#there's a certain time based thing in tommy's thinking as well as in:

[divinekangaroo]

I do really like the idea that Alfie and Tommy fucked and had their deep and meaningful connection in a world where Tommy also has all his on-screen deep and meaningful connections. And that they're happening at the same time, not as serial-monogamy. It's satisfyingly messy.

Tommy's intense mental comparmentation of his experiences as well as his transactional framing would certainly lend itself to him getting one thing from Alfie and another thing from Grace or Lizzie, as he does with Jessie, with sex workers, seeing no issue or conflict with how he feels for any of them at any point in time. Because they are not the same and do not intersect and won't even encounter each other in any way.

[dadvans]

without a base, without a trace

bucktommy (9-1-1) :: 5 medical emergencies buck has after breaking up with tommy + 1 he has when they get back together

slightly based on this post by @epiphainie. for @rcmclachlan. art by @wortwood. verging on crack fic. this is the dumbest thing i have ever written.

ONE.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

It’s a rare day that Josh is working the lines, not that he cares. It’s important to not get rusty in a job like this. And if he’s being a little too honest with himself, the rush he gets on certain calls make his shift fly by way quicker than when he’s supervising or working breaks.

“Josh?”

This is close to his thirtieth call of the day, so it takes him a second to place the familiar vocal fry on the other end of call.

“Buck?”

“Shit,” Buck says, “well, this is embarrassing. Uh, hey. Can you not tell my sister about this?”

“Your sister who is sitting across from me?” Josh glances up, catching Maddie’s attention. Her eyes double in size when he mouths Buck to her and gestures to his own headset.

“Yeah, please, I—Josh—“

“Hey, hey, of course, don’t worry, Buck, I’m still a professional.” He rolls his eyes as Maddie peers over her monitor, and he mouths again I’ll tell you later, before returning his attention to the line. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Buck sighs on the other end. “I have a Coke can stuck up my ass.”

Josh almost chokes. This wouldn’t even be the first call this week where someone “tripped and landed on something wrong,” but the mental image of one of those calls being Buck practically knocks the wind out of him.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that.”

“Coke can,” Buck repeats, and there’s something to be said that his bitchy tone could be genetic the way he sounds so much like Maddie on her last nerve, “stuck up my ass.”

“Oka-a-a-y,” Josh says slowly, logging rectal foreign body and Coke can appropriately. “Can I ask how this happened?”

“How do you think, Josh? My boyfriend broke up with me, I missed him, and Tommy was—he was big, you know?”

“Sure,” Josh replies, trying to keep his tone neutral as possible. “Have you ever heard the adage ‘without a base, without a trace?’ Without a flared base, nearly ten times out of ten you’re bound to—“

“Look, I know, okay? I’ve responded to plenty of these calls myself, I just thought I had a good grip and was feeling desperate, and with all the lube, it slipped, and—“

“You know what, I think I get the picture. Are you at your home address?”

He hears another sad sigh from Buck’s end of the line.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well, I’m dispatching paramedics to your location, okay? And for future reference”—he lowers his voice—“there are plenty of places online, or The Pleasure Chest off of Santa Monica that can provide you with a more appropriate, uh, instrument to help you with your needs, got it?”

He hangs up shortly after, and Maddie immediately rounds their desks to sit on the lip of his. “So?”

“Let me just tell you that you don’t want to know,” Josh says, shaking his head. “But if you piss me off someday, I might tell you.”

TWO

It’s barely a week after Josh takes Buck’s call that another one comes in. Josh is the supervisor on shift when he hears Maddie’s tone go from a measured neutral to thin and tight in seconds.

“Buck?” She says. “Buck, are you okay?”

There’s no possible way, Josh thinks. But just in case, on a hunch, he pulls up a chair and connects himself to her line.

“Buck, this is Josh, I’m acting shift lead.”

Maddie gives him a weird look that he ignores, but Buck says, “Oh, thank God. Maddie, can you let Josh just take this?”

“Um, n-no, no. This doesn’t work like that. What’s going on, Evan?”

“Maddie,” Buck groans, “please?”

“Please, sir, I need you to state your emergency,” Maddie continues, voice settling. Her hands, which had been starting to shake, still on her keyboard.

“It’s an eggplant,” Buck says. “I have… an eggplant.”

“An eggplant?” Maddie repeats.

Josh chokes past a cough so he doesn’t laugh out loud. Real fucking amateur hour. “Buck, what did I tell you last week? Did you completely ignore my advice?”

Maddie turns to him, frowning. “What’s going on?”

“Your brother has an eggplant lodged in his ass,” Josh replies, shaking his head. “Am I right, Buck?”

“Look, I did take your advice, or I thought I did. I thought if I started at the smaller side, the other end would act naturally as a flared base, but I got uh, carried away.”

Josh closes his eyes, listening, and counts to three. Maddie may have stopped breathing next to him. “And Buck, uh, what kind of eggplant was it? I’m assuming—“

“Italian,” Buck confirms, “the big kind.”

Damn. Josh is kind of impressed. Buck sure isn’t doing things by halves.

“This time it may require, uh,” Buck continues, “surgical assistance. It feels really deep.”

“Buck, I can’t assure you of anything, but you’d be surprised what the human body is capable of. Just stay calm, and we’re dispatching help to your area. Are you still at home?” Josh asks.

“Yeah,” Buck admits. Josh has had years of faceless conversations across a wide range of disasters, emergencies, human experiences. Someone else, even Maddie, would probably say he sounds embarrassed, but Josh knows sadness when he hears it.

He doesn’t call any attention to it, just nods. “Okay, thank you. Help is on the way.”

When the call disconnects, Maddie turns to him, face distressed. “What did he mean, ‘This time?���”

THREE

Josh is supervising a new trainee’s line when Buck’s third call comes in. It’s been maybe a week and a half, and the first to come so late, almost three in the morning. Josh has just come back from a break, having closed his eyes in the back for forty-five minutes, and is wondering if he’s still dreaming when Buck’s unmistakable voice cracks over the line. Unlike the first two calls, he slurs from the first word and Josh is pretty sure he’s been crying.

Josh rolls his eyes and unmutes his side of the line. “Hi, Buck.”

His trainee almost jumps a foot when he does it. He covers his mic with his palm and turns to her.

“Repeat callers, you’ll get used to them. This one is kind of my regular,” he assures her, hoping she doesn’t work with Maddie anytime soon.

Buck hiccups on the other end of the line and moans. “Josh, I did something stupid.”

“Wait, what was that? Buck, can you tell me what’s going on? Are you safe?”

“I dunno. Did something stupid. Dumb,” he repeats. “Wine bottle.”

Jesus Christ. “Wine bottle?”

“Wine bottle. With wine in it. Neck not big enough. Stuck. Wine is—izza—fillin’ me up but is, it’s, doesn’t feel right.” Half of his words are slurred together. It sounds like he’s saying Dozen-fee-ruh. He says, “Mucus membranes. I looked it up. Too much.”

“Got it, got it, you home, Buck?”

“Yeah,” Buck admits softly. “Alone.”

“I’m sending help to your location.” Josh takes over his trainee’s dashboards and dispatches a team accordingly.

“Not the one-eighteen though, right?” Buck asks. But with the way he sounds, it takes a second for Josh to decipher.

“No, not the one-eighteen,” he says, then sighs. “But Buck, I can’t guarantee that they won’t be dispatched to you next time. And if it’s me on the call, that’s who I’m definitely sending. I don’t expect you to remember me saying this, but if this happens again, you might force my hand if that’s what gets you to stop.”

“Okay, okay. Just miss him. Miss him so much. The way he filled me up—“

Josh abruptly ends the call. Which isn’t great. Help has already been sent out, but still.

“What just happened?” She asks.

“Something,” Josh says on an exhale, “totally normal in the broad scheme of things. But for my sake? Please pretend this call never did.”

FOUR.

Josh was supposed to be off tonight, but dispatch has been busy, busy, busy since a low five-point-something and several aftershocks slammed everything sideways from Puente Hills. Sue called him in hours ago, and the only thing that’s keeping him alert through the hours-long queue of anxious callers is the promise of that sweet, sweet, time and a half overtime pay.

He’s ready to lose it by the time the calls start to finally die down only to have Buck end up on his line.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” he sighs. He pulls

Buck, on the other end, grumbles what sounds like There have to be more than five dispatchers in all of Los Angeles, right? away from the receiver, before he says closer and direct across the line, “I’m stuck.”

“What do you mean, ’stuck?’” Josh asks, fingers flying over the keyboard. He hasn’t heard of any infrastructure damage near Glendale, but maybe he’s making assumptions. “Are you trapped?”

“No, I’m—not exactly.”

“‘Not exactly,” Josh repeats. “Buck, where are you?”

“My apartment.” Buck doesn’t sound scared, or even urgently in danger. He sounds resigned. “I got a toy, by the way. Like you suggested. Flared base. Suction end, even, so I wouldn’t have any more accidents.”

Josh stopped believing in God a few decades ago, but he finds himself sending out a quiet prayer anyway that none of his calls with Buck have randomly hit the auditor’s desk. “Is that relevant to the call, sir?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t—shit. I was riding it when the earthquake hit.”

“Okay,” Josh says, when Buck doesn’t elaborate. “And?”

“I had it suctioned to my coffee table. And I’d been riding it for a while, so my legs were already shaky and I slipped—you know what, not important. What’s important is that I’ve been glued to my coffee table with a dick in my ass since noon. I can’t get up without the table—everything pulls, I can’t feel where the silicone ends and wood begins.”

“Jesus,” Josh says. Again, he really hopes this call doesn’t get audited.

There aren’t enough first responders to get to Buck right away. Josh lets him know that, in between asking a series of invasive questions where he learns that Buck is also somehow upside down, struggling to reach the poppers bottle he wants to swat out of the line of sight when someone inevitably rescues him.

“We’re experiencing a high volume of emergency calls at the moment, but I’ll get someone to you as soon as I can. But Buck,” Josh continues, “you have my number. Let me know when you’re okay. And then we can talk. Because I never, ever want to get one of these calls again.”

FIVE.

Josh watches as Maddie suspiciously sidles up to him in the locker bay several days later. She’s half-dancing, hips swaying and arms circling in a sad attempt at salsa.

“Do you have bedbugs? Did Howie give you bedbugs?” He asks her. “Because if you have bedbugs and you give them to the rest of us, I swear to God, Maddie.”

