#why do people not listen? why do they assume crap instead of listening to what you have to say
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kimberkingrivers · 1 year ago
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Life just feel like it’s kicking anyone else’s ass?
Things are kinda looking up I actually feel hope, hope that doesn’t feel stupid or false, but still kinda feel like I’m drowning. That whatever I do it’s still not enough for the people around me.
Not wild enough, not old enough, not loud enough, not enough free time, not making enough money, not pretty enough, not religious enough, not smart enough
Or I’m too much, too straight forward, too traditional, too boring, too quiet, too busy, too focused, too aggressive
#justmedealingwithsomeseriousquesyionsaboutmyself
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lycandrophile · 1 year ago
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holy crap dude, i only sent that anon because this blog is called “transmascissues” and “parents reacting way too personally” is not a transmasc issue, it’s a trans issue. “moms react with crying” and dads react with violence? what is your point? do you REALLY think that the difference in experience between transmascs and transfems are THAT different??? why do the details matter when the reasoning is the same? i am a trans man and i know exactly what you’re talking about. i just think it’s weird that you are basically saying trans guys have it worse. you’re literally ONLY focused on your own experiences and u assume youre the only one who’s gone through something like that?
jesus fucking christ…
alright, let’s do this fast so i can go back to living my life.
if you think this is about something as simple and general as “parents reacting way too personally,” you clearly don’t understand exactly what i’m talking about, even if you are a trans man. maybe if you actually read what i’m saying instead of just looking for anything in it that you can get mad at, you’d have a better understanding of what i’m referring to.
“why do the details matter” so you do understand that the details are different and you just think we shouldn’t be allowed to talk about them? that’s…somehow even worse, honestly. do you really think the way transphobia is enacted makes no difference if the intent is the same? do you really think trans people should never want to express their specific experiences and find people who relate? do you think the details don’t change the emotional experience for the person being targeted at all? do you think victims of transphobia shouldn’t be allowed to seek out people who were victimized in the same specific way and who understand that emotional experience? the details absolutely matter.
where did i say this being different from what transfems typically experience means we have it worse? i’ll give you a hint: the answer is nowhere. i didn’t say that. i have never once said on this blog that anyone has it worse than anyone else because i think that’s a ridiculous way to talk about basically any issue.
god forbid i talk about my own experiences. god forbid i make posts about the things being directed to me in my own home by my own family. god forbid i have a real life and real emotions and exist as a real person not just a robot that spits out impersonal theory. i’m talking about my experiences because they’re the ones i live with every day. you might be able to come on here and get mad at me and then go about your day, but when i log off i’m just going back to the exact transphobia i described, so yeah, i’m focused on it. fucking sue me.
if you send me anything else you owe me $50 per second i waste on reading it because this is getting exhausting and you obviously have no interest in actually listening to me.
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memeapple2 · 4 months ago
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Tails gets trolled rp starters part 1
yeah 😔 yes I'm leaving in the typos beacuse it's funnier that way :^) Fight me nerds!!
"Fuck you trolls!"
"They can't troll you if their dead!"
"I'm so mad, I'm gonna have sex with my girlfriend so I won't be so mad."
"Dumbass will learn."
"Mad? U Mad? U look mad U stupid bitch!"
"sorry *insert name* if this looks gay to the viewers."
"the art of trolling was actually started from humans but it wasn't called trolling it was called being a dick but back in the middle ages i was being made fun of because i wasn't human."
"im extremely hurt you would think im a douche. it might not look like it but i have feelings and you hurt them."
"hey can you put that on a coaster?"
"They have been getting trolled. you know how it is. there calling *insert name* gay and shit they cant take it."
"the way to stop a troll. is to become his friend .as his friend you can show him the right path!"
*-goes back to knitting-*
"come i will talk to these kids and stop this hate with kindness!"
"sometimes there is need to do whats needed, if it was up to me *insert name* would be dead and we would never have to worry"
"im not gay I have a girl friend and i would like it if this conflict to end in peace"
"you must not know who i am. i have alot of talent and i have lots of friends. one of my friends is right beside me . and for what your saying isn't true, so i am not afended by your hateful comments"
"ehhh...... im gonna ignore what you just said and ask you one more time. lets end this hate and become friends"
"why don't we just be friends this is stupid"
"ok im gonna take a random guess and say you guys failed with that peace crap"
"i fucking knew it"
"hello dickheads so your the trolls i heard about"
"hey do you see that? it looks like a group of pokemon.coming at us"
"for a em→→breaded donkey i can sure fuck your mom hard."
"there isn't. you remember what happen when you guys tried peace? you cant talk to them. there to oblivious"
"yea remind me next time to not kill such a fat person"
"high shovel!"
"ok i'm gonna go back to sleep now good night."
"banana"
"don't worry man I killed the fat one. its all cool man. i know all about the taste for blood"
"thank you for proving that peace isn't shit. when it comes to trolls. your a good friend"
" *insert name* Wake up! you fucked up big time!"
"People can't troll me beacuse I have no ears. They can't troll me if I can't hear them!"
"What? I don't have fucking ears!"
"If you don't mind I'd like to continue knitting this!"
"did you know with seat belts people die all the time in car crashes? I thought that was interesting!"
"have you ever been bitch slapped from lack of listening? Lack of doing what you're told? Beacuse I'm not that far from slapping you."
"which means I can be super powerful and kick everyone's ass..I'm gonna be awesomely badass!"
"trust me this plan will be better beacuse I'm gonna smoke my smart weed! I'm smarter when I'm high."
"Why are you filled with so much hatred and aggression? I'm finding it difficult to assume what you must have went through to mold you into the person standing in front of me now."
"Hey troll! FUCK YOU!!!"
"hmmmm this isn't as i thought it would be, killing people is really boring and all these annoying screams, i mean damn."
"Yeah that wasn't very good. I tried to do something similar to high shovel. Let's just forget about this."
"there is no need for any blood shed, this problem can be solved with out any villains"
"I do all kinds of stupid and gay shit."
"I’m starting to think that even if we pray our hearts out and know that we do wrong, that maybe there are things that god can’t fix and maybe, instead of putting our hope in god to fix all our problems we take action for our mistakes and learn from them."
"Sorry it took us so long to save you from TIME PRISON. So what did you do in TIME PRISON?"
"You gotta calm down bro, chill man, smoke a joint!"
"After 50 years I started to feel like I was losing my sanity so I started to break my fingers and I would just break my fingers and set them again. "
" I started breaking all my bones. I broke every bone in my hands. I broke my arms, separately, and then I started to break my own ribs. I broke my femurs, it took a while. And then I healed and broke them again."
"After 5000 years my bones were all scar tissue. They had all grown so solidly back together that I was unable to move. "
"And after another 5000 years of furious infinitesimal movement, I built up enough muscle mass to spontaneously break any bone in my body, and then I could move again. "
"My body had done so much healing that I healed almost instantly. That’s all I do now. Every time I move my body, my bones shatter and heal back in my next shape. If I take a single step, every bone in my legs splinters and then reforms. I don’t know what pain is because I have been alive for 10 million years."
"Okay but it looks like your walking normal."
"Well that's just stupid."
"oh sorry i forgot about this and took a nap and then took a shit. im so sorry i forgot but no worries man im here now"
"ahhhhh........................................................ yeah i dont know."
"hey your awful lonely. you must be a looser or something."
"this is the down side of having no ears, i can't hear if *insert name* is screaming for help or not, i mean i have no clue if hes screaming towards me back, so damn it having no ears kind of blows."
"hhahahahahahahahha i dont even know what the fuck you said?"
"i was trolled until i got bigger and stronger then them now i am feared"
".................... i have no importance to this story line what so ever, i think im gonna go."
"wow that story was super amazingly awesome, im not even joking right now"
"ahhhhhh so gay"
"we neutral's dont take sides in childish battles that normal people do. to pick sides is fullish."
"well most of the trolls are stupid but they all think there smart it's funny if you think about it."
"ummm. what object is like that? huh? ........ its unbreakable and its breakable? how is that possible? is it a liquid? hmmm i don't understand ?"
"now im gonna kick you right in your hairy ballsack"
"ok everyone! do you guys see this paper? well theres nothing on it yet but there will be"
"hey guys i was just telling him the plan. we are gonna do a all nighter and get fucked up hahaha its gonna be sweet."
"What? what are you talking about? We can discuss this further when there's not a gun in my face.."
"shut up, i got this alright, i got this shit in the bag, you'll see."
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mcflymemes · 2 years ago
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AS SAID BY GARRUS VAKARIAN
ASSORTED DIALOGUE FROM THE MASS EFFECT TRILOGY
i would’ve never thought of that.
what are you doing?!
they must be destroyed upon contact without exception.
as if we needed more reasons to avoid touching things in here.
why do people always assume we enjoy putting ourselves in harm’s way?
this wasn’t covered in my training manuals.
well, this looks fun.
some women find facial scars attractive.
they were all ignoring you and hitting on me. ‘bout time you got a fair shot.
why don’t we ever go anywhere nice?
it’s your call.
we shouldn’t be fighting. we have to work together.
that’s pretty... extreme.
there’s no pep talk like a military pep talk.
and here i thought i had my betrayal and attempted murder for this year...
now’s not the best time to become an optimist.
he’s not going to make it if we don’t help him.
we can disobey suicidal orders? why wasn’t i told?
he hasn’t reported your disappearance.
this guy couldn’t tie his bootlaces, let alone fight.
half of us don’t even trust you.
one less to worry about!
over the years i’ve grown used to the smell of dead bodies.
that’s probably a bad sign.
i love what they’ve done with the place.
just like old times.
whatever they’re after, i hope it’s worth it.
i’m hard to kill. you should know that.
it’s gonna be bad all over.
for whatever it’s worth, i’m with you.
you’ve waited long enough for this day.
just wait ‘til this war is over.
you came along and warmed my heart with your winning personality.
maybe you’d like to go work for them instead?
how do i not have one of those?
surprise on our side for once. i like it.
brutal, but it makes a certain kind of sense.
it’s all just... expected.
i know we’ve beaten the odds before.
staying out of trouble, i see.
you were wondering too, weren’t you?
see any action?
there’s too much at stake here.
next time, leave instructions.
it’s starting to feel like we’re missing something.
they’re taking it pretty well, don’t you think?
bad vibe to these guys. i don’t think we want to push it.
never do that again.
i’d say you managed.
excuse me, i couldn’t help but notice your sidearm.
can you tell me where the bartender hides the hard stuff?
now they’re just fighting dirty!
well, that went well.
pretty stark. you okay?
you’re real. a little crazy, maybe, but real.
he really had you boxed in.
you did what you had to, and i was there with you.
come back alive. it’d be an awfully empty galaxy without you.
you can’t do this solo.
you always were the best shot.
i love you, too.
listen. we have to go.
we didn’t kill these people. and we’re going to shut down the bastards who did.
looks like we’ve got a siege on our hand.
if anyone needs fresh clips or a bathroom break, now’s the time.
oh crap!
guess he didn’t like the food.
looks like we got the jump.
pretty extreme, but those were desperate times.
we won’t get a second chance.
that was me, sorry.
nothing like being stranded.
we’ll do more than that.
just the usual minor flesh wound.
what would these people have done if we hadn’t shown up?
i was there when you two had your thing, remember? just get a room and work it out.
stay angry. we’ll need it to get through this.
drinks will be on me.
one of my favorite places to fight!
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wawamouse · 24 days ago
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Oz Rewatch 3: S6E02: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil
Storylines
Shirley guest narrates
2nd day of riots after Mayor Loewen is on trial; Loewen is convicted; Seroy is pinned for the murder of Beecher’s father; Loewen is placed in Unit J with Beecher and Yood; Beecher saves Loewen from choking, so Schillinger vows not to fuck with his parole; Beecher is released; Lopresti informers Keller
Penders, White, and Martinez fall ill; Glynn doesn’t want the news to get out even though Gloria wants to send him to Benchley; Brass menaces Martinez
Morales wants to be transferred to the hospital and hears about Martinez; Morales worries about Martinez jabbering
Rebadow and Stella bond; Stella explains her backstory and interest in working at Oz
Busmalis refuses to see Norma but Rebadow tells him he should;
Kirk continues his Satanic act; Mukada comes to compromise but Kirk buckles down; Eleanor arranges for a Death Row photoshoot for Maxim magazine; Hoyt forces a lightbulb into Kirk’s mouth during the group shot and then goes crazy; Mukada is off the hook but feels guilty because he prayed for Kirk to die
McManus and Said finish reading Hill’s book; Redding has a breakthrough in the meditation maze; he decides to get the Homeboys away from dope slinging by getting them into telemarketing instead;
Morales tries to recruit miguel to spy on the Homeboys; Miguel’s mom visits; Miguel calls Maritza
Peter scares Ryan with the evil eye stuff; Ryan manipulates Pancamo into killing Peter; Pancamo tries to kill Robson; Robson tries to get protection from Cutler; Robson meets with Sister Pete;
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Sister: Ohhh, this time it’s different.
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Sister: (as Beecher) What about my father?
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Sister (jabbing at screen): Don’t you dare mess it up for him! I see your eyebrows knitting an evil little sweater….
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Sister: (gasp) Is she giving out STDs?! All getting sick? Same symptoms? Damn… what did she give them…
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Sister: Why would he say that… “Books for the dead”? Me: He’s feeling the Halloween spirit…
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Sister: I’m just looking at all the things that have here that can kill people. This ain’t going to end well.
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Sister: You wanna lay down some quotes for us to judge or are we telling not showing…
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Sister: Close up! Let’s see how evil this lady looks…
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Sister: What, she got family there? She got stock? Murphy: For Chrissakes, Howell, what do you got stock in Kentwell Communications? Howell: No, a brother. Sister: I’m so good at this.
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Me: I still think they should’ve make him a communist… Sister: He’s not a communist? What is he, a socialist? Me: He doesn’t have a concrete ideology, really… They never gave him one… Sister: I just assumed he was a communist this whole time, to be honest.
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Sister: Crapped his pants.
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Sister: Wrong! That’s the problem with people in this place. They’re always telling each other their plans… (also tbh i included that first screencap because i always thought it was cute that Peter was trying not to laugh there)
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Sister: Girl! He’s only 36?!
Stray Thoughts
Hecht and McArthur are mentioned as minimum security prisons
Plymouth House is mentioned as a juvenile hall
Sister was disappointed to learn last week that Adebisi never guest narrates
Sister thinks Beecher will die before he gets out
It’s mentioned that Said makes 2.50/wk at R&D
Final thoughts: Sister: So sad about Antonio… forgot his name… Michael? Good thing I didn’t decide to become his guardian angel again. That would’ve been so embarrassing… Very confused about why, um…. Mr. Linguini believed the guy who always lies when he came to sell his wares. Like that guy’s never just coming over to gossip normally, but oh, let’s hear him out? How tiny does your brain have to be to still believe him. He’s like the pied piper, he’s gonna be pying those pipes. Don’t listen to him, little rat… And I’m so disappointed they didn’t do an STD episode and expose that lady so she can finally get fired.
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ronoken · 1 year ago
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Dr. Technus
A cleaned up version of a writing prompt project!
Writing prompt: You're a villain, but you find yourself in a situation where you can help a child. What do you do?
***
Three hours after your fight with Superior Force, you see a news blurb about your battle. It’d been a tough one. The marvel of might™ had kicked the ever-loving crap out of your new, and now completely trashed, super suit. You’d held your own, but then he took a particularly hard swing at your dome-covered head and put you clean through a building. The outer wall had buckled, and the resulting partial collapse had given you just enough time to crash through the other side and get the hell out of there.
Fortunately, the building had been occupied, so Superior Force opted to stick around and help rescue civilians instead of finding you and ripping you apart like you were made of tinfoil. Again. This was your fifth attempt at a super suit that could withstand his blows, and he still beat you like you were an ant fighting God, which honestly wasn’t that far off when you considered how freakishly strong the hero in question was. You realize (as you’re wont to do at moments like these) that you’re lucky to be alive.
Now that you’re back in your hidden and extremely evil lair, you get a little curious about the aftermath of the fight. What building had he put you through? You were kind of seeing stars when you hit that wall. There was some screaming. That’s… about all you remember. It’s been a rough day.
Fucking heroes.
You see a newscaster interviewing Superior Force in front of a pile of rubble. Behind him, firefighters are spraying it down. You realize you must have hit a gas line. That would explain the explosion that rocked you, the building that fell on you, and so on.
“I’m just sorry I couldn’t stop her before she had a chance to hurt more innocent people,” Superior Force’s voice has a warble to it. It sounds like a mixture of sadness and rage. You have to admit, he’s extremely effective at making you feel like he’s sincere. “Picking a fight in the middle of the street is one thing, but Dr. Technus made a mistake when she decided to attack a children’s hospital.”
You freeze. You feel your blood pounding in your skull. Attacked? A children’s hospital?! You blew up a Dennys! It wasn’t even a particularly good Dennys! What is that idiot blathering about? You…
You went through a building. There was an explosion. There were screams.
Some of those screams were awfully childlike.
“We’ve been digging these children out, but there’s a lot of rubble. We’re trying to be careful, but this is…” Superior Force stops to collect himself. He looks off camera for a moment at what you assume is the remains of the hospital. “She’s a monster. For her victims, for Sunbeam, for all the children she’s killed, I promise you; we will take this murderer down.”
You scream. You throw your broken dome helmet at a monitor where Superior Force is fishing a bloody child out of the rubble. You listen to the newscaster call you a terrorist and a monster. You stare at the cracked screen, and the face of the man who put you through that building.
You remember. Your mind goes back to an image. A little girl with green eyes. Her still body in a hospital bed. Her mother sobbing beside her.
You’re a planner. A schemer. You always have been. You rarely go into a situation without having examined every potential outcome. It’s why you’re still alive. It’s why you’re one of the most dangerous villains in the world.
You almost never act without having a plan.
Almost.
You grab your portal gun.
***
Getting in was easy. You’ve had a portal gun for years. You don’t often use it because admittedly, it takes a lot of the fun out of breaking into places. When you just want to slip in and out, though? Portal gun. Most of your criminal empire was funded this way. You’d portal into a bank vault, clean it out, and portal home. No cops, no alarms, no interruptions.
But this isn’t a vault.
You adjust your lab coat around your waist and straighten your tie. Of course you have a tie. You may be a villain, but you’re not a bum. You’re a fucking doctor after all, and you can dress professionally when the mood suits you.
You step out of a storage closet and slip into the busy crowd of doctors and nurses weaving through the halls. The east wing took the blast, but the rest of the hospital was apparently unharmed. Superior Idiot managed to clear the rubble in the space of an hour, and most of the patients and staff that lived were now relocated to new rooms. Still, a lot of people were hurt. A lot of staff were taken out. They’re short-handed, and there’s a lot of wounded.
You pick a room. It doesn’t matter which one; they’re all full. You quietly open the door and step inside to see three curtains for three small beds. The staff had to pile the kids up to find a place for them. The beeping from the machines is annoyingly loud.
