#when they’re both problematic AND two pretty best friends

[papertowness]

yeah i could take kima greggs and jimmy mcnulty . not in a fight tho

[luvergirl-866]

something like love

part - 4

pairing - paige bueckers x azzi fudd

word count - 5.3k

c/w - language, small amount of angst, some hurt/comfort. also kinda problematic paige but i get her

a/n - guess who’s endo cramps are killing her!! that’s right, me! fml. as usual this is unedited but i’ll come back to edit later! also, i changed paige’s step-dad’s name from tim to dean because i remembered that azzi’s dad is named tim and i felt like that would be confusing lol. also, thank you so much for all the fic recs i got! i’m so excited to start working on them :3

They’re ten minutes into the thirty-minute car ride and nobody has said a word. Country music is playing quietly over the radio, and Dean and Amy keep glancing at each other. But the awkward silence is deadly.

Nobody spoke earlier, either. After Paige dropped the bomb. It was silent for a good minute before Dean had coughed loudly and turned back to the car, getting wordlessly into the driver’s seat. Amy stared at them for another minute or so, giving them no clue as to what was going on in her head other than her ears, which rapidly turned bright red. Finally, she’d shook her head and said, “We will talk about this when we get home,” before following her husband into the car.

As soon as they were both out of hearing range, Paige had sagged, and Azzi’d looked over at her, concerned. Usually, she’d lay a hand on her arm but she wasn’t sure if Paige wanted to be touched, especially by her, so instead she’d said, “Remember, we can leave anytime.”

Paige had nodded stiffly. And then, without looking at Azzi, she’d gotten into the car as well, leaving the door open for Azzi to follow suit.

And now they’re on the road, Paige and Azzi sitting in the back seat like two little kids in trouble. Azzi wants to go on her phone to avoid the awkwardness but her parents raised her to be polite, no matter the circumstances, so here she sits, stiff and awkward while she rides in this car that smells new and fancy and she hates it.

Chancing a glance over, Azzi sees that Paige is still staring out the window, the same thing she’s been doing the whole car ride, and Azzi hates that, too, because Paige only ever gets quiet when she’s bone-tired or truly upset. And Paige got a pretty good nap on the plane.

Based off the way she acted to Azzi’s words before they got on the road, Azzi’s pretty sure she’s doing that thing where she shuts people out because she’s mad or on the verge of tears or thinking too hard. And when she does this she can get mean, because she’s trying to protect herself, and it comes out all wrong.

She’s always done this, been reluctant to open up about the hard stuff, shut out the people who care about her. She and Azzi have talked about it a lot. She once admitted that Azzi was the first person to get her to actually talk about her feelings. But despite Azzi’s way with Paige, and despite the fact that they just get each other in a way no one else ever has, they still have their flaws. Azzi still doesn’t always know the right thing to say. And Paige still gets mean.

This fact keeps Azzi glued to her seat, thinking sidling closer and trying to comfort her best friend would only end badly. Azzi acts like she has a tough skin but often, the things Paige says when she gets like this cut deep, and it ends with both of them hurt. She’s scared to add a fight between the two of them onto whatever will surely go on with Paige and her parents later. So she stays put, even though every bone in her body is telling her to make Paige better.

Azzi has only managed this for maybe five minutes when she glances over again and notices that this time, Paige’s hand is splayed over the middle seat, fingers tapping anxiously, almost like she’s subconsciously reaching over. And that sight alone is enough to get Azzi sliding over, moving Paige’s hand so she doesn’t sit on it. Dean looks at her through the rearview, but Azzi pretends not to notice.

Paige doesn’t look over when Azzi settles in beside her. But she does reach blindly for her hand before taking it and placing it in her own lap, playing with the fingers nervously. Azzi breathes in relief. Paige hasn’t rejected her outright—she can’t be too upset. At least not yet.

They sit like that for the remainder of the ride.

When they pull into the driveway, Paige gives Azzi’s hand a squeeze before subtly shaking herself out and exiting the car. Azzi follows, afraid to be alone with Paige’s parents for even a second.

Before Paige can close the door, Amy calls, “Bring your bags into your room, Paige. And when you’re done come down and talk to us in the kitchen.” There’s a weighted pause. “Alone.”

Paige doesn’t answer, just slams the door shut. Azzi winces.

Azzi doesn’t say anything while Paige opens the trunk, or when she starts aggressively pulling their things out, or even when she slams the trunk shut. No, Azzi keeps her mouth shut, wanting to allow her best friend to seethe in peace, but when Paige slams into her shoulder when she passes her, Azzi doesn’t want to let it slide. “Ow! Paige, what the fuck?”

“Get your bags,” Paige responds gruffly.

Okay, so it’s gonna be one of those times. Perfect.

Despite not wanting to, Azzi does as she’s told, gathering her bags and following Paige to the front porch. She tries not to think about how usually Paige would’ve carried her things for her.

Paige opens the door without a word and they walk inside. The house is nice, open, smells of cedarwood. Paige doesn’t give Azzi a chance to look around, though, instead walking briskly to the staircase, lugging her shit upstairs with impressive strength, and Azzi thanks God she’s in such good shape because she’s practically jogging by the time they arrive at a room at the end of the hall.

“Paige—“ Azzi starts to stay, but Paige cuts her off by throwing her own backpack off her shoulder and dropping her suitcases, as if she’s trying her hardest to make as much a ruckus as possible.

Azzi places her things much more nicely on her usual side of the bed, eyeing Paige cautiously the entire time. It’s the only reason she’s able to catch her before she leaves, anticipating her movements just like she does on the court and darting between her best friend and the door, blocking her.

For the first time in nearly an hour, Paige looks her in the eye, and there’s fire there. “Move, Azzi.”

“No.”

“God,” Paige sighs, “seriously, don’t piss me off. Get outta my way.”

“No, Paige,” Azzi repeats, keeping her feet planted.

Paige stares at her and then shakes her head. “Why are you being so fuckin’ annoying?”

“Don’t,” Azzi says, trying to stop her before she gets too fired up, but it’s already started.

“No, Azzi, you don’t,” Paige snaps. “I knew you were gonna get like this, do your fuckin’ peace and love shit that you think will solve everyone’s fucking problems.”

Azzi swallows hard. It’s been years since Paige went on a rampage like this, and she opens her mouth to stop her, but is quickly interrupted.

“It doesn’t solve anything, dawg. It actually makes shit worse, because it’s so motherfucking annoying having you acting like everything’s fine when you don’t even know.” Paige shakes her head, taking a step towards her. “And that’s the thing, is you really don’t know but you wanna pretend like you do. You don’t know what it’s like to have your mom fuckin’ leave you for some fuckass guy, for her to have new kids outta state and raise them to be hateful just like her. Just like him.”

At this point, Azzi has tears in her eyes, and she attempts desperately to swallow them down. “Did you forget that my dad fucking left me when I was a baby? I’ve never even fucking talked to him, Paige. He doesn’t want shit to do with me.”

“That’s not the same and you know it.” Paige sends her a withering glare, so different from the way she usually looks at Azzi. “You have Tim. You have your mom and your brothers and they all love you so fucking much.”

“You have your dad!” Azzi responds, throwing her hands in the air. “You have Drew, you have Alora!” A tear escapes, against her will, and she wipes it furiously away. “You have me, Paige,” she says, more quietly now. “I love you so fucking much. So you don’t get to take this shit out on me and say mean things to hurt my feelings. That’s not—it’s not fair.”

As soon as she sees the tears welling in Azzi’s eyes, Paige softens, her shoulders slumping, eyes turning on her with guilt rather than venom. “Az, don’t cry.”

For some reason, this makes Azzi more mad, and she turns away to face the door, always having hated crying in front of others. “Well if you say mean shit to me, I’m gonna cry, Paige,” she mumbles, though there’s not much fire to her weak, shaky tone.

“Hey, no, you’re right,” Paige reaches for Azzi’s shoulder, trying to turn her around, but the tears have started now and they’re not going to stop anytime soon so Azzi stays turned firmly away. “Azzi, I’m sorry, I didn’t—“ Paige cuts herself off on a sigh. Her hand falls off Azzi’s shoulder, and for a second Azzi thinks she’s going to walk away, but then a pair of arms wrap tenderly around her waist and Paige’s chin is wresting on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—I was wrong for that, I shouldnt’ve said any of that shit.” When Azzi doesn’t respond, instead burying her face in her hands to try and hide what she’s sure is an ugly cry, Paige squeezes her tighter. “Azzi, please don’t cry, I’m really sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry, for real. I didn’t mean any of it, I was just so scared about my parents and I took it out on you, I fucked up.”

Azzi nods into her hands, taking a deep breath to try and stop the embarrassing flow of emotion. “I know, Paige,” she tries, but it comes out sort of as a whimper and this only makes Paige circle around to stand in front of her, full-on hugging her now, burying her face in her neck and rubbing her back soothingly.

They’re silent for another moment before Paige says, “I’m serious, Az. I didn’t mean any of it.”

Azzi knows this, fundamentally, but there’s still a part of her that sort of cracked at hearing her best friend tell her that she was annoying, that her efforts to help always fall flat. “You shouldn’t have said it, then,” she stutters, letting Paige hold her close even as her face doesn’t come out of its hiding spot.

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t have. You’re the only person who can ever make me feel better and I—fuck. Azzi, I’m sorry, I can’t believe—I never wanna hurt you.” Paige lifts her head out of her neck to nuzzle into Azzi’s hair, pressing a kiss to the spot just behind her ear. “Never wanna make you cry.” She plants another kiss there, and Azzi’s breath hitches. From the crying or from something else, she doesn’t know.

Sighing shakily, Azzi finally pulls her head out of her hands to look up at Paige, placing her hands at her chest almost as if she’s about to push her away. She’s sure her mascara is ruined by now but she can’t bring herself to care too much. “It really hurt when you shoved me outside, too.”

A pained expression flits over Paige’s face, and she nods, looking almost sick. “Fuck. I’m—I’m sorry, Azzi. I’m so sorry. Is your arm okay? Does it still hurt?”

Azzi can’t take the guilty look on Paige’s face and shakes her head no. It doesn’t seem to relieve much of anything.

Breathing deeply, Paige closes her eyes and then leans her forehead against Azzi’s, bringing her hands up from her waist to stroke over her tear-stained cheeks. “I’m sorry, baby,” she whispers, and Azzi’s knows that the nickname wasn’t a slip-up this time, wasn’t just a habit from their pretending. “I’m really fuckin’ sorry.”

And with that, Azzi isn’t mad anymore. Her feelings are still hurt and the things Paige said are still going to replay in her head for quite some time, but at least for now, Azzi just can’t be mad. Because Paige is going through something she could never imagine going through.

“I’m sorry, too,” Azzi breathes, and Paige rears back, but before she can protest, Azzi says, “about your parents. About this whole…situation.” She looks down at her hands on Paige’s chest, and, deciding she won’t be needing to push her away anymore, she slides them up to her shoulders. “It’s shitty and you’re right, I don’t know what it’s like to be in your position.” She shrugs, swallowing back the last couple tears that threaten to fall, trying to regain at least some of her composure. “I’m going to be here for you, okay? I always am.”

Paige nods. “I know you will.”

“And that means,” Azzi goes on, “you can’t do this again. You can’t take it out on me. You can’t push me away. Because that makes it really fucking hard for me to help you, and I want to help you.”

Paige nods again, more solemnly this time, moving her hands back to circle her waist. “Yeah, yeah, I know, and I’m so sorry for—“

Azzi holds a hand up to Paige’s lips, effectively shutting her up. “Okay, stop. I accept your apology, I promise. Just, show me you’re sorry and don’t do it again, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Paige says. “‘Course.”

“Good.” Breathing mostly even now, Azzi pulls Paige in for another hug.

With a heavy sigh, Paige hugs her back. “We’re in it together, hm? From now on, together.”

Azzi rests her cheek on Paige’s shoulder, the weight of her arms around her, the feeling of her skin and bones, so familiar. “Yeah. Together.”

Paige pulls back just enough to look at her, and when Azzi reciprocates, she’s uneasy to find that Paige is giving her that same new look. The perplexed, maybe enthralled?, almost worried look that has taken over her face more often than can be explained ever since the first time after their kiss. Azzi really wants to work out what it means.

But, as always, Paige corrects herself and it’s gone as fast as it arrived. “We’re good?”

Azzi nods, smiling softly despite herself. “Yeah, P. We’re good.”

—————————————

Paige has been downstairs with her parents for nearly an hour.

From what Azzi can hear from her spot at the top of the stairs, it doesn’t sound to be going too well. The three of them keep going from yelling to whisper-yelling to yelling again, and Azzi swears Amy has cried like five times at this point.

When Azzi hears Dean say, “We just don’t allow sinners in this house, Paige,” and Paige snap back, “Do not use God against me right now!” Azzi figures it might be time to intervene.

Trying to come up with something quickly, she pulls out her phone and dials Paige’s number. She hears Paige’s phone ring downstairs, and the three of them go quiet before Paige says, “Just—one second,” and then there’s a click on the other line and she’s answering. “Um, hi?”

“Pretend I’m your dad,” Azzi says, hoping she’s not on speaker.

“What?”

“Just pretend I’m your dad, Paige. Seriously.”

