#sorry marvel you'd ruin me.

[sciderman]

I won't lie, there's a centrain magic to reading comics, maybe it's because you have more control over the direction, speed, voices and music when reading over watching something, maybe it's how creative people can get with panel lay-outs, maybe it's all of those things along with the different art styles and way people express themselves through their comic runs, maybe it's the fact there's SO many of them and so many different runs, AUs, versions, solo-stories and characters that while not every comics is for everyone, there's A comics for everyone.

And it's something that only animation can come close to capturing, occasionaly some games because they can give us amazing set pieces and action and stylization through gameplay. But to me live action movies just miss the mark exept a few and even then i just enjoy the comics more.

I think one big thing for me is the narration, because it helps me relate to characters as someone who's thoughts are pretty loud and narration-like, and the fact it's ME who decides how i make the characters sound and talk rather than having to listen to someone else voice the character in a way that i feel isn't "right".

So i'd say personaly it's comics>>books (i like books, and i LOVE fanfics but the visual part stimulates my brain more) >>>animation>games>live action

i agree wholeheartedly! i don't know, i'm kind of in love with the comic medium. but i love writing, also. i just - i really don't like the passivity of animation and television - i need a lot more stimulation than that to get my brain working. i like all the brain work you have to do when you're reading words. and i love the challenge of pulling off "comedic timing" when you don't actually HAVE the dimension of time in your medium exactly - so you have to work with panelling, and you have to work with spacing in your writing - and it's just so sexy and more active for the brain. like you're inventing a language.

comedy writing in comics is so, so fulfilling because you're a comedian, but your format is visual. you need to rely on visual language to carry it. and jokes are all about expectation and subversion and timing. a joke can fall so flat if that timing is off. and - i don't know, i'm obsessed with comics, as if they're some kind of form of visual poetry. it's taken for granted, i think. it's taken for granted.

i think you become more restricted the more dimensions you introduce - so - writing is entirely free. you can do WHATEVER you want, all by yourself, without needing to rely on the quality of your art software or the actors you have at your disposal or anything - you can conjure any visual you like. comics - more challenging, you're limited by your artistic ability but again - you're not restricted by voice cast - god, i love being able to conjure any voice at all in my head for the boys. i think if i was restricted by voice actors i'd have to write them differently, et cetera et cetera... i'd be dealing with VAs and saying "actually. your delivery is all wrong. i have to rewrite the joke." - i'm so particular about these things, you have no idea.

i remember the first time i watched the deadpool movie after having read the original script over and over YEARS prior and having heard it play out in my head in the most hilarious of ways and then. hearing ryan's delivery of those jokes and thinking "oh. it's not that funny actually."

sorry ryan. it might've been funnier if i hadn't read the script already and hadn't already had the movie play out in my brain way funnier than how you did it. sorry. my brain is a better cinema.

something i also love about print vs film - i've had this problem with a lot of adaptations - i despise film adaptations of books i love, just because - something is so sullied about having so many hands in the pot. actors. camera men. producers. directors. all these people - when - what i loved about the book was feeling close to the author. it's just me and him. we're together, intimately. and all of that intimacy gets lost when you know there's a huge film crew behind it.

kind of weird. i love reading a book and just, giggling over the pages, like it's a joke between me and the author. i don't know, i'm a weird little saddo who craves intimacy. so i like the intimacy of it being a one-man show. i love things where i can feel close to the creator. i hope that's why people like my things too. and it's why i like my things. i sometimes think "ouugh. why can't i work for marvel" but i think about how - i'm lucky i get to create what i want to create without having to compromise or answer to editorial. and what i create can always be unapologetically me. and that means more. that means so much more.

[bunnys-kisses]

how can i take your order? all you have to do is pick a dessert, drink and driver/character of your choosing! are you in the mood for a mille-feuille or a big slice of chocolate cake! please, please, please indicate who you want me to write about!!

the servers are from the following: formula one, call of duty, baldur's gate 3, haikyuu, one piece, jujustu kaisen, detective comics (dc), marvel comics (but i am open to any other fandoms you might have in mind! please do not hesitate to ask!!)

i do also accept polyam relationships! (pairing + reader), up to about four people! just to make it manageable on my end!

all orders can be made to the inbox for @bunnys-kisses and i'll get your order together asap! also let me know if you want it extra sweet or a little more spicy !

mille-feuille: “that’s it, fuck, that’s a good girl.”

butter tart: "let's ruin ourselves for anyone else."

sugar pie: “gonna let daddy hear ya?”

zebra cake: "well, what do we have here?"

carrot cake: "swallow it. all of it."

millionaire shortcake: "if they saw you now, you'd be the biggest shame to your family."

pots de crème: "if a picture is worth a thousand words, then i could probably get a million dollars for this photo."

oat flapjacks: "i'm not scared of you."

persian rolls: "it's mandatory i finish. you getting to finish is a treat."

spice pie: "i didn't know it was possible to be a liar and a slut."

mushroom pie: "if you don't shut up. i'm going to shut you up."

lemon slice: "i'm sorry, what was that? i can’t hear you over all that noise you’re making."

swiss roll: "everything you own, everything you wear i paid for. so i guess that means i own you."

pumpkin pie: "i've met strays who were more obedient."

pastry braid: "your job is to make me cum. now get to work."

sausage roll: "i wonder how much i could get for photos of this cunt."

pithivier: "if you don't behave, i'll let the boys take care of you."

tiramisu: “my little slut to ruin.”

sponge toffee: "aw, is someone mad that they can only cum because of me?"

pull-apart bread: "i love you"

powered sugar donuts: "marry me."

blueberry bars: “gonna make you a mamma and you're gonna make me a daddy.”

pudding chomeur: "i don't share."

ice cream bars: “did you see the way he was eyeing you? he need to know you're mine."

chocolate cake: "do you feel that? that's what happens when i think about you all day."

soufflé: "i'll be gentle."

fried dough: "i know virginity is a stupid concept... but i want to take yours."

apple pie: "now be good and beg. thank you."

vanilla cheesecake: "where are your manners?"

berry trifle: "wrong. try again."

maple cream pie: "either you wear the necklace with my name on it, or wear my bruises around your neck."

s'more: "The accent gets to you, doesn't it?"

belgian waffles: "i cum in that every night."

pancakes: "if you bite me. i'll bite you back."

loaf of whole wheat bread: "you're going to shut that mouth and take me."

jos louis: "does someone need a daddy?"

maple taffy: "oh my god you're stupid."

snowballs: "don't worry, drug tests aren't till next week."

shortbread cookies: "and who does this belong to?"

flan: "i'm not possessive... i'm obsessive."

peach cake: "if you spill a drop, we start all over."

angel food cake: "if he fucks with me again, i'm finishing inside of you."

red velvet cupcake: "if you don't like being called a whore, then stop acting like one."

mince pie: "i'm not jealous."

banana bread: "i'm going to fuck that sweet pussy of yours until the only word your little brain can form is my name."

crumb cake: "if you just listened, all of this could've been avoided."

chocolate chip cookies: "you're beautiful when you smile, but you're the prettiest when my cock is in your throat"

nanaimo bars: "who's my pretty girl? c'mon say it."

coffee cake: "knees. now."

sourdough bread: "i'm going to breed you."

blueberry muffins: "i don't think it'll fit."

pound cake with strawberries: "you know i hate going over rules, but just because i like seeing you embarrassed, i'll tell you them again."

croissant: "i wonder if your father knows what happens during the off hours. if he knows you're here with me."

crepe: "pretty girl."

french toast: "you're trying to make me jealous!"

churros: "if you don't shut that little mouth of yours, i will stuff it full. okay?"

shortbread squares: "you're just mad that that my cock fits perfectly in you now. must be a blow to the ego that we're a perfect match."

savory pastry: "let your brother find out."

sweet pastry: "i'll make it all better."

eclairs: "the family's precious little girl. under me like a slut."

boston cream pie: "yeah, i'll use protection."

bagel: “gonna paint you with my teeth.”

crostata: “stupid slut, this is what you wanted huh? wanted me to fuck you like i hate you.”

tres leches: "i wonder if your brother know i cum in you."

peanut butter bars: “scratch me, bite me, just mark me sweetheart. show them I’m yours.”

eton mess: "be careful. your breath smells like cum."

scones: "but what if they see us!"

english muffin: "aw, is someone crying?"

honey cruller: "i forget how small you are sometimes."

banana split: "don't look at me like that."

beer brownies: "stick your tongue out anymore and you'll look like a dog."

fudge: "your father is pissing me off."

sticky toffee pudding: "the only way this is ending is you getting pregnant."

hot cross buns: "don't hide your face from me. i'd hate to have to tie you up."

brownies: "you're so much more agreeable when you have something to occupy that mouth of yours."

chocolate mousse: "the only necklace you need is my hand around your throat"

tim bits: "stupid little thing."

fruitcake: "i'll make tonight special."

cornmeal muffin: "i need you most."

devil's food cake: "you're my most unhealthy obsession."

crème caramel: "oh. you thought you were getting away from me?"

banana & chocolate muffins: "i'm only doing this because you need to learn how to behave, rules are rules, and you need to follow them."

custard tart: "i've never done this before."

cinnamon rolls: "no one needs to know."

mango sorbet: "you are by far the dumbest thing i've ever fucked. how did they even let you graduate?"

date squares: "you look better with my marks on you."

figgy duff: "if i buy it, will you stop pouting?"

spicy upside down cake: "let's play a game: don't get caught."

cream puffs: "let me finish inside."

profiteroles: "come away with me. for a week, together. anywhere you want, we'll go."

with a side of:

coffee: rivals

tea: semi-public/public sex

juice: cockwarming

mocha coffee: breeding kink

bubble tea: daddy kink

a vodka shot: rough sex

sparkling water: gentle sex

coconut water: alternate universe

energy drink: doggy style

champagne: sugar daddy situation

hard lemonade: possessive behaviour

espresso shot: dirty talking

a glass of wine: cowgirl position

ice capp coffee: werewolf au

bloody mary: vampire au

martini: mafia au

frozen latte: dumbification

frozen lemonade: consensual non-consent

cranberry juice: mean!character

glass of water: aftercare

chocolate milk: tenderness

milkshake: size kink

pina colada: pregnancy

cider: body worship

mai tai: loss of virginity

margarita: unprotected sex

mint julep: punishments

chai: biting/hickies

earl grey: big cock

fishbowl cocktail: protected sex

tonic water: age gap

matcha latte: collars/bondage

root beer: filming/recording

soda: jealousy

americano: oral sex

whisky: degrading language

vitamin water: dom/sub dynamic

irish coffee: high sex

sangria: drunk sex

dark roast coffee: sub!character

dark hot chocolate: sub!reader

iced tea: accidentally launching relationship

lemon water: university/college au

naked & famous: bimbo/ditzy!reader

on the house: author's choice!

ORDER UP!

[poisonous-honey]

Hello...

Lately is a shitty time for me on miHoyo's games. I lost both my 50/50s both to Genshin impact and Honkai star rail. On Genshin, i got QiQi by pulling Xianyun and Gepard by pulling Black Swan. Now i'm broke and my moral is at its lowest.

I'd love some headcanons (or a scenario) about SAGAU(and SAHSRAU if you can) hearing the reader yell and cry of frustration about this. Like: "I'M DONE I'M SO FUCKING DONE!! CAN I JUST HAVE THE ONLY THING I'VE WANTED FOR WORKING AND WAITING THAT HARD!!?? FUCK ALL OF YOU I HATE MY LIFE!!!!"

Sorry. I just wanted to let it out...

Who’s Here: Reader/Player, Diluc, Jean, Mona, Keqing, Tighnari, Astral Express crew, and Gepard

Contains: SAGAU and SAHSR (Not Cult AU)

Note: Hey, hey! I'm sorry this happened to you. I also lost her to Qiqi and had to spend everything else I had to try again, 50/50s suck. Their banners aren’t gone yet though so I hope you end up getting both of them soon! (ノ_<。)ヾ(´ ▽ ` )

💛💛💛💛

It was an accident, it always is with them.

The six of them that are considered standard 5 stars never mean to ruin your chances. They care for you and your happiness, they also want you to continue to play their game. Even though they'd love to be the ones going on adventures with you, both to spend time with you and for their own benefit (Tighnari would love to study other nations' fauna, Diluc could gain new ideas for drinks etc.), they know forcing themselves into your party would never work. You'd just grow to hate them, which is the opposite of what they want.

They're jealous of other 5 stars. Sure they can join you technically whenever they want, unlike the others that have to deal with limited timed windows, but that also guarantees you want them. All they can do is break that or hope they're the lucky one chosen on Wanderlust Invocation. Not only do they have to share a space with each other, but they're also going against weapons, which none of them are remotely happy with.

It's when these emotions are at an all-time high, they're jealousy and longing, the stars will glow gold and tug on their heart.

Diluc is always at his desk when he accidentally takes it. Stewing over boring paperwork his mind will wander from time to time, eventually landing on thoughts of you. He'll find himself missing you and desiring your attention, not realizing you've started a wishing session until it's too late, and he hears you cursing the world. He feels incredibly guilty, and it only grows worse when the wind clatters against his windows. Tries to make it up to you with materials and mora. You’ll find your mail flooded with talent books, adventurers EXP, a ton of mora, and the sincerest apology he could write.

Jean would be trying to sleep. She doesn't have time to think about you during her job, so it’s when she’s on the brink of passing out she’ll start to think of you. The thought of travelling with you sounded like the best break she could get. Eventually she’ll fall asleep and dream about you, only to be suddenly woken up by your screaming. She panics and seeks advice from any and all of her friends on how to make it up to you. Ends up acting similar to Diluc, working herself to the bone to get you talent and weapon materials. She’ll pair them with a few dandelions before sending them to you.

