#the incident I blame it on wasn’t it because I was terrified Before that

[pixlmonkeys]

PHOBIAS ARE SO EMBARRASSING WHY IS MY BRAIN LIKE THIS “noooo we can’t go back to sleep what if someday we get sick and frow up :((“ IDFK!! THATS GONNA HAPPEN SOMEDAY AND YOURE GONNA HAVE TO ACCEPT IT BUT FOR NOW PLEASE LET ME GO BACK TO SLEEP

[deliciousangelfestival]

Nothing Has Changed - 13

Summary: Returning home for peace, you're faced with your tormentor, Bucky Barnes, who is now involved in your family's business.

Character: Bucky Barnes

Warning: Angst, Tragedy.

Author Note: So... I wrote the story outline until the ending. I didn't expect the story to turn dark. Prepare yourself.

Nothing Has Changed - Series Masterlist

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Thank you to anyone who gave a like, reblog, and left a comment. It motivated me to write more. 💖💖💖

“I had a miserable life when I lived here,” you said, your voice trembling with old resentment.

Bucky’s eyes softened as he listened. He took a step closer, his shoulders slumping. “You’re hurting. I get it.”

He touched his chest, his fingers pressing against the fabric as if trying to reach his heart. “But… it’s not only you.” His voice broke slightly, and he looked down, struggling to maintain composure. “Me too.”

He ran a hand through his hair, his movements agitated. “That’s why I’m doing this,” he continued, his voice low and earnest. “I’m trying to fix all the pain we both caused.” He looked into your eyes, his expression pleading. “I need to make things right.”

You watched him, torn between your anger and the vulnerability he displayed. His words hung heavy in the air, and for a moment, both of you stood silently, understanding shared suffering.

Flashback Start

Growing up, Bucky never felt the warmth of a real family. His father, Alex, was distant, never saying a word to him, never laughing, never making silly jokes, or even getting angry. It was as if Bucky didn’t even exist in his father’s eyes.

Lydia was always the one to initiate conversations at home, but Alex only responded with monosyllables: ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ and ‘Just go by yourself.’ He rarely stayed home, often spending his nights at the construction office.

The only time Alex seemed to notice Bucky was when he got hurt. Bucky vividly remembered the first time he felt his father’s care was when he fell from the playground. That moment stood out, making Bucky believe that, perhaps, his father still cared for him. But Lydia noticed it too.

From then on, Lydia started orchestrating accidents to make Bucky get hurt just to garner Alex's attention, trying to fabricate a close-knit family facade. For a while, Bucky didn’t find it strange because he finally received attention from both his parents. Then one day, he fell down the stairs, even though he was sure he had been careful.

While he was resting, Bucky overheard a heated argument between his parents. Alex’s voice echoed through the house, filled with anger and frustration. “You’re an insane woman, hurting your own kid?” he yelled.

Bucky’s nanny had witnessed the incident. She saw Lydia push Bucky down the stairs, and the look on Lydia’s face had been terrifying, like a devil’s. When Alex came home, the nanny told him everything. The truth about Lydia’s actions deepened Alex’s hatred towards his estranged wife.

When Bucky got sick, his father never visited him. Weak and confused, Bucky asked Lydia, “Mom, why doesn’t my father like me?”

Lydia hugged him tightly. “Sweetie, your father loves us, but he’s like this because of that woman.”

“That woman?” Bucky asked, not understanding what his mother meant.

He started to learn the truth when he overheard his father one day. “Why is she suddenly sick? Send her to the city,” Alex said, his voice stressed and weary. He threw himself into a chair, mentioning another woman’s name—someone who wasn’t Lydia.

Bucky didn’t fully grasp the situation, but he noticed his father coming home even later than before. One day, he heard his father scream when that woman died. Alex drowned his sorrows in alcohol, becoming a shadow of himself.

Young Bucky, filled with confusion and pain, found it easy to blame someone else for his father’s misery. His resentment grew until one day, tragedy struck again. Alex died in a car accident.

At the funeral, guests offered their condolences to Lydia, but no one paid much attention to Bucky. Even if they did, he didn’t understand the meaning of death. So, he waited outside and saw a thin, ghostly man from a Christmas movie—it was Tom. With him was a little girl peeking from a window near the funeral home.

Lydia suddenly appeared beside Bucky. “You see that man and the girl?”

Bucky nodded.

“That’s the husband and daughter of the woman who made your father hate us,” Lydia said, her voice dripping with bitterness.

Bucky clenched his fists, his young heart filling with hatred. From that day, he despised you. He noticed you weren’t close with Tom but didn’t seek his attention like Bucky did with Alex.

Bucky started bullying you, finding a twisted sense of superiority. His friends joined in, making it worse. For a kid, it felt powerful to look down on someone.

When you left with Ransom, Bucky felt an unexpected emptiness. He thought you would realize Ransom was a jerk and come back, but you didn’t. He began to wonder why he missed you.

Was it because he lost his scapegoat, or was it guilt? The guilt of making you leave town gnawed at him.

One day, he learned that Lydia had lied. All her stories were lies. Your mother had never done anything to Alex. It was just that his father still loved her. The weight of guilt and the sins he committed against you ate him alive. He couldn’t sleep or eat and eventually sought therapy.

Bucky’s voice trembled with a mix of anger and hurt as he confronted his mother. “Why did you do that? Why did you lie about everything?”

Lydia’s face twisted with a blend of defiance and bitterness. “Because I’m the victim in this loveless marriage. You have no right to be mad at me.”

Bucky’s frustration erupted. “I’m allowed to be angry! You made me believe your lies, and because of that, I made someone’s life miserable.”

Lydia’s slap was sudden and sharp, stinging Bucky’s cheek. He recoiled, his face burning with pain both physical and emotional. His eyes widened in shock, his expression a mix of disbelief and deep hurt.

“I gave everything to your father!” Lydia’s voice was a mix of anger and desperation. “My family business, my money. But that man only had eyes and a heart for that woman. To him, I was less than a bug.”

Bucky’s fists clenched at his sides, his shoulders shaking with the effort to control his rage. “So you still don’t feel guilty for lying to me?”

Lydia’s eyes were wild, her face streaked with tears. “Why? Why should I feel guilty?” she screamed, her voice cracking under the weight of her own grief. “I sacrificed everything for that ungrateful man!”

“Because I’m your son!” Bucky shouted back, his voice breaking. “You gave birth to me! You should feel ashamed for using me as a pawn in your twisted games.”

Lydia’s face contorted with a mix of pain and anger. She grabbed at her own hair, her body trembling as she cried. “Are you ashamed to have me as your mother? You have everything—status, money! That’s why you were the popular kid at school. Everyone envied you!”

Bucky’s eyes flashed with a mix of fury and sadness. “You think that’s a justification? You think all your lies and manipulations are okay because I had status and money? You don’t understand the damage you���ve caused!”

Lydia’s sobs grew louder, her body slumped as if the weight of her own actions was finally crashing down on her. She looked at Bucky with a broken expression, her tears mingling with the anger still in her eyes.

Bucky turned away, his own tears threatening to spill. The air between them was thick with unresolved pain and regret. He felt the crushing weight of their fractured relationship, knowing that no amount of words could undo the damage that had been done.

He had made your life hell for something you didn’t do. The realization tormented him.

After graduating and returning to town, Bucky decided to make a difference. The first thing he wanted to do was apologize to you. But when he visited Tom, you never came home. He saw how Tom lived and the state of the funeral home and decided to help. He also planned to build a new hospital in town because the lack of medical facilities had contributed to your mother’s misdiagnosis.

Then, out of nowhere, you came back.

Flashback End

“High price to pay for what you did,” you said, your voice cold and steady.

Bucky’s eyes widened slightly, pain flickering across his face. “I know. I deserve every bit of it.”

You paused, taking a deep breath. “But one thing I appreciate is that you realize your own fault.” Your tone softened slightly, but your eyes remained guarded.

Bucky’s face brightened at your words, hope lighting up his expression. “Well… I even sent my mom to the police for you,” he said, a touch of pride in his voice.

You nodded slowly. “That’s the most extreme act to prove yourself.”

Just then, Tom appeared at the doorway. His eyes flickered with concern as he took in Bucky’s disheveled appearance. “Bucky? I heard about Lydia. Is it true?”

Bucky nodded, his shoulders slumping slightly. “Yeah, it’s true. She’s in police custody now."

Tom sighed deeply, glancing between you and Bucky. “Why don’t you come inside, Bucky? Let’s talk about this. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”

Bucky looked at you, silently seeking your approval. You gave a small nod, and he followed Tom into the house.

🛒🛒🛒🛒

The next day, you went to the grocery store to buy some essentials. As you were browsing the aisles, you spotted Steve looking at a shelf of canned goods.

“Hey, Steve,” you greeted, your voice casual.

He turned, a smile spreading across his face. “Hey! I’m going to the city next week to meet the gallery owner.”

“That’s great,” you replied, genuinely happy for him.

Steve’s smile widened. “I won’t forget your help.”

You shrugged your shoulders, a hint of a smile on your lips. “I still don’t care.”

Steve chuckled, noticing the smile. He nudged your shoulder playfully. “Sure you don’t.”

“Hey guys. Fancy meeting you here.”

Both of you turned around to see Bucky approaching, his expression a mix of surprise and hesitation.

“Oh, hi,” Steve greeted him, his tone polite but lacking warmth. The air between them was thick with an unspoken tension, the remnants of a once-close friendship now strained.

Bucky’s eyes darted between the two of you. “What are you guys up to?”

Steve cleared his throat. “I was just thanking her. Because of her, I got an offer to work in an art gallery.”

Bucky’s face fell slightly. “You’re gonna leave?” His voice grew quiet. “Wow. Congrats, buddy.”

The awkwardness between them was palpable. You could feel the tension building, and it was too much to bear. You decided to continue shopping, hoping to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere. “I’m going to keep shopping. See you around, Steve.”

Steve nodded, a small, grateful smile on his face.

Bucky saw this as his cue. “Let me help you. Besides, I’m going to help Tom later.”

You rolled your eyes but didn’t object. “Fine.” Turning to Steve, you said, “See you.”

Steve nodded again, giving you a supportive smile.

Bucky quickly followed you, calling over his shoulder, “Let’s meet up later, buddy.” He didn’t wait for Steve’s answer, his focus solely on catching up with you.

Steve watched the two of you walk away, a somber expression on his face. “It’s better if we don’t,” he murmured to himself, the weight of past conflicts evident in his tone.

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Author Note: Hey friends,

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[uhohdad]

Can’t wait until the aftermath to come out!! By any chance can you give more headcanons on König and reader?? 👀👀

well duh darling i’ve only been waaaaaiting for y’all to ask

‼️ ⚠️ MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE KONIG X READER HUNGER GAMES AU BELOW⚠️ ‼️

• Konig hated the whiskey. hated the taste, hated the smell, hated the way it made his brain foggy. he only drank it on the train bc he thought it would make Reader think he’s cool 😭

• another reason konig didn’t want to go on the balcony is because he’s afraid of heights. he only did it to hang out with Reader

• seeing Reader in a jacket in his size ahbsbxhahhzxb he was so nervous to offer the jacket to her and seeing her drown in it was making him feel some type of way. you’re so small.

• in addition to watching her sleep the night before the games, he also stayed up late on the balcony to watch Reader sleep. felt like a straight creep he did.

• Konig always sits so far away from Reader because he’s terrified of making her uncomfortable, especially after getting turned on when her leg was on his. Also why he was so fucking baffled when Reader had her leg pressed to his on the train. He so badly wanted it to happen again but he didn’t want to push it. And it really speaks to the true elation he felt it when she was still alive at the end it literally brought him to a sprint to pull her in a hug that was tighter than it should have been.

• Konig’s not one to jump to violence, especially after the incident from his past - but when One called Reader a dog he had his fists clenched fs You’re his weak spot dude he’s always ready to throw hands for you. He feels like it’s his duty, especially since he feels the need to repay her for standing up for him. It really shows in (aside from literally killing for her) when he spoke out of turn to Price - something he would never do if it wasn’t concerning Reader. He really gagged the whole dinner table.

