#two characters were arguing and kinda talking past each other

[thepsironyofchokingonalifesaver]

The fun thing about having OCs that are kinda half-baked is that you can be like, “It’s unclear and mysterious what her life was like before she met so-and-so…” (I haven’t thought that far back)

[reiding-writing]

i LOVE your angsts

you can write something about the reader and spencer being apart after a conflict, being childish and sarcastic towards each other afterwards, and then, one of the cases ends in an explosion and, or, fire in which one of the two is trapped and alone, and the other takes risks to save him

who knows, maybe one of the two in the hospital is still delirious and asking to marry the other? anyway, you choose

basically two idiots in love and proud who can't bear the thought of losing each other

thanks 🥺🫶🏻

commitment [ s.r ]

You love Spencer Reid more than anything in the world, but committing to someone for life was not something to be considered lightly. A life or death situation might speed up the decision process a little.

spencer reid x gn!reader || angst || 4.0k ll masterlist!!

WARNINGS: commitment issues, fire, major character injury, miscommunication, happy ending

a/n: happy 29th of february? is that something to be celebrated? anyway, kinda took this one on a rollercoaster ride, enjoy :)

Spencer Reid wanted a family.

He wanted to get married, have 2.5 kids and live in a house with two cars and a white picket fence.

But he didn’t just want that with anybody, he wanted that with you.

You weren’t sure.

You loved Spencer with your whole heart, you really did, but after your parents’ failed marriage and your negative experiences with romantic relationships in the past, the fact that you’d even been in a committed relationship with Spencer for the last four years was an achievement in itself.

You’d talked about it a few times, but you’d always come to opposite decisions. Spencer wanted to settle down with you, and you were afraid to do so.

Your most recent conversation on the subject ended less as a conversation and more as an argument.

“So you don’t really love me then?” You could see the betrayal in his eyes at you again shutting down the idea, his tone carrying more upsetness than accusation.

“No Spencer of course I love you what are you talking about?” You can feel yourself nearing tears at his question. He was quite literally the person you loved most in the world, and to have him shut down your feelings because you didn’t see eye to eye with him broke your heart.

You spent the next few days staying with Garcia.

You tried to not let your disagreement with Spencer influence your work, but the fact that you wouldn’t so much as spare a glance at each other during office hours tipped off the rest of the team about your situation immediately.

“So,” Morgan leaned his hip against the counter of the kitchenette as you fixed yourself a cup of coffee, neglecting Spencer’s mug on the shelf instead of making both cups at once like you’d usually do.

“So?” You raise an eyebrow at his incomplete sentence.

“What’s going on between you and pretty boy?”

You sigh before he even finishes the question. “It’s nothing for you to worry about,”

“Your lover’s quarrel is ruining the vibes, it is most definitely something for me to worry about,” You roll your eyes at his response. Trust Morgan to find the most unserious way to express his concern for the two of you.

Logically you knew it was because he wanted to tread lightly, but that didn’t make it any less eye-roll inducing.

“So,” He leans forwards a little. “What’s going on? Did you disagree on whether Star Trek or Star Wars was better or something?”

You give him a deadpan stare and he immediately surrenders, raising up his hands as he concedes.

“What else do you have to argue about? You guys are like the most boring couple I know,” Morgan shrugs nonchalantly, and you halt the stirring of your teaspoon in your drink.

Boring? You weren’t boring. Were you? Did Spencer think you were boring? Did he think your relationship was boring? Maybe he only wanted to tie the knot in the hope that it would ‘reignite the spark’ or whatever people said.

“Hey.” Morgan snapped his fingers in front of your face, effectively pulling you out of your internal spiral.

“Hm?”

“I asked if it was serious, Garcia told me you’ve been staying with her the last few days,”

Curse Garcia and Morgan’s no filter relationship.

“Everything’s fine, we both just need time to cool off,”

“You’re sure?”

You have to consciously suppress a sigh at his continued questioning. Morgan was great, but god did he push.

“Yes Morgan, everything’s fine,” You spoke with enough conviction that you managed to convince him of your truth, although whether you believed it yourself was another question.

“Good, because if you two ever broke up I’m pretty sure the whole team would fall apart,” His tone tells you his joking, as does his expression as he leaves you to your coffee, but your brain isn’t as kind as to just let the comment fly over your head, and you’re sent into another spiral as you make your way back over to your desk.

Do the whole team really think of your relationship with Spencer as a vital part of its inner workings? What if it really didn’t work out? What would happen then?

Would the whole team fall into chaos?

You didn’t want to break off your relationship with Spencer. But what if it did happen?

Your thoughts leak into your body language, your shoulders tense as you sit down and your eyes not quite focused on the papers on your desk.

It didn’t help that Spencer sat directly opposite you either. It was like the world was trying to rub your conflict in your face every time you saw his hair in your peripheral vision.

You could feel his eyes boring into the top of your head, but you knew he wouldn’t say anything. It was one of the faults in his character, and yours you suppose, because even if he did ask you what was wrong you’d probably blow him off anyway.

The tension between the two of you was enough for Emily and Morgan to share a glance across the bullpen to each other, although they didn’t have enough time to corner you into asking what was actually going on as Hotch called the team into the conference room.

The silent feud between the two of you continued into the meeting, sitting on opposite ends of the table like you were two negative magnets being forced away from each other by an insurmountable pressure.

It was a little silly you think, to be so removed from each other after a single argument, but when Spencer put his foot down about something, he held his ground under any circumstance.

And so the two of you were destined to lie in a stalemate, sat seething in silent frustration with each other until one of you eventually caved under the pressure.

It wasn’t going to happen.

It was another fault of the two of you. You were both too damn stubborn for your own good, and it was beginning to affect your ability to work together.

You were supposed to be two sides of the same coin. Two gears intertwined and seamlessly rolling off of each other in perfect unison. Instead, you couldn’t even decide on the importance of a half-burned diary found at the scene of the last scene you’d arrived at, the fourth building set ablaze in Fallon in the last five days.

“This guy is clearly dealing with marital struggles, that could be our trigger,”

Of course he had marital struggles, because you couldn’t escape your own issues even when you were two-thousand miles across the country.

“We don’t even know if that diary belongs to our unsub,” You sigh exasperatedly as you slump back in your chair.

“It was a grocery store. Who brings a diary to a grocery store unless it’s something extremely important to them? It has to belong to our unsub.”

“Spencer-”

“You know that I’m more likely to be right about this,”

You can’t help but scoff at his statement, discarding your coffee mug on the round table and causing small brown droplets to coat the surface of the wood from the force. “You’re really pulling the intelligence card? Seriously?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Spencer shrugs his shoulders with a furrowed expression. “My intelligence is what got me here and it’s telling me that this diary belongs to our unsub,”

“And my experience is telling me that you’re fixating on this goddamn diary instead of looking for things that could be actually useful to finding this guy because you want to feel sorry for yourself by living through his struggles.” You gesture exasperatedly to the book in his hands, becoming increasingly frustrated with Spencer’s attitude towards you.

He might be smart, but you had almost half a decade on him in terms of experience. He had zero right to speak to you like that mid-feud or not.

“You’re angry at me, I get it. Don’t let it cloud your judgement.” You push yourself up from the table with a scowl, leaving your chair pushed out as you exit the station with the door slamming shut behind you.

“You’re sure this is the right place?” Morgan furrows his eyebrows as you approach the house, clearly run-down and looking as though no-one had lived in it in several years.

“I’m sure,” Spencer gave a determined nod as he un-holstered his gun, following the team into the house to sweep it for the suspect.

Despite your argument about the importance of the diary, Spencer had continues to fixate on it completely, leading to a partial name that Garcia had managed to identify and ultimately the house you were now running into.

You feel under-appreciated sometimes. Hotch always ended up going with Spencer’s choices, experience didn’t matter. It was like he had a tattoo across his forehead that read ‘I’m always right’ and everyone else took it as law.

But you’re not going to disobey direct orders, even if you did want to throw all of Spencer’s favourite books into a filled bathtub and watch him mourn over the ruined pages.

“Clear!”

You sweep the house room by room, you, Hotch, and Emily in charge of the ground floor whilst Morgan and Spencer went upstairs.

It was a complete ghost house. There was no electricity, no running water, smashed windows and moulded wallpaper, the furniture looked decades old and above all it just smelled horrific, a mix of leaking waste pipes and faulty gas lines. Were you seriously supposed to believe someone was living here?

“All clear up here,” Morgan emerged at the top of the stairwell with a shrug. “We got nothing,”

“Of course we don’t,” You mutter the words to yourself with a roll of your eyes, silently confirming your own victory at the obvious lack of human presence in the house Spencer was so sure belonged to the unsub.

“Alright, regroup outside,” Hotch called up to the two, gaining a nod from Morgan as he went to retrieve Spencer and bring him down as you exited the building.

“Nothing?” JJ tilted her head slightly as the three of you emerged, met with Emily shaking her head with a slightly awkward expression as she met your gaze.

“Nope, gross, but nothing,”

“Gross is right, it smelled like shit in there-” You clear your throat into your elbow like you’d managed to infest your lungs from the smell.

“Where’s Spence and Morgan?” You shrug your shoulders at JJ’s question heading back to the SUV to grab a bottle of water.

“Knowing Reid he’ll be over-analysing something,” Emily chuckles slightly, patting JJ on the shoulder as she follows you past her. “Morgan’ll get bored soon enough,”

“Are we going or what?” You call out from where you’re leaning against the car, water bottle being waved around in your hand as you gesture your impatience.

“Morgan and Reid are-” Emily stops as she spots Morgan walking out of the front door. “—Reid is still inside,”

“Of course he is,” You grumble to yourself with a roll of your eyes.

“He’s refusing to leave until he’s found something,” Morgan shrugs as he reaches Hotch’s side. “He’s adamant that there’s something to be found in there,”

“God seriously?” You groan out your words as you rejoin the group. “It’s an abandoned shit hole, there’s nothing to be found—”

A loud crash from the house interrupts your complaint.

Loud crashes are never good.

Neither is the bright orange flicker of light you can see through the front door. Definitely not when you’re working an arson case and Spencer Reid is still inside the house.

It’s like all the hours of you pondering how best to make Spencer suffer for his actions completely disappear as soon as the flames are in sight.

You couldn’t be angry at Spencer if he was dead.

The way the wooden beams of the door frame collapsed under the heat really cemented that thought in your mind.

“Spencer—”

Your attempt at running inside is promptly stopped by an outstretched arm that collides against your waist, winding you slightly and causing your expression to turn from fear to anger at the person who’d interrupted your attempt to vacate Spencer from the building.

“What are you doing?!” You push Morgan’s arm away from you harshly as you attempt to bypass him, but you don’t even get two steps forward before his arm is again blocking you from running into the burning building. “Get off me!”

“You can’t just run into a fire-” You continue to struggle against Morgan’s grip as he pleads his case to you, causing his voice to strain from the exertion of trying to keep you in one place.

“Morgan if you don’t let me go right now I swear to god-” Morgan withstands your threats with his strength, and you’re becoming increasingly resentful at just how much effort he’d gone through to stay physically fit.

“The fire department are on their way-” JJ’s voice is soaked in concern as she speaks, both hands clenched tightly around her phone as she stares into the open door of the house and the yellow-orange light that is quickly enveloping anything visible inside it. “They’re four minutes out,”

“Four minutes isn’t fast enough-”

“Hey-” Morgan continues to struggle against your writhing, planting both of his hands firmly against your shoulders and shaking them slightly in attempt to get your attention. “He’s going to be fine.” The uncertainty in his gaze tells you the opposite.

By the time you hear the sirens of fire engines rounding the street-corner, you don’t have the mental energy to feel relieved. All you can do is stare into the raging inferno that encapsulates the entire ground floor of the house and pray desperately that it didn’t manage to climb up the stairs. You know you’re being too optimistic.

You barely compute the obvious when a stretcher is prepared in front of the entrance, only coming to when you hear a worried gasp emanate from Emily at your side as Spencer is laid down on it after being recovered from the house’s master bedroom, very clearly unconscious and less clearly still breathing.

“Breathing is shallow, pulse is weak, we need to get him on oxygen,” The EMTs converse between themselves as they rush the stretcher into the fire ambulance, leaving you and your team to stand idly on the sidelines as both the fire and Spencer are taken care of by the firefighters on the scene.

You pace the waiting room on your heels, the sharp contact of your feet on the marbled floor leaving small shock waves to shoot up your legs as you walk. You couldn’t just sit down, you weren’t going to relax in a chair whilst the love of your life was possibly dying of asphyxiation. You were worried, terrified, and you had to release that nervous energy somehow.