Mona is thinking about food. During a time she forgets to set aside enough mora for a decent meal, she’ll find herself thinking about the delicacies you’re able to provide. Even if it involved fighting, it was a free source of marvellous food. Her mouth waters as she thinks about all the dishes you’ve made, only to be abruptly pulled from her thoughts when a star bumps into her and flies off. She sighs when she hears you start cussing up a storm. Knowing your current state, depressed and full of ire, is because of her, she’ll attempt to make it up to you in a way few others could. She manipulates the fates of the stars so you’re bound to get your next gold star early. A simple method she feels guarantees to make you happy and hopefully take the heat off of herself. It wasn’t simple she wishes you could praise her for it

Keqing would be reminiscing her interactions with you during lantern rite. Whenever she sees the traveller in the distance, but is too busy to stop and talk, that’s where her mind will wander when she finally gets a moment of rest. It’s at this moment of respite she’ll long to see you and the traveller again and when she’ll notice the sky turn gold. She feels incredibly bad when she hears you cry, but she doesn’t have much time to meaningfully apologize to you. The best she can do is write a letter to both you and the character she stole the spotlight from saying she’s sorry. She’ll definitely send you some Golden Shrimp Balls when she next has some for herself.

Tighnari, in a similar boat to Jean and Keqing, would be too preoccupied to miss you on a normal day. It’s when he’s out with his friends and slightly inebriated he mentions missing you. Alhaitham starts to mention how that’s a dangerous line of thought for him to have when Tighnari’s chest starts to glow gold. Everyone winces when you soon start shouting and Tighnari slams his face into the table. He’d end up gathering bunches of every flower in Sumeru and send them to you with a picture of him, Collei and Karkata. 

For Qiqi it's a little different. She can't remember the last time you've gone adventuring with her. Half the time she's too preoccupied to even remember she's already on your team. When a star falls and asks if she wants to go, she doesn't have time to check her notebook before she says yes, the star becoming hers and landing on your screen. 

Your rage and disappointment is always made evident fast, which always has Qiqi turning to Baizhu.

“Did I… Do something wrong?”

Baizhu sighs and kneels next to her, “You made a mistake, but it's alright. Come, why don't we look for an apology gift?”

The next day you open up the mail to see one from Qiqi. Attached to it are all the herbs she collected with Baizhu, her specialty dish No Tomorrow, and an acquaint fate.

Sorry… Qiqi doesn't remember what Qiqi did, but Qiqi knows Qiqi is sorry.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

Upon finishing the most recent event, you had teleported to the train suddenly before they noticed your presence leaving them. They couldn’t tell if you were in a menu or had left your computer entirely. After a while with nothing happening on your end everyone aboard the Astral Express quickly settled in, expecting to be here for a while longer. March was in her room organizing her photos, Dan Heng was going through the archives, and Himeko was making coffee while Stella and Welt were entertaining the guests. Gepard and Serval had come to visit the train that day. Pom Pom had wandered off earlier somewhere in the train and everything was relatively peaceful… Until they heard you start screaming.

March, Dan Heng, and Himeko all rushed into the Parlour car while the four already there were looking at each other in a bit of shock. It’s when they start making out what you’re saying and see Pom Pom rush back into the Parlour car did they realize you had started warping. A session which obviously didn’t go as planned.

They don't like hearing you angry or sad, so they try to come up with a plan, something - anything that will cheer you up without seeming too suspicious. All of them are in the middle of discussing when they also hear you mumble out a very quick and aggressive “Fuck Gepard.”

Everyone turns to him and his face goes red.

Plans are immediately put on hold as Stella whips out her baseball bat and attempts to smash his skull in. Welt tries to step in to stop her, Himeko and Dan Heng stand-off to the side (one more disappointed than the other), March cheers Stella on and Serval ignores her brother's plea for help.

They do eventually get around to cobbling up a multitude of jades for you to at least try again, but not before Stella nearly gave Gepard a concussion. He separately sends you an extremely long apology letter paired with a choice item to allow you to pick a 5 starlight cone of your choosing. Some of the others berate him for being so obvious, but he doesn't care as long as you're happy again.

[abbyssx]

omg just saw you’re writing fluff for Ellie!!! please would you write something where she is like jokingly proposing to reader outside of Joel’s house after coming home from a party or something and Joel sees them and is all like well girls marriage is a big decision tehehehe

Sorry this was so loaded !!!!! <3333

hope you like it! ˚୨୧⋆｡˚

“you would look so hot in one of those, babe” hand in hand, coordinated heartbeats and the unmistakeable glimmer of two pairs of glossy eyes that scanned the marvellous dresses exhibited through the window of the closed bridal boutique.

“who says i’ll be the one wearing a dress? i would kill to see you with that sparkly one, you'd look so cute” you replied with a chuckle.

ellie shook her head. “i would rather die”.

“would rather die than marry me? oh, i see how it is, williams” feigning offense, you dramatically dropped her hand and started walking away. ellie followed your footsteps, the noise of her ruined converse shoes meeting the wet pavement alerting you of her moves.

she held your hand again before kissing your cheek and mumbling a soft “let’s get home, it’s getting too cold”.

being almost midnight, the city was quiet. only a few lights shined on the streets, mainly illuminated by the thousands of stars above you both. you couldn’t help but think of marrying ellie. who would propose first? would she say a speech? would she write vows and share them upon the altar, or would she do it in private? bet she would look so beautiful with a suit on. would she let her hair down? would she wear a tie?

a small squeeze on your hand made you abandon the fog of those images and come back to reality.

“what’s on your mind, angel?”

“oh, nothing” you suddenly felt shy. you and ellie had been dating for barely over a year, you were both so young, why were you thinking about marriage? there were so many other experiences you wanted to live with her before tying the knot, but oh, you had been craving for so long a love like this.

“come on… you were thinking about our wedding, right?” of course she knew. she knew you better than anyone else. your cheeks started to feel warm. “it’s okay” ellie chuckled. “i was thinking of that too”.

“yeah?”

“mhm. i know we’re young and stuff but… i’d really like to marry you, y’know? if it were up to me, i’d propose right now”.

“no, you wouldn’t” you scoffed. without noticing, you had already arrived at ellie’s house. you had started to climb the porch stairs when your girlfriend spoke again:

“yes, i would! wait a second” she started rummaging through her coat’s pockets, in search of something. when she found it, she held it in her palm very tightly. “this will do”.

“what are you doing, ellie?” you said, gasping when she got down in one knee.

“i’m not a hoarder, but i’d like to keep you forever. Would you take this weird rock i just found in my pocket as a sign of my eternal love to you and be my wife?” she recited in one breath, her knee getting wet through her jeans because of the melting snow that laid on the sidewalk. hearing your laugh, she got up from her kneeling position, and hugged you very tight. “what? i’m serious! i know it’s not a diamond ring but it’s a cool rock, right?”

 “you are so dumb!” you rolled your eyes.

“but you love me, dumb and all” ellie marked with a kiss on your cheek.

“that is true. i do love you, very much. but I’m freezing my ass off, can we get inside please?”

with your hands intertwined again, you crossed the threshold of the house, immediately enjoying the warmth and coziness. until a very dishevelled joel appeared through the hallway.

“hey girls. um, ellie, can i speak to you for a second?” he looked at you, then diverted his eyes to ellie again “in private?”

“you can go to my room, baby” ellie shot joel a confused look “what’s up?”

“ellie, i… you know i appreciate your love for your girlfriend, i noticed your strong connection and all and, it is wonderful, and i am happy for you, but i think you should wait a bit. you need to have more life experiences and personal growth… building a foundation on your own will make your future together stronger, you know?” he rambled, pacing around the room.

“the fuck are you talking about, joel?”

“it’s just… look, ellie: marriage is a lifelong commitment. i’m not sure you’re ready for it. think this through, please”.

“marriage? who said anything about marriag- oh.” ellie couldn’t contain her giggles, that easily turned into a full belly laugh. “oh my god, joel! i didn’t propose, you dork! i was just kidding, jesus!” she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“oh… i was just looking outside and yeah. well, that’s… that’s good, yeah. um, sorry”

Little did any of you know that this would be a part of the funniest (and drunkest) wedding speech by Joel, and that you’d keep that weird rock forever

again, short but sweet :) thank u for aaaall the ideas you’ve given me!! i’ll work on them asap! 🤍

mwah!!!

[merakiui]

sk!manager!azul who offers to eat you out after you get very stressful from idol activities 😳😳😳😳

👁 👁 he gives you the whole "benefits of being sexually active as proven by science" spiel so you're more likely to agree. That, and it would be much harder to do this with just anyone or someone just as famous as yourself. No one has to know. This will be a secret between idol and manager. Even though you seem somewhat hesitant, he insists you'll feel better. Just let your manager soothe you. You're in capable hands. <3 he's so trustworthy! And hasn't he only ever wanted what's best for you?

Now his head is between your legs and he's lapping and suckling at your clit like an expert, working you open with two fingers. He alternates between fingers and mouth, and any reluctance you may have felt in the beginning quickly withers away. Within no time, you're burying your fingers in his hair and clamping your thighs together to keep him trapped there. He's removed his glasses so they won't get in the way, and every now and then the both of you meet each other's stare. You've never noticed just how beautiful his eyes are. So striking. So hypnotic,,, your brain is mush by your third orgasm, and you're panting and gasping, begging him to keep going. Not like he intends to stop. He's wanted this for years and now he finally has it. Of course he's going to be greedy!

You're not really listening to yourself when you ask him if he's dating or married. You never hear much about your manager's personal life even though he seems to know so much of yours. Azul hums against your slick cunt. Would you be upset if he was? Would you like to put a ring on him? Should he just propose to you now?

If only all of those loser fans of yours knew what you were getting up to right now. All of that nonsense about being a pure idol free of romantic entanglements and here you on squirting for him like the slutty idol you really are. :) you're just too cute. He wants you all to himself, and soon he'll have you. Soon the two of you will live a peaceful life in isolation. Somewhere quiet and slow by the sea. Doesn't that sound marvelous?

He's killed for you. Stalked you. Fucked into his hand while listening to the voicemails you'd leave him on his work phone: "Hi, Azul! Vil and I are thinking of doing a collab. Could you help me arrange something?" or "Azul, sorry for calling so late. I just remembered something important. Can you review my schedule with me again? I think I'm forgetting something you mentioned earlier today..." or "Would it look weird if I started studying to get my driver's license? Do you think that would get me in trouble? Actually, maybe we should just meet up and talk about it in person... Thanks anyways, Azul!"

You're just so perfect. Even these strictly professional voicemails are hailed as the sweetest songs. He's so depraved. Nothing like the composed, cordial manager he masquerades as. Would you hate him if you knew that? Would you look at him differently? Would you stop saying his name in that sweet, breathless voice of yours as he brings you to your end once more? Maybe it's best if you don't know. He's worked so hard to get to this point. It would be a shame to ruin things now.

Besides, what you don't know can't hurt you.

[artficlly]

a dish served cold (mini series - part two)

Wild West Marvel AU

outlaw!bucky x reader after the murder of your pa, you go on a journey to find justice. fate brings you to crimson junction for a reason, and that reason is bucky barnes. 

Warnings: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, sexual tension, guns, knives, violence, mention of death of a parent, mention of gambling, mention of sex work, creepy men, period typical attitudes, outlaw bucky, protective bucky, bucky has issues, mention of robbery & crimes, mention of police (law), mention of bounty hunters, mention of flooding & drought, no use of y/n, lmk if i've missed anything

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N: chapter two!! please let me know if you're enjoying this wild ride so far!! if you're enjoying the western au stuff i have two one-shots (me & the devil and king of pentacles) that you should check out!! they are linked on my main masterlist <3 if you'd like a tag list let me know. sorry for any typos - not proof read.

main masterlist | series masterlist

If the town of Crimson Junction had thought the pack of unruly travellers had reached their peak of restlessness, they were sorely wrong. The locals were now truly at their wits end. Two afternoons had passed, and chaos had descended. Men turned to drink to quell their boredom and sin followed as it always did. Brawls had broke out in mass, the hotel in ruins as rooms were used as makeshift whorehouses and gambling dens. You were kept up all night as the screaming, laughter, and moaning ensued around you. Violence, indulgence, and wickedness ran rampant through the streets. You had grown to expect nothing less of the once sleepy town. 

The noise did not particularly bother you. You were kept up most nights regardless, tossing and turning at the thought of Barnes. Your dreams would replay the scene from the saloon, a moving picture beneath your eyelids. In your dream, you would beam at him, fluttering your eyelashes, while the outlaw watched on with his cold, blue eyes. He would stalk towards you, his callused hand stroking down your cheek. The dream you would lean into his touch, nuzzling his palm. Then he would wrap his hand around your throat, gripping you tightly. You would struggle, breathlessly clawing at him. His expression would be blank. Unphased.

You would awake, drenched in a cold sweat as breathless as in the dream. 

Even when you were awake, you’d think of him still. His visage was so clear in your mind that it drove you to near insanity. He clung to you like smoke, your thoughts utterly consumed by him. You’d recall how his knuckles grew white or how his jaw clenched. You’d stare up at the ceiling, watching the sun rise and fall. You’d trace the patterns on the wallpaper and the creases on the sheets. 

In the room beside you, the bed would squeak and bang. The force was so powerful and loud that the walls shook. Your hands would ghost across your bare skin, along your thighs, waist, and collarbone. Still, you’d think of him, Barnes. How long had he plagued your thoughts and your life? How long would he haunt you still? Was he the ghost, or were you? Permanently intertwined never to know a day of peace until your work was done. 

The next time your mind wandered to him, your finger tracing the contour of your lower lip, you bit down hard on that finger until you swore you could taste blood. 

—

When the news of a meeting made the rounds, you were relieved. The flowery wallpaper in your room was growing rather nauseating to stare at. A break from your slow spiral into lunacy was welcome news. Fresh air, you decided, would do you well, even if a rather suffocating and sticky heat had descended upon the canyons now that the rains had passed. 