• Konig is especially awkward with Price. and vice versa. They don’t really ‘get’ each other. Konig still respects him and his opinion of him, though. He’s much closer with Ruby.

• god he is just so. enamored with Reader. he is just so happy that they have good banter. he just thinks everything she says is the most charming thing ever.

• I don’t think I can stress enough just how jealous our boy was when Titan was flirting with Reader. Nauseous. He had a whole ‘that’s so raven’ day-mare about you and Titan. The thought of him laying his hands on you. And knowing he had just upset you made him believe he just pushed you right into Titan’s arms. So relieved when you started talking shit on him.

• aside from being devastated that she was upset with him about considering allying with the careers, watching reader handle weapons did something to him.

• He feels so lost when you’re upset, and he has a tendency to blame himself and not the whole ‘being sent to your death thing’

• During Konig’s interview, he was sure Reader knew he had a crush on her. He thought the jig was up.

• I almost made Pluck have a full on moment after the interview, the night before the games - like throwing chairs, breaking glasses, and destroying the suite, but it didn’t end up making the final cut it just didn’t seem to flow with the story.

• It took hours for Konig to work up the courage to go to Reader’s room the night before the games - and he still chickened out.

• Konig was just as haunted if not more by Eleven. He could feel his neck snap.

• I’m screaming, crying, throwing up that I can’t give y’all more games fun facts since I don’t wanna spoil The Aftermath

• y’all ain’t gonna like this one but the TRUTH? Konig was sneaking mad looks at Reader at the waterfall when she wasn’t looking. felt like such a creep.

• felt like the luckiest man alive getting to carry her through the desert. what a simp.

• Konig is the love that cannot be reasoned with. Reader is the hate that cannot be reasoned with.

• Konig sacrificed himself because he couldn’t stand the thought of her not living, period. He truly believed she deserved to live more than him. Reader sacrificed herself partially because that was always the plan - but her motivation in regard to Konig was because she didn’t want to live without him. Her motivations were selfish while his were selfless.

• Reader’s spite was her downfall after all. Price warned her not to let it get the best of her and she ended up taking her own life because of it.

‘We’ll see who wakes up tomorrow, Konig.’

more TGWCM fun facts :)

[bestworstcase]

Thanks for your response ala Ruby & Yang, great stuff!

Idle aside, but do you have any thoughts on Yang's role as the sort of black sheep of the family by dint of Raven associations?

Cos like, Tai overtly favors Ruby, projects Raven onto Yang, resents Raven being rough up and is bad enough about reminders of her Yang feels she has to apologize for his negative reactions. Let alone his... Everything else.

Then there's Qrow who doesn't seem to interact with Yang over much at all and one of if not their most major interaction. Involves him straight up saying he thinks she's either a liar hurting people for fun or "crazy".

I recall someone I was chatting with wondering: Imagine doing everything you can to keep your family from breaking apart & being compared to the woman who left you when you were a baby?

Cos I do wonder how Yang feels about all that given she seems to downplay and or try to work around her family's issues when she can. Let alone what it says about the adults in the room.

smth i think about a lot is the way yang’s narrative about her childhood shifts between v2 to v5

’cause in v2 it’s: “it was tough. ruby was really torn up, my dad kind of shut down. it wasn’t long before i learned why…” all to provide context for this anecdote about putting ruby in a wagon and running away to find her mother. and then her conclusion is “my stubbornness should have gotten us killed that night.”

and while there is a degree here of yang framing the story to emphasize the point she wants blake to understand, it’s also very obvious in her delivery that the emotional reality of this memory for yang is “the time my stupidity and stubbornness almost got me and ruby eaten by grimm”—when she was [checks notes] like five, six years old, and regularly left at home unsupervised.

but in v5, it’s: “my mom left me. ruby’s mom left too. tai was always busy with school, and ruby couldn’t even talk yet; i had to pick up the pieces. i had to pick up the pieces. alone.”

aside from the telling slip (tai, not dad)—yang centers her own feelings and the harm this situation did to her this time. which is something she’s always felt but i don’t think she could have brought herself to say it out loud to anyone during the beacon arc, because it was pressed down under the guilt on display in burning the candle, the feeling of having been inadequate and too stubborn and too selfish and and and–

coughs quietly. “my stubbornness should have gotten us killed that night.” / “you were predictable. and… stubborn. and maybe a little boneheaded.” yang’s narrative about the wagon incident—which happened when she was five or six!—pinning the blame on the thing tai imagines to be her fatal flaw is…probably not coincidental. yang in v4 after a year of being loved by her team and supported by mentors like glynda / oobleck / port has the perspective to know that tai doesn’t know what he’s talking about; but as a small child who’d just had a terrifying near-death experience with her baby sister… 😶

it definitely had a big impact on the way yang sees herself

BUT i do read qrow's talk with yang in 3.8 pretty differently ->

because the context is: yang saw mercury attack her and struck back in self defense, then had like a dozen synthetic soldiers point guns in her face, then looked up and saw the replay footage of herself walking over to shoot a boy who was just kneeling on the ground. and some of the most powerful authority figures in the world are pushing this narrative that stress and adrenaline "clouded her judgment."

like this would make anyone doubt their sanity. bc holy shit.

yang, though...a couple weeks ago, yang after being knocked unconscious woke up and blearily saw someone she thought was her mother walk away from her and disappear in a flash of red light. she hasn't mentioned it to anyone, because it's just so bizarre—yang doesn't know about raven's semblance yet—she must have just been seeing things. right?

aside from raven (who isn't here) and yang (who believes she hallucinated), the only other person who knows that yang saw her mom on the train is qrow, because raven told him about it. he also knows that:

tai insisted on not telling yang ANYTHING about her mother, and qrow respected that up until now; so yang doesn't know about raven's semblance and can't make sense of what she saw.

salem's infiltrators are the same people who attacked amber, and qrow didn't get a good look at them because they seemingly vanished into thin air—pretty damn good chance that one of them has a semblance that manipulates what you see.

ozpin wants #2 kept secret, so yang has some very powerful people actively trying to convince her that she's crazy. ironwood is straight up gaslighting her.

qrow also—based on the first thing he says, which is "why'd you do it?"—seems to consider it a possibility that it is what it looked like but yang did have a good reason, and i actually do not think that is an outrageous thing for qrow specifically to think. because qrow was emotionally abused as a child, and he knows yang, and in the event that yang really did suddenly turn around and punch a guy who was kneeling on the ground, why would she do it?

glances at shay d. mann. well. maybe this kid has been harassing her? maybe he said something horrible or threatening to her and in the heat of the moment she just snapped? maybe "he attacked me, i saw him attack me" isn't really a lie per se, she's just scared that "he's been picking on me ever since he got here and he made a disgusting remark and i just couldn't take it anymore" won't be taken seriously? as in, he did attack her—verbally/emotionally.

it's probably worth asking, at least!

so, qrow leads with "why'd you do it?" in case there is some invisible reason justifying the apparent action. yang says "you know why." qrow goes okay, well, i only know what i saw, so you're either lying (i.e., yang had a reason she now isn't telling) or crazy (i.e., yang saw something different from reality that was very real to her).

she says "i'm not lying." qrow believes her: "crazy, got it."

at this point, he knows the most probable explanation is that one of salem's infiltrators fucked with her head. the inner circle's gaslighting doesn't sit right with him; he's not going to buck ozpin by telling her the truth outright, but he wants to make sure yang knows she isn't losing her mind. he also has all the info needed to guess that yang is actually really really scared that she might be crazy.

which is why he kicks off the wall and begins to pace around. the language he uses sounds dismissive, but his tone is mild and his body language implies "let's talk about it, let's figure this out."

leading to:

YANG: Who knows? Maybe I am. QROW: And here I thought your dark-haired friend was the emo one. YANG: I saw my mom. …I- I was in a lot of trouble, took a pretty hard hit. But when I came to, the person attacking me was gone, and I thought I saw… her. Her sword. Like the one in you and dad’s old picture. QROW: You’re not crazy, Yang. That was your mom, alright. Let me guess—she didn’t say a word, did she? YANG: How did you know that? QROW: I don't see my sister very often, but she does try to keep in touch... whenever it suits her. YANG: Wait—you mean you talk to her? That was real!? QROW: Yeah, she found me. Had a tip from my most recent assignment and wanted me to give you a message.

it's really telling that yang responds to him this way. 'cause we've seen how yang acts when she feels dismissed or belittled:

TAI: Well, "normal" is what you make of it. YANG: What is that supposed to mean? Do you want me to just pretend like nothing happened? I lost a part of me. A piece of me is gone. And it's never coming back. TAI: You're right. It's not coming back. But that doesn't have to stop you from becoming who you wanna be. You're Yang Xiao Long, my sunny little dragon. You can do whatever you put your mind to. So whenever you're ready to stop moping, and get back out there? I'll be there for you. YANG: I– I...

she freezes and shuts down! her teachers have to come to her rescue!—but when qrow goes "crazy, got it" and suggests she's being "emo," yang blurts out her big secret. i saw my mom. to me that suggests a level of trust and understanding that isn't there with tai: qrow says stuff like "okay, so you're crazy" and "here i thought your friend was the emo one" but what he means is "hey, i know something's really bugging you, tell me about it," and yang picks up what he's putting down.

it's akin to how ruby goes "did you miss me? DID YOU MISS ME??" and qrow's like "nope" and they both laugh. or the back-and-forth ribbing between him and the girls in 3.4. there's this layer of mild ironic meanness in the way qrow converses with his nieces that all of them are fluent in, and in this scene he's using that mode to signal that "crazy" is not off-limits, that it's okay to talk about openly.

crucially, there's a code-switch in the middle of the conversation: as soon as yang gets real and says "i saw my mom," qrow reflects that seriousness back to her. you're not crazy, that was your mom, she found me afterward and told me about it. it was real. you're okay. qrow's ability to do that—to shift into a more serious mode when irony isn't appropriate—is why yang can have this rapport with him that she doesn't have with tai, because tai isn't... being ironic when he says mean or dismissive things to her.

anyway, qrow passes on raven's terrible message and then kind of annotates it: "raven's got an interesting way of looking at the world that i don't particularly agree with, and she's dangerous." (which is a very diplomatic way of saying he thinks raven is full of shit. lol.) but then he connects this whole conversation about raven back to what happened after the match: "you're a tough egg, kiddo. don't let this tournament thing getcha down. you had a slip-up; sometimes bad things just happen."

implicitly: yang isn't crazy. what she saw on the train was real, a product of raven's personality and her semblance. sometimes bad things just happen. qrow believes that yang had the experience she says she did when she punched mercury. he doesn't know why she had that experience—yang doesn't either!—but he knows she isn't just "crazy." sometimes things that seem crazy are actually real.

remember what he tells the girls in 3.4? "you may be acting like huntresses, but you're not thinking like one." same thing here. he's telling yang, hey, you're not crazy, you know what you saw, but you don't know what or who caused you to see it. "you cut off the head of the king taijitu, but now the second head's calling the shots."

hint, hint.

it's subtler than the hints qrow drops for ruby in 3.12, but very much in the same vein, and yang is plenty smart enough to figure it out. she might... not have? in the couple of hours between this conversation and everything going to straight to hell, but if they'd had literally just one more day, just long enough for the wheels turning in yang's head to click together with what ruby heard from velvet about coco hallucinating during her and yatsu's 2v2 against emerald and mercury, she would've had it.

more... generally, i've never gotten the sense that qrow projects raven's flaws onto yang in the way that tai does; qrow is definitely a lot closer with ruby than yang, but i think that has less to do with favoritism on qrow's part than it does ruby thinking he's like the COOLEST uncle ever and wanting to use a scythe like he does.