“No!” She says. Even when she doesn’t laugh out loud, she laughs with her eyes sometimes, wide and alive and catching all sorts of life. Had he been straight in another life, he would have been in so much trouble. “Okay, remember how we discussed Evan’s, uh, recent maladaptive coping strategies?”

“If by ‘discussed’ you mean ‘completely evaded the subject,’ and I gave him the number of a man whose penis defies God—“

“Yes, yes, anyway. They’re on a date!” She whips out her phone to show Josh the text message confirmation from Buck that not only had he’d reached out to Josh’s friend a few days ago, but was also now on his way to a dinner and movie. “Look!”

Josh’s eyes close with relief. “Oh, thank God. I can finally rest easy for a shift and not worry your brother is going to end up on my line with something stuck up his ass.”

Maddie’s smile fades and her shoulders slump. “Tell me about it. I’d do anything to go back to a time where he was just baking too much and I didn’t have to worry about where all the candles in his apartment went.”

“Stop.” He closes his eyes and throws his head back. “End of conversation. Even if I’m happy you told me, so I won’t have to spend the next twelve hours worried your brother is going to finally puncture his colon and die. Because the past few weeks have been so much.”

“Well, maybe your Prince Charming is the one who will finally break the curse,” Maddie replies, squeezing his shoulder.

Josh really hopes so. He needs Big Dick Eric (the guy’s Christian name, according to how Josh had saved him in his phone after a slightly overwhelming Grindr hookup) to seal the deal with Buck tonight. It doesn’t have to be forever, just as long as it takes for Buck to stop trying to fill the hole in his heart with dick. For Josh’s own mental health.

He wants to be optimistic.

The first two hours of his shift are as normal as normal can be for a seven-to-seven night shift. He handles an ugly domestic call, several drunk teenagers, a broken skate park ankle, and multiple people reporting the same car alarm going off at their apartment complex. His heart rate picks up when a new homeowner calls to report a squatter in her attic, but it just turns out to be a bat infestation.

And then, as if even thinking the word “quiet” is a thought crime that welcomes chaos, Josh takes his next call and is greeted with screaming.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” He asks, voice slightly elevated to challenge the screams warping the call.

He’ll give Buck credit later: when the emergency isn’t necessarily specific to his own bad decisions, the guy is effectively, professionally cool in a crisis, to a degree that Josh doesn’t immediately recognize him.

He requests an ambulance immediately to a residential address for a single adult man who he believes has fractured his penis.

“Can you tell me what happened that has lead you to believe this man has fractured his penis?” Josh asks, trying to discourage his own balls from shrinking back up inside him.

“We were, uh, in flagrante,” the guy on the other end responds, and that’s when Josh knows it’s Buck, because the pitchy, worried waver in his voice haunts Josh’s dreams. “We were—well—there was a popping noise while he was still inside me, and everything got hot and wet different from lube, you know, and I looked down and there was blood everywhere. And then he started screaming.”

Yeah, that sounds pretty fractured. Poor Big Dick Eric.

“Oh-kay, sir,” Josh replies, “Well, I am dispatching help to you right now. While you wait, you should try to treat the afflicted area with ice—“

“—Already on it,” Buck replies, harried, and Josh can hear him roughly digging ice out of a freezer, he thinks.

“Great. Help will be there soon, Buck,” Josh confirms, and then the shoveling sound stops briefly.

“Josh?”

“Yup,” Josh replies.

“Of course, God—hey, please don’t tell Maddie about this one, please? I’ve already traumatized her so much.”

Josh sighs, and professionalism be damned, he can’t stop himself from saying, “Buck, I won’t tell Maddie, but I’m absolutely telling all of Gay Los Angeles to steer clear from you until whatever sex curse you’re dealing with is fixed”

Buck hums sadly. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

Josh listens to him return to Big Dick Eric’s side, equal parts miserable and beguiled at the soft, direct way Buck offers a baggie of ice to a wailing Big Dick Eric. He finds himself feeling bad, though he’s not sure who for. All parties involved, maybe. Himself especially.

Despite all his years as a dispatcher, he still ends the call with a migraine.

PLUS ONE

“I think,” Maddie had said between several sips of decaf, halfway through their shift, tone light and bubbly, “that they might get back together. They’ve been talking.”

“‘Talking,’ huh?” Josh had replied, shutting his locker. “God, I hope so. Spare the rest of Los Angeles from whatever in the Grey’s Anatomy that’s become your brother’s life.

The look Maddie had given him, six months pregnant, patience thin, emotionally volatile and absolutely not amused, shut him up immediately.

That was hours ago. Seventeen calls ago. Their shift ends as the sun starts rising outside their windowless floor. Josh shrugs his jacket on thinking about the Egg McMuffin he’s going to get before he returns home and passes out in a sodium coma for approximately seven hours. Maybe he’ll dig through the graveyard of Trader Joe’s meals in his freezer to get the frozen bottle of Absolut that sits in back and make himself a Screwdriver to wash it down with.

“Plans for the rest of your day?” He turns to Maddie, only to find her distracted and scrolling through her phone.

“Sorry, I—I have like, several texts and five voicemails from Evan and I’m trying to read the transcripts first,” she says, brow knitting together with worrying familiarity. “Let’s see, it sounds like—oh. Oh. Oh wow.”

Josh commendably does not scream. “What now?”

She turns the phone to him, expanding the first message.

Hi Maddie, it’s Tommy. We’re—me and Evan—are headed to the ER. Nothing huge, just thought you should know, he said you had plans tomorrow. He kind of got carried away tonight, and, you know what? Doesn’t matter. Not a big deal. He’s having a little trouble speaking right now, but wanted me to call you so you don’t worry.

“What,” Josh says.

She thumbs open the transcript for the next voicemail.

Hey, Maddie. Tommy again. Buck’s voice is still out of commission. He, uh. It sounds like he ruptured his airway. He’s being given the good drugs, but will not be able to meet you tomorrow, and is definitely going to be on a text-only basis for at least a week. At the very least it isn’t bad enough for him to need surgery, so we’re getting discharged soon. I’ve got him for now, and I’ll keep an eye on him for the next couple of days while we’re off. Feel free to give me a call or swing by if you have any questions.

“Did he really—?”

“Yup, yes he did,” Maddie says, swiping over to her texts to open up a selfie from Buck, looking smug and high as a kite while reclining in a hospital bed.

“Jesus, how big is Tommy,” Josh says, before he can stop himself.

“At a certain point it just has to be uncomfortable for everyone involved, right?” Maddie frowns down at the picture of Buck grinning back up at her from her phone.

Josh sighs. “They really found love in a hopeless place. I think this is one of those situations where two people belong together, if only for the public safety of everyone else.”

“I just hope it sticks this time.”

“If it doesn’t, I might just have to quit my job,” Josh says. “Anyway, tell them congratulations for me. I’m going to go drink celebratory screwdrivers until I pass out.”

Maddie’s nose wrinkles and she turns her pout on him, one hand moving to her stomach. “You’re a cruel man, Josh Russo.”

His looks down at the phone she still holds with the other pointedly. “I think you and I both know I could be much, much worse.”

[dtupdating]

DREAM replied to a Reddit post!

Transcript under the cut!

Not everything is black and white, so in my opinion these editors are probably being completely (or at least mostly honest), and that part of my video is also not dishonest.

I obviously know a lot of editors, and my statements were based on first hand accounts from (multiple) editors and also screenshots provided by editors. I am not in that discord myself to take screenshots.

Obviously my first screenshots are direct references to specific dollar amounts (in regards to Jack, and the text on screen says it's about Tommy's friends, not Tommy). The context of those screenshots is Jack's editor saying how much they are paid per video ($50), and then another editor asking who they edit for so they can avoid working for them because of how low the pay is. That's exactly what's expressed in the video.

The secondary screenshots were to demonstrate proof of editors in that circle using fans to get very low cost/free labor. I have multiple first hand accounts from editors being paid what works out to be dollars an hour, specifically for Tommy videos, especially for captioning, and some of these accounts are of captioning/cutting work being outsourced to stans for essentially nothing. I think that it's questionable in this case to outsource editing work to stans due to the parasocial relationship problems, not even accounting for extremely low wages.

I have also seen instances where editors are paid fairly by Tommy, but due to "time pressures" push the work onto stans/others for a ridiculously low amount. How much of that Tommy is aware of, I'm not certain, and Tommy has me blocked so it's not like I can ask!

Due to Tommy's video being 5 minutes, I condensed mine as short as I could while containing whatever information is absolutely necessary. The less information there is, the easier it is to misconstrue things, and the easier misinformation is. In a case where money and work is involved, it's not going to be very common that someone is willing to talk bad publicly about their past or a potential future employer.

Obviously the main point of that section was to point out another reason that Tommy's critique of me that he puts effort into his content and I don't is ridiculous. Given I edit my own videos, and have heard horror stories like the above. Obviously I'm HAPPY to see that his main editors are saying they are fairly paid and treated well, and I will always hope that is the case. Obviously it's also dramatized, and I'm overexaggerating to make a point, using a phrase "editor sweatshop" that is commonly used in the editor community to refer to being overworked and underpaid.

Summary-

Factually true:

Stans have at some point, on multiple occasions, assisted with editing Tommy videos for below minimum wage, to the point where it's essentially for free.

Unknowns:

How much Tommy pays his main editors. How involved Tommy is with the editors editing process. How much this happened other than the instances that I know of. If this is still going on, or if it was only happening at peak dream smp.

[rat-rosemary]

You asked for examples where Dream was being mysogenistic.

First I'm going to quickly point out the same thing Tubbo did. Every single accusation Dream slung at a guy that wasn't a strange "example" that he used Tubbo for was really well built up and based on actual things that happened or that Dream at least claimed certainly happened.

Every single accusation he aimed at a woman, that wasn't the case. He accused HannahxxRose of starting a rumour despite not being certain in the slightest. He claimed Aimsey was "behind" the Caiti thing despite having no proof or reason to believe that.

