#this show would probably end up focusing on the adults a lot more

[tloujm]

Part XL: Lost

Author's Notes: Sorry for the late installment. This one is on the short side but I once again was rewriting the ending of things. Also, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and first day of Hanukah.

Summary: Joel gets a bad feeling that something's happened to you and goes to investigate. Does his worst nightmare come true?

Genre: Angst

Ship: Joel Miller x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2.7k

Joel made your favorite dinner in hopes of seducing you into a round two when you got back home from your usual walk. He was set to make dinner anyway but selfishly held out hope that you’d have at least an ounce of energy left after already having had two bouts of cardio for the day. 

In the meantime, Joel sneakily used his time alone with Ellie to try and get some information about the night before. He was still going to wait to have that formal talk tomorrow with you by his side, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to get a head start. Successfully, Joel managed to recruit Ellie into helping cook. She had an attachment to you so it wasn’t hard to convince her to set the drawing book down when he mentioned it was your favorite meal. Joel started with small talk for the first half of cooking but when it came time to set the table, he didn’t want to stall any longer.

“You know, we’ll probably start doing these more often; these…uh…family dinners. I know you’ve been in Jackson for a while now so if there’s anyone you’d ever want to invite over to hang out with and have dinner, that’s alright.” “Thanks, Joel.” Ellie offered him a smile before focusing back on the silverware.  He cleared his throat. “So, um, do you have any friends now? Not to say that you don’t…um,”. Awkwardly, he shifted the weight of one leg to the other. “It’s just I don’t see you really spending time with the other kids outside of school.” “I guess I have one good friend. The others,” She shrugged. “I mean they’re cool. I don’t talk to them as much though.” His eyebrows lifted. “Oh? Well one good friend is better than a bunch of not so good ones. Sometimes things happen in your life that end up showing you who your real friends are. Gotta do what you can to keep those people close and if they are someone you really care about, it won’t feel like work to do so and hopefully they would feel the same in return.” “Is that how you and (y/n) are? The two of you are close friends too?” Without looking up at Ellie, he offered a half smirk. “The closest.” “Closer than you and your brother?” “We’re a different kind of close. Me and Tommy were as thick as thieves growing up and—” “‘Thick as thieves’?” She scrunched up her face. “Never heard of that?” She shook her head. “It's a figure of speech. Just something some people say to mean very close. Anyway, we grew apart for a bit as teens but grew close again as adults then grew apart again for a while but now we’re good.” “What happened?” “Long story.” “I know I’m still a kid, but I can handle it. I’ve heard and seen a lot of things.” “I don’t doubt that, kiddo,” He sighed. “But if I were to tell you the whole thing, it would be too long. And maybe (y/n) should be there when I tell it; it involves her too.” “Where is she anyway?” “That,” he paused to taste test part of the meal. “Is a good question. She should be back by now; it's getting dark.” You never stayed out past sundown. His brows furrowed as he walked out the kitchen to check the charging station in the living room. “I knew I should have asked her if she remembered to take a walkie before leaving.” Ellie followed behind and noticed both walkie talkies lit up green on their charging ports.  “She’s probably on her way now. It’s still light out.” “Maybe.”

If Ellie wasn’t there, Joel wouldn’t have hesitated to put on his coat and go out looking for you. He pictured himself finding you walking down a random street that led to your house with an annoyed look on your face. He wouldn’t have cared what kind of attitude you gave him for needing to know you were ok; he was doing his job. He would take your hand, turn around and the two of you would walk back home together in peace. 

Ellie speaking up made him rethink. He didn’t want to leave her there alone. The two of you try not to leave her unsupervised because of how young she is despite knowing that she has a pretty decent amount of common sense and survival skills. He really didn’t want to leave her alone after the stunt she pulled last night. He thought about bringing Ellie along to look for you but considered her optimistic theory of you being on your way and decided to stay.

The food got cold as Joel and Ellie kept an eye on the door. The two of them made some small talk to pass the time but it was obvious that Joel was too anxious to hold a deeper conversation. He couldn’t help but feel this pit begin to form in his stomach. A growl came from Ellie’s.

Joel abruptly began wrapping up the food and putting it up. Within minutes, the two of you were walking toward Tommy and Maria’s house as it was on the way to Theresa’s at the edge of the settlement.

“Hey, Joel.” Maria greeted at the door. Turning around, she shouted. “Tommy, your brother and Ellie are here. Come on in.” Joel gently pushed Ellie forward. “I only came to see if you could watch Ellie for a while.” “I don’t need a babysitter.” She quickly butted in but just as quickly huffed and stayed quiet when Joel gave her the glare.  “What’s wrong, brother?” Tommy appeared behind his wife.  “It’s nothing. I’m going to Theresa’s to try and find (y/n).” “She didn’t tell you where she was going?” Maria asked. “She had plans to walk and hang out with her but was supposed to be home by now.” “I’ll get my stuff.” Tommy chimed up. “Nah, it's ok, Tommy. She probably lost track of time and is still up there or maybe I’ll meet her part way and find her already walking home.” “You sure?” “Yeah. I packed Ellie some food. We were about to eat dinner but were waiting on (y/n) to get back first, so she hasn’t eaten yet.”

********************

Joel’s eyes darted onto each person that passed him by on the walk to Theresa’s. He was hoping that he wouldn’t have to go all the way there. It worried him. Did you go into labor and, without a walkie or Theresa not having a radio, not have the means to get help? Was she so exhausted that she fell asleep and Theresa let her crash? Joel wondered if he should have trusted Ellie to stay home and man the radio just in case Theresa went to the stables to let them know she was spending the night.

So many theories ran through his mind by the time he made it up to her front door. He knocked a couple times, giving a moment to hear for a response in between. He almost went straight to barging the door in before rethinking the handle. It was unlocked. 

“(y/n)!” Joel called out. Only silence answered him back. Theresa did not pop out the corner wondering why he was yelling. There was no baby crying, disturbed from her sleep. “(y/n)!” 

Joel knew that they could just be out still walking or doing God knows what somewhere else, but he couldn’t help the bad feeling lingering in the back of his mind. He tore through the house one room at a time. After a minute, he walked into the last bedroom down the hall. The door was wide open. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. His deeply furrowed brows loosened as his eyes widened at the scene. It didn’t make sense to him. 

Joel was hardly afraid of much. If someone were to ask, he’d say he was afraid of nothing at all. To you, he’d say, just as he did before, that he was only afraid of being alone again; afraid of being without you.

“(y/n).” Your name fell from his lips in a melancholy way, his voice cracking. He rushed to your side and laid his hands on either side of your head to straighten it towards him. “(y/n), get up.” 

Sliding them down to your shoulders, he shook you gently, then increasingly aggressive. The faintest moan escaped your lips. Joel couldn’t tell if he actually heard you or not, but needed to believe it was true. He slid two fingers under the curve of your jaw to try and find a pulse. It was slow and barely there, but you were still alive; he could save you.

He stepped back, pondering what to do next. He needed to move you, take you to the infirmary, but how? His eyes locked onto the pool of blood soaking the sheets that covered the bottom half of your body. Lifting it, Joel was met with a blood bath. The metallic stench of fresh blood reached his nose. A precisely cut umbilical cord was hanging off the edge of the bed with the attached placenta still between your legs. He was careful not to slip on what formed on the floor.

Joel’s eyes hardened and his lips curled in disgust. Not at the sight of you but at what Theresa did to you; at what he realized she really was. He’d done terrible things before but it was for the survival of him and the ones he loved. This wasn’t about survival. He didn’t know why Theresa did what she’d done, but all he knew was that Theresa was now a monster in his eyes.

“C’mon, baby girl, I gotcha.” Joel untied the ropes around your wrists and gently pulled the IV drip from your arm. He had flashbacks to that night in the firefly hospital where he found himself doing the same thing. The difference was that they hadn’t operated yet and you were just under anesthesia. With a loss of blood, he didn’t want you to fall deeper into unconsciousness. “You gotta wake up for me, baby. Just open your eyes a bit for me, alright?” Gingerly, he wiggled your chin and slapped your cheeks. Your head hung limp against his palm. Joel held back tears as he knew that time was of the essence. “I gotcha…I gotcha.” He repetitiously whispered in your ear as he slid his arms under your neck and knees. 

As dusk fell upon Jackson, Joel practically sprinted with you in his arms. He wrapped the duvet around your body as he lifted you out of the bed to not only keep you body temperature from dropping further but to also protect your privacy. He could feel the warm liquid of blood drip onto the arm cradling your legs together. Not many people were out walking the path he was, but the ones who were starred. He tried not to focus on their looks of confusion and worry by keeping his eyes straight ahead. 

Jesse was up in the watch tower with his partner when he spotted Joel. He appeared distraught. Even though the angle showed nothing to confirm, Jesse could tell by how Joel held the duvet cover that there was someone inside. Immediately, Jesse put down his binoculars when he realized that Joel was heading to the infirmary. The two still weren’t on the best of terms but were civil for your sake. Whatever concerned Joel, almost always concerned you and if it concerned you, his best friend, he wanted to be supportive.

“Hold down the fort.” Jesse said to his partner before practically sliding down the ladder “Joel!” The older man showed no reaction to his own name. “Joel, is everything alright?” Jesse questioned while trying to catch up. “Not now.” Joel said through gritted teeth. “Whatever’s going on, I can help. What’s…Who’s—?” Jesse cut himself off after finally matching Joel’s pace when he caught a glimpse of your hair dangling over Joel's arm.

Jesse could hardly keep up anymore as he suddenly felt winded. “If you want to help, go get my brother and meet me at the gates.” “But—” “Now, Jesse!” Joel practically growled. 

******

“Now’s not a good time, Jesse. What’s up?” Tommy greeted him at the door.  “It’s Joel and—” He tried to keep his voice calm and even. “Maria, I’m heading out.” He shouted into the house while grabbing his things. “He said to meet him at the gates.”  Tommy grabbed his jean jacket and pushed past Jesse, expecting him to catch up. “What happened?” “I saw him from the watchtower and he was carrying (Y/N).” “Thank God he found her." “Found her?” Jesse questioned. “She was supposed to be home a while ago but didn’t come back for dinner and you know Joel, he was worried sick. She was probably chatting away and lost track of time, but…wait.” Tommy stopped following Jesse. “Why’d he want us to meet him by the gate? Did he say anything else?” Jesse looked at him sorrowfully. “No. He was heading to the infirmary with (y/n) and just told me to get you and go to the gates.” “Infirmary? Damn it, boy, why didn’t you start with that? She probably went into labor at that friend’s house.” “She wasn’t in labor.”  “What do you mean ‘she wasn’t in labor’.” “She wasn’t awake. He had her wrapped in a blanket. Tommy, I saw blood.” “Fuck.” Tommy muttered. “You sure he ain’t say nothing else ‘sides meet him by the gate?” Jesse nodded his head. “We’re not going to the them gates.” “But…” Jesse began to protest as he watched Tommy walk off in the direction of the infirmary. Quickly, he followed. “What friend were you talking about before?” “Theresa, the woman we found outside our gates all muddied up with a baby in her arms a while back. You remember." “Her? I hardly ever see her around.” “(y/n) and her are friends and with her being in her last trimester and all…must’ve been complications. Why would he tell you to tell me to meet him at the gates? Makes no damn sense.”

***************

Tommy burst through the doors of the infirmary with Jesse on his heels. Everyone was bustling around one bed in the back. That area, he knew, was reserved for operations. He spotted his brother being pulled away by an apprentice. She was trying to calm him down and ask him questions about your medical history. 

“It’s important we know some things about (y/n). Why don’t you sit down.” She guided Joel to a chair that he only looked at in disdain. He was too pent up with worry and rage to sit. “Joel.” Tommy called. Joel’s eyes darted between the two men approaching him. The younger brother saw the apprentice plead with him through her eyes to help calm him down. “Maybe we should sit down for a moment, huh?” “I’m not sitting the fuck down until I find her.” Joel exclaimed.  “Whoa, what’s going on?” Tommy asked. “Your brother brought his wife in with acute hemorrhaging and resulting in major blood loss.” “What?” The younger brother exclaimed. “Mr. Miller,” She directed herself toward Joel. “we’re going to send some apprentices over to the scene to investigate. Is there anything you can tell me? It could save her life.” “She was hooked up to an IV and tied down to the bed when I got there. I don't know what she was giving her but what I do know is that she kidnapped my child and left (y/n) to die.” “Theresa?” Jesse spoke up.  “She took the baby?” Tommy questioned. “Trauma to the body does appear to show signs of delivery.” “That’s my wife, not a body! She's not dead! You gonna keep her alive, alright?” “We’ll do everything we can.” She hoped she sounded confident.