'cause like, qrow isn't their parent, he doesn't live with them, he's not responsible for raising these kids like their dad is, so while he obviously did contribute to fucking them both up because: alcoholic, ultimately there just isn't the same degree of betrayal or emotional abandonment; he's not their dad. both times yang talks in detail about her childhood, it's "my mom left, ruby's mom left, tai wasn't really around, ruby couldn't even talk, i was alone"—she doesn't mention qrow. there isn't that deep hurt, that feeling that qrow is someone who left.

when he isn't drunk, yang seems to feel pretty okay around him, and qrow likewise treats her... honestly a lot better than tai does:

he stops by their dorm in v3 to hang out with both his nieces; yang is fully in sister mode—cheers for ruby to beat him until ruby loses, immediately shoves her out of the way like "my turn!! >:D"—and qrow ribs them both, takes ribbing from both of them in good humor, tells both of them "you two are gonna go far."

qrow nicknames to show affection; ruby is "pipsqueak," yang gets "firecracker."

we only see qrow's goodbye to ruby, but in 5.4 yang indicates that qrow came to talk to her before he left, too. she also has complete trust that he's keeping the promise he made to look after ruby.

yang, as noted, opens up to him about seeing her mom; she's also shocked that he's still in contact with raven and indignant that he didn't tell her sooner, but—unlike with tai—she doesn't seem surprised that qrow is willing to talk about raven in general.

which tracks with what tai says in 4.11: "despite asking him numerous times not to, i know qrow told you where you're mother's been at these days"—meaning, this was a point of contention between him and qrow. behind the scenes, while tai refused to discuss raven at all, qrow was going okay well, let me tell her then, she deserves to know. and then ultimately he just bit the bullet and told her behind tai's back. i wouldn't be surprised if it turned out qrow had been straight with yang that her dad wanted to be the one to tell her the important stuff, and he wanted to be respectful of that, but raven wasn't an off-limits topic.

general contrast between yang-tai and yang-qrow dynamics; for example both of them say almost verbatim "you've got a long way to go before you're ready for the real world" (3.4/4.4). from tai it's belittling, he's insulting her; from qrow, it's meant to encourage, it's "remember you're still new to this, you'll make mistakes, just keep learning, keep trying." (rwby does stuff like this all the time, refracting an idea in different directions to highlight contrasts between characters; ozpin's advice to ruby vs port's advice to weiss is another example.)

a lot of qrow's resentment toward raven is centered on her abandonment of yang: "did you know yang lost her arm? [...] rhetorical question, i know you know. it's just obnoxious that you'd bring up family and then carry on like your own daughter doesn't exist. [raven: "i saved her."] once. because that was your rule, right? real mom of the year material, sis." like he is PISSED on yang's behalf that raven won't even try.

my impression is that qrow—although a) often away on long missions in far away places and b) an alcoholic who sometimes got blind drunk and became a burden yang and ruby needed to take care of—when he did manage to be there, made a serious effort to connect with both of them. he ended up being closer to ruby bc she wanted to learn scythe-wielding, but i do think qrow would've trained yang too (or instead) if the girls had different combat interests.

and while his relationship with ruby has a mentorish aspect, i don't get the sense either of the girls see him as a parental figure: he wasn't part of their household, he traveled a lot, his alcoholism in combination with tai's neglect eroded the adult-child boundaries because they had to be responsible for him as often as the reverse. he's a friend who also happens to be related to them. and that's especially true for yang, because he wasn't her teacher.

(i know it's a... pretty common headcanon / fanon that qrow lived with them, but i really don't think that's supported by the text? whenever ruby or yang look back on their childhoods, the family unit is always them + tai, and qrow isolates himself out of fear that his semblance will injure those he cares about. plus ozpin sending him all over the place as the one member of team strq still active. it makes way more sense to think he lived alone, and visited when he had the chance. which is the main reason i'm WAY softer on him than on tai, 'cause qrow wasn't in a caretaker/parent role; at most he was an occasional babysitter. so while his incidents of turning up drunk on the doorstep contributed to the harm... it's like, it would absolutely have been better for them if qrow were sober, but that wouldn't have changed anything about their home life. they'd just have somewhat easier relationships with qrow.)

TO WRAP THIS BACK AROUND TO THE QUESTION, tai is unfairly judgmental and harsh with yang bc he projects his idea of her mom onto her; yang also has a better relationship with her mom's brother than she does with her dad. how do these two dynamics interact? how does yang feel about hearing from tai that she's too branwen, so to speak, while also getting along better with the branwen side of her family? how might that fuel her desire to find raven?

if her uncle treats her better than tai does, then... maybe her mom would too, if only yang could reach her?—obviously it's not rational, but like. i don't think five year old yang put her baby sister in a wagon and ran away to find her mom because she thought she would ask "why did you leave me?" and then get her answer and go home. as yang grew older and developed a more realistic perspective it shifted to "i just need to know why she left" and she projects that backward onto herself as a child, but at the time what she wanted, what she was looking for, was someone who would take care of them.

[biblio-smia]

event 3 req: fic idea about the reader finding Mike Schmidt (FNAF) at the hospital after the incident at Freddy’s and realizing their feelings for him (angst confession w/ happy ending) - tysm!

here it is!! | part of v’s 800 follower celebration!

mike is only seventy percent alarmed when he sees the hazy outline of you standing over him, sure it was the blood loss making him see things. however, you're still there when mike opens his eyes again, awkwardly slumped into one of the uncomfortable-looking chairs, and mike pinches himself to make sure it's not a side effect of the drugs he's on.

you shift in your seat as if sensing mike's movement. your sleep at mike's side had been like this for hours; so light, any little movement woke you.

mike watches as you blink awake, rubbing the cramp you surely had in your neck away. your eyes glance around, as if remembering where you are, eyes falling on mike tiredly. your gaze rises up to his face and mike watches as your eyes widen.

"mike!" in an instant, you’re at his side, leaning slightly over mike as your hands grip the little plastic rail on mike’s bed. he watches, quietly, as your fingernails move to pinch the skin on your knuckle.

“hi.” mike’s voice is hoarse, sounding strange even to his own ears. he clears his throat before trying again, slowly lifting his hand to place it atop of yours. “hi.”

mike feels the shudder that runs through your body, your other hand lifting to sandwich his between yours; gently at first, as if your touch would hurt him, then a little tighter when you realize it won’t.

mike’s eyes find yours and he frowns upon seeing the tears in them, seconds away from falling.

really, mike can’t understand why.

he hadn’t had much of a chance to think about it, but he would’ve expected a phone call, maybe a get well soon! card. he hadn’t have expected a visit from you. judging by the time of day and the clothes you were wearing, it looked like you rushed to the hospital as soon as you found out.

mike’s severe underestimation of the care you held for him expressed itself as a dumb look on his face as he stared up at you, not quite knowing what to say as tears slip down your face.

“why are you crying?” mike finally asks densely.

you manage to laugh at that, which wasn’t mike’s goal, but he’ll take it anyway. you blame the medication he’s one for his obtuseness, though it’s really only to blame for mike’s uncharacteristic straightforwardness.

“do you remember what happened?” you ask gently, drying your face.

“uhh…” mike’s eyebrows furrow in concentration. “i got attacked by killer robots.”

“you lost a lot of blood,” you say gently, though the words clearly have more of an effect on you than they do on mike. “you had a concussion.”

“is that why you’re crying?”

you hesitate, looking down at mike’s hands between yours, squeezing slightly. “you could’ve died, mike.”

“eh, i’ll walk it off.”

mike’s only half-kidding, but you’re not laughing.

“i’m serious, mike.” your voice breaks as you speak and mike wonders again why you’re here. so, of course, he asks you out loud.

you tilt your head at mike’s blunt question, a teary-eyed smile on your face. “where would you be if i was hurt?”

“with you,” mike says immediately and too honestly. his brain hurts when he tries to think of any deeper implications so he lets it be, trying to hold his tongue from revealing any more subconscious truths he hasn’t given much thought to but knows are genuine.

“exactly,” you whisper.

“where’s abby?”

“she’s at my house. she’s completely fine,” you assure. “she’s worried about you, too, y’know.”

“i’m fine.”

“you scared us bad, mike.”

“why?”

it’s a simple question, why. because we’re friends. because i care about you. because what abby told me terrified me. there’s a million reasons why. why you showed up. why you sat near mike for hours, terrified.

“because i love you.” your voice is quiet, words you hadn't really meant to say somehow slipping out.

a million things to say and you chose the worst one.

mike stares at you with a blank look on his face and you wonder if he even heard you. something in you hopes he didn't.

the silence is reaching suffocating when mike speaks again.

“i love you. and that’s me. not the drugs. i didn’t think you did. but i’ve loved you since june 13th. wrote it down so i wouldn’t forget.”

a part of you was shaking your shoulders, begging you not to believe him. but june 13th? that was too specific. you doubted the drugs mike was on would make him lie like that.

your breath quickens. your entire body is uncomfortably warm and your heart is beating so hard it's creating an ache in your chest. you're doing your best to act calm, but if mike notices any breaks in your composure, he doesn't say anything.

mike's eyes are heavy with sleep and you wonder if he's even aware of the consequences of what he's just done. if he is, he doesn't seem to care. you're sure it'll catch up to him later.

mike's eyes are half-shut when they catch your movement, hand gripping tightly onto yours, quiet words slipping out of his mouth almost too quickly.

"will you stay?"

you smile, gently taking a seat on the edge of mike's bed.

"yeah. i'll stay."

[anonymooseforever007]

Behind on that Cute Date

(Michael Gray x Reader)

Summary: Wanting to give her busy friend some time to herself, Y/N had offered to watch her friend’s son Karl for a few hours to go to movie and ice cream. But upon returning to the house, Y/N offers to keep the boy longer if Ada wants to spend some more time with her “cute date”. It is a date right? 

A/N: Hi y'all! No TW's I think? I thought of the worst way to meet someone's mom and wrote it? I guess this could also be considered an Ada x Reader Platonic story too considering Michael isn't in the first part too much, but he is defiantly the focus of it...or parts of him are.. Also Michael is probably OC a bit here as I wrote it more with early S2 Michael (farm boy Michael:) ) in mind than the other seasons. enjoy❤️

WC- 5.4k

Part 2- Chocolate Pie

Main Masterlist

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

Small and sticky fingers closed around the collar of Y/N’s dress as Karl began to softly snore into the woman’s shoulder. The energy of the day’s excitement finally beginning to fade (at least until nap time was over) as the two figures quietly walked back down the street to Ada’s house.

Y/N wouldn’t openly admit it, but she was slightly relieved that Karl had fallen asleep. It wasn’t that she didn’t adore the boy, but after almost nine hours of his endless questions (often which had be answered five minutes earlier) and constant need to be running in a different direction (often the opposite one than they needed to go in) the quiet was nice. 

Even if she truly did enjoy about coming up with all the different answers for questions such as, “Why don’t ducks have scales,” or, “How many jumps would it take to get across the park,” and even her (least) favourites, “What if I put this rock in my nose,” or “What if I took off my pants?” 

It would be later that Y/N realised the pattern where many of the questions Karl asked starting with the words, “What if I…” would typically result in a similar answer from herself ending in the words, “…and we don’t want to make mummy sad do we?” 

Maybe it was cheap manipulation, the “let’s not hurt mummy’s feelings” tactic, but Y/N had to admit it was extremely effective. It was right up there next to the , “we gotta be good or mummy may not let me watch you anymore” tactic, she often heard from her own babysitters when younger. Of course, she would explain why the question or action would make “mummy” sad and give Karl reasoning behind not doing it. But in a quick pinch telling him that “Mummy would be sad because he kicked the light post and his leg may fall off,” worked great. 

So aside from a few incidents involving light posts and small rocks, the day had gone great. Having picked Karl up right before lunch Y/N had taken him to run around the park for a bit before treating him to a small picnic shoved in her pack.

Then, being ready to get out of the heat for a bit, the pair went to see the film Peter Pan in the nearby theatre. Technically the movie had been released in the previous year, but the theatre was running a special that week and was playing select children’s films at a discounted price. Despite having purchased two tickets, Karl remained on Y/N’s lap for most of the film. Within the first few minutes he had been terrified by the film’s portrayal of “Nana, the Darling’s family dog,” and sought refuge with the women. Which seeing as it was a rather unnerving puppet Y/N didn’t blame him.