Then I'm just going to point out the fact that he never once addressed the rampant misogyny in the DSMP fandom, including when his own fans absolutely went insane insulting Niki Nihachu because she was frustrated with her own performance in MCC while she was on Dreams team. (I should note, both Tommy and Tubbo HAVE addressed the misogyny in the fandom multiple times)

But there's more you mentioned, for example that you don't believe he's manipulative. During his stream, Dream cut over every single time Tubbo gave him the benefit of the doubt, defended Dream, or said that he didn't agree with Tommy's words. He actively skipped all those segments and then lied about what Tubbo said there. He then only showed the moments where Tubbo was critical of Dream without the context of WHY Tubbo said Dream was in the wrong, and Dream played the victim. Then he continued to undermine all of Tubbo's points by saying he was sure Tubbo only thought that because he was mislead by "Tommy or the brighton friend group" (Tubbo assumed it was Harry at first Dream was aiming at, but considering the earlier mentioned accusations at Aimsey, I think it might've been them that Dream was blaming). These are the most basic manipulative framing tactics that exist; cutting people's words out of context, and then use that lack of context to make it seem like they have no basis and they don't know what they're talking about.

He also managed to perfectly skip every part where Tubbo did say he wasn't sure/it was speculation, and then showed those parts as if Tubbo was sure and was speaking with his full chest. Again; taking words out of context to spin a tale in which Dream was the only victim and Tubbo was attacking him.

Then on to the 3rd and final topic; the Cantu stuff. Tubbo actually specifically made a whole point about that it was not okay that Cantu did that stuff, (and gave corrections later where needed; he was unsure about how the video had gotten publicized but he immediately apologized for not fully understanding the situation once he got context and gave his revised opinion based on his new information) but how reclaiming slurs worked, and he also very specifically said something along the lines of "I don't think anyone in the brighton friend group celebrated Cantu saying a slur to you. I don't think that happened. If it did, and I missed it, it probably wasn't them celebrating that you got called a slur, but just that they hate you."

Dream once again pulled that out of context and only showed the "they hate you part" and not the entire section before that where Tubbo specifically said he was pretty sure that never happened, but he was just giving Dream the benefit of the doubt and that he could've missed something.

This all is why people consider him manipulative. He takes out context, talks around the context with irrelevant details for ages, and then barely addressed the actual point with completely misleading framing. The entire time. Every time.

Wow. Okay anon I'm not sure I want so answer that, but I am thinking about it. Let me just say first and foremost.

You are literally wrong about both of your first points. Dream brought up Hannah because he confused her with someone else, in the exact same way he confused Ludwig for someone else in the same stream.

What he says about Aimsey is very specifically that he had a call with Tubbo, and Tubbo said that he didn't like Dream because when Aimsey asked him about the accusations they were banned from the discord. This did not happen. Dream then says that he thought this meant Aimsey was the one spreading rumors, but he found out that wasn't the case when Aimsey later reached out to talk about it and told Dream they didn't know where the rumor had come from.

He calls out how he can also have misconceptions about other creators based on assumptions, and this is a problem that affects community at large, not just himself.

Caiti was not brought up at any moment during this stream. Please do not try to bring her up as a sacrificial lamb for your point, she deserves better then that.

Neither or these things are misogynistic. Even if he had accused Hannah with more then a passing mention it would not be misogynistic, it would just be wrong. Referencing a woman or and afab person is not misogynistic. Hannah and Aimsey were not referenced any different then any of the male creators that were mentioned in the same stream.

I cannot, physically, go back and scour every single live, video, tweet and interview to see if Dream ever mentioned the misogyny in the fandom or larger streaming community during the dsmp, because I do not remember whether or not it happened. I'll be honest, you comparing Tommy, who made jokes about drugging and raping women, as a good example is already enough.

I did not watch Tubbo's stream. I'm being completely honest when I say that, that's why I haven't commented on it, because at no point I opened this for a discussion or a moderation, I opened it as a check for anyone who couldn't or wouldn't watch Dream's original stream.

Manipulation is communication. There is no way to communicate with someone else without manipulating them. You can not like that Dream went through Tubbo's stream in clips instead of playing all of it and reacting to it on a more classic form. This does not make Dream evil or a mastermind who's trying to fool you, this makes it so you did not like the way he communicated. That is a fair criticism to have.

As a more lighthearted note, I will say that if we got a 3 hour stream out of those clips then Dream would still be streaming now if he had played the whole thing /j

What Tubbo said is equally fucked up, even he he says he's unsure whether or not his friends were celebrating it. Because the point Dream was making was not about them, but about how the internet at large cheered for him being assaulted. "They celebrated because they hate you" is still equally wrong.

Because what is being said is that the action doesn't matter. It does not matter if Cantu assaulted him because I do not like him. This is a bad thing to belive. That violence is righteous because it is against an other.

If I name absolutely any group or people who this has been used against we would get into hate crimes. I cannot be more serious when I say that "Violence against the Other is justified because they are Bad and we are Good" is just facism. This is what Tubbo is implying here, not against his friend group but about the wider internet who celebrated a hate crime. The longer context does not change what is being said.

I am sorry anon, but when we have the context that this is Dream speaking, it makes a lot of sense that he would try to give as much context as possible. It's not evil or manipulative of him to speak a certain way, trying to frame his explanations nothing but manipulation is disingenuous.

[inawickedlittletown]

Sooo I started to read other articles. I didn't after reading the ones that came out right after the episode that justifiably got everyone upset.

This one from tv insider had Tim saying this:

Moving on to Buck and Tommy’s breakup, talk about your approach to it. Why was Tommy sure that Buck would break his heart?

Tommy’s older and Buck is very new to this, and whether Tommy was correct or not, I think what he felt like was exactly what he said: I’m not your last, I’m your first, which is a special thing to be, but as Tommy says, it doesn’t usually end up being the same thing. And I think based on what we know of Buck, he’s maybe not wrong. Buck’s a little impulsive when he’s feeling a certain kind of way. He’s like, move on in, bring your couch. So I just think because Tommy’s a little older and wiser or maybe at some level he feels like he doesn’t deserve Buck, I don’t know. But I think he accurately diagnosed Buck. Buck’s still figuring himself out, and boy, that would be quite risky to move in with that guy as much as you would love to.

That does seem to be Buck’s go-to, which isn’t the best.

Exactly.

Are we going to see Buck single for a significant period of time now? Is he trying to figure out what he wants really out of a relationship?

Yeah, I think that’s right. As Tommy said, you’re still figuring yourself out, and his options have increased by 50 percent of the population. So knowing Buck, that’s going to be choice overload. He’s got to navigate that with a little self-awareness.

--

So they definitely planned for this. That's what this reads like...they wanted to break them up so that they could send Buck through a period of exploration. Tim says everything Oliver said here in much nicer terms. His view of Buck is so...Idk, it's like he sees Buck as a kid that still doesn't know what he wants. And he decided to put that view right into Tommy's head too. It's a little jarring I guess but this show...has it ever been consistent?

What sucks is that 8x05 was written like they were doing so well. And then right off the back with 8x06 we have warning signs in the date scene with the girl that approaches Buck and how Tommy sort of shrugs off Buck checking her out. I really do wonder where hot waiter fit into this and I'm so glad we didn't see Tommy like checking hot waiter out or something. But I guess that scene was there to sow the seeds. We have Buck spiraling because of the Abby thing and we have Tommy maybe not realizing but reinforcing for himself that he's a stepping stone for Buck and being okay with it in the status quo.

The way that Tim speaks about Buck asking Tommy to move in, he makes it seem like Buck is just barreling in without thought...like if they went through with it Tommy might be proven right. But then what is the point of the scene with Josh where Buck is right on the cusp of an "I love you" just to then be like no actually Tommy knows how this ends and he can read Buck and knows they're not forever. But Tommy is not a mind reader.

Where there is hope is in that Tim doesn't outwardly say anything about Tommy being gone for good. As someone else pointed out the Lou interviews were done by buddie journalists with a bias so there is a question to how much that colored what we got and why they were so determined to close the door fully. Also...why did we get exit interviews in the first place for a character that only had three episodes...it's so odd.

The writers made a point of leaving this open. Do I think we'll get Tommy back any time soon. No. But after the doom and gloom and the time to mourn this a bit I want to be positive and there is really no knowing. Tim says he thinks Buck will be single for a while...okay fine...picture that being the rest of this season.

Buck won't just jump into another relationship...and Oliver gets his Buck slut era 2.0...what if S9 brings back Tommy? What if this is the long game...or at least the thing they can have in their back pocket if Lou is available later on to come back. But that's not something they can promise or that they can commit to and Lou isn't on contract clearly and Oliver wouldn't know if that's the plan...hell even Tim probably doesn't know if they'll do that. Or I'm giving him too much credit because as we've seen this season storylines have been rushed to close up at breakneck speeds so it would be an anomaly for him to prolong something like this.

All this to say, showing the network and Tim that bucktommy matters to a lot of people and that Tommy matters...it may just make a difference.

[eddiewithcat]

losing my mind a bit, and need to try and get my thoughts in order BUT!

there is just.. something to be said with this season, and how they constantly like to reaffirm for us buck’s place in christopher’s life.

literally starting off the season with eddie opening up to buck about chris and him dating multiple girls at once, asking buck to talk to him (instead of simply asking him for advice to handle the situation, or even asking his girlfriend who- is a girl and would probably be better in that department! but anyway!).

and then showing us buck’s jealousy of chris thinking tommy is “so cool” (we all know now where that stemmed from, but i am still convinced he was confusing a bunch of feelings at once- and even oliver has said buck had no idea what / who he was jealous about!), and when tommy goes over to talk to buck about the basketball court incident- tommy tells him just how much christopher “can’t shut up” about him. and not to forget buck’s face when he says that and how it lasted a few seconds longer than it probably should have

…. and now; whatever the fuck is going on with helen and ramon coming to visit. my money is on abuela getting / feeling sick after the wedding (hence why eddie is still in the same shirt he wore to the hospital wedding in that still of him and chris that we got- also looks like he possibly could’ve been crying)

i am not super sure what the heck is going on there but i have a silly theory that my friend and i kind of came up with! we do not have strong evidence supporting it btw- this simply just based on what we have seen thus far and how the season has been playing out!

but since eddie will most likely be busy being by his abuela’s side- he would want someone to watch after chris for him. our best guess? buck, of course! it would also explain why he seems to be filming the same time as everyone else involved- and plus it could be the perfect opportunity to bring the ‘will of it all’ into play.

i could see two things going on with this; helena says something in a spur of a moment out burst along the lines of like, “you cannot keep leaving your son with a stranger” and eddie can say something like “he’s not a stranger, he’s family” and that can somehow lead into the will reveal! (because i do see helena being the problem here- people have pointed out many times now that ramon is the only one it seems to be putting in any effort into having a relationship with his son, where as it’s crickets from helena! also she was the first one to be defensive about shannon but anyway!)