You slide the first curtain back. A little girl, no more than eight, is lying in a propped-up hospital bed. She’s wearing pajamas with a blue dog on them. Her skin, dark brown, is crisscrossed with bandages. Her eyes are closed.
You read her chart. She was here for Lymphoma, but now she’s… You glance at the bed sheets and notice they’re flat where her legs should be. You grip the chart in your hand so hard the clipboard cracks.
You read the other two children’s charts. A little boy with muscular dystrophy, now down an eye. A little girl with a heart murmur and a missing arm.
You take notes. You leave and go to the next room. You go to all the rooms.
When you portal back to your evil lair, you resist the urge to throw a tantrum. Tantrums are fun, but they’re not productive. You need to be productive right now.
First and foremost, you consider creating a gun to kill Superior Force. Not maim. Not torture. You want to blast a fucking hole through his head and call it a day. You’ve never… You’ve rarely gone that far.
You stop. You glance at the far wall of your lab, and at the transmogrifier ray you keep in a chrome display case. It’s easily one of your deadliest weapons, and one of the few you actively avoid using.
“She’s a monster. For her victims, for Sunbeam.”
You’ve rarely gone that far, but right now? It’s really tempting.
You shake your head. There’ll be time for killing later. Instead, you roll up your sleeves and get to work.
As you settle in to begin, you immediately recognize a problem. You’re evil. Ergo, you tend to design evil things. A little bio-plague work here, some exo suits there, a killer android or two, you know. The usual. It’s what you do. It’s what you’ve always done. It just comes easy to you. Other stuff? Not so much. You just don’t normally problem-solve for, well, situations like today. You’ve never needed to. You… You’re getting frustrated. You get yourself a coffee from your kitchenette and mix in extra cream and stevia. Deep breaths. This is a problem, and you’re a problem solver. You’re smart. You can do this.
You start with what you know. You pull up your schematics for your cyborg soldiers. God, that was a total bust of an evil scheme. The morons you hired worked just fine at first, but then they got too cocky and tried to go solo. They ended up getting flattened by the Collective Good. Still, you’d come up with some doozies while working with them. Carbon fiber bones. Nerve attachments for limbs. Cybernetics. The works.
Once you dive in, you realize it’s easy work. You’ve done this before. You’ve done all of this before, but never this small. You force yourself not to think about how tiny the fingers on the cybernetic hand are. How small the eye you’re crafting has to be. You look over your notes and pay careful attention to the feedback you received when installing these parts the first time. What hurt. What didn’t. You have to stop when you find your vision blurring as you design a skull plate for an infant.
Dammit. This isn’t what you do. You’re Dr. Technus. You’re a villain. You’re evil.
You think back to what you saw at the hospital.
You remember a little girl with green eyes lying motionless in her bed.
You’re evil. This is true. But you tell yourself that you’re not a fucking monster. You’re not… you’re not that…
You finish the plate. It’s the last piece you need.
You look at your notes and frown. This is already way out of your wheelhouse, but something still feels bad.
Then, it dawns on you.
You know how bad some of their conditions are. You scanned them as you read their charts. You bring up their medical records, one by one. You review how severe each one is. You review the causes.
This can’t be serious, you tell yourself. You’ve made diseases a hundred times worse than this on the regular in your lab. You’ve worked with these cancers and viruses and bacteria a dozen times over, at the very least! You once infected congress with six of these diseases on a whim! You…
You’ve worked with these diseases before.
The thought rolls through your mind like a freight train. You stare at the readouts. The charts. The names of the children. You remember their faces as they slept. You come to a decision.
Nanites are expensive to produce. They take time, they’re a bit finicky, and God do you hate programming them, but you’ve already got the data you need on file. You’ve got the nanite stock saved up for your attack on the financial district this Friday.
You fire up your laptop. The financial district can wait a week. You’ve got priorities.
***
You portal directly into the first room you visited the night before. The children are still there, but this time, they’re awake. You just popped into existence between them and the television on the wall behind you.
Two sets of eyes stare at you. The third child, the one missing an eye, is still asleep.
You stare back. You realize you have less than three seconds before someone screams.
“Well now!” You say in your best authority voice. Thank God you wore your medical coat. Thank God you dressed the part. “Uh, Yeah. Sorry if I surprised you. We’re, we, um, we’re trying some new technology here. At the hospital. I guess it works.”
You grin and wink. The little girl with no legs giggles. The girl with one arm smiles. That was stupidly easy.
You snap your fingers, and a blue portal opens behind you. Three medical drones float out, each carrying a small, metal suitcase. They set them down in a neat row as you click a button on your wrist. The cases let out a small hiss as they open. The medical drones float back a bit and patiently hover in place.
Okay, they’re not really medical drones. They’re part of your murder swarm, but they’re versatile, and their battery casings were large enough you could stencil a medical cross on their sides, so for today, they’re medical drones.
You realize you forgot to remove their machine guns, but then you push the thought to the side. It’s probably not important for this trip. Probably.
You lock eyes with the first girl. She’s nervous, but curious about what you’re up to. “I heard about your, um, your leg situation,” you say. Leg situation? You really are not good at this.
The little girl looks down at where her legs used to be. She rubs her thigh. “The doctors said they were crushed.” You notice the bandages need changing. God, this place must be short staffed, what with everyone dying the other day. Sue looks at you with tears on her cheeks. “Why’d they have to take my legs? Why couldn’t they fix them?”
You bite your lip before remembering that she’s a child and you’re here for a specific reason, and that reason isn’t to be an asshole. “Well,” you start, your mind racing. “So, um, yes. About that. Let’s say they were, um, getting you ready.”
She cocks her head at that. “For what?”
You pick up the new, silver legs you crafted and hold them up for her to see.
“For these.”
Her eyes grow as wide as dinner plates. She covers her mouth with her hands.
You glance at the other little girl and nod. “Give me five minutes. You’re next.”
***
The first little girl (Cassie. She excitedly introduced herself as you attached her right leg) is now walking in circles to get used to her new legs. The second is busy flexing her fingers as you finish installing a cybernetic eye into the still sleeping boy.
“My fingers feel weird,” the second little girl (Amy) says. “Are they supposed to tingle?
You shrug. You don’t look up from your work as you reply. “I just reconnected all five nerve branches in your arm to alien technology. It’s going to take a bit to calibrate your bio signature and recognize all your weird human bits. Just give it time.”
Amy’s eyes grow to the size of dinner plates. “This is an alien arm?”
Your attention doesn’t waver from the boy in front of you. Why are optic nerves so difficult to work with? “Well, only kind of. I stole the tech from an alien race, but I’ve modified it quite a bit. I’d say it’s about 30% alien? Give or take? Maybe 40%?”
Amy flexes her hand again and grins. “This is so awesome. I can feel things! It’s like a whole new arm!”
“That’s because it’s a whole new arm,” you mutter. You finish with a satisfying click as the eye powers up. It appears to be working, but the boy is still asleep, so asking him is out of the question. You nod. Of course, he’s out. He took a hit to the head. He’s in a coma with potential brain damage.
If only there was a way to fix that…
You smile to yourself.
Cassie jumps in place and laughs. “They feel just like my old legs, but stronger! I feel like I could jump to the moon!”
“I don’t know about the moon, but you’ll find those legs could outrun, um, you could do well in track.” You take out three syringes from the medical drone’s cases. “Now,” you say as you watch their smiles fade at the site of the giant needles in your hands. “Who feels like getting really better?”
You portal from room to room. You kind of have to. Distracted or not, the staff would notice your medical drones following you around. Most of the time, the kids are asleep. Sometimes, you find them awake. That’s not so bad, as the awake ones can verify your tech is working right. By the fifth room, you can hear commotion in the halls. The doctors know someone just performed a miracle. You work fast. You’d prefer not to be noticed.
You have an image to maintain.
It takes two hours, but you manage to treat every single child. Even the ones that weren’t caught in the explosion were paid a visit. You were only spotted once, and that was towards the end. You were in the NICU, installing the skull plate. You’d just finished when you glanced up to see a nurse standing in the doorway watching you. You thought she was going to scream, or run for help, or, well, something, but then you remembered you weren’t in costume. Well, you were, but not your normal one?
“What are you doing?” She asked. She took a hesitant step forward when she realized the baby’s head wasn’t bandaged anymore, but covered her mouth in shock when she heard the infant let out a cry. Per the chart, the child had been in critical condition. Now, the poor thing just wanted a bottle.
The nurse cautiously picked up the baby, her fingers dancing over where the metal plate has been inserted. Already, the nanites had rebuilt most of the skin on her head. In two more minutes, you wouldn’t even be able to see a scar.
The nurse looked up at you as you opened a portal to slip away. You expected her to say something, but she just stared at you, then at the baby, and to your amazement, she turned her back on you to find a bottle in the little table next to the child’s incubator.
You know a cue when you see one, so you stepped back into your portal and blipped out of there.
***
It’s been six weeks since your little crisis of faith. You shook off, labeling it as a momentary bout of insanity, and focused on getting right back to what you did best. You’ve knocked over three banks, two credit unions, and a diamond exchange for good measure. Your little stunt at the hospital had been thorough, and thoroughly expensive. You needed to replenish.
You also had to set the record straight. For example, Vulcan wouldn’t stop running his stupid mouth at the last Legion meeting when you all had more important things to deal with. Lately, meetings had become more focused on whether or not to officially join with the Purge (the premier supervillain organization on the planet) or to stay an independent organization.  There were benefits to both, but you personally weren’t interested in a merger. As it was, you were a senior member in the Legion of Evil. That meant you didn’t have to answer to anyone. Not that you had an issue with the heads of the Purge. Hell, you’d even had dinner with Dyspell last month. Nice gal. Very business focused. Still, you preferred being a big fish in a small pond.
And Vulcan was currently pissing in that pond.
You let his shit talk about you going soft slide the first few times, but the second he started loudly telling everyone about how you should have finished off those stupid brats when you had the chance, you decided enough was enough and put a phaser blast through the back of his skull. You had to admit, the most satisfying part of all of that was watching what amounted to a rock-covered pro wrestler collapse to the floor like, pardon the expression, a bag of bricks.
No one else gave you any crap that night. It was a most productive meeting. The vote to stay independent passed eight to three.
And now here you are, doing what you do best. That being blowing shit up and stealing some cash. Yes, it’s a little base, and armored cars are a little flashy, but you’re feeling the need to express yourself today, and you wanted to test out the latest version of your melting gun you’d been working on, so hey, why not?
With the truck on its side and the drivers knocked out, you help yourself to some cash. As you grab a sack of money, you suddenly notice that the sunlight coming through the hole in the side of the truck is now blocked.
You turn. Floating outside the car is Infinity Lass. Shit. She’s got her arms crossed, and the look on her face is, well, you’re not sure.
You force yourself not to ogle her. The white leotard doesn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination, and you dig the boots. You won’t ever outright admit she was the reason, but you bought some Jeffery Campbell knee-highs from Nordstrom out of sheer envy a while back. Still, fashion aside, you view her as a work problem. A hot work problem, but a work problem.
“Technus,” her voice is firm. How do heroes do that? The clear, projecting commands? Did they all do theater? In the back of your mind, you wonder if they have voice coaches.
“Dr. Technus, if you don’t mind?” You say with as much bravado as you can muster. This was stupid. You came here to test a melting gun, not deal with one of the strongest women on the planet. And no, you can’t melt Infinity Lass. One, it wouldn’t work. Two, it’d piss her off. Three… you wouldn’t get past two. You’d be a stain.
You ready your portal so you can try to slide the hell out of there when she clears her throat. “Dr. Technus,” she says. You pause. Since when do the heroes do manners with you? This is new. Kinda weird. “Would you mind putting down that sack of money and stepping outside?”
The absolute hell?! What is this? Why isn’t she using laser eyes or something? Why the manners? This is legitimately creeping you out. You’re so put off that you actually do as she says. It’s only 10% because she’s hot. That’s what you tell yourself.
You stare her down. This could go any number of ways. Some heroes are easy-peasy, some are a hard time, and some can absolutely wreck your shit. Infinity Lass is solidly in the third camp. Even with a full battle suit, you’d be hard pressed to hold your own. And you’re not in your battle suit; you’re in your stupid skintight heist suit. This is not hero-fighting attire. This is get in-and-out attire. You’re… Dammit. You are not dressed for today. You’ve only got a phase plaster, your cool-but-useless-against-this-problem melting gun, your portal trick, some sonic bees, a plasma grenade… Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You can improvise, but this is already listing itself as a Bad Time in your head.
You tense. You should start with the melting gun. Yeah, it won’t hurt her, but it’ll piss her off. While she’s busy breaking it and yelling at you, you can use the bees. She hates the bees. That’ll buy you ten seconds. Then…
She reaches into her belt and slips out a small envelope. Stunned, you watch as she slowly floats down to your level to hand it to you.
“I was there,” she says in a strained voice as you stare at the envelope. There’s no name on the outside. “I saw what happened that night. The press was wrong. Tom shouldn’t have…” Her eyes go wide as she catches herself. You shrug her off. You know most of their identities, and the moron only covers his with glasses. Seriously, who does that?
Wait, she was there?
You remember the interview.
“We’ve been digging these children out, but there’s a lot of rubble. We’re trying to be careful.”
Superior Force wasn’t using a generic “we.” He was referring to her, but then where was she during the fight?
“You were there?” You ask.
She nods.
“What is this?” You ask. You open the envelope to find a folded crayon picture of a little girl with an oversized silver arm. Next to her is a doodle person in a lab coat. They’re both smiling. The text under it is a bit wobbly, but you can still read it.
“I was sitting with my daughter when you came crashing through the wall,” Infinity Lass keeps her eyes on yours, but you’re focused on the picture in your hand. “I tried to keep the ceiling from collapsing, but it all happened so fast I, I couldn’t...”
“Thank you for the arm?” You realize you just read it out loud. You look up at Infinity Lass, who looks like she’s holding back a lot of emotions.
“My daughter. Amy was, her heart, it…” She wipes her eyes and clears her throat. She’s doing her best not to lose her crap in front of you, and you honestly can’t blame her. You’d be about the same in her shoes. “She collapsed on the playground. The doctors said it was grade five, that she needed surgery, and then her, her arm was…”
And now she does lose it, and you try to be polite and look away. This is not what you came here for, but this is also kind of fascinating. You knew Infinity Lass had a daughter, but you never looked to much into it. Something about a messy divorce, a bad court case, the shitty usual. You knew the broad strokes.
Infinity Lass sniffed as she did her best to compose herself. “Amy says the arm stopped tingling, but it’s acting a little funny. Something about a twitch in her ring finger? Still, it’s, it’s a lot better than no arm. She, um, she asked if I ever saw you to, um, to give you that. And to thank you.”
You hold the paper like it’s made of porcelain. It’s… Oh God. It’s a thank you letter. It’s a thank you letter from a child you helped. This has never happened before. You’re genuinely not sure what you’re supposed to do, but a part of you is screaming that this little piece of paper is worth more than the money behind you.
“She wanted me to thank you,” Infinity Lass stresses. “A part of me realizes none of this would have happened if you hadn’t been there that night, but I, I recognize that this wasn’t… I saw the other children. The ones you helped. A nurse told me she saw you save a newborn.”
You stutter. “Look, I just, that wasn’t…”
You’re honestly grateful when she cuts you off. You weren’t sure where you were going.
Infinity Lass cuts you off. “That bought you a pass. For today. With me, at least.”
You both turn when you hear sirens approaching. She glances at the gun on your hip.
“Do me a favor?” She asks. She points at the gun. “Is that a melting gun?”
You nod dumbly. “Um, yes. Yes, it is. Works fine on metal, but I doubt it’d do more than piss you off, so, um, not to worry.”
“Would you shut up and shoot me with it already?” Infinity Lass is staring down the road at the cops that are quickly approaching.
“What?” You ask. Today is all sorts of messed up.
“Do you want to escape or not?” Infinity Lass snaps. “Just fucking shoot me and get out of here.” She bites her lip and glances back at the cops, who are only a block away. “Before I change my mind.”
You gently slide the note into your belt. You unhook your melting gun and take aim at her stomach. She flies back unusually far when you hit her, which is strange, since when you did this before, she barely flinched. She makes a point of collapsing on the pavement.
You take your cue. With a flash of blue light, you slip away as the cops pull up.
***
The next day, you’re taking some me-time. You’re sitting in a café that you go out of your way to preserve during your fights, as it serves the best pastries in town. The coffee is pretty decent, and the angry little barista is doing her best to get through her undergrad, and you sympathize with her. She wants to go into premed. You repeatedly warn her off it, but she’s stubborn. She’s feisty. She reminds you of you.
You’re halfway through your coffee and stuck on a sudoku as a blonde woman in a nice red sweater and gray dress pants slides into the booth across from you. She’s wearing glasses, but you know those eyes. That stare. Seriously. Glasses are the stupidest disguise ever.
You lower your own glasses and stare back. Yours aren’t… you’re near-sighted, okay? So, yes, you could fix it in a jiffy, but you’ve got a thing about eyes and, it’s not a costume. It’s not a costume.
“When I picked up Amy from school today,” the woman begins. “She told me the nice doctor lady came by during lunchtime and adjusted her arm. She says the twitch is gone, but when she threw a dodge ball, she broke a little boy’s nose.”
You snort. You can’t help it. It’s not a villainous snort, but your incognito right now, so it’s okay. “Tell her to be more careful,” you say through a smirk.
The woman stares at you for a moment before visibly relaxing. She sips her coffee, which is mostly cream and sugar. “Why did you save my daughter?”
You raise an eyebrow. “Beg pardon?”
“You heard me,” she bites back. “Why? It wasn’t for publicity. I’ve checked around. You’ve been quiet about everything that went down. Hell, word on the street is you even killed Vulcan for talking about what you did.”
“Kill is a strong word,” you point out. “He’s a sentient golem. I’m sure he’ll pop up again. Eventually.”
The woman continues. “And that armored car thing yesterday? No super suit, no real weapons… You weren’t expecting company, were you?”
You don’t acknowledge anything she says. You just sip your coffee and count the exits.
“So, why?” She asks again. “You’ve never done anything like that before. You don’t help people. You’ve never helped people. So why now? Why her?”
You hear the underlying question. “Why my daughter?”
You sip your coffee as slowly as you can. You weren’t ready for this. You take a moment to compose your thoughts. You think about the different ways you can answer her.
‘Fuck it,�� you think to yourself.
You take out your phone and scroll through your photos. You slide it across the table to show the woman a photo of a little green-eyed girl in pajamas playing with a toy castle.
“My niece, Olivea.” you say in what you hope is a casual tone. “That’s her at Christmas at my sister’s.”
The woman looks at the photo. “She’s cute.”
You nod and partially hide behind your cup of coffee as you sip it. You wonder if your trembling is noticeable. “She was six when, when her mother’s car was knocked off a bridge by Sunbeam.”