Finally, on the way back the two had passed an ice cream shop and Y/N decided to get them both a cone. Admittedly, she had already planned on doing so, but it certainly did help that while Karl was eating, he wasn’t able to continue pestering her on why she wouldn’t tell him how baby mermaids were made.

Yes, while Y/N certainly didn’t regret offering to take her friend’s son for the day, she could also see why Ada may have wanted (needed) the break. So when Karl began to walk slower and slower, dragging his feet just a bit more, until the only thing keeping him up was Y/N’s hand over his, she was a bit relieved. Even if she did have to keep readjusting his small body in her arms every few minutes, as his head switch between different sides of her shoulders to watch the people passing by. 

The time was getting close to dinner now and Y/N had promised Ada she’d get Karl home by dark. And even if it was still light outside, Y/N didn’t think Ada would mind the two returning a bit earlier than expected, especially if Karl was already tried out for the night.

 If anything it meant that Y/N would be able to take one more task off her friend’s list and get the boy washed and in bed early, leaving time for the two to catch up on the last chapter of their newest book. 

That was how the two met of course, with Y/N, who just started working at the same library, asking for a good book to read. And Ada, having found a thrilling new cover of her own, decided to share her find with the young woman who couldn’t have been older than her own cousin. And thus a new friendship was born, with both women reading the same book and later gushing over the new twist and turns of the plot over lunch each day.

Now here Y/N was almost a year later, walking back to Ada’s house, a trip she now knew by heart, with Ada’s little boy asleep on her shoulder, and hopes that Ada herself was actually able to take that long nap. Y/N knew her friend had been busy with work and Karl and even extended family too. It seemed every day Ada had a new rant about the stupidity of her older brothers’ even more stupid plan. It was why Y/N had offered to take Karl in the first place, remembering how tired her own mother often got trying to take care of the house and her siblings in those long years her father was fighting.

However, as the Y/N got closer to the house she became more and more unsure that Ada actually did spend the day alone as expected…

Sitting outside Ada’s house was a car that Y/N hadn’t seen before. It was a Black Bentley of the nicer model and judging by the shine of the metal it was obviously new. This was the first hint in Y/N’s mind that Ada wasn’t alone. She knew her older friend didn’t own a car, preferring to walk the short distance between work, home, or any other place she needed to get to. On the rare occasion that the women did need to travel further than they could walk, they could easily have called a cab or even taken the car Y/N “shared” with her older brother during the times he’s was in town. 

Stopping at the foot of Ada’s steps, between the front door and the car itself Y/N stared for a moment. A conversation she had with Ada earlier that week came to mind. 

In between their usually chatter during lunch, Ada had mentioned that she might have needed Y/N to watch Karl one night soon. Apparently, the one night Y/N went home early from the bar, was the night Ada had met a handsome man who’s interest was requited. After Y/N had left, they had met and got talking for a while and the mysterious suitor had even paid for Ada’s cab home later wishing her a good night with a kiss on the hand. It was during the lunch, that Ada let it slip the man had eagerly asked her on a date, but being unsure of how it would affect Karl, she asked to think about it for a few days.

Upon seeing the car outside and remembering their discussion, Y/N felt a smile begin to grow on her face. Obviously Ada had finally decided to call the man back and accept his offer, and Y/N was excited for her friend. 

Currently having no boyfriend or romantic interest herself (not for lack of trying), Y/N sometimes found herself highly invested in the love lives of her friends. She enjoyed listening about their newest attractions and helping them find new clothes to wear for dinners and even planning romantic picnics that could rival those in the books she read. Plus, when the relationship was a good one, she got excited seeing how happy her friends were when they had someone they could spend part of their life with. Even if Y/N hadn’t found that person of her own yet. 

Of the few dates Y/N had been on, she often found the men either nice but without connection, or worse, charming but far too handsey for someone who was a stranger only the hour before. Besides, along with the romantic encounters many of her friends had came the inevitable heartbreaks. And while she never minded being the shoulder to lean on, Y/N didn’t look forward to the feeling herself. So she had decided to let life run its course and if she were fated to find someone one, found they would be...one day... hopefully. If not she could always buy more dogs.

“Are you Ada’s friend?”

A small yell left Y/N’s mouth as she jumped slightly, hearing the voice that had spoken, startling her out of her thoughts. Karl made a small noise of protest but quickly fell back asleep as Y/N’s hand went to his hair, brushing it soothingly.

Taking a few seconds to regain her breath, Y/N turned from the car she had been staring at and towards the steps of the house. Towards where she assumed Ada’s mystery date stood. 

Upon seeing his face for a brief second Y/N wished Ada had left the bar that night early instead of her. Maybe then this man would have started talking to her. Maybe then he could have been her date.

He was dressed in a well tailored suit complete with a beige overcoat and matching hat in hand. His hair was a pretty brown color and had obviously taken some time to style it as neat as it was. In the back of her mind, Y/N wondered if his hair still looked as neat when he woke up the morning seeing how much product there appeared to be. His hair still looked soft though. His shoes were so polished Y/N had no doubt she would see a perfect reflection if she was looking down. And then there was his face…. He had a pretty jawline and even prettier green eyes. And slightly above his left eyebrow was a small mole on his otherwise almost flawless skin. Y/N decided at the moment that there were few faces she liked as much as his. Even if it did seem to be covered in an expression of confusion.... wait what?

"I asked if you were Ada's friend?" the man spoke again, once more breaking Y/N out of her thoughts. 

"Yeah, yes! I am totally Ada's friend. I'm not just walking around with this one for no reason," she spoke quickly, motioning to Karl as she did so. The man's eyes moved over to the boy resting on her hip as one corner of his mouth pulled up slightly. 

"I suppose that makes sense. Ada's not one to let just anyone watch Karl. I don't think her brothers are allowed to watch him half the time," the handsome stranger chuckled turning back to glance at the house quickly. Y/N smiled as well. She hadn't met Ada's brothers but had heard more than one story about them to know the stranger's comment may not have been wrong. 

"I'm Y/N by the way, really sorry for staring earlier. I've been chasing Karl here all day and zoned out a bit." Doing her best to shift Karl to one arm, Y/N was able to stick part of her right arm forwards hoping she hadn't offended him by not introducing herself sooner. Though it may have sound silly, and truthfully it was silly, Y/N had more than one of her friend's dates who got pissy if she didn't introduce herself "properly". And while those men, thankfully, never lasted to long, Y/N didn't want to risk pushing away first man she'd ever seen come out of her friend's house. Especially if this was the one Ada had seemed so enamored with just the other day. 

Looking back over at her, the man gave another half smile and stuck his hand out. Just as he was about to open his mouth to introduce himself, the exhaust of passing car released a loud bang. 

The standing pair both jumped at the sudden sound and Karl's head shot up. The little boy, now fully alert held on tightly to his sitter, moving his head around anxiously to find the thing that scared him awake. Seeing nothing his grip relaxed slightly and his head laid back down on Y/N's shoulder content to listen to her soothing words as she told him it was alright. Only a few seconds later, Karl's head shots up again and a grin spread across his face as he recognized the man before him.

"MEL!"

"Karlie!" The man, Mel, replied with a full smile and wave of his own, obviously familiar with the young boy. "How are you today? Your mum mentioned that you were spending the day with a friend when we got here. Did you go to a movie?"

Nodding his head Karl gave a toothy grin, before motioning to be put down. Happy to have her arms to herself once again, Y/N did so, unable to keep the smile from growing on her own face as she watch the two interact. 

If this truly was the mystery data of Ada's she expected him to be, Y/N was already impressed. Not only was he good looking, but he also seemed polite and more importantly but excited to interact with Karl. Y/N knew that if Ada truly was going to start going steady with any man, it wouldn't be one who ignored her son. She had also noted that when the loud, gunshot like, noise suddenly happened Mel had stepped closer, almost protectively, towards the other two. Whether out out of  instinct or bravery, it certainly gained him another point in Y/N's growing list. 

After quietly watching the two interact for a bit longer from the front steps of, Karl came back over to his mother's friend and grabbed her left sleeve motioning for her to bend down, eager to share a new secret.

"I have to pee."

Stifled laughter was heard behind the boy at his not so quiet whisper, and Y/N bit back her own smile the words reached her ears. 

"Alright Karlie boy, why don't we say bye to Mel and you can go right ahead." The words barely leaving Y/N's mouth before the boy blurted out a quick parting to the man before shooting inside and disappearing within. Now left alone on the steps with "Mel" as Karl called him, Y/N took another moment to smile to herself, as well as to breath before she planned on heading in. Waiting outside also gave her short time to plan her now numerous questions for Ada. Not intending to take up more of his time before she had time to interrogate her friend, Y/N turned to the man about to say her own goodbye when this time it was him who spoke first.

"I guess he had fun today. Last time he was that excited was when John gave him a slingshot and Arthur taught him how to use it. Almost took out Finn twice that day, and Tommy three times" Mel spoke with a smile on his face, both at the story he told and the women he was speaking to, who was now failing to hide her smile at the images in her head.

"I'm glad I could bring him such joy then," she laughed as he admired the spark in her eye, "He really was great today. I don't have many children in my own family, so getting to spend time with one if always fun. Besides I don't mind giving Ada a break every now and then, I know she works hard. But I take it you two had fun today," the last sentence Y/N couldn't help but asking. Even if she did plan on getting the details from Ada later it never hurt to get another's point of view in these situations....

"It was nice yeah, we got here right after you picked him up I think, and then spent most of the day here. I got some work I need to pick up now but I believe later we agreed to meet back at one of the clubs...," hesitating slightly now with his head looking to his feet quickly before he continued," I don't suppose you're going to be watching Karl tonight too? Or just until now? Or did you have other plans tonight?"

"Oh no,I'm probably gonna read a book tonight. I think Ada only wanted me to watch him until about dinner. But I didn't realize she had others plans tonight. I might have to see if she needs that," the last bit was mumbled more to herself as the silence now grew between them. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, quite the opposite actually. Each wrapped up in their own head figuring out the details inside. 

Soon enough Mel looked back down at his watch noticing the time and a small cough and stretched out hand was all it took to break Y/N from her own reverie.

"It was nice to meet you but I really do need to get going on that work now. Don't want to get told off for being late," he said. And it was then as they both shook hands again that each took notice of how warm the other's hand was and how well it seemed wit fit with their own.

"Of course, go ahead! Don't let me keep you any longer. It was pleasure to meet you as well!" Y/N returned, removing her hand from his as she watched him move down the steps finally heading off in his car. But not before he glanced back to give her one more quick nod and half smile.

Fuck, Ada was lucky...

Standing on the steps a few moments more, Y/N waited until just after the shiny car had turned the corner out of sight before finally making her way inside. 

She made her way immediately to the kitchen where she heard Ada, giving Karl a quick wave as she passed him playing with his toys on the couch. Entering from the side Y/N immediately caught sight her friend washing a few plates in the sink and started to speak eagerly.

"Hello, alright so first I hope it's alright that I brought Karl home a bit earlier. He had fallen asleep and I figured it may be time to come back. I take it your day of rest went well. Also you know if you want I can take him for the night too? Leave you to have your fun..." She spoke wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at the last part.

Ada laughed before fully turning to her friend and responding, "My day was great, thanks again for taking him. And what do you mean by leaving me to have my fun? I don't have anything else to do tonight? Have you and Karl made plans to get rid of me?" 

"You have nothing else to do tonight?! Oh Ada but what about Mel! I thought you two were going to a club later? Are you really telling me you're gonna skip out on that? With him?!" Now both confused the two women stared at each other. Ada was confused because she couldn't think of any Mel's she knew, much less one she had plans with that night. And Y/N was confused because she was sure Mel had mentioned that he and Ada were going to a club later. Y/N hadn't spent long around him, but knew she'd enjoy having plans like that. Especially if they involved him. 

"Y/N who's Mel?"

"What do you mean who's Mel? It's Mel! Mystery man? You two met after I left the pub one night and hit it off? You said he asked you out and I thought you too had plans tonight? At least that's he made it seem like. He literally just left? Said he had some work to get before he came back?" Y/N moved her hands around in the air as she spoke now, as if that would make the picture of the man in her mind more clear to Ada.