OR!

and just a heads up: this is not me bashing tommy at all, i actually do enjoy his character and love what he has done / is doing for buck! this is simply speculation and also just a bit of fun!! no harm in silly theorizing!

i could see tommy perhaps noticing how often buck is watching after chris, and maybe he just brings up something about like, oh hey i thought eddie’s parents were in town… are they not able to watch after him? (in a nice way!! idk how the hell to word things but i do not think he would be a dick about it 😭 like he would just genuinely be asking!) and then somehow that conversation leads to the will and how eddie trusts buck more than anyone etc …

needless to say i just think there is. Something. There. and i have sooooo much hope in the will being brought up. based on how many times they brought it up in interviews, and sort of alluded to in the show as well (“you don’t seem to have trouble committing to certain things” you all know where your mind went!)

anyway that is all. thanks for reading this mess if ya did <3

[leggerefiore]

just embracing it at this point, lads

cw: fluff, slight confessions, cuddling, based on original animal crossing

pairing: Tom Nook/Reader

It was difficult to resist the big eyes of the little tanuki whom you had grown close to. When Nook had threatened you with his goons jokingly after you finished working for him, you had truly thought he meant it entirely as a falsity. Yet, it seemed that he did have some “goons.” Granted, they both seemed far too sweet to actually do anything like that. Though, if Nook did raise them as he had claimed… You felt certain they might actually be capable of doing that.

You served them cake with a sigh, watching as they greedily devoured their individual slices. It seemed they had little to do when Nook was working long hours, so it had become a habit to visit you and see if you would play with them. The two were easy to entertain and fascinated by most things. Though, you were not entirely sure if you enjoyed their comments on the benefits of a larger home for you. Something told you Nook had really rubbed off on them. Still, they were far from a burden, and it was nice to have company. The older tanuki had become a frequent visitor to your home, too. Well, for more than just reminders to pay your loan. Picking up the twins had become a part of his evening routine. They often lost track of time which made Nook have to head over to retrieve them.

Both blinked at you as you sat at the table in your thoughts. Timmy spoke first, opting to bring back your focus. “… What do you think of Mr. Nook… Nook?” Tommy's voice trailed after him. Both seemed curious about the same thing. You glanced at them. Well, he was a bit of a hard ass at first. Seriously, you did not expect to have a mortgage jousted onto you when you moved to a new town. Granted, it did not have interest and no due-by date, but… He also forced you to work part-time and got huffy when you did not want to what the uniform. Your revenge had been banging on his door at three in the morning, claiming you had things to sell. It was shocking he opened the door in his pyjamas and told you that he would only pay seventy percent for it.

But… He had his good sides. He still did give you a home to live despite only having a thousand bells to hand off, and he was courteous enough to still be pleasant with you. The way he cared for Timmy and Tommy… And, well… Maybe, secretly, you would admit that he was a bit cute. Those tired eyes and his comforting way of speaking… You often found yourself hanging out his store for more than just tools. Though, you could not just tell these children those things!

“… He is a good businessman,” you replied simply. They both idolised him and wished to learn from his, after all. That was a good enough reply, assuredly. Both seemed to blink while gazing at you with their large eyes.

“Do you like him… him?” they both asked. You swallowed. What in the world was this? Did they suspect your feelings? It was beyond stressful that your feelings were so obvious that these kids could see them. You grew a bit flustered and looked away. The two shared a glance and nodded at each other. “Mr. Nook likes you, too… too!”

You tensed up. Huh?! Nook liked… you? Surely, they were messing with you. Nook had warned you himself that they could be quite mischievous. Though… They did not appear to doing anything of the sort. Why… were they telling you this? You swallowed again. Nook… You did feel quite strongly for him, but you had this feeling he was not the type to be overly interested in romance. Especially not from a tenant of his. “This isn't some joke, is it?” you asked the two.

Both leaned towards you with their eyes even wider. It seemed that, no, this was not a joke. They were informing you of the truth. “We want you and Mr. Nook to be together!” Timmy explained. Tommy nodded. You grew even more flustered. What was this?! Yet… You could not entirely say you were disinterested. You shook your head at the boys.

“Well…” You tried to politely scold them for being so involved, but their pleading eyes silenced you. They seemed to have made their wants known. Maybe… you could try. Finally, you gave a nod, and they both seemed to perk up. They thanked you for the cake and asked you to walk them home. Thus, giving you a moment with Nook.

~

The shopkeeper received the twins back easily, heading to close the shop while you lingered for a moment inside. He glanced at you, seemingly waiting for you to either leave or say something. You knew he was tired. Nook'N'Go's hours were no joke. It had become slightly common for you to bring him food to eat on his shift since you worried about his health a bit. Though, he seemed fine otherwise.

“Nook…” You spoke finally, “Er, Tom, rather.” He perked up at your choice of his first name and shut the door to the shop while flipping the sign. It seemed he understood you were not there to shop any longer. He took his cap and walked over to you, opting to give you his full attention in between his closing duties. “... I…” it was quite difficult to tell the man what should have been so easy. He gave a 'hm' in reply. “I was wondering if you could set aside some time… for us to… get a coffee together?” you offered awkwardly.

“I don't see why not, hm?” he nodded, “That sounds quite nice. I think I will, yes, yes.”

It seemed it was the beginning of something for you.

Maybe you could even convince him to knock some bells off your debt.

(Unlikely, alas.)

~

A few months from there, you found yourself asleep in a bed with Nook. Snow had crept in with the winter. Somehow, you had found yourself sleeping over at the little living unit in the shop the tanuki lived in. You shifted into his side as the chill of the morning crept under the covers. An arm held you closer to him. The warmth that ruminated from him kept you contented. It seemed you had not been tricked by twins about his feelings. He genuinely had come to like you and appreciated your aid with the boys. It had not been long after that your relationship turned into something more romantic.

Honestly, his off-comment suggestion about you moving in was not so bad. Though, you wondered if that would mean you would be freed from your mortgage. With what a cheapskate he was, you doubted it. You clutched onto his pyjamas and nuzzled into his chest.

You both would have continued to sleep in had the pitter-patter of smaller feet had not approached Nook's bedroom and knocked on the door. You both rose up from the embrace to glance at the door. It seemed Timmy and Tommy were awake. A yawn came from Nook as he stretched and moved to get ready for the day. You managed to catch him just before he did and press a kiss to his cheek. Pulling away, you called out, “Morning… love you…”

He nodded back at you. “Good morning, dear,” he leaned forward to peck a kiss to your forehead. His cheek rubbed against your own make you giggle. “I love you, too,” he moved to actually get dressed.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Semi related to the "Mayomoff" thing, but I really dislike sometimes how cb twt tries to distance Billy from Wanda. I get it's a way to overcompensate because MCU stans usually have the misconception that Billy and Tommy were raised by Wanda, but the insistence feels icky. By the way these people write about these characters, it would make you believe that Wanda tried to steal baby Billy from Rebecca's arms (anti roma tropes are still super present even in "leftie" fandom spaces).

This has been a thing for years, and I've definitely noticed an uptick recently, from both sides, in response to Billy's imminent arrival in the M C U. I think a lot of comic fans, in particular, have a hard time accepting that characters can be more than one thing, or have more than one important storyline or relationship. Whether or not you find it interesting, Billy's relationship with Wanda is a major part of his story, and both characters care about each other a great deal. If you think you can have one without the other, you've lost the plot.

But if I'm being honest, I do think that racism is a part of the problem. People undervalue Wanda's relationship with her sons because they don't understand the significance and nuances of Romani heritage and identity. They undervalue how meaningful a story about family separation and reunion can be, because they have no investment in our history or generational trauma. I think a lot of folks are not willing to hold the space for those perspectives or learn from Roma voices. When we talk about representation and authenticity, a lot people think they need to understand the interiority of Romani culture, but I think these experiences and historical perspectives are much more important.

On top of that, a lot of people seem to think that acknowledging Wanda as Billy's mother or labeling him as a person of Roma heritage somehow erases other aspects of his identity. In some cases, this is well-intentioned-- Jewish identity can be just as nuanced and specific, and needs to be respected-- but a lot people clearly just feel threatened by the idea that he might not be white. And that's a real shame, because in my mind, Billy's Romani heritage only adds to the richness of the character. Mixed families with varied identities exist, and there several real-world experiences you can map Billy's identity onto without invalidating his Jewishness.

-----

Homophobia and gender anxiety are also important factors. I've been following this character for nearly two decades, and I find that Billy's depiction, and how fans respond to him, often reflect shifting attitudes about "positive" gay representation-- specifically, where femininity, diverse gender expression, and gay cultural semiotics fit into that narrative. [x] [x] The character has always been legible as a certain type of gay guy, and over the years, more writers and artists have taken license to explore that aspect of Billy's style and personality. All told, it's pretty subtle, and since most of those writers are gay/bi men, I usually find it quite authentic, but certain fans-- particularly the Young Avengers fanbase-- always respond negatively to any degree of femininity or androgyny.

Billy's proximity to Wanda-- as a legacy character based on a female hero, and as a man who identifies positively as a "witch," when that word is used with explicitly feminine connotations elsewhere in the Marvel canon-- evokes a lot of those same responses. Again, I think this is a perfectly authentic and frankly very common relationship for gay men to have with femininity. But characters like that are rarely represented as powerful, admirable, or desirable, and Billy is all of those things. To me, that is positive representation, and anyone who can't see that has an internalized bias they need to work on.

On the flip side-- homophobia and transphobia are on the rise in America, and I really think the pendulum has swung back around in terms of how comfortable people are expressing those views in public. I've been more plugged into the M C U fandom lately because of Agatha, and I've seen a lot of folks just saying mean, homophobic things about the actor and character. I don't want to defend Locke, because of the whitewashing, but that sort of hate okay is not okay.

[emi-writings]

what would you say is your favorite thing (or things) about c!niki as a character? I’ve seen you post a lot about her and I want to understand her from a c!niki fan perspective.

< < ( candle 🕯️ anon ) > >

The hardest thing about this question was that you clearly just want me to list a few things, and not write an in-depth novel on why I love c!Niki’s character, and how she is a much more important character to the lore than she is given credit for. And also being forced to only pick a few of my favorite things about c!Niki, that was also difficult. I’m gonna try not to repeat anything I’ve said in this post though.