[payaso-gomi]

Oh yeah I'm doinng a little Danny Phantom rewrite for fun! I love the show, I just wanna see how I'd go about something because I dunno Ghost Boy story sounds fun

You can read my character ramblings under the cut 💖💖

Danny's been a bit hard, I just don't know what to do with him. He did go through quite a rewrite in my head too, I like him in the show and all I just think he's different to how I would have approached him. Teenage boy dies and comes back Different is such a interesting concept and I wanted to try that out. I'd definitely make the trans thing much more of a Thing, make it a Straight Up thing. I think his story would be mostly about finding out who he is, qhich is lowkey what the show's about. More religious imagery and talking though, lmao. He might get renamed altogether, he looks like a Quinn to me idk

Tucker's been the hardest to do something I have fun with because I never really connected with his character in the show. I see this Tucker as a bit of a obssessor, an otaku if you will. He's a shut in, really really good at video games (rythm and RPGs particularly), he listens to a lot of very different electronic music (buddy's not ready for puggnb, he'd love that stuff). If he's interested in something he'll learn everything about it and buy way too much merch (or make it if he has to, Sam planted a DIY worm in him). He has a lot of fictional crushes, most of the anime girls (and a few boys but he's still deeply in the closet here). His main fixation is technology, particularly computer parts and all the stuff involved with that. When he was little he was known for breaking calculators or whatever gadgets and devices he could because he liked to see how they were made. he later learned to disassemble them without breaking them lmao)

Sam's been the easiest, I understand her character the most tbh. I know a couple of people who are very invested in political and social movements and tbh making her a little too focused on that stuff is interesting (and. Potentially funny). Maybe she takes things too seriously, and ends ip getting herself in trouble. Would focus a lot on her relationship with her family (her mom, specifically). She's super super diy, most of her clothes are thrifted. she has the money for new stuff but refuses (or can't for the most part. She does spend her money on music and has a very impressive CD catalog. She would dilute her style a lot more around her family because as much as she's a punk queen, she doesn't want to hear her family's comments on her clothing and her messy makeup. Sticks and stones and all that but it does hurt to hear someone you're close to negatively comment on something you care about

[supernovafics]

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐘 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 4.1k words

summary: in which you and steve are not together, but sometimes— most of the time— you two find your way to each other. it all feels surprisingly okay until the guilt starts to sink in 

warnings: explicit language, cheating (both reader and steve are cheating on their partners), implied smut, a bit of drunk!steve, a lot of angst

author’s note: i love when i get an idea and it consumes my brain so much that i simply cannot do anything except write it lol enjoy this thing that may or may not eventually get a part two<3 idk<333

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

You were starting to feel bad about it. Not bad enough to stop it, but bad nonetheless. 

In the end, when this inevitably blew up, a lot of people would be affected, but when you were alone with Steve you found it too hard to force yourself to care about all of that. When you two were alone in your car in the middle of the night or alone in his bedroom because his parents weren’t home, you never cared about just how terrible all of this was.  

That was why it wasn’t until you were walking down the hallway hand in hand with your boyfriend and you spotted Steve and Nancy lingering by what you could only assume was her locker and she was smiling so happily up at him, that you finally felt a little bad. 

You looked away quickly and pretended as if you hadn’t seen them in the first place; pushing his face and especially hers far out of your mind. Instead, you focused on Jamie and listened as he talked about a history test on Friday that he didn’t feel prepared for and how his parents would go ballistic if he didn’t pass. You promised to help him study later tonight— like you always did, from the moment you two met and became friends in seventh grade— and he smiled, leaning down to peck your lips as he called you the best. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

You really didn’t like thinking about how everything started with Steve. In your head, you were okay with simplifying it to one day you weren’t cheating on your boyfriend with Steve Harrington and the next day you were. Somehow that thought process made it easier; it made what you and Steve were doing feel more mindless than it actually was. 

But, just because you didn’t like thinking about the beginning didn’t change how it happened. 

It was a New Year’s Eve party at Sam Richards' house. 

You’d shown up alone because Jamie was out of town with family and had been since Christmas. Initially, you were supposed to go with them, but then at the last second, your parents decided to be festive and wanted you to be home for Christmas and the entirety of the holiday break. Weirdly enough, though, it hadn’t been as unbearable as you thought it would be.

However, you were on your own for New Year’s because your dad had a work party that was “adults only.” You honestly didn’t mind though because the thought of being stuck with a bunch of random middle-aged people sounded horrible. So, you instead decided to get stuck with a bunch of people your age, which maybe was just a different kind of bad. 

You heard about the party through a friend of a friend who didn’t even show up. The party was rowdy and boring, which were two words that probably didn’t make sense in the same sentence, but in this instance they surprisingly did.

Eventually, you ended up sitting on the rusty old swing set in the backyard, away from the music and drunk teens. Your sneaker-covered feet pushed into the grass, making you swing a little. You didn’t want to do too much because, with the amount of squeaking the swing was making, it felt as if it was on its last few days of life. 

Because of that squeaking and the fact that you were looking at the ground, you didn’t hear or see Steve walk up to you. 

You noticed him when he was only a few feet away, and you were more confused than startled when he sat down in the open swing next to you. 

“Two minutes to midnight.”

Those were not the first words Steve Harrington had ever said to you. Instead, those had been, “So what do we have to do?” after you two got paired up on a project for English last year. It was two weeks worth of meetups in the library that led to you two getting a B+ and never speaking again. 

Until now, apparently. 

“Fun,” You said because what else were you supposed to say? This entire moment didn’t really make a lot of sense to you.

You looked at Steve sitting next to you. The swing continued to squeak as he started lightly rocking back and forth. The second he met your gaze, you looked away. 

“Where's your boyfriend? Jessie something, right?”

“Jamie,” You corrected him. “He's out of town with family for the holidays. Where's your girlfriend? Mary something?”

You knew it was Nancy. Everyone knew it was Nancy. They were the talk of the school and a cliche case— smart girl falling for the popular guy, also known as the plot to one too many romcoms. 

For some reason, though, you didn’t want Steve to know that you inadvertently paid attention to him just like everyone else at your school. 

“Nancy,” He corrected you. “And she’s also at some family thing.”

You only nodded in response and things became quiet.  

“Y’know, apparently it’s bad luck to not kiss someone when the clock strikes twelve,” Steve said, filling the air of silence.

You ignored his random tidbit, which you weren’t sure was real or not. “Why did you come out here?”

His shoulders upturned in a quick shrug. “You looked bored out here. And I was bored in there.”

You could faintly hear the countdown start in the living room, everyone starting from sixty. 

The next words that should have left your lips should’ve been, “I have a boyfriend. I can't kiss you.” But, instead, you didn’t protest when Steve silently took hold of the chain of your swing and pulled it toward him so that you two were closer. 

You could’ve changed your mind and pushed him away, you should’ve changed your mind and pushed him away, but you decided not to think about it too much. When you heard the countdown get to one and everyone followed up by shouting, “Happy New Year!”, you were inwardly saying fuck it and kissing Steve Harrington in Sam Richards�� backyard. 

It was meant to be innocent, a simple peck just so you both could avoid this “bad luck” that Steve talked about, and it was completely innocent and chaste at first. Until your hand impulsively found Steve's cheek and you deepened the kiss and he didn’t stop you. 

He tasted like cigarettes and champagne, a surprisingly comforting combo, and his free hand moved to your waist, slipping underneath your coat and knit sweater. The feeling of his cold hand against your skin made you inadvertently shiver; you’d forgotten just how cold it was outside. 

“Sorry,” He muttered against your lips. 

It was the first word spoken in the last minute and it somehow managed to wake your mind up and made your thoughts finally start catching up to what was happening in this moment. You quickly realized that anyone could potentially see you two out here and even though the party inside sounded just as loud and lively as it had earlier, it was still a possibility that you two could get caught. 

You pulled back from the kiss and met Steve’s gaze. “We can’t do this here.”

It was the ‘here’ part of your sentence that fully piqued Steve’s interest. 

He stood up from the swing and reached his hand out for you to grab. “Come on.”

You slipped your hand in his and let him lead you out of the backyard and away from the house completely. It took you way too long to realize that he was taking you to his car that was parked down the street. He pulled the backseat door open and let you get inside first. 

You forced yourself not to think about anything aside from how good Steve’s mouth felt on yours and how you liked feeling his cold hands against your skin, traveling from your hips to your waist to your back and pulling you closer to him. 

Seconds blended into minutes and you suddenly weren’t sure how long you’d been in his backseat and how long you had kept nearly bumping your head against the roof every time you slightly shifted in his lap.    

It didn’t make sense to you how okay this all felt. You hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to Steve since last year, and yet you felt entirely comfortable with him right here in this moment.

It didn’t make sense that night and it also didn’t make sense the one after that when you saw him again and you two did a lot more than just make out in the backseat of his car. 

However, what did feel certain was the fact that everything suddenly happening between you two wasn’t meant to be anything more. You knew that you and Steve wouldn’t make sense in the daytime or in the real world. He made sense with Nancy and you made sense with Jamie. That was just the way things worked and both of you unspokenly agreed on that. 

It was only in private when you two surprisingly did make sense, and in some ways, it felt like a no-brainer. Of course, you’d see Steve most nights and during fleeting moments at school. Of course, you’d kiss or do more with him for what felt like hours in his house or your own car. Of course, you’d feel comfortable in his bed with his arms wrapped around you as you two ended up talking about nothing for hours. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

You found the note in your locker halfway through third period. You asked your History teacher if you could go to the bathroom and then you headed to your locker instead of the bathrooms that were in the opposite direction because you just knew that something would be in it. 

Meet me. Bathroom. – Steve

The first time he sent a note that basically resembled that one, you laughed because how the hell were you supposed to know what bathroom he meant or when? 

And that was exactly what you told him that night when you two were in your car and he playfully pouted at you, asking why he didn’t get to see you at school. And then he let out a soft “Oh” with his own laugh when he realized that you were right and he didn’t tell you where to go or give you a time. 

From there on out, the bathroom by the gym became your and Steve's meeting place. It was usually always empty because most people opted for using the bathrooms in the gym locker rooms since they were bigger.  

After the first few times you met him there, there was really no reason for Steve to leave notes for you because the place and time was always the same, but you still kind of liked that he did. 

When you walked in at the start of sixth period instead of going to study hall, Steve was already leaning against the sink. 

He smiled when he saw you and you couldn’t help but think that that was the same smile that he’d been giving Nancy earlier; it was the same one he probably always gave her, his girlfriend. 

There was no greeting; no softly spoken “Hi’s” or anything. Instead, Steve was pulling you close and slotting his lips against yours and then shifting you two around so that you were pressed against the sink.

You savored it just for a second before you pulled away. 

“Wait,” You abruptly started and put your hands on his chest to put some distance between you two. “I, um, I think we should stop this.”

Apparently, you were feeling more than just a little bad about everything. 

Steve’s hands fell from your hips and it was easy to read the surprised look on his face, which definitely made sense because it did seem as if your words were coming entirely out of left field. 

“Oh,” He said. The surprised look fell from his face after the quickest moment. “Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s fine.”

His nonchalance toward the situation made it all feel a thousand times easier. Maybe he didn’t really care about all of this, and that should’ve made you feel okay and good and perfectly fine, but if you were being entirely honest with yourself it didn’t make you feel any of that. 

“Okay, cool,” You responded with a forced smile instead of taking your words back or doing anything else about them. “Good to know we’re on the same page.”

He gave you a quick nod. “Yeah.” 

For a second, it was hard to do what you needed to do next, but then you were finally moving away from Steve. No sort of “Goodbye” fell from your lips because it weirdly felt too hard to say the word right then.

Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. 

The two words played on repeat in your head as you forced yourself to leave the bathroom. 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

Steve was throwing rocks at your window. You didn’t even have to look to know it was him. There was no one else it could be. 

Jamie knocked and walked through your front door like a normal person, and then he’d talk to your parents for the obligatory amount of time that was considered polite (even after being friends for so long and then dating for that past year he was still kinda scared of your dad), and then he’d greet you. 

He would not throw rocks at your window. 

The smallest part of you was glad that Steve was at least doing this now instead of ten minutes earlier when Jamie was still here studying because that would’ve ruined everything for you. However, Steve being here now still pissed you off nonetheless. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” You whisper-yelled when you were standing in front of him in your front yard. You adjusted the hoodie that you haphazardly slipped on in your quick race down the stairs. “My parents are home.”

If he really wanted to, he could’ve called you out on how bad of an excuse that was because there had been many prior moments where your parents' presence hadn’t been that concerning to you. It wasn’t like they checked on you periodically throughout the night, so if you left in the middle of the night, all you had to do was make sure you were back by morning. 

Steve didn’t remind you of any of that, though. Instead, he said, “I just— I just wanted to tell you something.”

There was something about the way he was talking and his stance right then that made you give him a look. “Are you drunk?”

He answered with the most unconvincing “No” ever and you had to fight the urge to roll your eyes. 

“How did you get here?”

“Walked,” he answered and you nodded, relieved that he didn’t drive, and then you felt kind of annoyed for caring. You really didn’t want to care about him anymore. 

“So… you, uh, wanted to tell me something?” You asked him. The faster the conversation started, the faster it could be over and he could leave your front yard. 

“Oh, yeah,” He nodded. “I just— I wish you hadn’t ended things with us today.” 

His words confused you because he had seemed perfectly fine about it all earlier. Your eyebrows furrowed. “But, we agreed—“

“I know,” He interrupted you. “I know, and I get it, I guess. But, I just don’t want you to think that it’s easy for me to let you and what we had go. It isn't easy. At all. I didn’t realize how much I really like you and how much I love what we had until you decided to end it.”

You wondered if he was only admitting that because he was drunk; maybe he wouldn’t have said any of that to you otherwise. But, either way, at least he had the guts to say what you’d been too scared to. You hadn’t even really admitted it to yourself, how much you liked and cared about him. As much as you wanted to pretend that what you two had been doing was mindless and didn’t really mean anything, it was actually the complete opposite; of course, it was.

You still had to look away from him in this moment, though, because you weren’t drunk and it felt too hard to admit the truth like he was. “Steve…”

“What changed?” He asked after a moment of what felt like unbearable silence. “Yesterday, we were fine, right?”