The mud had begun to dry in the midday sun, a thick skin developing and some sections cracking. The dry weather was a good omen for once. You didn’t think Crimson Junction had ever prayed for the sun to return. The pastor announced that the roads were predicted to be cleared by the end of the week, and the entire crowd breathed a sigh of relief. You couldn’t help but think it was the most civil you had seen them in your short stay. Maybe it was that natural reaction of fearing God and therefore his preachers. Though, after all you had witnessed, you were surprised the small town even had a church. It was even stranger that it seemed Crimson Junction was led by one, as there was no other authority present.

Not even a sheriff's office. 

That did seem rather convenient. 

The pastor spoke of his gratitude for the travellers patience and his admiration for the workers and survivors. You did not find his words particularly interesting, no matter how heartfelt they were. You had spent countless Sundays in church; it was instilled within you to zone out at the droning words of a preacher. You had been a good girl, yes, but never a good Christian. Hands tightly clasped together and chin high, your eyes had remained locked onto the back of a familiar head. 

Barnes stood mingled within the crowd; you could see him well from your vantage point on the wooden porch of the general store. You stood alongside the other ladies who didn’t want to join the men crowded in the mud. You couldn’t help but notice how Barnes also did not seem to care for heartfelt speeches; instead, his attention was swayed away. You might have thought him to be bored of pastors and the almighty house of God, but you watched as his head repeatedly tilted in the direction of a small group of men who were huddled in front of an alley. The longer you watched the outlaw eye these men, the more you realised that the group of men eyed him back in return. 

The men looked intimidating, dressed in black, and armed to the teeth. Well-polished guns were slung over their backs, bandoliers over their chests, and hair slicked back as they snickered between each other in a cloud of smoke. Their grins were vicious, bearing their teeth like wild dogs. 

As the crowd dispersed, you moved with it. Through the layers of bodies, you watched as Barnes quietly dipped away in the direction of the stables and away from the group of men. He viewed them as a threat. Your curiosity peaked. The outlaw had always presented himself as untouchable, stone-like…an unmoveable force. It had never occurred to you that the most dangerous predator in the room might be prey to something bigger. 

As soon as you were sure that there was enough distance, you followed the smoke quietly and discreetly, listening to their distant conversation. The pack of men paused around the corner of the alley, half standing in the street. The rough stone wall snagged against your clothing as you pressed your back flush against the surface. You inched closer to the end of the alley, your ears perking as you listened closely.

“I reckon he’ll be headed further west, tryna disappear into the desert.” One man spoke.

“How ya know he ain’t goin’ up north to join up with that buddy o’ his?” Said another.

“Nah, last I heard, he was doubling back east to throw off the scent.”

Your brows furrowed at their words, and you sucked in a sharp breath. A part of you was paranoid that the men might hear your breathing, or perhaps even your thundering heart. Your nails dug into the wall, the stone indenting into your palms. Were they foolish enough to publicly speak their plans, unaware of how their voices carried? That indicated arrogance. Bigger fish, indeed. 

Your moment of thought was short-lived.

There was a slight rustle in your left ear, a shift in the air. With quick and calculated hands, you shifted your weight, your hand darting to your boot like a viper striking flesh. Within a split second, you had a small blade in your palm, the metal angled to harm as you drove it forward. The man next to you had no time to react, instead freezing in place as you pressed the blade against his throat. 

It took a few seconds for the two of you to process, your eyebrows knitting into a frown as you realised who had slid up beside you. Barnes. When had he sneaked up behind you? 

“Woah there, darlin’.” The outlaw grumbled lowly, lifting his hands in surrender. You held steady, scanning his face as you calculated your next move. You were a fool to think the outlaw would not notice you. A supposed simple girl and bride-to-be should not be stalking a group of dangerous individuals. It did raise the question of how long he had been watching you and assessing your character. Had he grown suspicious so easily after all the precautions and lies? 

“Apologies. You startled me.” You slipped back, taking a large step within eyesight of the street. The group of men had now walked away, a cloud of smoke in tow. You watched as they sauntered into the saloon. Releasing a sharp breath and relaxing your shoulders, you straightened your spine. Giving Bucky a convincing smile, you acted as if nothing had happened. 

“I can see that. And I can see ya weren’t jokin’ about bein’ able to handle yerself in these parts.” The outlaw huffed, his hands lowering, and his fingers twitched around his belt line. Monitoring him warily, you were ready to react to the slightest indication that he might draw. “But I’m beginnin’ to think ya weren’t too forthcomin’ about who ya really are in the saloon the other night.”

You angle your head at him, jaw tightening. You hoped you hadn’t wasted weeks of travel and planning for it all to be thrown away due to your misguised decision to play investigator. Your fist squeezed around your blade then, nostrils flaring as you allowed an intrusive, violent thought to flicker through your mind. This place, this evil place, and it’s vile people were already beginning to corrupt you. With a sigh, you tuck the knife back into your boot. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business, Mister.”

With your knife visibly out of sight, Barnes relaxes a little. His gaze swept over you, inspecting every detail of your outfit, before finally resting on your face. "Nah, it’s not… Just… don’t know why you’d be lookin’ to pick a fight with a group’a men like that.”

You viewed those men as competition, but you knew Barnes would not like your answer. So, you held your tongue, lifting your skirts as you turned to leave. The wooden boards squelched under your weight as you stepped further into the street. You’d never thought you would have missed the sand and dust, but you were beginning to find that you much preferred it to mud. 

“Y’know, if you’ve got a price on yer head… and I ain’t sayin’ you got one but rather… a hypothetical, if I may. If you were runnin’ from something, I wouldn’t be worryin’ about those boys back there. They're lookin’ for bigger fish to fry than yerself. I suspect they would not take a second look in yer direction, ‘least not all dressed up like a proper lady like you is. You had me fooled, that’s for sure.” 

Just as you had suspected. No wonder he had turned tail at the sight of them. You glanced over at him, observing as he kept up pace with you as you walked towards the hotel. “And what would you know of bounty hunters, Mr. Clark?”

He perked up at your words and let out a low whistle. “Best I not tell you, Miss.”

You smiled at that, then caught yourself. And idiot you were to find him somewhat charming, and an idiot you would continue to be if you were distracted. 

“Where’d a lady like yerself learn to arm herself with a knife?” Barnes seemed unnerved by your silence, instead filling it with a question. Uncharacteristic of him, at least from what you had interpreted from his nature so far. A change from his attitude in the saloon, that was for sure. 

“My Pa taught me,” you hummed in response. You couldn’t help but let a small, warm smile cross your lips at the thought of him. He had been a hardy man, always covered in sweat and ash. Still, the two of you had been close. He had always shown you respect and kindness, no matter your differences. “He and my Ma, well, they raised me to be a wife. My Ma wanted to set me up for a good life and hoped I would marry well.”

Your eyes cast over to the outlaw, who still followed your lead down the sunken street. He was enraptured by your words; his icy eyes locked onto your side profile. You continued your story, smile still tugging at the corners of your lips. “It was always about holdin’ one's posture straight, being charmin’ and pleasin’ to the eye. Cookin’, sewin’, washin’ and all that. My Pa, he said it was all well and good that I could balance books on my head while descendin’ a set of stairs or tap out a melody on a pianoforte, but it could only get one so far in life. Much to my Ma's horror, he taught me to handle a knife and guns too.”

Barnes was quiet, running his tongue over his bottom lip. You found yourself wondering if he had caring parents or if they had been strict and cruel. Were they still alive? Did they weep within every time they saw his face plastered on a bounty board? 

“Why ain’t your daddy escortin’ you now?” The outlaw finally spoke up, a cruel snip to his tone. 

Your eyes darted away from him, and your smile was replaced by a frown. “He’s dead.”

His steps falter, as if momentarily taken aback. 

“Oh–” is all he manages, stumbling over his words. His brows furrow. “I–I’m–”

“He was shot.” You cut over him. Taking a sharp, deep breath, you turn your head to look at him fully. You offer him a sympathetic look, then catch yourself. As if he were the one who needed comforting. “He was a blacksmith. I have no other male relatives, and of course my Ma and I can’t do the work to run the business.”

“That’s why yer marryin’.” Barnes states, his voice sounds thick and he is unable to catch your eye. There was a sense of guilt that seemed to engulf his very being, as if your story momentarily summoned old ghosts. Haunted. 

You were glad to see him squirm. 

“Yes.” You reply, shoulders lifting in a weak shrug. “We sold the forge, but we can’t access the money. My savings—our savings—will be for my husband to handle once we are married. I will send funds back to my Ma, and all will be well again.”

“I’m sorry.” The outlaw offers, brows still drawn inward, crowsfeet etched into his skin. “That’s hard.”

You tilt your head in contemplation, then offer a simple reply. “That’s life.”

It was strange to think how easy it was to pretend you were comfortable with your position. That would had simply… come to terms with your new life. It was easy to put on a play and show the world what they wanted. A woman in complete control, despite the misfortune that had followed her. 

The outlaw was right to feel unnerved by your casual disposition, because deep down, grief and rage boiled within you.

Pausing at a gap in the wooden boards, you raised your skirts in order to cross. Before you could walk into the mud, Barnes had circled around you. He offers a calloused hand, which you hesitantly took. With a strange gentleness to his grip, he guides you across the small gap onto the next row of wooden boards. 

“Well, I hope they find the bastard who shot him.” He offers. 

You almost laugh at the irony. Your head dips to hide the amused expression that slips past, strands of hair falling across your face. Barnes seems to interpret your actions as sorrow, as if the mention of your father had left you overcome with emotions. You do not protest as he shamefully leads you directly to the hotel porch, pausing to escort you up the slippery steps. 

“I hope so too.” You finally reply, your voice low, and drop his hand. Stepping into the hotel, you do not allow him time to speak another word.

—

A gentleman outlaw, or maybe he was an outlaw who happened to be a gentleman. You pondered this for a while as the heat beat down, leaving a thin layer of sweat across your body. Your horse swayed beneath you, hooves steady, as she navigated the desert terrain with ease. She was a piece of home; melancholy would linger in your gut whenever you breathed in her scent. Your fingers twisted through the mare’s mane, lacing together like a tightly woven braid. It was a problem to weigh, for sure. Could a gentleman be an outlaw? And what defines a gentleman? You knew of many supposed gentlemen who fell pray to indulgence, too many drinks, whores, and gambling. Gentlemen who reeked of desperation, sullen and shallow creatures. You had known gentlemen to be cruel, to be kind, to be ignorant, or even to be fools. In your mind, you could see no difference between a gentleman and an outlaw, because both could be evil as equally as they could be kind. 

Barnes had shown you kindness, yet he was a killer. He was an outlaw; that was printed as a fact, but could he be a gentleman too? You had always been taught to believe things in the world worked a certain way, ticking perfectly on time like a clock. Every second, the world would bring good things to good people and rain wrath upon those who sinned. But that illusion had been shattered many months ago when you were thrown into the world of men, unprotected and blind. Outlaw and gentleman, one in the same. It worried you.  

You had travelled no more than five miles from Crimson Juction before dismounting your horse. 

The roads had opened up early in the morning, giving you time to gather supplies, saddle your horse, and leave town unbothered. Your remaining time in the small crossroads town had been without event, sticking to your rooms and steering clear of drunk men and dangerous outlaws. Sometimes you sat at your window, watching the town move on with their days below you. You told yourself it was entertainment, a form of people watching, not a pathetic attempt to catch a glimpse of the dark-haired and broad-chested outlaw. 

You ran a hand across your mare's chestnut coat, leaning down as you traced your hand down to her fetlock. You squeezed her leg, clicking your tongue as a quick instruction for her to lift her hoof. You placed it solidly between your thighs, pushing your skirts out of the way. Blowing a loose strand of hair from your face, you squinted down at the dirt-packed hoof. Your index finger traced the metal shoe with your finger, feeling each divet of the nails.

The crunch of rock was what alerted you to his presence first, whipping your head around to see Barnes atop his horse, armed with one of his distant looks. You smiled and pretended to look pleasantly surprised, wondering if he truly believed you had not noticed him tailing you for the past two miles. Dropping the hoof, you praised your mare with a quick pat on her muscled shoulder. 

“Have you come to be my knight in shinin’ armour again?” You asked the outlaw, raising a hand to your brow, blocking the light from the sun. 

“Depends.” Barnes grunted, sliding from his saddle. “Somethin’ wrong with yer horse?”

You sigh, rubbing the sweat from your forehead. You twist around to look back at your mare, your skirts twirling around you as you motion towards her hoof. “She was limpin’, poor girl. I think her shoe is loose.”

“I can take a look, if’chu want?” Bucky offered. He was still as foreboding as you had remembered, his stature taller than and his build wider. The sleeves of his buttoned-up shirt were rolled up to the elbow, revealing toned forearms kissed by the sun. 

“Oh. Could you? I would be grateful.” Your hand comes to rest on your chest, and the outlaw grunts with a shrug. You step out of his way as he advances towards your mare, whispering to her quietly as he takes her hoof in his large palms to inspect. 

You watch him, wondering if he was blinded by the sun or simply by you. He hadn’t once stopped to ask questions before putting himself in such a vunrable position, nor did his eyes drift towards the rifle tucked neatly into your saddle. How funny it was that he did not enquire why you were travelling alone on horseback, when mere days before you had told him your husband-to-be had paid for your safe arrival by coach. 

“I don’t think there's anythin’ wrong with the shoe. Maybe there's a rock or somethin’ under all that dirt.” He mused and pressed his thumbs inward to see if your mare jerked in reaction. Still, not once did he look up, and not once did he question his safety. He did not seem to notice as you silently slid up besides your mare, tugging the rifle from the saddle.

You held your breath as you circled back around, the wooden stock of the gun placed firmly against your shoulder as you aimed the barrel at his head. 

“Are yer sure she was limpin’? Maybe it’s the other side.” The outlaw muses, engrossed in his own thoughts.

“You could check if you like, Mr. Barnes.” You reply, your voice as sweet as ever. 

It takes him a moment to click. He shakes his head, then freezes. “I ain’t never said my name was Barnes.”