If Spencer was here right now you’re sure he’d reprimand you for your nervous habit, rattling on about how heel-striking is dangerous for the health of your legs as it compresses your entire weight into a single point that can have bad impacts on your bones. Thinking about it just makes you feel worse, making you pace more and ultimately creating a self-fulfilling cycle where the more you thought about what he’d say the worse your actions would get.

At least you were actually in the hospital waiting and not back in the station waiting for a call. God knows you’d be more of a burden to the rest of the team than a help right now.

“Visitors for… Spencer Reid?” The nurse checks the clipboard in her hands as she speaks, and the second you hear the first syllable of his name you’re diverting your pacing to walk straight up to the nurse’s side.

“He’s awake but dreary, and he’s refusing any medication to help with the pain in his esophagus,” The nurse explains his conditions to you as she leads you down the hallway, shrugging her shoulders slightly at the mention of his refusal of pain medication.

“He can’t take narcotics, do you have any substitutes? NSAIDs?”

The nurse nods slightly at your explanation, checking her clipboard once more as she stops you at a wooden door. “I’ll have a look and see what I can find,”

“Thank you,” You give her a small nod and a smile as she leaves you at the door, suddenly even more nervous than you were in the waiting room. Not only was Spencer now in recovery for smoke inhalation and minor burns, the last ‘conversation’ the two of you had was an argument. A stupid, petty argument because you were both stubborn assholes who couldn’t agree to disagree on anything.

What if he didn’t want to see you? You were probably the last person he wanted at his bedside right now after everything that’d happened. Maybe you shouldn’t go in and see him.

Your hand is already opening the door. Okay, well, too late to second guess things now.

“Hey Spencer…” Your voice is barely a whisper as you enter the room, door shutting seamlessly behind you as you walk towards his hospital bed, fingers ringing together as a work around to release all of the nervous tension in your body without bursting into tears. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I ate a campfire-”

His words are enough to break the small tension between you, and you laugh softly in a mix of relief and worry. At least he was alright enough to be able to speak properly. The burn on his arm looked pretty bad though.

“You look like you ate a campfire,” You approach his hospital bed slowly, taking a seat on the plastic chair at his side and gazing over him with an entirely pitiful look in your eyes.

“I’m okay…” It was like he could read your mind, then again your sure that most people would be able to see how distraught you were right now, but Spencer was always the first to notice, and he languishly reached his hand out to rest against your knee.

You started crying the minute his fingers made contact with your slacks.

“I’m so sorry-” It felt a little silly to be crying in front of someone who’d just been trapped in a burning building and was probably experiencing an insane amount of pain from the lack of medication, but emotions don’t always follow logical boundaries. “I’ve been so- horrible to you and you didn’t deserve it at all-”

You’re sure you look like an absolute mess by now, tears staining your cheeks from your crying, a blotchy complexion from your stress, wrinkled clothes and ruined hair from constantly messing with them to try and find a release for all of your anxiety, but the way Spencer looks at you would have you assuming you’d stepped right off a runway.

“You don’t have anything to apologise for,”

“But-”

“Nothing.” Spencer shakes his head to the best of his ability as he shuts down your rebuttal, and he shifts his hand upwards to lie over your two hands clasped in your lap. “I shouldn’t have tried to pressure you into something that you’re not ready for, that was my fault, and for that I’m the one who needs to be saying sorry,”

“No I get it-”

“I made you uncomfortable and upset and that was never my intention,” Spencer continues to cut off your attempts to speak, something he’d usually rather die than do to you - or anyone for that matter - but deemed a necessity to stop you from lumping all of the blame on yourself when you had done nothing more than establish a boundary. A boundary that Spencer didn’t respect.

“I love you, and I want to spend every waking hour I have in your presence, I want to sleep with you in my arms and wake with you by my side. I want to experience every up and down with you and keep you safe and loved at every instance,” Spencer gives your hand a small squeeze as he looks at you, your reflection in his eyes one of pure beauty and perfection. “I didn’t do that for you in our last disagreement, and I can only hope that you’ll forgive me and allow me to make up for that moving forward,”

Spencer’s fingers ghost over the back of your hand, pressing small circles into the dips between your fingers and gently massaging your skin. “I want to do nothing more than love you, and a piece of paper and a pair of rings won’t change that either way.”

You swear that you melt with every word that leaves the boy’s mouth, and if he wasn’t currently hospital bound you’d smother his face in kisses until he couldn’t breathe anymore.

In respect for his condition you turn you affections to his hand instead, holding it up to your face and pressing deft kisses against the curve of each of his knuckles, silent tears still sliding down your cheeks. Tears of a different trajectory this time, filled no longer with guilt and frustration and instead replaced with the realisation of just how much you mean to Spencer Reid.

“I love you so much,” Your lips brush the back of his hand as you speak, his fingers dampening with the lingering moisture of your tears as you hold his hand like it’s the only thing anchoring you to the earth. “So much.”

The smile that breaks out on Spencer’s face could cure any ailment in your mind within seconds. “I love you too,”

[remember-the-fanfics]

Earthborn (Hazbin Hotel Reader Insert)

Oh geez this made me realize I have religious trama while writing this.

Spoilers if you haven't actually watched hazbin hotel.

Also apparently the characters are taalll. Minus Niffty

Just test on how I'll write hazbin hotel so to be continued or not

"Go fuck yourself pompous prick!" (Y/n) yelled at Adam, their anger getting to them.

"Don't speak to me like that! You came from me!" He responded. "You are alive because I fucked-."

"Up, yeah I know. Being God's chosen people, Adam and Eve. Cast out after eating the apple, had two sons and one killed the other. Blah blah, I was raised in church." They told him. "And in a club in elementary school about the Bible so I know a bunch."

Charlie and Vaggie looked at each other in confusion, (Y/n) never talked about these parts of their past.

"Then why are you arguing with me?!"

"Because if you get to be here after getting banished from the garden by God himself then I see no reason why Sinners that want change themselves to get shouldn't." (Y/n) said staring at Adam with their arms crossed.

The Angels watching started to whisper to themselves.

"(Y/n), you know why you are here." Said Sara. "Please do not get involved with the next issue until we get to that."

(Y/n) looked way up to where Sara and Emily were seated. "Very well, apologizes I just wanted to get that out of the way." They bowed while speaking before standing straight. "...This is probably has to do in how I've been in hell?"

"Yes, (Y/n) (Middle Name) (L/n), you are still earthborn, not yet a sinner or a winner, have been in hell for just less than a year. How did you get there?"

Shocked faces across the room from everyone minus (Y/n), who looked uncomfortable with being called their full name.

"(Y/n) is that true?" Asked Charlie, surprised at the information. She knew (Y/n) didn't look like a sinner, kept a more humanoid look than most and was shorter than most of the people at the hotel.

"Yeah, I'm still human or well Earthborn as it was called. I didn't tell any of you since I didn't want you to worry." (Y/n) told Charlie look at her and Vaggie. "How did you even know?" They asked the Seraphim in charge. "I have an... okay disguise." Looking at themselves, with pointy ears,sharper teeth, and their eyes were not a normal color. They atleast didn't look human enough to question.

"We can tell by your soul. It still shows your the weight of your sins or what not. Not like I forget what one of my millions of too many great-grandchildren look like." Said Adam and with a grin and a snap of his fingers, (Y/n) felt the necklace they wore break in peices as the magic it held broke with it.

"I would rather be dead than be related to you, prick." (Y/n) said with deadpan look.

"It took awhile to realize you weren't just a weird sinner soul so we told Sara when we noticed all of you earlier." Said Lute, finally butting in before Adam could argue again.

"(Y/n) how did you get into hell?" Sara asked again, tried of this again.

"Not sure? Its kinda just a blank space between being on earth and then in hell." They answered with a shrug. "I found someone to help me somewhat look the part and then Vaggie found me while I was wondering around."

The earthborn was complete being too nonchalant with being in hell.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about not being from hell?" Asked Emily, earning a look from Sara.

"Well I mean at first for safety and then to keep anyone from worried about me? I'm kinda more... fragile compared to anyone else since demons and sinner have... an easier time getting up from a normal serious injury than I would." (Y/n) having to think of what they said before they actually saying it.

"I threw you off a building into a fight, how did you survive that?" Questioned Vaggie.

"Well Angel Dust caught me slash soften the fall and I mostly hide until Husk picked me up to leave."

"Why have you been helping Priness Charlie Morningstar with her project even when you are earthborn?" Asked Sara.

"Because it's a good cause? If I was a sinner I would want the hotel to be there to even give me a small chance to get into heaven even if you all don't believe in it. It's a humane way of handling the population down there. If redemption can happen to people while they are alive, why wouldn't it happen while they are dead and in hell? As along as they put in the effort to be good person, they should be a good person."

"If you know the words of the Bible why didn't you spread it down there?"

"Because being pushy to the wrong person could end me? And they really don't really think highly of you all. Plus for me if you heard how people like me would end up there for something out of their control, I would have trama with it."

"Why are you talking about it now if you have an issue with the Bible and God?" Questioned Adam.

"Oh, mostly because I'm pissed off. I don't have an issue with God, at all. It's people with opinions that wrote the book that got translated to many time with out checking by people who also had opinions. The Bible is.. fine. Heck, I didn't even knew there was a Lilith involved until Charlie told me."

(Y/n) sighed, taking a deep breath.

"What's gonna happen now? Are you going to kill me? Actual make me a sinner? Send me back making seem crazy or thinking this is all a weird dream until I actually die?" They asked. "Because if you send me back crazy, I'm gonna actually kill myself."

"No! Let's not do that, please." Pleded Emily to Sara, scared for (Y/n)'s safety.

"Of course, I wouldn't want you to do that." Said Sara.

"Because the Bible says it's a sin or because you actually don't want me too?" Questioned (Y/n), they were tired of this.

"They could become an Exorcists, it would be funny." Said Adam, laughing at the thought of (Y/n) killing their friends.

"How many times do I have to tell you I would rather die than be anything associated with you?"

"You're soul has yet to be judged but you've seen more than any earthborn have seen in many decades. You could stay in heaven as Winner or angel. We could send you back to earth. Which would you want to do?"

"I want to continue to help Charlie see this though." Said (Y/n).

"Your soul would be damned forever, (Y/n) as a sinner. I would not let that happen to any earthborn in your place in good conscious."

"Then send me back as I am. When I die, wherever that may be judged me as I will be."

"(Y/n), you're too young for-."

"It's Hell, I know but it can be nice when you get use to it just like Earth. Please just let me help until I'm ready to go home."

"...Very well, I'll give you till a month time to sort this out for yourself."

Gives you enough time to help for get set for extermination.

[xoxo-sarah]

Okay here is another idea because I love spamming you with them! It’s for our Stevie boy! Okay so basically neither Steve or the reader have had good role models for relationships. So because of this they kinda have a bad relationship, but know this so they sit down and talk and make a promise not to yell or storm out. So they fight and the reader is like whatever and leaves but Steve yells. It’s just their way of showing they care(the reader doesn’t like to fight so they leave to cool off and Steve needs to talk it out). Again this one is really just for me because I’ve never had a good relationship and my one relationship I had I dipped when things got semi hard 🤦🏼‍♀️ but like she tries that after they had their talk and Stevie won’t let her blah blah happy ending please because I need happy endings

Promises Between Us

(The headers have nothing to do with the fic but I didn't know what else to put)

↝a/n: quick fic. thank you for requesting! Enjoy 🩷 ily 💋

↝pairing:Steve Harrington x fem!reader

↝warning: relationship problems, bad family issues, parent issues/ arguing, Steve's parents mentioned, crying, not proofread & rushed

|| Disclaimer: I do not own Steve Harrington, or any character from Stranger Things. I only own y/n and any characters I create with my own brain. ||

↝⎙ 12.23.24

Steve was terrible at relationships.

He had never been good at them and would let you know if you were to ask him.

Growing up, he didn't have the best examples to follow. His parents were always away, and when they were home, they barely spoke to each other. Out in public, they had the "white picket fence and happy couple" fecade perfected. Honestly, it irritated how fake his parents were. They were the perfect couple to anyone who looked their way.

You, on the other hand, had your own set of issues. Your parents fought constantly, and you learned early on that sometimes it was better to just walk away. All the grief you felt as a child, stuck with you through your children, teenage years, and the start of your adulthood. It probably always will.

When Steve and the you started dating, you both knew it wouldn't be easy. You both cared deeply for each other, and tried to make it work with everything in your being.

But the past made it hard to navigate the complexities of a relationship, some days. You had your fair share of arguments, and more often than not, they ended with you storming out and Steve yelling after you. You always came back, and Steve always apologized. He made sure to make it up to you. You spent more time together, talking, asking each other about the other's day. Anything to erase what was said in the heat of the moment.