The woman tenses. You figured she would. Most folks on both sides of the line knew about Sunbeam.
“He managed to fish the car out, and my sis lived, but Olive… She’d been under too long. Died at the hospital right in front of her mama.”
The woman across from you sets the phone down on the table. She looks at you over the rim of her glasses. “You killed Sunbeam, didn’t you?”
You nod as you wipe at your eyes. Dammit. You hate talking about this. Hate it, hate it, hate it. “You’re goddamn right I killed him. Transmogrified the air in his lungs into water and watched him drown in the middle of the street.” You take another sip. “It was the most satisfying day of my life.”
“Is that why you do this?” She asks. “The crime? The killing? Is it for revenge?”
You shrug. “I do it because I’m good at it. I do it because it makes me rich.” You put your phone back in your pocket. “And because sometimes when I’m staring down a hero, I see my niece’s body laying on a gurney. I hear my sister sobbing. I remember how she drank herself to death, and how I had to bury her next to her kid. I remember the only two people I ever cared about and how they were taken from me, and then, yeah. Sometimes, it’s for revenge.”
The woman stares at her coffee for a solid thirty seconds. You feel your anxiety rising. Talking about dead loved ones and being cornered in your safe space was not how the afternoon was supposed to go.
“So, you didn’t help Amy because she was my daughter?”
You shake your head. “Carol, I didn’t even know she was in there. I just… I didn’t want… I didn’t want to be another Sunbeam. I didn’t want another…” You’re not sure how to finish that sentence. You’ve been trying hard to forget how you acted that night.
You swallow to fight back the lump in your throat. “I couldn’t take the thought of being responsible for that. I can live with a lot, but not that.”
Carol looks slightly alarmed that you used her name, but you shrug it off. Like you don’t know most of the Collective Good’s identities? Please. You’re a super genius and you got through medical school. You know what’s up.
Carol fidgets with her coffee for a few moments before clearing her throat. “So, um, I don’t, um, I don’t know if you’d… This is harder than I thought it would be. I…”
“Spit it out, Carol. Don’t make me get my melting gun.” You smile as you say it. You’re not serious. You don’t have your melting gun.
You have your phase disruptor, and the safety is off and ready to go, but you don’t think you’ll need it.
Carol finally relaxes and flashes you a smile. “Please. That thing couldn’t even give me a tan.”
“Could have fooled me,” you say as you consider taking a bite of your strawberry Danish. Should you eat in front of her? Would that be rude? You really want that Danish.
“No, I couldn’t. But I fooled those cops, didn’t I?”
You grin. You were right; she was totally faking. “Why are you really here?”
Carol slides a picture across the table. It’s of a young man with curly black hair. “There’s a kid in Amy’s class that was paralyzed last fall in a car crash. His name’s Dawson. Drunk driver broadsided him and his mom. She was fine, but he lost the use of his legs.”
You glance at Carol. “And?”
Carol frowns. “I just, I thought that, um…”
“I’m not a charity,” you say in a low voice. You stand. “Look, don’t get the wrong idea. What happened at the hospital was a one-time thing. Those kids shouldn’t suffer just because one of your people can’t control his temper.”
“What about all the kids you cured?” Carol asks. “The doctors said all the patients had a clean bill of health. No cancer, no tumors, nothing. Amy’s heart is completely fixed up. What did Superior Force have to do with that?”
You don’t answer. You hate it when people point things out to you that you have trouble arguing. Hell, why did you do that? What’s gotten into you?
You walk away from Carol, your coffee, and your Danish. This conversation is over. You’re pretty sure she’s not going to follow you, but you still keep an eye out. You’re right. You see her through the window as you power-walk away. She’s still at the booth.
You look down at your hands. You realize the picture is still in your hands.
“Goddammit,” you mutter.
***
Five days later, you’re scrolling through your newsfeed and see a feel-good story about a local boy named Dawson who miraculously regained the use of his legs after eating his school lunch. You scroll past. Taking the place of the cafeteria worker had been worse than your six-month stint in county when you were 19. You’d prefer not to think about it.
***
The next day, your favorite barista hands you back your cash and gives you a slightly larger than normal drink.
“Already covered,” she says. “A blonde lady with a kid came in and asked me to cover it. Also, can I ask you about my bio-chem midterm?”
“Thanks, and hell no. I blocked that course out of my mind. You’re on your own,” you say with a shudder.
The barista hands you an envelope.
“What this?” you ask.
“That blonde lady dropped it off this morning with the cash. Said if I saw you to give this to you. You sure I can’t ask? I really don’t wanna do a retake.”
Your mind races. You already know who she’s talking about, but the panic side of your mind is in overdrive. She knows this is your place. She can find you here. They can all find you here. It was stupid to come back. Fuck the Danishes. This was a Bad Idea.
Still…
You nod your thanks and go to your booth, ignoring the barista’s pleas for help. You open the envelope and take out a photo of Amy, her bionic arm loosely wrapped around the neck of a little boy you remember serving a special helping of spaghetti to a few days ago. They’re both standing in front of the school and grinning.
You smile. You don’t mean to, and you swear you’ll kill anyone who notices, but you smile.
You casually flip the photo over and freeze. On the back is a message.
Well, a number and a message.
Amy wants you to come to dinner. Call me.
You swallow your coffee in three gulps.
Fucking heroes.
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oddree13 · 1 year ago
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Restless Year - Chapter 9
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
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(Read on AO3)
Chapter 9 - Vienna
Steve can’t tell if the bus depot is too busy or not busy enough. It’s the day after Christmas and the traffic in and out of the city was enough to make him consider taking the train and not his car. But then he remembers that his last few subway rides had left him absolutely green and he doesn’t know how much luggage Max has. 
Steve’s not sure where to position himself, bouncing on his feet nervously. He stands outside of his car looking at the crowds of people milling in and out of the terminal trying to spot Max. He ignores the odd glances people throw his way for his sign, but the eye roll from Max will be worth it. He knows Eddie will never let him live it down if he doesn't hold up the sign with Mel Gibson in futuristic leather for her.
His misery ends a few minutes later when his spies red hair. Max takes one look at Steve and speeds her stride to snatch the shitty printout from his hand. “Tell Eddie he needs to be a dad before he makes dad jokes,” she quips as she lets Steve pull her into a hug. 
“It’s good to see you too Max. Was the bus alright?”
“It was fine, I had a whole row to myself. But my walkman crapped out before the last half-hour.” Steve reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fresh pack of double-a batteries, tossing it to her. “This is why you're my favorite, don’t tell Eddie.”
“Yeah, yeah until he does something amazing for you then suddenly it’s ‘Eddie you're my favorite, don’t tell Steve’. Now get in the car, it’s fucking cold.” Steve opens the door for Max and puts her bags in the trunk before pulling out of the station. Once they’re on Lake Shore, Steve tells Max what the radio presets are so she can stop scanning the static looking for music. “Or you can just talk to me for fifteen minutes, it won’t kill you.”
“I don’t want to talk about-”
“Did it sound like I was asking about the reason for your visit? Stop trying to pick a fight. Unless you want to talk about it, I’ll assume you wanted to visit Eddie and me and see Chicago. We can talk about college, what you’ve got playing on your walkman, or I can tell why Eddie is not to be trusted picking movies anymore.”
“Oh no, what did he make you two go see?” Max asks, taking the bait.
“I wanted to finally go see Back to the Future II, but he wanted to see Born on the Fourth of July. Which is how I spent last night listening to Eddie rant about the American war machine over dim sum.”
“Okay two things. One didn’t he get like a huge government payout after the whole Vecna thing? And two, what’s dim sum?”
For the next ten minutes, Steve rambles about Eddie’s weird relationship with their government money. Then he tries, badly, to explain dim sum, swearing it is a lot better than he is making it sound.
***
“Any particular reason you wanted to rise and shine with my ass instead of staying at the apartment with Steve?”
“You said a staff recommendation slot was up for grabs, and I’m sure your store could use some of my impeccable taste.” 
Years of being around Max have taught him to read between the lines , so Eddie can only laugh at her delivery. “I’ll make sure to use a tastemaker such as yourself to the best of my ability. But if you do spend too much time at the shop, I’m going to have to actually pay you. Do child labor laws still apply to you? How old are you now? Sixteen?”
Eddie is shoved for his sarcasm. “I’m almost nineteen, you ass! You and Steve really need to stop looking at all of us like we’re kids. I’m in college! I’m an adult, I do adult things.”
“What adult things do you do, Red?” Eddie teases and looks over to see a blush on her cheeks. The implication isn’t lost on Eddie and he wants to ask if he needs to give her another talk. Then he wants to ask if it was Lucas or El, or both, but he doesn’t. Instead, he pulls her to his side and kisses the top of her head over her beanie. “C’mon, coffee shop is right here, and do your best to be nice to Rody. He keeps me supplied with donuts and caffeine. We’re getting a box for the morning crew because it's everyone’s first day back.”
Eddie waves to Rody behind the counter who takes a look at Max and smiles. “Ed, is this the kid you were telling me about?” Rody shouts. Max, predictably scrunches her nose a bit at the word kid.
“Yeah, yeah. This is her. Rody, Max. Max, Rody.”
“She looks nothing like Henderson,” Rody remarks, and now Max looks indignant.
“I keep telling you Rody they’re not related, just a big pack. I’d stop your teasing while you’re ahead though. Out of all my pups, she’s the second meanest,” Eddie boasts. 
“Wait, who is the meanest?” Max asks, offended to not have the title. 
“Erica. Erica is terrifying Max and don’t you deny it. Now tell Rody what sugary monstrosity you want for a caffeine vehicle.”
The coffee shop is only two blocks from Smash. Eddie walks up the steps and opens the door, flicking on the lights to illuminate the floor. Max whistles as she takes in the view. “Steve’s photos did not do this place justice,” she says in awe, and walks towards the new release display to look through the offerings. Eddie finds it endearing that Steve sent photos of the shop to everyone, unwilling to let Eddie’s accomplishments go unnoticed. 
Placing the donuts behind the register, Eddie lets Max explore and wanders to his office. He managed to run the shop semi-solo the day after Christmas, Steve helping with exchanges until it was time to get Max, but Eddie is looking forward to having staff back. It doesn’t take long for the first arrival, and he hears Carmen greet Max with enthusiasm. When Eddie doesn’t hear sobbing he figures all is well.
When Max makes her way into his office she leans against the door frame, leveling him with an unamused look. “Seriously? Reading a magazine is considered work nowadays?” she interrupts, making Eddie tilt down his copy of Kerrang! to look at her. 
“I’m sorry, do you know of a better way to find new music that doesn’t involve me suffering through several hours of VH1 and pop radio?” His question actually makes her pause. None of the pack beyond Steve, Dustin, and maybe Robin know the legwork that goes into his job. He doesn’t get an answer and watches Max fidget and worry her lip. Taking pity on her, he picks up the latest copy of Spin from the top of the pile and gestures to the space next to him. “Read through it, mark anything interesting with a sticky note.”
Max walks to the sofa and settles in next to Eddie. “Does Steve ever help you with this stuff?”
“He does. For all that I used to make fun of his music taste, it comes in handy when trying to curate a pop section. And even I have to admit some of it is just catchy.”
His confession has  Max  leaning forward, forgetting the magazine in her lap to gape at him. “Eddie Munson is admitting to liking a pop song! I knew you liked older pop music, like 1950s stuff, but what did Steve play that made you crack?”
“Atomic…”
“Blondie! Steve broke you with Blondie!” 
“Look I’m not proud, okay? But you come home to Steve Harrington belting it out in the kitchen as he cooks dinner and tell me you wouldn’t come to enjoy it.” Max tosses her head back cackling and spends the next few minutes ribbing Eddie until they’re nearly breathless with laughter. Once the giggles sputter to a stop, she decides she wants to vet the choices in the listening booth. 
When Eddie is done marking up a few magazines he steps out to find Carmen covering their mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. He’s about to ask what is so funny, when he sees Max leaning against the recommendation display, absolutely tearing into Jamie. 
“I dunno, I just like my songs to have an ending. A point even,” Max cracks holding up Phish’s Junta. “Like I get it, you need a soundtrack for your hackey sack marathon or your latest trip, but do better man.”
“Shouldn’t you do something about that?” Carmen whispers to Eddie, who suddenly remembers he’s the boss.
“Right, right.” Eddie walks over to the pair and puts his hand on Max’s shoulder. “Sorry about her. I’d like to say she inherited my know-it-all attitude about music, but she came like this. I just encouraged it. Max,” Eddie sighs, doing his best to sound stern, “go to my office and let my employees do their job. Jamie, I hope you had a good Christmas.”
“Thanks, Eddie, I did,” Jamie mumbles and looks like he’s about to ask more, but he catches Max’s glare behind Eddie. 
Eddie turns around and marches Max back to his office, closing the door behind him. “Look I’m not a fan of Phish as much as the next sensible person, but care to explain what that was?”
Max sinks back onto the sofa twisting her mouth as she debates what to say. “I might have promised Robin and Nancy I’d do them a favor.”
“And I’ve got an idea what that favor is. Can we please call that mission accomplished?”
“That depends, what are you offering?”
“You can curate the listening booth for the month of January. Way better deal than a rec spot all to yourself.” Eddie knows he shouldn’t be rewarding this kind of behavior, but he never claimed to be above pettiness.
***
Steve leans over the sink and watches as blood drips down into the basin. It's the third nosebleed he’s gotten in the past few weeks and that might be the final push he needs to get a humidifier. As if a ruined pillowcase wasn’t enough. Turning the tap he scoops water into his hand and roughly washes his face before shoving cotton into his bleeding nostril. That’ll have to do for now, he thinks and walks out of the bathroom and into Max. 
“Sorry,” he mumbles, his hand reaching up to make sure nothing dislodged itself. 
“And here I thought El was the only one with powers.”
“Ha, ha very funny. Just winter taking its toll. Nothing cooler.” Steve walks past her and into the kitchen to get their breakfast started. He puts on the coffee pot and gets out some latkes from the freezer to reheat them. Eddie might be sick of them but Steve’s been waking up every morning pleased to bite into the salty crispness. They just seem to hit all the right notes for him.
“Max what do you want to eat?” he yells into the apartment only to turn around and see Max standing behind him. 
“I’ll take eggs, no need to yell Mom.”
“And to think I missed any of you,” Steve mumbles as he pulls out bread and eggs from the fridge. “Dustin is coming back for New Year's Eve, by the way. He and Eddie organized some New Year's Day campaign, which is frankly shortsighted to me. Who wants to do all that math hungover?” Steve cracks the eggs into the pan and stands back away from the stove. Lately, the oddest smells are putting him off and he wonders if along with a humidifier, he should deep clean the fridge.
“Why are you standing like that?” Max bumps Steve from the stove and takes over, sending him off to make toast. 
“Eggs have been grossing me out this last week. I think all my poor food choices during finals are catching up with me. Can’t stomach coffee. Eggs, mustard, and a few nights ago the sensation of corn in my mouth made me ill. I think I’m starting to see why Karen Wheeler randomly did those juice cleanses.”
Steve turns to see Max’s eyes boring into him. “Hey Steve, when did you and Eddie get together?”
“May of ‘87, you know this.”
“No Steve, I mean when did you and Eddie bond?”
Steve doesn’t answer the question right away because he has to stop and process what Max is implying. It’s been about two months. Two months. Steve looks at the calendar on the fridge as if it would tell him anything other than today's date. Then he thinks of the calendar in his room that has his next heat penciled in for early February. His mind just repeats all that information over and over again until Max repeats her question. 
“Steve, when did you and Eddie bond?”
“Two months ago.”
The answer hangs silently in the air and Max turns off the burner. “Well, let’s eat and take a trip down the street.”
“No, no, I know what you’re thinking, and no. I’m on birth control and-”
“And if I remember the very awkward birds and the bees talk you and Eddie gave all of us more than a few times, birth control isn’t always effective.”
Steve doesn’t answer. He leans against the counter and tries to not let himself get too far into his head. A part of him knows that Max is right, and even a part of him wants her to be right. But there’s another part of him that is terrified that she is. 
*
“Can I come in now?” 
Steve is sitting on the floor, the offending stick resting on the counter. He has fifteen minutes to kill and doesn’t think he can make it through it alone. He reaches up and opens the door. 
Max walks in and sits beside him, not bothering with distance. He takes in her red converse and is thrown back to the bathroom of Starcourt Mall. He’s on the floor again having a heart-to-heart with Robin that would change his life for the better. He just hopes that whatever the test tells him will do the same.
“I don’t get why you’re so scared,” Max begins, breaking the silence. “Your whole goal has been to have a literal van full of children Steve, so what’s got you so freaked out?”
Steve gives her a watery laugh, unable to stop his emotions from bubbling up through his eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing Max. I don’t know how to take care of a baby. I don’t know if I’m really ready for my body to change. A part of me thought I’d have more time to figure it out. That I’d be done with school or have a job. That I wouldn’t tie him down so soon.” He didn’t intend for the last part to make it past his lips, but it’s out there now.
“Do you honestly think Eddie thinks that way?”
Steve shakes his head. The rational part of him doesn’t believe it, not one bit. The irrational part of his brain thinks that if that little stick has a plus sign Eddie is going to walk. That all their bedroom talk and teasing is just for foreplay and not something he actually wants. 
“As for knowing what you’re doing, you did fine with all of us,” Max admits softly. “If you need proof, I’m here right now, with you instead of my own mother.”
“Can I ask you something? And it’s not about why you’re here instead of Hawkins.” Max nods. “Did you mean what you put in your letter to me?” Steve doesn’t have to clarify what letter, Max has only ever given him one. He couldn’t bring himself to read it that summer, or even the next. No, Steve had finally opened the letter the night he and Eddie seriously talked about leaving Hawkins. He needed to make sure it was the right call, and the envelope buried at the bottom of his desk seemed like it might give him the answer. 
When Steve tore it open, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of him thought the page might be blank and that Max just feigned writing to get all the guys off her back. He also thought that if anything was written it would just be her telling Steve off for worrying, that she wasn’t his responsibility. But it didn’t say any of that. 
The letter was surprisingly void of Max’s biting sarcasm. Over two years removed from that afternoon, and Steve can still read the fear she wouldn’t show them between the lines. She admits to him that she didn’t like him at first. She writes that when she listened to Dustin and Lucas talk about him that he had too many similarities to Billy to possibly be a good person. But all that changed the first time he took a punch for her. ‘I was just some punk kid with an attitude and you still put yourself on the line, and for some reason, you’re still doing it.’ And for that she thanked him. Thanked him for not trying to replace Billy, but for being something better than a big brother for her. When his eyes got to the bottom of the letter and he saw it signed ‘Love, Max,’ he knew. He knew he’d be alright leaving because the kids would be alright too.
“I meant it then. I still mean it now. You and Eddie...you two never tried to fix what was broken with any of us. You two just worked with it and waited until we asked for help. Which is why I can’t understand you being so nervous about that stick up there because that kid is going to get what we all wish we had.”