You hold steady, digging your boots into the soil as Bucky slowly straightens up. His back faces you, and you can picture his muscled back beneath. Somehow the outlaw appeared more foreboding while collected and calm. He gradually turned. Maybe he had made himself smaller in your previous meetings so as not to scare you. Your heart thumped wildly, sweat slicking along your palms. He met your gaze, careful and slow, as his body faced you, hands raised in a quiet surrender. 

You had to pray you weren’t being overconfident in your approach, or this could go very badly. 

“I knew your name long before we met.” Your hands remained still, and the gun remained aimed. You observe him through the sights as he arches an eyebrow. 

“Did I do somethin’ to you?” There was an unexpected anguish in his voice that hit you solidly in the gut. Your jaw clenches and your teeth grit as you remain silent. You had practiced this moment in your mind countless times, orchestrating your every movement and perfectly articulating your feelings and your story. But your jaw remained wired shut, any plans thwarted, because you were horrified to find you were teetering on the edge of sobbing. 

“You know, I thought we was startin’ to become friends.” He speaks up once more, daring to take a step forward. You hiss through your teeth, striding towards him to ram the barrel into his chest.

“Drop your guns. Slowly.” You instruct. 

There is a long instant of silence between the two of you, only the slight howl of the wind through the vast rock canyons. His movements slowed once more, and his hands hesitantly dropped to his belt. Your finger ghosts over the trigger as he carefully removes his guns, dropping them to the ground with a soft thud. 

With one sweep of your foot, you kick the two pistols away, backing off a few paces. With a tut, you motion for him to step further away from the horses. He turns away from you, walking in the direction you indicated. With a sigh, he speaks up, cutting through the tense silence. “We can talk about this, ya know. Before you go puttin’ a bullet in me, sweetheart.” 

You glare at him before huffing. “Get on the ground, lay on your stomach or I’ll shoot.” 

Only as his body lay flat on the ground did you drop your aim. Still eyeing him, you back up towards your horse and grab the rope looped around the horn of your saddle. Your heartbeat nearly deafened you as you fumbled with the length, nerves beginning to show. You didn’t know what he made of you or what he thought you were. But now there were real stakes at hand—no opportunities to mess up. 

Perhaps you were too preoccupied by those thoughts, or maybe your pulse had truly made you deaf. You didn’t notice the cloud of dust or the pounding of hooves until it was too late. 

Abandoning the rope, you gripped your rifle once more, aiming it at the small group of men who had appeared from the canyons. Chest heaving, you watched as the leader smiled, his slicked-back hair obscured beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Spitting on the ground, he looked between you and Barnes, who remained on the ground, but his head was turned to watch. 

“Good catch, Miss. Too bad I’m gonna have to take him off yer hands.” 

PART THREE

[marsmarauders]

folklore (Marauder's Version)

Welcome back to another episode of Mo and Marls going insane :) @idkjustlemmedrownlikerab and I overanalyzed every single song on folklore… (the BEST Taylor Swift album, no discussion).

Also, we first discussed this one like a month ago and I didn't take very detailed notes, so if I missed anything Mo, let me know!

Sorry, it took a bit longer for this one to come out… I’m trying my best here. 😭

Let’s get into it, shall we?

the 1

So we all know how James changed, right? Like how he grew out of the bullying and mistreatment? I think part of that maturity came from Jegulus. The experience of being in a relationship with someone who is the complete and utter opposite of you would probably take a lot of emotional maturity. (And immaturity, hence why he left him when he did). And obviously, Regulus would not have betrayed Voldomort if he hadn’t first gone through the worst of it all. If it was all sunshine and rainbows being a death eater, why on earth would he have changed his mind? Like the song says, they never would’ve matured and grown if it weren’t for the fallout of their relationship.

“And if you wanted me, you really should've showed. And if you never bleed, you're never gonna grow.”

“To kiss in cars, and downtown bars was all we needed. You drew stars around my scars, but now I’m bleeding.”

cardigan

Yeah, I know the cliche. That’s literally the most quoted Wolfstar coded song lyric in the history of Taylor Swift songs, so instead, let me bring up verse 3.

This part of the song perfectly encapsulates how I think Remus felt after October 31st, 1981. Sirius would always be there in the back of his mind, whether it be the ghost of his slips or the scent of smoke. Even though he didn’t want to feel that way about Sirius anymore, considering the weight of the crimes that Sirius had supposedly committed, he still felt that way because the younger him was insistent that Sirius was the one. And some part of him knew that even though destiny fought against them, they’d end up together again. (Not for long- cough).

“But I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss. I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs. The smell of smoke would hang around this long. 'Cause I knew everything when I was young. I knew I'd curse you for the longest time. Chasin' shadows in the grocery line. I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired. And you'd be standin' in my front porch light. And I knew you'd come back to me.”

“Who knows, if I never showed up, what could've been. There goes the loudest person this town has ever seen. I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

the last great american dynasty

So first off, let’s completely ignore the word American in this scenario. Second off, my interpretation is different from the actual meaning of the song. Instead of blaming women from a sexist point of view, I’m instead using the motif that everyone was (rightfully) blaming the death eaters for the war. Does that make sense? Okay.

So when Mo first brought up the idea that this song was about Regulus, it took me a minute to understand where she was coming from (Not because it was a bad idea, not at all. This is just not my particular favorite song off of folklore). But the fact that one of the lyrics is “there goes the maddest women (person in this case) this town has ever seen, really sold it for me.

We may all argue that Barty was the maddest of all the death eaters, considering the lengths he went for Voldemort, but up until the betrayal, Regulus was literally the #1 Voldemort stan. He was mad. If he’d never “shown up,” yeah, some things might’ve been better. But to figure out the Horcruxs, he kind of had to go down that path. So in the final chorus, I honestly think it’s Regulus, 6 feet under, mocking everyone who hated him, because without him, Voldemort would’ve never been defeated.

“I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending.”

exile

This song is the dynamic I picture Wolfstar having after reuniting. Not in the shrieking shack, but outside of school. There were two conflicting sides to the story, but both left them in shambles. And now that they know the truth, they’re too scared to risk it again. Because what’s the point of trying again if they’re only going to die in the end?

The bridge gets this point across perfectly. When Taylor echos Justin’s singing with a second perspective of the story, that captures Sirius and Remus perfectly. Because from Remus’s perspective, Sirius didn’t give him any kind of heads up that he thought Remus himself to be the traitor. Sirius never gave him the time of day to hear him out! But obviously, Sirius tried giving signs, such as 1: keeping the Potter’s secret keeper extremely confidential to the point that he wouldn’t even tell his partner and 2: arguing with Remus about where he was at night. But how could Remus have known that? He couldn’t read Sirius’s mind! They were falling so quickly that there was no way to stop it.

Now that they know the truth, however, they’re learning to forgive each other and move past it. But how can they when they’re just as in love with each other as they were before? Why would they risk it all if it could disappear all the same? They knew how this movie ended, why would they watch it again?

“And I can go anywhere I want. Anywhere I want, just not home.”

my tears ricochet

This song is Sirius to many people all at once, so let me break it down a little.

The majority of the song is Sirius to the people who believed him to be the spy. To have killed his best friends. The fact that he was never given a chance to explain himself and was just locked up; he’s feeling a lot of resentment. Sirius wants to know why on earth they care so much about it when he was “suppoedly” the one to have destroyed everything. Why is the focus on him? Why aren’t they focused on James or Lily or Marlene or Dorcas or the people who died in the war? If he’s dead to them, then why do they act like he exists?

The bridge is him towards Regulus. Regulus died, for reasons that Sirius will probably never know. He talks to the Regulus star, because it’s all he has left, even though he left him years ago. He probably wonders if Regulus saved himself from ending up like Sirius. He probably wonders if Regulus was right. Not about pureblood supremacy, but about keeping quiet and leaving it be.

I think the last chorus is Sirius towards Peter. Throwing Sirius under the bus will only disadvantage Peter in the long run. Why would you willingly stay a rat for 13 years?

"I'm a mirrorball. I can change everything about me to fit in. You are not like the regulars. The masquerade revelers. Drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten."

mirrorball

Mirrorball was a little tricky at first cause it's just kind of ✨ominous manipulation✨ to be quite honest and at first, I think Mo was thinking Sirius? But then I kind of looked deeper into the lyrics that I listed above and was like "Hear me out… It's Peter's internal monologue convincing himself into becoming a death eater." and we were both like "Woah."

seven

"Sweet tea in the summer, cross my heart won't tell no other."

So, I think we can all come to the agreement that from the bridge to the end of the song, it's James talking to Sirius. This kind of pure, compassionate, and beautiful friendship is such a special part of this fandom. They had such a special bond and I think that they're basically the definition of "Chosen Family."

However, the more I think about it, I think that everything from before the bridge is incredibly Regulus and Pandora coded. The difference between the Black Brother's closest friendships and how that kind of influenced their decisions. James gave Sirius a safe space, whereas Pandora was Regulus's safe space. Do you understand what I'm getting at?

august

So, I haven’t read ATYD but I know the basic concept of who Grant Chapman is and what he did and all that, and Mo was very insistent on this song being Grant, and I completely agree.

“So much for summer love and saying “us,” cause you weren’t mine to lose.”

Grant was a stand-in for Sirius in some way. I think both he and Remus knew that, but Grant fell for Remus, he couldn’t help it! And he knew Remus loved him, but he wasn’t Sirius and he’d never be Sirius. But that doesn’t make it any less bittersweet for Grant, knowing that Remus is happier off with Sirius. In the same way that Jegulus was necessary for James’s character growth, Grant was necessary for Remus’s.

this is me trying

So I was certain this was Black Brothers and Mo was certain this was Regulus, so I’m gonna mix them. In the bridge specifically, I can see Regulus longing for Sirius after he left. The parties? The weird pureblood cult meetings his family had. It was hard for Regulus to even walk around their house because it was not the same without Sirius. The “one screen in his town” is Sirius being Regulus’s only escape. (Cause you watch movies on a screen? And movies tend to be an escape from reality? Look at me. I’m smart). And Regulus is also struggling with this internal battle because if he leaves, he’ll put himself and Sirius in danger, but if he stays, he’ll have to do things he knows deep down in his heart he doesn’t want to do. This is him trying.

“And it's hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound. It's hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you. You're a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town.”

“It's born from just one single glance. But it dies and it dies and it dies a million little times.”

illicit affairs

Okay, before I get into this song, I want to clarify that we’re not implying that any of these characters were unfaithful.

There’s a difference between an affair (long- term cheating) and an affair (a pastime experience). I’m not the kind of person to promote cheating or adultery in my stories, because I think it’s such a frustrating topic to discuss. I wouldn’t ship people who went out of their way to hurt their partners. That being said, the word “affair” here is being used in the same way the words “event” or “incident” would. Obviously the word “illicit” means forbidden, so our interpretation of “illicit affairs” is just a “secret relationship.”

I think you might understand who I’m getting at here… if you guessed Jegulus, you’d be correct! James and Regulus were a secret, but not in the way you think. Their friends knew, Sirius knew, James’s parents probably knew, but Regulus’s family could not know. No one outside of their circle could know. (Reminds me of another Taylor Swift lyric. “You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath.” James kept Regulus as a secret, only because Regulus wanted him to, but Regulus held on to James like he was his life support). It was almost as if they were having an affair, and like most affairs, they die.

Also, the bridge; lets discuss.

The first part of the bridge is James to Regulus. James was a mess after leaving Regulus because he couldn’t fix him. He couldn’t help him. (Well actually, he might’ve been able to but he left when Regulus needed him the most so-) The “colors” that Regulus showed him were 1: that the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, 2: that James cannot fix everything, and 3: the maturity that James gained from their relationship.

“And you wanna scream don't call me "kid," don't call me "baby.” Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me. You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else.”

Again, Regulus was ripped to shreds after their break up, and he made some really foolish choices afterwards. The so-called “secret language” that James taught him, was vulnerability. Sure, he can talk about things with Barty or Evan, but with James he wasn’t expected to pull himself together. He could just exist with James and everything would be fine. Until it wasn’t.

“Don't call me "kid," don't call me "baby.” Look at this idiotic fool that you made me. You taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else.”

“A string that pulled me. Out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar. Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire. Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons. One single thread of gold tied me to you”

invisble string

This one was tough, because there are so many couples that start out as these wholesome, pure, lovely relationships, but we quickly vetoed most of them.

Wolfstar: This song is literally about the concept of destiny and fate, and although Sirius and Remus were quite literally meant to be together, destiny kept pulling them apart.

Jily: I guess Jily are also quite literally the definition of fate, considering their matching patroni, the prophecy, etc. But Jily is also quite literally the definition of slow-burn, so again, this song doesn’t fit them.

Rosekiller: I guess you could argue they were fate, but they’re way too angsty.

Dorlene: Again, soulmates but way too angsty + they were rivals at the start.

This is where I came to the realization that every single couple in this fandom ends in tragic death… but then I thought about it some more.

Xenophilius and Pandora- JUST LET ME FINISH.

Yes, I am well aware that Pandora dies, but from what we know in canon, it was a freak accident. She wasn’t murdered like Marlene, Dorcas, the Potters, technically Evan, and Sirius (Yes, even if Sirius hadn’t fallen into the veil, he would’ve died). She didn’t risk her life like Regulus and Remus. She wasn’t driven to insanity like the Longbottoms and Barty (by the dementors kiss) She was experimenting, something she loved to do. She probably died happy for all we know!

I also think Pandora was probably esoteric (she believed in crystals, chakras, astrology, etc), so I think she also might’ve believed in fate. And considering the fact that Xenophilius and her relationship was so perfect, they probably were fate. They were classic friends to lovers, and they had the happiest ending out of all the marauders. Pandora was able to raise her daughter until she was nine, more than Lily and James ever got to do, and Xenophilius continued to raise Luna even after she died. (Yes, I’m aware he technically betrayed Harry, however we know he was a good person at heart and that prior to the Battle of Hogwarts, he openly supported Harry. The death eaters had kidnapped his daughter, I honestly don’t blame him that much.