Today was one of those days where it was all too much. Steve came home from work, pissed. You simply woke up in a mood. Those two didn't mix well together. After one small comment, it all unravelled.

"You're not listening!" The words echoed through the house, yet seemingly not making their way to Steve, who stood heaving in fury.

"I don't want to deal with this right now- i shouldn't have to!" Steve scrubbed his jaw, feeling it clench.

You two stood across from each other, tired, yet too stubborn to see it from the other perspective.

Closing your eyes, you sighed, "Whatever, Steve." And walked to the bedroom, already getting ready for bed at 5 P.M. Steve stayed in the living room, grabbing something to drink. You both needed to cool off, and that's exactly what you were going to do.

Steve tiptoed his way to the bedroom, with night having already fallen. He stood in the door way, watching as you read a book while leaning against the bedframe. His chest fell.

"I'm sorry."

When you looked up, Steve immediately wanted to kick himself. Around your eyes was red, along with under your nose. The tissue box on the bedside table didn't help extinguish his assumption. You had been crying.

"I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have brought it home and taken it out on you." He moved forward, toward you. Putting the book down, you sniffled, before nodding.

"Yeah, and I should've been more understanding." You watched as he sat beside you on the bed, before he grabbed your hand.

" I don't like arguing."

So, you both made the promise: no more yelling, no more storming out. You would talk things through, no matter how hard it got.

But promises are easier made than kept.

A few weeks later, you found themselves in the middle of another argument. This time, it was about something trivial, but it quickly escalated. You felt the familiar urge to leave, to cool off before things got worse. The living door invited you more and more as the argument escalated. Air, and quiet. That's all you wanted in the moment.

"Whatever, Steve," you said, turning towards the door.

"Wait," Steve's voice broke, desperate. His dark eyes were pleading, any hint of anger long gone. "We promised, remember?"

You stopped, hand on the doorknob. "I just need some space."

"No," he said, stepping closer. "We need to talk this out. I can't lose you."

Tears welled up in your eyes. "I don't want to fight." The air that had become thick from the tension, released. Vulnerability aired out the living room, nipping at your fingertips like the cold weather in December.

"Neither do I," he said softly, taking your hand. "But leaving won't solve anything. Please, stay."

Looking into his eyes, you saw the sincerity there. Slowly, you nodded. "Okay."

You sat back down, and for the first time, you both really talked. You shared your fears, your insecurities, and your hopes for the future. It wasn't easy, but it was a start.

By the end of the night, you were both exhausted, but there was a new understanding between you two. You knew it wouldn't be perfect, but you were willing to try.

Steve pulled you into his arms, holding you close. "I'm not going anywhere," he whispered.

"Me neither," you replied, resting your head against his chest.

•2021-2024 by xoxo-sarah on Tumblr•

•My work is not to be translated, copied, modified, and/or reposted on any other site without my permission. [I don't give permission!]

[questionableratatouille00]

ʜɪɢʜᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ʜᴇʟʟ 5

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: In an effort to get the two of you to bond, Tony Stark sends you and the ex-assassin Bucky Barnes on a road trip together. The reason? You hate each other. The situation? Two weeks in a car together. The reward: three days of a resort vacation. And the problem? He's kinda cute.

Warnings (Entire Series): Enemies-to-lovers, cursing, sexual tension, angst, fluff, crying, fighting, violence, chaos, mentions/talk of trauma, discussions of mental health, and potentially more.

Warnings: Reader wore a dress (past), cursing, mentions and eating of food, reader is called a cow if that’s a warning, both characters being horrible to each other, fighting, mentioned HYDRA themes.

[Series Masterlist] <- Haven’t seen pt. 1?

𝑴𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝑴𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔

Day Three

As you hauled your stuff into the truck once again, you couldn’t help but yawn. You were tired, and maybe still hungry even after raiding the hotel breakfast bar. 

Bucky took the driver’s seat, and you were too exhausted to argue. Your feet still hurt from the night before, all that dancing in those heels. 

Glancing at the man beside you, he didn’t seem to feel the same. 

You put on your playlist, blasting obnoxious pop music. You liked those songs, but you liked messing with Bucky more. 

The two of you stopped at a drive-thru for lunch.

Making the best choice for yourself, you decided to squeeze in a nap before you guys would stop for dinner. Leaning against the window, you closed your eyes and prepared for sleep.

When it finally came, it was a peaceful, uninterrupted darkness that allowed you some rest. 

Until you were nudged awake. You glared daggers at the perpetrator—the monster who woke you. 

“Dude, what the fuck?” You grumbled, rubbing your eyes. 

“You snore like a cow with a deviated septum.” He grumbled. 

“You’re such a fucking dick.” You retorted. “I bet you snore, too.”

“No, I don’t.” He answered back, brushing you off as if you had just said that grass was blue. 

“Yeah, you probably do.” You had no idea, but you were too deep to stop now.

“Okay.” He huffed, shaking his head. 

“Asshole.” You grumbled. 

More minutes passed by. Minutes turned into an hour. And after an hour, you were both bickering over the radio.

”You’ve been playing the same shit for the last two days. There has to be something else.” He said, his tone pointed and his eyes widened.

“Yeah, to drown out your loud ass breathing!” You shouted back.

“You wanna talk about my breathing? Really? After sounding like a broken vacuum for two hours?” He turned his head to stare at you.

“Watch the fucking road, you piece of shit!” You shrieked as he swerved.

“What? Does that scare you? Does that fucking scare you?” He barked back, but he turned his head back toward the road. His right hand’s knuckles had turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. You wouldn’t have been surprised if he had ripped it off, either on accident or on purpose. Wouldn’t have been the first time.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” You spat out. “Are you crazy? Are you insane? Is that what HYDRA did? They made you fucking crazy?” It was like watching yourself from outside your body. You would’ve never said that. Never. Personal attacks were not your style. But something about him—or maybe something about the two of you together—made you act in ways you sometimes couldn’t control.

“Don’t you fucking say that! Don’t you ever fucking say that! You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about!” He slammed on the breaks, pulling off to the little gravel section on the side of the road. You were in the middle of nowhere—surrounded by trees on a mountain.

When he slammed on the breaks, your body hurled forward, your arm slamming into the dashboard. “Fuck!” You groaned, clutching your arm. Your phone slipped from your lap and clattered to the truck floor. “You fucking suck!”

“And you’re a stuck-up bitch!” He shouted back.

“I wish Steve never saved your sorry ass, I wish I’d never ever met you.” You growled, clenched fists trembling with rage.

“You really are the worst thing that ever happened to me. I mean that.” When he uttered the words, his teeth were bared. Like a dog, you thought. HYDRA’s bitch in all his fucking glory.

“Really? Seventy years of shit and it’s me? I’m the worst thing?” You were losing your mind. “Glad to know being even near me is worse than torture! Glad you’re sharing your experiences, Bucky.”

“And how would you know? What, like you’re my goddamn best friend or some shit? You’re fucking not. We aren’t even friends!” He roared the words in the loudest volume you’d ever heard from him.

Of course you knew that you weren’t friends. Obviously. But you didn’t need the bitchy Bucky Barnes to remind you. Seething, you decided that you were done with this shit, and you didn’t care what Nat or Tony had to say about it.

“No fucking shit! Thank you so much, Sherlock Holmes! And for once, you’re actually right! I’m not your friend! Thank you for making that clear for me. In fact, I’m so grateful that I’ll give you what you've wanted since the beginning, you bitch!” You unbuckle your seatbelt, before pressing the ‘unlock’ button.

Hopping out of the truck, Bucky began to copy you. “You can’t leave!” He said, and his tone sounded like he was accusing you of something. You responded by sticking both middle fingers up near your chest.

“Watch me!” You slammed the door shut before turning and stalking off bitterly.

You made it maybe fifteen quick steps away before you heard Bucky’s door slam shut. His shoes made noise against the road. Before he could say anything, you whirled around to face him. He stopped, five feet away from you. He opened his mouth to say something, but you beat him to it.

"Have you ever considered that maybe it's you? Everyone keeps leaving you and you keep acting surprised. It's because you push them away, Bucky! You push them away!" Your voice becomes shrill at the end of your statement.

He flinches at the mention of Steve. "You don't understand." Bucky called out.

"Then explain it to me then, Bucky. Explain it!" It was more of a begging shout than an angry one. "What, are you worried that he'll leave you or some shit? Cause he's not! I followed him halfway across the world for you!"

"He's the only person who's left! He's all I've got left, the last good thing I have!"

"Probably because you refuse to do anything but glare at everybody else! So you can go ahead and be by yourself! Serves you right!" You spin around, beginning to walk down the road again again. You're too angry to check if he's still following you.

You find out once you feel a hand on your shoulder. Filled with rage, you spin around and punch him right in the face. You regret it immediately as you feel the stinging pain in your fist.

He lets out a loud 'fuck!' as he clutches his jaw. His brows furrow and he looks up at you, eyes wide and furious. You knew in that moment that you’d fucked up. Without warning, you turn and race down the road, knowing that he was right behind you. Shit, shit, shit, you repeated in your head.

You trip over a pothole, pausing. Bucky, however, clearly wasn’t paying attention as he rammed into you. You let out a shriek, tripping and falling down right at the precipice of the hill. And then you were rolling. Rolling through leaves, and mud, and sticks as you both swatted and kicked at each other. Then you rolled through a small creek, and you let out a yowl as you felt your clothes get wet, writhing even more as gravity pulled you down.

When it was over, you both laid there for a moment. Bucky had landed on top of you, and you struggled to breathe. Shoving him off of you, you stared up into the starry sky. Something about it made you want to take back what you'd thought about the value of this trip. At least the sky was pretty.

You got up at the same time he did. The two of you looked at each other, tense. You weren't sure if he was still pissed about the whole punching-him-thing. But God, the fall hurt. Your head hurt. Your back hurt. As did your legs and arms and face and literally almost every part of you.

"Fuck you, Barnes." Was all you said, before you began walking forward. Tumbling just far enough that you were basically in the forest, you could still see the hill you fell from. You were insanely dizzy, but the pain in your body and the wetness of your clothes grounded you. You didn’t know where to go, but you knew you couldn’t stand to look at his face anymore. You picked a direction and began to walk. Bucky did not follow.

It was hard to tell how far you’d gone. The darkness, coupled by the fact that all of these trees seemed to look the same, was not helpful towards your already-poor sense of direction.

After a while, you sat down against a tree. Attempting to reach for your phone, you let out a pathetic groan as you realize it was sitting probably under your seat back in the truck.

So you truly were fucked at the moment.

The sky was beautiful. It was the kind of dark, starry sky that had splashes of blue in it. It was like someone had water colored it. You knew you weren't going to die in the woods. You're an Avenger, damn it.

The sound of sticks breaking tore you from your thoughts. You believed it was a wild animal, at first. But even with the darkness, you could tell who it was. Bucky Barnes, the one hundred and six year-old Super Soldier.

"Don't act like you're not happy to see me like this." You called out as he stepped closer.

He was close enough that you could see his face. He looked...almost remorseful.

"Don't look at me like you're sorry. You're not sorry." You groaned out.

He said nothing, but you could tell he disagreed. He stood beside you, and he was quiet for a moment.

“I’m sorry. For punching you.” You say quietly. “I don’t regret what I said, though. It’s true. They all..we all want to help you. But we can’t because—“

“I know.” He cuts you off, scratching at the back of his neck. “I’m sorry too.” He cleared his throat before speaking again. “I don’t…know why I am the way I am. But I don’t wanna be like that. Like this. Not forever.”

When you didn’t say anything, he continued. “Sometimes I think that this is it and I can’t do anything about it. That this is how it goes. That I lived through…it all, just to be fucked over from it forever.” He fiddled with his hands, looking down. “And I don’t…want it to be that way. So I guess I’m saying I’ll try to do better.”

Your head bobbed up and down shakily. “Yeah. And..I’m sorry about bringing that up. That was…shit, that was awful. I’m sorry.”

He nodded too, still not looking up at you. “Did you mean it?”

“What?”

“About..about me being HYDRA’s bitch. Did you mean that?” He looked up and you could see his expression and it burned in your stomach. It was hard to describe—a boyish suffering; like that of a kicked puppy.

“I…what?” Holy shit. Had you said that under your breath on accident? Now you felt truly guilty. “No. God, no. Oh my God. I’m sorry.”

He didn’t say anything, looking back down and watching as he fiddled more with his hands.

“Do you have any idea where the truck is?” You ask after an awkward silence. He responded by pointing behind him. Great, you thought. You’d been walking the wrong way the whole time.

“The serum made my eyesight better. I can kind of see in the dark.” He explained.