“And what’s that?” he wonders, meeting Max’s eyes for the first time since she stepped into the bathroom.
“Steve Harrington as their actual mom.”
Steve wipes his eyes and opens his arm towards Max who leans in to complete the hug without comment. She lets herself be held until the alarm on Steve’s watch goes off telling them the test is done. Before he can hesitate, Max leans forward and pulls the stick off the counter.
“What does it say?”
Max just smiles and turns the test around to show Steve the little red plus sign.
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nichtschaden · 2 years ago
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Choke It Down, Spit It Out
@blusollyjd This would be easier with somebody he didn't really know. If the person knew who he was, it would be easier for them to get all judgemental. Maybe they wouldn't look at him the same way after. That would be worse than anything. Still, he had his reputation. Everyone knew who he was, for better or worse- he'd kicked down a door after all, he and Tavish. As ugly as the whole affair got for a while, you saw more people reaching across enemy lines now. Not afraid to make friends, or more, with people they liked. It'd made Jane famous. Or infamous, depending on who you asked. But fame was different than really knowing, right? And above all, he couldn't go to Abel with this. He gave his poor husband enough to worry about. Sometimes he felt like a burden and it made him want to drive his fist through the wall in frustration. But if not Abel, than who? People had come and gone. And he didn't want to go to some giggling maggot whose suggestion for helping with this would be to saw his skull open or some ridiculous crap like that. And then, Jane thought of the guy he'd briefly met on Halloween. The guy who'd given him coffee. BLU. Seemed to have his head on straight. Didn't seem like the kind of guy who would have an animate head in his refrigerator. So, fine then. That guy. Jane's eyes squinted under his helmet. 'Dr. F. Finitzer'. The nameplate said the same thing that it had the last ten times he read it, and standing here like a slack-jawed recruit wasn't going to do him any good. Man up, Soldier. Breathing in, Jane gave a few hard raps against the office door and immediately began pacing like a caged mountain lion, hands clutched behind his back, steps even and rigid in standard military marching cadence. He was wound like a spring. But even he knew he had to do something about this. The feeling he kept feeling since he got back... it was almost a liability today. He would not allow that of himself.
Whether Jane knew or not, the man he'd settled on had followed in his wake. Fritz had crossed company lines in more ways than one, and the consequence was encased in metal beneath his left boot. He was terrified the worst was yet to come, after an idle visit to Dr. Haswell in the RED medbay had ended in his tampering with their respawn machine to resurrect a Scout it had failed to bring back. A senseless death if there ever was one, he hadn't cared what color the kid wore.
But it made him uneasy. It was a far graver transgression than the one that resulted in his brace. So when there was a knock against the door of his glorified closet of an office, Fritz's head snapped up in half a heartbeat. For a moment, he froze, a porcelain statue, listening. Waiting. The heavy footfalls pacing outside caved his shoulders a fraction, and the hand against the hidden revolver dropped. It wasn't the administrator spy, the bastard would never be so loud. Though it did make him wonder, who would knock on his door when the nicest man alive set up office two doors down. Or why this person wouldn't go to the medbay -- there was nothing in Fritz's office but a file cabinet, a tiny desk and two folding chairs.
He climbed to his feet with a grimace as weight was put on his bad leg, but it left his face quickly. He was used to it after so many years. "Jack, if that's you, you have your own damn coffee."
There was no hiding the mild shock behind aviator glasses when the opened door revealed Jane. His mind shifted quickly into the how and why Jane would knock on his door instead of Abel's, the man was not only his partner but a better doctor in spades, and the conclusion he landed on in that microsecond was the worst.
"What happened? Is it Abel?"
Then again, would the soldier have shown restraint if the veteran medic was in trouble? Fritz doubted he'd still have a door. He shook his head and quickly backtracked.
"Sorry, I just. Rough week, I assumed the worst. Come, ah. Come in. The coffee's fresh. You're not injured, are you, because this broom closet really isn't the place to handle that."
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nsk96 · 1 year ago
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Personal rant, might delete later. Just gotta dispel some negative thoughts
I'm tired of being my mom's emotional punching bag. Like why does she expect to listen to her rants about my dad all the time as if I don't have my low moods too? Like I don't get depressed too? I don't need to be reminded of the hell we live in every moment of everyday.
We finished watching a movie and my mom decided to get up and do some work. I continued to sit and rest because 1) I strained my right arm during my hospital rotation and it's been in a sling ever since because I can barely use it. 2) I am sleep deprived and have a horrible headache. The neighbors next door blasting music is bad enough but my mom ranting out loud (to herself) about all the crap my dad did and didn't do doesn't make things better. 3) I'm feeling depressed as it is and started scrolling through instagram for funny videos to lift my mood a little while she continued to rant and rave out loud.
So naturally, not being in the right state of mind to listen to her ranting and make noise as she packs some things, I decided to go to my bedroom to get some quiet and if possible a nap to heal my headache. When I got to my room she was saying something but I didn't hear her and didn't know she was talking to me.
Of course she called out to me again and then started yelling at me saying that I went to my room to ignore her. I said, "I was in my room I didn't know you were talking to me." She said, "no you were out here on the chair (in the living room)." Then I replied, "are you sure I wasn't in my room already before you started talking to me?" And she said she was sure I was out there and I don't know how she can be so sure when she was in the dining room behind the living room. Then she yelled out that no one listens to her and that I decided to get up and leave just because I don't want her to ask me to do anything. This all happened in a matter of 2-3 minutes. Imagine if I had only gotten up to use the bathroom instead, would she still make that accusation?
It's one thing for people that don't know me to assume the worse of me, but honestly it hurts when the one person who supposedly knows me best is assuming the worst of me. Then about 10 minutes later I fell asleep in my bed because the dizziness was finally too much to handle. She suddenly barged in and I woke up. She wanted me to come see something but I told her I had fallen asleep and I have a headache and she finally left me alone, but not until saying something that rubbed me the wrong way. I don't even remember what it was because I was so disoriented with heart palpitations from being woken up so suddenly from deep sleep.
I'm not always going to be in the right mental health to listen to her rant. She needs therapy more than I do but I doubt she is going to find a therapist because she's in denial. Why find a therapist when I can be her therapist, right? I'm tired of this. I live in the same shit she does, I don't need to be constantly reminded of it just because she can't regulate her emotions.
Like, does she still expect me to get married someday after seeing what it has done to her and what it continues to do to her. I'm not even married and yet I'm already tired of marriage. I'm tired of living with my parents where there's arguments every day just because my dad is a narcissistic manchild, and now my mom is exhibiting narcissistic tendencies and I'm the one having to deal with it when all I want is some peace and quiet to take care of my mental health or just rest after spending the whole month doing my hospital rotation (don't get me wrong, I enjoyed rotation but is was exhausting af and my preceptor gave me a bunch of projects so I lost a lot of sleep).
I want to move out so that I can have time and quiet to myself, but can't because it costs way too much to rent. The lowest price I've seen for a one-bedroom apartment that's not in a rough neighborhood was $1600 a month and that was just a bedroom with a bathroom. You want a kitchen? Be prepared to pay $1800 or more.
I'm tired.
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castle-dominion · 1 year ago
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c4x15 pandora
Liveblog
oh I feel like this is a little bit plot heavy but not really
THIS one is the who killed markiplier episode with a billion causes of death! Ye! tho tbh I remember this one & it is kind of intellectually stimulating & I am not on my meds yet this morning, I just took my meds I forgot last night & I want to give it some time in between to prevent nausea
MR: Oh, you’re making me your fabulous pasta Carbonara. Ohh, you shouldn’t have.
RC: I didn't
Castle is so allowed to be concerned for his baby's internship
(I've seen gifs tho ik what it is)
Your better half lol martha
MR: Ah, ah, ah, ah. My lips are sealed.
RC: Then you won’t be using them to eat my…pasta Carbonara.
MR: (sigh)All right. Well, let me say this. This internship has my personal Seal of Approval.
RC: That doesn’t make me feel any better.
hellacious? that a word? Is it the 80s?
LP: No I.D., but lots of causes of death.
RC: You mean, other than gravity?
LP: Oh, yeah. See that bullet wound?
[Lanie shines a light on the corpse.]
KB: So, he was shot before he fell?
LP: And stabbed.
KB: Shot and stabbed?
LP: And choked, and has a pencil jammed in the side of his neck.
RC: ouwa!? Gives new meaning to the term “overkill.”
JE+AC: *don't make eye contact don't make eye contact don't make eye contact*
RC, leaving, absent-mindedly: Hey alexis
AC, approaching Dr Parish: Hey *don't look suspicious don't look suspicious*
RC:
RC: ALEXIS????
jdshafkjshdfjk great interaction
RC: It’s—I just—I don’t know if you should be exposed to crime scenes and dead bodies.
AC: Oh, I’m already used to it. It’s equal parts gross and cool.
LP: I heard that and I couldn’t agree with you more.
You really don't bleed that fast. & if you're wearing clothes it wouldn't happen like that. I've even done autosurgery & it would be hard to get a trail of blood that bloody.
He did not stand there for "a minute" he stood there for like two seconds while he opened the door, judging by how close the other droplets of blood are
KR: *talking abt the case* *watching the video* ,, Hey. Pretty cool about Alexis’ internship. *looks at castle* Or Not.
tbh I would totally keep the sandwich in my hand when it is in the air & I'd bring it with me
Ooh holy crap ryan's jacket is navy blue with black plaid-type stripes patterning it & it's pretty af, & then he's wearing a nice light blue shirt with no tie. I wish we got to see more of Luke Reichle's pants & shoes. That man is the bomb.
She's so calm talking abt her kidnapping & murder threat
Tina Massey: All he told me was that the man doesn’t exist.
Cut to LP: The man doesn’t exist as far as I can tell.
more broken bones than Evel Knievel. You’re not gonna believe his x-rays. I WANT TO SEE THE X-RAYS LETME SEE
Espt is looking nice today. Deep red maybe burdungy dress shirt & tie, grey jacket.
& Gage is gone!
Look up! Look up! People never look up!
Nice music
RC: Okay, hang on. Listen to me. I’m glad you weren’t there, because the kind of person who took John Doe’s body is the kind of person who wouldn’t think twice about hurting whoever got in the way.
That is the truth
VG: I assume he snuck out of the back exit.
KR:
JE:
KR: Actually, he went out through the front door
They call them blues, huh. Like how us chefs call them our whites.
btw I can't help but think that his name is phineas gage, the guy with the railroad pipe in his head or smth.
Whose desk is that??? Why is espt not doing this on his own computer? Why was he standing hunched over instead of sitting? Esp since he sits down now?
caskett outfits are also pretty btw.
Hold on the bullet is still in her head. She was shot in the back of the head & since there is no huge horrible exit wound or any exit wound at all, the bullet must still be in there. But where did all the blood come from? She is still bleeding out her nose but that would not have been enough blood
What is with ryan's shirt today? It seems pink but the collar (nice wide collar btw) is white.
Stay put to keep an eye on the body lol
Steaming cup of tea, sus.
& she lost her gun many times but always gets it back & it's ryan who is traumatized by 3xk having his gun
LP: Crazy. [...] The fact that Richard Castle, a man unburdened by regret and guilt, has a child that carried the weight of the world.
Well there was the time drug sellers stole their body
LP: Bodies just don't disappear
*enters a house with no body*
omg a NUMBER PAD for floors?? You have THAT MANY?
wait older bro said that the hospital he works at has number pads too nvm it can't be that much
*sexy lady walks up to castle*
Are we going to get to see Agent Gray?
So it's the detective beckett of the cia.
lmao treason is punishable by death? Screw that. U shouldn't be allowed to kill people & treason is a weird concept in the first place.
Thomas gage speaks 11 languages? I want that. He speaks english, german, french, spanish, portugese, greek, russian, arabic, cantonese, mandarin, urdu,
the cia: *does all the crap they did, a lot of which is a matter of public record*
The cia: *surprised pikachu when someone goes rogue*
Y'all sent ONE person to go pick up gage?
Becks has cell service down here?
Beckett you probably SHOULD have asked if u could answer seeing as you're in the cia & all
JE: She has a notation in her day planner, but all it says is....... *finds it & clicks on it even tho it is literally one word & I'm sure he could have remembered* “Pandora.”
Wow spies how sus.
What work have they done? Y'all are insane & stupid & lmao these spy stories are so weird & stupid.
Girl no you are not the cop here
RC: Ooh, wait. I’ve gotta see those direct-dial icons they put on our phones.
*beckett's has a CIA logo; castle's is a panic button*
ngl I feel bad for gates
Walks right thru espt lol
KR: So, seriously, what’s going on?
KB: Guys, I’m sorry. We really can’t talk about it.
JE: Come on. This is us.
*Beckett gives them a look*
*They turn to Castle bc they know they won't get it out of beckett & a musical bass plays*
RC: No. Hey, sorry, boys. Classified. Top secret. Our eyes only. Defcon 1. & if I did tell you, well, *looks them up & down* then I’d have to kill you.
JE, stepping forward a bit: Yeah? Good luck with that.
RC: Yeah, realistically, that’s not—
JE: I’m gonna go on record and say that this sucks.
KR: Sucks.
Mum def noticed the chess clock
castle adhd moments
woah that is pricey af! I'm glad I live in canada where we have space
Ew. It's like that tiktok trend where girls that are "not like other girls" show off by talking cars. Who cares? Cars are boring to me but cool to you good job have fun but I don't care. I like rocks & minerals & rocks are a dirty boy thing but do you care? no!
who laps whoM
Castle's right
Car phone?
Oh lol. *69?
Whoa ok that was fast & seemingly risky. I watched that at 1/16 speed & still idk what's going on it's so fast
Why phones on the ground tho... please don't break them ugh ok fine whatever. That's spy stuff for you
KB: (whisper) Castle. *Beckett turns on her flashlight. She finds Castle cringing.*
KB: Castle, what are you doing?
RC: Bracing myself to shield you from a hail of bullets. *goes back to cringing*
KB: Yeah, well, that’s very gallant of you, but you can stop bracing. I think he left.
RC: Oh. Man, my life was passing before my eyes. I think I lost track of time.
Punch out the tail light?
Aren't you supposed to tell people where you are going now?
KB: ... You pressed the panic button, didn’t you?
RC: Well, if there was ever a time to panic, I think this was it.
KB: Yeah, especially since it was Detective Ryan who found it.
Sophia Turner: By using all the coolest toys.
Just like Jesse or Jacquie or whoever the fbi lady was.
Edit:Jordan shaw
What if it was a call NOT to new jersey or OVER 60 seconds?
Math guy? Tracy was a math fellow too
lmao spy shit & USA shit
As a deaf person: no
Tracy played chess
Sus girly
*says their plan right in front of the cia elevator boy*
that would be a sad job you're a highly trained spy & your job is to stand in the elevator
surprised her hair is that nice
RC: I’m not in a--… How did you find out about that? No, wait. Let me guess. Beckett to Lanie to Alexis to you.
RC: Is nothing sacred?
MR: Not much.
What if it is not a chess play maybe it is people & locations
JE: I found one from ten years ago. Tracy and a bunch of her grad student friends went on a white-water rafting trip with a Dr. Blakely, their professor, although it wasn't a good time for him. He drowned during the trip.
*Esposito hands Beckett the accident report.*
KB: So he faked his death and Tracy was in on it.
JE: WHO faked his death-- BLAKELY??
[ugh the way his voice cracks a bit on "blakely" oof]
*Esposito grabs the report back.*
KB: Uheuah… I'm sorry. I can't tell you.
JE, shaking head: You know, a man can only take so much.
RC: She isn't my partner. You are.
That little smile he loves her
I don't want to ask a question.
*asks question*
sus
Vulnerability assessment...?
Big bro didn't realize this was POST 2008
y u asking abt the linchpin? He wouldn't trust u
dun dun dun & then he dies & then the car goes omg bro open a window before u go under
aaaand they're under. If you are in a car, you must open the window BEFORE you get under the water.
Ok that is the end of the disc. I just watched the blue butterfly & I saw the commentary recently too so I won't be transcribing that today. The deleted scene is good tho. Alexis is talking abt all her internships & says she's going to apply to them all & whichever ones she does NOT get into, well, good. It eliminates them for her. Good idea.
Welp that was fun. I might go back & film some clips to post obsessively now.
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mercurytrinemoon · 4 years ago
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Another post on Moon signs you can drag me for
Before we get into the actual thing, I'd like to say this post initially started as something else but ultimately, what I tried to put across is, sometimes Moon signs aren’t that easy to decipher. It’s easy to grasp overall characteristics of the signs and then learn how to identify their specific traits. But what people seem to forget it that Moon represents the deepest side of us & our inner world - it’s uncommon to really see someone’s side of it unless you really pay attention. Sometimes I’m surprised to see what someone’s Moon sign is even if I know this person well. Meaning, people usually hide that part of them - or they just simply process it internally and others can’t see their emotional reactions. It’s also uncommon for folks these days to fully express their emotional needs so it gets even trickier to pin-point their Moon characteristics. I don't think I have to mention this but, of course, your entire chart should be taken into account, as well as house placement, aspects. Personally, I like to also look at Moon's dispositor.
Let’s start from my friends, Gemini Moons, who, I feel, get a bad rep for not showing their feelings and scanning every emotion like an AI. Nah-ah. I know this one Gemini Moon whose immediate emotional reactions aren’t very cerebral in the sense of processing everything in the mind and intellectualizing it aka, what people like to label as being un-emotional. Instead her reactions are often fast (air energy) but physically expressed through Mercury (Gemini Moon’s dispositor) and Sun (overall identity) – she has them both in Aries. She’s a crybaby who can burst into tears in a matter of seconds. So she’s not something that would stereotypically be assigned to a Gemini Moon. But what I did notice is that all Gemini Moons tend to have this weird look on their face when they’re processing stuff. As if they were about to have a brain malfunction; they stop and have that specific worried look. They also like to either gossip or tell stories (either real or made up lol); they’re great with words - they can talk for hours if they feel comfortable with you. They just crave interaction and mental stimulation. Their quick reactions tend to make them effortlessly witty. Even if they’re a withdrawn Gemini type, they make up for it through social media and technology or just a quiet exploration. My shy Cancer pal with Moon in Gemini is now a brand/website designer and an instagram queen who travels the world. This is great energy for content creators in general. And don’t forget that Geminis need to have their fingers in many pies. It’s because they always have a backup plan… and they get bored easily so they need that chaos around them to feel at home. They like to have options in everything, which is kind of funny cause it’s hard for them to make up their minds and actually choose something. And they store a lot of information in their brains… I feel like it must be exhausting, no? 