"Oh do you mean Michael?" Ada said her smile beginning to grow as she began to realize what had happened. What Y/N still didn't realize.

"Michael? Karl called him Mel? He never corrected it but I'm not sure? Maybe? Anyway the guy who just left? Pretty hair, pretty clothes, pretty voice, and even prettier face? Oh come on Ada! How can you look at a man like that and say you don't remember him? He seemed perfectly polite too! Ohh Ada! Come on! Are you really not into to that?" Now bouncing on the heels of her feet as she began to describe the man. 

"Oh yes! Him! He got here a bit after you left. I remember now. But no, we don't actually have plans tonight I decided to stay in with Karl. Just out of curiosity... I take it you two talked for a bit? Did you like him?" Ada now stood looking at her friend with a grin matching Karl's. Now understanding who her "date"  was, she wanted to see how far this could go.

"Like him?! Ada he was brilliant!! You really caught a good one with him! Not only was he great with Karl, but he was also really nice about it all. He even moved a bit closer protectively when a car made a loud bang, he gets points for that I tell ya! And dear lord Ada he's gorgeous! Did you see his face? I know I keep saying it and the rest of him too! I tell you Ada if it ever get to where you meet his family you tell his mum I said 'thank you' because she really did great work! He's a real cute date! I hope he's treating you right! If not I'm sure we can get my brother to take care of him. We can have tea and biscuits while he hides the body!" 

Ada didn't hide her laughter any more and Y/N grinned back too. Though she had only met him a few times Ada was sure Y/N's large, but teddy bear like brother would have not problem hiding a body if needed. He reminded her of her own brothers... when they weren't pissing her off at least. However it was still one of these last sentences that make Ada pause and retrace her thoughts briefly.

"Wait, what do you mean thank his mother?"

"Well you know....Boys, they gets their balls from their daddy and their butt from their mama. At least that's what my grandma says. And I'm telling you Ada, ain't no tailor in the world can make an ass look that fine on skills alone. No Ada, that was pure genuine good ass genes."

As soon as Y/N finished speaking a loud laugh filled the air. A wonderful laugh like someone just heard the funniest joke on earth. It was the kind of laugh Y/N loved to hear from her friends. Only it wasn't her friend who laughed. 

Ada just stared, her mouth hung open but with the corners turned up. Shocked with both delight and confusion at the words. The laugh belonged to someone else. Someone who Y/N, in her haste to play detective, had accidentally missed. Someone who had overheard the conversation with just as much joy as Ada, but choose to remain silent until she couldn't hold her laughter in.

"Ada, I think that's the best thing I've heard in a while. You keep this one, she's fun."

An older woman, beautiful and with all-knowing eyes, met Y/N's glance and she finally turned to meet the "new" speaker. She had a look about her that said she could be just as cold as she was warm. She was a dangerous as she was smart. Luckily for Y/N the woman's face was warm indeed, though not as hot her own. Telling her friend how she felt about a strangers rear was one thing, but knowing another stranger heard it! Y/N didn't think it could be any worse.

"Already planned on it Pol."

Ada, finding her voice again, had finally spoke again. But she was still chuckling under her breath as she did so. It was as if both her and the older woman knew a joke Y/N didn't. But that was a thing for another time Y/N thought.

Pol, that sounded familiar to Y/N but she couldn't place where from. Instead she decided it would be best to stop gaping like a fish try to fix the small mess she just made. Because again it couldn't be any worse right. 

"Hi. Ada you have company, and you are Ada's company. Ohhhh noooo. I barged in on you two and  I'm interrupting and I just didn't know anyone else was here and you just heard all of that. I was just so excited because I thought Ada had date and like he didn't seem like a narcissistic asshole, and that was really good and and I'm rambling now so I'm gonna start over," Y/N paused, took a deep breath and stuck out her hand.

"Hi. I'm Y/N and I am sorry."

The woman, Pol, smirked at her and stuck out her own hand.

"Don't be sorry, Y/N, it's nice to know that at least someone's interested in furthering Ada's love life," Pol said, giving a quick side glance to the mentioned woman who gave a small huff and rolled her eyes. Obviously this type of conversation had come up before. And Polly continued turning to Ada, her tone now slightly sarcastic, "I'm just saying that your brothers do the same thing so it really shouldn't matter if you do either. You deserve to go out, find a good enough looking man and get laid? Isn't that was all the equality stuff is about anyway? Y/N what do you think of all that? Shouldn't our girl be just as able go out and have just as much fun as her brothers?"

The conversation have veered slightly from it's original course but none in the room seemed to mind. 

"Ohh I agree with you on that ma'am. Remember Ada. This is a time of equal rights! And equal rights means equal fights; and equal fights means equal fucks!" 

"Oh great, now there's two of you, if you keep this up you could give John and Arthur a run their money in the annoying awards," Ada groaned putting her head on the table in defeat briefly before it popped up again, "At least those two idiots I can hit. They won't hit back, but not you two. If I go after one of you I'm gonna have to get my nails done again. The brothers won't attack, but who's to say what would be done by the best friend and the aunt!" 

"Aunt?," Y/N repeated as she heard the last word, "OH AUNT, Pol, Aunt Polly, you're Ada's Aunt! Oh I remember now! Ada said you were going to come down this weekend." She turned towards the Shelby women who both perked up suddenly as if remembering their own idea from before.

"Yes, she's my aunt. She came down with my cousin for the weekend. I've told you about him right," Ada said, her grin beginning to grow again, while Polly sat back and smiled, just watching and waiting for what she knew was about to happen.

"Your cousin.... cousin," Y/N spoke aloud as she thought, "Oh yeah, you've mentioned him before. He's the one who let Karl go down the stairs in a bin! You tried to stab him! Isn't his name M...."

Y/N froze. 

Ada just stared at her friend with an innocent smile while Pol hid her smirk behind her cup of tea. 

Things were falling into place and Y/N realized it was worse... it was so so much worse. If a random stranger hearing your opinions on another stranger's ass was bad enough.... if the random stranger was actually the first one's .....

"Ahhhhhhh..... nooooo....no no no. No. No. No....No. Polly's your aunt.... and Polly has a son named Michael... And Michael is apparently Mel's real name.... which means that I .... you heard me.... thank you?.... great bullocks." Y/N spewed out her head shooting back and forth between the pair of Shelby's wearing matching grins. Her head hit the table with a thud, much like Ada's had earlier as she tried to block out the whole interaction that just happened. 

Maybe she should have just taken Karl to her house and let him play with her brother. They always had a riot of a time playing hide and seek, and making their own riots in the mini block town. That would have been a better option. 

"Great Bollocks? Who's mine or my son's?" 

Y/N laughed. She laughed and kept chuckling under her breath, it was all she could do. Of all the worst ways to meet someone's mom. Polly didn't even know Y/N's name before she knew all about Y/N thoughts on her son's rear end.... Releasing a deep sigh Y/N decided there was only one thing left to do in a situation like this. Standing up from her chair she looked at her companions.

"Right, I really just want to say... OH DEAR THE COOKIES ARE BURNING!!!!"

Alarmed, the Shelby women looked towards the oven to make sure the cookies were not in fact burning, and Y/N took her chance to make a break for the door. For someone who despised all things running, she was surprisingly fast.

"I'll just let you deal with that. I gotta get home to make sure my brother has stayed out of the dog food..yeah the dog food. Did I tell you he got dog? Yeah that happened. It was great talking with y'all!! Byeeeeeee!" 

Before the remaining two could even take two steps towards the fleeing girl, the door to the house shut firmly and she was gone. Ada was about to go after her and make sure she was alright. Even if it was funny to see her friend mistake her cousin for her lover, Ada still wanted to make sure she wasn't too embarrassed. Y/N liked to laugh a lot, but Ada was close enough to Y/N to know her laughs also hide her friend's anxiety at times. But Polly stopped her niece by grabbing her arm. 

"Oh don't worry about her."

"Pol you don't understand. I know her and even if she laughed she's dying inside. I need to let her know it's alright."

"No, let her go now. She'll be back," Polly spoke, pointing to the bag sitting by the door belonging to neither her nor her niece, "You and I need to get ready for a night out."

"But Pol. I sti..."

"No buts. You and I are dressing up and going out tonight. No men. Esme and Linda are on their way down too, if Lizzie can keep them from killing each other. So go upstairs and put on the dress you shove in the back of the closet when your brothers are here and get ready. I'll put Karl down and then change into my dress. Michael should be here any minute and we take his car."

"If it's no men then why are we taking Michael's car? And who's going to watch Karl while I'm out? James is gone for the weekend and I don't want to leave him alone if something happens. Besides if that is Y/N's pack she will be back tonight. It probably has her keys in it and she needs to get in. Someone should be here when she gets them."

Polly smirked a smirk only she could pull off.

"Ada dear I said WE'RE taking Michael's Car. I never said he was coming with us....

Part 2

[womendeservehumanity]

Every time I subconsciously start to minimize the scale at which men hate women I remember when I went semi viral on tiktok for pointing out disgusting, misogynistic comments on a video. This sick fuck saw a video of a woman showing her ex emotionally abusing her and accusing her of cheating for simply interacting with her friend’s boyfriend. He then decided to take that audio and make it seem as though this was his brother’s “cheating girlfriend”. The audio which is now gone was fucking terrifying. And how you could see it as anything but an abusive situation is beyond me. But males were in the comments laughing at and mocking her. RELATING to the guy. It was beyond me

So I make a video highlighting how reprehensible all of this is. How it truly encapsulates how little men care about female victims, all while women constantly advocate for male victims and their “double standards”. I truly wasn’t expecting this to blow up in any capacity. I literally made an account specifically for the post that same day but alas the algorithm did its thing. At first it was mostly women who were talking about how disgusting the comments and audio were. Talking about their own experiences as well. Then I got an influx of males. Ranging from the good ol devils advocate to the clearly does not comprehend what’s going on at all. They were essentially doing the same things. Spewing misogyny, spreading misinformation that this woman cheated, or victim blaming because why didn’t she leave (she did). I wasn’t gonna let that shit go untamed in my comments as more comments were going in than I could respond to. So I limited them. BUT I kept my dms open and these were some of the comments I got for simply being a woman showcasing how men act.

This was SO many men's reaction to me simply showing what other men were saying in regards to a woman being abused. And how another man saw a video of a woman being abused and decided to use the sound and pretend as though it was a made up scenario where she deserved it. And the logical gender who swears up and down that they wanna hear both sides and get the full context didn't even look and see that the account that had posted the video had a different pfp than the one of the original sound so it was obviously not his video.

I've mentioned this before but the patriarchy relies so heavily on women's suspension of belief that men collectively hate them. That it's truly a few bad apples and that all those bad apples are socially inept, ugly basement dwelling losers who we would never even glance at twice. In a vast orchard full of shiny apples who are attractive, chivalrous prince charmings. When in reality, there is no one set way a misogynist looks or acts And when I got all of these dms full of men showing their unabashed hatred of women and rage at me for showcasing that. It showed me that it has not and will never be a few. And men have absolutely no problem showing that. It's insane how I see women constantly policing other women over the most asinine shit (like being rude to a moid) because it makes women in general look bad. And is going to make more men hate women (as if they don't already). Meanwhile men quite literally could not give less of a fuck. They will be so outward and passionate about their hatred of women, especially online. They have no problem harassing women and subjecting them to misogyny. They don't, not even once, think about how that could make women resent men. And sadly they mostly don't have anything to worry about because so many women are so male obsessed that they will see and experience onslaught misogyny everyday. Both online and off but cope by writing it off as isolated incidents and not a reflection of men and their hatred of women.

[amberskywrites]

Saying Goodbye

Original story written for my Intro Nonfiction course in uni. I don't usually get emotional when writing, but I vividly recall being in a remorseful mood and chose this topic to write about, which led to me sobbing silently in the library. Fun times!

Warnings for topics of abuse, neglect, and animal death.

Word Count: 1,696

Fic Masterpost | Original Work Masterpost

I don’t remember the beginning. To me, you were always just there. I only remember what I’ve been told.

