internet rotting that worries me is also the extreme push towards digital media. It seems physical media is starting to phase out with streaming services and such.

It's like physical media is being subtly pushed to be seen as outdated or irrelevant. Why buy a physical copy of a movie when you can just subscribe to this streaming service and get so much more movies (There's no guarantee the specific movie you want won't move to another service by the next month)

It feels like physical books, games, albums, DVDs and blu-rays are being displayed as more of "collector's items" instead of buying it for the actual content. After all digital media is the future. It's much more convenient and provides way more options...until the service providing that media decides that it wants to revoke your privileges to even purchase it, or the service that allows you to enjoy the media you've already purchased decides to pull the plug one day.

Physical media isn't completely dead just yet. But there are some games I cannot play unless I shell out a ridiculous amount for a used copy because the company behind it refuses to re-release it, digitally or physically. There are attempts to preserve these titles but they are hit with copyright infringement and forced to be taken down.

The internet is rotting. Archive.org exists but it can barely live up to its name. In this day and age there's no reason for anything to become lost media. We have the ability to preserve everything. But there's an overreliance on services that have the ability to pull the plug whenever they want for whatever reason.

I feel insane but isn't this a bit concerning? This isn't just about not getting to play your favorite games anymore or watch your favorite movie all the time. It feels like history is dying. Despite being at an age where everything and anything can and should be documented and preserved that's just...not happening. It's weird.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

ck3 christopagan hre sitrep (long post. a lot has happened.)

so current on my third generation (this is my first character's grandson.)

stuff that's happened: my liege (the king of east francia) managed to conquer both bavaria and lotharingia. he was probably /this/ close to meeting the conditions to restore the holy roman empire. but alas, for whatever he did not. and he ended up dying and his three kingdoms were distributed between his three sons. the bavarian kingdom title was destroyed so now someone needs to reconquer it and recreate it.

but anyway, as you can see, in the brief window where the three kingdoms were united i managed to pretty much conquer all of frisia and holland.

but then something interesting happened. my new liege (the son of the first king of east francia) really hated me for some reason. he was my rival. and eventually he revoked the holland duchy from me. then frisia. and finally he was trying to revoke holstein from me. obviously if i agreed this would have been game over so i had to refuse.

and surprisingly, like half of the kingdom rose up against the "tyranny" of our king. and with the help of my fellow-vassals we were able to depose the corrupt king and his son inherited the kingdom.

now, i spent the last decade or so slowly pressing my claims on my old duchies (frisia and holland) and i'm solidifying my hold.

so now i'm at a crossroads. i don't like my new king for a variety of reasons. so i have a few options i'm considering.

i pretty much have control of what i want to be the "core" of my future holy roman empire. basically, it's the hanseatic league but a few centuries earlier. but right now it's three independent duchies (and i'm very close to getting a fourth). right now i have them all as "elective" and i think i can manage to keep them unified indefinitely. but i'd really like the security of having them unified as a "kingdom" (roleplaying it as a "league" or "republic").

or i can just gun it for the kingdom of east francia directly. i can scheme or conquer my way to a claim.

decisions, decisions.

other notes: west francia broke in half into the kingdoms of france and aquitaine. they were separate for a few decades but were recently reunified as france.

meanwhile, burgundy and italy have also been going at it. they keep alternating control. sometimes the kingdom of burgundy conquers or inherits italy and sometimes italy conquers or inherits burgundy. right now they seem to be at a stalemate. but the two kings are brothers who are each other's heir. so whichever one dies first will inherit the other kingdom.

oh also for a brief moment almost all of scandinavia was united under a single king (the king of denmark). and of course when that king died everything went to shit. somehow the king of polabia is a jute who has interests in scandinavia (he inherited jylland and conquered part of norway). also sweden has a good chunk of pomerania and southwest finland. meanwhile sapmi is a powerhouse. apparently it (sapmi) is also ruled by a distant cousin of my character's. looks like one of those early marriages eventually paid off.

also, don't get me started on great britain. that shit is a fucked up mess.

[pythoria]

this is really interesting and i do agree to an extent (i didn't want to make the og post bible-lenght lmao). while yes, his lines at cazador in their confrontation are defiant, it's only the kind of defiant he thinks he can *finally* afford because he has people he trusts backing him up, it's not something he would've ever risked saying before he met his ragtag group. he's acquired quite a lot of resentment and he's so eager to spit in cazador's face precisely because he was unable to for 200 years. take his line about eating rats, for example. (paraphrasing but) he says that they were invited to eat them, and if they refused, they'd get flayed, or worse. Yet astarion doesn't complain about the flaying, he complains about eating the rats. i don't think he made the mistake of refusing more than once, he did as he was told.

as for his life before cazador, no, i don't think he was some saviour or he wanted to help everyone, he misused his position as magistrate because he simply had the power to. he's an easily curruptible person, easy to sway and influence, and the call of power is not something he can resist on his own. the ascended ending makes that quite clear. even though he starts off saying he would use his power for good, the moment he ascends he starts babbling about casting a shadow over the whole world for his children (read: spawn/slaves), and stops seeing anyone, including the MC as a human being. contrary to popular belief that that's all the ascension and it's because he lost his soul, i think that kind of corruption was always brewing inside him, and it's only through MC that he gets to escape the darker parts of himself. but i don't take all of that as proof that he's not inherently good either.

i'd like to draw a comparison to shadowheart specifically: i made another post about this, but even though she's one of the characters that doesn't leave if you massacre the grove, she's not one of the "evil" companions either, and my take on her is that she's a very good person to whom very bad things happened to. after you kill the tieflings, she gets drunk and the guilt on her face & behaviour ia obvious. no matter what you do, unless you persuade her, she'll forsake shar. and if you persuade her to (spoiler, sorry) kill her parents, she's obviously regretting the choice to become a dark justiciar in the first place, and resigns herself to a life of mindless servitude before her memories get taken away again. shadowheart is almost exactly like astarion, except where her innate instict is to be good, astarion's is to be selfish.

but astarion's self preservation is a defense mechanism. maybe i just see too much of myself in him to ever revoke his good person card, but when the need for that mechanism goes away, suddenly he's empathetic, riddled with guilt, and deeply *sorry* for everything he's done. there's a certain codependency to MC, yes, but not enough that he goes back to his old ways if you break up with him. every lesson he's learned stays with him, and cazador's death liberates him to the extent that he will never be able to justify selfish decisions the same way again. if you talk to him before killing cazador, it's clear that he blames everything that he's done on his compulsion, and takes no responsability for any of it. and while yes, he's right that he had no (reasonable) choice, he also deep down knows that he gave in too easy at times, followed his orders too obediently (for fear of his own skin) to ever completely absolve himself of what happened to his victims.

before cazador, he didn't know the evils of the world well enough to care what consequences his actions beget. he couldn't be good because his privileged life left him with no real moral compass. he knew no hardship, so whatever part of his brain was tasked with empathy was dormant. even so, that doesn't excuse his actions. whatever his past, though (which is hard to argue about because cut/rewritten content leaves the canon a bit up in the air), i think the good part of him only got unearthed during his years of servitude. that's when he learned what evil is, what good is, what guilt is, and how to repress all of it to survive.

i disagree that MC is goodness georg tbh. while yes, MC brings him out of his shell and gets him to open up, he cares about *all* the companions. he expresses his support in a kind of offhand and sarcastic way, but it's there, nevertheless. he's almost disgusted if wyll gives up his soul to save his father (ngl same), because he cares enough about wyll to want him to be selfish. he doesn't want gale to blow himself up because it's "a waste of a good wizard". he approves of lae'zel and shadowheart forsaking their godesses. and obv he approves of not killing karlach. his love language is encouraging the people he cares about to stand up for themselves, because he *never could*. he won't admit it, but he cares deeply about the whole crew, and MC is the one ne opens up to, but they're not his only conduit for goodness. it's just like MC says after you persuade him not to ascend, you just gave him a push, the desire to be better was inside him all along. and maybe that's what it comes down to. he's not a good person in the sense that he doesn't or wouldn't do bad things, but rather because he wants to be better, he wants to escape what his upbringing and cazador made him, and he doesn't give himself credit for it, but MC sees it in him, and that's why he loves them so much.

i don't think you can fully understand astarion until you do an origin run tbh, or at least watch a video of his dream and all the responses you can give. it's hinted at in the final dialogue with cazador with his "you've never forgiven anything", but astarion wasn't some indisciplined brat who "deserved" or "kinda asked for it". He would apologise and beg for forgiveness, he would mind cazador's wishes and schedule and be constantly anxious about it, and the only reason that he got the worst of his wrath wasn't because his personality is just abrasive and it angered cazador, it was purely for entertainment, because he begged the prettiest, he screamed the loudest, etc. You can make the argument that he was the most vulnerable of the spawn, the least powerful, the runt of the pack.

Sure, he wasn't a great person while he was alive what with all his magistrate bs, but he was young and a bit of a dick, not evil. When he was alive and kinda abused some of his privilege as a magistrate that was posturing, underneath it there was always weakness and self-doubt. And when he was stripped of that little power he had, he became his "truest" (or rather basest) self, which was a scared boy who wanted to make it big or impress his superiors. On some level I think he admired Cazador for all the power he had, and we know that at the ritual "he wanted to be just like him". I don't think he would ever purposefully anger someone he looked up to, even with all the shit he was forced to do. For 200 years he was an obedient puppet, and it was his shortcomings, not his defiance that earned him all the torture.

So when you meet him after the nautiloid crash, you aren't seeing a single genuine personality trait of his. Not until the love confession in act 2. All you're seeing for the majority of 2 acts is a mask, a character he created, as well as him in full survival mode. Of course he doesn't want you helping innocents, this might be his only chance to escape, he doesn't want that derailed. Honestly, you don't really see the "real" him until after you've killed cazador. For anyone who finished his quest, y'all know how different he acts in the graveyard scene. He's uncharacteristically soft, even nice, and yes he's angry and he can't undo centuries of suffering, but you've helped him come back to himself. By act 3 he already stops rlly dissaproving of helping people, and when talking to the gurs he's defensive because he doesn't want to get their hopes up and dissapoint them, not because he wouldn't give anything to help. Astarion at his core is sassy, sure, but he is undoubtedly *nice*. He's a good person, he feels so much guilt for what he's done and sympathy for his victims, and he *has* to push it all down lest the psychological pain alone kills him. He likes killing, sure, but more as a sport than a past time. And honestly i could go on and on but let's leave it at that for now.

[aetherin21]

Wifey your Exhibitionist is showing!

Pairing: No Curses AU! Gojo Satoru x Reader

Genre: fluff, humor

Notes: Gotta wash my hands from angst a bit.

Summary: Cold mornings were tough on the big baby and what's a good way to remedy this than to be in his loving spouse arms.

Chilly air kissed him awake, an indication of the cold season peaking at the corner. With groggy hands, Satoru reached the other side of the bed. Wanting to fight this sweater weather in the loving embrace of his wife but instead what greeted him was emptiness. That was strange, where could she go? Today was Sunday. Both of them could sleep in as much as they wanted, so where was she?

Scrunched face, he sat up trying to look for his other half. To no avail, there was only nothing. Groaning on his hand, not wanting to fight Jack Frost's breath alone, the white fluff decided to look for her.

The corridor of his home felt like a maze to his sleepy brain but lucky for him, he didn't have to search for too long. Too blessed by god himself, the click clacks of the mechanical keyboard can be heard from a distance. Giving Satoru divine intervention where his wifey could be.

Opening the door of their shared office, there she sat in front of her computer. Headphones on and back facing him, a wild grin crept on his face. Gotcha!

Pulling her chair, the bean pole climbed on top of her lap, burying himself on the crevice of her neck. Inhaling her familiar scent and suffocating from the feeling of her. Peppered soft kisses trailed over her remaining exposed skin. “Why did you leave?” Voice riddled in deep whisky serenade, she oh so loved. “ I miss you, come back to bed.”