On the other side of the axis, whenever I see someone with a Sagittarius Moon, I can immediately say “yup, a Sag Moon indeed” (probably thanks to my Sag stellium), meaning, they all seem the same to me. Sag Moons often find comfort in exploration - best if it’s literal travel. They always seem to need to free themselves from their surroundings, family, roots or their own culture to discover something new and exciting, even if it’s only in the imaginary words - through books, movies and other medias. Their happiness always lies somewhere else from where they currently are. Like, I think all Sagittarius Moons that I know have left their parents and went their own paths early on. And they have this yolo attitude. Just like Sagittarius Suns, they’re massive dorks, probably also obnoxious… sometimes in a REALLY annoying way. They’re either a) very wise and curious b) lil preachy and stuck up c) just plain dumb clowns with no filter. But they’re all funny. And they take things lightly, with a natural ease. This means sometimes they may offend other people just because they assume everyone’s as chill as they are; „relax! I was just kidding!” - that’s a phrase you’ll hear from them often… I mean, unless you’re a jokester yourself and you’re unmoved by their sarcastic or teasing words. They have somewhat spiritual or philosophical nature so besides making you laugh, be prepared for deep monologues. They want to believe everything will eventually fall into place. It’s also hard to bring them down - or I should say, it’s hard to make them acknowledge that they're feeling down - they always try to distract or cover it up with a joke, usually a self-depricating one. If Sagittarius Moon (or Sagittarius in general tbh) is telling you that they’re unhappy, then it’s serious.
I’ve noticed there comes a point in life for a Libra Moon where they just have enough. They’re too nice for everyone and one day they wake up and yell about how they have to do everything for everyone and everyone wants something from them and bLah bLah. Makes me think of when Bieber was this overly nice kid and then he was like “I’M NOT TAKING PICTURES WITH FANS ANYMOREEEE AAGhJFJFUWIUq”. Yup, a Libra Moon, everyone. They know how to charm and appeal to people, I think overall they’re easily liked by others. Sometimes it’s simply because they like to kiss people’s ass just to avoid being rejected. That’d be a Libra Moon’s nightmare. They like other people’s company too much. And they thrive in relationships and in a big circle of friends. What they hate is confrontations (like every other Libra placement omg). They may be good mediators when it comes to other people but if they’re involved in an argument they get sooooo passive aggressive. They just don’t know how to handle conflicts - it’s as if their nervous system wasn’t designed for emotional outbursts (because, you know, everything needs to be peaceful and harmonious Venus-style). A fussy or angry Libra Moon will suddenly get loud as they blame someone for something… and then they’ll leave the room cause they’re scared to even hear the other side of the argument. Or, alternatively, they’ll make a doormat out of themselves just to stay quiet and avoid causing any rift. And making decisions? I think it’s common for them to have two different romantic interests and feeling so dramatically torned between them *Alexa play Agony from Into the Woods*. Then when they decide, they have problems breaking the bad news to one of them.
On the other end we have Aries Moons. *deep breath* Listen, I think I’ve said enough about having Moon in Aries (or rather purely dissing it) but last time it made a bit of controversy so why not wreak even more havoc. I have a good description for this one: I will punch you but be gentle with me cause it’s easy to break my fragile heart. So basically, imagine putting Buttercup and Bubbles into one person. And honestly, I need to say this, women with this placement are just hot badasses, look at friggin Angelina Jolie. The queen of badass. The queen of hot. People say because Aries folks move quickly (literally and figuratively lol), they often get bored with whatever got them excited last week... or yesterday. Ha, yeah, right. You get their heart to open up and they’re going to have their eyes for you ONLY, like a lil puppy. Give us treats and we’ll build our world around you. But NOT in a clingy way by any means, we need our space and independence after all. My lil niece is an Aries Moon and ever since I started playing guitar with her, she became my #1 fan or something. That’s the energy. But we get easily bored with day-to-day stuff so yeah, there’s that. Innocent and clumsy yet raw in their emotions - so there’s potential to make mistakes sometimes (or a lot of times) or having this tunnel vision, like „I want this and I don’t care about anything else!”. And then excusing it with some „but the heart wants what it wants” crap (looking @ ya, Selena Gomez). They experience constant inner movement and turbulence that needs a physical outlet in order to feel satisfied. WE NEED PASSION IN OUR LIVES, OKAY?!?!?? now leave me alone
Aquarius Moons aren’t as cold as you might think. People like to describe them as if their Moons actually disappeared from their charts: dEtaCheD, uNeMotiOnaL, tHey fEeL nOtHinG. It’s just they don’t sit and dwell on things, they find solutions to the problems. If something doesn’t make them feel right, they just leave that situation. They do care about other people’s well-being, they’re very sensitive in that regard, they’re humanitarians after all. Yeah, they detach, but from their own emotions - in order to make sense of them. They may seem like snow queens sometimes (and this comes from an Aqua rising) but they’re really friendly and if you pique Aqua Moon’s interest, they’re going to be curious about you. They like new exciting things so if you’re cool enough, you have their attention. Usually they’re pretty progressive as well and can’t stand injustice. That’s why you’ll see them standing up for those who are in need. Uranian energy gives them a specific type of sharp intuition and wit. Idk they’re just cute in a quirky way. But this buzzing, fast energy is a great recipe for anxiety, over-thinking and frequent changes of heart. Similarly to Sadges, they need constant exploration and stimuli. Intelligent, people-oriented (but not people-pleasing! Look to Libras for that), individualistic. They definitely need their own space and independence. Their decision-making is fast and it’s easy for them to just say „screw it, I’m doing this”. My Aquarius Moon friend just casually decided that she’s moving to Turkey cause nothing in our city (or even country) seems interesting or helping her expand… So she was like, see ya suckers, I’m leaving.
Leo Moons shine from within. You’ll spot them from a mile away even if they’re on the shyer side. They’re all lil stars no matter their profession. Very expressive people & easily excitable. Art galleries, live shows, theater - they love a creative environment even if they don’t pursue that lifestyle themselves... One of my Leo Moon friends is an art junkie – suggest taking her to an obscure play at the local bar, a music festival, a weird museum – she’ll say yes in the blink of an eye. And she loves discussing these things. A Leo Moon may not see themselves as artistically inclined, but usually sooner or later they at least try dipping their toes in music, arts, acting, dancing... you name it. They’ll learn a simple 3-chord song on a ukulele and then play it to you in excitement. Imagine a lil kid making you a puff piece and being super proud of it. Sometimes they just need some encouragement. Remember, Leos feed off of praise, that’s their fuel. Doesn’t mean they’re all proud, egotistical people but what it does mean is that they need a lil assurance to gain their self-confidence. I lived with a Leo Sun/Moon for almost 15 years (who’s a musician btw so yeah, a classic creative Leo type) - he did have some issues lol but ego wasn’t one of them. Drama followed him everywhere but I’m pretty sure he disliked it himself. BUT, with that being said, I feel like Leo Moons tend to dramatize themselves internally. People say it’s something Virgos or Geminis would do - because of their tendency to overthink, but Leos can just go straight to a worst-case scenario in their heads simply because they exaggerate everything. So don’t be surprised to see a Leo Moon feeling down and anxious. On the bright side, be their cheerleader and they’ll give that to you in return. They need sparks and dullness kills their upbeat spirit. They need to feel their own heartbeat so the feeling of excitement is crucial for their well-being. Romantic, giving and kind. They’re fixed fire so once they’re set on something or someone, they give their all and are rather loyal.
I feel like my chart low-key tells me I should dislike Taurus Moons but I just want to melt in their arms and just stay there? Like, forever? Low maintenance but a bit slow-moving and stubborn. They won’t settle easily, at least not officially, so you need to have a lot of patience with them. They need 3 things to feel secure and at peace: physical stimuli, time and a stable place they know they can always come back to. And it’s not like all of them are total lazy homebodies, they may be active spirits & travellers but they are going to have a reallyyyyy nice cosy flat somewhere near their childhood place (gotta be be close to their moms, you know). Not necessary materialistic but they may have one thing that they collect throughout their entire life and they won’t. ever. get. rid. of. it. There needs to be at least one constant in their life - like you know when Elton John decided to go to therapy but one thing he stuck to was shopaholism? Very Taurus Moon of him. Also, they’re very affectionate. In fact, may have issues differentiating between affection and passion - this is actually something Taurus Moon and Aries Moon have in common. Pro tip - and this is in regard to all Taurus placements - don’t smell bad when you’re around them (I mean, don't smell bad in general, no one likes stinky people lol). They have a sensitive smell. Doesn’t help that they like to smell everything. EVERYTHING. I swear, Taurus, stop sticking your nose in every single thing!!! You don't need to know how that piece of utensil smells like. Jeez.
Scorpio Moon (shoutout to those who remember me accidentally calling them sporpio last time I made a post on Moons lol). I honestly don’t know what to tell you... I feel like all you hear about Scorpio Moon is 100% true, there’s nothing to debunk here. It’s the Moon of extremes. Prone to jealousy and surpressing emotions; severe trust issues; they’re instigators. I was low-key bullied by a few Scorpio Moons when I was in school so there’s that. Very secretive and private. Scorpio Moon will be like “I’m in control of the situation!!!!” and you’ll just look at them and think, yeah, right, looks like the situation is controlling you. But keep being in denial, sure. Like, don’t get me wrong, Scorpios in general can be TOTAL SWEETHEARTS OMG but ya’ll have issues. Even celebrities who have this placements... Think Beyonce or Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus... I feel like they have issues lol, especially with control and the need for everything to be perfectly the way they want it to be. To be fair, that’s probably why they’re all so influential and high status: it’s either their way or highway. They need constant reinvention; they’re the ones to wake up one day and decide they’re going through a spiritual awakening blah blah. They also like to talk about dark and shocking topics while having casual lunch with you... So like, be warned that you may end up with a depressed mood after talking to them for 10 minutes. And their mood swings... don’t even get me started on that.
I don't know where to start with Virgo Moons... I feel like they're very calculated and nit-picky but they're a lot warmer than Virgo Suns. I think I called them softies in my last Moon post. Very sweet people but prone to anxiety. You gotta experience seeing them having a heart attack over someone mixing bananas with milk or messing with their stuff that’s been put in a perfect arrangement. I saw a Virgo Moon once literally squealing shouting "YOU'RE GONNA RUIN YOUR LAPTOP WITH THAT SUPERGLUE!!!" Highly entertaining to watch, not gonna lie. Gordon Ramsay has his Moon in Virgo - it’s conjunct Uranus and Pluto so that’s an extreme but I think him being fed up with people over small inconsistencies in their food prep is a perfect example of this energy (btw his chart is hilarious, it literally explains EVERYTHING). They're VERY picky with their food as well, just as Virgo Suns tend to be. Like, they’ll only have a specific type of single origin coffee or they’ll be vegan or something. Self-critical over their work, which is a plus... except for when finishing a simple task takes them a few hours because they want to make it perfect. They take everything seriously. This of course doesn't mean they're total bores - on the contrary, Mercurial energy gives them witty approach and a talent for choosing the right words at the right time. Tho they can be a bit awkward or shy with it. Can be as bubbly as Gemini but the grounded earthy energy gives them more practical and almost nurturing nature - earth signs are providers after all and Virgo is the sign of service - helping others is like their second nature. I’ve noticed they often find comfort in devoting themselves to a choosen task - this is why if they pursue something, they’re really good at it. They’re also very likely to dissect their emotions.
I’m not a fan of water Moons in general but Pisces Moon is the best water Moon in my opinion. Maybe because I like Pisces overall. I think it’s like a tweaked Sagittarius Moon - just more internalized, withdrawn & gloomy. But unlike Sag, who has a tendency to be an adventurous optimist, Pisces likes to focus on the negatives instead. Obviously, they can be very upbeat, they’re Jupiter-ruled after all, but there’s somehing whiny about them lol. Just like Sadges, they dream big and have their standards put up sooo high but if there's not much active energy in their charts, they’re often too passive to actually fullfill any of that - or I should say, they’re stuck daydreaming about it, believing it’ll just magically manifest for them... OR they do everything with an apathetic approach. What I do like about them is that they’re funny. And really chill - sometimes to the point of coming off as confused or hazy. I feel like a lot of them would just love to sleep all day... or sit by the lake and just think about the world. Most of them are also compassionate folks - again, maybe a bit too much. Hey Pisces, you don’t have to take everything to heart, it’s okay. On the bright side, they have big imagination and the ability to disconnect and just create. I have a few Pisces Moons in the family: one’s that sleepy artistic type with grand visions, one is an asshole-ish but funny entrepreneur with a questionable work ethic and one is a witty IT guy who’s actually a workaholic and likes to shut in his own world of computers and numbers or whatever he does there... So there’s this factor of tunnel vision, escapism and, on the more negative side, being kinda iffy and almost addicted to the way they want things to be. Once they set their eyes on something it’s done deal…
My issue with Capricorn Moons is that they're often trying to be sooooo mature omg, like, loosen up a bit. It usually starts when they're in their later teens... They can be the most rebellious kid that likes to have fun and suddenly they'll be like "I'm too old for this ugh grow up" *judgmental stare*. My 18-year old niece once literally roasted my sister that she's in her 30s and still doesn't have her own place (well so do I so I guess she also indirectly roasted me as well???). And she was SO deadpan with it. Because she herself wants to be independent and start a family before turning 25. This is classic Capricorn Moon energy. They suck out joy out of everything lol. Of course, OF COURSE, it depends on the whole chart but I feel like worst-case scenario is that at one point in their life (or maybe even a few times throughout it) they go through a massive shake-up that makes them change their attitude and re-evaluate their structures. There's this multi-instrumentalist Yvette Young - she's a sweet, funny Cancer/Leo mix but her Moon is in Capricorn. She used to be a competitive pianist but the pressure that was put on her has led her to severe health issues. Like yes, she’s now an extremely talented musician - thanks to family’s expectations & a rigid schooling system (Saturn) but it did cost her a lot. She has recovered since then but I think it's a perfect example of this energy. It’s very ambitious and hardworking but emotionally demanding in the sense that you have to actually put your emotions aside in order to deal with the rest. Another thing, because Moon can be associated with family, there's often a weird dynamic surrounding this topic. I don't think I've met a Capricorn Moon that had a completely healthy and happy relationship with their fam or one of the family members. Or, alternatively, there can be a strong bond between one of them but usually created in the atmosphere of hardships.
Last but not least, Cancer Moons. I had three school friends with this placement and all of them made this sad, whiny face as they said „oh I don’t knoooow anymoreee”  when they were feeling torned or frustrated. To be fair, two of them are water Suns so for them, it added to the mushyness. All Cancer Moons I know are family people or better yet, baby people. One of those school friends is now a guidance counsellor, working with kids; the other turned her instagram into a gallery of her own child after she gave birth. So much kid content, omg. There’s also something very indecisive about them… or I should say, hesitant. They’re not very fast at making decisions. Also, what’s interesting, they’re kind of like walking libraries, they remember a lot – so they store a lot of information in their brains just like air signs but they process it in a completely different way – emotional, obviously. I think this also makes them hold grudges a lot. For them it’s more of a question of „how does it make me feel?” rather than „how valid is it?”. There’s certain stubborness in them in that regard because they don’t keep their minds open. It’s also hard for them to walk away from people and situations, like a crab pinching you with its claws – it won’t let go. Sensitive but not easy to open up; very protective of themselves and their loved ones & they tend to shut down in their crab shells. But they may crave connection and the feeling of belonging. Also very caring and with a big imagination. They’re very receptive of their environment so mood swings are a thing for them.
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ragingbookdragon · 4 years ago
Text
All I Wanna Be Is Somebody To You
A Jason Todd x Reader One-Shot
Word Count: 2.6K Warnings: None
Author's Note: For the one anon who wanted a nervous reader! I hope I did this justice for you, darling! Enjoy! -Thorne
**********************************************************************
She didn’t hate talking. Not really. But the idea of holding conversations with people she didn’t know sent her heart fluttering and her throat tightening until it was impossible to breathe. More often than not, she found herself apologizing a lot for the stuttering or the repeating of things she said. Most people gave her odd looks, told her to stop apologizing so much (like that ever helped anyone), or laughed and told her she was cute—which was nice until she realized they meant in a childish sort of way rather than an endearing one.
But it wasn’t always like that. According to her parents, there’d been a time when she couldn’t stop talking. Always had something to say and had somebody to tell. Something changed during her years, she knew when, even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself or her family when they asked what happened to their outgoing and talkative daughter. Too many times she’d heard, “You know no one cares about X, right?” or “Oh my God, will you shut up?” and every time she heard it from a friend it dug into her a little deeper, made her shut her mouth tighter, and tore her heart much harsher.
And because she chose to be the silent type instead of the outgoing one, people assumed her arrogant and cold, distant and rude, and she found herself spending most of middle school and high school by herself. She was glad when graduation came, and while she’d dreaded giving her valedictorian speech, she did manage to get through it without too much trouble. It did feel like her one triumph against everyone who ignored her throughout school.
College freed her. Allowed her to make a flexible schedule, take smaller classes, and be solitary when she wanted. She’d refused a dorm room on the campus, living only fifteen minutes from Gotham University, instead choosing to commute daily and she liked it a lot more than having roommates in a four-bedroom apartment on the school grounds.
When she wasn’t in class, she stayed home a lot. It came with being a homebody, but when she did go out into the great big city, she liked to shop. Little antique shops or bookstores. She went to bookstores more than she did school. There was something so wonderful about finding a book in the shop and sitting down at a café and reading quietly. Which is how she met him, and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why he wanted anything to do with her. She was quiet and shy, and he was open and flirty. They obviously didn’t match in any way, shape, or form. At least, that’s what she thought.
***
She drew her gaze along the wall of books before her, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she searched for the novel. It’d been a long time since she’d read The Count of Monte Cristo, a copy of her father’s that he’d had when she was just a child. Something had reminded her of it the other day and all she could think about was getting her own so she could annotate in the margins.
As she came across it, she started reaching when someone got to it first, one finger pulling it out by its spine before taking it into their hand. She visibly deflated with a soft sigh as it was the last copy and hung her head in defeat.
“I’m sorry, were you wanting this too?” Her head cocked up and she gazed at the young man before her. He smiled and she felt like she’d been shot in the chest at how dazzling it was. “Here, you can have it.”
Swallowing thickly, she shook her head, “You got it first.” Nodding, she added, “It’s yours.”
He cocked a brow at that. “Well, from the devastated look on your face, doll, you want it to be yours.”
Her cheeks warmed at that, and she felt nervous where she stood, resisting the urge to fidget under his scrutiny. “N-no it’s okay.” She said. “You take it.”
“Oh no you don’t. That’s not how this works.” He chuckled and took her hands, pressing the book into them, then he winked at her. “The doll deserves to have her book.”
If there had ever been a time in which she wanted to explode from embarrassment, it was then, and before she knew it, she shoved the book back into his arms and so hard that it must’ve knocked the wind out of him because he gasped. She spun around and took off down the aisle and out the front doors as fast as she could, wanting nothing more than to disappear in the crowded streets. That or sink into the ground. Maybe next week she’d come back and get the book. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be there again.
***
Then again, her hopes were always wrong, and she picked up the copy of The Divine Comedy, flipping it open to read the first page.