You refused to answer his questions because you really didn’t want to rehash everything right then; how your suddenly guilty brain made you impulsively end things with him. You honestly wanted to just forget about everything. 

You shook your head as you sighed. “Let me drive you home, Steve.”

Your words were soft, probably too soft. You wanted to be mean to him, you wanted to push him away; you knew that it would make things easier. But, you couldn’t. 

“Can we walk?”

“Sure, but if you stumble and fall I'm not picking you up.”

He laughed a little as he nodded. “Understandable.” 

You shouldn’t be joking with him, you shouldn’t even be talking to him, but here you were. 

Things were quiet for a few moments, and you figured that maybe this ten-minute walk wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe it would stay silent and you’d say an actual final goodbye to him once you were at his front door and then you two would never talk again; essentially a sort of repeat of what happened last year in English class.

“So, can I know what happened?” Steve asked, breaking the quiet and ruining what you had hoped would happen for the next ten minutes. Apparently, he wasn’t going to let this go until you either told him the truth about what was going on in your head or lied about it all. 

You let out a long breath; you couldn’t find it in you to lie to him in this moment. “I finally realized that we’re shitty people for doing this.” Steve didn’t say anything at first so you took that as your cue to keep going. “You love Nancy and I love Jamie and everything that we’ve been doing for the past month isn’t fair to them and it’s so fucked up. We’re selfish and terrible people, and I kinda hate that this ever started in the first place.”

Finally saying it all out loud made it feel a thousand times more real and certain to you. At least, most of it felt that way. You knew just how shitty all of this was, but you weren’t sure if you’d ever completely regret any of it happening. 

“You don’t love him, though,” Steve said. “At least that’s what you told me that one night.”

You were now learning that Steve Harrington was a good listener, and even with his current inebriation, his memory was still surprisingly good too. 

“That doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change how horrible I feel about all of this.”

You were talking, but all you could think about was the conversation that Steve was referring to. A post-sex conversation that you two had a few weeks ago as you and him were half-naked in the backseat of your car that was parked at Lovers Lake. 

It doesn’t feel right anymore, and I don’t know, maybe it never fully did. I just want to go back to how things were before. But, it feels impossible to tell him any of that. He really loves me, and even though I don't feel the same way anymore, I don’t want to hurt him or break his heart. He's still my best friend. I'll always love him like that. 

It was hard to remember what Steve said in response to that or if he even said anything at all. All you could remember was that the second the words left your mouth, you wanted to forget about it. You’d been way too honest, saying things that you had never admitted out loud before, but somehow you were admitting them to Steve.  

“You’re right,” He said to you now. “We are bad people for doing this.”

Things became quiet then because what else was there really to say? You both were in agreement. 

You two continued walking the short distance to his house. When he started going off course a bit too much, stepping on and off of people’s yards instead of staying on the sidewalk, you grabbed his hand to keep him close and steady. 

You didn’t drop it once you two were at his front door or even when he asked you to come inside. Against your better judgment, you silently let him lead you into his house. You toed off your shoes at the door like you always did and then followed him up the stairs. You told yourself that you were just making sure he made it into bed alright.

“You okay?” You asked once you two were in his room. 

You were just wondering if he was feeling dizzy or needed to throw up, but Steve took your question in an entirely different way. 

He shook his head. “I miss you.”

“I’m right here.”

“Okay, I’m gonna miss you.”

“I…” You let out a soft sigh. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that.”

You wished that he would kick you out, or even yell at you. If he was mean to you, it’d make it easier to leave his house, to leave him. Deep down you knew that he would never do that, though.

“Why can’t we just…” He trailed off for a second, and you were certain that he forgot where he was going with his words, but then he continued. “Do this?”

“Do what?” You asked, even though you had a feeling what he meant but you hoped you were wrong. 

“Be together for real,” He said, and in an entirely different world it would’ve made you happy hearing that, but in this world his statement only made things feel so much more complicated. “We won’t be bad people anymore if we just stop lying.”

For the briefest second, you imagined saying yes and agreeing with him, and for that quick second, the thought actually sounded really nice. 

“Or we won’t be bad people anymore if we just stop everything,” You told him instead of being honest and admitting that you liked him a lot more than you had ever led on, and that even though you had wanted this to mean nothing, you had also really enjoyed the nights where you two talked for hours upon hours about anything. 

“Okay,” He said, no longer debating your words and simply accepting them for what they were.

You nodded and then the simple word fell from your lips too. “Okay.”

That was definitely your cue to leave, but you didn’t say any kind of “goodbye” and neither did Steve. It was obvious that things were different, but they didn’t entirely feel that way just yet, so that made you stay. 

“Do you want me to leave?” You asked softly after a few moments of just watching him move about his bedroom, pulling off the jacket he was wearing and hanging it on the back of his door. 

Steve shook his head, meeting your eyes again. “No, I’ll always want you to stay.”

You couldn’t help but give him a small smile and a simple nod as a way to say “Okay.” You knew that this entire interaction was sending nothing but mixed signals, but your mind was a mess of contradictions and only felt confused, and you just really didn’t want to think too much anymore. 

It was warm in his room, so you pulled off your hoodie, leaving you in just your t-shirt and shorts, and you hung it up where his jacket was on his door. Silently, you joined him at his bed, settling yourself and laying down in the spot that you’d been in more times than you could count at this point.  

“I’m sorry,” You whispered in the darkness after a while. “That things can’t be different.” 

Steve moved closer to you, slipping an arm around your waist. “They could be.”

“I know,” You finally admitted, leaning into his touch. “But, it’s just too hard.”

He didn’t ask you to elaborate on what you meant, probably because he understood or he was just tired of this constant back and forth. 

You told yourself that you’d only stay for five minutes. And when five minutes turned to ten, you told yourself that you at least wouldn’t fall asleep. 

But, of course, you did. You felt too comfortable and at ease in Steve’s arms not to.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。

part two!

let me know ur thoughts<333

[ilovetopgunsstuff]

HI. I’m not sure if you take Joe Burrow requests for one shots? But if you do, can you write one that focuses on his hands? And bonus points for thigh riding too :)

quality time

prompt- it’s been a while, and joe has to give you some sort of apology for making you wait this long

joe burrow x reader

warnings: SMUT MINORS DNI

sorry for the wait i’ve been so busy with school

It had definitely been a while. Between games and practices, Joe was stretched thinly every week. This didn’t mean you didn’t get quality time, but you didn’t get that type of quality time. The both of you were usually too tired and busy to do anything, so you’d just fall asleep wrapped up in each other.

It wasn’t the end of the world, of course. You still got to see him and hang out with him, but you were tense still. Very tense. You didn’t know how to tell him this. Hey we haven’t had sex in a while and it’s pissing me off. Like you would ever have the courage to say that. On the outside, you were shy, but on the inside, you were overwhelmed with need. He was usually the one initiating things, so you never really knew how to let him know. You were always satisfied with its frequency and his timing… until this week. He was so busy, so you couldn’t put more stress on him. You’d feel so guilty if you put him under even more stress just because you wanted to have sex. So you’d stay quiet and waiting, as composed as you could be until he got more time.

Right now, you were sitting on your couch, scrolling on your phone, nothing interesting catching your eye. You tossed it beside you with a huff. Maybe you’d try the TV. After looking through shows and movies on every platform, nothing piqued your interest. A frustrated sigh broke out of your lips, and you wanted to throw an adult tantrum. Thankfully, a text notification snapped you out of your misery.

Joe: practice is getting out early. dinner? meet me at jeff ruby’s in an hour.

You ignored the fact that he only gave you an hours notice to get ready, and the fact that he didn’t even wait for dinner confirmation. You smiled at your phone, hearted the message, and jumped up to go get ready.

You did what you could with the time you had. It was a pretty nice restaurant, so you couldn’t dress casual. You decided on an ivory dress. It was tight and ended at your upper thigh. You ran a straightener through your hair as quick as you could, and rushed through your makeup. You looked at yourself in yne mirror. Not too bad. You glanced at the time.

“Shit.” You were running late.

You hopped out the door, putting your nude heel on with one hand and unlocking you car with the other.

You pulled into the parking lot right on time, walking into the restaurant while smoothing out your hair and dress. You hoped you looked okay. It had been a while since the two of you had gotten o do something like this. When you got to the host stand, she recognized you, already moving to lead you to your table, to Joe.

“Mrs. Burrow, you look so nice this evening,” she told you, smiling. You knew she probably had to say things like that, but you were thankful nonetheless.

“Oh, thank you,” you smiled at her. She led you to the back of the restaurant, stopping at one of the private booths. Hm, fancy. She said something, wishing you a nice dinner or something like that, and strode away. You had kind of

tuned her out as you stood in front of the curtained booth. Why were you nervous? You were married to him for Christ’s sake.

Slowly, you pulled back the curtain. There he was. He had been doing something on his phone, eyes darting upward with the sound of the opening curtain. His attentive eyes softened as he noticed it was you. He stood up, smiling. His full height caused you to look up at him. He wore a white collared shirt with blue pants and crisp white air forces. You knew he kept extra clothes in his locker at work, but he had cleaned up really nice. He grabbed you gently by your hands, kissing one as he pulled you to him. His arms wrapped around your waist and he nuzzled into your neck.

“You look pretty,” he mumbled. “Mm, and you smell good.”

“Joe,” you giggled. “We’re in public.” This beginning introduction did nothing but make things harder for you, a throb beginning in between your legs. You hadn’t felt it for a week, and it overwhelmed you. You breathlessly sighed into his shirt.

“Let’s not be in public then,” he said, and he pulled you into the private booth. You sat across from him, fiddling with the hem of your dress as you crossed your legs. You watched him silently, admiring his every move and soaking up the image of him before he went back to work. You were happy to freely stare while he was distracted. He smoothed his shirt, his expensive watch glinting on his wrist. His hands were so big, and you watched as he grabbed his phone, silencing it with the side button and flipping it over to put it down on the table, the veins on them catching the dim light.

Fuck.

It’s like you were out of control. You needed him, desperately.

“Y/n?” his voice snapped you out of your thoughts. You looked up, and he smirked at you, tilting his head slyly.

“Hm?” your cheeks were for sure pink.

“I asked how your day was,” he smiled, a teasing look in his eyes.

It was dreadful, boring, and touch-starved. “My day was okay,” you replied softly, your gaze struggling to stay off his hands, absentmindedly tracing the table.

“Really?” he asked, sliding his arms forward on the table to grab your small hands in his larger ones. A sigh escaped you as you looked down at them. You crossed your legs tighter.

“Mhm. H- How was work?”

“Oh, you know. It’s work.”

The conversation flowed better when the food started coming out. You had something to distract you from him. It’s a wonder you didn’t drool while looking at him. A steak was just what you needed, with plenty of sides to occupy you. You realized you hadn’t eaten all day due to your frustration.

You started getting full, and finished up eating. Joe watched you, as he ate a massive steak plus sides at a super speed.

“I’m ready to pay,” he said to himself, then looked at you with a smirk. In a lower voice, he said, “I haven’t gotten to take your clothes off in…what-“

“Two weeks,” you said, looking blankly at him.

“Huh.” He pursed his lips and looked at you, half sorry and half amused. “You sure it’s been two weeks? I would say a week and a half,” he joked. He’s just a funny guy tonight.

You were not amused. You wanted to go home, needed to go home, with him. You said nothing, just rolled your eyes and leaned back against the booth. Finally, you looked back at him to find he was already looking at you.

“I’m sorry,” he mouthed to you. You ran your tongue around the inside of your mouth, unable to keep from smiling even though you were trying not to.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked, amusement present on his face.

“Yes!”

“Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted me to… I mean you know I can’t refuse that,” he chuckles.

“How am I supposed to tell you that? You’re always the one that starts it.” You huffed and pouted at him. “You stopped for two weeks, how am I supposed to know why?”

He pursed his lips together, obviously trying not to laugh.

“This is not funny! I’m miserable!”

“Okay, wait. I’m sorry. Seriously.” He tilted his head, eyes softening as he grabbed your knee under the table. As if that would help your current condition.“C’mere.”

He grabbed your hand, leading you around the table to sit next to him. He checked carefully to male sure the curtain still hid the both of you. He grabbed you by the hips and dragged you to sit on one of his legs. Your dress had ridden up to your upper thighs and he gripped your hips tightly.

You wrapped your arms around his neck, sighing into his shoulder. You sucked in a gasp when he rolled your hips along his thigh, painfully slow.

“Joe!” you breathed out.

“Hm, this is what you wanted I thought, he smiled into your neck, amused at how flustered you were.

“Please just take me home,” you begged, and you sounded so needy.

He chuckled and pecked the crook of your neck. “I know, I know,” he pouted at you.

It didn’t take long to pay, though the waitress furrowed her eyebrows when she saw you sitting on the opposite side of the table as she last saw you. Normally, you would care, but not now.

Luckily, Joe rode with another player to work this morning, and ubered to meet you at Jeff Ruby’s. This meant he could drive you home. You don’t think the speedometer dipped below 70 the whole way home. He had one hand on the wheel, the other gripping your thigh tightly, leaving red splotches for each finger after he let go. You could tell he was anxious to get home, to get to have you. You were also anxious to get home. You don’t know how long you could wait; his manspread in the drivers seat was so tempting. Luckily, you pulled into the garage soon after the thought.

He was grabbing at you before you could even get in the door. When you finally did, he roughly pushed you against it, hungrily kissing your neck. Every nip and kiss caused a yelp from you. It had been so long. You felt him touching at the back of your thigh, so you instinctively picked up your leg. He picked you up, carrying you into the closest room, which happened to be the kitchen.