“Can’t. I have to work, Satoru.” she whispered with red fever. Calmly prying her husband’s towering form off, she pleaded to him. “Go back to bed, please ‘toru.” As much as she wanted to scold this big baby, making a scene would be too much for her. Living with this man for years had taught the lovely lady that once he gets in a clingy mood it's going to be difficult to reason out with him. Like a giant koala with a cat brain. Go figure.

Sea of persuasion and compromise poured towards the man child yet none were able to drown him. It was time for plan b, she thought. Small hands reached towards her computer desperate to turn it off but sadly, vertically challenged as she was, not even her fingertips could tap one key. Satoru had pulled her chair a bit farther than it should. How about reaching with her foot? Yeah, no that’s not an option. It’s too embarrassing to put on that kind of show. Well, that was hardly a plan b.

The abundance of grace offered by God had let the door wide open. Their lovingly self made deus ex machina had stumbled upon the whole ordeal. Their child, their lovely little boy with painted features of the Scream, as young as he can be, maturity seemed to be a trait that he luckily got from his mother. Quickly understanding the situation and the trouble it's causing, with childish might he pulled daddy dearest shirt. “Dad! Let mommy go!”

Like her mother, he too was embarrassed by the abominable snowman incarnate. Already contemplating his pedigree. Questions along the lines of ‘Why did God give him a weirdo for a parent?’ to ‘Is it possible to file an official complaint to heaven?’

Satoru on the other hand, only whined as he continued his stupidity, diving deeper into his missus. Tightly holding on to her with dear life. “Don’t want to! Wanna be with wifey! IT'S MY TURN!”

All eyes on him as exaggerated gasp left the lips of his family. Such a strong declaration made the two conclude that whatever maturity he had on his bones had become non-existent. Well there were hardly any to begin with.

It dug to his darling's grave a few more inches than it should. She could feel her soul leave her body as her husband mimicked a siren’s warning and their child? Already revoking his father license, rescinded he was. Goodbye #1 dad mug it's uncle Nanamin’s now.

Desperate tug of war felt like an eternity as whispered begging and refusals bounce back and forth. Having enough of this circus the boy now red and blue shouted at the top of his lungs. Finally someone acknowledging the elephant in the room. “MOMMY IS IN A ZOOM MEETING!”

There it is. Hook, line and sinker. Everything fell silent.

Baffled, his pretty mouth hanging open, Satoru looked at the webcam. It had confirmed the alien behavior of his two favorite people. Now he too felt like a cow hovering towards the mothership. Everyone saw everything. Everything.

Gears turned in his lovely little head, there the newly received information simmered in the pan of his brain waiting for the planets to align perfectly, till it was ready to be served. Ding! ding! ding!. There it is ready to finally be given to tye customer.

Bon Appetit.

Feigning a world ending shriek, large hands covered his body and the other to his mini me. “Honey, I didn’t know you were such an exhibitionist!”

If God had given too much blessing, hell would give back too. It's only natural after all. Satoru may be perfect but oh dear, the rest? Insufferable.

As if to make it worse to the Gojo family, the meeting was uploaded on the internet. It went viral. The culprit? None other than the devil’s advocate, Mr. Getou Suguru.

[jungw8ns]

GOING TO AN ESCAPE ROOM WITH ENHYPEN !

PAIRING: boyfriend!enha x gn!reader. GENRE: established relationship, fluff, crack. WARNINGS: profanity (not that much tho), mentions of death (?). WORD COUNT: 100 - 200 each member.

HEESEUNG:

the two of you were so pumped playing an escape room together for the first time that the other people in line had to calm you guys down (which was trully embarrassing to say the least 🤐🤐)

he was looking at the ranking board filled with pictures of players that had succeeded in the shortest amount of time and he just wanted nothing more than to see both your faces on there

but anyways, we all know how competitive heeseung gets 🕴️

oh boy let me tell you, this guy WAS SPEEDRUNNING IT but not the kind you were thinking

the second the timer had started he was literally SPRINTING AROUND THE ROOM LOOKING FOR CLUES YET COMPLETELY MISSING THEM 🏃‍♂️💨💨💨

while he was busy running around, you were picking up the little details in the room and in no time managed to open a few locks

"y/n look i found– oh 😐😑😐"

HE WAS SULKING PLSSS 😭😭😭

when you noticed him standing from afar staring at you with his arms crossed, you called him to solve this one puzzle you already did

*gasps* "oh no! babe i don't understand how to do this, please help me 😔😔🤥🙏🙏"

he had to bite his lower lip to stop himself from letting out that cocky grin but it got out eventually

"oh it's so easy sweetheart, just put this here and then voila! 😉"

when the two of you escaped you suprisingly got to take a polaroid with him home after ranking 2nd in the records

heeseung was the one who held onto it tho, placing it underneath his clear phonecase for safekeeping <3

JAY:

GOD THIS DUDE

THE ESCAPE ROOM WASN'T EVEN THAT SCARY AND YET EVERYTIME YOU GUYS OPEN A LOCK OR A DOOR HIS FIGHT OR FLIGHT INSTINCTS COME UP 😭😭👊👊

"y/n stay behind me >:(("

"um, babe, you do realize that's just a door right?"

"WE'LL BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY?? THE STAFF COULD'VE PROGRAMMED IT TO GROW LEGS?? 😵🧐🧐"

you knew you shouldn't have played horror games with him a few nights ago cause he looked like he was about to lose his mind 😔

you had to shove his ass aside and move on to the next mission cause the both of you knew that he was stalling 🏌️‍♀️

jay was being extra clingy the whole time you were playing, he'd either link arms with you or hold hands (he's literally so adorable) 💞💞

BUT THEN YOU THOUGHT OF DOING A PRANK ON HIM

while you were roaming around the room trying to solve a puzzle, you saw this horse mask on a nearby table

and so you made sure jay was distracted and put on the mask

you could've NOT worn the dusty old thing but where was the fun in that?

"jay can you come here for a sec?"

you hid behind the wall beside the door frame waiting for him to come into your sight and attacked him

now, how about we guess what happens next?

a. he faints

b. he runs away

or c. he slaps you in the face and forces you to buy him food for the rest of the night

if you guessed c then YAY! YOU'RE CORRECT 🥳🎉🎉🎊

THIS HOE SLAPS YOU AS HE SHOULD

"$##/@+(+'£%(:?!!)&£**/*%@"

when he finally takes off the mask like those scenes in scooby doo he's never felt so betrayed in his life

"i- I TRUSTED YOU 😭😭😭 YOU BETTER BUY ME FOOD LATER, I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS, THE BETRAYAL???? LITERALLY UNPROVOKED?????"

he wouldn't stop side eyeing you until you guys finally pulled up on the mcdonalds drive thru

"hi, can i get two um– bts meals please? 😒😒 and two oreo mc flurries 🙄🙄 and also large fries 😐😐"

sane (1/3)

would be trailing behind you like a little puppy (i love him so much 😭😭😭)

he either has his arm linked with yours or held hands every five minutes

JAKE:

really focused on the puzzles he's doing but the second he hears you call out his name for help he's there beside you with the sweetest smile

but anyways, mans was POPPING OFF the entire time you were playing

he was solving problem after problem in no time (he wanted to impress you is why he activated his inner flash ⚡⚡) but he did let you play tho, the last thing he wanted to do was make you pissed at him for hogging all the games

def buried jake with compliments and forehead kisses right after ❤️__❤️

and so the two of you got out in like an hour and a few which you were very proud of

"you were so cool today babe, good job !!"

"aww thank you angel 😊😊"

sane (2/3)

SUNGHOON:

would be linking pinkies with you the whole time, only letting go whenever the both of you had to solve something that needed two or more people

there was this one game tho where he had to arm wrestle this literal hand lever to open the door to the last room (yea...don’t ask why, the staffs were pretty weird 😬😬) 

it made him enjoy the experience a bit more as it was only the two of you playing instead of getting accompanied by strangers

HGAWAHSGDHSGHDA PLSS THIS GUY

“oh this’ll be easy, y/n step aside, i’ll handle this 😏😏😏”

idk if you were supposed to think about how handsome he looked with his serious expression on and his veiny hands coming into frame or be worried for him because the lever was REAL HARD to pull that his veins looked like they were going to pop any second soon, you stepped in and helped him tho cause you were a good s/o <3

from a spectators point of view, the two of you looked like y’all were about shit your pants but the two of you eventually succeeded on beating it, immediately dragging him to the next room which had a sofa in it, laying down to catch your breaths

cliché moment ahead ⚠️⚠️

the two of you shared a few laughs before standing up on the empty space, held hands and started to jump in circles to celebrate your success 💃💃

yupp, y’all were never going back to that hellhole again

very stubborn at first, he wanted nothing to do with the game but then you held him at gunpoint by saying:

SUNOO:

"please just this once or else i'll revoke your mint choco ice cream rights 🔫🔫🔫"

"BUT IT'S SCARY IN THERE BABE :((("

"it won't be that scary sunshine, besides, i'll be ready to 🤜💥 yk?? trust me babe i would never let anyone hurt you <33"

kinda pissed since you blackmailed him into the place and also bc he wanted to play bumper cars and dance mania but he yea he caved in pretty quick 😋😋

(y/n let him play his games in peace tf >:(((( )

once you guys got in tho he realized how normal it was and that it was not terrifying at all

THE EPITOME OF CLINGY OMFG

he wouldn't stop back hugging you and you couldn't bring yourself to push him away to play the games so you just let him walk behind you with his arms on your shoulders 😩😩

(y'all were walking kinda funny but don't tell sunoo that 🤫🤫🤫)

yea the two of you ended up escaping with a whopping 2 hours and a few minutes

but it was the effort that counts so A+++++ for the both if you 😜👍👍👍

sane (3/3)

JUNGWON:

was the one who suggested going, he even searched on naver about really good escape room places to visit and was overall really looking forward it

he liked going to places and having fun with you so it wasn't a shock how his eyes were literally crescents and his dimples were so evident

yea he literally rushed the both of you to the place that you were the first in line 😵

while waiting for the staff to finish setting up he was playing with your connected hands like 🖐️✊🖐️✊ (so precious 💞💞)

"y/n why are you taking so long 😭😭 what if they close and we end up not solving a single lock, hurry up por favorrr 😩🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏"

when they finally lead you to the room he was kind of surprised that they had separated the two of you into different spaces (like the one with txt where they had the answers to the other member's puzzles yk???)

he was locked inside a telephone stand while you were handcuffed in the main room

dw the two of you reunited after a few minutes cause jungwon was rushing his lock to get to you 🤭

you both were progressing at an average pace and it made you guys a lot more closer (not that you guys weren't before but you get what i mean)

after you guys escaped the two of you went to eat curry and talked about the whole experience 😋✌️✌️✌️

this boy literally dragged you in the escape room with him

NIKI:

HE DIDN'T EVEN GIVE YOU TIME TO REFUSE HE JUST 😐👉🚪

"ok masterchefs, in order to test your abilities we must go through series of puzzles and make it out alive, understood?"

he tried ignoring how confused you were and went on to try and get you guys to escape

HE'S LAUGHING AT YOU FOR WHATEVER REASON AND OBV YOU LAUGH ASWELL CAUSE WHO WOULDN'T??? his laugh is so contagious pls 🤖🤖 he was so close to d wording cause he couldn't breathe from laughing too much

yea.. you guys spent so much time laughing at each other for being so dumb at this that you ended up playing 'till closing time

spoiler alert: he fails on doing anything cause the second you made eye contact with him this child collapses 😍🤩

GIRL SO EMBARRASSING 🤡🤡

THE STAFF KICKED THE BOTH OF YOU OUT AND NOW YOU GUYS WERE BANNED FROM THE PLACE ☠️☠️

"haunted house next weekend???"