I love her character, her personality. She’s sweet, compassionate, determined, courageous, loyal, and an animal lover, but she’s also vindictive, hotheaded, impulsive, and a touch bloodthirsty. She balances out these conflicting traits very well, either based on circumstances or on where she was in her either vengeance or healing arc.

I really do love how involved c!Niki is in the story. She’s there from nearly the beginning. She was involved in L’Manburg, got directly involved in the elections, was involved in both Manburg and Pogtopia, she got involved with Rutabagville and Dry Waters, she was a major player in the pet wars, she’s the third person who said “it was never meant to be” and it actually lasted when she did it, she’s a member of the Syndicate, she get involved with The Egg, she’s implied to be a dreamwalker and that allowed her to directly get involved in C!GNF’s dream, etc. And all the while, she also had her own storylines going on – her own vengeance arc, her healing arc, her massive underground city, etc.

This is biased because I write fanfics, but I love how well she bounces off of ever other character! I have yet to found a character she doesn’t bounce off well. She’s such a dynamic character, she’s so fun to write into fics. Is she good, is she bad, is she somewhere in between? Is she friendly with this other character, or an enemy? Doesn’t matter, she’s gonna work very well in those dynamics.

Something that I also love that applies to both c!Niki and cc!Niki is just how funny they are. C!Niki can be a hilarious character, just like cc!Niki can be a hilarious content creator. She could have picked anything, anything to shout to distract c!BBH and c!Skeppy, and yet she chose to shout “Sperm whales can't cum!”. When Tommy is bragging about his muscles, she chose the perfect tone to deliver the line “I'm sorry, Tommy, but what muscles are we talking about?”. These are just a few examples, but watching any video with cc!Niki in it will show off how funny she is.

I like that there is some mystery to certain aspects of her character. Why does she hear voices like Technoblade? Can she dreamwalk, because it is heavily implied that she can… why can she dreamwalk, if she can? Her eyes change color multiple times, as well as her hair, are the reasons why they change magical or mundane? There are a lot of angel and demon symbolism surrounding c!Niki’s character, does that have any meaning? Also, the fire symbolism. These aren’t questions that need answers, but it does allow for some creative and fun interpretations of her character. This, again, might be something more relevant to someone who writes fanfics… but hey, it’s still a thing I love!

I think that’s where I’ll leave that. Don’t want to make what was probably intended to be a simple question with a simple answer.

[bleue-flora]

Well since everyone’s doing staged duo headcanon I might as well follow @dr3amofagame [post] and @elmhat [post], and throw in my two cents, which is probably less headcanon and more interpretation of canon.

c!Dream and c!Punz’s insistence on answers and power is only half true. Or at least not the full picture. They do want knowledge and answers but not because of power or greed, but because they were hurt by random people like c!Tommy and c!Wilbur showing up with no explanation. The power they strived for wasn’t a ruling, controlling power but the ability to protect what they value, whether from the rest of the server or death.

c!Dream did tell c!Punz about the torture. Debatable on how much detail he goes into but he does tell him, even if prompted first. I think this for a couple reasons. Firstly, to c!Purpled, c!Punz says, “But they were, Dream told me how Sam let him in freely and allowed him to do unspeakable things to him, that wasn’t a prison that was Hell in a box,” basically telling us that c!Dream told c!Punz and while this could be argued as manipulation, it also just makes sense. He also says “And Quackity was allowed to go in and torture him Every. Single. Day. Purpled, do you know what that does to a man, do you know the limits that people have it—it goes beyond those limits, it's not okay,” and his highlight of it being daily is telling to me. It didn’t have to be daily to be brutal and horrible and have lasting effects. Unless he watches Quackity go in and out covered in blood Every Single Day, at which point would cause some serious concern, then how would he know it was daily unless c!Dream told him? And I am of the opinion that if he had noticed Quackity coming in and out of the prison covered in blood, suspecting c!Dream was being tortured then he would have said something to c!Dream or in his own inner thoughts during the Jailbreak stream. Secondly, as someone with the Revive book it’d be kinda reckless to not inform c!Punz about what happened. He kinda should know who is a major threat and what lengths people are willing to go. After all, should they find out he has the book somehow he needs to be informed on what that could mean for him. But even so, I don’t think c!Dream just offered up that information without c!Punz either asking or doing/saying something that persuades c!Dream to tell him. c!Punz definitely suspects first before he learns more details.

c!Punz did not know why c!Dream wanted Quackity’s location or what he intended to do with the information in the scrapped lore. So, he didn’t take time to scope it out, it was more of - here’s where he lives sorta deal (like if c!Dream asked where Kinoko Kingdom is, then it’s not like c!Punz is going to scope out the place for booby traps and such, he’d just give the location). So, he doesn’t learn about the torture till after, when c!Dream is way worse for wear and tells him what happened in Pandora’s Vault, but I do agree, not about what exactly happened in the scrapped lore (it would make him look too weak).

I think I do have to agree with dr3 and elm on c!Punz going behind c!Dream’s back when going to Purpled. I don’t think c!Dream would risk c!Punz’s exposure like that after everything he sacrificed to keep them a secret and yea c!Dream definitely doesn’t have the info on c!Purpled and c!Slime to put together that plan. I could definitely see it as c!Punz’s own like redemption for the failed first attempt at revenge that he is inadvertently at fault for. Like after finding out about the torture and why c!Dream wanted to know where Quackity was, he is upset and goes to form a plan for better revenge, which after a certain point of success he ropes c!Dream in.

c!Punz does visit the prison, but not before Dream breaks out and not like all the time but just because c!Tommy or c!Sapnap may be watching the place doesn’t mean c!Punz can’t sneak it. He’s a spy after all, it’s kinda his job. I get this impression based on how c!Punz and c!Dream seem to show off the prison together in the finale - ‘let’s show them a part they haven’t been to before.’ And while the deterioration of the prison is a great parallel to Tommy’s overgrown home, both representing the poor mental states of the characters, I think it is worth noting that it’d be really suspicious if the prison was all nice. Like yea ideally no one gets in, but if they do it’s a good deterrent for the place to look dirty and abandoned. After all, who would live in such a mess? Is similar to the mindset or who chooses to live in their own torture box? Who chooses to live in their own hell?... 

c!Punz is jealous of c!George.

[mischievouslittlecreature]

Part 9: Bound in Blood

Summary: To some, the blood bond is as sacred as marriage.

Word Count: 1,979

Warnings: Blood, self-inflected injuries, and smut.

Notes: Today (April 29) is Lucy's birthday! I couldn't find much concrete information on blood bonds, so apologies if I got some of the details wrong or had to fudge any of the real-life aspects of these bonds to accomplish what I intended in this fic. Don't try this at home, kids; blood-born illnesses are a thing.

Previous Part • Series • Next Part

The knife stung as it bit into the flesh of her left palm. Blood, like red pearls, beaded at the first prick, then rushed from the wound in a small gush as she increased pressure on the blade and it sliced deeper into her flesh. She dragged it across nearly the full length of her palm, leaving a diagonal, bleeding line from the base of her index finger to the heel of her palm opposite the side of her thumb in its wake. 

When Tommy had asked her what she thought about marriage, she had been honest with him. Her feelings were conflicted. All her life, marriage had seemed to be akin to a cage. She’d watched women–not just her mother, though she was certainly the most potent example–have their entire beings almost entirely stripped away, until nothing, not even their name, remained. Nothing but a maid, housekeeper, nanny, and whore all rolled into one.  

Perhaps she was being a bit harsh, but that was the example of marriage she had been exposed to for almost her entire life.

And it did not ultimately matter what Tommy wanted, either. She knew it was never his desire to cage or chain her. But it would not be up to him. Society had a very particular expectation for women who were married. And if he wanted to stand even a miniscule of a chance of being accepted into the circles he longed to be a part of, he could not have an unconventional wife. At least not now. 

Perhaps someday, with the changing times and more modern outlooks…if equal rights for women ever truly properly took off, then maybe. But not right now. 

And she would be a rubbish wife. Bored out of her mind. She detested cleaning, was an absolute disaster when it came to knitting and sewing, and she was certain that sitting at home with the knowledge that her husband and his boys were out enjoying all the action and thrills of the life without her, would eat away at her. 

She never had handled the feeling of being left out very well. 

She’d grow to resent it. Resent her life. Maybe even resent him. And that was not something she was willing to risk. 

He had been startlingly understanding, all things considered, when she explained her feelings to him. He knew her so well, he probably had half been expecting it. He’d just stroked her hair, kissing the top of her head. 

“I don’t need a ring and a certificate to know that I’m going to love you forever,” he’d told her. She’d locked her arms around his neck, stretching up on her toes to touch her forehead to his. 

“I plan to love you forever too,” she’d affirmed. And she meant it. Just because she could not say yes to being his wife, did not mean that they didn’t intend to be together for the rest of their lives.  

“But the door is always open. If you ever decide someday that you do want it,” Tommy had promised. Her brows raised, she’d looked at him with eyes that were only half joking. 

“Really? What if you end up marrying someone else?”

He’d scoffed at the mere suggestion, but must have caught the seriousness behind the teasing tone in her voice, because he’d pulled her closer, fondly kissing her nose. “Doesn’t matter. The promise still stands,”  he’d shrugged as if it were no big deal. “You decide you want me to marry you, and I’m already married, I’ll just get divorced.”

Laughing, she’d shook her head. “I don’t think you can ‘just get divorced,’ love. It would fuck your reputation.”

He shrugged again. “Would be worth it,” her laughter faded at the dead seriousness she saw in his eyes as he tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “I’d do anything for you.”

There was something about the way he’d said it, the complete and total certainty, that made her nearly want to cry. No one had ever loved her like this before. 

Completely. Passionately. Unconditionally. 

“There’s something else we could do. In the place of an official, legal marriage. If you’re interested,” he’d suggested, voice but a tempting purr in her ear. And when she looked at him, brow raised with intrigue, he smirked devilishly. 

And so here they were, kneeling in front of each other on the rug in the bedroom of her flat, each of them clutching a dagger in one hand, drawing it across their palms. Lucy watched the blood ooze from her cut, slightly flexing her fingers. She set the knife aside, looking from the warm, red gush to see Tommy doing the same, the dark red of his blood striking against the pale white of his skin.