We were the same age – I wonder what you were like, before. No one ever talks about the before, with you. I don’t know if they know about the before. I’ve been told where you came from, but I don’t remember where. It was never a detail that seemed important to others, but it felt important to me. That was our first year apart, and we didn’t know each other yet, but still. Was it a rescue? Which shelter or pound? Was it a nice building with air conditioning and clean halls or was it a tiny building? Or worse, was it one of those big white tents that really don’t keep the heat out? They would have made sure it was cheap – they wouldn’t spend hundreds on anyone but themselves. They wouldn’t even spend that much on their own children.

Maybe it was a neighbor that never came back. That sounds about right, actually. I think I’ve heard a version like that before. I think this was the case. If it was, did they say goodbye? Or did they just leave you with Mom and Dad?

I think I hate myself more though, if that’s really what happened.

What were you thinking, when they brought you home? So young and active, experiencing a sudden change – you had to have been excited to start over. We were the same age. It’s not quite so young for you, not then, but you still had years and years ahead of you. But still, a lot can happen in a year. I’d know better than anyone – although you wouldn’t be able to know about that.

Nonetheless, you had to be excited. You were going home. Is it weird, that I hope it wasn’t your last, even though I wanted it to be? And then you were greeted with an overeager infant, and you took it in stride. You were so calm, tolerating me. I had to have been insufferable. The constant tugging and undeniable screaming – no matter how often I’m told I was a quiet baby, that house was never quiet. If it wasn’t a baby screaming, it was Mom and Dad shouting or throwing things.

What were you thinking, a few years later, and running away?

Not that I’d blame you. Of that story, I remember very clearly why you would. One of Dad’s many excursions out on his own, supposedly to never return. Who would want to stay with him of all people? No, I know exactly why you would want to get away from that. His anger as hot as the Phoenix heat, his impulsiveness dragging you to an unfamiliar place… But still, what did you expect to happen? What were you thinking?

Was it me?

You were brought back to us without him. I don’t remember any of it, still far too young. I only know what I’ve been told – and isn’t it silly, that I can’t even remember how old we were, but I can easily remember being told the story? I don’t know if it was our first time apart for long. I think it was.

I’m told it was a happy reunion. I don’t doubt that. 

I remember the javelina incident. I’m glad I remember the javelina incident. I hate that I remember. They were lurking in the bushes, by the pool, and we were walking the same path we took day after day. Four of us suddenly turned to three as you darted off, because we didn’t notice them but you did. One second you were by my side and the next you were gone and disappearing into the bushes and people were yelling to us to get behind a yellow car. They said it deterred javelinas – somehow I doubt that, but we did it anyway. I don’t remember what I felt, then, so I can’t say it’s the most terrified I’ve ever been. But it’s probably in the top three, at least. I do remember thinking why why why? Why would he do this why would he do something so stupid?

But it was clear why.

It was me.

Shockingly unhurt, you came back.

You always came back. I’m sorry I never returned the favor.

How scared were you, that day?

I wasn’t home. I was at school. We were – what, fourteen? It was around fourteen. I was in middle school. I was in class, and it wasn’t until I had come home that I found out what had been done, what I had spoken against for weeks until then. It had been a while, since I had last seen you, and I wish I could have at least said goodbye.

It must have been confusing. You were having trouble seeing. You were having trouble hearing. You were underfed. You were old. I don’t know how you survived so long under all that stress. I still remember what it was like to be denied food, to expect to be hit at the first sign of irritation, to try every second to escape and being unable to. I ended up escaping. It took a little longer for you. You made it out, taken by people you could trust, that you thought you could trust, that I thought I could trust.

It must have been frightening. After everything, you finally get to leave… and then where were you? In an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people and creatures. You’d be in fight mode. You were aggressive with others if you thought it was needed. And then they left. They just left you. And it’s not like anyone could visit – it was painful for them even if they made the decision to leave you there and I couldn’t face you, knowing there was nothing I could do.

You still knew where I was. It wasn’t hard to figure out, I was just across the street, but I never saw you out front after I left. It’s not like you would see me even if you were out – Dad was usually with you. You weren’t allowed in the house I was, not after you attacked Marshall years ago – and while he was no longer there, Charlie now was, and you would have attacked him too. You never would have seen me in that room, even if you did manage to wriggle free. My blinds were always kept closed. But you knew. You knew exactly where I was. You came, once, to the exact place I was, but I wasn’t home then either.

I was told you ran into the wash. This wasn’t unusual for you, and it’s not like it was hard to get there. There was a perfect slope down into the wash that anything could get up or down. Whenever you got out, that was one of the first places you’d run. I was told after an hour or two, you climbed out of the wash. You went to the house. You went to the window. My window. How would you have known to go to that window? How would you have known, that it was my window?

I used to go back, and it was for you. I don’t know if I hope you knew that, that I only ever went back for you. I don’t know if that hurts more, imagining you knew I only visited for you. Because let’s be honest, Dad was the whole reason I left, and maybe I cared about Mom at some point, but the arguments and drugs were more interesting than me apparently. At some point, it was just to show my face, say I filled my quota as decreed by the courts, and to see you. You were the only good part about those visits.

I wish I could have taken you with me.

I wanted to. Desperately, then and now, I wish I could have. I wonder if I could have changed their minds if I pushed hard enough – but I never pushed, then. Pushing still meant getting yelled at and told to stand isolated for hours on end and sometimes it also meant being hit so hard my skin still stung hours later. So I didn’t push, because I didn’t know I could, but I wish I had tried. I should have. I don’t know what we would have done, because there was still your aggression issue and space but maybe we could have figured out something–

But I didn’t. 

I stopped going back.

I keep going back to that day. You were so excited, so happy. I was told it was a mistake, a trick to get me to talk to Dad, but I didn’t even pay him any mind. I was focused on you. It had been so long since I had seen you – and I didn’t cry that day, I didn’t, but I cry now thinking about it. Seeing you again was one of the best and worst things to happen to me. It had been years – one, likely two, but no more than that. We were almost fourteen. I stopped going when we were twelve.

I didn’t think it’d be the last time I’d see you.

I wish I had taken a picture. I should have. Something – anything – to memorialize that you were there, that we were together again, even if briefly. Something that I’d have to show people, something tangible, something that isn’t just the memories I struggle to hold on to. I have practically nothing of you, and maybe, just maybe, if I had taken a picture, I would have at least one thing.

And then you were gone.

If it were up to me, I would have been there, in the end. I wanted it to be that way – just you and me, just like it started. Maybe it would have destroyed me, to say goodbye that way. But I’d be fine with it – happy, even, just to have those final moments.

I hope, at least, that you had someone, in the end.

I’m sorry I wasn’t there.

I’m sorry it wasn’t me.

I’m sorry.

Goodbye.

[angeart]

Oh...oh Rei did a baaaaaaad.... Oh but he's still hurting from that himself isn't he? While people are trying to punish him... And he has to look out for Raven when he's not okay himself... (not that him hurting forgives the toxic things but that is still some hefty guilt right there)

Yessssss tell me more about this universe's Raven!

-🎀

yes, rei’s hurting <3 and it doesn’t fix or apologise or make anything better. fyi, the girlfriend incident happened about five years ago to the current raven’s events! 

it’s not the only bad thing rei’s caused, but… let’s circle back again and talk about rei’s raven and their life. 

//cw for suicide mention.

even when they were little, rei and raven were pretty different. raven was a sweet, sensitive boy who unintentionally drew all the affection to himself. he didn’t ask for it, it was just unconditionally given to him on the merit of his bright, friendly, easy personality. the adorable clumsiness and need for help. the gentle heart. basically, he was spoiled and beloved by all.

rei was the opposite. he didn’t know how to express his wants or ask for things, he wasn’t good at expressing his emotions, and never seemed particularly social. unlike raven, who was perceived as someone who thrived on and needed love, rei was deemed “independent enough not to need love or attention”, which led him to feel overlooked and neglected.

despite this, rei and raven used to have a good relationship, a tight sibling bond, for a good couple of years. but over the time, rei’s internal struggle started wedging a knife between them.

they were twins, but rei never felt seen. like i said before, he always felt like he had to fight for things. for scraps. he went down bad routes because they let him scream out his soul. the literal fights were a cry for help, littered with bruises and wounds that he pretended never hurt. 

without being sure there were going to be gentle hands to catch and hold him, he couldn’t afford to be weak.

where raven grew timid and quiet—the good, perfect kid—rei had temperament and zero idea how to control it (or even why he should bother to). he was prone to outbursts and anger and frustration. he wanted to be seen, and, at the end of it, he craved attention—no matter if good or bad. which led him to lashing out and rebelling, which only led to less love and more scoldings and disappointment aimed is way, leaving him feeling alienated and wrong.

when him and raven talked together, sometimes it went okay, sometimes it was a disaster. often it was raven trying to be a moral compass for rei, trying to (mostly) gently steer him and bring him to his senses, but rei interpreted it as condescension and dismissed it all with a scoff.

they grew older, continuing on this diverging path, hurtling further away from each other. 

raven never wanted this distance between them. it wasn’t always this complicated. it wasn’t always this hurtful. he didn’t know what he’s doing wrong, why rei seems to hate him. 

here’s the thing. in a way, they both sort of never formed attachments: 

raven craved the bond he used to have with rei, but translated his brother’s attitude as a rejection, making him think he’s not worthy. he felt like he couldn’t have relationships with anyone unless he has one with his brother in the first place. (otherwise, it felt like a betrayal of rei, like a cheap replacement to fill the hollow part of his soul where his twin should be.) 

rei, on the other hand, felt like nobody could love him, because raven “steals all the love away”, placing the blame in all the wrong places. he got into habit of pushing people away and acting tough, layer upon layer of pretense until he was not capable of getting close to anybody. he was terrified of gaining something only to have it all taken away, put into better hands (that were never his). he was scared of having everything sucked out of him, so he hid and pretended and fought.

then the whole Girlfriend Incident happened, on that wretched cliffside.

rei took it badly, shocked and shaken. despite his behaviour, he never wanted to bring harm to anyone but himself. yet here he was, plagued with nightmares and unable to breathe through the rampaging guilt that only seemed to prove that he is a bad person, that everyone was right—

he pushed it down. tried, desperately, to pretend that nothing was wrong. 

he couldn’t stand losing control, however illusionary it was. 

raven called out his bluff, noticing something is wrong. because for all the years rei felt invisible, raven never stopped paying attention to him. but rei just buried it deep down and kept lashing out and pushing people away even more, including raven. 

by this point, raven put a lot of attention on rei, but rei never noticed. he was too blind to it, too wrapped up in the way he perceived things to work, shackled by self-pity and guilt and outside expectations.

this was a fight raven couldn’t keep fighting for him. he grew exhausted, because he, too, wasin pain. rei put so much blame on him, all of rei’s life was “going wrong” because of raven—or so it seemed, so he made it sound. and that was a heavy burden to bear! 

raven was aware of rei’s hidden pain, and without being offered any other explanations or alternatives, he recognised himself as the source of it.  and… he didn’t want rei to be hurting. he  didn’t want to be this burden ruining everything for his brother. maybe if he wasn’t in the equation… if he’s such an obstacle in rei’s life, causing all that struggle and suffering, maybe if he was gone, rei could get better and be happy and—

without answers, raven started to believe he’s responsible for rei’s misery. his idea was that they were both only halves, but instead of complementing each other, they destroy each other, and while they both live, neither of them can really live.

this all built up, in quiet, dark recesses of raven's soul, until one day, he stood at the edge of the cliff.

oddly enough, the exactly same cliff as the incident before.

rei got there too late, but not late enough to miss it. he was forced to witness it, helpless to stop it.

raven’s last words, as he cried and looked to rei, were, “i need you.” 

which is exactly what rei was trying to get his girlfriend to say, months ago.

he wanted someone to need him, and here was a person who so achingly needed him, and rei never saw it. he failed him. he— 

he couldn’t stop this.

raven toppled, fell into the waves, and died.

he drowned.

and rei,

well,

rei screamed.

he couldn’t bear it.

and his soul tore the world apart to fix it.

because raven needed him.