"BET"

NOTE – god they were WAY funnier in my head but yeah.... i love them so much AND OMFG HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN HEESEUNG’S SELCAS LAST NIGHT???!?@??#?@?!?@ HE’S NOT REAL WTF ⁉️❓❓⁉️

also, idk why BUT EVERY TIME I SAVE A DRAFT the paragraphs get scrambled?? £!?) 6=6) 🤣😂��💔🤣🤣😂💔 it's so annoying but anyways, ilysm pls stay safe and have a great day <33

[innytoes]

So @hawkguyhasstarbucks had this amazing idea of an AU where Reggie ends up as a Big Brother for Carlos and I love it so much.

Like, Reggie probably fled his parents house as soon as possible, and he’s not welcome back after he stood up to them about not fighting in front of Steve, so he misses Steve like crazy. So he signs up for the Big Brother program.

Insert Alex being like: Really, Reg? I had to butter your head when you got it stuck between the bars of the fence at the animal shelter because you wanted to say hi to the dogs. How are you going to be a good example for The Youths.

And Reggie is like: that was like six months ago, dude, I’m 18 now, I’m a mature and responsible adult.

(Alex: okay)

Carlos was probably signed up for the program by Tía Victoria, because she knows Ray has been taking extra jobs wherever he can (to pay off the crippling medical debt from Rose’s cancer because America is horrible), and Julie’s in her senior year and needs to study, and she worries about Carlos. And Carlos was kind of meh about it, until he meets Reggie, who is Cool and has a leather jacket and plays in a band and likes ghost hunting shows and is just super enthusiastic about whatever Carlos wants to talk about.

So they hang out, and talk about if Bigfoot is real, and Reggie lets Carlos come to a band rehearsal, and he starts showing up at Carlos’ baseball games, even the out of town ones. Sometimes he drags along some of the other guys as well, even if they don’t care about sports at all, and Bobby spends most of his time trying to explain what the hell is going on to Alex, who refuses to remember for next time. (Alex does like to heckle both the refs and the over-invested angry sports parents under his breath, though.)

Reggie makes sure to stay away from Ray and Victoria, because he’s kind of scared of them. But of course they notice the boy at the other side of the stands whooping whenever Carlos does something, and of course Victoria knows who he is anyway because she would never ever let Carlos hang out with some boy she hasn’t thoroughly vetted.

And slowly, Carlos starts opening up to Reggie about stuff other than video games and cryptids. He talks about his mom’s death, and how his sister lost music, which is why he likes coming to band practice so much, and how he’s worried about his dad taking on way too much, and how there’s these guys at his school who keep bullying him.

And Reggie is like: I can fix none of those things but I am here to listen to you and also we’re going to go to Luke so he can teach you how to throw a proper punch. And he and Luke spend an afternoon teaching Carlos how to defend himself and Reggie gives him this big lecture about how this is ONLY for self defense and if he hears Carlos used this for any other reason he is never buying him ice cream again and he will be Very Disappointed and at the end of it even Luke looks vaguely guilty, A+ Big Brothering Reggie.

So of course it ends badly when Carlos sends him a desperate text that he’s in the principal’s office for punching another student and to please come get him before his dad shows up. And Reggie of course drops everything (probably in the middle of rehearsal, and Luke is about to be pissy until Reggie shows him the text and then instead he gets Alex to drive them to the school because Alex drives like a maniac).

Reggie gets there before Ray and everyone is like: um excuse me sir you are not on the emergency list for Carlos Molina of course you can’t take him with you no he doesn’t have a big brother oh you mean like with Capitals. And Reggie is just trying to find out if Carlos is okay and what happened and if he has to revoke Ice Cream Privileges Forever.

So after he shows them his official Big Brother card or whatever, they let him sit with Carlos until Ray shows up. And Carlos explains that yes, he did kind of break Reggie’s rule, but only technically, because he got in between a bully and a boy in his class who was about to get beat up for wearing nail polish, so after the first punch it was totally self-defense, so honestly he deserves extra ice cream because he was basically being a hero. (And Reggie is like: okay I kind of agree that was awesome, little dude, but also you’re about to be suspended and I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to encourage that.)

And Ray shows up and he looks really mad and goes into the principal’s office while the boys wait outside and Reggie is like: oh shit oh no this is the end, I’m going to lose Carlos just like I lost Steve, I fucked everything up.

And he’s trying to figure out how to say goodbye to Carlos without starting to cry, because he is for sure getting kicked out of the program now. And Ray comes out and still looks mad, until Carlos explains why he punched the other student, and Ray just like... turns right back around and goes back into the principals office, this time with extra Dad Shouting.

And when he comes out again, he still looks angry but not at Carlos (or Reggie) and he invites Reggie over for dinner because it’s about time they meet, and Reggie is so overwhelmed that he’s not losing another little brother that he says yes.

And then Reggie is basically adopted into the Molina family and so are the other boys and Julie meets them and joins their band and everything is great forever the end.

[arhvste]

❝ why you break up with them ❞

ft : oikawa tooru, iwaizumi hajime, kuroo tetsurō, kozume kenma, asahi azumane, sakusa kiyoomi and miya osamu

warnings : nsfw(ish)

OIKAWA TOORU

-> an unhealthy obsession with roblox. specifically, ‘royale high’. he’s miserable and arguing with little kids and stealing their boyfriends gives him the pick me up he’s looking for. you wanna go out on a date with him? well sorry, but oikawa is currently on a virtual date with ‘jake/popular/secret prince/shy/don’t touch my tail!’ in the castle cafeteria

IWAIZUMI HAJIME

-> everything was fine when you left the spare room in your apartment alone. it was a quiet place to work and somewhere good for storage. that’s until hajime makes this his goddamn man cave and that’s his excuse for leaving it a dumping yard. “you can’t take away my man cave!” well, you sure as hell can take away his pussy pass cause it’s REVOKED

KUROO TETSURŌ

-> you do your best for him you really do, but he’s constantly nit picking and comparing you to his grandmother and it’s unbearable. you cooked him a nice meal? well his grandmother did it better. you wrote him a heartfelt birthday card? well it was his grandmothers one that brought him to tears and you know what? if that’s the case, it’s his grandmothers pussy he can dine out of from now on cause you deserve better

KOZUME KENMA

-> having a famous streamer boyfriend is fun until it’s time for bedroom activities. the degrading is hot but him demanding you call him ‘pog champ’ is not. at first you invested in ear plugs and it works until he notices. he does his best not to make you call him ‘pog champ’ after that but he can’t help it when he’s lost a few rounds online. if he can’t be pog champ online he’ll be pog champ in bed but that’s until you pack your things, his bank card and run for the hills

ASAHI AZUMANE

-> his hair is pretty and it suits him, you love it and you love him. what you don’t love is him constantly pulling hairs out his asscrack from when he’s been in the shower. you’ll be getting ready to get your hottie shit on in bed only for him to stop and tell you to “hang on” as he proceeds to pull a long ass hair out his ass and toss it to the floor before turning back over to you like nothing happened. if that never happened, then neither did your relationship byeee

SAKUSA KIYOOMI

-> you get it he’s wary of germs and you do your best to understand it. what you don’t understand is his need to wash every plate and utensil in the sink and then put it in the dishwasher after. it’s a waste of time and water and you always explain this to him only for a yellow rubber washing up glove to be held up to your face as he silences you and proceeds to waste his time away over the sink. he wants to be with the dishwasher that bad he can date that instead

MIYA OSAMU

-> successful restaurant owner boyfriend has its perks but what you don’t relish in is dinner dates anywhere but his restaurant. you want a change of scenery sometimes and that’s okay, there’s only so much onigiri you can eat in a certain period of time. what’s not okay is osamu loudly stating he can cook penne pasta way better than this five star restaurant even though he works with rice and rice alone. what’s even worse is everyone knows him as ‘onigiri man’ and not ‘penne man’ so why the hell is this man making such embarrassing claims out loud in public. whatever his reason is, you refuse to be associated as you get up and leave him as if you were staring in a dramatic k-drama scene

general taglist → @atsumuwoah @bloody-bella @bbymilkbread @miracleboy420 @doggonudez @tsumue @peteunderoos @tsukkisbean @saturnfarie @dear-kozume @zumisace @boosyboo9206 @totorosleaff @27kei @dai-tsukki-desu @angrylittleriri @dearestmegumi @kuxredere @warakou @iss6s @lovinnoya @sophiashortcake @wompwomphq @waitforitillwritemywayout @webworld @brokeasshoee @sunasbabie @rowley-with-ackerman @mjoork @trifliz @curiouslilbeast @ineedsomefoodpls

ALL CONTENT BELONGS TO @KUROOSKULT ON TUMBLR 2020 PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, CHANGE OR PLAGIARISE

[nicknellie]

Anonymous requested: “tricked into 7 minutes in heaven at a party” AU with willex, where theyre close friends and apart of the same friend group, and their friends know they both like each other and are tired of watching them dance around each other so they devise a plan to have a party and play seven minutes in heaven, and get them to be alone together in a closet or room or something. so a sort of getting together/modern AU with some kissing cause the boys deserve it?

I had to Google what 7 Minutes In Heaven is. Anyway!! I love this prompt so much, it’s so so sweet. We love some getting together fluff. Thank you so much for suggesting it!

Title from Alone by Heart.

The Secret Is Still My Own

Alex could have kicked himself for not realising what this was much earlier. It was probably Luke’s idea. Maybe Julie’s – she could be sneaky when she wanted to be. It didn’t really matter who had devised the plan, all that Alex was worried about now was the fact that he was about to spend seven minutes locked in a small room with Willie and the likelihood was that it was going to be utterly dreadful.

A few months ago when Alex and Willie had first met, it wouldn’t have been so awful. Their friendship had been fresh and exciting and there had been an easy banter flowing between the two of them that made Alex feel light and giddy. He had been glad to spend time with Willie then, looking for every excuse to hang out with him because who wouldn’t? Willie was funny, kind, intelligent, and everything good in the world. Alex would have been mad to not want to spend time with him. It didn’t take long for Alex to realise he was falling for Willie, quickly and with no signs of stopping.

And he made the grave mistake of telling that to Luke.

“Dude,” Luke had said, grabbing Alex’s shoulders. “You gotta ask him out!”

“What? No!” Alex had protested. He tried to wriggle free but Luke’s grip was like iron and he gave up after a moment or two. “I don’t want to. I like being friends with him.”

“Yeah, but imagine if you were more than friends,” Luke pressed, grinning wildly. “It’s not like he’d say no – he’s head over heels for you, man.”

“He is?”

“I think so.”

“That’s not proof,” Alex deadpanned. “You also thought that if you ate watermelon seeds one would grow inside you. Then you cried when Reggie ate them.”

“That was ages ago!” Luke whined.

“It was last week, but alright.”

“Alright, fine, I’m a bad example,” Luke admitted. “But what if I told you that Julie thinks Willie likes you?”

Alex considered it for a moment. Julie was definitely more reliable than Luke, and where Luke was almost definitely guessing about whether or not Willie had feelings for Alex, Julie had probably spoken to Willie herself to find out. So he shrugged and gave Luke a short nod.

“Does she think so?” he asked, trying to keep the hope out of his voice.

“Dude,” Luke scoffed. “She was the one to point it out to me. You and Willie are made for each other, bro! Ask him out or I’ll have to do it for you.”

Alex hadn’t asked Willie out. It hadn’t been because he didn’t want to or because he didn’t think Luke and Julie were right – it was because he simply didn’t know how. How was he supposed to go up to Willie, a literal angel, and ask him on a date without spontaneously combusting? He didn’t want to make a fool of himself, not in front of Willie.

He had thought that Luke was joking about getting Alex and Willie together himself. That had, of course, been an incredibly naïve thing to believe. When Luke said he’d do something, he meant it – Alex should have learnt that from the time Luke had said he would lick an electric fence and then followed through immediately and without hesitation. So really he shouldn’t have been surprised when Luke made it his mission to get Alex and Willie together.