You nodded, sighing. “There’s some towels in the back of the truck. We can put them on the seats. To help with all the…mud.” You gestured between the two of you.

You both made the trek back up the hill to the road, and then began to make your way to the eerily silent truck.

You laid down the towels, and then Bucky put the keys in the truck. He twisted them, and nothing happened. His brows furrowed. He tried again.

Silence.

“When we got out of the car,” he began, voice measured. “Nobody turned it off.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. Please. Please tell me you’re joking.” You pressed your fist to your forehead.

“The battery must be dead.” He said, staring blankly ahead through the windshield.

You dug under the seat, finding your phone. “I’ll call for a tow truck, or whoever the fuck I’m meant to call.” You groaned.

The two of you stood awkwardly shivering in the cold as you waited for your savior in overalls.

A/N: Hoping that the tag list works well this time! I was previously having trouble with some usernames not being tagged, but that seems to be resolved! (hopefully)

I cannot promise a schedule, but I do want to finish this series this year! Hope everybody had some happy holidays and a wonderful new year!

Taglist: @afraidofshrimp @kandis-mom @laughterafter @cjand10 @emmsybucky @mrsnotfeelingsogood @matchat3a @identity2212 @ilovemcuff @unaxv @mysticalfuncollectorus @highwaytomichelle @lilbloggs @ordelixx @skiemi-blog @allieb913 @winterslove1917 @chimchoom @moonlight-readings @unearthlydreams @emizlav

graphics by the wonderful @saradika-graphics

If you enjoyed, please reblog!

[grannanna]

In Defense of Carlotta

So I was rewatching the Royal Albert Hall version of POTO and I kinda came to a realization: Carlotta didn’t entirely deserve what was going on.

I’m not saying she wasn’t a jerk. She is a primadonna for crying out loud. She’s got the ego of a peacock, but she’s still human.

At the beginning of the musical during her rendition of Think of Me and the bit between that version and Christine’s version, she gets attacked by the phantom. Of course everyone knows it’s the phantom but the managers all kinda just blow it off. We see her get upset and leave the opera cause she’s pissed.

You could frame this as her being a perfectionist OR you could see this as a woman finally breaking after years of abuse from a ghost of a man.

She says that “for three years these things keep happening” and that the previous manager never did anything to stop them. He simply paid the phantom and then kept casting her in the lead roles.

The phantom wants two things and that is to get Christine on stage and then into his arms. So, he sees Carlotta as an obstacle and has probably been attacking her for all those three years.

And what happens when she complains? When she gets scared and looks for someone to aid her? She gets either one of two responses:

The person is too scared of the opera ghost to do anything.

The person doesn’t believe in the opera ghost and acts like she’s crazy.

Both result in someone telling her “these things do happen.”

So can you blame her for leaving after she got close to dying AGAIN?

And then less than a week after leaving she finds out that they replaced her already? After all that talk about how she was the best of the best, the crème de la crème, her years and years of training, they replace her. And not only do they replace her, but they replace her with practically a teenager who has been getting trained by the very man that keeps trying to murder her?!

No wonder she was so angry when she stormed into the letters scene! Those she trusted had replaced her, sent her a taunting note, and then had the gall to ask her to come back!

I think this also recontextualizes the majority of Primadonna. These jerks are asking her to come back and of course she’s hesitant, she doesn’t wanna get almost assassinated again, but that tiny bit of vanity and pride comes up in the back of her mind.

Furthermore her “public needs” her. This could be the pride but I like to imagine her thinking of a little girl in that audience that wants nothing more than to be like her. Music was one of the only arts and ways to make money open to women at the time. Shes an example of how women can be independent in this world.

And ya know what? This man is trying to ruin her life. He doesn’t know her, but he keeps tryin to intimidate her and make her give up on something she clearly has a passion for. If you watch the recording of the 25th anniversary version of Primadonna, after the phantom gives his good ol “imma mess up the show” threat, she cocks her head and gives a little smirk. Shes saying “screw you. I worked hard for this. I spent years of my life, hours of my time, all of my energy, to be the best of the best and not you nor any spooky ghost can stop me!”

In the next opera, Carlotta and Christine are clearly having fun playing opposite each other. You could argue that this was just for the opera to go well, but I can tell you as an ex-actress myself that feelings towards your cast mates can get past you and the audience will see it.

(For instance, in high school I was playing opposite a guy I had a crush on and he had a crush on me, so when we went to a clinic (judges giving you advice on your show before competition) the judge basically told us to decide whether or not our characters liked each other or not cause it was making it too complicated for the stage. (For context we were playing Jo and Laurie. Laurie likes Jo, Jo doesn’t like him like that) Once the play was over we started dating. TLDR the audience will know if actors do or don’t like each other)

So Christine and Carlotta are having a good time because I think Carlotta realizes this isn’t Christine’s fault. Someone was going to have to take on the roll and it gave this young artist a start. Plus, it’s not Christine’s fault the Phantom became obsessed with her. He could have chosen literally anyone and Christine just happened to be the (un)lucky girl. I don’t see any evidence of Carlotta holding any grudges against Christine in this scene.

Also, this is just a minor thing, but I think that this was the right casting for this specific opera. Carlotta is much more voluptuous than Christine. She can’t exactly Mulan herself but Christine is younger and smaller and therefore can. This isn’t a talent thing this is basic casting. The entire opera is more important than the phantoms obsession. Also, the page boy is still a good role! If anything it seems like a pivotal role that just happens to be a mute one! The phantom should be excited that they’re not just throwing Christine back to the ballet dancers!

And then, when everything is going well, when she thinks that maybe the opera ghost has given up, that terrible voice announces that she and the mangers have pissed him off. You can see in her face she’s trying to be strong but she is scared. Shes not angry. She’s not petty. She’s scared.

She only gets mad at Christine when she reacts to the phantom. Yeah she acts like a jerk, calling her a toad. But the man trying to kill her is talking and the girl he is obsessed with his looking around for her “angel” which is Carlotta’s angel of death. So she’s gonna get mad. She’s gonna yell at Christine even during the show cause that’s her only outlet at the moment.

I would like to note here that that is a dick move on Carlotta’s part. However, we just had the two having a good time and we don’t know for sure that Carlotta didn’t apologize afterwards. We have a whole time skip between acts. The two could have made up.

But back to the show, the phantom seems to magically curse her to croak like a toad. In the version I saw in high school she took a sip of water that had something the phantom put in it to make her croak, but in the 25th version, you don’t see that. For all she knows this is no longer just a creepy guy but a literal ghost that just cursed her to sound like a frog! Getting rid of the thing she holds most dear! Her voice! No wonder she’s scared! Hell she starts crying! And Christine even tries to comfort her! Further proving that Christine is an angel and that the two could have developed somewhat of a working friendship/relationship.

And in her moment of terror what do the managers do? They replace her again! After all that talk about how they needed her the minute she becomes an obstacle they throw her out of the way.

She probably doesn’t have any time to process that before seeing that the phantom ACTUALLY KILLED SOMEONE! Any of that little hope she had that it was all just threats and taunts is out the window when the master of the fly ACTUALLY DIES! Hes killed and the phantom laughs and parades the corpse around like a piñata!

After that he manages to make a giant chandelier explode?!? If Carlotta doesn’t think that the phantom is an actual ghost before then she does now!

But a long while later, everything seems to go back to normal. We don’t know what happens in the meantime but we skip ahead to Carlotta managing to attend a masquerade party back at the opera. She’s all in black and back in her “don’t f with me I have the power of god and opera music on my side” vibes.

She doesn’t get much screen time here but we get three major lines from her.

“What a delight”

“Watching us and watching them”

“May its splendor never fade”

And “no more notes”

We can glean three things from this. Life has been good. The ghost has finally left her alone, and she’s got her art back. Her passion back! And I like to headcannon that she’s become a better person in this time and that’s why she’s dressed like she is.

If she was really still vain and conceited, she’d be wearing the most elegant angelic or queen-like dress she could find, but she’s instead a witch.

She’s dressed as who she used to be. She may have evolved and come to terms with sharing the spotlight hence why she says “watching US” She’s in a better place now that death isn’t breathing down her neck.

(Unrelated but also anyone notice Madame Giry with a young handsome dude? Is Giry a cougar and we just never noticed?)

And then, as everything is going good again, THE PHANTOM SHOWS UP AGAIN! And he’s literally LITERALLY dressed as the red death! A literal manifestation of Carlotta’s fears surrounding this monster of a man.

Yes Carlotta then becomes a jerk when she gets only a tiny part, which I will say she should have expected. The guy who wants you dead writes an opera and you expect him to give you a large role? Girl? You on the same planet as the rest of us? Once again, pride and vanity are kinda her big things.

Yet she still agrees to do it cause people are in actual danger now. And as she says “the things I have to do for my art!”

And yet she jumps back down the hole that she and the phantom are both in: blaming others for their problems. She thinks Christine is in line with the phantom and therefore blames her. She isn’t as… shall we say croaky about it but she still does point the finger. And yet she does seem to get a little worried when she thinks Christine is completely backing out. I mean after what happened last time Christine didn’t play the lead..

And then the phantom sends his note and once again you can see the horror and then also embarrassment when the phantom insults her acting.

Another headcannon is that yeah she does have an amazing voice there is no doubt about it, but she seems nervous about her acting. Maybe she knows her acting isn’t as good as her singing and realizes that if she messes up this time let’s just say she won’t get another chance.

(Also did the phantom really have to fat shame Piangi?)

And as the phantom addresses Christine in the note, I think Carlotta flops sides again when she hears that Christine has basically left the phantom. Hes not training her anymore. She had no idea of this. And if you can zoom in on her face in the background, you can see that Carlotta looks guilty for just yelling at this girl that’s just as terrified of the phantom as her if not more so!

And then she smirks again when Christine says no so then there goes that argument. And then again she goes back to pointing fingers but this time at Giry. Granted Giry does have some blood on her fingers so she has a point but once again EVERYONE IS SCARED OF THE PHANTOM! What makes Giry any different?! And when that pointing doesn’t work it goes back to pointing at Christine cause she can’t take into account anyone’s suffering but her own.

Then Christine had her break down and Carlotta comments “she’s mad.” But look at how she says this. Shes not making fun of her, she’s not belittling her, she’s worried about her. She sees the madness she’s experiencing is happening to others too. I think this is the final time she flips back to sanity. She realizes she’s not the only woman cursed by the phantom.

And while we can’t see much of her after Raoul’s solo we do see her almost run after a terrified Christine.

Yes she’s still jealous of Christine, we see that with the looks she gives during the rehearsal for Don Juan, but we also see something else I’ve been neglecting.

She’s an amazing friend to Piangi.

She gets upset when people correct him. He gives her support after almost being murdered and walks out with her. He pumps her up, she pumps him up. She compliments his skills and never once gets mad that he gets a role and she didn’t. I mean she’s mad she didn’t get a role but she’s still happy for Piangi! She’s willing to stand up to the phantoms writing not for herself but for her friend Piangi. And she backs down not for herself but for PIANGI. And she gets mad when he gets stressed and she gets stressed when he’s stressed and she’s a dick to everyone else but at least she’s a good friend to the few she has.

Which is why it’s probably for the best that we don’t see her react to Piangi’s death in this version.

Carlotta is definitely not perfect. But I don’t know if she’s entirely evil. She has been hurt by the phantom as much as anyone and deserves a future of peace just as much as anyone else does because that could allow her to grow.

Anyway rant over.