“Uh, okay.” The line gets a little muffled and Paige says, “It’s dad.” Azzi can hear both Amy and Dean let out audible groans downstairs.

“Okay, now tell them that I—your dad—am offering to fly you home.”

“I…wha—“ Azzi can tell Paige wants to argue but can’t with her parents right in front of her, so instead she sighs and the line goes muffled again. “He’s, um, he’s offering to fly me home.”

Azzi only has a second to hope and pray that Amy shares Paige’s competitive nature before Amy is saying, “What? You told him about this?”

“No,” Paige answers, “he just knows how you’re like now. And he wants Azzi and I to have a good summer, not a shitty one with shitty people.”

“If you want to go back to your dad’s, go,” Dean says, and Azzi’s heart sinks. Maybe this won’t work.

But then, bless her evil, horrible soul, Amy is stepping in. “No. Absolutely not. I will never hear the end of it if we send you to your father after inviting you over. We just…” Amy sighs, and Azzi thinks she can hear her start crying again. “We want what’s best for you, Paige.”

It’s silent for a moment. And then, “Let me be happy, Mom. Let me see my siblings. Let me and my girlfriend have a good trip with y’all.”

Dean interjects. “We really don’t believe in this kind of stuff.”

“I don’t care,” Paige replies viciously. “I love Azzi. It doesn’t matter that she’s a fuckin’ girl. I…” Paige pauses, quite abruptly, and Azzi wonders if something happened. But then she hears a heavy inhalation and a quiet, “I love her, Mom.”

Azzi knows it’s for the act, but she can’t help the way her stomach somersaults, hearing the words she’s always wished Paige would say.

“And it doesn’t matter what you think of it,” Paige continues. “I’m happy. My faith is strong. And what goes on between me and God isn’t your fucking business.”

“Language,” Amy says immediately. But then it’s silent for another weighted moment and Azzi can imagine Amy and Dean sharing that knowing, judgmental look of theirs. Her heart races while she waits for a consensus, and she’s sure it’s 100 times worse for Paige. But after a few moments, Amy says, “Tell your father that you’re staying here with us. Your siblings will be home tomorrow morning. The four of us adults have a reservation at a restaurant tonight, and we’re all going to go.”

“Mom—“

“We will try,” Amy sighs. “Azzi’s a nice girl. We will—we’ll try.” There’s something tired in her voice when she says, “Right, Dean?”

No answer. But Azzi can imagine him nodding gruffly, and a moment later, with no more words from any of them, Paige appears at the bottom of the stairs. She startles a little when she sees Azzi sitting there at the top.

“Hi,” Azzi says sheepishly, finally disconnecting their call. “I was eavesdropping.”

Paige stares at her, and then starts climbing the stairs, a small smile overtaking their face. “Thanks for saving me.”

“I told you I would,” Azzi replies, waiting for Paige at the top. “So. Dinner with your parents tonight.”

“Yeah. I guess.” Paige gets to the second-top step and stays there, so she’s just a little shorter than Azzi.

“Dinner as a fake lesbian couple with your homophobic parents,” Azzi clarifies, and Paige laughs nervously.

“Uh-huh,” she responds. “I think we needa nap before that.”

“Oh, yeah,” Azzi agrees, pulling Paige up to stand with her. “That is an amazing idea.”

——————————————

Azzi is rudely awoken to none other than an old Tyler, The Creator song blasting through the tinny speakers of Paige’s phone. Azzi groans, and she blindly reaches out for Paige to turn the damn thing off, but her hands only find cold bedsheets. Annoyed, Azzi cracks her eyes open and tries desperately to find Paige’s phone, realizing in the process that Paige’s side of the bed is cold. Strange, considering they still have two hours until dinner.

Finally, after probably thirty seconds of this stupid song playing over and over again, Azzi finds the phone tangled up in the bedsheets and slams the off button. It’s sort of pointless, though, because now she’s very much awake and will not be going back to bed.

She sits up in Paige’s bed, rubbing her eyes and looking around the room. The sun is shining through the curtains, reflecting off the mirror above the vanity and showcasing the off-white walls, the pink door to the adjoining bathroom—which Azzi now realizes is in use, the sound of the shower muffled through the door. She hadn’t noticed before because Paige isn’t awfully singing to some Mariah Carey song. Other than the water, it’s dead quiet in there. She must be nervous.

Fiddling with the pink sheets, Azzi feels nervous, too. Usually, merely being in Paige’s space comforts her, but this room—it doesn’t feel like Paige. It doesn’t smell like her, and it’s too pink. There’s no purple at all, actually. And the vanity—Paige has never known how to do much else other than mascara. In high school, she needed Azzi to tell her what concealer was for, and to teach her how to curl her lashes. She certainly wouldn’t have use for an entire vanity dedicated to makeup. The walls are also decorated with cringy, sort of Bible-thumping quotes and paintings of flowers. There’s not a single basketball poster.

No, this room isn’t Paige at all and Azzi feels an ache in her heart, thinking about how out-of-place she must have felt whenever she came to visit as a kid. How out-of-place she must feel now.

Without Paige to talk to, and without her room to comfort her, Azzi settles for laying on Paige’s side of the bed, burying her face in the blankets, and there she is—vanilla, like her hair products, and lavender, like the lotion she wears and the linen spray she uses, because it calms her down.

Azzi thinks she just might fall back asleep, enveloped in Paige’s scent, but then the door to the bathroom opens and steam billows out just before Paige does, wrapped in a towel, hair wet down her shoulders. Azzi only has a second to ogle the water drops adorning Paige’s collarbones before she’s spotted, and Paige gives her a curious look. “You still sleep? I left my phone here so the alarm would wake you up.”

“Yeah, no, it did,” Azzi says, sitting up quickly, before she looks like a weirdo snuggling up in Paige’s spot. “Just tryin’ to hype myself up for dinner.”

Paige gives her a commiserating look. “Me too. I’m shitting my pants, for real.”

“That why you couldn’t sleep?” Azzi asks, stretching out her back and swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

Paige hums, bending down to rifle around in her suitcase. “I’on even know what to wear. Apparently it’s some fancy restaurant but I’m not wearing a fucking dress.”

Azzi laughs at that, lifting her hands when Paige shoots a glare over her shoulder. “I’m serious, dawg! And it’s not like I brought a suit or nothing.”

“I think you’re overthinking it,” Azzi says, standing up. “Just wear jeans and tuck a t-shirt or something. You’ll look cute no matter what.”

Paige straights up and gives her a cocky grin. “You think all that?”

“Chill, P,” Azzi rolls her eyes, shoving Paige’s shoulder a little.

“What were you doing on my side of the bed, anyway?” Paige asks, and Azzi can’t help the way she freezes. She’d thought Paige hadn’t noticed.

Trying to cover her reaction, she shrugs casually. “I didn’t know you owned the right side of the bed.”

“Nah, we’ve always had our sides,” Paige shakes her head, taking a step closer. “Why was you all cuddled up in mine?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Azzi says, trying for sarcastic but she can’t even really make eye contact, “maybe I rolled over or something.”

“Please. You don’t move in your sleep.”

“Maybe I do. You don’t know.”

“I think I’ve slept with you more often than I’ve slept alone,” Paige scoffs, taking a step even closer so that they’re practically chest-to-chest. “I know damn well.”

“Okay, seriously,” Azzi says, taking a small step back and stumbling when her thighs hit the bed, “go get dressed, you weirdo.”

“Mm,” Paige says, pretending to think about it. But before Azzi can move away, she grabs her waist and they both fall onto the bed while Paige starts to tickle her like crazy.

“Paige!” Azzi screams, laughing so hard she almost can’t breathe. “Get—off, oh my God!”

Paige is laughing right along with her, and it’s a miracle her towel hasn’t dropped yet. “Tell me the truth!”

“What the…” Azzi giggles and squeals when Paige goes for her armpit, “fuck!”

“I won’t stop ‘till you admit it!”

“Okay, fuck, okay!” Azzi pushes Paige off her, and Paige lets up just enough for her to gasp and say, “It smelled like you, okay? The sheets, they…” Paige has stopped completely now, staring at her with a shit-eating grin on her stupid face, “they smell like you.”

“Uh-huh,” Paige replies, “and you missed me so much while I was in the shower that you needed to smell my sheets?” She jabs her one more time in the ribs, making Azzi shriek, before rolling off her. “You lil creep.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Azzi insists, even though that’s exactly what it was like. “Now, seriously, go get dressed. You got me all wet.”

What Azzi means by that, of course, is that Paige’s damp towel and sopping hair had transferred to Azzi’s own clothes and hair. But Paige can’t be normal about anything, so she looks over and grins slyly.

“Don’t,” Azzi sighs.

“Oh, no, it’s okay,” Paige says, sitting up in bed and pulling Azzi up with her. “You don’t gotta be embarrassed. I know I make a lotta girls wet.”

“Stop being weird,” Azzi says, as Paige bends down once again to pull an outfit from her suitcase.

She begins walking back to the bathroom. “I’m not the one who gets turned on by tickling,” Paige calls over her shoulder. Just before she closes the bathroom door behind her, she says, “Don’t worry, we can take care of you after dinner, mama,” and winks at her.

Azzi’s shoe hits the door just as it clicks shut.

—————————————

They drive to the restaurant in silence.

It’s similar to their car ride from the airport, though it is a little less tense than before. Paige isn’t fidgeting too much beside her and her parents aren’t giving each other looks the entire time. That’s gotta be a good sign.

When they arrive at the restaurant, Amy and Dean start chatting idly, Paige and Azzi trailing behind when they walk inside the fancy building and give the hostess their reservation.

It’s only when they’re finally seated that they are addressed.

“So, girls,” Amy says, her voice all forced cheerfulness, “what looks good?”

“I dunno,” Paige mumbles, and Azzi kicks her under the table before saying, “Have you guys ever been here before?”

Amy looks a little startled at Azzi’s voice, but she recovers quickly, looking over at Dean with a forced smile. “Oh, yeah, we come here sometimes.”

Azzi smiles politely. “What do you suggest, then?”

“Um,” Amy says, and then she sort of jerks and Dean winces, and Azzi’s sure Amy has also just kicked him under the table.

Apparently well-trained, he speaks immediately. “We love the spinach ricotta.”

Azzi hums, then nudges Paige. “That sounds good, right?”

“Uh…” Paige looks like she wants to be difficult, but then she sees the warning stare Azzi is giving her and straightens up a little, “yeah, yeah. Sounds good.”

“Wanna share?”

Paige sighs, but luckily it’s barely audible. “Yeah, sure. Let’s share.”

Azzi leaves herself out of the conversation after that, letting Paige answer her parents’ conversation starters. When the waitress comes to take their orders, Paige gets a glass of wine for the both of them. Neither of them really like wine, but it seems classy enough and it might take the edge off just enough that they can actually get through the night unscathed.

It’s not until their dinner arrives that Azzi is addressed again.

“So, Azzi,” Dean says, out of nowhere, “How’s the knee?”

Azzi’s hand goes subconsciously to her surgery scars. “Doing better. PT’s been going good.”

“Good, good.” He leans back in his seat, and Azzi senses trouble. Something about the way Paige protectively rests her arm across the back of Azzi’s seat makes her think she senses it, too.

“You get injured a lot, huh?” He asks.

Azzi sort of hates the way her face gets hot, hoping it doesn’t show up on her brown skin. “I’ve torn my ACL twice, yeah.”

“And your meniscus, right?” he prods.

Without really noticing it, Azzi looks over to Paige, and that’s apparently all Paige needs to jump in. “Hey, let’s not talk about it.”

“Why not?” Dean asks, scoffing. Amy is looking between the three of them nervously. “It’s hard not to talk about. Azzi, you don’t even play basketball at this point.”

“Um,” Azzi replies, her instincts telling her to get hot-headed but with the way Paige is buzzing beside her, she’s gonna need to keep her cool.

“What the hell?” Paige says, her hand going from the chair to Azzi’s shoulder. She looks at Amy. “Mom, you said this wouldn’t happen.”

“Your father is just asking a few questions—“

“He’s not my fucking dad!” Paige exclaims, and Azzi jerks as she’s pulled into Paige’s side. “I already have a dad! He raised me, he loves me, Mom, and he’d never say this shit about Azzi.” Angrily, Paige stands up, tossing a few bills onto the counter and helping Azzi to stand beside her.

“Sweetheart,” Amy says, reaching limply for her daughter while Dean sits beside her looking far too smug. “Paige, where are you going? We’re your ride.”

“We’ll Uber,” Paige responds, wrapping an arm around Azzi’s waist. “I’m not gonna make her sit through your bullshit because you don’t know how to act like a decent fucking human being.”

“He was just asking—,” Any starts, sounding exasperated, but Paige cuts her off.

“You know what he was doing.” She glares at Dean, who shakes his head, smirking. “We’ll go back to the house,” she sneers. “But if this doesn’t change by tomorrow we’re leaving.”

And with that, she takes Azzi hands and leads them both out into the night.

—————————————

Paige keeps it together until they get to the house.

As soon as they’re stepping through the door, she turns away from Azzi and leans down to untie her shoes. Azzi does the same, but she doesn’t miss the sniffling sounds coming from her best friend.