The first time it had happened was when Alex and Willie were hanging out alone in the studio. They had been talking, just catching up with each other, and it had been nice. Willie had been halfway through a story about one of the kids at the nursery he worked part-time at when all of a sudden the lights in the studio had dimmed and slow, romantic music had begun drifting from the stereo in the corner.

Willie had looked utterly bemused, a quiet half-smile gracing his features. “What’s all this?”

“I don’t know,” Alex told him, standing up and flicking the lights back on, then going to the stereo and turning the music down all the way. “Sorry about that. It’s never happened before.”

“You mean you didn’t set it up?” Willie asked.

“No,” Alex replied, looking around the studio. Unsurprisingly, he had spotted Luke in the attic, hidden amongst the beanbags, the stereo’s remote in his hands. He didn’t even have the good grace to look guilty, instead giving Alex a cheery wave.

“Oh,” Willie had said. His tone made Alex turn to face him – there was something in it he couldn’t quite put a name to. “Okay. Anyway, so, as I was saying…”

Luke’s plans had not improved from then on. He had pulled the classic “invite both of them to hang out but don’t show up so they’re just spending time together one-on-one”, he had dedicated an entire setlist to Willie at their most recent gig and told the entire crowd that it had been Alex’s idea, and every time Alex and Willie had a conversation he would find a way to muscle in and very unsubtly suggest they go on a date.

It was making Alex’s life a misery.

Because now every time he saw Willie felt painstakingly awkward. The both of them were just waiting for Luke to show up and do whatever he’d planned, after which they’d be steeped in brittle, tense silence until one of them found an excuse to back out of the situation. The ease and light-heartedness their friendship had once been built on was pretty much shot to pieces. Alex knew that Luke meant well, but he was almost certain that he had ruined everything.

It didn’t help that Luke had got Julie, Reggie, and Flynn in on it too, though they were much less heavy-handed than he was when it came to getting them together. Reggie’s main tactic was ask if they’d been on a date yet every time he saw them but leave it alone once they said no, while Julie and Flynn tended to talk to Alex away from Willie and try and convince him that they were, in Flynn’s words, a match made in heaven.

“He totally wants you to ask him out,” Flynn gushed on one of these occasions. “Did you see the way he was looking at you earlier? He’s in love.”

“Things are awkward enough between us as it is,” Alex had explained. “I’m not going to make it worse by asking him out.”

“Well, maybe you don’t need to ask him on a date,” Julie suggested, ever the voice of reason. Alex inwardly thanked her – at least somebody was on his side. “But I do think you need to at least talk about what’s going on between you.”

He revoked his inward thank-you.

“We don’t need to talk,” Alex insisted. “If we just leave it alone then the problem will eventually go away.”

“That’s always your solution,” Julie said.

“And it never works,” Flynn added.

“If you just face your feelings head-on and actually try communicating with him you might get somewhere,” Julie said. Alex looked at her and knew she was telling the truth – her eyes were wide and kind, her mouth set into a gentle smile, and she looked as if she wanted nothing more than to help Alex. “You’ve been dancing around each other for so long, all you need to do is figure out where you both are. Trust me.”

He had shrugged inelegantly and let Flynn change the direction of the conversation, grateful to be talking about something else.

But he hadn’t taken Julie’s advice. Talking to Willie was difficult. Their banter was all but gone and their conversations lasted no more than a few minutes at most. It was a lot easier when they were with all their friends, in a big group where they could talk to others, which had been exactly the reason that Alex wasn’t worried about the impromptu party Julie had invited everyone to that night.

And look where it had got him.

It had been Luke who suggested it during a lull in conversation.

“Why don’t we play Seven Minutes in Heaven?”

The suggestion had been met with excited ‘ooooh’s from most of the group sat around the studio, all except Alex. The last time he’d played Seven Minutes in Heaven had been in middle school – he had been locked in a closet with a girl in his class, she had kissed him incredibly awkwardly, he had blurted “I’m too gay for this” and fallen ungracefully out of the closet with six minutes still left on the clock. While that had been years and years ago, the memory still burned with embarrassment.

“Count me out,” he said. “That game is cursed.”

“I think you’re thinking of Bloody Mary in the Mirror,” Reggie supplied. “That game is cursed. This one’s just a bit of fun.”

“Absolutely not,” Alex said, shaking his head. “You guys can play, I’m staying out of it.”

“Oh, come on, Alex,” whined Luke, “everyone has to play! Otherwise it’s no fun.”

“You might not even get picked,” Julie said helpfully.

“But also you might,” Luke added.

Alex looked around the room at his friends – Reggie was smiling encouragingly, Luke looked put-out that Alex had even thought about refusing, Julie and Flynn were looking at him with hope and excitement in their eyes that he really didn’t want to crush, and Willie… Willie was avoiding eye contact altogether.

He didn’t know what it was that did it, but finally he relented. “I’ll play.”

Luke punched the air triumphantly and began entering everyone’s names into a generator he’d brought up on his phone. Alex watched with bated breath as the little wheel spun, slowing down until it landed on a name. The screen lit up with an over-the-top fireworks animation and the name ‘WILLIE’ in garish bubble writing.

Alex didn’t look at Willie, but he did feel his own insides squirm. What if he was picked next? He wasn’t sure he could last seven minutes alone with Willie. What was he supposed to talk about? What was he supposed to do? How was he meant to act like it wasn’t the most awkward thing he’d ever done especially after everything that had happened in the past few months?

Luke set the spinner off again and Alex watched nervously as it ticked through all the names. The firework animation lit up the screen again and when it was cleared the name ‘ALEX’ was left behind, glowing in all its bubble writing glory.

He tried not to sigh in defeat and he stayed put, no matter how much he wanted to leg it from the room and never come back.

“Alright then!” Julie said, clapping her hands and beaming. “Alex and Willie! You guys feeling up for this?”

Alex didn’t have an answer, but it appeared that Willie did. He stood up and offered a hand to pull Alex to his feet too, smiling gently.

“I’m ready,” he said, though Alex didn’t miss the waver in his voice. “How about you, hotdog?”

He could feel his friends’ eyes boring into him like lasers, but kept his own eyes trained on Willie, searching his expression with no idea what he was actually searching for. Eventually though, he gave a resolute nod and said, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

“You can go into the bathroom,” Julie said, pointing towards the little room at the back of the studio. “You’ll have to lock the door yourselves.”

Alex nodded and mutely followed Willie into the bathroom. He shut and locked the door behind them, then flicked the light-switch on. Immediately, Willie flicked it back off.

“Why can’t we have the lights on?” he asked. “I can’t see you.”

“Those are the rules, hotdog,” Willie returned. His voice sounded like it was coming from the opposite side of the room, but Alex couldn’t be sure. After all, he couldn’t see anything.

He could feel his heart hammering in his chest and sweat starting to bead on his forehead as he slid himself down the wall to sit on the floor. He had no reason to feel so nervous right then; he’d been alone with Willie a thousand times, this didn’t have to be any different just because it was in a small dark room and they had a time limit ticking over their heads. Admittedly, he hadn’t been alone with Willie all that often recently, but he shouldn’t have been too out of practise.

“So,” he ventured, rubbing his hands along his legs, hoping the repetitive movements would dull his nerves. “What do you want to talk about?”

Willie was silent for a moment and Alex was sure that he’d somehow already put a foot wrong. Briefly, he considered unlocking the door and trying to leave very quietly so that Willie wouldn’t notice, but he realised quickly that plan wouldn’t work because he would never get past his friends in the studio. All he could do was stick it out for six and a half more minutes.

But mercifully, Willie finally spoke.

“Things have been weird recently, huh, hotdog?”

It teased a laugh from Alex, if only a small one. Because yes. Yes, things had been incredibly weird and he hated it.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “it’s been weird. I’m sorry about Luke and the others.”

“You don’t need to apologise,” Willie said. Alex could hear the smile in his voice and found himself relaxing. “It doesn’t really bother me. But… I mean, it seemed like it was bothering you. I’ve been trying to give you a little space but I don’t know if that’s what you want.”

“No,” Alex said, far too quickly. He tried to rein himself in a little, not wanting things to descend back into that dangerous awkward territory. “No, I don’t want you to give me space. I really like hanging out with you, Willie. I don’t want to stop that. I just wish they’d stop teasing.”

There was another pause, smaller this time, barely perceptible.

“Why?” Willie asked quietly.

“Because,” Alex began, but he quickly found himself lost for words.

How was he supposed to explain it to Willie when he found it hard to explain it to himself? He didn’t like their teasing because he was scared. He didn’t like their teasing because he didn’t want to make Willie uncomfortable. He didn’t like their teasing because this thing, whatever it was, between him and Willie was theirs and only theirs and he wanted to keep it between that way. Because he wanted to make these decisions on his terms, not when his friends decided he should.

“Because?” Willie prompted.

Alex swallowed his pride and his nerves and made himself speak.

“Because I really like you, Willie. And when our friends try and find ways to get us together it just feels awful because I want to do it myself. I don’t want them to intervene or mess this up. I want to do it my way. They keep saying that you like me too – is that true?”

Silence again. Alex could hardly stand it.

“Yeah,” Willie said finally. With that single word Alex felt like he could breathe more easily than ever before. “I do. Like you, I mean. And I get it. I’m sorry this whole thing has been such a mess.”

Alex huffed a laugh. “Blame Luke.”

“Oh, I will,” Willie replied through a chuckle.

Alex heard him shuffle across the bathroom floor and felt their sides press together as Willie came to sit next to him. Without thinking he laid his head down on Willie’s shoulder, then felt Willie rest his head on his in return.

“So,” Alex said again. “What does this mean for us?”

“What do you want it to mean?” Willie asked teasingly, the smile on his face evident in his voice.

“Are we dating?” he asked. He could feel his own smile tugging at his lips as Willie slipped an arm around his shoulders.

He felt Willie press a gentle kiss to the top of his head. “Yes, Alex. We’re dating.”

Maybe it was the late hour, maybe it was the dark room, maybe it was the rush of adrenaline he got from hearing Willie day the words “we’re dating”, but something gave him a warm and welcome rush of courage and he said, before he could think better of it, “Can I kiss you?”

“Well,” Willie said, “I think that’s what usually happens in this game.”

“I don’t want to kiss you because of the game,” Alex told him. He knew Willie was probably joking, but he wanted to be certain. He wanted to make it clear that none of this was because of the game (mainly because Luke had probably rigged it somehow and Alex still wanted to do this his own way). He needed to show that this was for Willie and for himself, nothing else.

“I know,” Willie said gently. “I don’t either. I just want to kiss you.”

Alex slid a hand up to cup Willie’s jaw and they slowly came together. Willie’s lips were softer than Alex thought should be allowed, the kiss gentle and slow. It felt perfect, like fireworks had been lit in Alex’s soul (though much better fireworks than the terrible animation on Luke’s random selector wheel). He felt Willie’s fingers knot through his hair and pull them closer together.

It hadn’t gone the way Alex would have really liked. He didn’t get to ask Willie out on his terms. But from now on, with Willie as his boyfriend, they could do everything else on their terms. They could go at their own speed, hand-in-hand, with no ticking time limit set by their friends. They could move at their own pace with nobody but each other.

And Alex could breathe easy.

*

Taglist (if you want to be added or removed just let me know): @ace-bookworm @williexmercer @willex-owns-my-heart @itstiger720 @the-reckless-and-the-brave @that-one-newsie @bluedarkness @lookingthroughmirrors @teammightypen @salty-star @julieandthequeers @lmaohuh @sunnysbright 

[appleflavoredkitkats]

dream smp war 2 updates

doing a second chain post! i thought it would be appropriate if i did since it seems like there’s a new era of wars coming our way. 

(this post will keep updating by reblogged additions, so feel free to save this post somewhere or follow me to check for new updates every now and then!)

and ya’know, i thought wouldn’t be able to do this, but i realize that where else am i gonna infodump but here? so yea. here i go again.