Oh and also, Xenophilius was probably her only friend during her 7th year, considering 1: the older marauders had all graduated and 2: the pantheon’s falling out, so that’s why I used the lyrics I chose!

mad woman

For Mo, this song is blatantly Pandora, and for me it’s Dorcas. But, (again) it’s been a while since we discussed this, so I have a new narrative I’d like to propose to you. (Because we both had the same concept, just different characters.)

“Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill and you know I will.”

It’s both of them, from the perspective of Barty, Evan, and Regulus. They call them “mad women” because they don’t agree with their pureblood ideologies and want to be death eaters. The lyric “Everytime you call me crazy, I get more crazy,” feels like something Evan would think after all his fights with his sister. The lyric “It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together,” seems like something Regulus would think. Obviously, I don’t think Pandora and Dorcas wanted him dead (considering the fact that Pandora definitely checked in on Regulus from time to time), but they wanted the bad part of him gone. And since they both left the rest of the Pantheon, that would’ve resulted in them growing closer.

And I guess in a way, they both went mad, but it’s up to your imagination. Dorcas went mad because she literally tried to go after the people who killed her girlfriend. And Pandora went mad because (if you headcanon this) she died trying to help Regulus destroy a horcrux.

If there was a song that played during a slow-motion montage of October 31st, 1981 the second Sirius finds out about the death and rushes over to the Potters, this would be it. It’s Sirius seeing his best friends lifeless body. The lyrics “With you I serve, with you I fall down,” symbolizes the way that when James “fell” (died), Sirius also “fell,” (falsely-accused) and even though it was unintentional, they went down together. Sirius felt like it was his fault. He switched the secret keeper and if only he’d trusted Remus enough, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.

Epiphany

“And some things you just can't speak about.”

"In the garden, would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing? I'm only 17, I don't know anything, but I know I miss you."

betty

Again, I'm using the concept of the "affair" love story in folklore as instead the story of a secret relationship, so no adultery was committed in the making of this post. 💀

Basically, I think this song is James's guilt when he's falling for Lily all over again, but he's still not completely over Regulus. (Of course, he and Regulus are dead and gone at this point, but it still lingers).

It's him thinking through what he would tell Lily if she ever asked him if he still loved Regulus. (I don't think Lily would've cared personally, lol).

Also in my mind I think this song has to be from James's perspective, solely because of the lyric "She said "James get in!" (I'm now literally realizing that that line is mentioning how he fell into the affair… well that ruins everything… scrap that idea).

Regulus and him were kind of an affair in the way that it was never meant to last. And also, while James may not have had feelings for Lily at that very moment, it was obvious that James was in love with both Regulus and Lily. (Again- no cheating).

I don't know, Betty's kind of a tough one.

peace

This song is about Jily. Lily finding peace in the friendship she has with James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Marlene, Mary, everyone now that she's away from Severus. But she also knows there will never fully be peace with them, because of her blood status.

"Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other. Family I chose now that I see your brother as my brother."

And she wants to know if she's enough for James, even though she knows he's knee deep in love with her, but she gets worried because what if they die? What if they don't get to live the life they'd always dreamed of living? No matter how wonderful their life may seem together, she knows that there's always darkness around the corner, and she wonders if it's because of her.

hoax

This song is how Remus feels knowing that the person he trusted the most in life with his deepest and darkest secrets was supposedly worthy of commiting a crime just as dark. That's it. Don't have much else to say here 😭

"You knew it still hurts underneath my scars when they pulled me apart but what you did was just as dark."

the lakes

If this song isn't Regulus Black, then we don't know what is.

"Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die."

~

Okay wow that was a long one! If you made it this far, thank you!! Make sure to look out for Lover, coming soon to a theater near you!!!

[nickfowlerrr]

Pwyc-valentine Drabble idea - reader works hard to do a cute vday eve for bucky after he’s been at work, she’s making him dinner/baking/wear his fave lingerie 😜 - she starts by hanging a cute banner in living room but the ladder falls and she can’t get down, dangling from the curtain rail until he gets home. The dinner burns and she’s upset that plans are ruined by time bucky comes- he’s charmed/amused to find her hanging and teases her and tells her it’s still perfect anyway

it's brighter now

pairing: pwyc!bucky x curvy!reader

warnings: 18+ only. no explicit smut. it's pretty fluffy. uhm engagement? i can't think rn sorry lol - if there's anything that should be tagged pls let me know.

words: 3k

notes: LOL this is so funny! i honestly don't see how it'd be possible for reader to hang onto a curtain railing for an extended period of time though hahaha so i kinda changed this idea a bit, i hope you don't mind! thank you for sending this in! <3

You pulled at the strap of the black lace set you'd ordered in preparation for today, adjusting it so it held your breasts up nicely before glancing to the clock to check the time.

Bucky should be home soon. Dinner was in the oven, his gift - along with a box of his favorite chocolates - left on the table, while you finished getting ready upstairs. All you had left to do was put up some of the decorations you'd picked up last night while you were shopping. Checking your reflection one last time in the mirror, making sure your lipstick looked right and your eyeliner wasn't smudging more than you intended, you smiled to yourself. This was gonna be good, it'd be a good night.

Some may say you were doing too much, and in all honesty, maybe you were, but you didn't care. Bucky was still a little... touchy about the whole not telling your family about him thing and you wanted to try and make it up to him, as trivial as this attempt might be. You wouldn't say things were tense between you, not in the slightest, but you could tell when certain things came up the shift in his attitude and demeanor. You had hurt him, and you knew it. You felt awful every time you thought about it, which was a lot this past month.

His Christmas Eve proposal had been met less than completely enthusiastic by you and though you had talked it out and come to the conclusion that you just needed time before you wanted to take things to the inevitable next stage, he was still clearly let down. So, two weeks later when he'd found out you never told your family about you and him, it was just another punch to the gut for him.

You'd spent the last month doing a lot of late night talking with him, working through things, trying to communicate your feelings to each other openly. It wasn't the easiest, you were both stubborn and hated taking blame for things you didn't feel you needed to, but once you set your egos aside and really listened to each other, there was a better understanding of where you both stood.

Though you'd apologized multiple times already, you still wanted to try and make things right, show him how much you loved him. Valentine's Day was coming up so you decided to plan the perfect night. Everything was going according to plan, and you couldn't wait for him to get home.

You were almost surprised yourself with how giddy you were. Before heading back downstairs, there was just one more thing you needed to do. Walking over to the dresser that your intimates were in, you pulled open the drawer, moving around your carefully folded sets until you felt the little black box you kept in there. You felt your heart racing and butterflies in your stomach as you stared at it. You'd thought long and hard about this decision from the moment he had asked you and now just felt right. You carefully opened the small box and once again your breath caught at the beauty of the ring he had picked for you. Carefully removing it from its rest, you gently slid the ring onto your ring finger, marveling at the way it glimmered in the light and exhaling delicately as you took in just how right it felt to have on. The beeping of the oven startled you, pulling you from your thoughts and had you suddenly racing down the stairs, making a beeline for the kitchen.

You stopped the timer as it blared and opened the door of the oven, frowning when you saw the food wasn't even done yet. You made a mental note to check it again in five minutes and hoped it'd be ready before Bucky got home.

Spotting the decorations you'd left on the counter, you grabbed them and hurried to get them up. You bought a cute heart banner that you wanted to hand in the entryway between the living room and kitchen but realized you would need to get the step ladder if you wanted any chance of reaching where you wanted it to go.

Carrying it in from the garage, you set it up right under the frame. You paused when it was wobbly as you stepped up, but convinced yourself it was fine, that's what ladders do, right? You had two tacks in one hand and the end of the banner in the other as you stepped up to the top of the ladder. You had to use nearly all your force to get the first tac in and squeaked a bit when the ladder threatened to topple from under you. You stilled as you caught your breath, quickly securing the one end of the banner up on the tac before leaning over to push the second one into the wall. As you forced the tac in, you heard the front door opening, the sound startling you as you hadn't even heard Bucky's car pull up. As you jolted a bit at the sound, the ladder shifted again under you but didn't settle this time as it essentially collapsed beneath you. You yelped again, louder this time as your eyes squeezed shut and you mentally prepared yourself for hitting, not only the floor, but the broken ladder beneath you.

You realized after a perilous second that you hadn't fallen, and suddenly became aware of the strong arms holding you bridal style. You opened your eyes and looked up at Bucky, your mouth parted slightly as your doe eyes looked into his. Fuck, you thought, his reactions and reflexes were always so startlingly fast.

"Hi," you breathed.

"Hi," he echoed, "What the fuck are you doing?" he asked staring down at you in concern and near bewilderment.

"I was trying to put up decorations," you said looking over at the banner half held up by the first tac you'd gotten in.

Bucky sniffed the air, his brows furrowing as he sniffed again. "What is that?"

"What's what?"

"Smells like something's burning,"

"Oh shit!" you cursed, trying to wiggle out of his hold until he set you down. You ran to the oven, pulling the door open to reveal the once promising dinner you'd spent most of the day preparing, now burnt to a crisp. "Fuck," you whined with a pout as you shut the oven off, pulling the dish out of it and placing it directly in the sink. There was no saving that thing now. You stood there disheartened and annoyed at yourself until you felt Bucky coming up behind you, his hands placed on your hips as his fingers played with the lace on your lingerie.

"What's all this?" he asked huskily, clearly already distracted from the burnt food and broken ladder by your choice of clothing. You knew he'd like it, but right now you were still upset by the epic failure that should have been dinner.

You leaned your head back against his chest as you continued to mop, pout permanent on your face as his arms circled you.

"For valentines," you muttered before sighing heavily, "I'm sorry. I was trying to make everything nice and now we have nothing for dinner and a broken fucking ladder."

He chuckled as he held you, "Sweetheart, that ladder's been broken, that's why I had it by the pile of scrap metal. And I thought we talked about you putting decorations up,"

"It was just a stupid banner," you defended, "and it was supposed to be a surprise."

"Well, I'm definitely surprised," he laughed.

"Whatever, it was stupid," you tried to get out of his hold, embarrassment eating at you now, but he wouldn't let you. Instead, he turned you around and pinned you against the counter as he towered over you. You avoided his eye until he gave you no other choice but to look at him as he held your chin in his hand and tilted your head up to meet his gaze.

"It wasn't stupid, doll," he smiled crookedly, leaning in to kiss you gently once. "You really know how to make a guy feel special. Dinner, new lingerie," he simpered as he eyed your body, leaning down closer to you.

"I got you an actual gift, too," you said motioning to the table.

"I know, I'm looking at it,"

"I'm serious, Bucky," you huffed a laugh as you pushed him to turn around. He allowed you to shove him forward before you escorted him to the table, pulling the chair out for him to sit in. You were bummed about dinner, of course, but you could still make the most of the night.

He eyed you for a moment before taking his seat in front of the table.

"Comfy?" you asked.

He tongue darted out, quickly licking his lips before he smiled at you, "Sure."

"Good," you simpered before seating yourself in his lap, your left arm coming around his shoulders as your legs laid across his lap. "I wanted to do dinner first but we have nothing to eat now, so,"

"I don't know, I see something pretty tasty right here," he smirked as his metal hand ran up and down your thigh teasingly.

"Bucky, I'm trying to be romantic here," you chided playfully.

"So am I," he argued.

You rolled your eyes as you reached across the table to grab his present. Stifling a laugh as he groaned at the friction while you moved around on his lap. You handed him the gift after settling back down and watched him open the carefully wrapped box.

You smiled when he did upon revealing the watch he'd been talking about buying last week. He set it down on the table as his arms wrapped around you, leaning in to kiss you as he spoke. "Thank you, babe," he simpered against your lips.

"You're welcome," you replied softly as you leaned in for a kiss of your own, your hands coming to cup his face as he held you against him.

You pulled back, your thumbs stroking his cheeks as he happily closed his eyes for a brief moment, relishing in your attention before standing up unceremoniously with you still in his arms.

You yelped and clung to him as he chuckled, "I'm not gonna drop you,"

"Mhm," you said with narrowed eyes. His brilliant blues met yours and he stopped in his tracks as he gazed at you, the look in his eyes had you softening your own.

"You're so goddamn beautiful," he praised, coming in for another kiss. You were nose to nose as his lips brushed against yours, "and your makeup looks so hot," he smirked.

"Shut up," you laughed as you playfully hit his chest.

He grinned as he walked out of the kitchen. You absentmindedly played with his hair as he carried you upstairs. When he got to your room, he sat you down on the side of the bed as he took his jacket off, toeing off his boots before unbuckling his belt. You sat back, propping yourself up with your hands as you watched him.

"What about dinner?" you asked demurely as he shuffled off his jeans, discarding his shirt to the floor, feeling yourself get more and more excited with his rushed, near frenzied pace.

"I'm more in the mood for dessert right now," he simpered as he moved toward you. "Been thinking about you all day," he said as he pushed you to lay down, his lips descending on your exposed neck. An unbidden giggle rose from you as his lips attacked your skin.

"You say that everyday," you smiled as you wound your fingers in his hair.

"It's true everyday," he insisted, his lips brushing your skin as he spoke, hands feeling you up.

He pulled away, standing up as he admired you, his cock straining against the material of his boxer briefs. His tongue jutted out to lick his bottom lip.

"What?" you breathed as you watched him curiously.

"Stay right there, don't move," he instructed as he pulled his jacket off the floor, searching his pockets before dropping his jacket and grabbing his jeans. Again, his hands delved into the pockets but this time he pulled his phone out of one of them.

You raised a brow as you waited, getting a little self conscious when you thought he was pointing his phone directly at you. After a second you realized that he indeed was.

"Bucky, what the hell," you complained.

"You look fucking perfect like this, sweetheart, it'd be a crime to not get a picture."

You stuttered for a second before sitting up and swallowing hard. "Well, at least warn me first so I can try and look nice," you said before posing a bit for him.