[justheretoposttrash]

day 12 of the final endhawks: endhawkspocalypse:

the adhd side of my brain has taken over and decided that consistency can No Longer Happen, so i've decided to make this my last day of posting, at least when it comes to sequential daily posts. i'm still unhinged-ly working on endhawks-related things for the foreseeable future though, and always happy to talk about the ship!

here's a final hodgepodge of thoughts!

part 1 - more ch430 positives

the continued use of a ranked *number system* in particular is silly imo (ig the masses do love a catchy numbered list). but at the very least, i gotta appreciate that the main characters didn't get top rankings straight outta school--when i think about how old they are post-timeskip compared to hawks, especially! bbygirl got #2 at 22 but was child-soldiered into it and was absolutely breaking his proverbial back. it's really not an aspirational thing to beat, and it's not something the main characters have to achieve to be "cool" or fulfilled narratively. they focused on their happiness, instead--shoto on finding his own identity and balancing his life thanks to his support system, bakugo on getting his boyfriend/whatever/queerplatonic-died-in-each-others'-arms-on-a-battlefield-in-a-past-life-and-now-they-keep-reincarnating-together soul-partners/rival back at his side so they can keep pushing each other, etc.! mirio's ascent notwithstanding, it's a healthy nugget from the final chap.

another cute thing from 430 is when hawks jokes that nagant is a villain. this joke has layers to it, considering both had to take on the villain label because of the commission, also contributing to their respective traumas under the commission. (they both even had someone cradle them in their arms shouting that they were still a hero despite them being at their low points--and physically very crispy. one of those someones being hawks himself, ofc.)

next, i gotta appreciate how unfettered hawks's facial expressions have become (also, his under-eyes are already thicker and darker, bro needs to sleep 😭) compared to how subdued they were in the twice fight (and to be clear, his expressions still screamed volumes then. i love how they're drawn to convey so much nuance in his emotions). once he was cut free from the commission, he stopped putting on a smile while doing hero work (there wasn't much to smile about post-raid, but pre-raid i'd argue things were bleak for him already, so at least he doesn't feel the need to put on as many airs). he also started actively sweating and showing fear, but without losing more genuine displays of confidence and happiness. (all this makes me very curious if his speech patterns have also changed in the original japanese to any extent compared to how they were at his introduction)

part 2 - dabi=endhawks truther?!?! *not clickbait*

i remember it being kinda hilarious that dabi tossed out hawks's history as an extra "fuck you" to endeavor, but i forgot how direct he is about his intentions.

he's just like, "yeah, i specifically wanted to drag hawks (and reveal his betrayal and hopefully shake your faith in him) to hurt you, dad. even though you two have hung out, like, maybe twice (may he rest in peace) in your whole lives. trust me, i knew this would be devastating for you. don't ask me how i know." like. touya my man. what are you doing. also thank you. almost makes the angst-lover in me wish he'd added a "don't worry about hawks, dad. you'll be joining him soon" right before attacking him with prominence burn to twist the knife, though understandably that would've convoluted the spotlight when the focus was meant to be on family and the touya reveal. but goddamn, just imagine.

he basically did the exact same thing to hawks by telling him his identity. in revealing a name that could only hold any significance to hawks through its relation to endeavor and what touya's existence implies about him, touya wielded a secret from endeavor's past to psychologically hurt hawks and shake his faith. it's just wild that he did it to both of them, pulled off flawlessly and with maximum drama, in rapid succession. legendary.

anyway, ppl tend to portray dabi as an endhawks anti, when funnily he's kinda more on the side of enjoying the fact they have a connection--granted, mainly as a thing to leverage to hurt them, bc he fuckin despises them (and granted, hatred in dabi's eyes is a complicated thing)--but still! he ain't in denial about endeavor's and hawks's relationship, he's an og! he's first in line! this makes his daddy issue allegations so much worse, but he doesn't care! and honestly i owe my life to him for his service in unearthing the truth; he's doing canon, in-text work to forcefeed the public endhawks crumbs that they didn't even want, and he deserves our utmost respect 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡

part 3 - our hero academia ft. protective enji

my mind was too wrapped up in The Plot to notice the subtleties of when Press Conference Lady yells at endeavor post-raid--for one thing, i realize on a second read that she's actually kinda yelling at hawks. so much of the emphasis is on endeavor's past actions that i didn't pick up on a few key details. for one, when hawks discusses his murder of jin, the visual centers endeavor's reaction, solemn but accepting/calm.

secondly, Press Con Lady speaks up right after hawks is done talking. thirdly, what she describes--not looking sorry, empty-seeming apologies, incompetence in the face of villains--apply as criticisms equally to hawks as they do to endeavor (notably not to jeanist, as he doesn't have a past or scandalous behavior to answer for).

it's also at this time that endeavor looks more angry (just look at his frown in the panel above!) and actually gives some pricklier-sounding pushback, when before he was mainly resolved and remorseful.

notably, he's translated as saying "we" and "our". ofc he's paying respect to his colleagues at large as well, but considering Press Con's criticisms are pointed most specifically and apply most to hawks and himself, he's strongly implying and acknowledging the pain that hawks has been through.

as he goes on to speak, the word choice shifts away from "us" and "we" to "me" as he claims responsibility for what happens next and urges peoples' slings and arrows to aim at him alone--again, for the sake of his colleagues and family at large, but particularly for hawks in this moment.

the undercurrents are so understated in this scene, but the degree to which endeavor shifts the language and focus away from hawks and onto himself is profound. throughout mha, we've got plenty of thought bubbles showing how hawks feels about endeavor in outright terms, but not as many from endeavor about hawks, especially after all their dirty laundry gets aired out. but even without thought bubbles, how he feels about hawks even at the worst of times becomes perfectly clear.

(god they drive me insane lmao)

[luvhhannie]

in every universe | y. jeonghan x reader

𓇢𓆸 synopsis: in every universe, judgement, betrayal and love seem to lead you and jeonghan to be destined to drift away. would there be any universe where destiny finally leads you two together?

𓇢𓆸 genre: romance, angst, mutual pining

𓇢𓆸 cw: major character death, cheating, self harm, suicide, references to nothing new, unrequited love, just angst man (not proof read)

𓇢𓆸 wc: 2.70k

𓇢𓆸 a/n: is this fic kinda related to my break up? who knowsss, get what you get from this fanfic. anyways, reblogs and hearts are very much appreciated! thank you for the support! 🤍

“let’s break up” you said as you stand firmly in front of your boyfriend, now ex, jeonghan. he looked at you sternly and sighed.

“okay.” he simply said. you gulped as tears suddenly fill up your eyes. you never wanted to break up with him, yet you knew that if he was the one breaking up with you right now, you would go insane. he suddenly opened his mouth.

“i’m sorry, really, i just don’t love you romantically anymore. we’ll still stay best friends, right?” he said. this is a healthy break up. you reminded yourself. you smiled softly at him.

“of course.” that was exactly a week ago before you found out he has been cheating on you behind your back. you were curious to see how he was doing so you looked through his socials when you saw he already had matching icons and bios with another person. you also saw that he has been commenting on the third party’s posts months even before your breakup.

“i just want you to be honest with me, jeonghan. was the reason for the breakup was because you didn’t love me anymore, or because you’ve been going behind my back MONTHS back into our past relationship?” you texted him. you only wanted the truth, you even dmed the other girl as you wanted to make sure that your assumptions weren’t real. yet her ignorant replies just proved your point that he knew what he was doing.

jeonghan denied everything you have said. you always trusted your gut feeling, so you cut him off completely, telling him that you were done with his friendship and lies.

“don’t ever contact me again, starting tonight. whatever happened to us in the past is nothing now. you betrayed my trust and i could never look into your eyes ever again.” you texted him, paragraphs by paragraphs, only for him to reply with two measly sentences.

“i don’t judge you for that but i don’t want to argue with you, proving that i am not a cheater. goodbye, yn.” that was the last thing you have ever heard of your ex. you always wondered if you did the right thing by cutting him off. but then again, he betrayed your trust and lied to you. you would’ve been okay if he said the real reason why he wanted to break up. this is the universe where your soul suffered the most. meeting him, talking to him and developing feelings for him over the years, finally loving him and having him as yours and you as his, then suddenly, ending as strangers all over again, but now with memories.

though, your soul might also think that the universe where you had passed away is the most miserable. in this universe, you had met jeonghan through your brother. you slowly developed a crush on jeonghan and began falling in love with him. from his sweet antics to his playful gestures. you were in love with him, so you decided to confess. the answer you got only got you in your worst state yet. you unfortunately caught a disease where unrequited love could kill you. either you lose the memories of the person you love to survive, or die loving the person you are infatuated with. your love for jeonghan was so strong you wanted to carry the sickness till your death, as long as you don’t forget yoon jeonghan.

in every universe, your love for yoon jeonghan is as powerful as the universal force. in every universe, you have found home in jeonghan, and so did he. in this universe, you and jeonghan were highschool classmates. you both had crushes on each other, yet no one made a move to one another, afraid of the other’s response. you two pined on each other, crushes slowly turning into love. however, on one faithful day, jeonghan finally decided that he will confess to you. unbeknownst to him, that was also the last day of you attending your highschool.

“i like you, yn. i like you a lot.” he confessed. you smiled sadly at him as you hold his hands.

“i’m so glad you do. i like you too. ever since we met.” you confessed back. you and jeonghan started crying and finally held each other’s body.

“i’m sorry, i’m moving away. i should’ve said something earlier.” you cried in his comforting arms. he sniffled and looked into your eyes.

“it’s okay, yn. let’s live this moment for now, okay? let’s love each other one last time here. promise me we’ll still keep in contact?” he asked you as he wipes your tears away. you smiled sadly.

“of course.” in this universe, no one cheated. but a promise was broken again. you and jeonghan never kept contact with each other, even during and after graduation. as time flies by, he already graduated college, and so did you. during one evening, one of his coworkers asked him if he wanted to go to one of his friends’ wedding. jeonghan being a good friend, he agreed.

finally at the wedding, jeonghan and his friend, seungcheol, waited for the bride to walk the aisle. seungcheol told jeonghan that his friend, and also coworker, joshua, was crying before the wedding started. joshua had told seungcheol that he was going to marry the most perfect person on earth and that he would die for her. jeonghan laughed at his story, thinking how silly the statements joshua had made when they finally heard the piano keys playing, indicating that the bride will soon start walking.

hearing the church door open, the guests started standing up and looking at the bride. jeonghan finally realized that joshua’s statement weren’t silly. the bride that joshua is going to marry really is perfect. the bride that joshua is going to marry is the same girl he dreamed of marrying back in highschool. he watched as yn walk down the aisle, trying to stop the tears coming out of his eyes. he silently watch the girl he has always loved smile to the guests, when both of them made eye contact. jeonghan thought that the world stopped spinning and everything was in stop motion. she took a deep breath and smiled sadly at jeonghan, continuing to walk towards her fiancé. jeonghan could only watch the two joyous couple in the background. finally hearing them both say their vows, jeonghan closed his eyes, letting the tears he has been putting up fall down to his cheeks. cheers and shouts erupted from the chapel as the newly wed couple share their first kiss. he knew at that moment, you have never loved him as much as he had loved you. he knew that you were never his. he knew that even if you deserve the love you have right now, he will never, ever, win it.

jeonghan’s soul might say that was the universe he had suffered the most. however, the universe where your mental health took over your body says otherwise. in this universe, you searched for treatments and help from professionals in the mental health field because of depression, and that is where you met yoon jeonghan, a psychotherapist. you were in your early twenties while jeonghan was in his late twenties. he has been your therapist for a couple of months now and has helped you a lot. despite his aid, you were still suffering from depression. the thoughts of you not having a purpose in the world and being a failure took a toll of your mental health. your therapist would always tell you that he’s always going to be there for you whenever you need help. there wasn’t any romantic intentions in his words, but platonic, a hint of wanted friendship. knowing you for a long time, jeonghan has taken a liking to you and thought of becoming friends with you. but of course, he still has to be professional.

“so, how have you been, yn? are there any thoughts that have been lingering in your mind?” he asks you as he usually does.

“i’ve been…alright. i’ve just been thinking of how i’m going to celebrate my birthday these days, since it’s next week.” you said to him. he wrote on his notepad as he listened to you.

“hm, that’s good. i hope you have a wonderful birthday, yn. how does your body feel right now? weak? good?” he asks you. you sit upright and blinked your eyes.

“my body feels okay. it’s just that sometimes i feel nauseous and tired.” you admitted. he suddenly stopped writing on his notepad and looked at you.

“have you been eating?” he asks. you nodded.

“yeah, i usually skip dinner though.” you said. he smiled softly and went back to his notepad.

“you should still try getting three meals a day. doesn’t matter how big or small the portion is, you need to eat.” he said. you looked up at him and smiled.

“yeah, i’ll try.” your check up went on for more minutes. as he finishes up the session, he suddenly looked at you.

“hey, yn?” he called out for you. you were already grabbing your handbag when he called you.

“yes?”

“i…i’m always here for you, you know that right? i’m your therapist, i’m here to help you. don’t be afraid to say everything to me. remember i’m always one call away.” is what jeonghan has said. but what he actually wanted to say was:

“i’m always here for you, yn. even if you only see me as your therapist, i’m also your friend. i’ll always help you no matter what.”

you and jeonghan always have a weekly therapy session, but the week after your last session, you never showed up. jeonghan thought it was probably because you were getting ready for your birthday. he even prepared a gift for you, a necklace with a clover pendant. he called you just in case you have forgotten your therapy session. it was unusual for you to miss a session. it was already 5 pm and you still haven’t answered him, even once. finally going past his “professionalism” agenda, jeonghan decided to go to your home. he drove to your apartment safely and knocked on your door several times.

“yn-ssi?” he asked through the front door. silence. jeonghan’s heartbeat started rattling through his chest. he suddenly twisted the door knob and unbeknownst to him, it wasn’t locked. he went inside your home and looked through every room. you weren’t in the kitchen, bathroom nor living room. finally reaching the last room, he opened the door to your bedroom. he widened his eyes as his mouth gaped open.