(if you wanna check the first dream smp war post-war updates, it’s here!)

without further ado, time to explain whatever the heck just happened last stream! timeline of events might be funky because a lot of things happened, but i’ll try my best to at least mention everything that went down in the streams.

wilbur, tommy, tubbo, eret, quackity, and a confused hbomb’s stream - september 22

summary: schlatt and quackity win presidency, tommy and wilbur are exiled, some friends have become traitors, some foes have become allies, and technoblade joins the game.

the first streams that came from this honestly were very calm. legit the calm before the storm. tubbo was hanging out with niki, eret, and hbomb and eret reveals to tubbo that his first pufferfish that was stolen by fundy was actually in eret’s possession all along. eret gladly returns the beloved pufferfish to tubbo, and they rename it back to it’s original name “phukkit”.

then, everyone begins going in the server as each campaign stands on the podium waiting for the event to begin. wilbur, tommy, and tubbo first stray away from the group for a bit to watch l’manberg one last time. tubbo introduces to them his secret bunker in the lake for them to seek refuge just in case pog2020 loses. inside the bunker’s chests are some freshly brewed potions for wilbur and tommy to use in the future.

tubbo then brings tommy to the benches outside tommy’s little house and they play one more music disc together. here, tubbo gifts tommy the pufferfish he just gained earlier today, and tommy promised to treasure it dearly.

now, the event begins, and wilbur begins announcing the results. luckily, everyone is here this time. in last place is coconut2020. a funny thing about this is that fundy actually committed tax fraud and got around 100,000+ votes to be counted in the google form just from coding some bot to vote for them. in third place is schlatt, in second is quackity, and pog2020 wins the number one vote.

here’s where the plot twist happens: quackity and schlatt apparently agreed to combine their votes if pog2020 doesn’t win. therefore, quackity and schlatt got 47% of the votes as pog only got 46%, making schlatt and quackity the shared president of l’manberg. tommy protests to these decisions, but wilbur accepts it with ease, and the two merely step down the podium in shame as they watch schlatt take a speech.

schlatt went on full dictator mode-- the first decree he signed as president is to revoke wilbur and tommy’s presence in l’manberg, exiling them. tommy was confused at first before wilbur demanded him to run to the bunker. schlatt immediately conducts a search party for him, electing tubbo as his right hand man to personally hunt the two down. obviously, tubbo would do it hesitantly, and he doesn’t actually get to meet the two in the bunker at all.

a lot of the nation was quite torn from the election results. quackity and george seem to be supportive of schlatt, niki, tubbo, and eret seem to despise schlatt, and fundy and jack seem to just blindly support him as well despite being l’manbergians. punz, ponk, and hbomb were there as well, but it was quite difficult to know who they were siding with since they kinda just got pushed around by everyone at the end.

using invisibility potions, wilbur and tommy escape the bunker to go somewhere in the forest to find their new home. they find a nice hill to make a small house in, and they later name this new nation “pogtopia”. they run into some conflicts though as wilbur and tommy forget to bring an enderchest with them, and they need some of the materials in them now if they want to build up a defense.

and then, in the middle of nowhere, techno tweeted:

wilbur claims he doesn’t want to trust techno right away because he was american, but they do consider having him as an ally later on.

firstly, let’s get back to l’manberg. upon schlatt’s request, the walls of l’manberg are being torn down. i heard somewhere that this might’ve been done thanks to fundy’s suggestion, but i’m not sure. everyone complies, and wilbur and tommy visit l’manberg one last time before it gets taken apart. as they watch fundy and tubbo tear down the wall, wilbur sings the l’manbergs national anthem. (the wall also eventually gets expanded past l’manberg, but i’m not sure how far they’ve built it)

speaking of fundy, fundy’s kind of in a weird place right now. he seems to unhesitantly side with schlatt in this election, and allows his policies easily as if he didn’t care about anyone else in l’manberg. knowing this, wilbur actually disowns fundy. it wasn’t in front of him, but he does say that he is extremely hurt by him in front of techno and tommy.

before i talk about the rescue of techno, we gotta go back to quackity and schlatt for a bit. quackity actually caught tommy visiting his place to get an enderchest, but i believe he doesn’t tell schlatt about it. quackity is quite interesting because while he does believe in some of the policies schlatt believes in, he also believes that schlatt is taking this dictatorship too far. even he thought exiling tommy and wilbur was a big deal, and he aims to be the voice of reason to be able to change schlatt’s mind about his policies. moreover, he wants to discuss matters with tommy and wilbur as well to get on their side too, but wilbur doesn’t wanna talk to quackity because, fourth wall break, he believes they’re progressing far into the story too much if they do, and honestly, valid reason lmao.

do note that quackity is trying his best to tear down schlatt’s evil dictatorship. he’s secretly been advocating for niki and is helping her escape schlatt’s grasp when she needs it, and he eventually talked to schlatt near the end of the stream to be more mindful of quackity’s opinions because without him, schlatt wouldn’t have won. there’s some toxic relationship plot device being used here between schlatt and quackity, and i’m interested to see how this will all play out.

back to tommy and wilbur, they call techno and actually consider his help. tommy says he will run back to spawn and tell him when to join so that he can bring him to their secret base. eret tries to help them and supply them with goods, but tommy and wilbur refuses his help profusely. finally, when tommy reaches spawn, techno joins, and my god, all the three streams i watched just went “TECHNOBLADE????” all at once. 

on schlatt’s end, he claims that techno’s arrival was part of schlatt’s plan all this time. on the other hand, techno claims he’s only here for wilbur and tommy. i fully believe techno would be with wilbur and tommy, but of course, i can never be sure. just don’t discount the possibility of a traitor!techno happening sometime soon.

even if ponk tried to kill techno and tommy as they tried to escape, tommy was able to kill ponk before techno got hurt. they eventually arrived to pogtopia, and there, wilbur declares that he will be a different man from what they know of him pre-election. i’m thinking there’s going to be more violence surrounding the war, and also some strategic planning. they want to get tubbo as a secret agent for them to tear schlatt and quackity apart, eventually leading to the downfall of the dictatorship. niki might also be someone crucial here because she and wilbur have been exchanging messages secretly, so there’s going to be some niki action too.

then, schlatt makes another announcement. after the walls have been torn down, he declares l’manberg gets a new name-- manberg. niki protests, and wilbur and tommy and rightfully disgusted, but schlatt wasn’t going to do anything about it.

everyone in pogtopia, before they can stack up on some resources, have to go back to the dream smp because they comedically have to get a visa for one day for when ninja joins the minecraft server. they were greeted peacefully (and techno steals some potatoes!!!), and it was definitely fun to see so many people in the server all at once. evetually, schlatt does grant them the visa, and they leave. they talk to tubbo one last time, and tubbo warns them about techno being allegedly “paid” by schlatt to betray tommy and wilbur. tommy regards it for now, but after that, they leave to return to pogtopia.

in pogtopia, they begin mining for resources. in the ravine they found below their base, tommy found a strip mine that leads EXACTLY BACK to his bunker. this will be used for a secret passage for them just in case they discreetly want to return to the dream smp.

this is kinda where the main plot stuff ends for wilbur and tommy’s streams, but in eret’s stream, apparently he and bad found pogtopia. they find techno silently, gifting him with potatoes, and leaving promptly after.

on quackity’s end, he’s really trying to convince schlatt to become more open-minded about this entire presidency. there’s some real tension going on between these two, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they break it off for quackity to join pogtopia. it really seems like they’re hinting it to become that way.

now, it seems like everything’s done, but nope. on eret’s stream, fundy single handedly burned down the l’manberg flag that niki built. FUNDY BETRAYAL AND ERET REDEMPTION ARC. niki is LIVID at fundy, but she wasn’t able to talk to him as he left the server immediately. we don’t know what fundy’s true intentions are, but it’s assumed that he’s siding with schlatt for now. eret at least tells niki they’ll try to rebuild it with concrete so it can’t be destroyed.

JUST AS ALL THIS SHIT CONCLUDES, SAPNAP JOINS. he only joins so he can catch up with everything he missed. eret and niki explain everything to him, and sapnap says he will have to talk to dream about this. he then leaves afterwards.

conclusion: BE HYPED. BE HYPED FOR PLOT. SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION TO THE ENTIRETY OF THE DREAM SMP FOR THIS AMAZING PLOT. DON’T SEND THEM HATE; MAKE CONTENT FOR IT INSTEAD. these people probably worked hard improv-ing/making plots for these, so show your love and appreciation for them!!!!!

[onechicagorpf]

Not A Stranger - Part 3

Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader (Chicago Med intern)

Waking up in bed next to a random naked guy after a drunken night out usually sucks, but eh, whatever. you’ll never see him again, right? Well except this time, random naked guy turns out to be your ED attending’s little brother, so maybe you’re a little bit screwed…

Read Part 1 here Read Part 2 here Read Part 4 here

Warnings: SMUT. A little bit of R-rated smut! Swearing, the usual cuss words. Some angst/PTSD, although it’s not overtly discussed. Dubious medical content (discussion of amputation & blood), some of which has been shamelessly lifted from a season 3 episode of Code Black!

A/N: So there’s definitely going to be a Part 4, lol! I’ll try and have it out by this time next week. Send me asks/messages/leave a note if you liked this and want to see more - it really makes me feel so much less insecure about my writing ahaha! Also do send me short prompts or requests that I can fill as blurbs (i.e. nothing that’s going to be a several chapter story - I will request those later on!) - preferably for Jay but I can do Will as well! Female!Halstead sibling is also okay :) Anyway enough talking, enjoy!

PS: I make mention of bearded Jay in this chapter; this gif is totally the version of him I had in my head for this chapter!

"Walter Holden. 16 years old, victim of an auto accident, came in with a dislocated right leg."

There's droplets of rain on the other side of the windows. It blurs the view - all of a sudden, the buildings you can usually see from the 13th floor of the hospital are just fuzzy, beige blocks.

"Preliminary exam showed no other major trauma, and his vital signs were strong. His leg just had to be reset."

A shudder goes down your spine - was the hospital's conference room always this cold? Well, you don't know - you've never been in here before.

"Dr Halstead advised 10 mil of morphine, but the patient refused pain medication, and the leg was reset. It was at this point that Dr Halstead handed the patient off to Dr Y/L/N, requesting her to evaluate his leg for blood flow."

There's been a strange tapping noise for the last 5 minutes, but only now do you realise it's your fingers against the oval, wooden table.

"Dr Y/L/N? Dr Y/L/N!" You snap out of your reverie and look up. Dr Lanik's glaring at you. You apologise. He takes his seat, next to Mrs Goodwin and Will, both of whom send you a soft smile that doesn't quite reach their eyes. They're trying to be reassuring, but it doesn't matter - you're ready to drown yourself.

Clearing your throat, you speak. "I was instructed to evaluate his right leg for blood flow. I did so by checking his pulses, uh, dorsalis pedis and posterior tibialis." You pause, as some of the other occupants in the conference room - all members of the board or lawyers, all wearing pristine suits and a cold, calculating expression - turned to look at each other.

You clear your throat again. "It was a uh, a textbook exam."

"I'm sorry, in which textbook does it say to check for an arterial injury by just palpating a pulse?" Dr Lanik cuts in sharp.  Will closes his eyes, as you struggle to breath normally.

"90% of all patients - "

"I can't hear you, Dr Y/L/N." Dr Lanik's voice booms across the room, and Will's had it.

"This is ridiculous, there's no need to be intimidating her like this - she's a first year resident and - "

"And she was satisfied with a pulse check to evaluate blood flow? Do I need to remind everyone here that the acceptable course of action in this scenario is to order a doppler or an ABI? That boy's leg was sitting for ages without proper blood flow, and eventually the best we could do for him was amputate it."

Will shakes his head vehemently. "Pathology's looked over the leg - they determined that the severity of the accident combined with the amount of time it took CFD to extricate Holden from the car meant that his leg wasn't viable before he even stepped into the ED." Will turns to you, his eyes piercing as he spoke directly to you.