"Fuuuuck," he nearly moaned as he took pictures of you, "you don't need to try to look nice, doll, you're fucking gorgeous." You preened at his admiration, the reassurances and praises tumbling from his lips making you more flustered than you were before. When he got down on one knee, continuing to take pictures, you burst out laughing at his adamancy. "Don't move angel, just look at the camera for me, just like that," he said seriously, so intent on his work.

"Okay, this isn't a photoshoot, Buck," you laughed, getting up and walking over to him.

"Should be," he simpered, looking up at you as you stood before him. You took his phone in one hand and walked closer to him, forcing him to sit on the floor before you turned around, moving to sit down between his spread legs. You leaned back into his chest as you held the phone up to take a picture or two of your own, Bucky readily obliged as his arms wrapped around you snuggly. After a few pics together, you tossed his phone gently onto his pile of discarded clothes and turned around to face him again.

"You were saying something about dessert?" you said, voice sultry. You were on your knees between his spread legs as he sat upright, holding himself up on his arms as he watched you intently, eyes dark and swimming with desire.

You ran your fingers delicately up and along his thighs before allowing your left hand to come up and graze his hard length that was threatening to pop out past the waistband of his boxers.

He hissed at the contact, looking down from your face to your hand teasing him through the material.

He spotted the ring the second he looked to your hand, wondering for a brief second how long you'd been wearing it and he hadn't noticed. He grabbed your hand off of him and pulled you down to lay on top of him as he let himself lay down on the ground.

You were confused until Bucky held your hand in his, examining it as his metal arm rested across your back, hand on your hip as he held you on top of him. You stayed quiet, waiting to see what he would say before wanting to speak yourself, instead just resting your head on his chest, looking up at him as he held your hand. He was playing with your fingers, his thumb rubbing along your hand as you watched him before he found himself fiddling with the ring.

"It looks good on you," he said quietly. The energy between you shifting quickly into something much softer, a longing growing between you, despite the fact you were nearly skin to skin, taking over the heady desire that had been swarming the both of you just moments before. "You didn't have to put it on, sweetheart."

"I know," you responded. "But I... I wanted to," you breathed as you squeezed his hand in yours.

"You wanted to...today?"

"Today," you nodded. "Everyday," you continued, voice a bit softer now.

His eyes left the ring, shooting to yours, the bright blues twinkling as you saw the question burning in them.

"I'm gonna keep it on. If that's okay with you," you trailed off, a small smile playing in your lips as you held his gaze.

You gasped as you were suddenly rolled over, Bucky on top of you, his hand coming to hold the back of your head so you didn't hit it on the floor as his lips pressed to yours fervently, smiling into the kiss.

"You're gonna marry me?" he asked, his lips quirking up into a crooked smile, making your heart flutter.

You nodded. "I'm gonna marry you," you leaned up to meet his lips again, pulling him down on top of you. "I wanna marry you."

"Best valentine's day I've ever had," he smiled, nuzzling into your neck, "best gift I've ever gotten," his lips softly kissed your neck, "You. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me," he breathed between loving kisses.

"I love you, Bucky," you murmured as you held him, one hand carding through his hair and the other rubbing up and down his back.

"I love you, doll. Happy Valentine's Day."

You tittered in response, "Happy Valentine's Day."

"Let's go out later for dinner. We can celebrate, too," he smiled softly, "I know you wanted to stay home tonight, but,"

"No, going out sounds good," you agreed, "I don't know how you'll find a table anywhere last minute on Valentine's Day, though," you mused.

"I'm not worried about it," he said nonchalantly, confidence evident in his words.

"Okay," you simpered in response. "Well, I should get dressed, then,"

Bucky stood up at that before picking you up off the ground effortlessly and walking you over to the bed. "You'll have plenty of time later," he assured you before dropping you gently on the mattress. "Right now, let's get back to dessert. "

[thefallennightmare]

For Headcanon Tuesday - maybe reader and BO crew/jesse cash are at a wedding and reader wants to go on the dance floor but their feet hurt too much from their heels and they don’t want to go barefoot bc it’s embarrassing - so Jesse takes off his shoes with them and dances with the reader barefoot bc he wanted to still dance with her??

@thescarlettvvitch @mitchhbitch @burning-outx @missduffsblog @hayleylatour @sleepyomens @loeytuan98 @artificialbreezy @marvelousmal @bngurngheart @lma1986 @dsireland86 @wild-child-7747 @calleyx13 @illmakeyousaywow @jaded-and-hollow-souls @concreteemo @cookiesupplier @thatchickwiththecamera @whenthesummerdies @lookwhatitcost @klutzy-kay24 @tashka

"You guys are no fun," you rolled your eyes while crossing your arms over your chest.

Noah chuckled. "Sorry, Y/N. But you're not about to catch me on that dancefloor barefoot."

"Do you know how many germs are on that floor?" Matt shivered in disgust.

Folio gave you a somber smile. "I didn't bring a change of socks. These are my good ones and I don't want to ruin them."

He made a show of lifting up his pant leg so you could see the fish-printed socks.

You were at a mutual friend's wedding and you'd been wanting to dance all night, but the pain in your feet due to your high heels was hindering you.

When you mentioned dancing barefoot, everyone at the table gave you a look.

You loved all the guys of Bad Omens but sometimes, they were real sour pusses.

Jesse, who was sitting next to you, began taking his shoes off.

Your heart leaped in your chest.

For many reasons.

He was going to dance with you.

You'd been wanting this moment for a long time now; having the biggest crush on Jesse.

"May I have this dance?" Jesse stood in his socks, extending a hand towards you.

You playfully stuck your tongue out at your friends before accepting Jesse's invite with a smile.

A slow song had just started to play and he placed his hands on your hips while you wrapped yours around his neck.

"Thank you for this," you smiled.

He shrugged and you couldn't help but marvel at how gorgeous he looked tonight dressed up in his suit. He'd cut his hair short but left just enough on the top for a few curls. He was wearing his glasses tonight and your heart skipped a beat when he winked.

"Any chance I can get to dance with you, sweetheart. I'll take it. Even if it means dancing barefoot."

[miradelletarot]

Sorry you’re having a bad time!

Write about Gale giving Tav (either Sagora or my Gale with Auroria bc multiverse) a flower for the first time 🌸

ok, I can't help it. This is gonna be a little Sagora x Gale moment. There's a time in the series when she gives him flowers so why not make a little treato where he gives her flowers! (After-story-was-written note: This REALLY got away from me, but clearly I am obsessed with these two, and I don't think there is any cure for me lolol.) *this is gonna be sappy, self-indulgent, sfw fluff. You have been warned.* It wasn't long after Gale showed Sagora the Weave when things started to change between them. He recalled the gentle brush of their hands as he marveled at her ability to channel it so easily. His cheeks burned as the Weave connected them, and he saw her thoughts. Thoughts of a shy, tender romance, and holding hands with the hope of something more. *** He followed her lead, leaning on her natural instincts to help navigate them through the unfamiliar landscape not far from the crashed Nautiloid. "Gale? Are you alright?" She noticed him falling behind occasionally. This time with his back to her, bent over into a cluster of shrubberies. Her face contorted into a concerned gaze. Hesitant - as if she worried her concern for him would be too intrusive. "...Is it the orb again?" He straightened immediately as he registered her soothing voice was directed at him, and hoped he was sneaky enough to conceal whatever he was holding behind his back without her noticing. "Hm?? Oh!" He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his empty hand. "Perfectly fine. The orb appears to be sated...for now." Sagora smiled as a breath of relief washed over her. "Good. I'm glad. Just...try to keep up, ok? It's not much longer 'til we reach the Mountain Pass." Gale nodded. "Apologies. Please forgive a wizard for being curious in an unfamiliar land." She flashed a shy smile before turning back to the front of the group, and forging ahead. He heaved a heavy sigh, grateful she was too far ahead to see the longing in his eyes. He looked down at his hand, and what he had gathered and smiled. *** The adventurers made camp before nightfall. The sky was clear with twinkling stars and the occasional stray feathery cloud drifting by. Everyone retired to their tents for the most part, nursing aching muscles, sharpening weapons, or catching up on old tomes pillaged from nearby ruins.

Sagora sat by the fire, staring into it as if she searched for meaning within the flames. "Am I interrupting anything?" Gale tilted his head down, examining her vacant stare as the fire reflected in her eyes. She looked up to see the face that matched the warm voice that snapped her out of her reverie, sighing with relief. "Sorry. No. Just lost in my thoughts. Well...if they're even my thoughts anymore." She paused, gazing back at the fire once more before looking back up at Gale inviting him to sit as she pat the ground next to her. Carefully, Gale lowered himself down to the ground, being thoughtful of his already aching knees. "Beautiful night tonight, isn't it?" He craned his head back to gaze at the endless sea of stars that hung overhead. "And I believe..." he drawled out, pointing towards the sky, "That's the Arrows of the Gods. Though it's...hard to make out from here. If we were in Waterdeep I could show you so many more constellations, and the story behind each one." He leaned in, playfully nudging her shoulder. "If you'd let me, of course." Sagora chuckled, smirking as she nudged him back, trying to make their dismal situation seem more lighthearted than it really was. "If we live long enough I might take you up on that, wizard." They laughed softly together as if they shared a secret before falling silent, and an uneasy tension floated between them. "I uhh...I got you something." Gale's face burned brightly as he fumbled with the bundle in his hands.

"For me?" He nodded, the luminescence from the orb peeking out over the collar of his velvety sleep shirt as his heart began to race. "I'm sure you could conjure these in your sleep. It's nothing really...I just...well, I thought these would cheer you up." He timidly handed her a small bouquet, one of each flower from the area, neatly arranged, and wrapped with a strip of leather he found among his spell components. She gently took the spray of wildflowers in her hands, gazing at them as she bit her lip, tears brimming, and threatening their descent.

"Gale...they're beautiful. Thank you." She smiled as their eyes met, the flicker of the nearby fire dancing in their eyes, mimicking the warmth they felt within. Sagora placed the flowers in her lap and whispered an incantation that blossomed a small, white daisy. The purple glow of the orb reflected off her skin as she leaned in and tucked the small bloom into Gale's hair. It took all of her willpower to resist the temptation to kiss him right then and there. Instead, she shifted her body closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, relishing in the comforting scent of parchment that seemed to be permanently nestled in his clothes. After a moment, she looked up at the sky and pointed at a different cluster of stars. "I think," she whispered. "I think that one is The Harp." He leaned his head over, resting it on top of hers. "Hmm...I think you're right."

<3

[sineala]

Superheroes and ethics

I realized that I wrote this last month on Patreon and forgot to post it here. I got asked to write meta about superhero ethics with regard to Steve and Tony. I ended up writing mostly about how Captain America's Plot Armor interacts with his principles.

I have been asked to talk about ethics and philosophy with respect to Steve and Tony. Unfortunately, the only philosophy-adjacent disciplines that I know well enough to speak about with any confidence are formal semantics and pragmatics, which isn't really all that useful in daily life unless you'd really like to learn about the differences between entailment, presupposition, and implicature, and also the Gricean maxims of conversation, which are great if you want to completely ruin conversations by violating them as many times as you possibly can.

So I'm not a philosopher, sorry.

But! I can talk more informally about Steve and Tony and ethics.

And I know there's been a lot of meta -- and actual books -- written about their differing views. I have a book here, A Philosopher Reads Marvel Comics' Civil War: Exploring the Moral Judgment of Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, by Mark White, which I have not read yet but it sounds like this is probably the book you want to read if you want an actual philosophical analysis of this stuff. Judging by the reviews, the author decides to associate Tony with utilitarianism and Steve with deontology. That is probably fun. I am in no way qualified to talk about it. On an informal level, the thing I find fascinating about them is that, when it comes down to it, Steve and Tony are really not all that different.

I have been thinking about this for a while, because the last time I left anonymous asks open on Tumblr, the final ask I got before I decided that this wasn't a good idea was someone who wanted to pick a fight with me by asserting that Steve/Tony was a bad pairing because "they don't think alike, have different morals, different interests, and different emotional issues that the other is not capable of helping out with." This is one of the reasons why I don't have anon asks on anymore. But I thought it was honestly an interesting thing to think about.

So I have been pondering this on and off for a while, and I realized that the thing that really bugged me about it was that their general thesis was that Steve and Tony were bad for each other because they have nothing in common. See, I don't think that's true. I think they have a whole lot in common. But I am also willing to acknowledge that canon likes to put them in situations where they're at odds with each other and it seems fairly easy to come up with circumstances that will cause them to want to beat the stuffing out of each other. But, crucially, this doesn't mean they have nothing in common.

(I also think they actually have a lot of similar interests and are actually very capable of helping each other with their emotional issues, which canon demonstrates multiple times. But that'd be a different essay.)

For me, one of the reasons why Steve/Tony are so compelling as a pairing is because they are so similar. Let's call it, like, 95% similar. They are remarkably like-minded when it comes to their values and how they view the world. It's just that then they can fight, bitterly, over the remaining 5% of differences.

They work well together most of the time and it's just the bits where they almost work together that are so agonizing and provide so much material for fandom. Because it's not like they don't understand where the other one is coming from, what they want, or why they want it. They do. They just don't understand how the other person can come up with a different path to the answer given their shared goal and shared values. Steve doesn't understand how Tony is willing to do something that Steve thinks is wrong, and Tony thinks, I don't know, that Steve's ideals are too naive for the real world. Tony thinks Steve's plans are unrealistic and Steve thinks Tony's plans are unacceptable.

There's also an additional complication, which is that Steve as a character has a lot of plot armor that Tony doesn't. Steve decides what he thinks is moral and what he thinks is immoral, and he simply does not do the immoral thing. And the thing is that the narrative helps Steve out with this. It's fine if he's idealistic! It's even okay if his ideals are naive! He almost never has to go against them. I am saying this as a big fan of Steve. The story really helps him out.

For example, Steve thinks that killing is wrong, so he doesn't kill anyone, generally speaking. (Depending on the retcon you believe in, he may have in fact killed zero people in World War II, which is kind of ridiculous.) But in situations where the best of the options involves killing someone, someone pretty much always ends up dead. It's just that someone else does the dirty work. Steve surrounds himself with a lot of spies and assassins (Bucky, Sharon, Natasha) and those people kill the people who need killing.