Paige refuses to look at her when they start heading upstairs, and she tries to make a beeline for the bathroom once they close her bedroom door shut behind them. But Azzi stops her, placing a gentle hand on her arm. “P?”

Another sniffle. And then a quick wipe at her face before she’s turning around, trying to look nonchalant but her eyes are red and her lip is trembling. “Yeah?”

“Paige,” Azzi says softly, and Paige crumbles, hands coming up to her face as she starts crying.

Azzi steps forward to hug her, pulling her down to hide in her chest. “I’m sorry, P. I’m so sorry, this—this sucks.”

“I’m sorry,” Paige replies, voice all small and muffled in a way that makes Azzi’s heart hurt. “I thought they were gonna try…I wouldn’t have taken you out with them if I knew…”

“Hey, it’s all good,” Azzi responds, running a hand through Paige’s hair. “I didn’t mind, really. I’ve heard worse.”

This is apparently the wrong thing to say, because Paige just cries harder. “Fuck, Az, you shouldn’t have to do this.” She lifts her head up to look at her, and Azzi absently wipes her face. “This sucks. It’s the first week of summer and I—I was shitty to you and now my parents, and I—“

“Paige,” Azzi says sternly. “I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I couldn’t handle it. I can handle it. It’s you that I’m worried about.”

Paige nods, sniffling again. “You don’t gotta worry. I’m fine.”

“You’re obviously not fine, P,” Azzi says, and Paige winces, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her shirt.

“I’m okay,” Paige insists. “Really. As long as we do this together, I’m okay.”

She straightens up like she’s steeling herself, and Azzi thinks maybe she should do the same.

This is only the first day of their two-week stay.

It’s going to be a long trip.

@azzibuckets @smiths-fan--13 @ch12334 @makethemhoesmad @the-other-half @rosemariiaa

[simpforbutchwomen]

Can i request Junker queen sfw alphabet? :3

Sfw Alphabet for JQ

//I love this woman ;-;

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

She's very affectionate. She learned the hard way to show your loved ones as much as possible before they are gone.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

She's that one friend who does and says dumb shit all of the time. She's extremely fun to drink with because you never know what's going to come out of that loud mouth of hers. She appreciates you sticking around despite it. The two of you became friends presumably by just having similar interests. Music, clothing etc. You can take her jokes without being offended, she likes that.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

She likes having you laying on her chest or spooning you. On her rougher days she likes to fall asleep with her head in your lap as you twirl and play with her hair.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

She doesn't know if she ever wants to settle down. She does know however that she wants to spend the rest of her life getting into trouble with you. As for cooking and cleaning its a bit of a bust. She's not great at either. She can be a bit dirty. Her cooking skills are okay at best, she eats some crazy shit. Being without for so long you come up with crazy meals to eat. Unconventional, but its still food.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

I doubt she ever would, it would have to be you to break it off. Wouldn't end the greatest. A lot of crying and anger would come out on her end. Not a pretty picture to paint.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

When the time is right she would be the one to propose. The thought of you being by her side forever gives her comfort. Odessa looks for stability and consistency in many things, a relationship being one of the major ones.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

She's a tough one to crack. She is physically strong and struggles with being gentle, overtime becoming better about it. Emotionally is a roller coaster. She can listen to your grievances all day but doesn't bring up her own until much much later into the relationship. It hurts her too badly.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Odessa adores hugs. She gives big bear hugs, lifting you off the ground and nearly breaking your spine. Physical affection is something she's keen on.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

She shows her love to you quicker than she says it. It's a hard word to say for her at first. That connection she craves oh so deeply, but to openly say it is terrifying.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

She's a bit problematic with how jealous she is. She crosses boundaries on occasion and has to work to learn to let it go. She goes with you everywhere and will borderline assault someone if they stare at you for too long. All to many people have been cut by her knife.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

The first time she kissed you was after a bar fight. All the adrenalin was overwhelming. Safe to say you were slammed against a wall and kissed hard. The gets intense with her kisses most of the time. Full tongue. She does like it when you give her soft kisses on her shoulder, its sweet. For you? She will kiss you anywhere and leave a mark.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

She adores children. They are a fresh start, uncorrupted by the world. She want's them to have a better life than she had. Once they grow up that's a different story.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Not a morning person per say. She's the type to stay up late and sleep in. When she does arise she's a bit of a grouch.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

She loves the night time. All of the stars in the sky are just so beautiful to her. She likes taking you outside to star gaze with her. I like to think she struggles with insomnia. Some nights she will come to bed, others she won't bother.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Slow reveal of her past, or at least what really happened in her past. She will talk about all the people she's fought or her wild adventures in the outback proudly. Other things wont follow until much later.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

She has no patience. She has the patience of a child waiting to open their Christmas present. When she want's something she wants it in that exact moment. She tends to get angry rather quickly because of it.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

It's a mix of both. She remembers important details such as your favorite color, animal, food etc. but if asked what color your eyes are, she will blank.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

When you kissed her the first time. You were bold about it to say the least. (I might write a fic about this later).

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Over the top protective. If she had her way no one would look at you. God help any soul that hurts you in anyway. She's not one to make angry.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

She goes a little crazy with it. Your first date is cheesy as hell, candle lit dinner with the fanciest table cloth she can find draped around whatever she's using as a table that night. She does her best to make you happy.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Her anger is a big one. She's hot headed. I imagine she's also a smoker too. She's got a lot of things to work on.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

She's vain in the sense of she needs her appearance to be perfect for her. She doesn't care about anyone else's opinions. Odessa can go a little overboard on exercise a lot of the time, but hey, she needs to be in shape for when the next fool comes in thinking they can take the crown from her. "When she is bad, she is fucking gorgeous."

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Her life long plans originally never involved a partner, never thought she needed one. Now that she has you she can't imagine a life without you.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Au version of her I feel would really love bands like Otep , Korn, Rob Zombie etc. (this is me admitting I have a playlist for her ;-;)

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

NOOO neat freaks. You would hate her and she would hate you. She likes her trash pile. She also wouldn't be too fond of people who didn't have an alt style about them. A little picky.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Never sleeps at the same time every night. When she does fall asleep she sleeps hard. Nightmares are typically what wakes her.

[musicalmoritz]

I wanna ask your opinion on people who ship Tsukasa with like, Kou or Mitsuba? Most of the AU’s or arts Aidairo do either have him close with one or the other. Or both. That one witch AU had him be friends with both of them. There were like two banners where he and Mitsuba were together I think, but the anime merch tended more to Tsukasa & Mitsuba than they did (I think, I can’t remember much art they posted) but the fandom seems to grab their pitchforks and threaten ANYONE who ships Tsukasa with them, or anyone of his age, claiming Tsukasa is a monster and a demon and that people who ship him are abuse apologists. Do you like, agree with that?

So I’m gonna be completely honest here, and I mean this in the most lighthearted way possible, I am not your mother. There are certain ships I deeply dislike, and I will shade those if I want to, but I make sure to censor them so they don’t end up in the tags of people who enjoy the ships. Even with ships that are deemed universally bad, I have no interest in arguing with anyone. My anxiety issues are too bad to carry out internet arguments anyway and also it’s so much easier and more fun to just block people

Equally, I cannot control what other fans do. I don’t agree with ship hate because it gets people nowhere, the person you’re telling to kys is only going to ship that thing harder out of spite. Some fans feel that they have a moral obligation to call out certain ships, and I don’t really have an opinion on that. If you strongly feel that you need to do something then that’s your business, not mine. I may not approve of the hate, or I may not approve of the ships themselves, but either way both are going to continue to exist

I’m not gonna ship Tsukasa with anyone because I headcanon him as aroace. I think some of the rarepairs are funny but I still won’t actively engage with them. Certain ships with him also make me uncomfortable, and yes that includes the ones with him and Mitsuba or Kou. I don’t want to see them so I’ll just block those tags and creators. I may not assume they’re horrible people, but I still don’t want to see the creations they make so they get blocked. I think everybody would have a much nicer internet experience if they realized they can block people for stupid reasons

All this to say, I’m not going to tell you what you can and cannot ship. There’s not really a point in being like “this ship is toxic, you can’t like it” when many fans ship things because they’re toxic or problematic. I’m also not a total hater, I can see edits of Mitsuba and Tsukasa and be like “hey that’s pretty good.” But the ship itself still makes me intensely uncomfortable so I’m gonna avoid it, unless it’s a past toxic relationship that ends in Mitsuba and Kou. I do think they’d be a funny friendship duo in AUs but even then I prefer to see Mitsuba with the Toilet Gang

Thank you for the ask, I hope none of this came off as rude. I just feel like I am not the best authority on what pairings people should and shouldn’t be allowed to ship lol, that’s more of a subjective thing. And I literally ship Louis and Lestat which is arguably way worse than Tsukasa with Kou or Mitsuba so yeah, I have no room to talk lol

[trantrumsfromthevoid]

Twilight Advent ‘22

Day 14 (12.14.22) - “Tell us something Bella loves about Edward and something Edward loves about Bella (not mentioned in the saga).”

Y’all might hate me for this, but I don’t understand the appeal of E/B. It was one thing to read about their “epic” love story when I was barely into my twenties and had little to no “real world” experience. But thinking about them now, more than a decade (closer to twenty years now, jeez!) later, they’re just ... really boring. I remember, several years ago, there was a big debate over whether or not Edward was abusive/problematic. And yes, he (and Jacob) definitely does some shitty things; things I’d be really upset to hear my child/sibling/best friend/whomever (gender aside) tell me their partner is doing. But I also think E/B should not be together ... at least not as teenagers.

I think they both have a lot of growing up to do (and therapy sessions) before they should commit to spending all eternity together. Which, something can be said for falling in love with someone and working through your issues together; of not being perfect when you meet someone and letting someone else see your “true” self; flaws and all. And I get that. But I think E/B is less about this “all consuming, passionate love affair that’ll last throughout the ages” and more so about “I want what the other person has and they’re so mysterious and amazing because they have what I don’t” if that makes sense.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TedTalk! Moving on to the actual question.

After fifty to a hundred years together, and all the “major” drama with these two dies down, I fully believe the “appeal” of Edward will wear off for Bella. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think Bella will ever not love Edward or she’ll leave him. I just think one day’s she’s gonna wake up and realize she’s been doing the same thing, day after day, for the last three hundred years. That, and she has no life (or hobbies) outside of Edward, Renesmee, and/or Jacob. I think at some point she’s gonna realize she’s turned into Renee. Or, at least, What Renee Could’ve Been had she and Charlie stayed together. And that’s gonna cause her to - at least quietly - freak out.

But now that I’ve gotten that outta my system, I really don’t know what Bella loves about Edward besides A.) his beauty, B.) his vampirism, C.) his wealth, and D.) his “perfect family dynamic.” And now that she has all that ... what’s the point? (Y’all I’m continuing to gripe, I’m sorry.) I think ten or twenty years after the events of BD, they’ll have developed some really mundane routines. Like, they enjoy really long walks through Mount Rainier National Park. Wherein they kill a bunch of deer together. Ugh, I honestly don’t know! I think Edward will be a really good advocate as far as encouraging Bella to explore her intellectual interests (going to school, etc) and I think Bella really appreciates/loves the fact she has her own personal “cheerleader” in Edward. (Phew, I did one!)

I think Edward probably, without even realizing it, has someone who’ll always idolize him and the whole “Edward can’t do anything wrong and I’ll love him forever ... and ever and ever and ever ...” I mean I don’t think it’s in a malicious way or anything like that, but ... I mean, I’d like to have someone who thinks I’m perfect. Or, at least, from time-to-time. Basically I think Bella is good for Edward’s self-esteem and will always support him and in Bella he’ll always have an advocate. And I think he loves that.

TL;DR: This post was horrible. I honestly couldn’t think of anything; genuinely because I think E/B are pretty boring. SM had so much potential with a lot of these characters (not just E/B) and mucked them up ... in my very humble opinion, lol. I’m looking forward to reading what others have to say about these two.

[moviemunchies]

How the fudge do I even begin talking about this movie? I kept seeing that this movie was amazing, and so I figured I’d try watching it while it was on Netflix. And let’s be straightforward here, it IS amazing, but it’s also insane to think about.

So I don’t know how to start, but I’m going to give it a try.

RRR is an Indian film in Telugu (though Netflix doesn’t have it in that language) featuring real-life Indian heroes Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem as best friends fighting against the British Raj in the 1920’s. Director S.S. Rajamouli wondered what it would be like if the two of them knew each other, and fought together in their efforts to make India independent of the English. The result is an action movie with such amazing and ridiculous over-the-top action sequences (including a dance number!) which cares less about historical accuracy and more about making the most awesome movie imaginable.

And it works???

I’ve been turning this over in my head days after I saw it, because let’s face it: this is nationalist propaganda. I’m trying to figure out why this doesn’t bother me as much as something like Ip Man, which is also transparently nationalist propaganda–part of the Plot of that movie is proving that a Chinese martial art is better than a Japanese martial art. That’s a bit excusable in that instance because it takes place in World War II and the Japanese were not kind to the people they colonized. But it felt really off that the movie’s ending implies that China defeated Japan on their own (they very much didn’t) and China today is more and more happy to oppress its people in pursuing its own nationalist agenda.