He looked up, sky blue eyes glimmering in the low light of the candles they’d lit. Her eyes traced over the sharp lines of his jaw and cheeks, softened slightly by the freckles dotting his skin. Those eyes that could be as cold as ice or as warm as a sunny sky boring into her. Dark fringe falling over his forehead. When it was less styled, like it was now, he could have almost been described as a little boyish.  

The blood pooling in both of their palms dripped between their fingers. Sticky and warm.

Slowly, being careful so as to not jostle the cuts too much, they pressed their palms flush against each, then, just as slowly, interlaced their fingers.

Lucy gasped quietly at the feeling of his cut kissing hers. Their blood mixing together. Pouring into each other. Running through the other’s veins. 

If they had not already been one being simply split in two before, they certainly were now. Lucy shuddered, Tommy’s free hand going around her waist and pulling her a little closer, keeping their bleeding palms clasped tightly together. She tilted her head up, nose brushing along his neck and jaw as she did. He dipped his head to kiss her, deeply and open mouthed, the slow stroke of his tongue against hers making her moan softly against his plush lips. 

To some, the blood bond was as sacred as marriage. An unbreakable intermixing of the two bloods. The closest thing one could get to entwining their soul with another. Not only was it a symbol of the deepest possible love and trust, but also a silent promise of eternal devotion. A bond that would last as long as the scars remained present on their skin. A permanent mark tying them together for as long as they both lived. 

Of all the scars marking her flesh, faded but never truly to disappear, this was the only one she would ever truly be happy to have.     

His blood ran in her veins, now. He was a part of her. Forever.   

She’d have wanted it no other way.  

She kissed him back hard, the hand not clasped in his landing on his chest, feeling the steady rise of his breathing and the thump of his heart. Their palms squeezed impossibly tighter against each other, the blood coating them slick, smearing all across their palms, impossible to tell which belonged to whom. 

When they finally parted for air, foreheads resting against each other, they looked down together at their still clasped, bloody hands. 

It was done. 

Tommy’s arm around her waist tightened, somehow pulling her even closer to him, his lips on her forehead. Lucy closed her eyes. He was so impossibly warm, body large and strong and safe around her. She could have stayed like that forever. 

“I love you more than anything,” he said, and the words left tears brimming in her eyes. The weight of those words was not lost on her. 

“I love you too,” she said, angling her face up to his. “More than anything.” 

He smiled at her softly, head dipping to kiss her one last time before they parted, and his fingers flexed a little around hers. Their mixed blood was starting to run down both of their wrists. 

“We should get bandaged up. Before we both bleed everywhere,” he mumbled. 

“Mm,” she nuzzled at his chest. “Yeah.”

He reached for the gauze and bandages they’d set to the side in preparation. Some of the blood had congealed, half sticking their palms together, and it took a little bit of gentle fidgeting to pull them apart. Lucy hissed as Tommy poured a helping of alcohol over her cut, leaning into the kiss he brushed against her temple in apology. They cleaned and bandaged each other’s cuts with quick, practiced movements, examining their handiwork critically to ensure it was satisfactory and wouldn’t leave the other open to any complications or difficulty in healing.

Once that was done, Tommy was gathering her back up into his arms again, kissing her everywhere he would possibly reach. She giggled, overjoyed at the blatant display of affection, returning it as eagerly as she knew how. Strong arms scooping her up by the back of her thighs, he lifted her up onto his hips, standing in one fluid motion and carrying her towards the bed.  

Still kissing, they collapsed in an entanglement of limbs onto the mattress. Clothes were shed hastily, and then there was just the sounds of pleasure and utterances of love filling the room. Her fingers clenching in his hair as he kissed his way down her body, lips, tongue, and fingers working together once he’d reached his destination to make her cry out, back arching off the bed. 

And then he was over her again, wiping his mouth and looking far too pleased with himself. He grinned when she needily dragged his mouth back to hers, legs wrapping around his waist, eager. They both cried out when he sank into her in one deep thrust, the penetration serving as the second unioning of their bodies that evening. 

The bedframe creaked with the pace of their love making; thrusts steady, slow, and deep. Lucy clutched to him as tightly as she could, never wanting to let him go. Never wanting to have to spend another moment of her life without him. 

She’d given him her soul. And in exchange he’d gifted her his heart. And now, with their blood running through each other’s veins, it was as if the merging of their beings had finally completed. They were one now. No one and nothing could ever tear them apart. 

She cried out his name when his cock hit the spot inside her that made her see stars, his thumb rubbing circles into her clit. Her head tipped back against the pillows, babbling nonsense about how good he always was to her. How he always took care of her. How he knew her more deeply and intimately than anyone else ever could. 

When her walls squeezed around him, Tommy moaned her name like it was a prayer. Like it was the most precious thing in the entire world. And then his lips were at her ear, whispering over and over again how much he loved her. That she felt so good. That he promised to love her for as long as he breathed. Maybe even after that. 

She came with a sob of his name against his lips as he kissed her, felt it as he came with her at the exact same moment, filling her with a groan, hips rolling to a stop to rest inside of her as he emptied while she tightened around him like a vice. For hours, or maybe only minutes, neither of them moved, just laying there, holding each other as tight as they could. 

Later, Tommy laid reclined against the pillows, with Lucy cuddled securely in her spot on his chest. And there, in the dark and quiet of night, they traced each other’s bandaged cuts, and whispered promises of eternal love.

Previous Part • Series • Next Part

Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a comment, reblog, or like. I always appreciate feedback and love getting the opportunity to interact with you and hear your thoughts!

[bekolxeram]

Good morning! (Well, at my place) I've just read your take on fandom, and while I'm personally avoiding most of the cast interviews and stuff, I see your point. I'm just afraid that's too much a voice of reason. Something spread all over the world today, facts do not matter very much. And people really forget that fandom is fun. Anyway, would love to see more of those posts :)

I too usually avoid interviews and stuff, I'm mostly in it for the excuse to unite my love for aviation, disaster documentaries and gay stuff. I'm sure you've stumbled across fandom discourse before and asked yourself "are we watching the same show?" Well, I saw a post about one of the actors "confirming a character's sexual orientation" and I was just wondering if we were reading the same words.

I've seen media literacy, canon vs fanon being brought up numerous times for the last 2 months, but I think I've finally found the right words to describe my gripes with the fandom: the confusion of implication and interpretation.

Maddie pulling Chimney out of the frame in that hotel room then ending up pregnant a few episodes later, implication, it's not the network or the show for explicit sex scenes. Buck making a dirty face while saying the ring cutter was for "other stuff", well what other stuff can you think of? Hen and Chimney hanging out with Tommy at the bar in Bobby Begins Again, would Hen and Chimney knowingly become friends with someone who was still racist and misogynist that they had a problem with? These are all hardly refutable facts that just weren't shown explicitly on screen for whatever reasons.

A male character being emotionally repressed and having trouble dating women on the other hand, could be because he is attracted to men without knowing it, but it also could be due to all sorts of reasons like childhood trauma, religious trauma, trauma from the battlefield, unprocessed grief from on-and-off ex-wife suddenly dying in an accident so any sort of closure is no longer possible etc. Another male character looking after a good kid when his father is trying his best to juggle between raising him and being a first responder, could be because he is romantically interested in said single father and wants to become part of a traditional type of nuclear family unit with the kid, but it also could be just him being kind and empathetic, as he himself grew up with emotionally neglectful and absent parents. You can interpret these things all sorts of ways based on your personal experience, but the show itself doesn't tell you how to frame it, nor does it limits you. Though at the end of the day, other people may interpret the same piece of media in different ways, and that includes the showrunner, the writers and even the actors themselves.

And then there's conflating interpretation with irrefutable explicit fact, like I demonstrated in some of my posts. Like the moment after 7x10 came out, the whole fandom was enshrouded by debates over daddy kink. One side painted Tommy as a sexual predator who exploited Buck's moment of vulnerability to satisfy his own kinks (again, Buck started the daddy thing), the other side defended the rights for gay men to explore sexually whenever they like. Yes, the I know daddy kink is very common among the gay community, but the concept itself has become so mainstream the past few years (I blame Pedro Pascal) that it now vaguely means "an older man who is hot".

After a few weeks of thinking I'm crazy and I lack verbal and reading comprehensions, I finally read the source material behind most of the controversies, and I got things completely different from the mainstream discourse out there? I've never seen anyone from the production of the show explicitly stating or even imply a certain ship would come true? At most, they respect and validate fans' own interpretations of the story, that's it. It doesn't necessarily mean they agree with said interpretation, and it certainly does not invalidate other possibilities.

So here we are, some fans feel betrayed even though they were never promised anything. Other fans get nervous over stuff that is actually just an interpretation of a cast member's interview, which in itself is also an interpretation of their own character, but tutted as absolute fact by some.

Enjoying a piece of media is supposed to be about enjoyment, not like a part-time job, so enjoy the parts you like and ignore the rest. But if you want to participate in the fandom, and you feel anxious anytime there's rumors brewing, tracking down the source might actually bring you more peace.

[localsharkcryptid]

I'd love to hear about it :D

Okay so! Admittedly this entire 'Good Ending' AU is a lot of concepts and ideas so imma just put down a bunch of the main and favorite notes I have so far with it!

If I ever do anything with this it'll probably be a fair amount of one-shots or short stories, and I do wanna hammer home that EVERYONE in this AU gets a good ending - no exclusions, full DSMP cast, if I don't write things on certain characters it's generally due to me just not knowing their lore well enough to give specifics on what they'd be doing or just not having set ideas atm.

Mostly for Context Notes:

- I won't say the canon ending is retconned but more so it doesn't happen the same way due to some changes! The Eggpire ending is important though and still plays out mostly the same. Which leads into The Egg becoming this bigger force that everyone has to work together against - thus leading to a final server wide 'truce' in a way that allows for things to finally settle. (Generally going with a concept that the Egg originally surfaced due to all the previous wars, the death drawing it out so it could be found, therefore people figure this out and it becomes a sort of for the greater good situation)

- Additionally the server doesn't reset again due to XD making a very specific deal with George, in an attempt to finally be free of the Admin's influence/all the dream coma bullshittery, George effectively tricks XD into becoming mortal and giving up his status as Admin - officially freeing the server from the loop.