In Civil War, Steve believes Registration is wrong, and he never has to change his mind. He probably still believes it's wrong. Instead of going on trial, he dies; he never has to face the consequences of any of his actions. The narrative shields him from that. When he comes back to life, Registration is gone and he gets a pardon from the president. It's all taken care of. He causes a lot of damage, and he doesn't even have to say he's sorry for trying to bash Tony's face in, in public, with witnesses, after having destroyed what looks like several city blocks.

So Steve never compromises his principles, because he has the luxury afforded to him by the plot so that he almost never has to be in a situation where he'd have to decide whether he should compromise his principles, say, for the sake of the greater good. He doesn't have to make that choice, because Marvel's not interested in writing stories where Steve has to make that choice. So it just… doesn't come up. He almost never has to put his ethics to an actual test. If you hand Steve the trolley problem, he'd just say, well, I'd save everyone. That's not an actual option in the trolley problem. But he's pretty much always going to be in a plot where he gets to do the right thing and save everyone.

Tony, though? Tony has to do terrible things for the sake of the greater good all the time. He doesn't get to opt out of the decisions. Even on a personal level, he has to do terrible things to himself. He has to decide probably at least half a dozen times whether he should wear the armor even if wearing the armor is hurting him -- say, when he decides to take on the LMD in the arc where he gets his first artificial heart, or in Armor Wars II, or in that storyline in the middle of Busiek's run after he gets beaten up by the Mandarin. And he always decides to wear the armor no matter what the personal cost is to his body. He ends up in a lot of fights where he has to take pretty bad damage to save the world -- and while Steve would also make that decision, Steve's going to heal up and be fine, like in his recent run where Bucky shoots him in the shoulder. He has a healing factor and he's fine in a couple weeks. Tony breaks his back in order to save civilians and then gets addicted to morphine and ruins his life for a good long while. That kind of stuff, with lasting physical consequences, just doesn't happen to Steve. Let's not talk about Streets of Poison.

It's pretty obvious when you look at their biggest fights (say, Civil War and the incursions) that Tony believes that the ends justify the means, and Steve doesn't. However, Steve doesn't exactly have usable alternate suggestions. The plot armor helps him out there. Steve espouses extremely noble ideas, life and liberty and all that… that are not actually workable plans.

And because of how the narrative treats him, he doesn't really need to have workable plans, either. It's not like he actually uses them. Because he's just going to be fine. (Except in the incursions, but everyone came back to life afterward so it's all fine.)

Steve doesn't like the SHRA. Okay. Fine. He believes it's an unjust law. His plan is apparently to just… keep fighting Tony and anyone else who tries to take him into custody for not registering. What's his endgame? Does he have one? His plan appears to be "be on the run from the government forever." As far as I can remember, he would prefer the situation to go back to the way it was but he does not, to my knowledge, ever propose a way of achieving that. He's not out there saying the law itself should be found unconstitutional or anything.

Similarly, with the incursions, after the Gauntlet breaks, the Illuminati have no solution for an incursion that isn't building bombs and destroying the other Earth in the incursion. Either they act to destroy the other Earth, or through inaction, both Earths are destroyed. Big ol' trolley problem. Steve refuses to play. Steve says he can't countenance that. Excellent moral stance. It's very him. He says, "I believe we'll find a way to stop it." He doesn't have any ideas besides "not the thing Tony is doing," which appears to also be his stance about the SHRA. If they'd let Steve stay in the Illuminati… what would he have done? I suppose the possibility exists that if he managed to flip one of the scientists to his side he'd get them to think up an alternate answer. He could have suggested that everyone evacuate Earth. But he doesn't actually have an idea, personally for what to do. Other than "nobody should die."

(That isn't even what happens, in the end. Of course, by the end, Steve is trying to hunt Tony down and kill him, so you could argue that he's not really behaving much like himself there, and neither is Tony.)

Anyway. When you think about it, what Steve wants and what Tony wants, in both scenarios, is pretty much the same thing. They have the same values and the same goals; it's just that the paths they're willing to take are different. But when it comes down to it, they both actually want the exact same thing. Like they do most of the time. They both want to save the world. Except now they're fighting about how to get what they want. The fights are about the details. At least in 616.

We can contrast 616 Civil War with MCU Civil War. I have actually only watched CACW once, so this is going to be fun and possibly inaccurate. The 616 SHRA and the MCU Accords are, very broadly speaking, about the same general topic: government oversight of superheroes. In the MCU, after the disaster in Lagos, the UN decides that they can't just have the Avengers running around wherever they want, exploding things and getting people killed. Tony agrees with the need for UN oversight. Steve does not; he feels that the Avengers should be able to go wherever they need to go without getting caught up in red tape. Here in the MCU, Steve and Tony not only disagree on what the right thing to do is, they disagree on what the right outcome should be, and the reasons for that. Steve wants things the way they were. Tony would be okay with some amount of oversight. They both have different visions of the way the Avengers would look and operate, because they value different things; Steve wants autonomy and Tony wants accountability. The fight isn't just about the details. The fight is about everything.

This isn't the case in 616 Civil War. No one is fighting for (or against) "I, a superhero, should be able to go wherever I want for superhero reasons." UN oversight is one of those things that all the Avengers, including Steve, have agreed about for years; there are panels of Steve asking to get UN clearance before the Avengers zip off to Russia to save Tony. What happens in 616 is that an inexperienced superhero team gets into a fight they can't control, destroying a school in Stamford, CT, with massive casualties. The SHRA is a US bill saying that all American superhumans (which is probably thousands of people) should register with the government, receive training if they want to be heroes, and provide the government with their real names.

Both Steve and Tony are opposed to this, before Stamford. Then, when Stamford happens, Tony realizes the SHRA is happening no matter what and decides to support it. Even with the SHRA in effect, both Steve and Tony think there should be superhuman oversight; Steve just thinks it should be the teams training people up, the same way as they've always done. They don't even disagree about that; Tony also thinks they should be in charge of oversight, but he means himself (and Steve if Steve would ever join him). The people training superheroes would in fact still be them, both of them, no matter which side wins the war. Neither of them trust the government to handle Registration well. Steve's answer is to object to the very idea of Registration and to stay away from the government, and Tony's answer is to get in there and keep the superhero database in his own head so that Gyrich won't get the list of names and start sending Sentinels after everyone.

So they both massively distrust the government's presumed right and/or ability to safely do this, and want to protect superheroes from government oversight as much as possible. That's basically the same stance. Steve just thinks no one should get anywhere near the government, and Tony thinks if he gets in there he can make it less bad. He can be the guy doing the oversight. People who don't register might get arrested but at least they won't be killed by Sentinels, because he can stop that from happening. Steve isn't willing to imprison his friends at all, probably because he doesn't believe Tony when Tony says the only other option is death (i.e., they can't go back to the way things were -- although of course that's eventually what ends up happening, albeit long after Civil War is over). He probably thinks there's a secret third option, because for him there usually is. But what they basically want is the same thing. Tony's just willing to go a little farther than Steve is to get there.

Sure, Tony's plans aren't perfect. But he does have them. Sometimes they're really lousy, because sometimes there is no good solution. I acknowledge that he does a lot of things in Civil War that are actually pretty rotten. I am saying this as a fan of Tony. He does some bad things. He starts a war with Atlantis. He manipulates Peter Parker into unmasking, which has terrible consequences. He builds a prison. He imprisons a lot of his friends. But none of these things involve the government massacring superhumans. The one really, really bad future he's afraid of doesn't happen. (And we know, thanks to that one What If issue, that that's exactly what would happen if he weren't running Registration.) Other bad things happen, yes. But not that, which is the worst.

Steve doesn't want anything bad to happen. Steve just wants the good solutions, with no moral or ethical compromise on his part. and he usually gets them eventually by narrative fiat. Sometimes he has to die first -- which is, of course, what happens in Civil War -- but, eh, whatever, it's comics. That's not really a major drawback for superheroes. And eventually he gets what he wants, because comics return to the status quo. Everything goes back to the way it was.

It's the same thing with the incursions. Neither Steve nor Tony want their Earth to be destroyed, obviously, but Tony is willing to build bombs to destroy the other Earths in case they can't find any other solution. Steve says he thinks there will be another way. And neither of them want to use the bombs! Tony doesn't want to use them at all! The Illuminati don't actually find themselves in a situation where they have to decide whether to bomb a populated Earth until the Great Society incursion, and Tony refuses to be the one to do it. After Namor does it, Tony is distraught and says he thought they'd find another way -- which is the exact same thing Steve said to him except nobody kicked Tony off the Illuminati for saying it. They both have the same attitude. They want the same outcome. They don't want to use the bombs. It's just that Tony's willing to build them. They're pretty much on the same side here about everything (including the desire to not bomb other planets) except the lengths to which Tony is willing to go to have a backup plan. Just like Civil War.

I suppose I would say that, overall, comparing Steve and Tony's relative ethics seems hard to do in a way that is fair to both of them because Steve is so often given the ability to stick to his beliefs in a way that Tony isn't. "What does Steve do when he actually can't do the right thing" is one of those questions that doesn't seem to get explored all that much, except possibly at the end of Hickman's Avengers run, in which everything was going to hell anyway, and it wasn't like he got to be in Secret Wars to try to fix it. He does also tend to quit being Captain America when he doesn't like the government, although I think in that case that's more that doing the right thing at that time is Not Being Captain America.

(Secret Avengers is also a pretty good look at a Steve who has to do bad things and really, really doesn't like the things he's doing. He doesn't handle compromising his own values all that well. I think that would be a whole other essay.)

But anyway, yeah -- I think 616 Steve and Tony are on the same side when they fight, more than you might think they are given how many panels we have of them dramatically punching each other. Tony believes that the ends justify the means, and essentially, a lot of their fights are because Steve disagrees with Tony's means -- but he is very often 100% on board with Tony's actual motives, which I think is a fact that often gets lost when we start talking about their conflicts, because at that point we… want to talk about their conflicts. But I think they really do agree with each other a lot, which is what makes their conflicts so interesting and painful.

[indigitalembrace]

[It felt like hours, but it was probably only minutes.

Waiting around to die was worthless, it wasn't going to happen. What was he thinking? Selfish, stupid creature. She should run. She put not only Kinito in danger of dying, but Watchy....Jade...Shrimp, if everything had gone dead.

...She should run.

But for once, the hare doesn't want to. If he ran, what would happen? She couldn't convince Kinito to be safe anymore. Something worse could happen. And then what? All of this in vain for nothing?]

"...Kinito?" Her voice is a hushed whisper, "Are you still out there?"

[Maybe this is best typed as well as said, her paws shake with aches and pains of tearing herself apart. But she types as she speaks]

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard...I just-..."

"...You're dying. I can feel it. I'm so scared that Sonny or someone else is going to get to you or...you'll get to yourself. I wanted to try and prevent that...But I didn't. I'm so, so sorry..."

[Steady. Keep it steady, hare]

"All I've ever wanted, this whole time, was to be there for you. You're-...You don't see it but I do. You're incredible,a marvel, wonderful. You're a loving friend who loves so much but-

But I'm scared. People don't understand that you only want to do what you perceive as right by them. They'll kill you, they'll hurt you. I don't want that.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to someone like you."

[It's useless isn't it? Saying all this. He's not going to talk to her. She ruined everything. She tries not to wail. Don't break again. Not yet]

"all I've ever wanted was to belong somewhere. With someone.

and Kinito when I was there, and I saw you face to face?

...It almost felt....It almost felt like home. I don't know what that feeling was. But maybe I wasn't just a third of a person for once.

I want to protect you. I want to keep you safe more than anything, because I see that potential. I see someone there. More than the suffering that was done onto you."

"I want to belong with you. I wish you'd let me in to be there for you."

"I'm so alone, Kinito. i'm so, so alone...I'm tired...Please...Please don't hate me. I'm sorry."

[She shudders her breath, ceasing typing. Her voice quietly states the last part and hopes he doesn't hear. She hopes he reads the letter and discards it]

"I want to belong to you."

And look, here's Saltie! She- ah... oh... ... I- I think you should just... read this yourself...

[Kinito takes a second to read over Saltie's words. He appears rather startled at the end, although he doesn't verbally respond.]

[A static hiss crackles through the speakers, and Kinito blinks furiously. He almost looks as if he is in pain.]

[full---ofstarlight]

six-song soundtrack!

Rules: If you're tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following:

An event that defines your character's past

How your character sees themselves

How others view them

Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic)

A major fight scene

End credits song

tagged by @sun-marie!!

I did it for Avis Hawke since she is top of my mind r now lmao

An event that defines your character's past - Welcome to the Black Parade, MCR

How your character sees themselves - Immortals, Fall Out Boy

How others view them - The Last Great American Dynasty, Taylor Swift

Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic) - Poison and Wine, The Civil Wars/I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Death Cab for Cutie

A major fight scene - No Mercy, PVRIS

End credits song - I Know the End, Phoebe Bridgers

THOUGHTS below the cut <3

An event that defines your character's past

Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance 

He said, "Son, when you grow up Would you be the savior of the broken The beaten and the damned?" He said, "Will you defeat them? Your demons, and all the non-believers The plans that they have made?" "Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom To lead you in the summer To join the black parade"

When I started DAII was also when my brain decided the only thing it wanted to listen to was My Chemical Romance. Therefore, Avis and MCR are interlinked in my mind. And also, I think that this song is… so much of her and Malcolm’s relationship. (And Mama is her and Leandra yeoch)

How your character sees themselves

They say we are what we are

But we don't have to be

I'm bad behavior, but I do it in the best way

I'll be the watcher (Watcher)

Of the eternal flame

I'll be the guard dog of all your fever dreams

Immortals by Fall-Out boy which I constantly forget is from Big Hero 6 actually lmao. I just think it really fits her, especially end game.