[Also Ip Man is still a pretty good movie overall so don’t take this as me hating that movie. But I have problems with it.]

Which is not to say that Indian nationalism can’t be problematic! Oh, it can. But this movie is less ‘We’re better than the colonizer nation’ as much as “We’re awesome, they shouldn’t be oppressing us, we’re not taking credit for winning wars we didn’t win.” Also, it’s worth noting that the Koh-i-Noor is still a part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

It’s also worth noting that while both Ip Man and RRR are about real-life historical figures, it’s not as if you’ll watch RRR and think of it as being remotely accurate to the true history of things. Look, when characters are able to punch out tigers, I like to think that the audience can realize that some artistic liberties have been taken.

Or maybe I’m just massively overthinking this. It is a movie in which one of the characters is introduced hunting a tiger by leading a wolf to it.

This is a three-hour film, but you are not going to get bored with it. Yes, there are scenes that are not over-the-top action scenes, but they’re all interesting. I wouldn’t say that everything is overdramatic, because that implies something like a tedious soap opera drama. But it is definitely playing into a style of storytelling that plays up the dramatic elements to ensure that every single scene is memorable.

It’s a big, loud, action movie, and its battle scenes are utterly ridiculous in many ways. Raju and Bheem are each a one man army that can curb stomp any enemies that come up against them with very little effort. It’s absurd but it’s oddly satisfying to watch. If you’re a fan of those kinds of fight scenes you’ll find a lot to like here. If you haven’t been exposed to it, you may find yourself becoming a fan.

It’s just darn, fun, man! Which is odd to expect in a movie about fighting colonialism. Maybe that’s more common in India, but in the US our movies tend to make those things into much darker films.

Like I said, there is no way on Netflix to watch it in the original language. It’s also weird because the English character speak in English, but the subtitles don’t always exactly match their dialogue? Maybe that’s something about the Hindi dub, which is what I watched.

There was also a notice before the film began that almost all of the animals in the movie are CGI. It’s pretty obvious with some of them, like the wolves and the tigers. That doesn’t bother me too much, because it seems like making realistic animals was not always the goal–this is a mythic story, so of course the creatures are larger than life.

If you can accept an upbeat, turned-up-to-eleven, three-hour action film in which two Indian bros loosely based off of real-life heroes fight English imperialism, you’ll love this movie. If you can’t, then you might see this movie as too silly for its own good. But once you get into it, it’s loads of fun and an unforgettable film.

[fryingpan1234567]

so, in your post about your HC superhero AU, you mentioned that the villains were mostly helsmits, and you already gave us a few (evil x, helsknight, and the unnamed bdubs sibling that I’m not sure if they’re an original hels or Pungence), so what drove those guys to villainy in the first place?

So! Yeah it’s Pungence, and ofc we’ve got EX and Hels himself.

But there are lots of other Helsmits, most of the names of which are not mine obviously, but I’ve got some stuff on them.

As I mentioned, EX and Pungence ran away from the AHM when they were kids, leaving their brothers behind to be trained to be supers. Hels was knighted by the same ghosts as Wels, so he’s kind of stuck because he swore to protect. He’s got a loophole, though: his partner and the people he considers his family are all villains. Therefore, he is protecting what he has to. Wels is pissed about that but can respect it.

Just a quick list of Helsmits:

Indulge

Zedeath

Limbo

Kamalis

Wendigo

Medic

BadTimesWithScar (BadTimes)

Bear

Mani

EmeraldialSun

AriesEva

TrueSymmetry

Strain

Skall

Phoenix

yC

Some of those are mine, most of them are just ones the fandom have come to conclusions on. If you guess them all right I’ll give you a cookie lol

Basically, they’re all related to the Hermits in some way- maybe they’re siblings, cousins, some rando who happened to be born at the same time, ex best friends, etc. They got sick of being in the Hermits’ shadow, and decided to do something about it.

Most have powers. Some are failed trainees. Some are self-taught. Some are just angsty and decided a life of villainy was what they needed to do. There are even one or two trained by professional villains.

I should mention that the Hermits and Helsmits are not the only hero/ villain teams out there. You thought the Hermits were bitter about being forced into hiding? How do you think the Dream SMP, the actual psychopaths who killed the president’s daughter, feel? The split about down the middle, but that’s a story for another time.

Fortunately, there aren’t very many all-out wars with full teams. Mostly it’s just a couple wreaking havoc, and the appropriate Hermits are sent out to deal with it.

There are a couple very specific backstories though, and I’ll tell you about them:

~ For as long as he could remember, Hels and his twin brother were actually very well off. They had that cool thing where they could read each other’s minds, and they didn’t even fight that often, despite sharing a bedroom and… pretty much everything else.

But. The biggest issue? Wels was a huge suck-up. To their parents, the teachers, the coaches. Hels was more of a ‘put a finger up towards the world’ kind of guy, because he knew it wasn’t kind, and he was happy to return the favor.

When he and his brother were given power as vast as they were, Hels’ mind went straight to what he could do to the assholes that called him slurs, made fun of Wels for every reason possible, their parents, who made both boys feel like they were failures no matter what they did.

Unfortunately, to become a knight, there’s an itty bitty problematic oath you have to take. You can’t harm anyone who doesn’t attack first, and you must hit back within reason.

“Within reason” meant a different thing to Hels than it did his brother and the knights. He’s not stupid. And he doesn’t let go of things easily.

His solution? Leave and find a way to make that oath his own.

Yeah, maybe seducing the leader of the only villain organization he knew (it was very small at the time) was a ploy to get out of being a hero. He didn’t feel like saving the assholes that had caused him so much pain. But then he really fell in love, and he made some genuine friends, and after that?

No one could stand in his way.

~ Pungence liked having powers. It put him above kids who made fun of him and his brother, not that they knew that, but it was nice to have a secret like that.

He had photokinesis, just like Bdubs, only his was more… dark. Bdubs produced light. Pungence sucked it out of things.

Still, they got along. When people were racist assholes at school, the brothers just let loose a string of random Spanish until they got scared and left them alone. That was pretty funny, no matter how many times it happened.

And then one day, there was an offhand comment about how America made the best superheroes. Anyone who wasn’t white or an American citizen could never live up to the heroes they had.

Especially Bdubs and Pungence.

That was the last straw. The boys had decided enough was enough, and showed all those kids right then and there just how heroish they could be.

Which… didn’t go over as well as they’d hoped.

Their family was shunned by the rest of their small town, and they were forced to leave. They ended up in New York, but it wasn’t long before the AHM tracked them down. A massive sum of compensation, more than either brother could comprehend, was offered to their parents in exchange for the two of them. There wasn’t much hesitation when the decision was made to hand them over.

Bdubs resolved to show everyone who had doubted them, their parents, everyone back home, even himself, that he could be great. The greatest, even. He’d be the brightest hero the world had ever seen.

But Pungence couldn’t forgive all of that. Frankly, he was surprised Bdubs could. Normally they were on the same page as far as things like revenge went, but not this time.

He wasn’t going to prove them wrong. He was going to prove them as right as he could, and he knew he’d go down in history… just not on the same side of it as his brother.

~

Martyn Littlewood used to be Ren’s best friend- more than that, for a time, but that went out the window when he discovered Ren was a werewolf.

At first, he was mostly horrified. He felt bad for that, mostly because the only reason he found out was that Ren came to him for help after being injured by hunters, thinking Martyn would help him. He was wrong, of course, but he didn’t know that at the time.

Once Martyn got over the fear and Ren was far away out of his life, he decided maybe powers like that wouldn’t be so bad. He happened to come across an offer to become a hero, and he didn’t pass it up.

They didn’t quite give him the powers he was expecting. But honestly, a wendigo wasn’t all that bad. Pretty sick, actually.

He realized the issue when his thirst for blood became too strong to control. It took the entire police department together to contain him, and he was handed over to the AHM, only to be recruited by EX and Hels.

Revenge on Ren and the people who locked him up, plus free usage of his powers? Not a bad deal.

~ Typically, heroes were respected more than villains. You know what villains have over heroes?

Fear factor.

People are terrified of beings with power and aren’t afraid to use it. Heroes could be pushed around, and villains could not.

The Void twins knew this. It’s why they came to the Earth dimension in the first place- power. Their powers don’t work in their own dimension, so Earth was a good place to make a name for themselves.

X wanted to go down in history, just like Bdubs.

So did EX. They wanted to be the most powerful interdimensional overlord in the history of time-space.