“yn?”

there you were, hanging from your ceiling fan. jeonghan could only stare in shock. dropping to his knees, he started breathing heavily.

did he not help you at all?

were all the check ups not helping you?

did he drive you to kill yourself?

was he not worth to be an aid to people?

he called 911 to report the incident and soon the authorities came, interviewing jeonghan.

he wasn’t even able to tell you that he wanted to be friends with you. he knew so much about you yet know so little about how you are. he was too late to tell you that he loved your company. that he loved you as a friend.

in every universe your soul has lived, you and jeonghan are destined to meet, destined to love each other, destined to leave each other. your soul always wondered, if there were such things as soulmates, were you and jeonghan one? destiny has always brought you two together, but also brought you two to fall apart on each other’s arms. were there any universe where you two meet, fall in love, and live your lives together? your soul always question this. in every death your soul has lived, it passes on to another lifetime.

in this lifetime, you’re just living your life as a choreographer. you have worked with countless artists and other dancers in your career. in this new chapter of your life, you were called to choreograph a dance for a kpop group you haven’t worked with yet. you have worked with countless kpop artists, from twice to nct. you were familiar with kpop and the industry of course, but you were excited to meet the group you’re going to work with.

“here’s their practice room, i’ll leave you to it. i’ll have my assistant to come with you in there. again, thank you for accepting our request.” one of the higher ups in hybe ent told you as you bowed to them. you entered the practice room, feeling a sense of familiarity, and saw several guys already stretching, blasting their song in the room. you were given a couple of weeks to create choreography for their new song, but you told them that meeting the group should be done first as creating a bond between the artist and choreographer is as important as creating an amazing piece. one of the males went up to you and bowed.

“oh, hello! are you ln yn-ssi? i’m scoups. i’m the leader of the group. it’s nice to finally meet you.” he introduced himself as you bowed back.

“yeah, it’s nice to meet you too, scoups-ssi. i already listened to the song a couple of times and have ideas for it already, but i really do want to create a bond with the team first, since i’ll be working with you guys for a couple of months.” you smiled at him. he smiled back nodded.

“yeah, for sure. i get what you mean. here, i’ll introduce you to the members.” he said as he gathered the group together. he did a small introduction of you to the group and they instantly welcomed you with warm smiles. you thought that dk, dino and vernon had the sweetest smiles you’ve ever seen. meeting them one by one, you learned that they had units and you instantly clicked with the performance team.

“i’ve been a huge fan ever since i saw you compete with a contemporary piece at swf!” dino geeked over you. you chuckled at him and thanked him. you and hoshi were already familiar with each other, considering that you two were fans of each other. still talking to the performance team, you felt a gaze behind you. you looked back and saw the angel faced male. you smiled softly to him and bid your goodbyes to the performance team. you walked up to jeonghan and watched him stretch his arms. he looked back at you.

“hey”

“hey”

you both say at the same time. you two chuckled as you sit down next to him. you nodded your head, telling him to go first.

“oh, well, i was just wondering if we’ve met before? i feel like i’ve known you but i just can’t seem to remember” he asked you. he was thinking the same thing as you. you smiled softly and hummed.

“i don’t think so…but i do feel like we’ve known each other for a long time already.”

“i think so too, do you think we’re soulmates?” he joked. you laughed at his statement and walked away.

“if we were soulmates, i think your fans would go crazy to think that their idol is soulmates with a person like me.”

“hmm, better than a sasaeng!”

in this universe, your soul knew jeonghan’s soul, and so did his. your soul hopes that this universe will be the universe where you and jeonghan finally live your lives together in love. little did your soul know, another soul has been thinking the same thing ever since he has met a familiar warmth in this universe.

[thelemonsgod]

Alright I admit it! Swindle and Hardtop are my favorite in Earthspark >-<!!

Oh and I’ve drew them a bunch for the past few months after I watched the show.

Here’s my overall first drawing, I’ve draw them a Bunch in my sketchbook but this is the first time on digital ^-^!

Now small rant time

I wish so oh very much that there was a reunion scene between those two because Swindle looking for Hardtop was like a recurring side quest that came up. Like nearly all the time Swindle was doing when we saw him (before he got caught) was searching for Hardtop, and you may argue on ep 4 he wasn’t but he was!!! Literally the only reason he was talking to Mo and Thrash was to manipulate them into getting an energon reader to look for Hardtop!! Sure he could have gotten it without manipulating the children but he’s a character that is never honest with anyone even if it would help him more if he was hones.

Am delusional and just wish for more Swindle but I feel like he could have been like an uncle to Thrash to show him more of the fun side to life (the con way) if he’s main focus wasn’t Hardtop at the moment. Maybe if he kinda felt bad about making the kids to get the reader and let them go and tried to find another way could be a way to show he did bound with the kids, just a little. But sadly we can’t even have rogue Swindle and Hardtop scamming people on Earth and just traveling everywhere so they don’t get caught scamming ppl.

Gahhh am a sucker for brother/family relationships T-T I love found family <3 Also how’d y’all think Swindle reaction to seeing his brother again with only one arm??? Swindle is not leaving his side for a lifetime, and ya usually see the, by each other and it’s just so cute. I NEED more of those two T-T like the angst is right there??? Swindle legit got himself caught while looking for his brother.

Also another version of the top one bc I felt the colors were boring :p

Also do y’all think the other compaticons (dk if I spelled that right) are alive or us in this universe? Like am new to transformers and have yet to see the original show but I have seen videos talking about swindle and he legit sold the other off but that Swindle is a different Swindle but that’s like the bunch of I heard of the other compaticons, Swindle is like the one who was able to make it out while not being with the others. I may just see gen 1 to get an understanding of the other compaticons to find a way to put them in Earthspark.

Have y’all seen that one creator do the stunticons in Earthspark?! Their art style is go good I wanna eat it 😭 and I want their talent it looks for much like the show and I want to campaticons in that style. Y’all should also check out their story of the stunticons.

This one my favorite ^^ just-just look at it!!! I had to study their guns for it. Which was kinda pointless :/ also Hardtop having to relearn something’s bc he no longer has his DOMAIN arm, pretty sure it was he mainly used. I wanna do a Hardtop drawing with just his sniper. Maybe I’ll do it idk

But happy new year!! First post of the year after weeks of being sick <3(no joke I was sick, BADLY sick ,worse experience 😭) Am trying to get back on the active train but idk if I’ll post much bc of school ^-^

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay so Tucker and Kaikaina in Shisno Paradox. Idk how long this is gonn be but it’s gonna go below a cut jic (and so I don’t spoil anything for June lol)

I think the easiest thing they could’ve done to make this dynamic better is just have them reciprocate each others lust from the beginning. Is it funny that Tucker gets rejected by Kai when she proposes time travel sex bc he thinks she’s talking about him? Is it funny that he fucks up her attempts to have sex with people from the past? Is it funny that he has been bragging about having done her back in Blood Gulch and that’s not actually the case (despite the fact that Kai literally says that they did during the s13 climax)? I guess? But you know what else is funny? Tucker and Kai actually going back in time and having sex with people from history. Like I feel like that has just as much, if not more comedic potential than the two of them just being annoyed with each other. I know this is the “everyone is arguing with each other because fuck friendships for some reason” arc but like it didn’t have to be.

Personally I was laughing when Kai and Tucker were talking about using the time travel gun for sex, like that was funny! The episode was literally TITLED “Sis and Tuck’s Sexcellent Adventure” and then they just drop that in favor of these two arguing. Like come on that’s not as funny at all.

They didn’t have to have reciprocated feelings (as much as I personally like them as a ship), there’s nothing wrong with characters having physical attraction to each other and acting on it. Hell up until now it was implied that they did actually have sex. I suppose the idea that they didn’t is kind of a funny subversion of expectation but the direction they go with it isn’t rlly entertaining, at least for me.

And if the intent was to get to the angsty Kai backstory, you could’ve still gotten there! Maybe she and Tucker try to do the time travel sex, but she gets tired/worn out before Tucker does and he doesn’t listen to her when she suggests they take a break from time traveling for a bit, dragging her along to the time periods HE wants to go to without considering her feelings. Still kinda sucks as Tucker characterization bc he should realistically be better than that, but it’s better than what the hell we got that’s for sure.

Anyway she could still blow up at him for being selfish and then they might argue and then later on they can have the heart to heart where she talks about her childhood and being promiscuous due to her insecurity about her own self image, and instead of saying “Tucker what you said reminded me of my trauma” it’s more of a reflection, kind of “Hey as my friend I want to let you know why I’m like this in the first place and why I was so insecure/nervous about saying no to going along with your adventure” and Tucker could still apologize and all that.

Then maybe a confession of feelings from Tucker so he gets a moment of vulnerability too, and like I said as much as I ship them I do kinda like Kai’s “I used to have feelings for you too” cuz ik this season didn’t actually care about these two as a ship, and Tucker demonstrates maturity by showing he’s okay with her rejection.

Although if they DID wanna make them a ship, there’s not a ton that actually has to change in the script for that to happen. (in my version not the version of SP we canonically got) They already get along like friends, they had sex before, and when they had an argument from Tucker being a bad friend, they worked through it. All you’d rlly need is for Kai to eventually come to the conclusion that she rlly likes Tucker, and that at some point, it stops being just as friends and she really wants him, and seeing as Tucker already has feelings for her but cares about her enough to not act on them, there might be some hesitation there but I think they’d make a rlly good pairing after that. Their sense of humor is already similar, they already get along, and they’re just so cute together ugh I’m getting distracted anyway it would make the moment everyone gets thanos snapped to repeat their timelines till infinity where he says “K I need to tell you-” all the more emotional, at least to me, bc that moment lives rent free in my brain anyway I just wanted better writing for these two is that too much to ask

[ad-hawkeye]

You came up on my recommended feed at the perfect time bc I have Artem brainrot rn AND YOUR ANALYZATION OF ARTEM’S CARDS ARE FANTASTIC! I’m one of the few players that avoids most CN server spoilers, and I’ve been abstaining from pulling most cards so I can pull for 3rd anni(which now I’m kinda questioning if I should LOL), so I missed out on a TON of content for all of the male leads. BUT, from the very few cards I had pulled this past yr, I did notice an odd shift in Artem’s personality. Although, I wasn’t too sure if it was just me being dumb or if it was a real thing that was happening. And after reading some of your posts I kinda want to re-read Artem’s Second Anni Card again bc I was so excited for the artwork from that event, that I didn’t pay much attention to the story LOL However, now that I’ve seen what you’ve said and what many other Artem fans have said, I’m sure my feelings weren’t wrong. And now I’m sad 😢

Artem was my favorite bc his relationship with Rosa felt the healthiest and was built on respecting each other’s boundaries, learning how to set boundaries, and working as a team, while also having a more traditional framework of a male leadership role(which I’m extremely fond of). Artem never restricted Rosa from spreading her wings as his work partner or as his life partner, he simply asked if he could come along beside her where ever she wanted to go. AND LIKE HIS ORIGINAL PERSONAL STORY IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THIS BEHAVIOR! Rosa makes a reckless decision to go get evidence, without Artem, for a the domestic violence case they were working on and almost gets hurt in the process. After that, Artem scolds Rosa for being reckless and for not taking better care of herself. And Rosa doesn’t take it lying down either! They equally argue and get their grievances out in the open, feel bad about later, and apologize. (THE COMMUNICATION IS SO REAL 😩) FURTHERMORE! This incident leads them to learning and understanding how differently they work as lawyers. Artem learns that Rosa is a lot more personal with her clients and handles her cases with an empathetic approach, while he works more pragmatically, so through this case they learn to work to each other’s strengths as partners, covering for what the other person lacks. And the chapters this incident took place in solidified my growing love for Artem bc unlike Luke or Vyn(I’m not sure about Marius bc admittedly I haven’t read his original personal story 😅), Artem doesn’t hinder Rosa by being overprotective like Luke or push her beyond her capacities like Vyn tried to do in his original personal story. Artem allows a natural course of growth to occur in Rosa, while being a hedge of protection for Rosa BUT ONLY when she seems to REALLY need it, and the same can be said for Rosa towards Artem.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, sorry for ranting 😅

WAHHH YOU'RE TOO KIND!! ;_; thank you so much for the sweet words, it really means a lot!!! i'm so so happy you enjoyed my ranting and raving, honestly having a community of super awesome people to talk about this with has been such a comfort and ive made some awesome friends from my time here, even if we don't chat as much anymore!

and omg, do NOT ever feel bad for ranting in my inbox!!!! i've been ranting about tot in the main tag for two years at this point and i will Always be thrilled to read delightfully written meta such as yours!!!!!