He plopped you on the counter, you gasping as your bare thighs made contact with the marble countertops. He grabbed around both knees with one hand each, pulling you to the edge of the counter so you were easier to reach. He used his large hands to bunch up your tight dress at the waist.

“Such a pretty dress,” he murmured. “What a shame it’s in my way.”

He picked each leg up, one by one, resting them on his shoulders to gently take of your heels, kissing the inside of your thighs in the process.

You watched as his hands gently danced across your skin as he did this, and he noticed.

“Aw, look. This is what you were so focused on the whole dinner? Couldn’t even think straight huh?” Joe cooed between kisses. He put each leg back down on the counter, making sure they were spread.

His hand traced down up your thigh from the knee, finally touching down where you needed him. He gently brushed you over the fabric of your panties, which were nearly soaked. You cried out in satisfaction. Finally. You had been waiting for this for weeks, and he knew that now, too.

“I’m so sorry for making you wait like this,” he whispered in your ear, sincerely this time.

You couldn’t respond coherently, since at that point, he pushed your underwear to the side and plunged his fingers into you. You wrapped your arms around his neck, crying out and gasping for air.

He curled his fingers ever so slightly, and your legs jerked. He moved forward, holding one leg open with his free hand and the other with his leg.

He looked you in your eyes as he thrusted his fingers in and out of you, and your eyes rolled back in your head. He used his thumb to rub your clit, and you felt the sweet tension building in your stomach.

“I’m gonna come soon,” you breathed out.

You were right on the brink, right about to go over the edge. Then it stopped. He took his hand away, coming in between your legs to kiss you as you sighed in desperation. You were so close.

“Please,” you whimpered, as his hand affectionately rubbed your thigh.

He sucked the wetness off his fingers, looking you in your eyes.

“I know,” he cooed. “Give me just a second.”

Then he unbuttoned his white shirt, and his pants and belt dropped to the floor. His shoes were kicked off, and he stood there in just his boxers and socks. He slid your panties down your legs, then un zipped your dress.

You were left on the counter in nothing. You looked up at him, pleading with your eyes.

He harshly grabbed you by each thigh, jerking you to the edge of the counter harshly.

He pulled down his boxers, his dick springing up out of them. You were sure drool was pooling in your mouth. He positioned himself perfectly against you. Pushing ever so slightly, then stopping the pressure. He was teasing you.

A desperate cry sat in your throat. “Please, Joe, please.”

He suddenly pushed in to his hilt, and time slowed down. You don’t know if you were silent or if you just could t hear yourself over the pleasure. You sucked in a breath, wanting to snap your legs together and spread them even wider at the same time. The feeling was so overwhelming, but it was exactly what you needed.

He was fully buried inside of you, and he hadn’t moved yet. He just relished you, breathing against your neck and holding onto your hips. You would have small little pinpoint bruises tomorrow from the pressure of his fingertips on your soft skin.

Then there was movement, perfect aching movement and friction. His thrust were slow, but thorough. He pressed against every crevice, for just for him. He whimpered into your ear. You wrapped your legs around his middle. Now the two of you were fully touching. His stomach on yours, chest against yours, skin against skin. The two of you spoke only to each other, only for each other.

“I’ll never make you wait like this again, y/n. I cant believe I neglected you like this. I hope you don’t stay mad at me,” he said to you, slowly stroking in and out of you.

“I could never stay mad at you,” you whispered in his ear. He smiled against your skin and picked up his pace, causing you to barb your nails into his back.

Your cries echoed throughout the kitchen with each thrust. “I’m gonna come,” you told him.

“Wait for me, baby,” he groaned. “Just a little longer.”

His thrusts picked up and you struggled to keep yourself from unraveling. You dug your nails into him even harder.

He then sputtered, “Come, y/n, Come with me.”

You arched into him, letting yourself get sweet release. You closed your eyes and time stopped. It was heavenly. You don’t know how long it lasted. He held onto you as he came, seemingly as strong as you. A year rolled down your cheek. You cling to him, legs shaking and trembling around him. It died down, and you were suddenly drowsy. Euphorically, incredibly drowsy.

You leaned against his chest with half lidded eyes, wanting to just pass out right then and there against him.

“You took it so well,” he whispered to you, rubbing your back softly. He grabbed your face gently with both hands, looking down at you. Your lidded eyes stared back at him in ecstasy. He wiped away your tear with his thumb and kissed you. You don’t know how many times you told him you loved him after that, but you do know you passed out shortly after.

Maybe that two weeks wasn’t so bad after all.

[whereianonymouslypostfics]

Art Crawl

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x reader

Word count: ~1.8k

Summary: More Little Nat milestones

A/N: A two in one

Warnings: fluff, cuteness, minor angst, cursing

“Mama look!” 

It’s Sunday night and your family is all gathered for dinner at your place. It’s as hectic as you expected with 7 adults, three dogs, and a toddler in attendance. You’re sure that Fletcher’s around somewhere but you haven’t seen her, so you don’t bother to include her. She’ll probably make an appearance at some point, but for now you’re focused on the full living room and kitchen as you help Natasha finish up dinner.

You glance over your shoulder at Natalya who’s still sitting in the living room with her Mama and Bucky. She’s been feely artsy lately, and both you and Wanda had been gifted many, many pictures of varying colors and shapes. You have over a dozen, and Wanda’s already begun to figure out how to hang them all up around the house. 

You can’t tell what your four-year old is drawing from here, but you notice that both Wanda and Bucky are smiling widely at the likely incomprehensible picture. It’s mostly your daughter’s adorable smile that is making them happy anyway.

“She’s so cute.” 

You can’t help but agree with this and you nod as you hand a serving dish to Nat for the mashed potatoes that you’d convinced Yelena to not add cheese to.

“She really is. I’ll have to show you the picture that she drew of her dogs.” 

You definitely wouldn’t have been able to guess that they were dogs if Natalya hadn’t told you what she was drawing. She’d used a green crayon and it ended up looking like a lot of grass, but as always, Wanda fawned over it and added it to the gallery she was setting up. 

You glance to Steve, Piet, and Yelena who are standing outside drinking or helping grill part of their dinner. The door’s opened so the dogs can come and go, but they mostly play out in the yard while it’s still light out. You turn your attention back to your daughter who’s already great at multi-tasking. She holds her crayon in one fist as she grabs a stray block and hands it to Bucky. With his help, but mostly on her own, she’s been building a tower of blocks that’s even higher than the table she’s sitting at. You’re pretty sure that if Natalya stood up, it would almost be as tall as she is. 

“Uncle Bucky here! Please. Thank you!” 

That’s another thing that Natalya was great at. She’d learned to say please and thank you early on, and she said them both almost always at the same time. You and Wanda figure you can wait a bit to correct her. It was just so cute. 

You and Natasha finish up dinner around the same time that the trio outside does. You smile as you watch them all step into the living room with the dogs on their heels. You are walking out of the kitchen toward the table with the potatoes in hand when Rogue runs to greet Wanda. Unfortunately, he knocks over Natalya’s block tower in the process and sends them scattering with his tail. 

You wince and Wanda opens her mouth to scold Rogue, but both of you fall short when Natalya speaks up.

“Shit!”

You nearly drop the bowl in your hands. You have to hurry to set it down as you stare at your daughter in shock. Everyone else has frozen, except the dogs, with similar looks of disbelief on their face. Unfortunately, Wanda looks horrified and is the first one to react. Pietro eventually looks like he’s about to start laughing, but luckily Wanda speaks up before this happens. 

“Natalya! Don’t say that, please. It’s a bad word.” 

Everyone watches with bated breath as your daughter mulls this over with a frown. She looks to her mama before turning to her drawing that you can see looks like a black hole now that you’re closer. You ignore Boone when he comes up to you. Your full attention is on your wife and daughter as Natalya’s expression turns petulant. 

Uh oh.

“Why?” 

Wanda reminds herself that Natalya likely doesn’t know that what she said was bad. Even if she does, Wanda needs to be careful with how she explains this. She knows her daughter is smart, but even at such a young age, she sees a rebellious streak on the horizon and she doesn’t want to encourage that so soon. She takes a deep breath and resists the urge to look to you for help as she shakes her head with a frown.

“Some words shouldn’t be used. There are better ways to say how we feel.” 

All of the adults who are still paying attention wait for Natalya to agree and move on. Hopefully she’ll continue drawing while the table’s set and then this entire ordeal would be forgotten. At least for the time being. 

However, when Natalya looks to you, you feel as if you’re about to be thrown under the bus. 

“But Mom said it! When she was singing.” 

You want to crawl into a hole, or better yet, fall into the black hole that Little Nat had drawn when your wife turns to you. The look in her eyes tells you that you’re in trouble later, and you try not to shrink back in fear and shame. However, now that you’ve been dragged into the conversation kicking and screaming, you suppose it’s your turn to say something. For the life of you, you can’t remember what Natalya is talking about. You’ve always been very careful to not curse around her. You had been determined not to be the reason why Natalya knew curse words. 

Obviously, you’d failed.

When you manage to find your voice, you have to clear your throat because it’s dry all of a sudden. 

“Singing?” 

You should have left well enough alone. Or at least been more specific because you forgot how toddlers took everything literally. Sometimes it was cute, but right now it was really, really annoying.

Natalya’s face lights up as she starts to sing before returning her attention to her drawing. She probably figures that she’s about to end the conversation instead of make it worse.

“Yeah! The “I’m Like a Virgin” song!”

You feel your face heat up and it’s only a millisecond later that you hear Pietro start to cackle. You turn to him and see that Steve’s covering his mouth while Yelena’s smiling widely. You turn to look over your shoulder when you hear Natasha clear her throat. Great. You’re glad that everyone is entertained. That they’re enjoying your misery. 

Wanda’s eyes widen and you know for sure that you’re in for it because she shoots you such a ‘are you kidding me’ look that you have to turn away. You decide that you have to try to fix this now, or you’ll certainly be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future. 

You ignore your friends that have started to scatter and help set the table, to move toward the couch. You watch Bucky escape to the kitchen as you nudge Rogue out of the way before sitting down beside Natalya. You sigh and pointedly don’t look at your wife as you reach out for Little Nat’s shoulder. 

“Your Mama’s right, Nat. I shouldn’t have said it, so you shouldn’t either okay?” 

Natalya glances up from her drawing with a worried look that you hate you may have caused. You risk a glance at Wanda and as expected she’s focused on Natalya. You resist the urge to squeeze your daughter’s shoulder tighter in hopes that this will somehow communicate your desire for her to help you out. You know there’s no avoiding Wanda’s wrath, but hopefully it will be a little less…intense after this. 

“So, I’m not in trouble?” 

Natalya’s shooting you such a hopeful look that you can’t help but shake your head immediately. You quickly realize that you should be more specific because it’s only come back to bite you in the ass once already. 

“As long as you don’t say the word again, no. You’re not in trouble.” 

Natalya smiles at this before nodding and returning to her drawing. She starts to happily hum, luckily not“Like a Virgin”, under her breath, and you finally breathe a sigh of relief. You shoot Wanda an apologetic look that she just frowns at before standing up. 

“Natalya we’ll be right back.” 

You cringe but don’t hesitate to stand up and follow your wife into the den. You walk past your snickering friends and move to sit on the couch as Wanda slides the door shut behind her. You take a deep breath preparing to apologize, but Wanda beats you to it. 

“Seriously, Y/n? What happened to not cursing around Natalya?” 

You shake your head before you groan under your breath. You still can’t remember when you would have done this. Sure, you sang out loud sometimes, but it was never something so inappropriate. Actually, you’ve been singing Disney songs for the most part because they were the safest. Certainly, safer than Madonna.

“I don’t know, Wands. I really don’t remember what she’s talking about.”

Wanda’s frowning as she puts her hands on her hips and you honestly feel like a chastised little kid when she uses her ‘mom’ voice on you. You’re not sure when her stern voice transitioned from mob boss to mom, but you aren’t sure you like it any better. 

“Well obviously you did since she heard you.”

Since there’s not much you can say to make this better, you just stand up and reach out for Wanda. You’re not surprised when she shakes you off and shoots you a glare that pins you in place. You switch tactics and look down at the ground before managing to meet your wife’s annoyed gaze with a contrite one. 

“I’m sorry, Wands. I’m really sorry. I promise I won’t do it again. I won’t ever curse in front of Natalya again.” 

You think about falling to your knees and pleading when Wanda just stares at you, but eventually she sighs in defeat. You still think you’re going to have to apologize again, but when Wanda just shakes her head and turns toward the door you decide that it might just have to happen later. Wanda might just need some time to forgive you. 

“Alright. Well let’s go eat now. Everyone’s waiting on us.” 

You follow Wanda out with your head held high like you didn’t just get scolded. You see that most of your friends are standing around the table talking to Natalya, but you don’t see your brother-in-law. You turn and spot him in the kitchen, and you frown when he smirks at you.

“I made it through the wilderness…” 

You roll your eyes and scoff at Pietro before shooting him a glare.

“Fuck off, Piet.” 

You failed to realize that Wanda had stopped to wait for you until you hear her gasp from behind you. You curse yourself again and close your eyes with an inaudible groan. You’ve really done it now.

“Y/n!” 

Little Nat Adventures

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

Okay but now I feel compelled to wonder, in that fun AU of CC and Marilyn being Captain and Mary Marvel, what their lives as heroes would be like

Like, villains are the same for the most part with probable lack of antagonism with Sivana, he’s the dude who hired them for the dog in the first place with the public intent of a historical attraction at a park and on the side of the bus he’s campaigning for mayor. Other than that, villains seem to be the same from the brief moments we see.