X was able to keep them at bay for a few years, but when they met a new boy with just as much ambition as them? It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Pungence said goodbye to Bdubs when he left. EX said nothing to their brother, because they knew X had the power to catch up to them. So as soon as they were ready, EX got them to Britain and they didn’t come back until they were ready to take on New York with a brand new team of very powerful people ready to kick ass.

~~~ ta-daaa, how do we feel anon? does that make sense? I wanna start writing more actual stuff and not just concepts lol send in more y’all

[itsvalentinoxh]

Is that (HAILEY VALENTINO)? They look so much like (ARIANA GRANDE). I heard they use (SHE/HER) pronouns and are (CISFEMALE). They also turned (TWENTY-FIVE) years old this year. They’re also famous for being a (SINGER/ACTRESS). I also read that they have (ONE) kid(s) and that they are (BISEXUAL). They are (ENGAGED) to (JACOB ELORDI OR SHAWN MENDES FC).

does Valentino sound familiar to you? if so, you must have heard of the famous and luxurious fashion brand, which is owned by one of Hailey's fathers; Giovanni Valentino. he's actually one of the biggest names in the fashion industry. her second father, Flavio, even if not as big of a name, took the reigns of his mother's (hailey's grandmother) luxury spas company. for that reason, the media has called her a nepo many times… and they aren’t wrong. ff course, there’s no denying Hailey’s amazing singing and acting skills, but she did have the privilege of private classes and easy access to the red carpet world through her family’s connections. as soon as Giovanni discovered Hailey could sing (which wasn’t that hard since she would sing allll the time as a little girl), he enrolled her in singing and piano lessons. She had already started working with an acting agency, as her parents hoped to make their daughter a famous child star. with the Valentino’s connections and Hailey’s talents combined, she did some commercials and voice acting here and there, but it's at 15 years old that she got one of the lead roles in "Acting Out", which was about a group of teens enrolled in a performance arts school and their adventures in the musical theater club they are in as well as in their daily lives*. from there, her singing skills were showcased; she got a role in Broadway, a spin-off of her first tv show with another co-star (wc) and signed with a music record in the same year.

*acting out is like victorious

her relationship with her parents was kind of distant, though, as they were both very busy and often relied on nannies to take care of Hailey and her brother (wc). it was also pretty hard on her to start working so young, and sometimes she feels like Giovanni did this to fulfill his own dreams. of course, he was known around the world for his creations but deep down he had always wanted to become an actor.

as an adult, Hailey focused on her singing career and now has 7 albums out. she's also now engaged with the father of her two year old daughter, daisy. *tba when her pair joins*. but the wedding might be problematic since Hailey started seeing this other person... (wc)

some random facts:

hailey is giovanni's biological daughter; they had her through a surrogate

she has a brother (wc) he can younger or older, adopted or through a surrogate as well

would love some friends, rivals, exes, best friend(s), cousins, etc. for her! i'm always down to plot x

basically all ariana's songs are hers

she loves big dogs; she has a female german shepherd named luna and one male harlequin great dane named tucker

tba

would love these connections for her: friends, besties, frenemies, rivals, exes, ex-flings/one night stands, confident, or dm me on discord to brainstorm x

[009720kakashi]

@shinobinvku

Shinya won’t argue that the Copy Ninja has many flaws. The man wears a perpetual mask both figuratively and in a literal sense. Then again, he probably doesn’t have any room to judge. Gods knows that the Ghost Tiger has his problematic vices, unable to leave work where it belongs, chasing attractive company or alcohol. Though he might be known for being the most cold-hearted squad captain in ANBU, Shinya can confidently say that Kakashi is trustworthy. He considers him a friend and would like to help him out when Shinya can. ❝ Serious as a fucking heart attack. ❞ Shinya replies, pouring himself another drink with a mischievous smirk. ❝ I’m not saying you have to commit. Something tells me that they’re not looking for that sort of thing either, but it wouldn’t hurt to get your dick wet once in a while, you know? ❞ The life of a shinobi can be short. You never know when a mission is going to claim your life. Why not indulge for a night has always been Shinya’s motto. It’s an unspoken truth that many operatives in ANBU sleep around with one another. What’s a night of passion between colleagues when you know the chances of dying the next day are highly likely? The Ghost Tiger had a notorious reputation for being a playboy.  ❝ Oh please, Hatake, I highly doubt that’s the least of your concerns. ❞ Shinya replies. He savors the sake this time, having poured himself a higher quality of shimazake than the stuff they were previously drinking. He offers some to Kakashi and clinks the glasses with him.  ❝ Of course, I would! After all, we’re friends, right? Why would I steer you wrong? She’s attractive, and if I’m being honest, I think you two would hit it off nicely. Maybe I could set you two up on a date or meet at the izakaya after a mission? What do you think? I'm a pretty good wing-man. ❞

He arches both eyebrows which also makes him open the Sharingan. It is exhausting to keep it closed constantly without the support of a Hitai- ate. In ANBU attire he cannot wear one since he has to be able to open it under the mask. 

“Are you dru…?” he does not finish the sentence. Instead looks at Otsuka’s refilled glass and sighs.

“Well of course you are” he adds then in a lower voice. Taking another sip of his own glass.

“You are far too occupied with my dick Otsuka. Are there even these mysterious other people or do you want to tell me something?” Attack was the best defence at times. Also people tended to be thrown off by such remarks. He might regret it with Otsuka though. The man is not shy at all.

“Aside from that… ANBU doing ‘commitment’ clearly need to rethink their career choices ne?” Being in ANBU is a good excuse to fend off overzealous suitors. Not that he has overzealous suitors. People do rarely approach him that way and he has worked very hard for that. Usually civilians tended to be more brave in that aspect since they did not know his reputation. 

He lets Shinya fill his glass once more after all. You did not get shimazake that often. 

“No!” he replies immediately. 

“Are you fucking kidding me? No setting up anything Otsuka.” It is one think if it comes to it naturally. Something else to have someone set it up. 

“Believe it or not I can get sex …even without having to pay for it or be set up. I’m not that hopeless. Also if she is that interested how about she makes a move then? You said it yourself. There are no rules against it since I’m not her Captain. That’s not on my plate then I’d say.”

shinobinvku

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘'𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐅𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐘𝐀'𝐒 𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓.His elder half-sister, Haruka, runs the local izakaya on the first floor and happens to be his landlord, which means they have the luxury of bottomless sake and a quiet hangout spot with fantastic views of the Hidden Leaf Village whenever they want.

He’s been trying to invite the Copy Ninja out for sake for a long time but always gets turned down, claiming that he rarely drinks. Shinya usually finds it suspicious when a shinobi refuses to drink socially, as though they have something to hide. What sort of secrets is he holding onto? Shinya wonders.

❝ Aha, but what if I said I preferred you this way? A much more honest version of yourself. ❞ He chuckles, topping off Kakashi’s glass again.

❝ That’s the beauty of alcohol, my friend. It has the capability of revealing the truth. ❞

Shinya isn’t joking! He has a firm belief that alcohol reveals the truth in others. It stifles reasoning skills and contemplating repercussions. As a result, people are more likely to divulge the truth while intoxicated. Without the fear of consequences, alcohol can give people the courage to do or say things they ordinarily wouldn’t entertain.

After pouring himself another glass, Shinya sets the bottle down on the floor with a content sigh, deciding how to phrase his answer.

❝ Nah. She’s not part of your team but she’s someone you’ve gotten better acquainted with recently. Though, if I’m being honest with you, it’s more of a strong hunch I have about them, and I’m hardly ever wrong about those. I’m just trying to help you out, Hatake. You know, because I’m such a good friend and all? You’ve been tense lately. ❞

Actually, he’s always tense. Kakashi just needs to get laid.

He does not really know why he had agreed to come this time. People usually gave up inviting him eventually. Otsuka had not. Not yet anyway. Today he just was lucky. Kakashi had not been in the mood to go home but was too exhausted to visit Rin and Obito as well. That was rare enough. He tended to drag himself to the graveyard and memorial stone no matter what. Guilt and grief are powerful motivators. Today alcohol is good enough though. However he does slow down the drinking. Kakashi has no intention to get wasted with Otsuka. 

Kakashi’s uncovered eye wanders over the rooftops. t is quite a nice view. 

“Then you are still out of luck” he replies, taking a sip and then pulls up the mask again. Kakashi really does not care what people think of him. 

“Also I sure have many flaws Otsuka but I don’t think I’m dishonest. At least that would be a new reproach I have to add to the list then.”

He does not share a lot. That much is true but he is not dishonest.

“Maa aside from the job required dishonesty that is.” 

Revealing the truth? Sure but not always to anyone’s benefit. It also makes people overshare. Kakashi is a very private person. Even his closest friends and there are not many anyway don’t get him to open up. 

“It’s a nice view…honestly” he says, emphasizing the last word, turning to Otsuka, clearly smirking under the mask. 

Arching his eyebrows he turns to look at the other man.

“You cannot be serious” he says. He knows that ANBU naturally is a bit of a …den of iniquity… . These people face life and death situations constantly and their jobs sure do not allow for regular relationships. They of course mingle among each other. Maybe not necessarily out of romance but also to satisfy physical needs. As long as it does not interfere with their performance during a mission Kakashi does not care. Not even if people in his own team get a bit more ‘friendly’ with each other. He has not hooked up with anyone like that since he joined ANBU. 

“Don’t you think there is enough locker room talk about me already? I’m not sure I need to add my bedroom activity to that.” 

After a moment of silence he turns to Otsuka again.

“You do that?” he asks. Otsuka was a fellow Captain. He really is a little curious now. 

[starleska]

the early bird is the worm - some thoughts on Warren the Eagle

i’ve been fixating on Warren from DHMIS a lot (oh lord why did it have to be him 😭💖) and enjoying a lot of the conversation around his character, both positive and negative! so i wanted to get some thoughts down about him and see what other people think. the writers did an amazing job of portraying an instantly unlikable guy, and i want to examine that unlikability, to see what we can learn about him and his mindset: 

a little bit of a recap: when Warren accuses Red Guy and Duck of being bad friends, and the two respond that it’s Yellow Guy’s fault for forgetting the password, Warren doesn’t try to defend Yellow Guy. instead, he goes on a defensive, egotistical tirade about how because he’s not ‘technically affiliated’ with the OK Stop organisation, they don’t think he knows a bad friendship when he sees one. with no prompting, Warren has inserted himself into the interpersonal troubles of another group (that he doesn’t know!!) and made himself out to be the person being attacked. Warren is not a good Samaritan. it’s got nothing to do with Yellow Guy being bullied at all - this is all a vicious ego trip for Warren, who feels persecuted by people he doesn’t even know and projects himself onto other people he perceives to be victims.  it’s fascinating, and why i feel it’s a disingenuous interpretation to assume the ‘Warren the Eagle’ name is some mean-spirited joke towards trans people - as a trans person myself, i was worried too! but i realised that it’s not literally about him not being an eagle because he doesn’t have wings - it’s because Warren is oblivious to who he is and the way he treats other people. he’s a social parasite who dresses up his problems in victim-supporting language, validating his toxic behaviours that leave the people around him exhausted and upset. Warren refuses to take accountability for his behaviour and latches onto Yellow Guy despite not having a genuine interest in him or his wellbeing. Warren just wants to be liked, and he realises that in Yellow Guy’s safe space (his brain), he can be...even if he ends up hurting Yellow Guy in the process. Warren being a worm is visual shorthand. pretty much everyone immediately had a visceral response to him and his uncomfortable, invasive behaviour, and the fact that he views himself as a creature that is so radically different from what he actually is - an eagle instead of a worm - is supposed to communicate to us that his perspective is warped to the point that he cannot (or just refuses to acknowledge) how nasty he is to others. you’ll notice that Yellow Guy’s Brain Friends - who are portrayed as a positive, healthy force - are immediately accepting of Warren’s identity and validate his thoughts without question, because they want to be supportive. they’re doing a nice thing, and it’s not played for laughs! but Warren takes advantage of that kindness, and it doesn’t take long for those friends to grow tired of his behaviour. they do the healthy thing by removing themselves from the equation.  so, yes...i like Warren as a character a lot, because i think he is a great representation of how you can’t just appropriate the language of positive mental health without doing the actual therapeutic work of unlearning your problematic behaviours. he’s equal parts stubborn and ignorant, and it seems he identifies with being an eagle less in a ‘this is a trans allegory’ sense, and more in a ‘i refuse to acknowledge that i’m being an asshole to the people around me because i am the best and everyone should cater to me.’ sense. that being said, i’m very excited to see more lore and meta and character development for Warren from the fandom! i think headcanoning him as trans is awesome - on that note, did you know that earthworms are intersex? i’m also delighted by the rise of the LoveBird ship (Shrignold/Warren) and the potential for both of them to learn to love in a way which works for them both...the dynamic is so neat 😖💖 that being said, what do you think? do you love Warren? are you indifferent? do you want him to die in a fire? i’d love to know! 🥰

[vhenanshiral]

On the Topic of Seiya Kou.