“I see you’re a fan of the classics, aren’t you, doll?”
She snapped the book shut when she heard his voice and looked over at him. Something inside annoyed her at the cocky smirk he wore, much more was the arm he had resting on the top of the bookshelf as he gazed at her.
“You know, you left a nice bruise on me the other week.” He quipped, shifting his weight to cross his ankles. “You’re pretty strong.”
“Thank you,” she muttered, turning to look back at the book. “Sorry I hit you…it was an accident.”
“Well, I can accept your apology if you tell me your name.”
“Why?” she questioned quietly, wiggling her toes.
“Because I wanna put a name to such a cute face. Why else?” he flirted, and she scowled at the book cover. “Oh, that’s an even more adorable face.”
“Quit doing that!” she hissed. “It’s not funny!”
He chuckled. “Oh contraire, it’s actually hilarious.” He took a step towards her. “I’m Jason, by the way.”
Her eyes darted to the outstretched hand, and she stared at it for a split second before softly shaking it. “(Y/N).” she murmured.
Before she could pull her hand back, he raised it and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “Enchanté ma chérie,” he professed, breath hot against her skin and just like before, she was so absolutely flustered she was yanking her hand back and poor Jason’s grip slipped, and he whacked himself in the face with his own hand.
“Nice to meet you!” (Y/N) yelped and scurried off down the aisle and to the register where she purchased her book in record time. Third time was the charm and she prayed that he wouldn’t be there again.
***
And whoever lived upstairs must’ve really had it out for her because she flipped the page in her One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and heard an exaggerated cough. Looking up through her eyelashes, she saw Jason standing there with a grin on his face. “Hello (Y/N),” he purred, and she immediately felt her cheeks become hot.
“Hi Jason,” she muttered, gazing at her book, listening to the chair screech as he sat down across from her.
“How are you doing today?” he asked, setting down his own copy of Arabian Nights.
(Y/N) cleared her throat, finding it harder to focus on the book over the smell of his woody and oriental cologne. She thought she smelled a twinge of tobacco with it. “I’m fine.” Her eyes found his teal ones for a moment. “And you?”
He smiled, making her heart pick up a beat. “Doing pretty good.” He winked. “I got to see you again. Though I’m hoping I don’t get hit again. Either by a book or my own fist.”
“Sorry…” she cringed, sinking down in her seat. “That was an accident.”
Jason shrugged and propped his elbows on the table, placing his chin on his fingers. “Don’t worry about it. Say, do you like coffee?”
“I do,” she murmured.
“Great, want anything from the café?” he asked, nodding at the board and she looked over at it.
“I guess I could order a latte,” she replied more to herself than him, starting to pull her wallet out.
“Nah, I got it.” Jason said, standing from his seat.
(Y/N) blinked. “Wait, what?”
“I said I got it.” He quipped and she jumped from her seat to stop him, but caught the leg of her chair, and she flailed, stumbling right into Jason. They went tumbling to the floor and she landed atop him. For a minute they were both stunned silent as the people in the store looked at them and he smirked at her. “Well, this saves me the trouble of asking you out to dinner.” He winked again. “Should’ve told me you had a bold streak, doll.”
She immediately scrambled up, placing one of her hands on his chest to shove off him when her leg slipped, and her knee went into his groin. He groaned and rolled over, holding his crotch and (Y/N) was so mortified all she could do was apologize profusely and at one point she was sure she was mixing up her words, but it didn’t matter. Grabbing her things, she started running off a third time.
Though she’d made it ten feet out of the door and down the street before someone grabbed her round the waist and hauled her to a stop. “Oh no! We’re not doing this pattern again! I am not getting hit a fourth time!”
(Y/N) spun in his arm and gaped at him. “I’m sorry!”
Jason sighed heavily and lowered his head. “Holy crap, I’ve never had such a hard time getting a girl to go out with me.”
“You wanna go out with me?” She pointed to herself despite her flustered state. “W-with me?” she gave him a dubious look. “Really? M-me?”
“Well, if you wanna hit me a fourth time to be sure, go ahead, but yeah,” he retorted then heaved another sigh. “Jeez, talk about getting hit on.”
(Y/N) spluttered at that. “I did not hit on you!”
“Right, you just hit me instead.”
“It was an accident! And I said I was sorry!”
Jason grinned at her and arm away. “Well, I’ll accept your sorry’s if you go on a date with me.”
She blinked at him. “A date? When?”
“Tonight.” He said. “There’s a bookstore down in the town square for insomniacs. Open until seven A.M. and serves a mean cup of hot cocoa.” Jason smiled and took her hand. “So? How ‘bout it, doll? Wanna go out with me tonight?”
All she could do was simply stare at this gorgeous man that obviously had a thing for her for some god forsaken reason. “Why?” she asked blankly, and he seemed to falter at that.
“Why what?” he repeated, confusion etching across his face.
“Why do you wanna go out with me?” (Y/N) gestured to herself. “I’m weird.”
“So am I.” he agreed.
“I stutter a lot.”
“So does my brother.”
“I don’t talk a lot. I don’t like talking a lot. People get mad at me when I talk a lot and I prefer to listen and you’re not going to like going out with me because I’m going to be super quiet because I get flustered easily and I—”
Jason put his hand over her mouth and stared at her. “Do you ever take a breath?” she nodded silently, and he sighed. “Look, (Y/N), it’s only taken getting shoved in the stomach with a book, getting punched with my own hand, and getting nut-shot to understand that you’re not exactly comfortable with the public.”
He removed his hand. “That’s why I invited you to the bookstore. Because even in the few weeks we’ve known each other, I know you like quiet places. But if you don’t feel comfortable going with me right now, that’s okay. We can take it slow.” Jason smiled at her. “Doll, all I wanna be is somebody to you.”
(Y/N) swallowed thickly and looked at her feet, whispering, “I…don’t wanna go out right now…but I’d like to give you my number…if you’re okay with that?” she shrugged. “We can text.” Feeling hopeful she reached out and placed her hang on his arm. “And get to know each other better? Maybe tell each other our favorite books? That’s…the best way in my opinion.”
His face lit up and he murmured, “I’d love that.” He pulled out his phone, tapping at it before he handed it over to her. “Here you go.”
She took it and looked at the contact name he’d already put in. My Flustered Doll. She glared at him. “You think you’re pretty cute, don’t you, Jason? You’re not. At all.”
He smirked. “Oh, is that so?” She nodded and he quipped, “We’ll just see about that then.”
(Y/N) rolled her eyes and typed in her number, handing him back his phone. “There you go.” He glanced at it, seemingly satisfied before he locked it and put it back in his pocket, then they met each other’s gazes and she awkwardly pointed over her shoulder. “I’m going home now.”
Jason caught her hand and kissed the back of it. “See you later, doll. Stay cute.”
She was hurrying off again, his laughter in her ears, unaware that their exchanging of numbers was going to evolve into so much more in the coming months.
***
“—And I’m pretty sure I can never show my face again at school, Jay. I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life.”
He hummed, fingers gently dipping into her spine. “Well, this is coming from the girl that nut-shotted be in the middle of a busy bookstore.”
“Why would you remind me about that?” (Y/N) scowled. “It was an accident.”
“And yet it can’t be more mortifying than telling a guy to shove his head up his ass.” He retorted, eyes still closed as they basked in the sunlight streaming through the window. “This is at least a five on the ten scale.”
“More like a hundred.” She muttered, tucking her head under his chin. “I can’t believe I said that to him. Oh, I was just so—just so mad at what he said about my poem! He was just being mean!” (Y/N) gripped his sweatshirt. “You understand right?”
Jason nodded, his other hand resting at her hip. “Mhm.”
“You don’t think I’m overreacting, do you?” she frowned. “Everyone else thinks I am.”
“Telling someone that their poetry isn’t good because it isn’t iambic pentameter isn’t following constructive criticism, doll. It’s called being a douche.” She giggled and he bent his neck, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Call me next time Lord Douche-Canoe starts on your poetry again and I’ll school him on face-time.”
(Y/N) giggled again and rolled over, pressing them chest to chest and she grinned when he whined at her moving. “Thank you, Jason.”
He smiled at her. “I only take my thanks in kisses. Sorry, doll.”
Rolling her eyes, she bent down and pressed her lips to his. “I love you,” she murmured against him, and he hummed, hands grasping her hips.
“I love you more.”
“Nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” he scoffed, pulling back to look at her. “I am willingly in a relationship with the girl who nut-shot me in—MMHPF!”
(Y/N) shoved a pillow into his face, face hot as she shouted, “Stop bringing that up! It was an accident!” All she got in return was his laughter.
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Any more Toph & Zuko headcanons? (In the family/friendship sense!) I absolutely LOVE this dynamic and makes me wish there was more content on them together!!
well well well
if it isn’t an opportunity to discuss my favorite BROTP of all time... 
The first night at the temple, Toph was planning on going to Zuko’s room at night to get back at him for burning her feet, but found him still awake and extremely anxious. Instead of getting back at him, she went to ask what was up and when he deflected, she debriefed him on everyone’s names and stuff he should know about them so he would have an easier time getting on their good side. 
When Toph found out that Zuko was the Blue Spirit, his coolness factor went up by 20 in her books and she was just glad that somebody there appreciated committing casual misdemeanors as much as she did. 
On Zuko’s third day at the temple, Toph asked him to carry her to somewhere because her feet were still burned. Everyone else, including Zuko, was super confused as to why Toph was showing so much trust for him and she just brushed off their concern with “he’s the one who burned my feet in the first place, he’s the one who’s going to carry me around, deal with it” 
When the gaang crashed at the Ember Island house, Toph spent as little time inside as possible because most of it was made of wood and she couldn’t tell where she was going. Zuko picked up on this and 1. helped her find the general layout of the house without saying anything about it (and she did the thing where the clings onto people’s arms when she can’t tell where she’s going) and 2. also spent as little time in the house as possible because he just didn’t like being in there. 
One night Toph was practicing her sandbending and Zuko came out to watch her. She asked if he could help her practice and he agreed, not knowing that ‘practicing’ meant burying him under the sand so only his head was poking out. 
Zuko got back at Toph for this by tricking her into eating some extra spicy fire flakes (aka saying they were too spicy for her knowing that she would eat them to prove him wrong). This was one of her few regrets in life. 
Toph convinced Zuko to try and create glass with their combined bending. They accidentally created a small crater on Ember Island. 
Zuko is Toph’s favorite person to cling onto when they’re riding on Appa because he’s got that firebender warmth and he’s constantly regulating his breathing and she can focus on that to help calm her down 
After the war, Toph didn’t want to go back to her parent’s house and just kept making excuses about why she needed to stay in the Fire Nation to back Zuko up on the whole Being the New Firelord thing. Eventually, he picked up on the sense that she didn’t just want to stay to support him and asked her what the deal was. She opened up about not wanting to live with her parents and he was like “okay please stay here as long as you want, you don’t need an excuse.”
Zuko is one of the few people who is allowed to carry Toph on his shoulders. She likes clinging onto his head because his hair is super soft. 
Toph knew about the whole ‘where Zuko got his scar thing’ from hearing passing comments about it in the Earth Kingdom. She kind of just assumed it was common knowledge (which we’ve seen it kind of was in Zuko Alone) and kind of just assumed the gaang knew about the whole thing. This was part of the reason why she thought he was trustworthy and didn’t understand why the rest of the gaang wouldn’t believe him when he told them he had cut himself off from the Fire Nation. 
Toph was the one to escort Ozai to prison because of her metalbending and beat the crap out of him once she got the opportunity “for hurting Sparky.” She did not tell Zuko about this. 
Zuko makes Toph tea when she’s obviously upset about something. When he’s oblivious to her being upset about something, she’ll request tea as a nudge that ‘hey something’s up right now and I need to feel better’ 
After Zuko got shot with lightning, Toph metalbended the door to his room so he had to stay in bed. 
Toph returned to Earth Rumble later on just for a little bit. Zuko secretly attended her matches and fucking loved watching his friend kick everyone’s ass. He made a Blind Bandit sign to wave around. 
Iroh was the one who showed Toph what it was like to have a parental figure who believed in her abilities while still wanting her to accept the love and support of other people out not out of the notion that she was helpless, but just because people cared about her. (Similar to how he showed Zuko that the love a parental figure should be unconditional). Toph spends a lot of free time with Iroh. The three of them have many family dinners together. 
They go back and forth with threatening each other with “if you don’t start taking care of yourself, I’m going to tell Uncle” 
When Toph finally decided to confront her parents about how they treated her, she brought Zuko as backup and had to hold him off from just decking Lao in the face. 
Toph likes to bring Zuko to crappy plays so she can listen to his commentary on them 
Toph and Zuko have the kind of friendship where they’re comfortable just sitting in a room not talking, just enjoying each other’s company while they do their own separate things. 
I don’t necessarily have any particular headcanon for Toph’s sexuality, but if she were to come out as anything, Zuko would be the first person she’d tell 
Toph was Zuko’s Best Woman at his wedding
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wizkiddx · 4 years ago
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hiiiii i love your stuff - could u do one where the readers ill but they have stuff to do and tom has to look after her. maybe if they were just friends before too but both pining? thankuuuuuuuuu
should I be writing this instead of revising? clearly fucking not. Did I make this little blurb req ridiculously long purely to procrastinate? Of fucking course.
but also this was v cute! I assumed u meant famous!reader, sorry if that's not what u were after at all anon x
summary: Tom Holland turns into the readers knight in shining armour when they get ill during promo
warnings: fainting / feeling ill
///////////////////
It couldn’t be today. Of all days, why today? You’d been at home for two weeks doing absolutely nothing, before this trip. And yet it’s when your itinerary is packed to the brim, people moving heaven and earth just speak to you. Two weeks of unrelenting press for Marvels next big ensemble movie. 
Your manager was speaking to you, reeling off a run down of todays activities but instead of listening you nodded along blankly - head rather cloudy with this heavy mist that was not shaking off, no matter how hard you tried. 
“You got that Y/n/n?” Lucy pointedly spoke, eyes almost physically knocking you backwards as if her eyeliner was battery rams. Fumbling with your thoughts, your answer wasn’t particularly cohesive earning you just a disappointed head shake. 
“I um… yeh I think. Who-who did you say I was paired up with?” 
“Y/n please for the love of god. Tom, like I said the past fifty times.” And to be fair to Lucy she wasn’t wrong. It was the first major major promo tour for the both of you and after just two days so far - you were both exhausted. She was more than allowed to be a bit short tempered. 
“But we-we hardly know each other? The chemistry won’t be there and-“
“As I said, I tried to re-jig it but Kevin is of the mind that acting is your job.” Her tone was sharp but as she glared across the opposing seats, in the little mini van Marvel had hired for you as transportation, her eyes softened. Lucy had been so wrapped up in her own stress she may have overlooked quite how gingerly you were sitting. By the time she had arrived at the hotel, your stylist had already managed to half save your ghoulish looking face, with sunken under eyes and tired skin, so it wasn’t so blatantly obvious how crap you were feeling.  “Is everything okay with you?” 
It felt pretty puny to say that the jet lag from flying to Tokyo had been weighing you down further than you wanted, or that the local cuisine top chefs had kindly prepared for you last night wasn’t siting well in your stomach. To be honest, even you thought it was just your body being a bit overdramatic. So in response, you put on your best happy-go-lucky face feigning a smile.
“No no I’m fine, just want to give the best interviews I can and you know…. I’m awkward as hell as it is, then pair me with the most talented actor that I share about two minutes of screen time with…it’ll be interesting.” 
The way Lucy reacted with a weird slow nod, eyebrows furrowed, meant it was quite apparent you had perhaps overplayed that one. Had you not been so over the day before it even began, you would’ve tried again to give a more believable act. But as you were, you turned your attention back out to the bustling streets of Tokyo and the high rise buildings bordering each pavement. 
You didnt have a problem with Tom, far from it in fact. Tom was hilarious and the times you had met him, you’d both built up this weird and sarcastic competitiveness with each other. It was a game of who could get the last laugh, each of you pushing each other with the Mickey taking just a little further. Of course, not in a malicious way, just the way you’d both lived pretty similar but parallel careers - when everyone drew comparisons between the both of you, it was nice to make it a joke. 
Like Tom you’d also started out on stage, had a ‘big break’ movie as a kid and then spent your teenage years on and off film sets - till marvel happened. Then everything blew up to epic proportions, changing your life forever. Actually, it was so similar to Tom’s story, plus the fact you were also from the south west of the UK. It was bizarre your paths hadn’t crossed more - He probably could’ve been a useful ally in the the whole ‘becoming famous’ thing. 
And yet, you could probably count on two hands the amount of conversations you’d had with him. 
Now that, that was the issue. Right from the beginning you learn what the press want and when you are publicising a movie you cater into it too. They’d all be asking for the insider scoop on set; what pranks you’d pulled on each other; what was the most annoying thing about each other. Which is hard if you’d only had 5 or 6 days actually on set together. 
By the time the cab had wormed its way through the Tokyo traffic and you arrived at the PR hotel, it was already 9:30 - making you 15 minutes late (blame it on the traffic). Instantly then you were ushered straight to the interview room for the evening, no chance of green room chat or grabbing a drink before. The place was stuffy, everything was draped with black curtains except the poster board that Tom was already sitting infront of. 
He’d scrubbed up well, no doubt about it. He was wearing statement-ish burgundy suit trousers, teamed with a black knitted but collared shirt thing - that was clearly tailor made for the man. As soon as he noticed you scurry into the room, his face broke out into a warm smile, jumping up to greet you in a friendly hug. It was brief, and as you pulled back you accidentally bumped your head on one of the overhanging lights. No doubt someone had spent a ridiculous amount of time configuring them so they were positioned perfectly, which you had just ruined with your big head. 
“Oh shit!” Tom just laughed in response, shaking his head slightly as he lead you the two steps across to your pre-positioned seats. 
“Making an entrance as always I see!”
“Yeh, you know me, a bit of chaos just to keep everyone on their toes.”
“Oh is that why you’re ‘fashionably late’” With a playful wiggle of his eyebrows, you just rolled your eyes, fidgeting on the chair to find a position that didnt aggravate  your stomach so much.
“I’m ready now though! What did I miss? Just having to pretend to be your friend for 15 minutes?” You stressed the words as though the thought of conversation with Tom was the absolute worst thing in the world - which you definetly didnt think. Scowling like you’d insulted his dog Tessa, it was almost visible how the cogs were turning in his head looking for a comeback. Unfortunately for him though, he was quickly shut up but the organiser bringing the first interviewer in . 
For what would, no doubt, be a long day. 
////
Everything had started off so well, the banter was flowing between you and Tom, no major spoilers revealed that meant Marvel would have to make the journalist disappear. It was once you hit an hour of back-to-back interviews that everything started to crack bit. Because yes, it had only been an hour but that was enough to exhaust you on this particular day. When Tom joked around you got slower and slower, similarly the  energy was zapped from your own answers. It’s not very compelling when someone says ‘you have to watch this movie’ in a monotonous voice with sullen eyes. 