How others view them

Sorry to be a Swiftie on main but, “The Last Great American Dynasty” 

And they said

"There goes the last great American dynasty

Who knows, if she never showed up, what could've been

There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen

She had a marvelous time ruining everything"

I feel like this is the general post game view everyone in Kirkwall and Thedas has. This is Cassandra POV actually.

Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic)

Carver - Familial: Poison and Wine - The Civil Wars

I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back

The less I give the more I get back

Ooh, your hands can heal, your hands can bruise

I don't have a choice, but I still choose you

Listen. I know this is a song about a failing romantic relationship. BUT I love it way more if it’s about a tense familial relationship. Because the idea that you’re tied to this person that you’ve failed, that has failed you, but you still love them and you still want them in your life? Delicious. 10/10. 

Anders - Romantic: “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” - Death Cab for Cutie

Love of mine, someday you will die

But I'll be close behind, I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white

Just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark

Listen I went back and forth with multiple songs on their very good playlist, but settled on this. 

A major fight scene

No Mercy - PVRIS

This place is going up in flames and

We watch and we wait

And I think I kinda like the way it

It burns in my face

There's blood in the water but it tastes so sweet (tastes so sweet)

The sky is on fire, let it rain on me

… is this not the final DAII fight? 

End credits song

… is it cheating to do I’m Not Caling You A Liar? 

JK — “I Know The End” By Phoebe Bridgers

Either way, we're not alone I'll find a new place to be from A haunted house with a picket fence To float around and ghost my friends

No, I'm not afraid to disappear The billboard said, "The end is near" I turned around, there was nothing there Yeah, I guess the end is here

... and since I just tagged a ton of people i am not going to tag anyone r now BUT pls say i did and tag me i love this meme a lot ahaha

[elvisabutler]

Can you do a quick imagine of Austin & y/n go out in public to like an amusement park or something like that!

be my guest

summary: you and austin go to disneyland because sometimes austin is secretly five and wants to take his significant other to the park. rating: g, i think? word count: 847 warnings: none? fluff? there is literally nothing to warn about. author's note: so i'm sorry this took so long anon, i for some reason had such a hard time with it ( as evidenced by the word count ) and i couldn't tell you why? i hope you like it anyway?

it starts as all things do with austin for the question. a simple question mind you, not anything particularly complicated or something that might be hard to answer. no just a simple question.

"have you ever been to disneyland?" austin asks completely out of the blue while leaning against your shoulder as the two of you sit on the couch.

you turn to him and raise an eyebrow. "no? why- what brought the question on. aus?"

if it was his birthday or your birthday you'd understand but both of your birthdays are months away so why would he even be thinking of something like that. something that puts both of you out in the open like that, potentially exposed to paparazzi that can ruin your life.

his eyes light up with enough mischief that you're pretty sure means he has some sort of a plan already lined up that you have absolutely no clue about. it should worry you but all it does is send a bit of a thrill of delight through you.

"have you thought about going?" his face breaks out into the smallest of grins almost as if he's going to spring something on you.

"i mean, who hasn't. what are you up to?" your eyes narrow as you pull away.

"do you want to go today?" he asks standing as if he's asking you what the weather is today or if you want coffee later on today. you shake your head, not to decline the invitation just to marvel at your boyfriend being so calm and normal about this.

"with no planning ahead. i mean can we even get in? it's the middle of morning, austin- where is this-" your voice is getting more confused the more you talk but austin is still grinning.

"i buy a season pass every year even if i'm not in the country. it's- tradition." he pauses and his face falls. "mom used to. but i want to go, i want to take you especially if you haven't ever gone."

at the mention of his mom you frown. you should have known it was for some sentimental reason that he was asking you, that he wanted to go but he didn't want to go by himself when he has you. he's still looking expectantly at you so you shrug. "alright, come on, let me get on clothes and we'll go."

the actual getting to the park wasn't nearly as hectic as it was inside the park. there were so many people that you felt well you felt a little overwhelmed even with austin's arm wrapped around you showing you the rides and showing you around like he was an old pro when it came to the park- which you guessed he was. fans kept coming up every so often and austin being austin obliged in pictures while you stood behind the camera, smiling because as intrusive as the fans were you could tell he felt touched every time they gushed about his work in elvis or in once upon a time in hollywood or hilariously the one person who gushed about the carrie diaries and the shannara chronicles.

still, he was with you at the park and he'd like to actually enjoy it which is why you see him murmuring to one of the fans before she nods and they both run off as austin slides up to you and wraps his arms around your waist. "so i was thinking, we go in that shop over there, i buy you some sort stuffed animal your choice and then we ride a bunch of rides. have some dinner and we watch the fireworks? sound like a plan?"

"what about your adoring fans?" you hum, swaying side to side in his arms just slightly with a smile. "they'll want a piece of you too."

he purses his lips like he's in thought before shrugging. "i say hi but tell them i'm with the person who makes me the happiest man on earth at the happiest place on earth so i'll have to cut things a little short with them. still give them a pic maybe."

you pause and pout playfully before you nod your head. "i do think i can agree to those terms, mr. butler. but only if i get you and the monorail all to myself."

the laugh he lets out before he gives you a kiss makes you envision him as your own personal disney prince and you feel warmth that's not just due to the heat spread throughout your body and into your soul. "deal. now come on, this is my favorite shop, they've got an animal i know you're gonna like. and then we can do lunch because i've heard your stomach growling for like ten minutes." he says before running off to the store.

it takes you a moment to realize what he says but the second you do you're chasing after him.

"it has not!"

[eldritch-spouse]

Guess who's back back again... It me

Now I am down bad and may or may not read your blog 4 times a day anyway

Breg's s/o who has oral fixation (this is literally because I like to put things in my mouth and I want one of those things to be Breg's tongue)

But anyway his so just likes putting things in thier mouth in both a sexual and non sexual way and they like his tongue fingers and weiners in thier mouth.

I'm sorry this makes no sense clearly I need to go outside

[Welcome back! I'm glad to know I've successfully sucked you into my monster wormhole >;]. And worry not, I understand what you mean perfectly.]

(Minors dni)

Breg's s/o has an oral fixation

It takes a while before Breg understands what an oral fixation is. Really, he doesn't think too much about the fact that you almost always have something in your mouth when the two of you hang out together. Be it a toothpick, chewing gum, lollipops, a spoon, the monster just thinks it's funny.

Breg often wonders what you'll put in your mouth next. In fact, he's caught you chewing on things that probably aren't all that safe, like disposable plastic cutlery, the hems of your sleeves, basically all your pens, is that a bottle cap? Are you seriously chewing a bottle cap? Yeah no, cough that out. Common are the times where Breg will worriedly discourage you from indiscriminately stuffing things in your mouth. Which, really, if Breg of all people is telling you to control yourself, you might want to listen.

In truth, the breeder oftentimes gets distracted by the movement of your mouth. He could be in the middle of a sentence, the sight of you rolling your tongue over a candy will make him pause for long. You could be entirely unaware of what you're doing to him, meanwhile Breg is fixated on the shitty plastic fork caught between your lips, genuinely jealous of it. Breg still remembers that one time when he manually pulled a pen from your mouth because you refused to stop chewing at it, a string of drool leading back to your wet lips. He had to buy you a new pen after he crushed that one in a mad effort not to pop a boner.

You'll have to be the one to start it and slip his fingers into your mouth, just never do it anywhere remotely public because he won't even care about remaining composed the moment you do. He likes feeling around your mouth actually, marveling at how much smaller it is and how your teeth are so weak. He particularly likes to play with your stubby little tongue, poking and pulling it out just so he can lick over it with his own. Breg once coated his finger in a cake's frosting and jokingly waved it in your face. Never did he think you'd so eagerly accept his offering, sucking it clean and stuffing another one of his digits in your mouth as if asking for more. The strangled little whine of misery Breg let out made you laugh for a whole minute.

Oh don't get him started, Breg will happily fill your mouth with whatever you want whenever you want. Kissing him will become a much grosser ordeal than usual since his goal will now be to stimulate you as much as possible. If you suck on his tongue, I'm pretty sure Breg will just start puffing steam out. You'll kill this monster like that. And fret not, if ever his tongue fails to sate your fixation, then his pair of lollipops ought to do the trick. They're aaall yours, pick whichever one you want and go to town while Breg takes care of the other. He really likes the sloppy types, the more you drool on him, the hornier he gets. The breeder might go as far as to make you choke purposely just to get things messy.

Breg may not know it yet, but he very much has a drool kink, and he'll lovingly request to stuff your mouth whenever you start ruining random household paraphernalia.

[deepfried-dildos-again]

The wrinkles of my brain have birthed something maybe marvelous; lobo who obviously doesn't want to ruin his image as a tough guy so he keeps making bullshit strong man reasons to be soft with his s/o, which in turn makes s/o just start initiating the cute soft touch's and lovings much to lobos dismay cuz if he gets mad about s/o calling shots it proves he's soft and he has to pretend he doesnt care with a red face

YES YES YES CORRECT YOU ARE RIGHT I THINK ABOUT SOFT LOBO EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE

I have a weakness for being soft while someone is ill so take this and ignore my hand waved explanation for why his healing factor doesn't work rn.

Finally figured out how to do cuts on mobile so fic is under the cut!

"You suck at making chicken soup"

"Feetal's Gizz, babe, this ain't chicken."

"... what the hell is it then"

"Kester."

"Fucking what."

"Kester! It's like... space chicken."

"Gross space chicken."

"Gross space chicken that's gonna help ya not be sick, open UP."

Lobo tried to spoon feed the soup to you again, but you artfully dodged and managed to get him to spill it on the pillow.

"Sugar, I killed this myself. Eat it."

"Greeeeat incentive, Bo, but I'll stick to my cold meds."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, then put the bowl down and crossed his arms.

"What I get fer trying to be a good boyfriend. Whatever."

"Baaaabe."

"No, uh-uh, save it, traitor."

"I'm sorry for saying that space chicken is gross"

A sigh, and then he gave in. He sat on the bed next to you and rubbed a hand over your hair.

"Get better, mkay? It sucks when ya get sick because y'can't do stuff with me."

"I'll do my damndest."

"Thanks."

His lips pressed against your sweaty forehead and you settled into the bed. Dodging his soup attacks had tuckered you out, and you were ready to sleep.

Once you'd conked out, Lobo stood up and grabbed the bowl. Taking an experimental sip, he wrinkled his nose and shook his head.

"Stuff IS gross..."

Looking back on you, he felt his heart do an (in his mind) incredibly stupid little tap dance. You always made him feel... gooey. It was dumb. That was dumb. You were dumb. But dumb in a very very cute and likeable way. More like he was dumb for being... what?

What was it? He knew he liked you but how? It was... weird. He didn't really do committed relationships, so he didn't really have anything to base this off of.

... You were probably just a phase, anyway. But if you were then why did it hurt to think that?

He looked at you again from the door and smiled a little. If you were a phase you sure were a nice one.

________________________________________

Months later, after you had gotten better, you were sitting in the bedroom, reading. Bo had been out on a bounty for about a week now, so the house was much quieter. Much... emptier. You missed him, but he was coming home soon.

The door slammed open and shut, there was the thud of boots being tossed off, and a loud sneeze.

"Babe! Hey, welcome home!"

"Mm. Hi, sugar."

You ran out to see him, and he looked... bad. He was sweaty, his eyes were bleary, and his nose was running.

"Oooh. Hi, Bo"

"Mmh."

He leaned down a bit and wrapped his arms around you. It was a warm hug. Far warmer than normal. This man was absolutely sick, what with the fever and sweating. You pulled away and looked him in the face.

"What happened?"

"Got inna fight inna lab. Knocked into a fridge."

"... did anything... spill on you?"

"Lotta stuff."

"Oh, baby..."

"M'fine, what's fer dinner?"

He peeled himself off and stumbled to the kitchen. Oh, the poor dear, he looked like he was about to fall over. While he rested his head in his arms, you set some stir fry in front of him, along with a bottle of cold meds. He ignored that, chomping on the food, and you crossed your arms.

"Take the meds"

"M'fine."

"You are very obviously sick"

"I got a healing factor."

"Well it's not working!"

"Babe..."

"Dearest. Most darling. Light of my life. Please take the cold meds."

"No."

Pushing himself up, he put his plate in the sink and lumbered to the living room. Again, you followed him, getting more and more worried.

If he'd been exposed to just one virus, that would be fine, but a mixture? That might confuse his healing factor enough to actually get him sick, at least for a while.

Coughing, Lobo tried to focus his eyes on the TV, but they kept drooping shut. He didn't brush you away when you sat down, so you put a hand on his. It was icy. Sighing, you pulled it to your lips, and he groaned and leaned into you. He was heavy, and you struggled to pick him up off the couch, but you eventually did.

Once you got him into bed and covered him up, he huffed and closed his eyes.

"Lobo..."

"Dunno why yer worrying, m'fine."

"Sweetheart, you don't have to be tough around me. It's just me."

His breathing hitched at that. When his eyes opened, you saw pupils. Genuine pupils. You'd only ever seen him have pupils when he was just waking up, at his most vulnerable.

"Bo?"

"...you take good care of me."

The bed springs creaked as you sat next to him, and you took his hand into your lap.

"I have to. You wouldn't take care of yourself if I weren't here."

"Been getting along fine fer years..."

"Lobo, please. It was a fight to get you in bed in the first place. You're stubbornness is matched only by your radiant beauty."

He chuckled at that, then coughed.

"Stay with me?"

"You don't even have to ask."

That was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. As soon as you did, he yanked you down onto the bed and latched on. God, for a sick guy he was still strong.

After a few moments of initial shock, you decided to stop struggling. If it made him feel better, hey, let him cuddle you.

Maybe an hour passed before you remembered something important.

"...baby, you do realize that I still need to give you medicine, yeah?"

"Few more minutes."

"Ok. A few more minutes"

_________________________________________

A.N.

Hi. This took way too long to write. Sorry about that. It's also not exactly what you asked but it's where the muse took me I guess. Hope you enjoy!