"There was nothing you could've done that would've changed the outcome. Nothing."

You take a deep breath. You don't nod.

"Alright, we've heard everything we need to hear." The head of the legal department says, after a few moments of discussion with the board members. "Given the findings from Pathology, we will not be terminating Dr Y/L/N's employment here at Chicago Med. However, we recommend that her OR privileges be revoked, and that she is attached to an attending for a duration of 2 months, by which point hopefully she will learn that not every case is a textbook case." She stares directly at you. "Dismissed." Chairs scrape against the floor as everyone makes their leave.

Will places his hand on your shoulder, and you realise you haven't moved even after everyone's left.

His voice is soft. "We all make mistakes. And - "

"I could've been the reason he lost his leg. If he'd come in with ample time to save the leg, and I just - and I just didn't realise it, I could've been the reason a kid had to lose a leg." There's tears in your eyes as you turn to look at Will, who just sighs.

"Yeah. But that's not what happened."

"I got lucky." You shrug, tears freely streaming down your face now. "I just got lucky."

Will doesn't say anything. He just hugs you.

***

It's not the kind of thing you just get over, you realise, because it's been 5 days since it happened but you can't get it out of your head. You've been barely getting any sleep; often you jerk awake in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning, after which it's next to impossible to fall asleep again. It's also affecting your work more than just making you tired - you keep second-guessing your medical judgements, deferring to Will or Natalie or Ethan for anything and everything. None of them bite at you for it, because they know what's going on and they know what you're going through, but some part of you wishes they would. Wishes that they'd just grab you by the shoulders and shake you, and say "Be a damn doctor."

Dr Charles met with you for lunch earlier today, and you lamented your troubles. The kind and thoughtful psychiatrist patiently listened, before giving you some wisdom you needed to hear. Amongst which was "find a distraction".

"You mean focus on something else?" You asked, chasing a watermelon cube at the bottom of your fruit cup.

"Yeah, but it's a little bit of a dangerous tactic. See, you don't want to distract yourself from dealing with the pain and the guilt you feel, because emotions don't tend to go away when you suppress them like that. But if you're having trouble processing it, it can be helpful to take your mind off of it for a while, wait til some time has passed and it's not so...intense. And maybe then it'll be easier to tackle and get over, y'know?" Dr Charles advised and you nodded, taking it in.

You think about what exactly you could do to distract yourself as you finish your shift and make your way towards your car in the parking lot.

Maybe I should take up painting?

The thought of yourself - little miss notoriously bad at anything artsy - trying to paint has you chuckling softly. You're about to give up on this whole distract yourself thing when, as if on cue, your phone buzzes with a text message. You get into your car, turn on the heating, and pull out your phone.

J.H. 11:32PM

So...guess who's back :)

You can't help the smile on your face. Jay's been undercover for the past week - it actually got started the next morning after the night you went over for "hockey". He'd gotten a text early in the morning asking him to come in, and so the two of you had actually barely spoken since...the festivities of that night.

You 11:33PM

Congrats, detective :)

J.H. 11:33PM

Wanna come over and help me celebrate?

Huh. Well maybe Dr Charles wasn't off-target with the whole "distract yourself" thing - although you're positive having meaningless sex is probably not one of the healthy methods of distraction that he was envisioning.

But quickly, you realise it doesn't matter - ever since what happened, you haven't been sleeping well at night. It's been close to 6 days and you're wrecked, so maybe some good, tires-you-out-completely sex is exactly what you need?

You 11:34PM

Be there in 15

 J.H. 11:34PM

Can't wait :)

 Your lips curve into a smile as you pull out of the parking lot and down into the main road.

***

"I've been waiting to do this...for so long..." Jay murmurs in your ear before pressing kisses down the side of your neck, his hands roaming all over your body. You tilt your head to the side, exposing the expanse of your neck to him.

“It’s only been…a couple ‘a days…” You reply softly, and you feel Jay’s huffs of soft laughter into your neck. You turn to look at him, pulling away. “What?”

There’s a teasing smile on his face. “Most women take it as a compliment if a guy says he hasn’t stopped thinking about her.”

You shake you head, putting on a teasing look, “Uh-uh, that’s not what you said, you said you’ve been wanting to do this – ”

“It was implied – ”

“It wasn’t implied and even if it was – ”

“It was implied and even if it wasn’t, that’s still a compliment.” Jay says pointedly, a huge grin on his face. You narrow your eyes at him, trying to hide the growing smile on your face. He chuckles, seeing right through you.

You smack his arm. “You keep laughing at me in bed and I’m gonna get mad.” This gets Jay full-on laughing, and your jaw drops in pretend-outrage. “You fucking – ”

“No, no, no c’mere – ” Jay pacifies you, leaning over you, arms on either side of you as he starts to kiss your face, your jaw, the corner of your mouth. But there’s still the slightest smile pulling up the corners of his lips, and when he presses them to your lips, you can’t help but laugh into the kiss. Jay reaches up and holds your face, the kiss becoming soft, loving, drawn-out, and some feeling deep in your core tells you you’re just…somewhere else right now. You don’t know how to describe it, other than that everything in this moment feels perfect, feels right.

A shiver goes down your spine, and maybe it’s because Jay’s shifted, and is now sucking a spot on the base of your neck, hard and strong and deep, and his hands are skimming downwards, unbuttoning your soft cotton top before unzipping your jeans. And maybe it’s because you don’t know what the fuck you are doing here, with him, with all of this. You think about how wrong this is, how bad this is, how his brother’s your boss and this was just supposed to be one drunken hookup and then it became two (except you weren’t even drunk that time) and now it’s about to become three –

“Y/N?” Jay calls softly, and you look at him – his hands resting gently over the hem of your panties, his face hovering over the space between your legs, and the look of…almost reverence in his shining green eyes.

You stop thinking.

Your hands reach downward, sliding your panties off and Jay eagerly helps, getting them off completely. Just like last time, Jay draws out the foreplay – kissing, licking, and nipping at the skin of your inner thighs, making the heat in your core build. Running your fingers through his dark hair, you yank it a little to get him to get going, and he pinches your hip – a quick slap of the wrist. Laughing, you repeat the action, pulling on his hair, and he groans.

“You’re real impatient, you know?”

“Jayyyyyyyy,” You whine, pouting down at him. He’s got this look of a predator – a confident, cocky smile on his face. Jay dips his head down, his mouth making contact with your cunt.

“There we go,” You murmur, gasping as you feel his hot breath on your most sensitive regions. Jay’s hands grip tight into your supple skin, holding your thighs open for him as his tongue circles your opening. Your back arcs as you moan, the sensation of his tongue on you setting off what feels like fireworks in your head. Jay’s mouth presses into you, hard and deep, his tongue licking and lapping at your now sopping wet cunt.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck – ” You whisper, eyelids fluttering shut as Jay softly flicks his tongue over your clit. He repeats the motion, going up and down, teasing your clit and your hip jerks upwards sharply in response. Settling your ass back down against his soft sheets, you catch your breath and mutter a soft apology – “Shit, sorry,” – and Jay taps your thigh, a silent “don’t worry about it”, as he’s nosed his way back between your legs immediately.

Jay laps at your folds and you try to keep your head about you, try to not lose your mind, but it just feels so good. He sucks your clit into his mouth gently and your eyes roll into the back of your head. “Oh my god, ohhh my god – fuck!” You whimper, as he keeps sucking your clit, pausing to flick his tongue over it. Your fingers clutch the sheets around you hard enough to rip holes in them. The loud moans out of your mouth are bordering on screams. The feeling in your core, the heat, starts rising like a wave reaching a shore –

“I’m gonna – I’m gonna – I’m gonna – ah, ah, ahhhh – fuck! Fuck, fuck – Jay! Jay!” You scream, your vision whiting out completely as you arch off the bed, riding out the waves of pleasure wrecking your body. You hands fly downwards to grab Jay’s head as you jerk away from his still-working mouth, your oversensitive clit causing tears to pool in your eyes. Pulling him up, you whisper his name over and over again, like he’s the only gospel you know. Jay shifts up, laying down next to you and pulling you close, your bodies fitting into each other like a perfect pair of puzzle pieces. You look at him through your teary eyes and all you see are his green irises staring right back at you with a measure of something dark and lustful in them. You hold his face in your hands, running a thumb over the rough stubble of his cheeks, his jaw, where a soft beard has started to grow. His lips are glossy and wet, from you, and you see now there’s a soft pink line going across his nose that you trace with your hands, frowning.

“I’m okay,” Jay says in a soothing voice.

“What happened?” You ask, concerned, the frown between your eyebrows deepening as you look up at him.

A soft smile. “Kinda got into a fight. Guy tried to punch me, I dodged it, but his fingernail scratched me. It’s fine.” Jay replies quickly, and his face is so close to yours that you’re breathing the same air. You don’t say anything, but you must still be frowning because Jay speaks again. “It’s literally just a scratch.” You hum softly in response, running your hands down his front, unbuttoning his shirt, scanning the expanse of his chest and abdomen with your fingertips and your eyes.

Jay lifts your chin and you turn back to him. “What?”

“Are you checking me for other injuries?” He asks, chuckling. You look back down, pausing for a moment. “Maybe…it’s not like you’d tell me if you got hurt, right?” Jay just laughs, and there’s your answer. You ignore the burgeoning feelings in your heart of some kind of dejection.

Your fingers run over a sliver of raised skin, on his lower right flank. It’s a thin, pale pink scar that runs about 3 inches. You work in an ED – you know exactly what this is.

“You were stabbed?” You ask, stunned. “When?”

Jay sighs, grabbing your fingers in his hand and holding them closed. “Army stuff. Not a big deal.” He pushes your fingers away to your own body, and then reaches for the blanket and pulls it up over the two of you, like as if the conversation’s over.

“You don’t want to talk about the Army,” you point out, as Jay lays on his back, some distance between the two of you. He sighs again, looking upwards at the ceiling. “Is that a question or a statement?”

You know you shouldn’t push, but you do anyway.

“You should talk to someone about it  – ”

“I talk to people about it. I have.” Jay’s voice is tight. He’s still not looking at you.

“You can talk to me about it...” You say, and you’re terrified. Because what you’re really asking is “Do you think I’m close enough, do you care about me enough to let me in?”.

Jay turns to you, a soft smile on his face. “It’s fine. I’ve got other people for that.”

Hiding the immense desolation that’s weighing like an anchor on your chest from showing, you just send a shallow smile his way. 

He’s got other people for that. He’s got other people for sharing his feelings, his pain, his suffering, his life. He doesn’t want you for that, I mean, why would he share all of that with you? You’re just a warm body – some random girl he’s having sex with. Nothing more.

You pull the blankets tighter around you, turning away from Jay. Trying your best to quell the wave of sadness flooding what feels like every single part of you, you drift asleep. 

***

“Dr Y/N?”

You turn, and there’s Walter Holden on a bed in the ED.

“Walter?” You walk to his side, stunned. He’s crying – tears spilling out of his soft baby blue eyes, his youthful face scrunched up in pain and anguish.

“Why did you do this to me? Why?!” He yells, his voice cracking. You shake your head. “Walter, Walter I’m so sorry – I didn’t know, I didn’t know, I didn’t mean to – ” You choke on your words, and as you look down the bed you realise that Walter’s amputated leg is bleeding at the stump.

“Oh god, oh my god – ” You get up, shocked as the blood starts gushing. Walter screams.

“Help me! Dr Y/N – help me! Help me!”

You hear your heart hammering in your ears, your head is spinning, you stand up and you feel faint.

Will rushes into the room. He starts holding as much gauze as he can to Walter’s leg. Nurses and doctors flood the room, and they begin moving Walter out. You’re standing, back pressed to the treatment room wall, aghast. 

Will turns to you, his face red with rage. “What are you even doing?! Fucking hell, Y/N – you can’t do anything right?!”