- After the truce, the idea of countries kinda dissolves, while the locations all remain they become more so cities/towns all apart of the same thing again! Also with the server being "freed" the SMP starts gaining citizens after a bit! So actual populations for everywhere!!! Also totally not an excuse for me to make OCs, definitely not (I say like a liar)

- This is a good ending but also I will note it takes a while for a lot of people to become comfortable again with each other, and honestly I don't think there's a lot of forgiveness either, it's more so people choosing to move on from the past. So a lot of my ideas for shenanigans/light hearted stuff are written with the idea of it being like 2-3 years post 'ending'

Other Notes! Just some more miscellaneous thoughts honestly.

- Dream ends up as part of a syndicate as one would assume, Punz is considered an honorary member and of all people, Purpled also joins the ranks, he gets picked up by someone some time after the Las Nevadas finale and that leads to him joining them, whereas the other two show up later on.

- Pandora's Vault ends up being entirely renovated, it being pretty damn difficult now to tell what it was and turned into a proper home, it's a long process mostly headed by Sam in his long list of things he's done to "apologize" after having his world view shattered (he learns that the staged finale was, well, staged and has a mental crisis for like 3 weeks over that and realizing he is, in fact, the bad guy) also his plot goes slightly differently, being based on a roleplay I have going rn! Generally Sam returns to the Vault initially to hide out from people/so they'll 'get over' him being a shit person and it leads into him eventually siding with and eventually ending up with Dream (Awesamdrunz is a dynamic that is borderline crack to me and yes it's going in here) - this is the main factor that changes stuff with the nuke part of the og ending, as Tommy and Tubbo get effectively curb stomped by Sam when they attempt to kill Dream the first time around and don't really try it again.

- While it takes a bit, DTeam do reunite, it's shaky at first (especially with Dream's chosen partners, Punz is pretty neutral as always - he's good at keeping his opinions to himself even if he tends to clash with Sap a lot. As for Sam, well, it's more so that Sapnap and George rightfully hate his fucking guts for awhile) but they have bi-weekly if not more meet-ups to hang out and do things like they used to. They end up eventually building another community house somewhere between Kinoko and the main SMP, this one being more so just a designated hang out.

- Bad ends up taking over looking after a lot of the main server, especially with new arrivals. He's kinda a one-man welcome committee and does a pretty good job. He also tries to host little get togethers now and again (mostly for DTeam/The Manhunt Crew and whoever they wanna bring along) also you cannot tell me that he wouldn't have like weekend bake sales as the SMP gains a proper population. Someone needs to enjoy the muffins.

- Wilbur & Tommy end up making their own book club to rival the syndicate cause both of them aren't allowed in Techno's fancy book club (they think it's an actual book club, so yeah). Sam gets roped into it one day when he shows up to pick up Dream & Punz, Tubbo inevitably gets roped in as well. It's a time and they insist on using Phil's living room for meetings. Phil hates this - also Sam's 8ft ass can barely fit in the room, it's very cramped for him.

---

I've got more but those will be going to the other ask I've got :)

[meowmeowriley]

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! Tag as many people as you have WIPS!

If you saw the original, no you didn't. Lol sorry, had to do some housekeeping here on my blog, and had to redo this post.

Right well, here's the thing, I have way more WIPs than I do moots 😅 butttttt I'll drop what I've got. Please please please ask me about any of them! I'm begging for interaction!

1) Little Meow Meow - my first fic, it's not abandoned, catboy!Ghost is also unkillable and emo.

2) Poké-Pandemonium - Pokémon and secrets. Here soon I aim to make people cry with it ❤ (soon as in within the next couple of chapters, whenever I put them out)

3) More Than Just Loose Ends - 09 Ghost has been watching over and mentoring 22 Ghost his whole life

4) Oh, Brother - my most popular fic, told through the eyes of Erin MacTavish (John's sister) and Tommy Riley. Baby's first realistic and in character AU.

5) I Don't Think We're in Space Anymore - Ghost is a shape-shifting alien and also chaotic as fuck. And horny. Whoops.

6) Was tHat thE BiTe oF 22 - FNAF but all the characters are replaced with COD characters. It's my little abomination.

7) Be Kind, Rewind - Ghost is suddenly 10 years younger. Young dumb and full of cum. Seriously, being 19 means he's got that teenager horndog thing goin on.

On to the ones that haven't been posted yet

8) Duo Fatui - Unus Annus, but make it Soap and Ghost

9) Is That Gonna be a Problem? - Ghost and Soap met before the events of MW2, and were secretly together during the game. This is the story of their relationship.

10) Cohabitation - ghost!Ghost and Zombie!Ghost share one body. They're the same person, so it's not difficult. They banter like siblings.

11) Lost a Bet - Ghost lost a bet with Gaz, so Gaz gets to design his next mask. Gaz designs a cat skull mask, and Ghost bonds with a bunch of stray cats on base.

12) Outlaw Outta Time - some of the COD boys get sent back in time and meet up with a certain outlaw. COD RDR2 crossover. It's a fix it for Arthur ❤

13) unnamed fic about trans Ghost dropping hints that he's trans and Soap who thought he was straight being really confused by the boners he gets around Ghost.

14) unnamed fic about Soap thinking Ghost has a girlfriend, that they're on their way to rescue, when it is in fact a dog. Ghost is fully aware of the miscommunication and thinks it's funny, so he doesn't clarify

15) unnamed fic about Ghost and Soap getting sucked into our world a la Supernatural's The French Mistake. They have to pretend to be Samuel and Neil until they figure out how to get home

WHOO BOY! I think that's all of them. And they're all Ghost/Soap except the FNAF one, because they're children.

Mooties who aren't already on this list, no pressure though! @myriadblvck @27potatochips @resident-idiot-simp @tacticaltaxonomist @ratpiss0

[undressmewithyoureyes]

LET THERE BE LIGHT - FIFTY ONE

**Harleys POV**

Ghost wasted no time wanting to tie the knot. A few days after I was discharged from the hospital, I came back to base to it set up with white tapestries and white tablecloths covering the cafeteria tables. It wasn’t an extravagant wedding, but it was perfect for us. It was…home. Soap had picked out the outfit that Tommy wore going home and also his little onesie that looked like a tux. Soap was the best Godfather and 141 as well as Los Vaqueros were the best village we could have ever asked for.

Price married us and for the first time in a long time, I felt at peace. My head was calm with no storm brewing. Tommy was the most perfect surprise that has ever happened to me and Ghost is the best father. He so gentle and caring with him, it’s almost surrreal. Alejandro and Rudy made sure to have a feast for us to celebrate for our wedding. I had never seen so much food in my life, but from what Alejandro told me, that’s how they do it in Las Alma’s.

“Mrs. Riley,” I hear his voice call out to me.

I spin around and give a flirtatious look at my…husband, “Yes sir, Mr. Riley?”

“Mmmm, I do like that,” he tells me as his arms wrap around my waist. I was leaning over the crib watching our perfect son sleep away.

I turn around to face Ghost, “Do you now?” I flirt back with my eyebrow cocked.

His grip around me tight, “Yes ma’am.” He leans down close to my ear, “I have something for you.”

As long as Ghost and I have been together, my body still isn’t ready for his touch or his deep voice and I hope it never will be. I love the way he makes me feel and I love the chills he runs down my spine. “Oh really? Dare I ask?”

“Close your eyes,” he demands.

I do as I’m told and close my eyes. I frown when I feel his touch remove from me, but my ears perk when I hear his footsteps walking away from me. One things for certain, take away one of your senses, the other ones will heighten. I could hear the drawer to the bedside table open and then shut soon after. His footsteps walk back towards me and before he was standing directly in front of me, I could feel him.

“Hold your hand out,” Ghost says softly.

I reach my hand out, palm up. He places something small in my hand. Cold and metal. “Open your eyes.”

I open my eyes and a gold shiny key rests in my hand. I furrow my brows in confusion still looking at the key before diverting my eyes to his, “I-I…”

“It’s to our house,” he says before I could get the words out.

“…Our house? You bought us a house?” I say to him as tears form in my eyes.

“I did. Right after you told me you’d marry me, I went and bought one,” he says to me as my eyes get lost into his amber ones.

“Simon, I-I don’t know what to say.” I mean what could I say? I was absolutely speechless.

“Say you’ll be mine forever”, he says to me as he pulls me closer to him.

“I already did…when I married you, remember,” I say as I let out a chuckle.

“Oh I’m aware Mrs. Riley. It never gets old.” He was right. I still get butterflies when I hear my last name, our last name come out of his mouth. I knew there was something there the first time I woke up and my head was resting on his chest. When he held me after he secretly listen to me play the piano. When he surprised me in Paris. When he never gave up on me when everyone else did.

“What about Soap?” I ask.

“You know Johnny is coming with us,” Ghost replies with a chuckle.

My arms wrapped around Ghost as my head nestled against his firm chest. It didn’t matter where we lived. He was home. “So where is this mystery house?” I ask - my voice muffled from my face resting against his chest.

“Manchester,” he replies.

“Manchester, UK?” I asked confused removing my head from his chest. He nods. “I thought you never wanted to go back there?”

He brings his hand up and cups the side of my face, “Harley, if there is anything that you have taught me, it’s that I can overcome anything. I didn’t think I would be a good father because I didn’t want to turn out like my own, but here I am loving every second of it. Not being able to find you for all those months and then losing you in the hospital, it really brought something out in me,” he pauses. “And I know we can both overcome anything together.” He stops and looks over my shoulder and into the crib at Tommy. “And I fear anyone or anything that try’s to hurt him.”

I slowly turn around to look at our precious baby boy. Ghost was right. We were killers naturally and would do it without thinking twice, but when it came to our son, we would burn the world down.

A knock at the door pulled my attention from Tommy. Ghost walks over to the door and opens it. Alejandro.

“Amigo’s, it’s been an honor working beside you both,” he says as he shakes Ghost’s hand and then walking over to me.

“Alejandro, we can’t thank you enough for everything you and your base has done for us,” I say back as he hugs me tightly.

“Senorita, please. It’s the least we could do. 141 is family to us,” Alejandro says as he places his hand over where his heart is. “You are always welcome here,” he pauses. “And please, don’t be a stranger.”

“We wont, I promise,” I tell him as he holds both of my shoulders. Alejandro and Rudy have been nothing but kind and treated us as one of their own. They helped with my rescue and they helped house us. If anything, we owe them.