They stay out of the limelight, they prioritize keeping their identities hidden for the sake of Billy and Mary’s saftey and childhoods, and they take their duties seriously.

But what’s tingling at the brain right now is how they’d interact with the rest of the world of DC, heroes and teams and whatnot, outside of Fawcett and the menagerie of characters there. We know CC accidentally stumbled onto some daring scene with Spy Smasher and the bunch (no joke, time was funky in Fawcett and CC was alive at that time) but I’d love to see him with other heroes

Like, say he fills the normal roles in comics Billy would’ve, joins JLI and, like his son, tries calling the other heroes out for acting like bigger juveniles than his actual kids and ditches bc apparently the people who save the world on the regular cant not try and fist fight the other every few hours. He’s on and off some team, focusing on his city and his family more and more, pops in for bigger fights when they occur but is mostly hometown based and handles his own issues.

Of newer stuff, I turn to YJ’s tv show for another idea. Aka, CC also being a chaperone for the Team at the same time Billy comes in but with a twist, turns out his kids have a percolation for magic and have been getting the hang of some spells so they’re joining the Team too while CC is on chaperone duty. So leads Billy and Mary’s attempt at a slow entrance into heroism that immediately backfires when they get captured, cue heartwarming scene of dad hugging his kids after a dangerous situation that follows him tearing the base apart looking for them. True dad fashion and all that. What becomes complicated is the World Without Grown Ups plot, in which I say have Billy and his had pre-the plot agree that Billy can have Shazam powers for super big emergencies and Billy definitely counts all adults disappearing as an emergency. Cue once more the fun father son bonding of Billy looking just like his old man with Shazam powers.

Onto Marilyn, who unfortunately doesn’t seem to have more beyond “clever” and “good mom” from comics, but she’s got her hutzpah and would probably be as active a hero as CC while still prioritizing her life and family over heroism. The whole Shazam thing is definitely more a job than it is what kind of person she is, she’s an archeologist and likes that profession more than she likes worrying about everyone else. She’s definitely more no nonsense and, if there’s a difference, she’d probably prefer the more grounded crime fighting than the mystical shenanigans CC would do in her stead. Billy and Mary end up closer to her in quality time since that focus of crime fighting keeps her grounded.

Also, the general vibes of the Captain Marvel tropes. Such as the identity shenanigans.

It is a fun thing of fanfic that, since his civilian identity is very vulnerable and people like their identity plots, Billy has his questioned or revealed a lot. Add in CC as Marvel instead and it flips a bit to be a man who is well known in his home city whose entire family, non-powered children included, could easily become targets if anyone knew who he was. And he’s deliberately secretive about it for that purpose, he’s protecting his children with his wife. So, perspective, there’s a new hero who comes in with a hero partner who is also their life partner. They have the power of actual gods and titans, they don’t explain anything past some nebulous Wizard they can’t name as to how they got their powers, they are very hush-hush on their normal lives but everyone knows they have to have one. It’s hard to contact them, you don’t know they’re working or traveling or with their kids because you don’t know they do work or that they have kids, so you worry what they’re up to for what seems to be every hour they aren’t begrudgingly saving the world with the rest of the heroes. You catch them talking to the other but the minute they hear you they clam up and change everything about how they were just a second ago, you could swear they were talking about digs or gods or bringing someone home but you don’t know anything because you don’t know them.

Cue the mistrust, the reveals, how it all goes wrong and someone gets hurt, be it the other when they don’t have their powers or their kids and suddenly you’ve pissed off the man who loves his family so much he was tearing the multiverse open to try and keep the timeline going where they were all alive and happy together and the woman who loves those kids just as much. Or, say that reveal had villains get both of the Batsons, and now those heroes have to look those orphans in the eye and beg forgiveness, and when fate still demands its heroes out comes two new ones that make it seem like the whole Batson sham was fake and no way Marilyn and CC were the Marvels, the marvels are still flying around after they’ve gone and gotten dead and buried. Cue those heroes looking at the new Captain and Mary Marvel, knowing it’s the kids they accidentally made orphans wearing the faces of the friends they betrayed.

[obesessedwithjohndory]

more brozone hcs for u all mwah mwah

bruce has a really long hair care routine & totally influenced floyd to get one too

now that the band is back together they don't use the titles like 'the leader' / 'the sensitive one' etc, they just go by their names

john dory & branch go camping together and teach each other their survivalist tips

clay & viva have know each other since they were kids (like before the trolls escaped bergen town) and peppy hated him because he always tried to influence viva to cause havoc

'john' was baby branch's first word

clay can speak 5 languages & he would probably use duolingo too

they would get invited to the troll version of the met gala

john dory is seriously emotional when it comes to his brothers growing up (even though they are all already adults)

they have a lot of really strange inside jokes from when they were younger that they bring up again

bruce is a really good artist

he and floyd design/ create the outfits brozone wear for their shows etc

bruce & jd are the cooks of the family & when they cook together it always ends up as some sort of competition and the younger three are always over it by the time the foods ready

when branch stays at poppy’s, jd stays in the bunker with floyd to keep him company

jd & bruce are seriously protective of the younger 3

jd & clay are always bickering about something

branch secretly really likes it when his brothers show up unannounced

cloud guy winds jd up like he does to branch

jd had no friends as a teenager bc he was so focused on managing brozone

bruce looks really good with a bun in his hair (brandy loves it)

clay and branch are the smartest out of the 5 brothers

if branch can’t sleep he’ll go and sleep in either floyd or john dory’s bed (if he’s staying in the bunker and not in rhonda)

sorry this post is a little short, i need to come up with more hcs ✌️

[sabulana]

Once again thinking about the Lost and Found department and the whole Afterlife stuff in Dead Boy Detectives.

It got a little long so...under the cut it goes.

So we know that Lost and Found deal with missing children, but who deals with adults? There must be a separate department for them, right? Why would there only be a department focusing on children when there are plenty adult ghosts hanging about as well?

Why is it called 'Lost and Found' when this usually refers to missing objects? Do the people working there see souls/children as objects? We know the Night Nurse has a certain way of thinking from the way she refers to the boys and how she acts (at least, prior to meeting Kashi) in that they must be 'naughty' or bad in some way because they refuse to cross over, without considering why that might be. She does show signs of beginning to change after meeting Kashi, (and I would have loved to see more of that in S2) but I wonder at everyone else in the department.

And for that matter, what roles are there in the department? We've seen the Night Nurse, the Notary, the assistants who follow the Night Nurse and the Principal (side note, would love to see if the boys and Crystal ever find out that she's Niko) but besides that, what actually goes on? Charles possessing Esther did set off an alert down there, but there must be other ways of tracking lost souls. They're not sitting on their hands, waiting for kids to possess the living, after all.

Also are there any men/male-shaped beings there? I only remember seeing women. And I say '-shaped beings' because we know the Night Nurse isn't human, she just looks like one. Is anyone there human or formerly human? Perhaps they're all trans-dimensional beings, who look human because that is the best way to have humans cooperate when they end up in their department. Kids aren't going to want to go with someone who looks like a monster, after all. And the Night Nurse is definitely a monster.

Also wondering if all the assistants/clerks have names or if they're referred to by role in the same way the Night Nurse etc are. I know the Night Nurse has been referred to as Asa in fics, but this is unconfirmed in canon, and is from the comics featuring the Nightmare Nurse. (I haven't seen Doom Patrol, but I know she was portrayed there, I just don't know specifics).

Next on my mind is the division of labour in L&F. The Night Nurse personally goes to collect the boys, but she's head of the department, right? Why not delegate? Does she go to collect every lost child that Death doesn't collect? Because there seems like there is probably a lot, tbh, given the world population.

How many people work in that department, and how is it all organised? Are there people tracking those that don't move on? If so, how come the Devlin family had to stay stuck in that loop for 30 years? Surely they would have been easy to find since they were in the same place the entire time.

And what about the suicide victims like Shelby, who walk the earth? Are they considered 'lost'? It seems kind of unfair that they have to just wander like that instead of getting an afterlife someplace else.

I have more thoughts but I'm typing this on mobile and gave myself a headache doing it. Anyway, the point of this is... I am about to make up a whole lot of shit about how the Afterlife works for my current WIP.

[restwellsoon]

Uramichi Omota HCs

Minors and ageless blogs DNI! You will be blocked!

General

First and general impressions

Comes off as someone who is lonely, pathetic, or pitiful with a sadness about him

Strangers think he’s handsome but are deterred by his RBF

Suffers from Tony Hawk syndrome™ where people know of his feats as a gymnast and as a kid’s show host yet no one recognizes him (He thinks it’s because of the beanie)

Socializing

Pretty low energy in social situations, therefore you’ll hardly see him in crowded places or partying all night

When he is out and about, he’s definitely the quiet and reserved type

Those close to him are usually shocked and disgusted when he’s in work mode (talkative, charming, and happy) during social gatherings

King of leaving social gatherings without saying anything

Will surprisingly accept most invitations to hang out though

Has the most Netflix and Chill™ vibes except he truly means watching TV and relaxing

Habits

Loves to sleep in on the weekend/ day off and abuses the snooze button and multiple alarms

Chronically early for even the most casual meeting

Picked up smoking and drinking after ending his gymnast career

Preferences

Prefers to wear earthy hues outside of his work uniform

Gymnastic preferences are as follows: rings, floor, pommel horse, vault, and bars

Misc

Actually rich but has no one to spend his money on

Known for being generous with his money

Superstitious, especially when it comes to his daily horoscope

Surprisingly not the type to believe in love horoscopes though

Fully believes in mercury retrograde (after Utano and Furitsuke tell him about it)

Work & Education

Together with Maman

Zero career aspirations, however he does firmly believe in doing a good job in whatever he sets his mind to

Can be a bit of a pushover because even though he tries to decline or say no to more work, he often ends up doing it anyway

Has a good amount of award nominations for his work on Together with Maman

Hates his job but feels even worse when he thinks about inevitably aging out of his career as a taiso no oniisan

Professional gymnast

Volume 2 told us that he was the All-Japan Gymnastics Solo winner, so I do think he probably tried out to be on the Olympic team or was on it at some point during his professional career

(RIP Uramichi, you would have loved being able to take a mental health break to come back better and stronger for your sport. I know in my heart that Simone Biles is your hero.)

Seemed very unapproachable when competing

Ghosted all of his gymnastics connections after leaving the profession

His coach pulled some strings to get him job on Together with Maman

College days

Nippon Sport Science University (Nittaidai) alumnus (confirmed in Vol 1)

Undergrad: Athletic sports major; Grad: Health & sport science

Took a class on childhood sport education, which was surprisingly one of the only classes he remembers taking in college

Family

Future family

Wants kids but needs to find the right partner first

Would feel awkward or uncomfortable around his first child due to trauma related to his father

Developing relationship with his younger sister

Had a strained relationship with his sister when they were children, mostly because of their father trying to live vicariously through Uramichi

Uramichi probably tried to distract their father from criticizing and hurting his sister to the best of his abilities by focusing their father’s attention on him

Thus resulting in resentment and jealousy on his sister’s end

Worried and concerned when she ran away at 16

Relieved and surprised that she reached out to him after running away

Slowly and awkwardly rebuilding their relationship as adults

Uramichi likes to spoil his niece a lot because she reminds him of his sister when they were younger

Strained, if not nearly non-existent, relationship with his father

Doesn’t see or speak to his father after leaving professional gymnastics

Spent the first few years of his retirement full of anger and resentment towards his father

Now it’s all he feels is apathy

His relationship with his father makes Uramichi doubtful and fearful of his abilities to be a father

Return to

The Main Masterlist

Life Lessons Masterlist

AO3

[suzukiblu]

gotham

Kon's in Gotham, which would be less of a problem if it were the right Gotham.

Possibly his reality doesn't exist anymore, is the thing. He's trying very, very hard not to concentrate on that fact until he gets more information, though.

Currently, he's standing in the middle of an emergency triage center with a few hundred more refugees from varying dimensions, and he can't do anything actually superhero-ish or even too noticeably useful because he's wearing a fucking gala-quality bespoke suit that Tim bought him. So, like, way too nicely dressed for a refugee situation or really just any damn normal situation.

If he had to end up in another reality, at least he could've been wearing his superhero costume or his work clothes from the farm, but no, this particular interdimensional crisis just had to pop up during "suffer through another ridiculously fancy Wayne gala on Tim's arm in the name of charity" date night.

Why not, right?

So yes, Kon's in a triage center, waiting to get "processed" as a refugee and hoping to high hell that the local Batman doesn't hate Supers and isn't a supervillain. He'd considered sneaking out of the center altogether to go and get a better idea of what's going on firsthand, but people in the crowd keep randomly freaking out and everyone's tense as hell and he's a little bit concerned that something might be about to go down. Like, it's Gotham, and this whole setup seems like a very tempting target for people with dubious morals to swoop in and start shit.

As far as Kon knows, he's the only refugee in this specific center who's not a standard civilian, and it's hard to just clear out and leave everyone here to the tender mercies of whatever random assholes feel like making trouble for no good reason. There's just so many older people and so many kids, is the thing. Kon is . . . well, physiologically twenty-two, at least, and is a very clear outlier in the group. Mostly it's people over sixty and kids under twelve, for whatever reason. And a whole lot of the kids keep crying on and off and the older people are all clearly stressed as fuck.