i have to say, i entirely agree with all of this. and i mean ALL OF IT. his personal stories 2, 3, and 4 are my absolute favorites of his and gosh that's like. prime artem to me, i think. your ask reminded me of some meta i read such a long while ago about his second personal story (link can be found here, it's SUCH a good read)

i think a huge issue is that artem originally always felt like the antithesis to your typical daddy dom boss character. when you start playing tot, appearances wise, he looks and even comes across as one. but these initial appearances are quickly shattered.

he is absolutely inexperienced with interpersonal relationships. he fumbles the bag CONSTANTLY with rosa. he's terrible at holding conversation, he's constantly apologizing for being boring. he needs his own fucking boss to wingman (haha. wing) for him. he blushes if mc looks at him the wrong way. he's kinda strange. but he's earnest and genuine. he respects rosa's boundaries. he makes mistakes, but learns from them. he gives rosa time to think over her feelings for him so she can still say no to him if she changes her mind.

it's the contrast between this and his initial appearance that makes him interesting. what is extremely bizarre with artem's recent writing is it feels like someone who only read artem's introduction scene got some vague pointers and was like oh. your typical daddy dom boss guy. okay yeah i can write this. and then they did. which . defeats the whole entire point of what made artem compelling in the first place. he was compelling BECAUSE he subverted this trope. by just making him play the trope straight, you remove any and all intrigue from his character.

by not building off of older cards, you abandon all of the plot lines he had set up. they undid any angst in his stories. they dropped his issues with his parents. they downplayed neils impact on his life. he doesn't even grieve for him anymore. he doesnt even think about him most of the time. what happened to entwined fate? praying for neil's safety? what about neil being his father figure? neil potentially betraying the nxx? are we just going to ignore that now so we can watch artem be an insane freak who just apparently woke up with the skills of a sex god, forgot all of the lessons he learned, and doesnt care about consent anymore?

god, now IM ranting.... regardless. youre so right. i hear artem's newest cards are good so im praying those rumors are true : ((

EDIT: SORRY I MEANT TO TALK ABOUT HIS THIRD ANNIVERSARY CARD!!! it's not as bad as his second anniversary card. i know the bar is in hell but it's something. it's pretty contrived in the grand scheme of things (like why are they moving into a house...?) and has some weird moments, but is ultimately not as bad as it could have been in the slightest. i'd say its biggest crime is being boring as sin. holy fuck. i put that shit on 2x speed and i still found myself wanting to fast forward. like nothing happens at all???? it's so bizarre HAHA

[mjolnirswriststrap]

Hey, dear! Could I get an extreme fluffy kinda steamy/suggestive Daemon x wife poc fem reader. In which they take a shower together, just all the intimacy of a couple after a long day of royal chores, just the two of them talking, teasing each other and enjoying the feeling of the hot, fragrant water and enjoying each other's presence. Entitled to words of affection, caresses, kisses, reader washing his hair, the two of them soaping each other, hugs and whatever else you want, please? (Sorry for my English)

❄️ DAY THREE OF COUNTDOWN ‘TILL CHRISTMAS ☃️

A/N: You’re English is perfect! Don’t apologize for that! I loved this request, just not having to have some over arching storyline was way less stressful and made this so easy to write. Simple fluff is very much appreciated. I hope I did it justice❤️ Taking Requests - link to the characters I write for. Masterlist

Word count: 902

Summary: The request perfectly sums it up lol

You stir in your sleep, feeling someone standing over you. Your eyes open when you feel your husband pick you up, one arm behind your shoulders and the other under your knees. “I’m so tired, what are you doing.” You pout. You throw your head back and close your eyes, not having the energy to argue with him.

“I know you had a long day, this will make sleeping feel even better.” He sets you down on a satin stool, removing the ties from your nightgown, letting it fall off of your shoulders. “Stand up, my sweet girl.” He says. When he calls you that, he knows he has you hooked.

You stand and let the dress hit the ground. Daemon takes your hand and leads you to the golden basin in the corner. You hadn’t noticed before, but it was surrounded by candlelight. Purple flower petals floated on the surface of the water. You don’t know how long you were asleep, but he did all of this so quickly. When you dip your foot in, it’s boiling hot, exactly how you like it. After fully submerging yourself you get hints of rose and lavender oil in the water.

You lean your head back and close your eyes, reveling in the warmth. When your peace is disturbed by your husband lowering himself opposite of you. “I thought this was my bath.” You say, selfishly wanting it all to yourself.

Daemon smirks at you, knowing you’d much rather prefer him to be in here with you. “You’re not the only one who had a long day.” He reaches over, grabbing a glass vile of sunflower seed oil, marked with the large yellow flower. He shakes a few drops onto his hand before reaching for your left leg. He evenly distributed the oil, and then massages it into your skin.

He does it so meticulously, paying extra attention to your knees and feet. He knew how important your bathing was to you. From the very beginning of your courtship he would wait around for hours while you readied yourself for a walk through the garden.

Your dark skin contrasted his, not only by color but softness. He knew how important it was to you to take care of your skin, and he appreciated the time you took on yourself everyday. “What happened with you and the king today? Any progress?” You say, loving the attention he was giving to your sore calves.

He shakes his head, switching to your other leg. “He won’t accept that a war is coming. He’s too old, and sick to care. That’s my fear.”. You suck on your teeth, your know Viserys, he would see the the truth soon enough.

“I promise you he is very aware that’s having a son shortly after naming his daughter heir, is bound to cause conflict. But you must trust your brother, I couldn’t imagine being king, what kind of stress that would cause.” You say, playing devils advocate for the king.

Daemon drops your leg into the water without warning. “Well why didn’t you marry him? Instead of letting a little girl take your place.” He was serious, he never mentioned your past, the reason you met each other in the first place.

You realize you may have overstepped in defending his brother. “Because, he’s not you.” You stand on your knees and waddle over to him. Placing your hands on his face, “I know you don’t want any casualties to happen, especially because it’s your own blood on the line. But you can’t let it weigh so heavily on your heart, some things are out of your hands, accept that honey.” You say, looking into his sad eyes.

He looks up at you and smiles, “You have a way with words, don’t you.” He says, not being able to focus on his brother, with you standing wet in front of him. You skin glows and glistens against the candles. He rakes his hands down your curves. “And you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve every seen.” He leans forward placing a kiss to your navel.

Your hands find their way to his long hair. “Lean back.” You know he needs this bath more than you do. You reach over for the small pitcher, holding it underwater to fill it up. “Close.” You say. Daemon closes his eyes and feels you slowly pour the warm water on the top of his head. You reach for a bar of lye, sudsing up your hands.

Daemon hums as you run you fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp along the way. You rinse and repeat, not questioning the blood staining the tips of his white hair. It was more than likely his own anyways. You cleaned up too many self inflicted bloody noses to know.

When you finish you move back in the water, finding your side of the tub again. “How did I get so lucky?” He says, pushing his wet hair behind his ears. “Well it wasn’t anything you did.” You say, not being able to contain your teasing laughter. “It was just you, you were it for me, the moment I saw you.”. Daemon lovingly looks across to you. He finishes your sentence. “, and I knew I had to have you.”.

You splash him with the water, blushing. “Seriously?” You say, knowing you reiterating what you said to him often before.

[destinyc1020]

Z is the draw is true but I don’t like how on Twitter all I see is these white boys every time and just a thing here and there with tashi and I blame Justin and Luca I feel like they used z star power her character deserved to be more developed and just not a fetish for these guys

You know what Anon, I won't even argue with you on this one, because you're not the only one who has said this to me and mentioned this same sentiment in my DMs. I'll just say, you are not the only one who feels this way.

I think it's a valid critique. I too kind of wish that we had gotten a bit more characterization for Tashi, and had seen a little more background into Tashi's life before she got famous for tennis. They give little clues here and there, like about how she didn't grow up rich and privileged, like maybe Patrick did, but we don't really get much. But maybe that wasn't really the point? 🤷🏾‍♀️

I still feel though that Z is the main draw for this film.... Cuz let's be honest.... Do we REALLY think that if they had put some no-name actress as the lead in this film opposite Mike and Josh, that people would be flocking to see this film or even discuss it as heavily as people have been? I doubt it! And y'all know it too lol 😆

One thing that I would say is that I'm kinda curious to know how well this film would have done box office-wise if the two main guys were a little more well-known and/or more conventionally attractive....🫣👀

I feel bad even saying that, cuz I like Mike and Josh just fine 🙂, but I was talking with this waitress this past weekend about the movie, and she heard me say I had seen the movie, and she basically said that she was kind of interested in seeing it, but that she didn't see it in theaters cuz "the guys weren't cute enough." 👀

She said that "Zendaya is gorgeous", but that the guys were just "so-so" and it didn't seem believable to her lol 🤭

I stuck up for Mike and Josh though lol, and I told her that while they might not be a Glen Powell lol, they're REALLY GOOD actors, and have done well in their previous films as well. 🙂

She later said she might catch it on streaming.

But it did make me wonder how this film would have performed if the two actor guys playing opposite Zendaya had been "hotter", or, at least, more well-KNOWN to the general public.... 👀

It's just a thought.... 🤷🏾‍♀️

I personally thought that Z and Patrick had great chemistry onscreen with each other (way more than she and Timmy imo lol 😆), but when movie tickets are like at least $15 a ticket in a lot of areas of the country these days, I can see why some people might just hold on to their money and just stream the movie from home if there's no real "eye-candy" to entice them to the theaters. 😅

Movie tickets are just so d*mn expensive these days! 😩 That's why, I got the AMC A-list and never looked back lol 😆 😂 To me, it's sooooo worth it, especially if you love films/going to the movies. 🙂

[ruinedbylanadelrey]

King of Your Heart

Chapter 9 "The King"

summary: All that Frankie has ever wanted to be was your everything. After years of being best friends one phone call changes everything between the two of you.

inspired by The King by Sarah Kinsley

warnings: 18+, MINORS DNI, age gap (reader is 28-29, Frankie 38-39), friends with benefits -> situationship, Frankie isn't a dad, jealously, best friends with benefits, reader is toxic, reader wears makeup, reader has long hair, self-hate (both characters), mention of drug usage (coke), drinking, benny's house party, princess and fish love to argue, light smut, angst, oh yeah and a lot of angst, no y/n, pet names, possessiveness, triple frontier boys, Tom is dead, reader is a flirt

inside the world of king of your heart

playlist

series mainlist | main masterlist

taglist: @hiroikegawa

Are you a new person if you still self-sabotage? 

Now you have fucked up royally with Frankie, he continues to just look at you. Frankie hated feeling any kind of resentment towards you. He knows that this is you coping poorly with the absence of your friendship. 

"Frankie, I'm sorry...it was an impulse, kinda needed it to even kiss the guy-" You rambled and saw the disappointment on Frankie's face. 

"You know what, fish?"

"Don't say anything-"

"This wouldn't have happened if you-"

"Shut it! Shut it-"

"If you just didn't hold my past against me." You don't know if it was the alcohol or the cocaine talking but the words came out slurred and almost like vomit. You sloppily poked at Frankie's chest, you shoved him and he didn't even budge, you shove again. Frankie cuffs your wrists in his hands and pins your arms at your sides.

"Think about what you just fucking did! THINK!" Frankie shouts, people turn to look at you swaying slightly and Frankie bows his head. You started laughing, just thinking about cucking Frankie and he is a now cuck. It was fucked up. Frankie had to take a moment to remind himself that you were high off of coke and plastered with alcohol.

"I'm just a bad person. I fucking get it Catfish! I GET IT! I FUCKING GET IT!" You shouted not caring about other people staring and wondering what was going on. You wanted people to look and see two people who are in love with each other show passion and fight for them. All you wanted was to speed through time and get to the moment where Frankie does everything right and you forgive each other. 

Frankie still has you in his grasp, feeling your skin on his and the way you were so warm but still cold to the touch. Your body is true to your inner self, being so hot and cold. Frankie can't tell if he's burning from your fire or the ice in your blood. 

"That's it we're going home." Frankie bites back a growl when he speaks to you, pulling you along. You smirked at how Frankie looked too good for being angry. You passed by the maid of honor and her jaw fell slacked when you bit your lip and slid right into Frankie, clinging onto him. 

"Jesus, Princess," Frankie followed your eyeline and saw the maid of honor was about to cry. Now he has another mess to clean up before the night ends. Frankie pushed through people still guiding you with your arms wrapped around his shoulders. You tripped over your feet and Frankie rolled his eyes, bending down and carrying you bridal style to his truck. 

"N-no I'm driving my car home," Your hand couldn't grab the handle. 