As the interviewers were swapping in and out, Tom actually lightly nudged your shoulder.
“Everything alright? We’re trying to sell tickets and you’ve got a face like thunder.”
“Oh no-no sorry I just, I-um.”
“You want some water?” Now looking at your with more concerned eyes, as if he was just nervous he’d actually offended you for calling you a boring bastard. And you would’ve picked up on it and alleviated his concerns, if it weren’t for the fact your eyes were glued on the water bottle he was holding out to you. You were thirsty. You knew that, that wasn’t the conundrum. What you weren’t so sure about was whether your stomach would accept it, or more violently reject it. In a very non ‘we’re-trying-to-sell-a-movie’ style. 
But the lightheaded fogginess in your brain won out, as you nodded jerkily, taking the bottle and taking a little swig - too cautious to take anymore. 
Now concerned with how Tom thought you were being a Debby-downer too, you managed to perk yourself up for the next four interviews. They were easy, asking questions without any activity and though you did rely on Tom beefing out and adding to your answers, it was okay. Then the next interviewer came in, who you recognised as being from the BBC, Ali Plumb, that had interviewed you a number of times. From the way Tom jumped up to give him afirendly bro-hug, you guessed he also was familiar with him. As soon as he took a seat the cameras were already flashing with the red light, demonstrating his 7 minutes had already started. 
“Guys! It’s been a while.” 
“How are you Ali?” You started it off with the pleasantries, Tom echoing, before the speccy dirty-blonde asked his first question. 
“So the last time I spoke to you guys the universe was in chaos, Peter Parkers on the run and Aurora Blake was trying to strip her own powers, so I guess my first question is how are you both doing? We can use this as a therapy session if you guys need.” His very typical nerdy joke made Tom laugh, nodding as he leaned forward and repositioned a bit. 
You didn’t share the same humour though, more focused on this invisible blanket of stuffiness that seemed to have been thrown on top of you. It made you feel groggy, incredibly hot and so unbelievable nauseous. The lights weren’t helping either, it felt like you were pouring with sweat from your forehead. You thought Tom was answering Ali, even if you couldn’t really hear  - everything had merged into a deafening roar. Adrenaline coursed through your veins, unconsciously making you fumble yourself to standing, desperate to get somewhere with fresh air. The last thing you saw before your vision tunnelled into darkness was Tom, reaching out to try and catch you. 
Because next thing you knew, you were on the floor, wires from all the cameras and lights digging into your back as you looked up to see Tom on one side and Lucy on the other - both wearing a similarly panicked expression. You knew you hadn’t been out long, seconds if that, going by the fact everyone else was in the ‘oh my god’ phase of panic. It was a bit weird how calm you where, but then again all your life you’d been the ‘class fainter’. Waking up on the floor was something you were long since used to. 
“Y/n? You awake?” Rather stating the obvious Tom asked the question as you bent your head up - allowing you sight of all the concerned facing oggling you. With a defeated sigh, you flopped your head back. 
“If this is a dream then it’s a real bloody nightmare.” This time Tom didnt seem to appreciate your joke, looking at you without almost dumbfounded eyes, as you blinked repetitively and groaned. 
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Lucy appeared to want to lecture you, which to be honest wasn’t the most time appropriate. You were still on the floor, legs crumpled up under you, so ignored her. Instead you pulled yourself up into a sitting position, taking a moment to blink away the blotchy haze that threatened to takeover your vision once again, whilst the pair above you both cautiously rested their palms on each of your shoulders -trying to be useful. The room still felt cramped and stifling, as everyone around were no doubt looking at you. 
It took a few minutes but your body seemed to get over itself, sitting up normally and trying to make small talk with Ali - who, by the way, was still sat awkwardly in the chair. Still nestled on the floor, your back up against the chair you had been siting on as you raved with Ali of the Harry Potter theatre show. In a natural lull in conversation, Tom perked up - from the door where he’d been muttering with the organiser as Lucy bit her nails nervously. 
“Y/n you need to go home.” 
All of you knew what Tom said was impossible. Not being egotistical, but you were too important. Although you hadn’t been paying masses of attention for Lucy’s run down of your itinerary - you knew it was packed. 
So you just looked up and rolled your eyes at Tom, earning yourself a strong glare, before locking the organiser in eye contact.
“How many have we got till lunch?” 
“Um this gent here” He gesturned toward Ali, who was almost squirming in his seat now “then two more.”  
“And then lunch?” 
“Yes, then you have a personal appearance at a dinner, so transport will be coming to pick you both up.” This poor guy seemed obsessed with the clock and his timetable, looking at your with a mixture of panic and frustration. You should know this stuff, you should’ve listened to Lucy. 
“How fars the drive?” 
“At this time probably an hour and a half.” 
The plan was clear in your head, you’d sort yourself out in the car and be fully fine by the afternoon and evening engagements. Plus you felt almost fine now. So with a sigh, you hauled yourself up onto the chair, patting for Tom to sit back down. 
“It’s half an hour and then I’ll sort myself out at lunch - come on their waiting.” The way Lucy pouted showed she disagreed somewhat, except a stern look kept her from protesting, as Tom walked toward you. 
“Are you sure you don’t loo-“
“Let me stop you before you insult my appearance.” Snickering slightly at his worried face, you laughed it off , knocking his side with a gentle murmur of ‘don’t worry about me’. 
In fact after that little episode you did feel a little recovered, which meant you were properly noticing the change in the boy sat next to you. Throughout the remaining three interviews he’d done a complete 360 from earlier. Rather than trying to get little digs at you, he had become fiercely protective - jumping in if a questions wasn’t particularly appropriate or relevant to the movie ( meaning when an awfully crap man asked what underwear you’d been able to wear in your suit) ; taking the heat of the conversation as well as just watching you like a hawk. Each time you answered his beady brown eyes were watching you from the side, you got the impression it wasn’t only just because of the risk of spoilers. 
Quite remarkably, you survived the rest of the day pretty well, after a power nap in the car on the way over - even if it was a bit difficult when you had your manager watching you like a hawk from the seat across. It was as if Lucy had never seen anyone ill before, she seemed concerned that you were going to spontaneously stop breathing and die at any point. 
Though by the time all the official business at the dinner was done, your body and willpower had reached the end of their tether. You and Tom were both on a round table, surrounded by 6 CEOs and execs of what seemed to be a multimillion pound business enterprise. With the language barrier meaning you had to speak through the two people on the table who were fluent in both japanese and English, the conversation was already pretty jilted. Though to be fair, the six did seem to be enjoying the evening - something you werent able to reciprocate. Thankfully, five minutes after the main course dishes had been collected, Tom spoke up from his position opposite you.
“This has been lovely and we really appreciate your time and generosity but me and Y/n have a really early start tomorrow so I think we should probably get back to the hotel.” You swore in that moment you could’ve kissed him, and it looked like Tom could tell - by the way your shoulders sagged and you let out an exhale of pure relief. Apparently even if you’d managed to convince the hosts you were enjoying the evening, Tom easily saw through the performance. After some hurried goodbyes, Tom led you out of the hall with his hand hovering over your lowerback, trying to make sure your exit was as discreet as possible. 
Away from the bubble of chatter and activity, in the deserted hallway, Tom stopped you - lightly holding both hands on each of your arms. 
“Wheres your team?” 
“Um Luce is back at the hotel, she was trying to see if she could reschedule any of my stuff tomorrow.” You winced at the way he sighed, realising you were all on your own in some random business event hall in Tokyo.
“Harry -my brother- is waiting in the car at the front - is that okay?”
“No Tom, don’t worry abo-“
“Yeh well I am and I think you feel ten times worse than you’re letting on.” He spoke harshly, like a school teacher telling you off - except the hint of a kind smile at the end was a dead giveaway. 
“You sure?” 
With a relieved nod (Tom had thought you might be a bit more stubborn - you obviously were really really ill) he wordlessly shrugged his suit jacket off, wrapping it round your shoulders. He muttered something about not wanting you to catch a chill but to be quite honest you were a bit distracted by the woody cedar smell of Toms aftershave that enveloped your senses. Maybe it wasn’t so bad being fussed on by him? To be fair he wasn’t wrong either, you were in a strapless evening dress - you would’ve preferred to be in joggers, but Marvels press team had other ideas. 
After a quick pit stop at the toilets, the two of you managed to make an unnoticed escape out the building - into a big SUV which had seconds prior pulled up onto the steps. You literally melted into the nearest window seat, body hunching over as you probably crumpled Tom’s jacket beyond belief. 2 seats along from you, a frizzy haired boy gave you a sympathetic smile, which you returned weakly whilst muttering a ‘hi’. Meanwhile, Tom pulled the sliding door shut, sitting across from you. 
“Oh Y/n this is Harry and Harry this is Y/n.” In unison both of you replied with an ‘I know’ eye roll. Your response was somewhat more shocking to both Holland boys, you could tell from the way they had this whole nonverbal conversation with their eyes - they were very clearly brothers. Needing to explain you continued. “I like to keep tabs on my castmates, I’ve seen you on Toms instagram.” That had both boys smirking, Harry presumably just because you knew who he was; Tom more smugly, you’d just given away you slightly stalked him on instagram. 
Silence reigned for a moment, as the driver put his foot down slightly. 
“How you doing?” Tom asked. 
“Mhm…” you thought for a second, how to eloquently describe the sensation. 
“shit.” 
Both boys chuckled a little and even though you had closed your eyes in an attempt to dull the throbbing behind your temples, you could feel the eyes on you. 
“You want the music off?” Harry asked, referring to the indie-rock coming quietly out the speakers of his laptop, which was resting on his lap. With a shake of your head you refused, even if really silence probably would help your head, you were already causing the two Hollands enough trouble - no need to bore them during the journey back into central Tokyo, especially when you weren’t the most enthusiastic company ever. 
Thankfully the music stayed on a low volume, whilst the car seemed to settle into a comfortable silence. With a long exhale you fluttered your eyes open, seeing Tom focused on his phone, before you rested the side of your head against the black-out glass. Taking some relief from the cool glass, you huddled further into the corner of the car against the door.
Floating in the space between sleep and wakefulness, you were kind of aware of your head occasionally bobbing and jerking about - but really didn’t have the energy or willpower to do anything about it. Instead, the thing that perked your attention was hearing some supposed-whispering from inside the body of the car.
“I know she said she didn’t care but she was clearly lying-“ 
“Like you know! You’ve been desperate to try and spend some time with Y/n- maybe you poisoned her just so you could be all knight-in-shini-“
“Turn. The. Music. Off.” Tom sounded scathing now, and with a grumble from your other-side the cheery drum beats ceased.
“Happy now?” …and Harry was sarcastic. 
“Swap places with me.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
“Why?”
“So she can lie down.” 
“Well no because you would still be in the way if we swapped.”
“Yeh but she can lie on my lap idiot.”
“She can lie on me.”
“She doesn’t know you!”
“Well for 1, barely ten minutes ago she said she did know me. And 2, she doesn’t know you any better!”
If this was their version of whispering, you would love to hear what volume ‘shouting’ was. There was no reply for a short while, you imagined the two brunettes locked in some intense staring match.The next time Tom spoke he sounded more defeated - almost begging. 
“If I admit you beat me at the driving range the other day will you-” 
“I KNEW IT!” Harry yelped, the volume making you jerk, eyes flying open before reflexively closing because the light was too bright. There was a little mutter of an apology, then silence again. 
Once agin you must’ve drifted off because it felt like absolutely no time had passed when a firm but gently hand on your shoulder nudged you awake. 
Sure enough the boys had swapped position, Tom now sitting along the seat from you, Harry looked a little sulky from across the way. It was Tom who was reaching over, a gentle and peaceful smile on his face.
“You wanna lie down? Don’t want you to strain your neck.” He wasn’t wrong, adding to the throbbing headache, the cloudiness in your brain and the unsettled feeling in your stomach… now your neck hurt. Just bloody great. 
Had you been your normal witty and perceptive self, you might’ve teased Tom as to why him and his brother had done a switch - but everything hurt and all you wanted to do was sleep for a hundered years. So with squinting eyes you jerkily nodded, missing how Tom chuckled to himself. The guy undid your seatbelt, then sat back to let you balance the back of your head on his thigh, looking up at the roof of the SUV. Already your eyes were closed again, you kicked off your slip-on heels and bent your legs up to lean against the backrest - occupying the position you had been sat in before hand. You felt his hands reposition the jacket, pulling it round so it was now like a blanket tucked under your chin. 
To be fair it was much more comfortable than sitting up and you weren’t even aware of how quickly you dropped back into sleep. 
Though it wasn’t quick enough to miss Harry’s very sulky sounding comment, presumably meant only for Tom’s ears. 
“Still think you’re being fucking creepy bro.” 
<33 lemme know what u think! (would make me feel less guilty for not doing all the work I rlly should be doing aha)
tagging : @hallecarey1 @crossyourpeter @hollandfanficlove
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capillaryspice · 3 years ago
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Ok so ive been seeing a lot of Harry Potter bashing lately (deservedly) and while it's at the forefront of my brain I've got a bit of a rant to go on that I haven't really ever voiced before. Like it ain't transphobia related or anything, literally just how it's a badly written series
Like listen, as a kid I read them and enjoyed them like every other 90s-born child, but JKR is, among other things, a shit writer that just does NOT think things through. I don't even fully know how to adequately explain how much her crap worldbuilding affected the way I consider the weight of everything I create in my own writing (and dnd campaigns) because I learned in my formative years how much things can affect a world by simply existing, and the Harry Potter universe is a prime example of that done horrendously wrong
This is not me tooting my own anti-bandwagon horn here, but legitimately I stopped enjoying the books waaaaaaayyyyy before there was even a whisper of the gay-dumbledore drama on the winds. Why? Because even as a very young adult I was SO fucking aggravated by the amount of shit that just. Happens. Or simply Exists. With no consequences. Everybody has the argument of "what if they just had guns?" but I'd like to present an opposite argument: the fact that SO MUCH UNIVERSE ALTERING SHIT just EXISTS in this universe that's way more powerful than guns that just really has no effect on the world at large (even the "secret wizarding world") that it was always enormously baffling to me that the main antagonist is even an issue at all.
Time turner? Hello???? Fucking time travel and get this shit over with. Liquid luck? How far does that extend? It's difficult to make, but a highschool professor can make it, so it's clearly not an unobtainable commodity for anyone relatively intelligent or wealthy. How does its existence affect the world? Is it illegal? Restricted? If so, why or why not? Does it really guarantee a success in ANYTHING? If so, why waste it on getting some fucking memories instead of, oh I dunno, using it to permanently kill ol slit-nose? Making an item that could just locate all his horcruxes? Make a magic homing-nuke for him?????
How about the creation of sentient creatures? Y'all give paintings personality, made a car that clearly has opinions, and a fucking mini-dragon just for drama. What are the ethics of that shit? Speaking of dragons, how the absolute FUCK do you keep regular people from discovering absolutely massive magical creatures?
Book one- philosophers stone. Rock that gives you immortality. Was it fought over? Are elixirs of life rare? I'd fucking assume so since it's never talked about after the first book, but also after the first book it's nEVER FUCKING TALKED ABOUT??! THIS IS AN IMMORTALITY AND GOLD CREATING SUBSTANCE, AND YOURE JUST. KEEPING IT IN A SCHOOL. OR SHIPPING IT OFF TO WHEREVER THEY KEPT IT AFTER THAT (don't remember, which is quite frankly a bad sign lmao), regardless, there's just a dude who can MAKE THEM, and no doctors have tried to get him to talk? Corrupt politicians? Monarchs?? Joe from accounting whose wife is terminally ill?? This is a KNOWN OF THING and it's just never fucking addressed beyond "oh, well the crazy bad guy wants it in this book so I guess he's the ONLY issue with the existence of this world-breaking thing, let's create a puzzle in front of it that even a few 11 year olds can solve, that'll stop him!"
How about the random Super Important Characters And Plot Points that just fucking. Appear when they're suddenly needed even if we've never heard them before (even if we absolutely should have)
I'm absolutely missing more things, I literally haven't touched the series in over a decade to remember, but these are just a FEW of the things that drive me crazy to this day. Like, obviously I know the answer to these questions are just "JKR didnt plan for where the series was going and just randomly went "oh this would be cool" and didnt think about the ramifications of any of the aforementioned cool things" to the point where even a fucking child could go "this is flawed, full of holes, and doesn't make sense"
Do y'all have anything I missed that drive u crazy about a magic thing that should have had serious ramifications existing? I can't be the only one
Anyway that's my little rant. But yeah, they should've just used a gun
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street-smarts00 · 3 years ago
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The One Where They All Find Out
Bakugou x fem!reader
Summary: You and Bakugou have been dating for the last few months, but you have kept it a secret from the class. What happens when someone overhears a conversation that they weren’t supposed to, or finds a missing eyelash curler? And what happens when their classmates want to have a little fun after learning their secret.
~ this is heavily based on the tv show friends, if you know what happens in this episode then you know how this story is going to go.
~ fluff, w/ ⚠️ bad language and mentions of sex
~ characters are third years & 18
Not proof read, sorry not sorry, I’m lazy and this shit took me over a week.
~ word count: 5.8k
Moments like these were perfect. The two of you spending time together alone whether it’s in his dorm or yours. Either way the both of you would spend as much time together as you could without raising suspicion.
You and Bakugou have been keeping your relationship a secret for the past few months. It’s not that you didn’t want other people to know, it’s just that class 1-a can be, how shall we put this? Nosy and prone to teasing.
You especially didn’t want anyone to tease you guys and want to know all your business when the relationship first started and you and Bakugou were still figuring things out. But now it’s become kind of a habit to keep it a secret and you guys liked how much privacy you got.
The two of you had just gotten off of school and immediately bolted to Katsuki's dorm. You dropped your backpack onto the floor when you stepped in. He then came up from behind you, grabbed you and tossed the both of you onto his bed. “I’ve wanted to do this all day,'' he mumbled into your neck. “Me too,” you smiled. You spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in each other's embrace and watching Netflix on your laptop.
When it came time for dinner you grabbed your opened bag and placed your laptop back inside. Katsuki cracked open the door to make sure the hallway was empty. You pecked his cheek and slipped out of his room and across the hall into yours.
Shortly after you had sneaked out of his room, Denki and kiri came by Katsuki’s. Kiri opened the door and the pair stepped inside. “Yo Kachan you coming downstairs, dinner is almost ready!”
“Don’t rush me dune face!” Bakugou replied.
Kiri glanced around the room and noticed something on the floor that caught his eye. He picked it up to examine. “Uh bakugou, why do you have an eyelash curler on your floor?”
Bakugou’s eyes widened, shit, that’s y/n’s. He was baffled, how the hell did she leave that in his room. Until he remembered that she left her bag open and threw it around. Crap, now what’s he gonna say, sorry my girlfriend, our classmate, left that in my room.