Which is fair, since again, possibly all their realities are gone.

. . . technically he probably does count as under twelve, come to think.

Hm.

Eh, whatever.

Kon has spent a whole hell of a lot of time cheering up frightened little kids and soothing panicked adults in the four hours he's been in this triage center and it has been fucking exhausting. At this point, if any Gotham rogue shows their face and even looks at a single one of these people, Kon's going to just fucking deck them. Like, fuck whatever the local Batman's rules about metas and vigilantes are, Kon does not have the patience for anything else.

Right now, though, he's currently just focused on the very distressed pair of identical little girls on either side of him who are not twins and are absolutely terrified of each other.

"Hey, it's okay, Mallory," he says gently, and the girls sniffle in perfect unison.

"But she's scary!" they both blurt, and then they both whimper in fright, and then they both start crying.

Not ideal, Kon thinks. The local version of Mallory is in the awkward position of having had two alternates of herself pop up from two different realities and both land in her family's apartment, and the local versions of her parents are currently arguing with the aid workers about not separating them from their alternate daughters. Kon's half-eavesdropping–they're not that far away, the workers couldn't convince them to break line of sight–and they're both insisting on at least one of them being allowed to stay in the refugee center with the Mallorys. The local Mallory looks a little worried about things, but not as much as her displaced alternates do.

Well, she's the one currently with her actual parents and still in her own definitely-not-destroyed reality, so yeah, that makes sense. The other two Mallorys are just hiding from their other selves on either side of Kon, who can't keep his damn nose out of anything.

Really, actually, Mallory is a pretty lucky kid. Kon didn't even get this good a reception to showing up unexpectedly in his home dimension, and he's heard a lot of horror stories about people getting attacked or chased off by freaked-out locals already today.

Kon had just popped up alone in the middle of an empty ballroom, himself. He'd had to talk to a couple of security guards, but they'd had the news on already and the emergency broadcast had explained what the fuck was going on pretty quick. One of them had given him a water bottle and a candy bar while the other'd called the emergency hotline listed on the TV to figure out where to send him and they'd really both just rolled with the whole situation. That'd been pretty nice of them, Kon had thought.

People are awful, sometimes, but also amazing sometimes.

"Listen," he says reassuringly, dropping into a crouch between the Mallorys, who both clutch anxiously at his weird fancy Tim-chosen jacket as he puts a hand on both of their backs. "It really is okay. I know it's scary, but your parents are gonna make sure you get taken care of, and the aid workers are gonna help them out."

"But–" they both start, and then both make frightened noises again and cover their mouths with their free hands. Whatever realities they happen to be from, they are clearly very similar ones. The local Mallory wasn't talking in unison with either of them, but they keep overlapping each other without meaning to, and she's wearing a pink corduroy dress but they're both in the same black denim overalls. Different shirts, at least, but their hair's identically braided and beaded where hers is in afro puffs.

"This is weird and crazy, but you're not alone," Kon says firmly, patting their backs. "Your mom and dad have your backs."

He wonders what that would be like, having not only parents but parents who'd just roll with alternate dimension versions of you to the point that they wouldn't leave them in a government-sponsored refugee center, but quickly shoves the thought aside to focus on the actual issue.

Maybe Ma and Pa would come get him if they knew, he thinks for a moment, the thought slipping through the cracks, and then feels like an idiot. He's not a teenager anymore. Was never even a kid, technically. And also he's a literal superhero anyway.

That'd be stupid, for them to bother doing that for an alternate version of the guy who spent a couple years crashing in their real kid's old room before running off to San Francisco.

Hell, for all he knows, this reality's version of them doesn't even know him at all.

Seems likelier than not.

[beifong-brainrot]

Suyin wasn't "coerced" to commit a crime, neither did she want to take herself out of the situation. She wanted to get her friends out of paying for their crimes because she's spoiled and entitled.

She didn't "have" to travel the world, she was sent to family members to take her away from a criminal and endangering environment, and she decided to escape because she's too much of a pick me girl to stay with the so called family "that didn't show her affection". To be honest, you speak of her as some kind of adult avatar-styled Rapunzel, instead of a teenager who deserved to be reprimanded.

She did turn her life around, and kudos to the creators for showing that. No one can say that her story and background is boring by any chance.

She, however, is not the most likeable character out there to a big part of the fandom, but I seriously doubt someone is taking it as seriously as you seem to do. Just chill.

Istg this happens almost everytime I post something mildly touching on the fact that Suyin deserves compassion too. Though you may be the same anon who blew up my inbox a while back so it might just be you.

I've always found the disdain we have for "troubled teens" upsetting because usually, when a teenager "acts out", there's more of a reason behind it that just "ooh they're spoilt or entitled".

[Trigger warning for self harm and suicidal ideation mentions]

Like, I was a very difficult teen back in the day. I argued with my parents, even got into physical altercations, skipped school, ran away from home at night. I was also going through a severe depression, dealing with a shitton of childhood trauma, cutting on the regular and making multiple attempts on my life. Hell, if my parents had brushed me off as "a kid who needs to be disciplined" I probably would've killed myself at 14. It doesn't excuse me for punching my dad in the stomach when he was just trying to stop me from running away into the night but it doesn't mean I didn't deserve help.

[End of Trigger Warning]

These two things can be correct at the same time. Suyin can have done a shitty thing that deserves reprimand and that she needs help that she seemingly had to find on her own. But like, guess which of these two is almost exclusively focused on.

And I mean, it's totally not like the Avatar fandom has a habit of expressing extreme hate towards young girls (especially young girls of colour) making sub optimal choices or just beind "annoying". I've just never seen that before.

Suyin grew up with Toph, who Lin herself has described like this:

Suyin : No, no. My children are a blessing. Lin: Yeah, mom used to say that too, but she never meant it.

Which btw, still an incredibly hillarious thing to say in front of Suyin's children: "Hi kids I'm your aunt Lin and your mother is lying about loving you"

While Suyin has, as a child, expressed doubt that Toph would even care that she's skipping school. And as an adult, she has described her childhood with Lin as "competing for their mother's affection" and still has doubts whether or not her mother is happy with how either of them turned out.

Hell, even though Su and Toph have been said to have made up, Toph still maintains a heavy layer of distance between them, seemingly dissappearing for years at a time!

It's honestly sad how Suyin hugs Toph and puts up statues of her everywhere in Zaofu and yet Toph still just fucked off to the swamp when Opal was probably less then ten and did not contact them.

I mean, sounds like there's not a lot of motherly affection going on there, dude. Idk what to tell ya. We know there were no fathers around either.

And Lin was also a victim of this environment, so I don't really want this to come off as me blaming her for the way she acted towards Su. But Lin is hardly what I would call affectionate.

So of course Suyin would put so much stock in her relationships outside the house. And her friends happened to be fucking criminals fucking hell. And of course Lin, being a kid too did not know how to approach this situation properly, so she inadvertently just pushed Suyin closer to them by insulting them and making her feel defensive.

Because that's what all fucking teens do. The internalise things, they rely on their peers to form their perception of things and they want to be independent. So when someone, especially someone who isn't a parent tries to control them, guess how they'll react? They dig their heels in. Especially a teen like Suyin who has virtually no reason to listen to her older sister other than a vague "I know better than you" type of vibe which really pisses teens off. That's like the time when talking down to them is the worst thing to do.

And fuck off with saying getting arrested and screamed at by your sister in the middle of the road isn't a stressful situation that you wolud wanna get out of. Lin punched a car so hard it dented! (Especially that Lin has already been confirmed to use her status as a police officer against people she has a vendetta against, like when SHE TRIED TO THROW PEMA IN JAIL FOR STEALING HER MANS like how tf did we brush over that)

What I always find interesting in this scene is the front that Su puts on in front of Lin, which slips up a few times, particularly when Lin can't see her expression. Because Suyin is, of course being a fucking brat and taunting Lin, but you can clearly see that she's stressed out.

Suyin also describing the reason she helped her friends as a getaway driver is something I find interesting:

Suyin: I didn't steal anything. I just drove the car. I owed my friends a favor. It's not a big deal.

Of course she's scared and minimising her involvement but the usage of "owing her friends" could very easily imply her not exactly being too hyped about this, as well as her insistence on not stealing anything.

Because the thing about Suyin is that, especially in the flashbacks, we see her only in Lin's PoV. We don't see her relationship with her friends, what led up to the robbery, anything. Which makes sense, because the flashbacks are supposed to be Lin's. But that means we're viewing Su with the inherent bias of Lin, who clearly has an agenda against Su.

Lin clearly blames Suyin for Toph leaving policework, despite us later seeing how burnt out and cynical Toph was about being a cop. Its more likely that Su's arrest was a wake-up call for Toph, but she left due to the buildup of stress and disillusionment and Lin, who has been idolising her mother and her mother's career blamed it on Suyin in her head.

Hell, even they made up, Lin still immediately pivots to accusing Suyin of being involved in the Red Lotus' attack. Despite the attack placing Suyin's life, the lives of her sons and the lives of her guards at risk and Suyin going out of her way to thwart it.

And Suyin's life is just a fucking mess after this point like: betrayal by close friend, daughter kidnapped by terrorists, anarchy in the kingdom, leaders of 2 foreign governments trying to pressure her into subjugating the people in the name of a monarch she doesn't support, betrayal part 2; child boogaloo, the country she lives in being declared a dictatorship, city under literal siege, threat of attack in 24 hours, the fucking Avatar doing fuck all to help, a desperate attempt at assassinating the leader, getting caught and placed in questionably humane restraints, having to watch her daughter be forced to flee, PUBKIC HUMILIATION, the arrest of her non combative son and husbandd, INHUMANE JAIL CELL...

Do I need to go on? Like the moment the Krew came to her gouse her life just started to fucking fall apart its actually kinda hillarious.

And calling Suyin a "pick me" is just... unfounded? Who's she trying to get picked by? Her mom who doesn't love her? Girlie just wanted a family she literally said so in the show, put your listening ears on, babes.

I understand that Suyin isn't the most likeable character to people. I can understand why they dislike her. She can be annoying, hypocritical, rash, the poor structuring of the episodes around her and Lin makes it so she gets unearned favour from the writers etc. People who like Lin and Kuvira, two extremely popular characters in the fandom have an easy villain in their faves' lives if they just tweak Suyin a bit.

But that doesn't mean I'm obligated to dislike her too or that I'm not allowed to post about her in a way that doesn't allign with the fandom's narrative of her. You're not obligated to read it, hun, you can block the #pro suyin beifong tag if it makes you that upset to see me

I want to appreciate parts of Suyin which aren't highlighted by the fandom and I'm allowed to do that. Just because it doesn't fit with your clearly overtly negative opion of the character well, tough luck. And hey, I gladly take the opportunity to talk about Suyin, but I've also made a ridiculous amount of posts around har and have probably addressed almost every single fandom complaint of her at some point so I'm starting to get a little tired of repeating myself lol.

And I'll be the first to admit, my own teenage years probably heavily affect how compassionate I am towards Suyin, particularly in her younger years. But I know how much people hate "troubled teens", how little compassion thet are given.

The narrative that if a misbehaving teenager just gets deisciplined and reprimanded enough they'll stop being "spoilt and entitled" or acting out is wrong and harmful. It hurts tons of teenagers by not getting them the help they need and it would've fucking killed me.

Also hun, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to use hyperbole a lot. I'm a dramatic bitch. Like did you also think I was serious when I said I'd shoot myself if I saw another ad for Amazon's shit lotr wannabe show?

Tbh everytime I get an ask like this I vaguely consider doubling down and commiting to the bit of being the fandom's "Lin Beifong hater". Though I feel like a lot of people wouldn't realise its a bit and think I actually hate her for real lol.

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #29

Jumping off from my previous and pending liveblogs through The Battle of Big Wand -> but this is mostly me talking about Dale headcanons and 'fics

Partway through my next liveblog post, I started rambling about Dale and doodled a joke, and... it got really long, so now it's in its own post.

I'm sorry you have to see this, SDKFLJ...

Mildly suggestive stick figure honeymoon doodles - #ScarletPenguin

why does he still look anxious and pathetic even when he's plotting a takeover... he's the goofiest guy. I love him.

Liveblog Notes

As far as me loving characters with traumatic backstories goes, I do enjoy Peri, but he has way too many blank spots in his lore and things that are making me look at him sideways, waiting for him to say something I can work with.

I would've liked to see more of his backstory come into play... I feel like that would've been a great episode theme focused on the Peri-Dev dynamic (Them figuring each other out, uncovering bits and pieces, struggling to find areas where they relate until they do... like the clinginess or abandonment issues). Hopefully we get that in the future.

- Don't get me wrong- I'm really enjoying Peri, but from a fanfic perspective, I don't have enough breadcrumbs that don't come from the OG series I based my aged-up Poof on anyway. - That said, still love the implication that he brought Dev to his parents' house while he ate too much sugar and Jorgen almost caught him, and I'm deeply interested in his many layers of trauma. No notes.

I can make up stuff for Peri, but... I've already been making up his story beats for 8 years, so I'm personally not excited at the thought of designing a new backstory from scratch if I don't have any springboards like his friends, school life, where he's been living, or what he did while his parents were gone for 10,000 years. The OG series gave me Sammy Sweetsparkle, Goldie, and Spellementary and Steve, my beloathed. I don't have much to go off here.

We don't even know what his relationship with Irep is, like if "Best of Luck" was the first time they'd seen each other since Spellementary and/or if Irep was banned from continuing his schooling. I mean... one would have to assume Irep has his godparenting license if he's allowed to jump in on Dev, but who knows...