“Harley, our plane will be here in about an hour,” Ghost says to me. I give a soft smile to Alejandro and start packing our bags to head home. Price called in a private jet so we could be more comfortable on the flight, especially for Tommy. Ghost helped me pack as Tommy slept away in the crib. It didn’t take long to pack our few things, and we took the rest of the time telling everyone goodbye.

The hour went by with what felt like a matter of minutes and before we knew it, Ghost, Soap, Tommy and I were thousands of feet in the sky heading to our new home.

“You know this isn’t it,” Soap says to both Ghost and I.

I look at Soap confused as I held Tommy in my arms. It must be nice to be a newborn. You get held all the time and sleep all day. “What are you talking about Johnny?” I ask.

“As in the ‘normal’ life,” he says air quoting ‘normal’.

Ghost chuckles as he fixes him a glass of bourbon and Soap a glass of scotch, “Were not retiring Johnny.”

“Plus, Michael and Graves are still out there. Has anyone heard anything on that?” I ask to them.

Soap shakes his head, “They’re both off the radar. If you ask me, it doesn’t really make sense.”

Ghost throw is head back as the caramel color liquid disappears, “Maybe they killed each other and did the work for us.”

I raise my eyebrows and cock my head giving the ‘that’s an option’ response. “So do you think they are in hiding or blending?”

“Either or,” Ghost replies to me. “The smartest option would be a bullet to the face. I’d take that over what we are going to do to them when we find them.” His voice deep and sultry.

God, I loved when he got riled up or talking about something that pissed him off. His voice became deeper and filled with rage. “I’ll drink to that LT,” Soap says as he raises his glass.

“I hope I’m the one that finds them. Especially Michael,” I say through gritted teeth. The things I plan on doing to that worthless piece of shit is going to be so inhumane that its going to make even the most sadistic people flinch. Michael was mine. End of story and if by some means someone took him out before I could, then they owed me their soul.

(Six Months Later)

Snow covered the windowsills and rooftops in Manchester. Houses were decorated with lights and Christmas trees were places in front of windows. The air was light and crisp as Christmas music played inside the three story house. Ghost went all out when buying your forever home. The house was perfect and there wasn’t a room in the house that hadn’t been ‘broken in’ yet.

I sat on the couch as the doorbell rang through out the house. “I’ll get it!” Soap yells from the kitchen. The house was an open concept, but the giant living room was a huge sunken living room with five stairs leading to the kitchen. Twenty foot vaulted ceilings with floor to ceiling windows with a bright red baby grand piano in the corner. It was something you would find out of a magazine, and you fell in love with it everyday.

“Soap who is it?” I ask as I look over towards the kitchen. Soap doesn’t respond, but flashes me a shit grin. Soap had been cooking since yesterday for our Christmas dinner. I kept asking him why was he cooking so much for just the four of us and his response never changed, “For leftovers Harley.”

Ghost comes down the stairs with Tommy in his arms. Seeing him being a dad lights my heart up. He’s the best dad ever and Soap is right there with him. Tommy is so blessed and I hope he knows that. “Who’s at the door?” Ghost asks as he steps off the last step.

“I don’t know. Go ask the chef,” I say with a chuckle. I grab Tommy and bring him to the center of the living room with his toys. He’s right at six months and has almost mastered the art of crawling.

“Johnny!” Ghost calls out. No answer. I look over at Ghost and he looks back at me. It was times like this that made my anxiety go up because we still had yet to hear anything on Michael or Graves.

“Johnny!” Ghost calls out again. This time he takes a step towards the kitchen and then stops when we hear the door close and multiple sets of footsteps inside. I stand up and stand in front of Tommy and reach behind my back where my pistol rests - Ghost does the same.

We hear the footsteps slowly make their way towards the kitchen. “SURPRISE!” The five people scream as they jump around the corner. Ghost and I quickly pull our pistols and aim it at them before quickly retreating our weapons back into their holsters.

“Talk about the bloodshed of Christ on Christmas,” Soap says as he walks around them.

“Not funny amigo,” Alejandro retorts back.

Price, Gaz, Laswell, Rudy and Alejandro stand in our kitchen on Christmas morning with smiles on their faces. Tears fill my eyes as the overwhelming feeling invades my body. This was the best Christmas ever.

“The place is beautiful,” Laswell says to me. She walks over to where Tommy and I are and takes a seat on the couch.

“Thank you,” I say to her. “Everyone, come in here,” I say to them.

“Everything is in the oven. It will be a few hours before it’s ready,” Soap says to all of us. “Anyone want anything to drink?”

We all nod and Soap brings all of us glasses and brings the ‘whiskey cart’ as we call it over to us. It’s a cart that is filled with all sorts of wines and liquor - cause you never know when you might want to transport a drink.

Everyone fixes them a drink and then takes a seat. “It’s so good to see all of you,” I say looking around the room.

“It’s good to see you all of you too,” Price says to us. “We almost had to block Soaps number. He kept asking us multiple times a day if we were going to make it.”

“Well excuse me for caring,” Soap bites back playfully.

“And look at how big Simon Jr has gotten,” Gaz says with a smile. Ghost couldn’t deny his son. Not only did he have his daddy’s temper, but he was the spitting image of him.

I sat back against the couch as I let the guys and Laswell talk amongst themselves. Soap eventually got up and headed back into the kitchen to check on the food. I got up shortly after to follow.

“I really do appreciate this Johnny. It means more to me than you know,” I tell him. “And I know it means a lot to Simon,” I say as I look back out to everyone.

Soap walks over to me and wraps his arms around my waist, “Anything for you Lass,” he says as he removes his hands from my waist and cups my face before kissing my lips.

“Get a room!” Rudy yells from the living room. All eyes were on us and honestly, I think this was the first time they had seen Soap and I kiss.

“Pick one,” I joke back as everyone laughs. Soap turns back around to finish taking the food out of the oven and I just stare out at the living room. This was perfect. If someone would have told me over a year ago that I would be joining The 141, I would have laughed, but it was honestly the best decision ever - even if it was forced at first.

141 was family. My family and it warms my heart with how welcoming they are and always have been - even when I tried to push them away. Ghost, Soap and I have the best support system and the most reliable people we can count on - that Tommy can also count on.

Ghost gets up from the couch and walks over to me, “Merry Christmas baby,” he says as he places a kiss on my cheek.

“Merry Christmas Mr. Riley,” I say back with a seductive grin.

I go to tease him more, but Prices phone ringing interrupts my thoughts. In our line of work, our phones didn’t ring much unless there was a contract - and our phones never rang on the Holidays unless it was really important.

I watch Prices head move up and down as he talked to whoever was on the other line. After a few minutes, he hangs the phone up and gets off the couch. “We have a hit on Michael,” he announces.

I stand straight as a chill runs down my spine, but it was quickly replaced with this bright fire that I refused to let die off. I said Michael would suffer at my hand and I meant it. I don’t care how many miles I have to run or how many oceans I have to swim through, Michael Gravely will die at my hand.

“Harley, you okay?” Price asks and all eyes turn towards me.

“I’ve never been better,” I say as a sadistic grin forms on my face. “Where is he?” I needed to know because I was coming for him and bringing a wrath with me. My life has always been surrounded by darkness and Michael brought the most with him and if there anything that I learned along the way, is you can’t have darkness if you let there be light.

[alchemistc]

Help, I'm so confused. How can it be, that shippers and antis have such a wildly different perception of the 911 daddy issue szene? I don’t watch the show, just saw some gifs of it, but the discours my dash provides from both sides is astonishing. Wtf is happening? (And for context: even if I'm not in the fandom, I have read Buddie and BuckTommy fics and like both ships.)

Honestly I'm incredibly new to this fandom so I can't really do a deep dive, but from experience in fandom dating back to like, the late nineties, I can tell you there is always, always a section of fandom that wraps themselves in fanon and ties their entire identity into making their own preferences canon.

I have zero problems with the idea of b*ddie. I think it definitely has its merits, and through a certain lens it makes sense. It's not what drew me in and so far there hasn't been a particular fic or take that calls to me, but that's a me thing and there's nothing wrong with having preferences.

What it comes down to is a purposeful misunderstanding of the context given - Buck is into sex, Tommy is clearly into sex, they are into each other and they are exploring that with healthy communication ahead of time by having a flirt about it. That's it. That's all that scene was. It showed us that Buck and Tommy meet each other where they're at and enjoy each other's company and wanna fuck nasty.

But as it ALWAYS goes in the minds of shippers/antis who have wrapped their identities in 'this HAS to be canon or there is something intrinsically wrong with the world and I'm going to make it everyone's problem's (which is NOT ALL SHIPPERS, MIND YOU, THESE GUYS ARE JUST THE LOUD ONES) - they aren't making a genuine connection with either the source material or the character arc. I could tell you twenty different ways off the top of my head that that particular scene could make for EXCELLENT b*ddie content but that's absolutely not the way the antis are coming at it - it's a personal insult to them that they didn't get their way so instead of feeding that into beautiful fanon they've made some bonkers banana wild exclamations about moral superiority.

This is not new. This is exactly how the (small but loud) subsect of shippers/antis has always operated. It's failed media literacy and making it personal when the reality is that this is currently the story the writers want to tell. Antis operate in an echo chamber. It's a bad faith argument (I hesitate to use that word because it's more like proselytizing) based on personal preference.

If bucktommy ends up being a flash in the pan, I will still have enjoyed the dynamic it brought. If Bucks storyline continues on a different trajectory that I don't particularly care for, I can either fade from fandom or dig in with canon divergence and be happy with that.

To answer your actual question though, which is how the two ends of the spectrum have such wildly different readings on the Daddy scene: everyone is looking at this through their own lens of experience/understanding, so of course, of course people who ship Buck and Tommy are delighted, and of course (some) b*ddie shippers don't enjoy it.

There's an element of maturity levels to it that I don't really feel like digging too deep into, as well, but lets be real: the infantalizing of Buck is a big part of the 'ick' we're seeing, the kinning/stanning going too far.

It's the taking it personal bit that's causing all the discourse. It'll fade, it always does, until there's another thing to clutch pearls about. It's just noise. It sucks, but at the end of the day this is a fictional TV show about first responders that is for the most part very Unserious™️ and these are all fictional characters that people from different walks of life are seeing themselves in.

And at the end of the day, there are creative outlets that allow you to change whatever the hell you want about canon if you aren't jiving with it - fanon exists for a reason.

I'll just be over here in my corner enjoying two grown ass men being so down bad for each other they're a little stupid about it.