There’s a painful lump in your throat, and you can’t breathe. Something grabs your hand and you snap your head. It’s Walter, and as they wheel his bed out, he looks at you with so much fury and torment in his eyes.

“YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE A DOCTOR!”

“No, no, no, I’m so sorry Walter, I’m so sorry – I’m so sorry – this can’t be happening, no, no no no – ” Tears stream down your face and you start shaking. Your knees buckle, and you fall to the ground, sobs wracking your body. Somewhere in the distance, you hear your name being called, but you can’t answer, you can’t do this anymore, you can’t – you just can’t…

“Y/N! Y/N!”

You jolt, your eyes flying open. Jay’s over you, his eyebrows drawn together, his eyes wide, concerned, his hands holding your shoulders where you realise he’s been shaking you – shaking you because – because –

Fuck.

It was a fucking nightmare. Again.

You let out a cry of pain, bringing your hands up to cover your face. “Breathe, just breathe.” Jay says softly, rubbing your arms up and down.

After about a minute, when you don’t feel so shaken anymore, you wipe your eyes and slowly sit up. Jay shifts with you, sitting right next to you. You can’t look him in the eyes.

“I’m – I’m sorry I woke you,” you whisper to your palms, resting atop your folded legs.

“Don’t – don’t worry about that. Y/N, what happened? It sounded pretty bad…” Jay says and you shake your head.

“I’m fine, it’s fine – ” Your hands run through your hair roughly. You need to go. You need to go – you need to leave – you can’t be here –you can’t be here with him –

“Hey. Hey,” Jay repeats, when you don’t answer. He reaches across and his warm hard gently grabs your face, trying to get you to look at him but you just push his hand away. You get up, grabbing your underwear and jeans from the ground and start getting dressed.

“Y/N!” Jay gets off the bed, and comes to you. You sidestep him, or at least you try to, but he’s much taller than you and his shoulders are broad; he stands in your way and grabs your arms softly.

“Y/N, look at me – ”

“Why?” 

You give him what he wants. You look up at him, you stare him directly in his eyes, shaking in anger and fear and what feels like the weight of the world on your shoulders. 

“Hmm? Why? This isn’t – you don’t care – what does it matter –” You yell at him, your mind frazzled as you fall apart in his arms.

The frown on Jay’s face gets deeper, and he shakes his head, leaning close. “Hey, talk to me. C’mon, you can talk to me – ”

“Why the fuck would I talk to you? You’re just some guy I’m sleeping with!” You spit harshly, shaking his hands off and stepping back. Jay’s mouth falls open, and his shoulders sag. His face contorts into something awful - dismay, defeat, hurt.

For a moment, you want to run back into his arms – apologise, say you didn’t mean it, say you’re just scared – but you don’t. You move around him, grabbing your shirt. You put it on and make your way out of his bedroom, and out of his apartment.

You don’t know why you said what you did. Actually, scratch that, you know exactly why you said that. In fact, you know exactly why you’re what you’re doing.

Every relationship you’ve ever had up to this point’s fucked you over. Every single one. You’ve been cheated on, you’ve been lied to, you’ve been told you were just some piece of ass, not an actual girlfriend. And now?

Now you’re scared shitless of what this thing between the two of you is. You’re scared shitless that you’re making a mistake by screwing around with your boss’s brother and you’re –

Well.

You’re scared shitless you’re falling for him.

So, you do what you do best. Dump out of this, push the self-destruct button. Get him to push you away so you don’t have to go through the pain of falling for the guy you can’t have. The one that you know’s going to screw you over, because he’s going to realise he only really sees you as a hookup – that he doesn’t love you.

You try to hold back the tears, because you’re driving home and the last thing you need right now is a car accident. There’s a buzzing sound from your phone and you perk up. As much as you want to tell yourself to not get your hopes high, you can’t help yourself, and you speed down the road to the red light so you can push the brakes and wait. Your fingers wrap around your phone and you immediately check the screen. 

The smile on your face falls – it’s just a stupid notification from Instagram. You toss your phone back onto the passenger seat, hard enough that it bounces off and hits the ground. Tears once again threaten to fill your eyes, and there’s a painful lump in your throat. You swipe at your cheeks, where a single tear has made its escape, and turn to look at the screen next to your steering wheel – it shows the time as 3:45AM. Leaning back against your car seat, a deep sigh exits your lungs.

You realise there’s no way you’re going to sleep again today, what with the whole Jay thing on top of the Walter Holden nightmare that’s been haunting you for the last 6 days now.

The lights turn green.

Swearing under your breath, you throw your car into a U-turn and drive to Med instead.

[stillness-in-green]

When we get back to the escaped Advisors (should be around 14-18 still around ...which is much large than I was expecting, tbh) I kinda hope that they're taking advantage of the current state of Japan to replenish their numbers with frustrated civilians. Maybe get a large enough force for a 2nd Jailbreak to free their leaders?

My current count stands at 4 advisors who we know for a fact escaped the initial net, 6 who we saw engage in combat but didn't see captured in the aftermath, and 5 who we just never saw at all, for a total of as many as 15 advisors who may be in the wind. We were also told 132 people escaped, but that number's only from the villa.

Presumably there were other escapees from around the country, and really, how many people with trained super powers do you need to successfully assault a non-island-based prison? I'd love to see or hear about a second jailbreak to spring more of their people; I'd equally love to see their movement gathering steam via new recruits.

(Beneath the cut, some hypothesizing about what PLF recruitment might look like right now, and my one caveat about the PLF re-entering the plot.)

It's interesting, because, on the one hand, the average civilian has enough reflexive bias against "villains" that even just being labeled villains hurts the PLF's recruitment chances, and that is certainly what the news will be calling them--associates of the infamous League of Villains, the organization behind Gigantomachia's mass destruction and the obliteration of Jakku. That will absolutely poison a great many people against them, both because that's what Hero Society does and because, well, they were outed as terrorists. Big surprise people will refuse to consider their perspective when all this death and destruction is said to be their fault!

On the other hand, it strikes me as being to the PLF's benefit that the HPSC and the heroes did so little--nothing at all, really--to spread any information about the PLF before the attack. Because they were a secret organization beforehand, no one really knew anything much about them. The best any given person on the street is going to know is a) whatever they'd heard about the League on the news, and b) whatever few things they might remember from their high school history lessons about villains from the early age of Heroes.

If the PLF can seize the opportunity, they have a window to get in and really spin a narrative about the current chaos. They could talk about the way that the power and number of heroes is dwindling now, yet repressive laws still require people to sit back and let their homes and families come under attack from opportunistic criminals. They could raise a huge and entirely justified stink about the dissolution of the HMP. They could talk about how they were attacked pre-emptively, about how all this destruction is the result of them acting in self-defense, and does not at all resemble what their plans had been. (That last one would be a flagrant manipulation of the facts, but, you know, they're under no obligation to be truthful.)

It'd be hard to get the kind of platform they need under normal circumstances, particularly if the government is trying to enforce any kind of ban on positive publicity for the PLF--a significant break from laws about freedom of the press, and outside the purview of even the highly controversial Subversive Activities Prevention Act, but then, so was the aforementioned HMP dissolution, and that doesn't seem to have prevented it. Skeptic, though, has shown that he is entirely capable of putting any message he damn well pleases across the airwaves nationwide with total impunity. Until the government can capture him or somehow revoke his access to his satellite (fat chance; I'm sure he has backdoors upon backdoors built into that thing's programming, assuming there are any non-arrested members of the Feel Good Inc. board to try to cut him out to begin with) there's really nothing stopping him from pulling that stunt again.

Of course, the PLF doesn't seem to be in touch with Skeptic at the present time, presumably because All For One doesn't give a damn about Tomura's army beyond whatever use they might be in helping him secure One For All. Which is also why we're unlikely to see a repeat of that stunt so long as Skeptic is stuck under his thumb with the remainder of the League. Sigh.

Still, even without the bully pulpit, we know the MLA was reaching people before, even if only the extremist fringe, the sorts of people who were drawn to conspiracy theories or doomsday scenarios, or the people who were already on the borders of acceptable society and who are now likely struggling more than ever. Deku's lucky that the heteromorph woman he saved was a pretty clear-cut innocent--imagine if she'd had something closer to Spinner's mentality and he tried to tell her that she was probably only attacked because people were scared (unspoken: of her and her kind)! Even though the PLF is primarily at fault for the current chaos by virtue of having been planning a bunch of terrorist attacks that the heroes were very reasonably trying to avert, I think they'd still be attracting people who're inclined to ask questions like, "Okay, but whose fault is it that this group felt driven to those extremes to begin with?" or, "Are the heroes even telling the truth about this? I wonder what the Paranormal Whatever League's side of the story is?" And yeah, I'd love to see the escapees from the raid(s) catalyze that support, get their shit together, and spring RD, Geten, and Trumpet from prison.

ON THE OTHER HAND, this all comes with one big, BIG caveat.

If all that the PLF springing their leaders from prison accomplishes is freeing up those leaders to get taken down in a series of single chapter fights by Deku or the rest of Class 1-A--or, god forbid, the Pro-Heroes again--then I'd actually rather we never hear another word about them again. Then at least I could tell myself whatever I wanted about their fate in the epilogue, you know? For the loyalty of the erstwhile MLA, for Re-Destro's fervent faith in Shigaraki, to be rewarded only by getting curb-stomped without a moment's regret by a teenager? A teenager who's going to spout a bunch of idealistic drivel that attempts but wildly fails to address the real issues the MLA has with the status quo? I think I'll just stick with my fanfic, thanks.

[tiaragqueen]

Inexorable

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Adult! Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

✂ Word Count: 1,1k+

✂ Trigger Warnings: Starvation, confinement

[Edited]

***

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“I am in control, no one's gonna take me, no one's gonna break me. Vengeance is my goal and then I'm gonna have it, break you like a habit.” - I Will Win [Twisted Sister]

Bakugou had revoked your right to eat dinner.

That was okay, you reminded yourself, you could survive without dinner. This wasn’t the first time you’d ever skipped eating, either. So it shouldn’t be too hard, right? As long as you still had the necessary nutrients, you could bear with whatever hell he put you through, which was, honestly, very few. Bakugou might not be the friendliest person in the world, but at least he wasn’t a complete asshole to you. There were times when you noticed his kindness through subtle actions; the way his voice instinctively softened a little in your presence, the way he touched you so gently as though you were porcelain and the way he made an effort to be less aggressive with his speech once he caught your grimace.

That was just the kind of guy he was despite his general attitude; covert and sometimes backhanded.

But there was only so much he could tolerate from your actions, especially when you didn’t seem to change anytime soon. Bakugou, regardless of his subtlety, was still an intense guy through and through. He always charged head-on to the battlefield in hopes of solving the problem quicker, but you refused to crack. On one hand, it frustrated him greatly knowing that everything he’d done went in vain. And yet, on the other hand, he admired your tenacity. It proved to him that you weren’t weak. It proved to him that your insults and statements weren’t just empty words.

And, most of all, it proved to him that you were made for him. Because there was nothing in this world that he hated more than liars and weaklings.

Bakugou clenched his hand, frowning slightly. It’d be great if you were a bit more open-minded, though. Relationships were unlikely to happen if both parties refused to compromise, and your rebellion made it harder for him to show you the true extent of his love.

“You’re tough,” he murmured, burying his hands on the pockets. The wind carried his tentative praise into your ear and out the other. You paid him no mind, staring at the floor as though a giant hole would materialize and swallow you whole. Over the past weeks, Bakugou had slowly decreased your meals once he saw that he’d yet to make a dent in your armor. It came to the point where you only ate breakfast and a glass of water, and your stomach hadn’t stopped growling ever since. You could deny his kindness for all you wanted, but you couldn’t deny that starvation had taken its toll on your body.