This is a Sailor Moon post rather than a Dragon Age post. Shocker, I know, but Sailor Moon is another one of my loves. This will focus on the 90s anime adaptation of the manga. So do not come at me with “but in the manga,” because the 90s adaptation and the manga were incredibly different in multiple ways. Seiya will be referred to as she/her because the male form was a disguise. That being said, any interpretation of Seiya’s gender is valid and I love them all! Anyway. I see a lot of shit talking about Seiya and it’s honestly ... super tiring. So many of the “negative” points against Seiya are misinterpreted, misunderstood, and misrepresented for the sake of making her look like a dumpster fire. 1. “Seiya is creepy towards Usagi and stalks her.” Except ... she doesn’t. They meet by accident numerous times, and in fact Usagi even seeks Seiya out. They develop a friendship, and it’s normal and natural for friends to seek each other out. Usagi and the girls actually, literally stalk the Three Lights more than once during the season. 2. “Seiya thinks Usagi is weak because she told Mamoru to take care of her when they left.” This honestly makes no sense to me. It is repeatedly shown that Seiya admires Usagi’s strength, both as Usagi and as Sailor Moon. It is natural to want the people you love to be protected, and that does not mean that you think they’re weak and incapable of protecting themselves. Seiya knew Usagi was capable and strong because she had seen her demonstrate these traits multiple times. Throughout the season, Seiya repeatedly lifts Usagi up with her confidence in her capabilities. This is even before she knows she is Sailor Moon. Let’s not forget that when Galaxia kills all of the Inners, they ask the Starlights to protect Sailor Moon, so saying that Seiya telling Mamoru to take care of her means she thinks she is weak ... that must mean everyone else thinks she is too, right? It’s absurd. 3. “Seiya can’t take ‘no’ for an answer, always hits on her, and is constantly pressuring her into a relationship.” It is true that Seiya repeatedly quips about “having a chance” with Usagi. It’s also true that Usagi repeatedly reminds Seiya that she has a boyfriend. But it isn’t true that Seiya repeatedly attempts to coerce her into a relationship. It also isn’t true that she does it all the time. While she shouldn’t have done it even more than once (when she was unaware of Usagi’s relationship status,) it’s obvious from the context that she isn’t being serious. Seiya repeatedly making quips is an issue, and while those kinds of situations can and often do mean someone is being a “Nice Guy,” a predator, an abuser, etc., we know from everything that we see that it is not the case with Seiya. Let’s take the “date,” for an example: Seiya throws it out there (literally, just time and place and walks off) and Usagi willingly shows up the next day and is even irritated that Seiya is late. Usagi is not forced or coerced into the date; she retains all of the power regarding whether or not she shows up. She would not have gone if she didn’t want to. Actually, let’s look at these instances of Seiya hitting/making a move on Usagi. - In the “date” episode, Usagi thinks that Seiya is going to make a move on her. Some suggest that Usagi thinks she is going to kiss her, but the language, Usagi’s expressions, and her reaction to the truth seem to imply that she thinks Seiya is suggesting something more intimate. - In the episode with the beach monster when Chibi Chibi opens up the door and pushes Seiya over on to Usagi, Usagi is the one who, again, assumes Seiya is up to No Good, despite it being a complete accident and innocent on Seiya’s part. - In the episode where Seiya spends the night at Usagi’s because she’s alone and Seiya very nearly confesses who she is to Usagi while they’re in her bedroom, it is Usagi who believes that Seiya is going to confess to having a crush on her. - Later in that same episode, when they are hiding in the cabinet and Seiya again thinks about confessing her true identity to her, it is Usagi who thinks Seiya is about to suggest something intimate. In fact, throughout the season, it is everyone from Usagi, to the other girls, to single-episode characters, to even Luna who think that Seiya is going to suggest or attempt illicit activities with Usagi, and not Seiya. It is all but explicitly stated that Usagi is attracted to Seiya. Not just because of the implications of her assumptions, but also because she is scolded over it. In fact, Rei tells her that she needs to sort her feelings out. Haruka and Michiru forbid her from seeing Seiya because she has Mamoru. She may not love Seiya the same way, but she is attracted to her and she does love her (and Usagi being attracted to other people is not a new thing.) Let’s look at the softball episode, because it’s ... pretty problematic and people often point to it as being one of the episodes that paint Seiya as some creepy stalker who can’t just take a hint and tells everyone that Usagi is her girlfriend. It is Rei who thinks that Seiya training Usagi in softball is inappropriate (let’s remember that it is Ami who thinks that something illicit is going on with Seiya and Usagi in the bodyguard episode...) because Mamoru is Usagi’s boyfriend, not Seiya. It is Sonoko who insists that Seiya’s “relationship” with Usagi isn’t acceptable, and it is her that places the bet that if Seiya’s team loses, she’s not to associate with Usagi anymore. Seiya agrees because she’s competitive, hates to lose, has confidence in herself and Usagi, and knows that Sonoko is wrong. When Usagi tries to interject about the actual nature of their relationship (that they’re not dating,) it’s the girls who shush her because they’re expecting Seiya’s team to lose and that will give them the opportunity to make Seiya feel better. I want to touch on the “Seiya knows Sonoko is wrong” part. I think what a lot of people don’t think about is that when Sonoko placed this bet and openly stated her disapproval of Seiya spending time with Usagi, Sonoko was attacking Usagi’s worth as a person. She was openly saying that Usagi wasn’t good enough to be hanging out with Seiya in any capacity. Seiya took issue with this because she obviously believes and knows differently. She values Usagi as a person. Who is Sonoko to decide who is and isn’t good enough to spend time with her? Seiya is not approaching the situation with entirely selfish motives, unlike the girls who fed into the Seiya/Usagi romance for the hopeful eventuality of them being able to comfort Seiya after a loss when she’ll be forced to stop hanging out with Usagi. She uses this situation to help bolster Usagi’s confidence in herself. That doesn’t change the fact that the bet is stupid to begin with, but it is what it is. Oh, additionally ... Seiya doesn’t tell the school that she and Usagi are dating. Them dating is an assumption that Seiya simply doesn’t correct. It’s worth noting that if she did correct that assumption, it would feed into Sonoko’s declaration that Usagi isn’t good enough to be with Seiya. 4. “Seiya tried to make the rooftop scene about herself and used it as a way to try to take Mamoru’s place in Usagi’s life.” This whole entire scene is consistently misinterpreted and has all of the context ripped from it, because that is not what that scene is. No, it 100% was not the best time for Seiya to ask that question (and no, it is not “can I take his place?” that she says,) but people tend to forget that Usagi is not the only vulnerable person in this scene and it isn’t just about her. It is Seiya who triggers Usagi’s emotional breakdown on accident, and in these moments she is watching the person she loves crumble into pieces. The rooftop scene is about both of them and the context makes that clear. Up until this point, the only person who knew that Mamoru wasn’t keeping in contact with Usagi was Seiya. None of the girls knew, none of them. Imagine the amount of trust Usagi had to have in Seiya in order to share that incredibly sensitive information with her and with no one else, not even her closest friends. Usagi had told Seiya a whole 13 episodes before this one, and since finding out Seiya tried her best to make Usagi happy and to keep her mind busy. It isn’t until a few episodes after this that everyone including Seiya finds out that Mamoru is dead. So Seiya spends all of this time believing that Mamoru ditched Usagi when he moved overseas and that he’s a horrible boyfriend who obviously doesn’t care about Usagi. This is naturally hurtful to Seiya, who grows to genuinely like and love Usagi through the season. She cares for her and doesn’t want to see her in pain, which is why she does her best to help Usagi feel less alone. There is no point in the season where Seiya’s intentions are to maliciously shove herself into Mamoru’s place in Usagi’s life. She has no idea who Tuxedo Mask is. She had no idea that throwing the red rose - her own personal trademark - was going to trigger such an emotional response from Usagi. So here they both are on this rooftop in the middle of the pouring rain. Usagi’s breaking down over how alone she feels, and Seiya’s suddenly faced with the realization that not only did she cause this breakdown, everything she had been trying to do to help her wasn’t working and she failed again. She couldn’t save her system/planets, 99.9% of her people are literally dead because she wasn’t strong enough to save them, and she and the other two members of her team had no idea where their princess was or even if she was okay until the episode before this one. Immediately after the destruction of everything they knew, the Starlights had to flee to an alien planet with alien people, disguise themselves, and pander to a bunch of complete strangers that salivated over, stalked, and harassed them, all while searching for their princess  and fighting the minions of the person who ctrl+a ctrl+x’ed their home system. She had no time to process any of the unimaginable loss and failure she had suffered through. When people talk about the rooftop scene and about how Seiya “makes it about herself,” this is everything they’re forgetting. When Seiya is asking Usagi if she isn’t good enough, it isn’t Seiya trying to weasel her way in, it’s Seiya both coping with her own numerous losses and trying to remind Usagi that she’s there for her. In the end, Seiya is the one that Usagi credits with being able to get herself through everything she was dealing with.

[thetaekookcloset]

There’s this BTS Noona person on twitter who seems to know things about the members and their lives (their dating history for example). Honestly I have no idea about their credibility, I find some of the things they share very problematic and I take what they say with a huge grain of salt. For example they don’t seem to think that TK are a thing and when someone questioned Tae’s sexuality based on the Paris trip, they said that based on his dating history it doesn’t seem like he would be gay. Well, fair enough, obviously we don’t know. But they also made a comment about everything that BTS does is calculated to which I do agree (to a certain point at least). We can clearly see this from the official content that we get. Things are often edited out, clips are sometimes edited into a certain order and obviously all the fanservice that happens on and off the stage. And you can clearly see it from the members as well when they are “on camera” eg someone is asking them questions behind the camera or they’re doing a live when there’s staff behind the camera. The difference is quite stark at times compared to for example lives when it’s just themselves.

But this got me thinking, and I’ve thought about this before, but I just saw anon sending you that one Vegas clip and saying there’s no heterosexual explanation for the look on Tae’s face. Obviously since I’m here I do agree that to me it seems more likely that TK are a thing rather than just fanservice or best friend relationship. I don’t think that the pure adoration that can be seen on their faces can be faked. Or if it’s all just for the show, they both deserve all the goddamn acting acknowledgements available on this planet lol. I’m rambling and I’m not even sure myself where I’m going with this.. But can you imagine having to fake that sort of thing for 10 fucking years?! I know we only see a small portion of their lives and it’s a very curated one but I can’t imagine living my life like that. Sure, everyone has to sometimes do things that they don’t want to. But we know for a fact that their contract has been renewed several times in the last few years, so you can’t even say that they are forced to do that anymore. At this point, they chose it themselves, if fanservice is all that it is. And that just makes me incredible sad and it’s very off putting if I’m being completely honest and morally so wrong. Not sure tho if moral and kpop can be even used in the same sentence…. 🙃 Obviously I know there are things that they do and/or say that are not genuine, it’s their job after all, I’m not that naive. But I guess I would rather see things through my purple colored taekook glasses than believe that they are just fake throughout.

I don’t know who you’re talking about, and honestly, I personally wouldn’t take what they say even with a grain of salt.  I seriously doubt that any accounts like that are really legitimate, and even if they were, I’m not sure giving them attention or taking their words at face value would be a very good idea.

That said, I did want to talk a little about the second part of your ask, if only to -- I don’t know, give my two cents on the topic, I guess, and also maybe reassure you a little, in a certain way.

The idea that Taehyung and Jungkook could somehow be faking their closeness for some reason is one that I see come up pretty frequently, and it’s one that I put less than zero stock in.  They would have to be more than good actors to be able to fake their interest and investment in each other.  Honestly, to a certain extent, this goes for everyone in BTS.

It’s true that content we see is curated, and it’s true that there are narratives at play that have been determined behind the scenes, but there’s nuance here.  People can’t fake all of the subtleties of body language -- not with the degree of consistency that they would need to do it in order for it to consistently permeate all of the content we see, especially since a lot of that content doesn’t come directly from HYBE anyway.

It’s possible that Taehyung and Jungkook aren’t in a romantic relationship, however likely I think it is.  What I think is impossible is that they aren’t two people who are incredibly close to each other.  That they have a lot of love and affection and interest between them is something that’s proven too consistently in too many really tiny ways for it to be faked.  It’s just not possible, and what’s more is that there would be no reason to do it.

What would they possibly have to gain from faking those subtleties?  Playing gay on stage and queerbaiting is one thing, but that is not what’s happening here.  We’re talking about gazing and touching in off-cam moments, not making out onstage, you know?  There’s nothing to gain outside of their relationship (whatever it is) by staring at each other or engaging in little touches.  It would be the longest con ever, and for what?

No, whether Taehyung and Jungkook are in a romantic relationship or not, the fact that they’re close to each other, are deeply invested in one another, and know and love each other a great deal is nothing short of just that: a fact.  There is no way that the subtleties in their interactions could be faked so consistently for such a long time, just no way at all.  So much of what we do every day isn’t consciously chosen, and that remains true even for famous people, no matter what narratives they’re expected to play into.

[baratrongirl]

Character headcanons

Klavier Gavin from Ace Attorney!

1: sexuality headcanon

Bisexual. Possibly pansexual, but I’m going with my usual personal definitions here where “bisexual” = “attracted to more than one gender” and “pansexual” = “attracted to all genders”. I can’t see Klavier being attracted to uber-butch or very masculine people - no 6′5″ weightlifting lumberjacks with loads of body hair and big beards, for example. I think he is attracted primarily to people who are cute rather than gorgeous, and falls in love with people based on their brains.

2: otp

Klapollo. Surprise! Though I also very much like Klavier/Apollo as a romantic partnership with Ema Skye as their aromantic best friend and fuckbuddy. I do also like Klema as long as there’s a good reason why Apollo isn’t involved (e.g. he’s straight, and he and Klavier are very close friends but can never be a couple because of incompatible sexuality.)

3: brotp

Klavier & Simon Blackquill. They kinda have a lot in common. They’re both prosecutors, they both have a sibling in prison, they both have a public persona which isn’t very much like their private personality... They may have even been friends when Klavier was 17/18, before Simon went to prison to protect Athena.

Klavier & Miles Edgeworth. They have both been under a lot of pressure for too long, having become prosecutors so ridiculously young. They both speak German to some extent. (Word of God states that Klavier isn’t actually German but spent two years studying there, so he must speak the language well enough to be able to pass the bar exam). Their personalities might seem like opposites - flamboyant, extroverted Klavier vs reserved, introverted Miles, but that isn’t necessarily a problem. Most of my friends (and both my partners) are introverts.

Klavier & Franziska von Karma. The handful of stories where the two characters appear together usually have the vibe that Franziska has no respect for Klavier at all because of his “fake” German accent. But I did read the most awesome story where he asks her how she knows that she’s “really” German, and goes on to explain that his parents were German but he was born in the US, and his brother forbade him from ever speaking the language after his parents died. So he feels weirdly trapped between cultures, and isn’t even properly fluent. It’s great and a fantastic headcanon if you like Actual German Gavin brothers.

Klavier & Trucy Wright.  They’re both performers and can learn from each other. They both understand the public persona vs private personality thing. They both care for Apollo.

Klavier & Phoenix Wright. I actually love the idea that Phoenix forgave Klavier years ago for his part in the disbarment process - that he realised that some 17 year old newbie couldn’t possibly have acquired a vendetta against him, and that it was all Kristoph all along. I like the idea that despite their mere 7/8 year age difference, Phoenix still sees Klavier as one of his “kiddos”.

Klavier & Kristoph Gavin. Yeah, I like his actual brother as a brotp. There is one (1) 4Koma comic strip which suggests that Kristoph was manipulative and gaslighting towards Klavier even from his early teens, but those comics are supposedly not canon. Since people are, in real life, far more nuanced than simply wearing black or white hats, I genuinely like the idea that Kristoph was a bad person but a good brother.

4: notp

Klavier & Clay Terran. Klavier/Apollo/Clay as a polyamorous triad is done a fair bit and I really hate it, no offense to those who do ship it.