Me just now blinking in confusion that Da Rules allow Irep to yoink Dev as a godkid when Irep blatantly disregards all the other Rules. Cherrypicker...

And yes, I can work with it if I want to, but I already write a bunch about their dynamic, teen, and adult years in Cloudlands AU, so... I'm fine letting other people deep-dive into him; I'll probably be surface level on my end <3

So... That's all set-up for why I think Dale is my favorite in this show... He captivates me by having this clearly defined mess I can pick at. Locked up and forced to make lemonade for 7 years? wild. We know what it was like, where he was, how old he was when it started, who did it, for how long, how he escaped, what his family situation was, and we saw Doug's estate in "Engine Blocked," so we have a decent idea of where he lived and how he grew up.

We've seen a lot of clues about how his trauma lingers around him today, how he forbids his son from drinking lemonade around him, he seems to be withholding details from Dev (who has no clue who Vicky is and seemed grumpy that lemonade is presumably a trigger for his dad and thus he's not allowed to have it). We also know how his young self ended up as an adult... We know he has meltdowns when he loses money and he doesn't bat an eye about stalking or hurting children...

We've got a partner missing from his life, so he's got single dad stress in there somewhere unless the O-pairs were there from the day Dev was born... potentially divorce or widower baggage and either of those is funny... I still think Doug might be dead in New Wish and that becomes increasingly likely the more I look at my age timeline compared to how old Doug was when he struck gold, which is canon in New Wish rather than given to us by the OG...

And if he and Vicky are the same age, were they friends when his torment started? You can even mess around with vibes like "Did Dale get a fairy?" or alternatively, "Why WASN'T he miserable enough to qualify for a fairy?" because that gets really dark if you start thinking about Vicky yo-yoing his emotions to keep him on the line above misery. What was she doing to him...

Like ??? unfortunately, the most obvious thing I can think of is that Dale was so blinded by his vision of Vicky being his friend (and/or crush?? idk) that he kept forgiving her, which is... awful.

We never got a confirmed reason why Tootie didn't have a godparent despite Vicky tormenting her daily, though I always felt like age or her blabbermouth tendencies might play into it (or she clung to Timmy for stability and thus wasn't miserable enough so long as Timmy was there to "support and comfort her" (her perspective). ?? Did Fairy World think it wasn't worth the paperwork to assign someone to Dale because they assumed he'd just make a single wish to free himself and then be fine? skdljf... I just can't stop thinking about it. It's not like his father's wealth disqualified him; Remy and Dev both had godparents assigned. Idk! I think about it a lot. Fascinating.

AND you're telling me this kid grew up with the OG cast after his escape?? There's a LOT there I can play with. Did he have to go to high school with Vicky? I want to believe he was homeschooled, but we never see Doug with a partner AND Doug is a busy person running a ton of businesses. The logical assumptions here would be either "Dale went to public high school" or "Dale was shipped off to boarding school" or something like that. Each of those comes with its own implications, which excites me.

As a bonus, this guy's severe trauma is connected to lemonade?? A drink that shows up a bunch of times throughout the OG series because it's just casual and everywhere? That's so funny...

Insert joke about how it's smart to give your protags weaknesses or fears that are commonplace so they'll run into them in a casual adventure or everyday life

And YET... Despite everything we know about him, there's still plenty of wiggle room for me to play with. I like that.

Honestly, I love the entire Dimmadome household... Dale and Dev and the O-pairs and Peri and the weight of absence of whomever else was in Dale's life once upon a time. Dev is a cool character at all, but at the end of the day, he's a 10-year-old bratty bully who's neglected and lonely. I appreciate him dearly, but it's nothing I haven't seen before.

Dale is my favorite. His utterly bizarre backstory has captivated me. I can make him worse <3

I did have a role planned for him in my Cloudlands AU 'fics - have since 2018 - but I was gonna play him as quiet and jumpy... Curious, easily excited, but not as fingers-in-every-pie as his father. But nowhere would I have guessed 7 years of trauma. And that changes everything. I'm extremely excited to play with that.

He's been on my backburner for ages as "one of those characters I want to delve into when Timmy's older and has a reason to cross paths with him, such as in the working world as Dale becomes more involved with the Dimmadome businesses." My plan's always been to make a funny trio of Dale, Remy, and Dale's wife [my very first FOP OC, Hadley] (whom I've been slowly setting up to become Remy's close friend in the 130 Prompts series when they're kids) and they're just... laid-back rich people who hang out and go on silly rich adventures.

Here's a fun Hadley profile, finally digital since I've only drawn her in colored pencils up 'til now!

In spite of me repeatedly mentioning her in my New Wish liveblogs, words cannot express how shocked I've been to see Dale, who was a tiny mention in the OG series, come back as a critical character...

My girl's shy husband in Cloudlands AU canon, whom she was betrothed to when neither loved the other, turned out to be a horrible person in A New Wish who's 99% likely to have divorced her, and I could NOT be more ecstatic to work with that in 'fic. It's like this was set up just for me! :D

- How funny would it be if they had a Season 2 arc where Dev disappears for a while because he's staying with his mom? lol. - If Dev's mom suddenly showed up because she'd just left for an extended work trip or something, would that be silly'd up or what?

Bonus Hadley Facts!

- She's 12 & 13 around Timmy's time period and attends middle school with Remy. They went to a dance together.

- She and Timmy are briefly in middle school together. They vaguely knew each other in elementary school before either had a fairy- I like to think they had multi-grade gym classes, field day, lunch, and stuff like that and sometimes saw each other.

- Never had Crocker as a teacher, but has crossed his path at the grocery store and stuff. She skirts around him.

- Her mom is a professional painter. She also has a blood blossom garden. Leadly keeps making Hadley give them to people he's trying to sus out as witches.

- Very aware of her dad's horrible dating life. Unfortunately knows he's chasing magical creatures because he's getting desperate for "idk, something new and fun" at this point. Bribes Cupid on the regular. Unclear if Cupid is screwing her dad's life up on purpose to keep the money coming in.

- Has been to Texas a bunch of times (Pencil Nexus has a branch there - "The Boss of Me").

- She hums the Pencil Nexus theme a lot, especially if she's waiting in a line or doing chores. She's bad at sneaking around because she'll forget she shouldn't hum.

- At the time of posting this, her two speaking appearances are in the 130 Prompts "Back In Action," where she's at the Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour dance chasing squirrels, and "Trying Too Hard," where Ed Leadly brings her along when he tries shaking Gary and Betty down for the Learnatorium (again); Hadley's very embarrassed.

- Although offscreen, she was heavily mentioned in "End of the World" when Timmy led Remy to her house so she could help with the cure for Juandissimo's fairy flu. She was briefly mentioned in "Opportunity" when Leadly put the pieces together and realized his daughter has a fairy godparent.

- Her surname was dropped in "Entire World," "Solo," and "Looking Back," confirming her as on the Pixies' radar & as a member of Gary and Crocker's Fairy World invasion team.

- I designed her in December 2015! Nearly 9 years ago now :'D

So, there ya go... That's Hadley.

Basically, instead of meddling and buying buildings and stuff, my vision of the future "rich kids" generation is that they're "supposed" to be in the city like their parents raised them to be, but they blow it off to hang with friends. This whole generation is rebelling against their parents. Are they making things worse for the city? I don't know.

My rough plan was Dale and Hadley bringing their kid [His planned name was Dave] on ski trips and yacht adventures and world travels, with Remy and Juandissimo being bonus parents as the kid grows up :) Aroace Remy making peace with living mostly alone, my beloved... BFF Hadley ensuring he's not ignored when she gets a partner, my beloved... And my main idea here was "Their kid is so spoiled, but he's also getting incredible amounts of attention and love... It's the first time in AGES Dimmsdale has broken its "miserable rich kid" curse, and Remy and Juandissimo couldn't be happier. I just realized that probably doesn't make sense out of context- but yes, in Cloudlands AU, Juandissimo and Remy are still together when Remy's an adult. But it was always my "Eh, I'll think about it later" arc, and Dale a "think about him later" character. And now ?? I just want oodles of him... He's so funny. I've already got a whole sketchpage of him on my desk... I probably won't scan it because it's messy as I'm exploring him in my style, but I really like drawing his hair <3

Dale had a bad week or two with Vicky in my head, but he was gonna grow up fine and live with his friends :) Or... Hadley's friends. Unclear. This doesn't really work with the New Wish canon, but I still think it's funny. I think in some way, this still happened in my canon, but only during Dale's early adulthood. He and Hadley split, orz...

Like... I can't even be mad, because in my canon, they were arranged (upper class kids; Doug cared more than Remy's parents) and in Cloudlands AU, they're affectionate but not in love until they slowly grow on each other while raising their kid, but... GURL, you were supposed to carry this for me, SKDLFJ...

Hang on, I gotta draw exactly what I mean by "Hadley didn't ignore her BFF when she started a romantic relationship..."

Bonus context for Remy's arm for anyone curious & here's him in color

They're just so funny to me... Dale and Hadley are each other's comedic straightman somehow. My favorite thing is Remy being a good friend despite actively trying not to be.

There's a secret joke here about how Remy's dad is also aroace in Cloudlands AU, but his whole thing was being repulsed to the point that he was relieved every time his wife had affairs :'D Fortunately, Remy's glad Hadley found someone else to bother and never got him involved in that drama. Remy still doesn't know what's up with his parents' love life or lack thereof, but... he knows what he himself wants (Peace & quiet and 2 hang out with Juandissimo).

tl;dr - I like what A New Wish has done with Dale specifically. It's definitely wowed me, it's way more captivating than anything I'd loosely planned for him, and his layers of trauma, wealth, and negligence really take me back to the OG series vibes, so I like that!

I can't wait to do 'fics with this fascinating, traumatized loser... but Hadley is definitely his wife and/or ex in my works <3 b/c I set my plot up for this 6 years ago and it would make me sad to "boot" her from my Along the Cherry Lane 'fic plans lmao. I will never experience this oddly specific situation ever again; you gotta give this to me.

Also:

He done goofed...

I couldn't decide on dialogue, but I was thinking "In my defense, I never had a health class and I didn't know babies came that fast." (She was there for many hours btw).

Bonus honeymoon panel ft. (/checks notes) - mildly suggestive stick figures (again)

Other secret bonus ending: "Wait a minute, if Hadley's been to Texas a lot because of Pencil Nexus, does she ALSO have fun cosplaying in boots?"

...... :)

[ariannaserissa]

Inquisitor and Solas Post-Breakup? 👀

Argh, this one just needs a few more scenes to come together and then it'll be ready to post. Hopefully soon!

I was unsatisfied by how few characters reacted to Solas and Lavellan ending their relationship in-game as well as, in my case, Lavellan no longer having her face tattoos, so this story focuses on that. (I know including more in the game would have devoted a lot of resources to a niche outcome few players would probably see, thus it wasn't worth the cost.) I'm sure there are many stories that explore this theme, but hopefully I'll be able to put my own spin on it.

From the WIP Ask Game here!

----------

The Inquisitor returned to Skyhold alone, her face unmarked by vallaslin and her heart broken. She had thought it would be a romantic trip away with Solas. She had never been more wrong.

Kaliska paused when the Inquisition’s headquarters came into view. As she studied the fortress walls, she reached up to touch where Elgar’nan’s twisting vines had been on her cheek. She had come to regret asking Solas to rid her of the tattoos that had marked her as Dalish. There were a great many things she regretted now.

She heard footsteps behind her and tensed but did not turn around. She recognized Solas’ stride by the sound and rhythm alone, and he was not a danger to her, at least physically. Emotionally was another matter. He had been standing by her side for so long, a formerly comforting presence that had turned hurtful now.

 “Why are you here?” she asked dully, her voice flat and empty. She could not bear to look at him, keeping her face toward Skyhold in the distance instead of the elf by her side.

“I traveled behind you, but close enough to ensure that you came across no danger on your own.”

She had been too caught up in her own thoughts to notice that he had been following her all along. She could not find it within herself to be grateful that he had been watching over her right now, not when her emotions were still so raw.

“I thought you would leave.” She wished he had. If they truly could not be together anymore, it would be easier if she never had to see him again, especially when he refused to tell her why he had ended things.

“I still have my part to play in what transpires next. Corypheus is not yet defeated.”

“You just want that elven Orb he has,” she accused, her hands clenching into fists. She welcomed the anger. It was better than the numbness or the grief. She had shed too many tears over this man already. “Is the only reason you joined the Inquisition and stayed through everything because it was a means to an end?”

Solas was silent for a moment. “The threat remains. I hope to see you put an end to Corypheus with my own eyes.”

The anger left her as quickly as it came, replaced by weariness. “I thought about running away instead of coming back,” she found herself admitting to him.

“What changed your mind?”

“I have nowhere else to go.” She did not know how her clan would react if she returned to them with her face bare of vallaslin. Receiving the markings was a rite of passage to show that the recipients were now full members of the clan. No adult elf who called themselves Dalish lacked vallaslin.

Even if her clan accepted her back within their ranks, which she doubted they would do now, she was not sure she wanted to join them again and resume her role as First to the Keeper. She had not thought much about what would happen once the Inquisition’s task was complete – her focus was on defeating Corypheus, a challenge that often seemed impossible – but when she imagined her future, she had pictured a life spent traveling with Solas. She had seen too much of the world now to be content as a future Keeper.

“And like you said,” she added, “this isn’t over yet. I can’t abandon the Inquisition when Corypheus is still out there.”