[artzychic27]

Hey Artzy, do you have any tips on how to write an OC without making them a Mary Sue?

I guess, just don’t make them overly perfect and “can do no wrong.” There’s nothing wrong with seemingly perfect characters like how I wrote Aurore, becuase she feels pressured by her parents to be perfect. Now, if you take away the bit about her parents, make her incredibly self righteous, give her all of these natural talents without any sort of practice, have everyone fawning over her, and let her always be in the right about everything and everyone who says she’s wrong is a piece of shit, then she becomes a Mary Sue

Like a certain someone…

Here are the Science Kids for example, OCs, and the canon ones I fleshed out

Aurore: Straight A’s and definitely getting into her top school, but how will she tell her parents she’s a lesbian and can’t keep being their “golden child” right before she cuts all ties with them and goes to live with her brother?

Denise: An enby with a physique body builders would kill for, yet they feel overworked by their parents simply because they’re the strongest in the family and the elder twin

Simon: Tech Wiz often commissioned to create promo videos for upcoming events, still not completely over their parents abuse and still has mental and physical scars

Reshma: Beautiful, modest rich girl with a love for magical girl anime and anime in general, BUT! She has difficulties knowing if potential love interests truly love her and not her status or looks. Also, has some difficulties trusting older men due to incidents at galas

Jean: Plucky theater kid with a flare for dramatics and has an amazing boyfriend. Who would have guessed that this guy still blames himself for his mom leaving?

Ismael: Cool skateboarder, loves magic tricks, and always seem so cool under pressure. His personality is just a mask to cover up the fact that he’s emotionally drained due to the torment his mother puts him through when he gets home and that his dad wasn’t able to get custody of him after the divorce

Mireille: Pleasant shy girl with a meek demeanor everyone seems to love? Throw in a bastard dad who keeps trying to push her into the spotlight despite the fact that she is painfully shy!

Cosette: On their way to become Paris’ next top makeup artist! How fun! Oh, what’s this? Their “perfect” older siblings are total assholes and this stems from the fact that their mother is emotionally distant and hasn’t once complimented or shown physical affection to any of her own children? And now they put on this cool “I’m here for it” persona and crack jokes to mask their tears?… Wow

Lacey: Let’s see… Incredibly athletic, cute yet badass… Dead parents. Has to take care of both her grandparents and younger brothers. Fears the day her grandparents will die as she does not feel mentally and emotionally ready to take care of her brothers all on her own and refuses to let people in and hell her so she does parkour and all sorts of other activities to null the pain

Marc: Talented writer with legs for days and a cute boyfriend. My, what could possibly be his flaw? Oh! I know! A bad case of anxiety, and depending on the universe, he’s still terrified of Lucien and believe he’s the one at fault for their relationship taking a toxic turn! Boom!

Zoé: Rich mom, rich dad. But, what’s this? The mom is a complete bitch (Which we already know) and is always pressuring her into looking and acting “like her daughter,” even going so far as to bleach her hair at a young age, forcing her to compete in beauty pageants, and the constant verbal abuse regarding her looks. The dad’s cool, though. He misses her dearly

See, no one’s perfect. Not all of them get straight A’s, and not all of them have parents who are super well off due to a thriving business or some shit, and not all of them have parents who are totally accepting of their genders and sexualities. They have to be human, and humans have flaws

[emi-loves-jones]

More Jones Family HCs!

TW: Mentions of Abuse, Death, and Suicide.

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Young Marilyn with a teeny tiny Jones!

She’s about 24 here, and little David would be about 3 months!

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Case 60 | The Conspiracy spoilers!

The siblings’ reunion after the explosion!

Denise and Darcie were terrified that they had lost David for real, especially because they just had a suicide scare..

Upon noticing that their brother was alive and well, they engulfed him into a giant hug! (Admittedly, not so much aware of his injuries and pain, but even David’s far too relieved to care.)

(( Think of the scene in Encanto, with Pepa and Julieta engulfing Bruno in a big hug! That’s how I picture the Jones siblings! (FYI) ))

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Toby Jacob Quentin and Orla Zara Quentin

- Denise’s children / David and Darcie’s niece and nephew / Marilyn and Rueben’s grandchildren.

- Twins, 8 yo. (In The Conspiracy)

- British-American

- Toby has autism.

- Orla is an asthmatic.

- They both have wild fascinations and imaginations, specifically when it comes to mythological creatures.

- Toby likes outer space and history, he’s hoping to maybe become an astronaut someday.

- Orla really loves the ocean and pretty much animals in general, she wishes to become a scuba diver.

- They both have different goals, but they’re actually pretty similar mentally and personality-wise.

With their mom! They both have a lot of physical and mental similarities with Denise.

Proud Uncle!

David was always trusted to watch over the twins whenever any of the other family members were out of the picture.

Back when Toby and Orla were younger, David would even bring them into work sometimes. (Since he had no other choice.) The other GPD members really grew to like the twins, they’d often help David care for them too.

The twins call him “Uncle David!”

They also call their aunt “Auntie Darcie!”

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Extra // Background Info

- Denise is an asthmatic. (Just like her daughter)

- Darcie is diabetic, and is also considered a hypochondriac. She has to take medication for her anxieties.

- David was named after his step-grandfather. David Jeremiah Jefferson was the only parental figure Marilyn truly had in her youth. He was very understanding towards Marilyn and always tried to include her. Sadly, he was killed by cops after entering the wrong place at the wrong time, traumatizing Marilyn. Blaming her for their stepfather’s death, Marilyn’s siblings never forgave her for the incident.

- Marilyn Willow Burton was the youngest out of 9 children. She wasn’t planned, quickly becoming known as the “Black sheep” of the family.

- The Jones siblings’ father, Rueben Archibald Jones, came from a small yet well supported family. He grew up in England with his mother, grandmother, and uncle. They ended up moving to Grimsborough, and that’s where Rueben met and fell in love with Marilyn.

- After falling pregnant with Rueben’s child. Marilyn was disgraced and kicked out by her family. Rueben’s family took her in though, and they all decided to move back to England together. Rueben and Marilyn married the same year before eventually having their eldest, Denise Joanne.

- The couple lived in peace for the next two years, eventually having David Jeremiah. However, soon after, Marilyn found herself trapped into her biological family’s clutches again. The Burtons threatened her with taking away her children if she doesn’t take them back, leaving her no choice.

- The couple had no choice, but even then, they still vowed to maintain as positive parental figures for their children the best they could. They were determined to give them the best lives they could.

- After five years, Rueben and Marilyn welcomes Darcie Joy into the world. Eventually, they’d go on to move back to Grimsborough after another few years, attempting to start a new life for the kids. However, even then they couldn’t escape the Burtons..

- Despite the Burtons’ strict rules and beliefs, Marilyn and Rueben weren’t giving up on their three children. Even as the Jones siblings grew older, their parents were positive to keep them happy and safe.

Case 52 | The Conspiracy Spoilers!

- When the rest of the Jones family got word about David’s suicide attempt, they were in shambles. Denise and Darcie sobbed into each other, and Marilyn and Rueben had to be held back by hospital staff. They were threatening the doctors for refusing to let them see their son..

- As the Jones’ suffered, the surviving Burtons just laughed at the news. Blaming David for his mental health, the Burtons went on to claim that he’d be “better off dead for not contributing to the family.”

- That was the last straw for Marilyn. She could handle her bio family throwing those kinds of insults at her. But her only son? Hell no! That’s when Marilyn finally snapped. Confronting the Burtons for the last time, Marilyn finally gained the courage she needed to cut them out of both her and her family’s lives once and for all. No more calls. No more texts. No more favors. Nothing. She was done with them forever. And much to her relief, it worked. The Jones family could finally live in peace now..

•

•

•

(( Dear God- sorry it’s long. I got so carried away. I wanted to provide as much info and context as I could. <\3 ))

[feral-turtles]

What will it be like when the bro reunite with leo?

I know he won't recognize them but I'm still curious on how it will go

This is my second time writing this because fucking tumblr decided getting rid of my three paragraphs was a good idea

But needless to say the whole incident is interesting.

BIG SPOILER WARNING

Leo is contained in a spare room on Fugitoids ship and he is terrified. Not only does he feel trapped but it’s entirely new territory. Its not the battle ring and its not his cage. He’s alone and scared and clawing at the doors to be let out. The moment the doors open he shoots like a bullet towards the nearest moving body. Fugitoid manages to snag and catch him before he does something that he will regret later or before he hurts one of the boys. 

The boys, when following fugitoid back to the ship have no idea it’s Leo he’s bringing them back to, and they just assumed it was something bad due to their recent luck. So they’re all prepping for a fight as they walk onto the ship. Each boy reacts differently to the reveal of Leonardo.

Mikey is shocked, gasping and crying near immediately. It terrifies him to think about what could have possibly reduced his big brother to such a crazed state. He is the first to ask what happened.

Raph is angry <shocker> and in heavy denial. He doesn’t believe that’s Leo and even goes as far as to threaten Fugitoid for answers. He refuses to believe that Leo, in any state of mind, would try to hurt them, and he refuses to think that his fearless older brother would let his mental state deteriorate so far. After Fugitoid explains the story Raph has a small breakdown and takes it out on a nearby wall.

Donnie just freezes going into immediate shock. His bō clatters to the ground and out of his hands as they shake, he doesn’t want to see his broken brother like this but he can’t look away either. Donatello had grieved Leo. He believed that Leo was dead and not coming back, seeing now is almost like he’s seeing a zombie. It doesn’t help that Donnie blames himself for Leo’s disappearance, telling himself that if his tech wasn’t so cumbersome, or if he had just gone with him instead of holing up in his lab Leo would still be with them. Yet here he was, alive and kinda well, he looked healthy at least, albeit skinny.

[lokidokeyartichoki]

Excuse me, what?? You fought a huge python???? You can't just drop that in the tags and not explain how that happened

Lmaoooo I forget not all of you were here in 2015.

This all happened in the very exotic area of the northern suburbs of Chicago. I used to pet sit for a guy who owned a reptile roadshow, and he had like 2 black throat monitor lizards, a few ball pythons, a couple of boa constrictors, a sulcata tortoise, some more lizards and snakes, a tarantula, a snapping turtle and an African millipede. Anyway, I got to feed the smaller animals because they needed to be fed more often but the Burmese python (pictured above) and the adult monitor lizard were fed before he left every time.

They’re all show animals, so they were trained that they were only getting food in their enclosures to minimize incidents at shows. I misunderstood the directions to mist the python’s moss bed and stuck my hand and squeeze bottle into the Burmese’s enclosure.

At the time I had two small dogs and I wasn’t a familiar smell so I don’t blame the snake at all, but it struck my left hand and threw coils around my arm. The snake constricted and let me tell you that thing was 80lbs of pure muscle. Pythons have four rows of teeth on the roof of their mouth and they’re all hooked back to aide in moving food down their throat. So I’m like, “fuck okay” and started pushing my hand back further into its mouth to unhook the teeth.

By the time I managed to get the snake off my arm (it was turning purple) I hadn’t figured out how I was going to close the sliding glass door and my grip weakened enough for it to turn around and bite my right wrist. Which is my dominant arm and all I can remember thinking was “oh okay I guess this is happening now” in the calmest and most resigned way possible. So now the 17ft snake has thrown coils again, is constricting my dominant arm, immobilizing a joint and I’m like “wtf did Jeff corwin and Steve Irwin teach you dumbass”. So I struggled with the snake as gently but firmly as I could until I unhooked it again from my arm. I’m talking prying a hand sized snake head off my limb with my usually useless left hand. It was all in all a 20 minute fight that ended with me getting the snake off and quickly locking the enclosure.

(I did not realize it at the time but if I had stood up and tried to use gravity to get the snake off or moved it out of the enclosure so I had more room I could easily have died if it decided to throw coils and constrict my chest. But that comes into play later.)

ANYWAY, I then wash all my puncture wounds out with antibacterial soap and call my mom who was hysterical and told me to go to the ER. There’s nothing quite like showing up to the ER in a suburb like “yeah I got bit by a very large nonvenomous snake 😔” and they’re like “?????” So all my punctures get washed out with saline and then they take X-rays to make sure no teeth broke off inside my arms.