Klavier & Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. They have the “terribly pretty men/NB people” thing in common, but I just don’t see why Klavier would overlook the Apollo that he knows and trusts in favour of his sibling. It makes no sense.

Klavier & Trucy Wright. Too much of an age gap even assuming that Trucy is already over 18.

Klavier & Athena Cykes. There’s a bit of an age gap too, but honestly, my main objection is based on personality. Athena is so gods damned perky and Klavier has a serious melancholic/introspective streak. Also Athena has highly sensitive hearing and Klavier likes to play his music loud. I can’t see them even managing to share a house, let alone have a romantic relationship!

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

He’s a terrible flirt but doesn’t know how to cope when he’s flirted with. If Apollo actually starts flirting back, Klavier.exe will stop functioning.

6: one way in which I relate to this character

Like... Everything? I mean, I’m not famous, nor a prosecutor, and I’m certainly not beautiful like he is. But he’s very intelligent, he’s extremely passionate about what he does, he loves rock music, he’s a huge nerd...

7: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

17 year old Klavier in court with his dark glasses and arrogance. Oh gods, make it stop!

8: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Cinnamon roll with spikes.

[agent-cupcake]

You know, you've written a lot of your thoughts/hcs/etc on how various characters would behave as yanderes and so on, but I've never seen you talk about yandere readers before and I feel like that's an interesting subject to consider? Especially for 3H - you have a treasure trove of damaged boys to attract obsessiveness from girls who are convinced they are the ONLY one for them and it's their duty to drive away competition/threats/anyone they want.

Okay it's time to be toxic. I’m not going to go for all the guys, just the ones who immediately came to mind.

Dimitri: I joke quite often that I would be yandere for Dimitri. It all started when I brought up killing the girl he danced with at the White Heron Ball and quite frankly it's only spiraled from there because doesn't the Savior King Dimitri deserve to be adored and worshipped? Doesn't he deserve someone who wants the best for him and only him? Doesn’t it only make sense for him to be with someone who understands his mental issues and is willing to offer him unconditional support and patience? Doesn't he need someone with unwavering loyalty who will do anything no matter what the cost for his sake? It'd be so easy too because he's super dependent, desperate for affection, and clueless so if you just nourish those traits and constantly downplay his discomfort/suspicion of you driving away anybody who you feel is a threat by saying that this is how relationships just are, that it's just because you love him so much, that you're just looking out for him, what's he gonna do? It's not like he'd have any solid basis for knowing how relationships are supposed to be. Besides if he gets too upset you can threaten to leave him just like his mother did, I'm sure that would work to get him back in your arms (where he belongs). Yeah, that’s a little fucked up but it would be so much worse for both of you in the long run if you were apart. Being too aggressive or overt about your obsession would definitely make Dimitri wise up so it'd be better to go with love bombing. This would be good because it really lets you prove your devotion to Dimitri and makes it easier for him to just laugh off and excuse your disturbingly possessive behavior. His friends would be potentially problematic, but they're not always around and Dimitri's private enough that he probably wouldn't volunteer information about you to them. If you told him that it made you very upset and uncomfortable when he was friendly with the girls from his class, he’d most likely stop for your sake. Bonus round, have his babies. What is he going to do, abandon the mother of his children? Dimitri?!? No way. Of course he wouldn’t do anything to risk breaking his family, but neither would you! After all, this is all because you know Dimitri better than anyone which means that only you can love him.

Sylvain: Sylvain being manipulative and cheating on you after you try and prove your love to him through conventional means causing you to snap and kill hurt the girls, throw his lies back in his face, and prove that you're the only girl for him by preying on his emotional trauma with women is really something to consider. Why try to resolve toxic situations with love, compassion, and open communication when you can use blood and abuse to keep him with you? Play the part, be snarky, witty, flirty, be super hot and cold to keep him intrigued, give him the best fuck he's ever had, really show him that you don't care about his Crest, you just want to love possess him. Maybe even do the whole "I don't care who you're with, we both know you belong to me" to really engage him in those super fun mind games. Make everyone else acknowledge that you're the perfect girl for him, get them all to vilify him for continuing to be such a womanizer and breaking your heart. But, like, why stop there? Encourage him to retaliate, to be mad at you. Tease him for being so disgusted and angry at you when all you want, all you've ever wanted, was for your hearts to beat as one and then later act confused because of course you wouldn’t make light of his feelings like that, that’s horrible. All you want, all you’ve ever wanted, was for him to acknowledge that your adoration for him is true. Really break him until he gives you the whole “I’ll let you chain me up so I never even look at another girl” schtick. This might seem awful, but so is he! Reform can be difficult and if he’s going to be happy, he has to be made to understand why his behavior was so bad and the consequences of it. Because it’s not like you’d act like this if you had any other choice, it’s not like you’d continue once the two of you were truly together, of course you wouldn’t treat him so cruelly once he vowed himself to you and only you. And, really, I think it’d be a lot easier once he understood that and you got to prove your love to him through raw, unadulterated affection. Spend every day adding onto the list of why you love your Sylvain. 

Claude: Claude being more than aware of the ole' saying "don't stick your dick in crazy" and then doing it anyway because he has a proclivity for the fiery, forbidden, and oh-so temping call of danger would be the perfect set up for a very bad predicament. You’d have to play some mind games to really convince him that he’s the one seeking you out, he’s the one who’s got it bad, he’s the one who wants to have you. In other words, you’d have to give him a challenge. But, you know, if it’s a game, you’d have to play back because you’re doing this for him, because you love him, because you want him to realize that he loves you, too (Uno reverse Claude’s yandere behaviors, basically) so obviously you’d have to eliminate any obstacles and taking out anybody who could be a potential threat. Get him to open up about his dreams, his past, his feelings. As it goes with basically all of these affection-starved men, make him feel loved for who he is. You know, if you were really good, you could probably even get him to give up on everything else for your sake. I mean, I loathe the ending but he does that for Lysithea. Pull a Tangled on Claude and make him believe that you’re his new dream as he mostly certainly is yours.

Felix: Sweet Felix. So oblivious but so difficult. A man who would provide the ultimate and most dangerous yan rival of them all: the thrill of the fight. In a lot of ways, I think he’d be like Dimitri. Mostly just because he’s so dense when it comes to love of any kind. But he’s also not as emotionally desperate or dependent so you wouldn’t really be able to use that against him. The similarities come from Felix’s equal amount of inexperience with romance which opens up a lot of possibilities for you convincing him that certain behaviors are normal. You can even bring up how his cold emotional state (something I believe he’s insecure about) is what forces you to be so overbearing, how badly it hurts you.  You don’t necessarily mean to be so cloying but you’re so afraid of losing someone else you love so much (another insecurity of his). After all, there is nobody in the entire world who is like him, Felix Hugo Fraldarius, (three for three with his insecurities) and how irreplaceable and precious he is to you. These examples are kind of “soft” when it comes to using his insecurities against him, but you could go further with them assuming you were sure that it wouldn’t drive him away. Not knowing and having to work on assumption would always be a pretty big reason to control yourself in how you went about manipulating him because Felix is stubborn and prideful and pushing him too far would only hurt the both of you. It’s actually kind of funny because as opposed to the traditional yan mindset, it would be in your best interest to get Felix to form relationship bonds with others (but definitely not any of the girls he’s so popular with) because that would be a bargaining chip when convincing him to stay with you.

Ferdinand von Aegir: Ferdinand is, honestly, so easy for this. Like, I feel as if I don’t even need to talk about the details. You show him some affection and he’s yours. Bury him in love and praise. Tell him that it makes you unhappy when he talks to other girls or prioritizes his work over you and then reward him with boundless warmth and devotion because of course he would bend over backwards to make you happy. He just wants to be needed and treasured, to love and be loved. He’s already got the poetry and the ring and of course he wouldn’t mind getting married right away it’s true love, why would you wait?

Yuri: Yuribird is the forbidden darling. You’d need to be running on 100% love because he’d sniff out and ditch you at even the smallest whiff of deliberate obsession. But you know what he wants? More-so than the other guys, in some ways. He wants to be known and loved for who he is. In the face of genuine affection, he doesn’t stand a chance. Still, you’d have to be measured about this stuff. If you were jealous and got rid of your rivals yourself, Yuri would be disgusted and leave you. And you can’t hide that sort of thing from him, either. You’d have to go all in on the manipulation but only in the most honest way possible, that’s the only way past his defenses. Get him to prioritize your feelings first so he feels guilty talking to people or acting in ways that upset you. Reward him for putting you above everyone else. Constantly remind him that you’re the only one who knows and understands him, who loves him for who he is. Get him so emotionally fucked that even if his big brain logic is telling him that you’re toxic and horrible, he can’t stand the thought of being without you. He’d give up crime, it’s not like he even particularly likes it. Set up the perfect life for him, something domestic and sweet and warm, something he’s never had worries he doesn’t deserve, something that keeps him away from others. The goddess only knows how much he deserves a happy dream for once, and you’re the only one who can understand and provide that for him.

[itsclydebitches]

About Bakugo, I actually think his original characterization is partly why his arc doesn't work for me: it seems like his contempt for others and desire to hurt them is innate, because he was already insulting and humiliating Deku for fun when they were in kindergarden, and at this age I'm not sure it makes sense to blame the adults around him for this behavior. This is also why I don't buy the "childhood friends" narrative, even before the infamous river scene Bakugo was toxic to Deku.

Hard agree, anon. I'm willing to give some wiggle room to the "Bakugo had a messy childhood and that's why he's like this" argument just because I'm not caught up (and thus might be missing some flashbacks/revelations), no one's life is ever perfect, and there's a subjective line between what we read as innocuous tropes vs. realistic traumas (example: is his mom hitting him something we take seriously, or just classic anime "comedy"?), but honestly I'm... not persuaded by that stance. Largely due to what you've said about this contempt being around since the very beginning. Bakugo's cruelty is the introduction to the entire series, the very first thing we see:

First, they're young here. Maybe not kindergarten young, but as we see in the above narration, it's at age four that Bakugo acquired his "I'm the best" thinking (more on that in a second). They're kids. This is not something that developed slowly over the years until Bakugo crossed some kind of line, he's been like this since the very start. Since a kid is capable of forming thoughts, opinions, and making decisions: like attacking another. In what way does this establish them as friends? Izuku literally shaking as he tries to protect another kid Bakugo is has hurt? Bakugo calling him worthless? Gleefully attacking and punching Izuku in the face? They were never friends! Izuku followed Bakugo around because he was paid some kind of attention by him and Bakugo poisoned the well — no one else in class will befriend Izuku. We see this both by the two willing to help beat him up here and, later, when Izuku says he wants to got to U.A. the entire class laughs at both the idea and Bakugo blowing up his desk in response. The bullying is the only kind of "friendship" Izuku has, so he embraces it with a smile and a nickname. Meanwhile, Bakugo allows Izuku to tag along because he makes him feel good in comparison. All Bakugo needs for an ego boost is to look at Izuku. He's the useless, quirkless nobody whose name can be read as "Deku." What's not to like? Izuku makes Bakugo feel good because Bakugo will always come out on top — always win — when pit against him. Did they have a few good moments gushing over All Might? Yeah, but anyone who has been bullied knows that it's not a clear cut "They were consistently awful every second of every day." Sometimes, those moments of pretend or conditional friendship make everything worse.

(As a side note, I keep hearing the more intense fans of Bakugo saying that those who criticize him identify with Izuku "too much" and it's like... yes? He's the protagonist. You're supposed to identify with him. To say nothing of the question of why you'd include such an explicit bullying subplot — arguably at the heart of the narrative in regards to characterization — if you didn't want readers who had experienced bullying to relate to this story. So it's all about victims like Izuku, you're allowed to care, just don't care in a way that holds Bakugo responsible?)

"But Izuku cares about Bakugo. He tried to help him out of the river." Yeah, because Izuku cares about everyone. Overlooking his warped idea of what friendship is due to having no one but Bakugo, Izuku is the kind of person who is going to extend his hand to anyone who needs it, just like All Might would. His extreme compassion and lack of other friends is not good proof that he cares for Bakugo in any true, healthy fashion, let alone that Bakugo cares for him.

As for when this all started, yeah, it was when they were even younger than in the scene above. Toddlers when Bakugo realized he had a strong quirk and Izuku was told he had none. Bakugo's reaction to these events — deciding he's better than everyone else and that justifies harming those "lesser" than him — is instantaneous. That desire was there all along. He just needed an excuse to act on it. After the conversations about the adults' influence on him, I went back to the anime scenes of Bakugo showing his quirk to his class and it's... pretty normal? I mean yes, there's praise, but in what world wouldn't there be praise? A bunch of other kids are going to ooh and ahh over mini explosions and the two teachers, unless they're entirely heartless, are going to tell this kid that he'll indeed make a wonderful hero someday. Those are standard responses for very young kids who aren't going to understand something like, "That is a powerful quirk and you could be a great hero... just don't let that potential go to your head!" There's nothing in those scenes that imply an excess of praise, at least so much that it would totally warp a kid's perspective of others to the extent Bakugo has going on. If I recall correctly, Bakugo's parents are quite disappointed in his behavior, but that never had an impact on him. And as I mentioned previously, we have incredibly talented characters like Momo (getting into U.A. on recommendation), people like Ida who come from families with other heroes they want to impress, Todoroki dealing with a crazy legacy to live up to, tied up in his abuse... yet none of them turned out like Bakugo. All of that didn't kill their compassion, but adults telling Bakugo he has a strong quirk made him into this person? Bakugo wanted to be that person, right from the start.