“You would never have come as far as you have without such tenacity.” He paused. “And it will continue to carry you forward.”

She snorted at that. Yes, she would continue to endure as she had from the beginning. The world needed the Inquisitor, the Herald of Andraste, not the broken-hearted, uncivilized elf who had given her love to a man who had denied it without telling her why.

Solas had never once reached out to her during their entire conversation. His arms remained at his sides. He seemed to realize that any touch or kind gesture from him would only hurt now.

Still, there was a part of her that wished his stoic façade would break and he would at least indicate her wanted to comfort her, even if he stopped himself from carrying the motion out. He had usually kept her at distance, his walls coming down only occasionally. Those rare moments of affection, warmth, and passion were the reason she had fallen in love with him.

She took a deep breath. “Wait until tomorrow to enter Skyhold. Let me have one night without you near.”

Solas inclined his head. “As you wish.”

She hoped he spent the night cold and miserable. Squaring her shoulders, she made the final leg of her journey.

[littlechaoticwitch]

Winx Club Rewrite: Season 4

I understand this is me being very late to the party, but that's pretty on-brand for me at this point lol

A few years ago, I started to work on a possible rewrite for Fate: The Winx Saga but it soon became this monstrous project of rewriting the entire franchise. Because while this series is one of my beloved childhood series, it is also very messy with its world-building and plotlines, as well being done dirty over and over again by its countless reboots. As much as I would have loved to create a full-on alternative universe like the ones I've seen on tumblr for years, it just took up so much of my time that could have been spent on other projects and it was starting to feel more like a chore than anything else. Eventually, I did create some fashion boards for how to translate their outfits from the show into real life, and wrote up some concept ideas for their live-action costumes, which led to me just writing up the notes I had for the rewrite to share them with y'all.

Some of these ideas were inspired by other people's rewrite of the series, some of these ideas came to me while writing this up, and a lot of these are my attempt to make sense of Winx Club's fucked-up lore. While these were originally written with a live-action reboot in mind, these could also work for an animated reboot targeted for teens/young adults.

This is probably the extent I'll do for any sort of Winx Club rewrite, but it was still fun!

-Roxanne "Roxy" Hensley is the last fairy on Earth, whose mother was an escapee of Tir Na Nog but had her wings ripped off by Grey's parents. A Native American girl who is fully into the scene culture, she is a rebellious loner who has a better time connecting with animals than with people, which is a result of her mother dying when she was still young. She is quite close with her father, who runs an animal shelter right next to Gardenia's main beach. When meeting the Winx Club, she refuses to believe magic is real but after seeing the girls trying to defend her from the Hunters, she ends up getting her own wings when trying to help out. After Morgana's death, the Hunters try to manipulate her into joining their ranks and even use the Black Circle to corrupt her fairy form, but she goes on a vengeful rampage instead, killing two of the Hunters before Bloom is able is calm her down. Once she comes back to her senses, she is allowed to keep the White Circle to remember Morgana, but the High Ladies let her keep the Black Circle as she understands the extent of its true power. She is a short lesbian with maroon-brown hair done in a wolf cut and grey eyes (which turn green when transformed), and she has a service dog named Artu.

-The Hunters consist of Grey, Dane, Sebastian (Fate!Sky), and Roman (Fate!Riven). The last members of a cult which tried to destroy all magic on Earth, but unlike their ancestors, they wish to control humanity using alchemy. Grey is the leader, with the power over water but he focuses on blood magic, whether it's using his own to heal himself to take control of someone's body using their blood. Sebastian is the second-in-command, with the ability to control a destructive blue fire to burn anything in his path. Dane acts as the spy for the group, as his control over the air allows him to have super sensitive hearing, as well as the ability to create supersonic soundwaves, turn invisible, and move as quick as the wind. Finally, there is Roman, who has the power over the earth and acts as the muscles of the group, using his super strength combined with his preference of using rocks to create fatal punches.

-This season focuses on Bloom coming to terms with being aromantic-asexual. Her relationship with Sky was a result of being caught up in the fantasy of a fairy-tale romance (which she loves reading about), and she admits to Flora that a major reason she was unhappy in the relationship was because she was forcing herself to have romantic feelings.

-This season also focuses on Bloom still grieving over Sky's death. While she no longer loved him romantically, she still cared for him and even after they had broken things off for good, she saw the potential of their friendship being rebuilt. She blames herself for his death, believing he should have stayed in Eraklyon where he was safe, but with time and the support of her friends, she learns to accept his passing in a healthy manner. Later on, she uses her experience to help Roxy overcome her own grief with losing Morgana, which helps bring the younger girl back to her senses.

-Morgana is NOT Roxy's mother, though she does come to care for Roxy like a daughter and see her as a worthy heir to her throne. Though she is angry at humanity for their sins and being so eager to chase magic away, she does understand humans were being brainwashed by the Hunters and she took her people to Tir Na Nog for safety. Unlike the others, she chooses to leave the realm in order to defend the girls from the Hunters, turning her into a mentor figure despite the fact outside of her realm drains her magic. Sadly, in the end, she sacrifices herself to close a portal which threatened to kill her people.

-The Major Fairies are known as High Ladies, with each one being in charge of a different season. The High Ladies had their magic taken from them by the Hunters and trapped in a deep slumber in their own palaces, which is why Morgana needed help from the Winx Club. Diana (Fate!Aisha) is the High Lady of Spring, Sibylla (Fate!Flora) is the High Lady of Fall, Aurora (Fate!Stella) is the High Lady of Winter, and Hestia (Fate!Musa) is the High Lady of Summer. Unlike in the cartoon, the four do not have active roles besides their connection to the Hunters, helping the Winx in the final battle, and after Morgana's death, deciding to rule Tir Na Nog as a group.

-Nex returns, and his friendship with Musa continues to grow into something more, beginning when she asks him to do her shoulder tattoo. After finding out she is a fairy, Nex comes clean and reveals his own secret; his family has been cursed for centuries, with the males destined to become werewolves, but they have learned how to handle it and became protectors instead of mindless creatures. Despite her originally wanting to break the curse, Musa learns to accept it and after spending more time together, the two decide to start a relationship (especially since Musa feels ready to start looking for love again)

-The other love interests (Brandon, Timmy, Nabu, and Helia) do not appear in this season, as they all have graduated and went straight to working. Both Nabu and Brandon are preparing themselves for their roles as king consorts, Timmy decided to stay at Red Fountain to become its potential headmaster one day, and Helia has gone back to pursuing her art career, where she has started to teach at a school.

-Bloom works at a normal pet store, Stella works at a small clothing store, Flora works at Vanessa's flower shop, Tecna works at a video game store, Musa works at a bartender, and Aisha gets a job as a yoga studio

-Things which shall be excluded from this season: The band plotline (except maybe one episode where the Winx pretends to be a band to lure the Hunters, but Musa is the lead singer while Bloom plays guitar), Love & Pet store, the extra wings, the Ethereal Fairies, the Gifts of Destiny (Sophix is used as a design for Diana's followers, Lovix is used a design for Aurora's followers, & the Black Gift is used as inspiration for Roxy's corrupted form), and all the bad romance subplots (Mitzi starts off as a shallow mean girl before working with the Hunters, Jason Queen is just a potential manager who acts more like a paternal figure to Musa, and Nabu does not have to die for the sake of a bad plot)

-Enchantix is not useless against the Wizards, but due to Earth's odd magical system, the Hunters do have the advantage of being more unpredictable. Despite fairy forms not existing on Earth, Believix was created from Roxy's magical core interacting with the Winx's magic, but each girl still has to earn their form by having someone from Earth believe in magic. The form grows in strength when more people believe in the Winx Club, but it also grows when the girls believe in themselves, each other, and their own magic; unfortunately, Earth is the only realm in which the girls can use this form, as it would be useless in the Magical Dimension.

-Believix takes on a more traditional Japanese "magical girl"-inspired look, with the girls still having different styles but with uniformed pieces and different-colored hair. Bloom earned hers through Roxy, Musa earned hers though Nex, Tecna earned hers when helping a young genius named Naoki, Stella earned hers when helping a young girl named Terra, Flora earned hers through Macy, and Aisha earned hers when helping a young man named Matt.

-As an Earth fairy, Roxy would have been born in her "transformed" state (pointed ears, sharp teeth, pupil-less eyes, wings that grow with age, etc.) but due to her half-human status and being exposed to the Winx's magic, she does gain a fairy form. Her magic is connected to animals (making her the "Fairy of the Wild"), as she was born to a Spring Court Fairy. Unlike in the show, her design is closer to that of an Enchantix fairy.

-The beginning starts off with Bloom taking up a teaching job at Alfea while her friends are working hard towards their own dreams, as she feels suddenly directionless in her life. After almost three years, Bloom asks Faragonda why Earth is a forbidden place for magic and Faragonda explains that centuries ago, Earth was a magical place, but a cult of anti-magic users hunted down those with gifts. As a result, fairies hid themselves away in Tir Na Nog while witches and wizards hid themselves among the mortals, hoping for they could proudly show off their magic in public. That evening, as Bloom is doing an obstacle course with her class, a strange woman appears and Bloom defends her from four men known as the Hunters, leading to the woman revealing herself as Queen Morgana of the Earth Fairies… and she needs help finding the last fairy of Earth.

[tomorrowillbeyou]

now I may be mathy but not as much as you so please tell me why pemdas is stupid I'm curious

well to me i think it doesn't really teach the reasoning & intuition behind order of operations... any such acronym that you ask people to mindlessly memorise is similar i think in that they will remember the order but not know why its like that or not know how to apply it or forget the order of the letters because it means nothing to them.... U know its the sort of thing u wake up as an adult remembering and think what does that even mean..... and i think this is exemplified by all those stupid brainteasers u see online that are like what's 6÷2(1+2) <- deliberately ambiguous notation to drive up engagement. and the way people interact with such things really shows the way order of operations has been taught to them, they say This is the right answer because pemdas, anyone who disagrees is stupid and wasn't taught right. which to me shows how they see pemdas as like this rule sent down by god that is just The Way Things Have To Be, there's no reason for it its just how it is, which is obviously not a great way to think about maths which focuses heavily on understanding why things are true and using logic to convince yourself why it has to be that way, and like questioning everything and needing concrete proof of things being true. and the thing is that pemdas literally isn't the way things have to be .. we could have a different order of operations and maths would still work the same it would just be written in a different way & probably a lot harder to read, pemdas is literally a convention and people treat it as an unbreakable rule and also (occasionally, online) the be all end all of being good at maths which i don't really have to explain why i dislike that. but anyway that was a massive tangent tldr my problem with it is that it focuses on rote memorisation without emphasising that order of operations is a convention or explaining why we use that convention ... i don't really have a solution to this problem im not an education expert or anything and maybe im being unrealistic i just feel like surely there's a better more intuitive way to explain that... sorry for rambling and feel free to disagree this is just my uneducated ass undergraduate opinion lol

[mahou-furbies]

Closing thoughts on Otona Precure

(spoilers)

I've tried to remain optimistic but man I can't find a positive spin on this. I don't think could stand on its own as a magical girl show aimed at adults because the story was kind of childish and a lot of the character stuff requires you to already be familiar with them, but it didn't deliver properly on the "I'm a Precure fan so I'll take anything" side either. Most importantly the show committed the cardinal sin of not only lacking any adult magical girl forms, but then it also didn't bother to include a new powerup look for the aged-down ones. What is this nonsense, everyone knows that your new magical girl season has to include at least one new look! 1/10 rating for that alone! (jokes aside I gave it a 4/10 on mal)

The inclusion of Nagisa and Honoka (and Hikari) was absolutely terrible; I don't mind their characters but their contributions were entirely pointless. Like if you don't know who they are it's just brand new nobodies with no connection to any of the plot and themes of the story who just randomly show up in the grand finale where everything is supposed to wrap up neatly, and if you do know who they are and are willing to accept them being shoehorned in just for the sake of seeing them grown up… we don't get that either. Oh how convenient how Nagisa and Honoka just happen to be missing from our bar meetup today! And they really didn't want to do anything at all with my girl Hikari, it was actually kind of funny how superfluous her appearance was. I guess the Futago Kamikita art is our only saviour here, at least they're included in that. Long hair Nagisa?

(also a nitpick but I really don't like that all the first five seasons apparently got retconned into happening in the same town? Makes the world so much smaller)

The time flower ticking clock also ended up completely wasted, I'm sure nobody expected Nozomi to die, but at least come up with some sort of excuse why everything turned out in the end and don't just say that actually there was never any danger in the first place. I hate to say this but even the light sticks from the movies would have been an improvement, have all the townspeople send encouraging vibes to the Precure which fix the flower issue if you must!

Then there's the visuals which were noticeably bad, ranging from poor cgi, lack of animation and just unappealing colour palette, and also kind of boring civilian clothes for the Cures. So the show doesn't have the excuse that at least it's pretty to look at or fun to draw either.

Then a final complaint that Coco and Nutts' mascot forms kept their shrill nails-on-a-chalkboard voices. Would anyone have complained if their voices had been changed?

Still the parts focusing on the Cures' grown up civilian lives were for the most part alright so I don't think the show was without any value. I liked especially the parts that were about how their problems are now more difficult than when they were younger, but that they'll continue moving forward regardless. But I would probably have liked the show better if it either had a stronger main plot to back it up, or alternatively scrapped the magical side of the story and was just a slice of life story.

Better luck with the MahouTsukai sequel, hopefully having less characters to juggle results in a better story.