The funny bit, the funniest part of this whole thing was I was in an intensive out patient group therapy program at the time. Imagine your new patient of like 2 weeks suddenly walks into group one Thursday morning with their forearms and hands all professionally wrapped up with gauze and shit. They were all like “did you self harm” and I was all “no I got bit by a 17ft 80lb snake” and they were like “we haven’t heard that before but we need to unwrap them to verify”. But I was like “Peggy you don’t understand if you unwrap them I can’t wrap them up again and the doctors told me to keep them covered” but Peggy was like “I need to make sure you didn’t cut or self harm” so she unwrapped my arms and was very surprised to find out I had, in fact, been attacked by a large snake instead of lying about it.

Anyway, I then found out that I’m more terrified of open communication and conversation about relationships than possibly dying fighting a snake so I learned a lot about myself that week lmao.

[booksandwords]

Exchange of Power by Tricia Owens

Series: Juxtapose City, #8 Read time: 4 Days Rating: 5/5

The quote: "Don't die," Starr murmured against his lips. "It might have been okay before, when it was only about the sex between us. But not now, Darkness. I'm in too deep to lose you now." — Calyx Starr

Warnings: Read this book with caution. There are no warnings as to the true content. The Juxtapose City series contains multiple incidents of dubious consent, murder, drug use, torture, incest, oh and the occasional light blackmail.

😵🤯😘 And we are back to wtf just happened??? There is a lot to digest from the last maybe 20% of this. Game-changing events. Moments of just why. Sex as power is nothing new to Juxtapose City but some of how it is used here is... offputting maybe. We have new antagonists with differing motives and new relationships but it is still Black and Calyx against the world. Masochistic Black is back and I'm really not sure how I feel about that. The payoff to that in a way is that we get to see Calyx, the former whore, as what is possibly the strongest ace advocate in the city. As stated sex is power so in this world it really can mean next to nothing. It is good if maybe end heavy entry, lots of arc conclusions and full stops. It feels like a hark back to the original style of the series.

I'm writing this review nearly a year after I read the book, it is going to be largely dot points. These are just things to be remembered going forward and things that I appreciated.

I want to say that this starts off in Captain Dick's head. He doesn't appear much after that. But what we do get from that time with him is incredibly important. It is an explanation of what he's been doing all this time. F***er.

The title Exchange of Power is perfect, it doesn't make sense until the end. And I promise you it will make sense at the end. And at that point, it made me so emotional.

Masochistic Black and uber-possessive Starr both appear with more frequency in this than they have for a while, Starr is a possessive creature anyway but there is a scene in this that triggers him badly. And leads to an interesting moment of character clash. In a way that is near painful to read.

This has one of Parker's visions a strong and rather terrifying one. But I'm trying to figure out the context of it given the ending of the book. It feels like it is definitely going to come back later. (Parker)

Calyx was armed with a faze whip. He wanted to wrap it around Kard's nuts and repeatedly push the button. Hell, he wanted to stand on the button. — I mean given what Kard is doing with Black I don't blame him. (Calyx)

"I want to hitch my wagon to yours. I've heard rumors on the streets about what's on the horizon and I want to make sure I'm high enough up the food chain that I can make a difference when it happens." "You're talking war." — This is a clever play, for both of them. Sundhill has done his time as the villain de jour now he gets to be a half-valuable ally. And he will make a good ally in his own way. (Black and Sundhill)

Sundhill broke the kiss again to suck on his earlobe. "Agent Starr has his hand down his pants," he whispered. Black shuddered violently. "He likes watching us." Sundhill sounded smug. Black didn't care. The thought of Starr watching him prostitute himself to the Golden Wonder both shamed him and turned him on in the dirtiest of ways. — These two and Starr have the most messed up relationship. But there are some smart language choices here, Black referring to Sundhill as the Golden Wonder. (Sundhill and Black)

"You sure as hell didn't warn me you were going to do that! Did it slip your mind that Sundhill wasn't wearing a Bliss tab? I felt every fucking second of that man's lust for you, Darkness! I felt everything he felt when he was talking about fucking your face and ordering you around. My god, I need to scrub my brain out now because of that!" — This is Starr's reaction to the moments of the quotes before. Starr wasn't jealous so much as pissed and reacting as is only normal for someone (in particular a former sex worker who enjoyed it) who is in the middle of a sexual feedback loop. (Calyx)

"I know what you're doing," Calyx sobbed against his ear. "I won't let you do it. You're not using me to punish you. I get that you hate yourself for what you did to us, but that's where this ends. I'm not letting you turn this into something even uglier." "It already is!" — Calyx has a serious possessive streak that is on full display here and Black wants his masochistic itch scratched. This is the moment in which they both break. Black is punishing himself and using Starr and his love as a weapon. (Calyx and Black)

"If you want to hurt me, then hurt me." Black held out his wrists, tight together. "Cuff me and punish me. Make me scream and cry. Make yourself feel better. I deserve it, don't I? I've brought nothing but misery and suffering to your life. You're right. You can't trust me. Every other word out of my mouth is a lie. My name is a lie. You hate that about me so get some of your own back. I'll let you." — Black wants to be punished it's that streak again. I love how Calyx in all his glory decides to punish him. It is a moment of pure power for Calyx and something that Black needed.

It wasn't sex he wanted, but connection. Sex was poor glue for holding two people together. Having fucked a few hundred people, Calyx knew this better than most. — 😆 The former whore may just be the best ace advocate in this world. (Calyx)

"How can you love me this much? How can you forgive me? I'm nothing but a monster." Calyx groaned and hugged Black tighter. "Don't ask me questions like that, okay, sweetheart? You break my fucking heart." "I think you're trying to burst mine," — This is a moment of pure love between them. It almost broke me. Black is back in his dark near self-loathing points. (Black and Calyx)

"I love you, Parker. Fuck, I don't care if we're supposed to be on opposite sides of this war. I don't even care if I have to sit in the bunker and knit sweaters for you. I just—I won't let anyone tear us apart. Tell me what I have to do to keep you with me." — Is that the first time we've heard him vocalise his emotions? Love being the most important here. They've done all but never said the words. And there is such desperation here, Jake needs Parker at this point, more than he needs oxygen. (Jake)

2nd Quote: It hit him like paint thrown at a wall: reds and purple, anger and fear; blues and grays, violence and despair— "The fuck you've got my fucking back you fucker—" —green for Calyx's eyes, black for Black who screams and screams, and charcoal, gunpowder, and smoke— "—you don't know shit, you motherfu—" —pulling at his arm as Black screams and there's icy blue and Genesis-noPhoenix-noGenesis-noPhoenix is jumping at him and the explosion is yellows and oranges and somewhere there is green, green for Calyx's eyes as Black is screaming, screaming because of the red...I wanted this in here. — Parker

[de-fright-ful]

Honestly, writing out Amity’s backstory really comes down to ‘Rhiannon is the absolute worst at every turn,’ and ‘The fact Illumise didn’t beat the shit out of her is singlehandedly enough to make her qualify for Saint status,’

There’s this one incident I think FULLY gets that.

For context, after Amity and the family moved to The Estate (because Rhiannon was cheating and was pregnant with another man’s child, Kija knew but wanted to keep and claim the child for his pride but didn’t want her still around that guy, hence going to the middle of nowhere.) Amity wasn’t doing too good because her older siblings (11 & 10) blamed her for the move (Rhiannon never did anything to try and correct that btw, Kija did, but Amity was a daddy’s girl (because she was rejected by her siblings) so his efforts to get them to cut it out were GASOLINE)

Amity, then between 5 and 6 years old, was just starting kindergarten and fully speaking. She was already starting to be emotionally pushed back inside herself, and all that big, goofy personality was just fading into this furtive ghost of a girl.

& Illumise, who met her at 2 and started living nearby at 4 when the family first moved into the estate, had a front-row seat watching her literally shrink away within herself in real time. It was hard to witness, especially for the ‘have problems? Fix it. Do better’ sort of person Illumise is.

BUT THEN CUT TO A SHORT TIME AFTER AMITY’S 7TH BIRTHDAY, her grandfather on Kija’s side, Chikao, who they lived alongside, had died, and per regional tradition, the helper Pokemon of his house were meant to go his descendants. Kija wanted none of them; his dad had just died, and I couldn’t blame him for not being able to face that. So, instead, he passed the buck along to his other kids. But the older 3, had specific ideas about the distribution. Each of the eldest got one, but the 3rd child was one of a set of twins (her sister had literally died the year before Amity was born), and she felt she deserved two of Chikao’s Pokémon for her AND her lost sister, and the others backed her up on it.

But in doing that, there was none left for Amity, and it was obvious to EVERYONE how much it hurt her. I mean, really, her siblings would instead give a Pokémon to a ghost than they would let her have one. OUCH.

Kija wasn’t going to get involved, he was emotionally absent at that moment, and Rhiannon really couldn’t give less of a damn; she just didn’t care to rock the boat and have to parent the other three because that would require having to tackle hard questions with her kids. (I.E., if Amity isn’t the scapegoat, who should be? Hint, it’s you, Rhiannon!)

But Illumise? It broke her heart into hundreds of pieces. She decided, ‘Fine, fuck it, we’ll do it live,’ and one afternoon, she offered to babysit Amity and Mira so she could give her own gift. She went on about her and Chikao’s childhood, her history, and the battles until finally, she got to the point: she’d bred her Flygon several times, and she still has some of the Trapinch that resulted. Illumise wanted to gift Amity her own and raise it, so when Mira got to her age, Amity could teach her how to care for the gift she’d get from Illumise, too.

And Amity, again, 7 YEARS OLD, IN A WORLD WHERE THE BOND OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN POKÉMON AND MEN IS SO COMMONPLACE AND SOUGHT AFTER AND UNDERSTOOD, was AFRAID, Illumise saw it completely on her face, she was petrified and politely refused— but Illumise knew, she wasn’t afraid of the Pokémon. Amity’d been to her home many times and loved playing with them. What she was terrified of was her SIBLINGS; she knew the inheritance Pokemon incident was to prevent her from having one, period. It didn’t matter who took what and who died. Amity, AT 7, refused because she feared what would happen if they were overruled.

The fact that Illumise didn’t go apeshit and demand custody of her after that shows her intense restraint of character.

[missmoon2539]

Wordsnstuff January Writing Challenge

Day 1: Does it ever get easier?

A Drabble from my first book, Best Friends Til The End

Enjoy :)

—

“Does it get easier?” Amelia said to Oliver, shaking in the shower. Oliver fought the urges to cry and carefully extended an arm out. Seeing that Amelia wasn’t flinching or rejecting him, he carefully set his hand on her back and rubbed it as a source of comfort.

“I honestly don’t know, Mia, but I’ll always be here with you, okay? We’ll get through this together,” Oliver desperately wanted to hug her, squeeze her so hard that he could squeeze the pain away. But he knew it wasn’t possible and he didn’t want to accidentally make her uncomfortable as she’s very sensitive to other people in general right now. He would call Sienna over but she’s also in the hospital. He should check up on her soon, she should’ve woke up by now.

He also really wanted to beat the guy who did this to her to death, but he knew that would get him in trouble and Amelia needed him right now more than ever.

“Let’s get you dried up and a new change of clothes,” Oliver said, shutting the running water and pulling the plug out of the bathtub. Amelia was fully clothed when she decided to step into the shower and turn on the tab, he’s gonna need to remind her to take her clothes off before she do that one day. She said it once that it was because she felt really uncomfortable in her own skin ever since the incident, but getting her clothes wet isn’t exactly ideal.

He left the clothes by the sink and closed the door behind him.

His heart broke every single day seeing his roommate, his best friend, and his crush like this. The fact that she flinched the first time he tried to touch her was terrifying enough. He knew she wasn’t to blame though. The guy that did this to her will eventually have to face the consequences, Oliver just hopes that by the time that comes, that guy wouldn’t escape from his punishment.

Want to know how they got there or what happens next? What was the incident? How did it happen?

Find out in my story on Wattpad under the same username, missmoon2539!