Honestly, I think a lot of fans latched onto Bakugo — which is awesome! — but didn't want to admit how horrible he actually is. So they took moments largely out of context and repeated them enough until they became fandom staples. Bakugo and Izuku were close childhood friends who just had a falling out they need to come back from. Bakugo was only like this because the adults in his life drove him to that behavior. Izuku loves Bakugo because he can see how good he is, deep down inside, and definitely not because he's been stuck with him since they were toddlers, unable to escape him even at U.A. It's a very sanitized look at their relationship, embraced because fans want them to be friends or lovers. Which is fine! God knows I'm into a ton of "problematic" ships, I just like acknowledging that they're problematic, not trying to sweeten the situation because fandoms have made others feel guilty for liking anything that's not squeaky clean and pure. Bakugo tormented Izuku for their entire childhood. He encouraged him to commit suicide. He tried to keep him from achieving his dream, both by undermining his confidence and outright threatening him (remember burning his shoulder?). He then reworked that obsession when they both got into U.A., trying to prove Izuku's uselessness, failing, and continually struggling with the thought that he's actually a great hero. And it's like... why do I care? This guy is a horrible person, he's been a horrible person since he was a kid, and his greatest challenge for more than half the story is acknowledging that other people aren't worthless trash. His improvement still hasn't gotten him to the standard of an average person, let alone a hero. If Bakugo were a villain, great, or if the story was going to really highlight the corruption of the hero career as a whole (we take anyone with powerful quirks, no matter how awful they are), great, but as a main character hero whose behavior is supposedly just a cover for a fantastic guy, please overlook everything he does and assume he's worthy of your respect anyway? Ehhh. Why do I care about him as a good guy when there are characters like Ida and Uraraka I could stan? To be clear, I'm not saying other fans can't enjoy whatever characters they enjoy, just that from a storytelling perspective I think it's a failure to introduce Bakugo as such an extreme, make him one of the heroes, give him such a selfish struggle, and then expect a lot of the audience to care. Bakugo either needed to be more balanced from the start — regular flaws instead of such an intense adoration for cruelty from the age of four — or the story needed to unpack his behavior in a way it never bothered to.

[harrypotter-imaginess]

A/N: I got a tiiiiny bit of power and my first thought was my need for validation through my fanfiction lol. Hope you enjoy!

<This is Part 1!> / Part 2 Here!

- You’re in the middle of a blizzard, reading to pass the time, the power cuts in and out- giving you just enough time to scramble about trying to make your home just warm enough so you don’t freeze to death

- You sigh when it flickers off again, taking a sip from the hot drink you managed to make while you still had electricity

- Eyes turn back to the book in your hands, with the poor cell reception, and lack of television you’ve found the only thing you can bear to do it read and sleep

- Only occasionally withdrawing from both to eat whatever cold meal you can

- You’ve settled on reading the Harry Potter books, easy enough to read, even in your current condition

- The books are waterlogged, in terrible condition, you treated them quite rough when you were a child, though not all the blame is yours

- It’s an eclectic group, some hardcover some paperback, some borrowed from friends and never returned, some you got as a good deal at your local used bookstore

- You smile when you see all the parts with Fred and George are highlighted

- They always were your favorites

- You stiffile a yawn, you’re just getting to a good part-

- But a small rest won’t hurt will it?

- You feel your eyes drift close

- When they open again you’re looking at rolling hills, a wisp of steam curling into your view every so often

- Huh what a nice dream

- You close your eyes again only to feel a sharp sting in your neck that your eyes shoot open

- You don’t feel pain in dreams

- You’re in a train compartment an empty red bench in front of you

- You’re alone, the green hills rolling by outside the window

- You’ve seen this type of scenery before maybe in a movie, or a book-

- It looks a lot like something out of Harry Potter

- Your thoughts come to an abrupt hault, the memories slowly filtering in

- You’re a witch- your parents passed away in the first war, and you were brought up by your muggle godfather

- Don’t be mistaken, this isn’t some unfortunate Harry-Potter orphan story, your god father loved you a lot

- Even though he was a bit of a sl*t, the revolving circus of women that left his room every Sunday was practically your childhood form of television

- You even did a report on it in muggle school, high left several faculty members feeling concerned

- Still he loved you a lot, and he tried to be as honest as he could about your heritage, and your parents

- But well- he was a muggle, there was only so much he could do

- Still, he took you to kings cross himself, taking you to your gringott’s safe where your parents meager savings had increased by ten fold over the years, helping you pick your wand and books

- “Now I can’t go with you onto the platform, so write and let me know when you’ve reached safely alright?” You nodded, as he pulled you into a hug

- “I’m going to miss having you home”

- “But now you can bring women to the flat whenever you want” You were only joking but it makes him sniffle

- “I’d trade all of that to have you at home for just a few more years”

- You only pat his shoulder reassuring him you’ll be back during the holidays

- You had tried your hand at a few spells, but nothing drastic

- You were excited to see what Hogwarts would bring, what you might learn, and the friendships you might build

- You were so excited that you didn’t sleep all night, finally succumbing to a nap when you collapsed in an empty compartment

- And that brings you to the present, where you’re practically sweating buckets in the red bench.

- Okay, so you’re in Harry Potter now- some how

- And yeah, you’ve always kinda wished you could go to Hogwarts-

- But not like this!

- For one every book, like 3 kids die

- Even the cute ones, like Collin Creevey-

- And honestly if a main character like Fred Weasley died, what chance do you have at surviving?

- You’re probably just one of those nothing characters that dies at the battle of Hogwarts- if not sooner

- You look down at your hands

- Not to mention you’re suddenly eleven years old

- How many times did you have a nightmare you suddenly had to go back to middle or high school again because apparently you missed a class?

- Well this is like a nightmare come true

- You look under your shirt, holding the neck out only to sigh

- It’s your body still, you vaguely remember looking like this when you were younger

- But god-

- It’s like a strangers body at this point

- Ugh you don’t have time to think about this

- your goal right now is to survive

- A knock on your door pulls you out of your thoughts

- “Change into your robs, we’re getting close” a muffled voice says from the other side and you sigh

- Of course you are

- You sigh as you pull out your plain black wizards robe, almost looks like a graduation gown to be honest

- And that’s the uniform here is it

- Strange

- As you tug on the sleeves you think how you’re going to get out of this

- If you’re right the year is 1990, a year before Harry Potter shows up

- Okay so as far as you know- nothing really happens this year

- You don’t have to worry about all the Pureblood crap because both your parents were wizards, so you’re a half blood at least

- Now it’s all about house-

- If the books are 100% accurate then it’s between Slytherin and Gryffindor, Snape will turn a blind eye to any of your transgressions because of favoritism

- And McGonagall would go to bat for you if the circumstances were unfair

- Still- the Slytherin house seemed problematic what with the old money in that group

- Not all of them were probably like that- just the most prominent characters- you’d really rather not get involved with all that if you could

- And then- Gryffindor was even worse, you might be safe this year, but next year you would be plagued with death flag after death flag- no thanks

- Sprout seems nice enough, but you’re not too sure about that common room, in the dungeons- hard pass

- That leaves Ravenclaw, Flitwick seems nice enough, and the dorms are in a Ravenclaw tower

- Luna Lovegood will be there soon, and well, that could be pretty fun

- So you’ll try for Ravenclaw you think- pulling on your bag and joining the horde of students

- You’re about to join the other first years when you feel a tug on your bag.

- You turn towards the feeling to see two identical boys, a splatter of freckles across their nose, and flaming red hair

- “Are you (Y/N) (L/N)?” The taller of the two asks, a grin curled onto his lips, and his eyes full of stars

- You only nod

- They’re both looking at you like they’ve just seen a movie star and you can’t figure out why

- You’re only eleven years old after all, what could you have possibly done?

- “Was you Mum-“ the shorter starts

- “Was she the famous auror?” The other finishes

- Ah- of course

- Your mother was indeed a famous war hero, known for her noble efforts during the war

- Your god father had told you that at least

- “I’m George, and this is Fred” the shorter - George- says jerking his thumb to his twin

- Oh

- So they’re Fred and George Weasley?!?!

- Honestly you should have known by the red hair

- You can’t believe you’re meeting some of your favorite characters

- You stick your hand out, hoping it’s not too sweaty

- “(Y/N),” you say, “but you already knew that”

- George grins as he takes your hand first, with Fred repeating the motion

- “What house do ya think you’ll go to?” Fred asks

- “We hope you’re aiming for Gryffindor” George adds with a sly grin

- You can feel your face warming up under their gaze

- Alright- change of plan- you’ll try to get into Gryffindor so you can be friends with George and Fred

- It’ll be a little risky, but until the end they weren’t really in any of the serious adventures.

- Besides maybe if you hang out with them, you can save Fred near the end

- “Maybe” you smile at them, hearing a voice call your name for a carriage

- “See you around!” You wave goodbye, stepping into you assigned carriage with a group of other first years

- It’s sort of a mismatch, you don’t quite recognize anyone in here

- Than again the children an age above Harry were never really mentioned

- “Ugh I can’t believe my glasses broke, what rotten luck” a girl besides you says- you turn to see a girl with long dark hair, fiddling with a pair of broken glasses in her hands

- “Ah here, can I?” You ask, holding out your hand, and the girl wordlessly hands you her glasses

- Your murmur a spell and watch as the metal expands curling until it wraps around the broken edge, resembling intertwined vines

- “It’s not the best, but it’ll do for now”

- It’s only when you look up to hand the girl back her glasses that you notice everyone’s watching you

- “How did you do that?” A boy asks, and you shrug

- “Oh well I just said the incantation-“

- “I’ve never heard that one before” another girl murmurs

- You shrug again

- “Anything can be an incarnation of you just put enough feeling into it right?”

- The children clamor at you all at once

- It turns out the two girls were Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott- both Hufflepuff’s if you remember correctly

- Guess they were a year older than Harry in this world

- And then the boy is Blaise Zambini

- You know in the books he’s in a morally Grey area at best.

- “So like this?” He asks and you shake your head

- “You have to put your wrist into it more”

- But now, as he’s begging you to teach him the repairing charm that you cast, all you see is a little boy who wants to learn

- Change of plans, if you get into Slytherin maybe you can watch over Blaise and be his best friend

- That way he won’t get all mixed up in that Death Eater crap

- Maybe you can even get him onto your side, make a coven of witches and wizards and do some non-alignment stuff during the war

- You’re all gathered in the hall, answering a roll call from a rather lithe and strict woman- professor McGonagall no doubt

- After that you’re left waiting, and feeling somewhat bored, and somewhat like you may have had too much pumpkin juice- you hobble off into the corridor looking for a bathroom

- “Hurry back I think we’re about to go into the sorting ceremony” Blaise says and you nod

- You do not, in fact, hurry back

- Because after relieving yourself- you are incredibly lost

- It doesn’t help that all the portraits keep on shuffling around, or that all the corridors here look equally dark

- It’s only on your third time around the portrait of a woman eating an apple do you see what appears to be a person

- “What are you doing in the corridor?” As you come closer you realize it’s a boy, a yellow and black striped tie around his neck. “Shouldn’t you be at the feast?”

- He’s quite pretty, with thick brown hair and rosy cheeks

- “I went to the bathroom and got lost,” you hear him murmur first year and raise an eyebrow “What’s your excuse?”

- He lets out a laugh, running a hand through his hair

- “That’s fair,” he admits. And then after a moment he says:

- “I’m hiding”

- Your eyebrows thread together

- “Like from a crazy ex lover or..?”

- He laughs again, shaking his head

- “No, from my professor.” And then after a moment, before you can ask ‘is it because you’re having an affair with them’ he says:

- “They want me to be prefect for my house next year, and I don’t know how I feel about that”

- You let that sink in,

- “I know I should do it- it would give me an opportunity to represent my house, and look out for all my friends, and I’m sure my dad would be awfully proud but-“

- But it’s a lot of responsibility

- You get it.

- You sit beside him on the floor

- “You should do it-“ and before he can give a reason why you say:

- “You would get your own bathroom and I think that means a lot in a place like this”

- He laughs again, only this time the laugh leaves in loud gaffs, somehow you feel like this is the first real laugh the boy has shown you

- “I’ve heard a lot of reasons, but having my own bathroom is definitely a first”

- He looks at you in a way that makes your hair stand on end and your skin feel hot.

- “I’m Cedric, Cedric Diggory.” He says with an extended hand

- Ah, so this is pretty boy Diggory.

- He does kinda look like a young Robert Pattinson to be honest

- You take his hand in yours giving a firm shake

- “ (Y/N) (L/N) “ and you see his eyebrows shoot up

- “ (L/N) like the-“

- “ Yeah that’s my mum, the famous Auror”

- Cedric’s mouth curls up in a lopsided grin

- “I was going to say inventor- the inventor for the portable infinity box”

- Ah yes, your dad was an inventor. You didn’t know much about it though. Just that his inventions had left you a small fortune

- “My parents were both pretty remarkable huh?”

- And even though they’re not really your parents, and this isn’t really your body, you feel a little sad thinking about them.

- Before you can give Cedric a chance to offer his condolences, you stand up brushing off your robe.

- “We’ll come on Mr. Prefect in the making, show me to where I’m to be sorted” you say with a wave of a hand

- He grins

- “As you wish”

- Maybe being in Hufflepuff wouldn’t be so bad,

- and if you can manage to get close to Cedric, maybe he’ll let you use the prefects bathroom

- Huh, that does sound enticing

- Okay change of plans, you’ll get into Hufflepuff

- For the nice bathroom privileges

- When you get into the hall you feel all eyes turn to look to you

- And even though you’re an adult, you feel awfully embarrassed

- “If you get in Hufflepuff let’s get a butterbeer to celebrate, my treat..” Cedric whispers in your ear, and you catch a glimpse of the lopsided grin curled onto his face before he pushes you forward towards the group of first years

- Your face still feels hot when your name gets called

- You gulp as you move towards the chair

- Well it’s do or die- and you don’t plan on dying here

- You gulp again as the cold wood presses against your thighs as you take a seat

- All you have to do is ask for it to put you in -

- Wait

- What house were you aiming for again?

- Logic dictates Ravenclaw, it’s your best chance-

- But well, you’ve always wanted to be friends with Fred and George it just seems like so much fun

- And then, Slytherin’s not so bad, it would be nice if you could change peoples opinions about that house

- Oh and Hufflepuff might be nice too, you would have someone to look out for you- and you in turn can look out for others like Susan and Hannah

- And so it seems you’ve made peace, no matter which house the hat chooses, you’re happy with the outcome because there’s good and bad in all of them

- These things aren’t one dimensional, they nuanced. And that’s okay

- You feel the hat place on your head, and several long moments of silence pass

- .

- ..

- ...

- ....

- Shouldn’t something be happening by now?

- Like at least whispers in your ear from the hat or something right?

- “I-“ it finally chokes out

- Ah good a decision

- Well what’s your future going to be like?

- “I don’t know” the hat finally sputters, a collective gasp filling the room

- You drop your face into your hands, as small murmurs begin to spread through the tables

- “F*ck me” you mumble