"Really with what keys?" Frankie grabs your purse and throws it in the bushes aligned with the driveway, you gasp and then swing open the door, running around the truck to the bushes.

"Get in the truck, we will get the car in the morning," Frankie comes up behind you and wraps his arms around your waist hoisting you to the truck and setting you on the seat. He retrieves your purse and helps you scoot along the bench so he can drive. 

"She's not even hot," you break the silence and face your knees away from Frankie. 

"Who are you talking about?"

"That maid of honor who sitting pretty on your lap," You look at Frankie, his jaw is clenched and his muscles twitching. He shakes his head and doesn't say anything.

"You could do better, that's all I'm saying,"

"She has a name."

"Oh she has a name, that's cool I don't care." You bite

"Vanessa," Frankie mutters her name. You snapped your head toward him and couldn't believe he continued on.

"and she is-was my date to Will's wedding..." Frankie puts the truck in park, you nod and just let it be. 

Let it be that Frankie is not yours anymore. 

You two are just friends. If that. Frankie clears his throat and helps you into your apartment. The cardboard box with 'Fuck Frankie' written across it sits by the trashcan. To Frankie, you are ready to move on, and guess he is too since he went on a date with Vanessa about a month ago just to get laid but it turned out to be a casual thing. 

Another thing to take care of besides the young woman who is coked out and drunk and who is still his best friend. Frankie helps you to your bed, sits you on the edge while he collects some clothes for you to sleep in, and gets the shower running. 

"Arms up," Frankie taps his shoulders, you look up at him and just feel confusion hit like a tidal wave. You shake your head, it would be just wrong to have him continue to take care of you. It's your turn to take care of yourself. Wrong for him to be kind to you when you crossed the line. 

"You can leave. I can take care of myself," You stand up too fast and fall back on the bed, Frankie frantically tries to stop you from falling, and you end up pulling Frankie with you. He catches himself and hovers above you. 

Your eyes were bloodshot and tears still escaping from your big eyes that tugged at his heartstrings. Frankie looks at your lips stained from the cranberry juice, and how your face was so flushed it was coming through your makeup. He can't leave you even if someone put thousands of miles between you, he will always end up going home to you. 

"Don't kiss me," You whispered, registering the look in Frankie's eyes. He swallowed hard and resisted from crashing his lips on your soft plump lips that would taste tart from the vodka and cranberry with a hint of some candy flavor from your lip gloss. Your protest makes him want to do it even more. 

To feel you one last time. 

One last time. 

Your hand cups his face and traces his features, this is how it's supposed to be. Coming home from a party with each other. The smell of weed and alcohol mixed with your perfume and Frankie's cologne. To be excited for Will's wedding, be each other's dates. To be together forever. Frankie fluttered his eyes shut when your delicate fingers came in contact with his face. 

You were now back down to earth and whatever buzz you had was completely gone. Maybe you can have him one last time.

Frankie leans down and captures your lips with his, the scruff of his beard rubs against the soft skin of your face. Teeth clashing together when the hunger for one another comes out when he tastes you and you taste him.

Frankie quickly slides the straps of your dress down your arms and bunches the fabric around your waist, the rough texture of his jacket clutches your hands, pushing it off his back and then making work of getting his shirt off. Breaking this kiss for a second, before your fingers slide underneath his cap and push it off his head, a light thud hits the floor.

Frankie helps you up and you both rid of the rest of your clothes. The bathroom was filled with steam, the hot water hit your skin when Frankie manhandled you against the wall right under the water. You stare at him, wondering what's going through his mind while he burns holes into your skin. 

You take his hands off your body and start to wash your hair with him there just watching every move. Frankie is debating on doing the healthy thing to just leave and not speak to you ever again or indulging in the unhealthy and just be whatever with you. Not necessarily dating but just back to be the other half. 

You looked so sweet when you closed your eyes letting the water cascade down your head and running down the curve of your breasts and stomach. Always so beautiful even though you are just devil in disguise. 

You opened your eyes and looked at the subtle disappointment on Frankie's face and remembered the same look on the other guys' faces. 

"It's okay that you hate me right now-"

"That's what the problem is. I can't ever hate you, princess." Frankie whimpers pulling you to his chest and resting your head in the crook of his neck. He can't ever hate you, your angelic looks and your sinful eyes pulling him and keeping him wrapped in your finger. Frankie gives you control and god, the extent you will go to get him to see that you love him. 

He is masochist for letting you toy with his feelings. He doesn't know if you want to take a baseball to his truck or give him the sweetest kiss on the bald patch in his beard and whisper in his ear about how much you love him. 

"Frankie, why?" You wondered he shouldn't be here. He should be at the party with everyone and Vanessa. And you should be in Daniel's bed and then taking off when you put back on your clothes. 

"Princess you rule over everything. When we were drunk that one night back when we started to become friends and you wanted to dance in the rain, I didn't think about anything else than twirling you around. I did it because I knew right then I could never love again after you. That's why. You are the king." Frankie is now submitting to you. He will push aside the past just to have you. As you are. 

You shake your head. He can't do this to himself. It's self sabotage for him. As his best friend you have to hold on to what is best for Frankie. You are not the best for him. But Frankie is sick of the healthy option. He wants to rot away with you. 

[calamitoustide]

hello! i am requesting James for your lil character game :)

@nevvaraven this ones for you too! all I wanted was someone to say James so I could ramble on about him. Also @inevitablestars because you sent me the ask as I was typing this whole thing up

How I Feel About This Character: I am in love with him. He is EVERYTHING to me. He is in my pocket and I am not letting go of him. When I was originally reading the books I was all Remus for me... cause you know James isn't in it at all, but when I got back into it this go around and read ATYD it was all James for me. I went through a phase where I couldn't read wolfstar raising Harry fics because James wasn't in it. I am still in that phase actually. I read wolfstar only to see James. He is my baby I love him.I feel like... this might be obvious if you've been on my blog for like two seconds but yeah he's everything to me.

All The People I Ship Romantically With This Person: Everyone and also like just a few people. The thing with James is if he's in the fic I'll eat it up I don't care, but also it goes in and out and I'm a Jegulus guy through and through. I'll go through everyone though.

REGULUS: Need I say anything about him? Like it's just Jeg I love Jeg I've always loved Jeg. I've been here since the first jegulus week when there was like 200 fics and I read a drarry fic only for jegulus, like I've been here. Give me anything with jeg and I'll eat it up. Give me canon and I'll fucking be bawling thinking about the tragedy of it. Give me hurt/comfort. Give me the most suffocating fluff you can muster. All of it. I have written over a million words for them this isn't going away.

Remus: Moonchaser came to me... very randomly one day. I remember hating them originally when I first got here I heard about it and thought people were crazy but now 🤷‍♂️ I kinda like 'em. I can never see them doing past like 16 though. I like the idea of them being each other's first boyfriends. If I need James to have an ex I am going to Remus. They are just everything to me. I think they balance each other out. I also like what them dating does to their friendship later on. I also like the idea that after the prank Moonchaser get together/get back together. I think the angst potential there is so awful. I love it.

Barty + Evan: This guys go together because... rosestarkillerchaser might be in my top five ships. I'm obsessed with them actually. I do like Jarty and... whatever James and Evan's ship name is separately but they don't interest me as much as them all together. Mainly because I don't think Jarty works long time if the other two aren't there. I think Jarty like are on and off if it's just the two of them. They're breaking up and getting back together all the time. Putting them all together though... you still keep Jarty as Jarty this is very important to me they can not be two excitable toddlers please they have to argue and tease each other to the point of hatred. They are still Jarty even with them all together. Evan and James came out of nowhere for me. I randomly just started liking them and then went oh because I realized my shipping of rosestarkillerchaser wasn't just an early fandom thing and it is still going strong. I liked them like back in 2021 it was crazy. I just liked them in secret. All of the ships in it are just so! They work very well I won't talk about the other ones this is about James but rosekiller, bartylus and regvan also are everything.

LIly: I talked about it with Lily, but I do like Jily. I would never write them alone, but I do like them with jegulily. I like them both teasing each other though. I think Reg helps with that. I know James is head over heels in love with Lily and I do like that, but also having them "compete" for Regulus and having that little rivalry between them I eat it up <- i'm the only one I've seen write them like that.

My Non-Romantic OTPs for this ship: Remus. Remus. Remus. Remus. I'll say it again. Remus. I always love putting James and Remus together they are everything to me. It started just because I needed James to talk to someone about Reg and if he talked to Sirius he would automatically know it's his brother, but idk I just really love putting them together. Also MARLENE either separately or with Peter as childhood best friends. They are everything to me. James and Marlene's dynamic is everything. And the angst when you add Peter is so........

My unpopular opinion of this character: He is not an excitable toddler. I could go into how I like James as being sad and not just happy go-lucky guy all the time... but it's not even unpopular anymore that's just how it is. Also I've got over 500k of sad James to back me up there. Like I've talked about that. I see a lot of people making James to be this like toddler it's the best way to describe it. Like it's not even the always happy thing, because he can even be sad and be a toddler, but I feel like that's the only emotions people give him sometimes, and it's not even like on a deeper level. They make him sad and then it can easily be fixed, or they make him into just this lovesick puppy dog who is overly happy and honestly fucking stupid. Like James is not dumb. He does not need to be dumb. Also in terms of sad James they ignore his anger a lot and I don't like it. I like James just being angry. I love him just being angry when it's not even a sad James situation. This also goes into the jarty thing. They make him too soft. They make him too nice and then Barty has to be diluted because of it. Stop diluting James let him live. Don't make him just a puppet for his love interest to mess with. Don't make him agree to everything anything always says. Let him fight back goddammit. Let him be mean!

One Thing You Wished Happened To This Character In Canon: He didn't die <3 This question is so bad because I don't care about canon in the least, but like also I want him alive!

[pankracy]

absolutely obsessed with the 'things past' episode by the way. WHAT A GOOD ODO EP. I loved how you could SEE odo in thrax, and the frustrated, desperate, hopeless - for it has already happened and there is nothing you can change about it - arguing with oneself. holy shit. obsessed with the implications of odo 'linking'(?) him and dax and sisko and garak all together as well. I know there was something something space anomaly involved, but I wonder if he could do it without it and with, let's say, a telepath maybe?? like the one I think he's still married to? what I'm thinking about is lwaxana. lwaxana who already saw odo as no one's seen him, at his most vulnerable and ashamed before, and accepted him; I think both of them could find deep joy in joining like that together, just, you know, without the traumatic memories obviously. and if lwaxana could let go of her romantic feelings towards him, since well, that would probably not be a good idea otherwise.

it was such a tiny part but I loved his conversation with kira too; how in kira's view he was that pillar of justice, pure and untouched by the terror of the occupation despite literally working for the occupant. and it was horrible for her to get so disillusioned, but - I also think it could be good, too, because she herself has had so much trouble forgiving herself for what she's done and what it's done to her, and facing the fact that it was simply impossible to live through it and remain 'pure' in a sense - it's a sad realization, but this kinda blink and you miss it talk with odo is a crucial bit to how her worldview changes and how she develops.

dukat remains hilarious in that absolutely creepy way. I already said recently how I'll always buy dukat genuinely believing untruths, about himself especially, and I love how it's portrayed almost to a comedic degree in the show but also it's not really unrealistic at all. taking a bajoran woman he's got absolute power over to be his ~friend~, for his position makes him so lonely and he's so misunderstood, and she'll surely learn how he's such a benevolent and complicated man - I really enjoy how he's being actively ridiculed, but at the same time he's not harmless in this ridiculousness, he's very much an eerie threat throughout.

on a slightly lighter (?) note, garak was another entertaining bit here. I can scarcely figure out what he was thinking when he decided to tag along on the conference about the occupation of bajor by bajorans and talk about it as if it ended like 500 years ago instead of what, 4??? and totally offensively on top of that, like he HAD to know what he was doing. did he get bored on the station and decided making a nuisance of himself was the way to go. incredible that dax and sisko took him along tbh. didn't we also last see him when he tried to commit a genocide and kill several other characters and himself as a bonus. I'm still thinking about how he got basically a slap on the wrist for that. and (absolutely connected to the founders ep) about his incredibly weird relationship with odo that I also appreciate so greatly. while this episode didn't focus on it exactly, it was fun how these two characters were played against each other; their standings during the occupation, how they're perceived, how they feel about it and how they outwardly react to it. but this is a topic for an essay. also a genius move on the conference goers side to give him a name tag with a 'former cardassian oppressor'. like I'm positive he insulted everyone the instant he opened his mouth and this was the result. unfortunately I also think the trip did make him genuinely invigorated because he's a freak. 'oh if I knew it'd be like that I never would have gone!' shut up you loved every second of it. terrible.