But you didn’t care. You just… you just wanted to go. You just wanted to leave and never came back. You wanted to meet your family and friends again. Stretching a hand to touch the particles of light that floated in the air, your eyes softened. God, how long has it been since you felt the warm sunlight against your skin? How long has it been since you breathed the fresh air of morning than the dust that you regularly inhaled? How long has it been since you saw nature in its full glory?

Hugging your knees, you huffed silently. Bakugou was cruel, crueler than anyone you’d ever met. He acted as if he was doing the right thing, ignorant of how his world was more toxic than the outside world.

Then again, it shouldn’t come as a surprise for you, right? He was never the benevolent one, even during high school. He never did anything just because. He always had a reason for everything; a hidden motive behind his seeming spontaneity.

And that was what made him dangerous. People didn’t see the gears of his brain turning and creaking underneath those fierce eyes. They didn’t see the plans that he conceived in a fly, because he wasn’t the type to stand back and ponder. All they knew was the aggressive and impulsive Bakugou, and he wanted it that way.

“Piss off.” you croaked before coughing. His forehead creased as he slowly approached your slumping figure. He ignored the pang of heartbreak that afflicted his chest when you recoiled from his touch and merely gripped your arm. He didn’t apply too much pressure, mindful of the bones that he could easily break, but you still cried out nonetheless. You attempted to slap his repulsive hand away, to regain the bubble that he’d so nonchalantly popped off with two long strides.

However, Bakugou was stronger, more powerful than you could ever hope to be. In no time, he easily pulled you into his embrace and stroked your hair as though you were a child who feared the shadows that lurked in the corners and not the man in front of you.

He hugged you as though you needed his consolation.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he whispered, ruby irises watching the stutter of your back intently. It had been months since you lived with him, and yet, you still couldn’t bring yourself to ease up to his affection. How could you, though? “You don’t have to suffer, but I want you to say the words first.”

“… And what are those words?”

“I love you.”

You gazed ahead, appraising the empty words. It was funny and kind of ironic, honestly. He despised liars, and yet, he wanted you to lie to him. Had he finally reach his breaking point? Had you claimed victory in this precarious game?

Sneering, you said. “You’re pathetic, Bakugou.”

He squeezed your body, and for a moment, you feared that he’d snap and kill you. It was rather farfetched considering how gentle he insisted on treating you, but the possibility remained. He didn’t have the best self-control, after all.

“… I see. So that’s your answer, huh?” Sighing, Bakugou unwound his stout arms from your lanky body and stood up. A pool of frozen blood reflected your derisive eyes as he stared down at you emptily. You wondered if it matched the liquids he’d spilled from those unfortunate people who dared to approach you without his permission. “Let’s see how long you can manage, [Name].”

You didn’t respond, knowing better than to counter him. He spared you one last glance before he turned around and slammed the door shut behind him, the room shook in his wake. Any trace of mockery left your irises as you lied down, ignoring the rattling chain that bound your ankle.

It didn’t take a genius to predict who would come out as the victor, but you wished to prolong the game even for a little. It brought you some semblance of relief to know that you still had control over the situation because you both were just too much of a control freak to readily compromise.

[mcheang]

Love and hate

A rough draft inspired by 三生三世十里桃花, and because I wanted to do another Mari hates Adrien but he likes her fic.

What if Marinette felt betrayed by Adrien’s decision to pose alongside Lila?

Ok; we all know that Lila framed Marinette. And that Adrien posed alongside Lila for the photoshoot.

But what if Marinette decided to take early action to revoke her expulsion? What if she went as Ladybug herself to clear her name? Technically it’s not just personal reasons when scarlet moth had been involved.

Granted she can’t prove Lila planted the necklace in her locker. But come on, how can she cheat when the test answers were stolen after the exam? The lockers are unlocked. And if Lila had seriously fallen down the stairs she would have more bruises than a knee injury!

In face of a righteously angry Ladybug, who points out the flaws they were too idiotic to see, the principal does what he does when face with influential threats (Chloe calling her dad), he caves.

Marinette is brought back to school with an apology. Lila is called back to school to continue investigating.

Unwilling to let such a useful pawn leave, Gabriel vouches for Lila, unaware that Ladybug had just left, and lets Nathalie disable the security feeds. Again the weak principal gives in.

Lila learns Marinette has already been brought back, but let’s Adrien think she fulfilled her end of the deal.

While Adrien had played a small, inconsequential role in defending Marinette, it did nothing to soothe Marinette to watch him pose with Lila after all he knew about that liar.

Betrayed and heartbroken, the love in Marinette’s heart starts to turn to hatred.

Welcomed back to school, Marinette asks Adrien in private why he modelled with Lila and he says it was part of his job (he doesn’t want Marinette to feel indebted). Lila butts in and insists that it is also because they are friends. Adrien agrees with Lila. Marinette believes Adrien wants to shrug things off again, and move on.

Her hurt confirmed, Marinette ignores Adrien and gives him the cold shoulder. The hatred in her heart has sprout and is growing into a sapling

Adrien can guess the reason for that. He tries to talk to Marinette alone but she wants nothing to do with him. Eventually he manages to convey that he only modelled with Lila to get her to come back to school.

Marinette retorts that he didn’t get her back to school. Ladybug did! And she doesn’t tolerate liars. He had the chance to tell the truth and he blew it.

Normally, Marinette may have been more open-minded but the hatred in her heart has had time to settle.

The more you love someone, the deeper that hatred can grow.

Since Lila didn’t hold up her end of the bargain, Adrien renounces their friendship in public. He admits he made a deal with Lila to get Marinette back but Lila spins a lie that she asked Ladybug to bring Marinette back. Adrien protests that Ladybug herself confronted them that she is not Lila’s BFF. The class doesn’t know who to believe. But since Marinette is clearly avoiding Adrien and still thinks Lila is a liar, it gives Adrien more credibility and makes them wonder if Lila was indeed a liar.

Marinette still hasn’t forgiven Adrien, believing he is only acting up since he doesn’t want to lose any Friend. Her heart is too full of hatred for her head to think clearly.

It pains Marinette to see Adrien but she eventually becomes adept at ignoring his blonde head and presence. Adrien is miserable that he has lost one of his closest friends. Even so, he snaps at the class whenever they listen to Lila’s gossip. Marinette ignores his attempts to protect her.

The rest of the class do not intercede. Marinette has a right to be angry with Lila and she shuts down anyone who asks her to be open-minded and forgive either Lila or Adrien. The class soon learns not to bother, otherwise Marinette shuts them out too.

Tikki tries her best to change Marinette’s mind but Marinette snaps at her to let it go. Tikki relents once she realizes she is only agitating Marinette and making her akuma bait.

Adrien tries waiting outside the bakery, skipping his practises and getting grounded. Marinette had told her parents not to let Adrien or Lila in. Adrien refuses to budge, standing in the heavy rain even when it is clear the bakery is closed and the streets are emptying. The Gorilla eventually tracks Adrien down and drags him home. (I figure Adrien is a romantic and is willing to resort to grand gestures of his determination to see Marinette)

Adrien is sick for weeks. Marinette is happy for his absence but has to hide it behind relief. Alya and Nino have to divide their time.

Adrien recovers and is still miserable. To make matters worse; he has another shoot with Lila. He goes on strike until Gabriel fires Lila.

Tikki heads to Plagg to discuss how to fix their broken relationship. When Adrien opens his locker, Tikki escapes, but not before he spots her fleeing to Marinette’s locker.

Adrien is both elated and horrified to know Ladybug’s secret identity is his former Friend who now hates his guts.

Knowing Marinette doesn’t want anything to do with Adrien, Chat decides to visit her at night.

Marinette initially freaks out because she thinks he knows her identity. But he claims he is just there because he is on a diet and wants to cheat on it.

Marinette tolerates this free loader.

Chat initially wants to smooth over their misunderstanding but learns that talking about Adrien leads to him getting kicked out. So he avoids talking about Adrien and instead tries to get to know Marinette better.

Marinette is annoyed by Chat’s presence, especially since it leaves her sleeping later than usual. But she grows used to it.

Eventually Chat slips up and calls her My Lady. Marinette freaks out again but grows calmer. She says she doesn’t want to know his secret identity. Chat sadly agrees.

Eventually the public thinks that there is something going on with Chat and Marinette. But they deny it. To prevent people from suspecting Ladybug’s identity, Adrien blurts out it was him. He put on his old Chat Noir costume to visit Marinette.

The class squeals at their Romeo and Juliet situation.

Marinette goes along but is furious with Adrien. How dare he play her for a fool. She yells at him from going anywhere near her again, but not before Adrien sees how badly she is hurt emotionally.

Adrien’s absence from her roof is easily explained when Gabriel heard the rumour and confiscated Adrien’s costume.

Marinette is heartbroken yet again because unbeknownst to her; she had fallen in love with Chat.

In her heartbreak, she is reminded she has a score to settle with Lila (it’s a welcome distraction). Ladybug confronts the principal again on why Lila hasn’t been properly investigated. Pressured, the principal does that and discovers Lila’s truancy and health records. He expels Lila in the same public manner he does Marinette. (Ladybug’s status so trumps the recluse designer’s)

At least Marinette has been properly avenged. But she still isn’t happy.

Adrien is depressed. He knows he hurt Marinette again and he never wanted that. That said, the class thinks Gabriel has pulled Adrien out of school, not that Adrien has fallen into depression. He can’t sleep without crying because he is haunted by the image of Marinette crying and blaming himself. Not even the threat of homeschool can snap Adrien out of it, because he knows Marinette would welcome that.

Adrien won’t eat anything until at last Nathalie does something.

She visits Marinette and confesses that she was there when Adrien threatened Lila to bring Marinette back to school.

When Marinette is skeptical, Nathalie points out all the good things Adrien has done for her (most of them as Chat). Why would he do that if he didn’t care for her?

1. He had tried to get Marinette an internship with Gabriel but she had wanted nothing to do with the Agreste brand.

2. Adrien tutored Marinette at night so her grades improved.

3. To make up for Marinette’s free treats, Adrien has burnt his pianist fingers trying to make Marinette a dessert. He never succeeded in every one of his 13 attempts before he nearly burned the kitchen down.

4. He recommended her to other famous designers. Marinette wanted to earn recognition on her own credit, not because of favors. She’s not happy he interfered.

5. He bought her all those expensive fabrics using his own money. Marinette isn’t exactly impressed since she knew Adrien had the money. But he certainly saved her shopping time.

6. He stole his mother’s jewellery to gift them to her (Marinette had told him to stop buying her expensive gifts). Yeah, Adrien was in a lot of trouble for that one but he refused to tell his Father what he had done with the jewels. He had been pulled out of school as a result until Lila brought him back and Adrien admitted he didn’t regret stealing the jewels.

(What Adrien does admittedly pales next to Ye Hua’s sacrifices. But I can’t cut off Adrien’s arm or make him use his life force or whatever. He isn’t a deity)

Anyway; Nathalie points out that Adrien has done so much for her, regardless of how unsuccessful his wooing attempts were, can’t she just visit him once. Seeing her might do him some good.

Marinette takes a moment to think. Perhaps she judged Adrien too harshly and rashly. He was clueless about friendship. And he did try (and failed) to make amends. Maybe she should give him credit for trying, if nothing else. He certainly chose to against Lila in the end.

Marinette visits Adrien and there is definitely a reaction from the apathetic boy. he apologises for hurting her so much. He should have left her alone like she wanted. Marinette also apologizes for not letting him explain his side, even if she did give him a chance to at first. She encourages him to eat.

With Marinette beside him, Adrien does recover.

Nathalie is relieved. She then advises Gabriel to let them be. Bringing Emilie back won’t be as joyful once she finds out their son had nearly died from intentional starvation.

Gabriel agrees to let his Son and Marinette date, which they do slowly, needing to start all over again. Marinette needs time to sort out her feelings. While she may have fallen in love with Chat, it also conflicts with the hatred she bore Adrien. The hatred needs to heal to become love.

Adrien gives Marinette her space and continues to try to be a partner worthy of his lady, mainly by being honest.