Instead he said,
“Why are you asking me? I don’t know who’s that is.”
Denki raised an eyebrow as he exchanged a glance with kiri. “That still doesn’t explain how you got it though. I mean it’s cool if it is actually yours, but I’ve never seen you wear anything other than eyeliner so I'm assuming it’s not.” Kirishima began.
“Or are you fooling around with someone in secret and they left it behind?” Denki smirked.
He was cornered. Just act angry and they’ll stop asking about it. “Will you just shut up already? Geez you wanted to go down to dinner so badly and now you can’t shut up about some stupid eye makeup thing!” He yelled as he got up to walk out of his dorm. He looked back at Denki and Kiri, who were still standing in his room.
“Well? Are you coming or what?” He glared at the pair. They quickly rushed out of his room as to not anger him further and just decided to drop the eyelash curler incident.
Although that conversation was far from over.
Shortly after everyone had gotten down to the kitchen you walked up to momo who was bringing over a plate of food to the table. “Hey Yaomomo, can ask you for a favor?”
She smiled, ”yes of course, what is it?”
You answered “can you make me an eyelash curler with your quirk? I lost mine earlier and I’ve been looking for it, but couldn’t find it.”
Kirishima, Kaminari, and Bakugou’s heads all shot up immediately after hearing your request. The gears in Kiri and Kami’s brains started turning. Momo replied, “yea sure it’s not a problem.” She then generated an eyelash curler out of her arm with her quirk and handed it to you.
Kiri and Kami’s eyes almost jumped out of their sockets. “WHAT?!?” They both pointed at you and your boyfriend. At that moment Bakugou jolted out of his seat, grabbed kiri and denki by their shirts and dragged them out of the common area and into the hall. You didn’t know what was going on but you assumed it might have to do with your relationship considering they were pointing at you and your boyfriend and screaming. You looked at your classmates who were more confused than you and said “better make sure he doesn’t kill those two,” and ran over into their direction.
When you met with them in the hall Kiri and Denki whisper screamed “you? And you? Are you guys hooking up?” Bakugou placed his hands on their mouths and growled, “will you two extras shut up.”
It looked like Kirishima and Kaminaris lives had just flashed before their eyes. They anxiously nodded their heads and complied with their angry friend. Bakugou removed his grip on them but kept his glare.
“We’re not hooking up, were dating, but you can’t tell anyone.” You sighed. Denki looked like a kicked puppy, “what? Why not?” Bakugou swatted him in the arm. “Ow” Denki winced in pain.
“Because if you do tell anyone I’ll blow your ass up so bad they’ll. . .”
“Katsuki stop it” you interrupted him with a reprimanding tone.
He huffed and shut his mouth glaring at your two friends. Kirishima started giggling, “Woah! You told him what to do and he actually listened! How’d you do that?” Katsuki was about to explode, his eyes boiled with rage and he grabbed onto his best friend's t-shirt.
You frantically pushed his hand away and placed yourself in between your friends. “ALRIGHT! Katsuki, can you please not kill our friends? And you guys, can you please, please not tell anybody that we are dating?” They all seemed to calm down.
“But why are you guys keeping this a secret?” Kirishima questioned. You sighed, “Well at first it was just so we could figure things out in private when we first got together. You glanced at your boyfriend, “but after a while we really liked the privacy and we both aren’t good with talking about our feelings and having that privacy made it easier. Also we didn’t want to make it a big deal”
“But it is a big deal! It’s you guys! I mean no where in a million years would we have thought you guys would end up together.” Denki added. He’s not lying though. You and Katsuki’s personalities didn’t exactly mesh well at the beginning of your friendship.
“But still, can you guys please promise to keep this a secret?” You asked.
“We promise, we won’t tell anybody”
You smiled, “Thank you.”
—————————————————————-
It had been about a week since the first two found out your secret.
Jiro was in Uraraka’s room studying. At one point Uraraka heard something from the other side of her wall, in your room. She couldn’t make out what it was and blew it off. Until she heard the voice louder this time, but it was still fuzzy and she still couldn’t make out what it was.
She assumed you were trying to talk to her because sometimes the two of you would yell through the walls if you needed something or had to ask a question. She tapped jiro on the shoulder and asked “Hey Kyoka, I think y/n is trying to yell through the wall but I can’t hear her. Can you use your earphones and tell me what she’s saying?”
She nodded her head and responded “Yeah sure.” She used her quirk and placed her earphone jack in the wall that was shared with your room. To her surprise she heard more than one voice.
“I think tomorrow I could sneak over to your room after I’m done studying with Momo and Tsu. I’ll just tell them I’m doing laundry or something,” you said.
Jiro heard a chuckle from a low voice, “laundry is that my new nickname?” Wait a second. WAS THAT BAKUGOU?
“No, you know what your nickname is jackass,” you giggled in return.
“Yea but I’m your jackass,” Bakugou added.
Jiro unplugged her headphone Jack from the wall. Her jaw was dropped and eyes wide. “What happened? What did you hear?” Uraraka asked worriedly.
“I think y/n and bakugou are dating,” she replied.
“What?” Ochako was stunned.
“Yea, I um, I heard her tell him that she would sneak over to his dorm tomorrow after studying but she was going to use laundry as an excuse. Then he said laundry is that my new nickname? And she said no you know your nickname is jackass.” Jiro continued.
“Oh my god! Seriously?”
“There’s more. The last bit I heard was bakugou saying, but I’m your jackass.” She finished. Ochako squealed, “Aww that’s so cute, wait, that's odd hearing bakugou act all . . . well . . . somewhat sweetly.”
Jiro nodded her head in agreement, “I know right. But more importantly y/n and bakugou are dating!”
The two girls continued their conversation about their friend's new found relationship. They decided to take a break from studying, mostly because they couldn’t focus on anything other than you and Katsuki. They walked downstairs to the kitchen to get drinks and snacks. Surprisingly there weren’t that many people in the common room. Momo and Deku were in the lounge area playing uno, while Kirishima and Kaminari were in the kitchen getting snacks as well. They tried to keep their voices as low as possible so as to not attract the attention of their fellow classmates, it did not work.
“It’s pretty funny how affectionate he sounded, like there’s know way he would say “but I’m your jackass” in front of other people.” Ochako whispered.
“Yea, who knows maybe y/n brings out that side of him. Which is still weird to think about because they didn’t speak or get along for the longest. They only just started to become friendly, and now all of a sudden they're together.” Jiro replied. However, in their efforts to try and keep quiet, the boys still overheard their conversation. They started to freak out. How did the girls find out about you and bakugou? Kirishima was the first to speak, “you guys know about y/n and Bakugou?”
The girls froze in their tracks. “YOU KNOW?” They both yelled in shock. Shit, he didn’t think that through. He placed his hand on the back of his neck, “yea we know,” he answered. His classmates were even more surprised, “WE?”
He was really bad at this. “Yeah me and Denki know. How do you guys know?” He asked. Jiro replied, “We thought y/n was trying to yell through the wall so I used my quirk to hear her better and we heard them talking.”
All the yelling caught the attention of Momo and Deku. “What’s going on with Kachan and y/n? Are they ok?” Deku questioned the group. They all froze like deer in headlights.
“Um uh . . .” The boys didn’t know what to say.
So, Ochako answered for them, “Bakugou and y/n are dating.”
There was a lot more yelling, wide eyes, and confusion that followed Uraraka’s previous statement. Kiri and Denki explained how they figured it out and the girls explained more thoroughly how they accidentally found out. None of them knew what to do with this information but they all agreed on one thing. Do not say a word to anyone.
That almost went according to plan. Until the final person found out, Mina.
——————————————————————
Kaminari, Mina and Uraraka were outside doing some after school training. Uraraka wanted to practice floating others with her quirk and Kami and Mina eagerly volunteered to help her practice.
“Ok! Who wants to go first?” Uraraka asked. Mina raised her hand and excitedly waved it in the air. “Me! Me! Can I go first!” She cheered.
Uraraka smilled, “Yea sure!” She walked up to Mina and raised her hand a few inches away from Mina’s shoulder. “So I’m going to float you to about the third or fourth floor. You’ll stay there for a moment and then I’m going to bring you down. If at any time you feel uncomfortable or scared, please tell me and I’ll bring you down,” She explained.
Mina smiled and gave ochako a thumbs up, “Got it, and don’t worry I trust you.” Ochako then placed her hand on Mina’s shoulder and activated her quirk. The pink haired girl started to slowly float up into the sky.
“This is so much fun, I can see everything from up here!” She shouted in excitement. Mina had a beautiful view of the campus. The other dorm buildings, the UA building, and all the training fields. She turned around and glanced towards their dorm building. It turned out she had been floating at the same height as your dorm. You had left your blinds open and Mina had a clear shot of you through the window.
“I can see y/n’s dorm from here,” she shouted to her friends on the ground.
Mina tried to get your attention by yelling and waving her hands around. “Hey y/n! It’s Mina!” She then saw bakugou enter the view from the window. That’s weird, why is he in your dorm. You two were kinda friends, but definitely not the type to hang out alone together.
“Wait, why is he in her room,” she mumbled to herself.
What she saw next would stick in her memory forever. Bakugou wrapped his arms around you and placed his hands on the small of your back as you leaned in to kiss him.
You placed your hands in his hair to deepen the kiss. “OH MY GOD!” Mina yelled. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Bakugou then moved his hands down to grope your ass. You jumped up and wrapped your legs around his waist while his hands rested on your upper thighs and ass. He then walked over to your bed and . . . “OH MY GOD!”
“MY EYES! MY EYES! BRING ME DOWN! BRING ME DOWN!” Mina yelled down to her friends.
Uraraka slowly brought her down and deactivated her quirk once Mina’s feet hit the ground. “What happened?” “What did you see?” Uraraka and Kaminari asked worriedly. They knew Mina could be a little dramatic from time to time but it seemed like whatever she saw must have really startled her.
“THEY’RE DOING IT!” Mina shouted frantically. “Bakugou and y/n! Bakugou and y/n!”
“I know!” Ochako added.
Mina raised her eyebrows, “You know?”
“Yes! I know, Kaminari knows and a few others but you have to stop screaming. Someone’s gonna hear you.” Ochako responded. Mina was now aware of how loud she was. Thankfully she was far enough from the window so the two of you wouldn’t hear her; however if someone else was outside, they would definitely hear.
“So just to recap, they know that Kiri and Denki know, but they don’t know that the other four know?” Mina asked.
After the whole situation outside happened, Ochako and Denki brought Mina inside to tell her the whole story. “Yup,” Denki answered. “But you know what, didn’t doesn’t matter who knows what. Because now enough of us know, and we can just tell them that we know. Now all the secrets and the lying will finally be over.”
“Or we don’t tell them that we know and have a little fun of our own,” Mina suggested. “Quick text the others to come over, I have an idea.”
——————————————————————
The next day you woke up in a horrible mood. When you woke up it was like you hadn’t gotten any rest at all. It felt exhausting just to get out of bed and you were moving sluggishly all morning. You had stopped by the cafeteria to grab some coffee before class to try and wake you up.
Your energy was low, very low. Whenever you were tired it was easy to irritate you. You walked into your homeroom class, only about half the students were there. But then again you did have a few minutes till class. You sat down at your desk in the last row and took a large sip of your drink.
You put your arms on your desk and rested your head. You knew you wouldn’t get any sleep but at least you could relax for a bit before class.
Although your relaxation abruptly ended.
You were still awake so you heard everything going on around you. Including a conversation between your boyfriend and Mina Ashido.
“Hi bakugou! What’s up,” she said cheerfully.
You could practically hear him rolling his eyes. “Leave me alone raccoon eyes.” Typical bakugou as always.
“Aw come on, what do you mean we're friends aren’t we?” He scoffed while avoiding eye contact. “Unless you wanna be something more.”
Your head shot up so fast you felt dizzy. You couldn’t see straight but you could make out that Bakugou's head snapped towards Mina. “What?” He furrowed his brows in confusion. “I’m just kidding,” she giggled as she playfully pushed his shoulder. He stared at her like she had lost her mind. “Although you are pretty handsome if I do say so myself.”
What the hell? Since when was Mina interested in Katsuki? You remember her saying that he was like a gremlin with anger issues. Which ya know is kinda true but, HELLO, he is your angry gremlin.
Aizawa walked in with his famous yellow sleeping bag and Mina walked back to her desk. “What the hell was that?” You whispered to yourself. That must have caught the attention of Deku because he turned around to face you. “Hey, you ok?” He asked.
“Yea it’s just, did you see that?” You replied.
“See what?” You’ve got to be kidding me. He seriously didn’t notice that. His childhood friend that sits RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. being hit on by his classmate. “Mina um hitting on bakugou.” You answered.
“Oh yea, I heard she really likes him.” Oh no. This was it, you had to tell them now. Well no not this second. But later today you had to break the news to Mina. You felt bad for her, but if she really did like him, you had to tell her the truth.
Later that day in the dorms you pulled bakugou to the side and hid in the hallway on the first floor. “Listen, we need to talk.”
“You’re not gonna break up with me are you?” He asked. “No no, of course not . . It’s um. . It’s Mina.” You answered.
“You mean this morning? Yea that was weird as shit.”
“I know right. I never would have imagined her liking you. I mean, I wouldn’t have pictured me liking you either. But Mina has never, and I mean never even shown interest in you. Usually whenever she saw me fawning over you before we started dating she said that you looked like an angry gremlin.” You ranted.
“WHAT DID SHE SAY ABOUT . . .” You placed your hand on his mouth and backed him against the wall. “Are you nuts, someone’s gonna hear you jackass.” As it turns out someone did hear you guys. Right when you released your hold on him you heard a chuckle from around the corner.
Bakugou turned to walk around the corner and all you heard was an explosion and a shriek. He came back dragging a defeated Kaminari by the collar of his shirt. “What’s so funny?” Bakugou sneered.
Denki put his shaky hands up in surrender, “Nothing. I swear.” Before bakugou could threaten him with another explosion, you interrupted. “Denki, do you know something?” He zipped his guilty eyes to you. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. Whatever he was going to say next you knew would be a lie.
“No, what do you mean?” He tried to reply nonchalantly, but failed.
“Answer the question!” Katsuki growled. If it was even possible, Kaminari looked even more guilty. He had trouble looking the two of you in the eyes and was shaking. He sighed, “Alright fine. Mina knows about you guys.”
“What? How the hell did she find out?” You asked. Denki shook his head. “I didn’t tell them.”
Bakugou was filled with rage at his friend's statement. He grabbed denkis collar with both hands. “They? Who's They?”
All color drained from denkis face. “Mina and . . . Me.” Bakugou’s grip on his friends shirt tightened. “Uraraka, Jiro, Midoriya, and Yaoyorozu,” Denki trembled. ”EVEN DEKU KNOWS!” Bakugou nearly screamed.
“Katsuki let go of him! How do that many people know?” You asked. Your boyfriend released his right grip on your friend. Denki sighed with relief and replied, “Well everyone else kinda just found out by accident. Most of them overheard you guys or us talking about it. While Mina on the other hand . . . let’s just say you guys should keep your blinds closed when being . . . affectionate.”
You and Bakugou froze. A deep red blush danced across both of your faces. “Aww you guys are all blushy,” denki added. Bakugou looked him dead in the eyes while making sparks go off in his hand. Denki averted his eyes in fear.
But wait, that still doesn’t make sense. You replayed the events of this morning in your head. If Mina knew about you guys all along then why would she deliberately flirt with your boyfriend. Even Midoriya said that Mina might have liked Bakugou after watching her flirt. Then again he was one of the people that knew and was probably playing a part like Mina.
“Wait Denki, if Mina knew that we are dating, then why did she flirt with Bakugou?”
His lips turned to a flat line and placed his hand on the back of his neck. “Well funny story, we all thought it would be fun if we messed with you guys a little bit about your secret and had one of us flirt with one of you. We chose bakugou because he’s emotionally constipated and we chose Mina because she is the smoothest and the only one that was good at flirting.”
You could practically see the smoke pouring out of Bakugou's ears. he made his angry gremlin face and you knew he was going to murder Kaminari. You placed a hand on his arm to try and calm him. He looked at you and his expression eased a little. At that moment his mood changed. Not from angry to relaxed, but more like angry to scheming. Instead of blasting his friend to Mars he balled his fists and loudly sighed. “Well, sense they took it spoon themselves to mess with us, I say we have some fun too.” He smirked.
You were expecting a lot of things for him to say.
That was not one of them. “Huh?” You asked.
“They thought it would be fun to flirt with me to mess with us. How about we play their game?”
It was the day after you had found out a handful of your friends had discovered your secret. You were really hoping that your plan would go accordingly. It took a little convincing but Bakugou roped you into playing your classmates' game of let's freak out the secret couple. You waited anxiously as Mina walked over to the desk two seats in front of you.
“Hey bakugou. How’s your morning been?” Mina said with a cheery smile. Bakugou kept a pretty neutral expression. “Good.”
“Ya know, did anyone ever tell you you have nice eyes?” Mina continued as she played with her hair.
“No, but thanks. You're not so bad yourself.”
You could’ve sworn Mina pulled a Denki and short circuited. You glanced around the room and saw everyone else, except of course the short circuiting man himself, with the same reaction. You looked back at Mina and she was a stuttering mess. “Oh um . . really? . . that's uh nice of you to say.”
Although it was all just fun and games, it did sting that your boyfriend was so flirty with your bestie. Mina awkwardly shuffled back to her desk and quickly whispered something to Uraraka. The first part of the plan was set, now it was your turn.
You gazed at the seat in front of you to make sure that your green haired classmate was watching the interaction before you. You leaned forward to his ear and whispered, “I guess Mina’s feelings aren’t one sided.” He looked back at you as if you told him you killed somebody. “Yea I guess so.” He replied. He quickly glanced at Momo who was seated behind you before slowly turning to face the front.
Later that day, during lunch the little group that knew your secret were all seated together. There were also a couple of new members after what happened this morning before class. Now the group included Todoroki, Sero, Tsu, and Hagakure. Of course the whole class knew something must have been going on. However these four in particular needed to know what that something was and knew exactly who to go to.
“Ok so now that we’ve explained the story of how we all found out for the millionth time, can we please discuss the freak show that was this morning?” Jiro began.
Kirishima face palmed, “This makes no sense. Bakugou may have the emotions of a crouton and anger problems, but there is no way he is a cheater.”
“Yeah I agree. Kachan is a lot of things but he isn’t a cheater,” Deku added.
The group didn’t know what to do. A few of them looked over to you and Bakugou sitting across from each other at another table.
Deku spoke again. “So, I’m pretty sure that the both of them found out yesterday after school. Yesterday after Mina flirted with Kachan, I turned to talk to y/n and she looked like she had been hit with a truck. Her reaction seemed pretty genuine. But then today, she reacted calm and cool, a complete 180 to yesterday,” He rambled like always.
“It still doesn't make sense how they would have found out,” Uraraka added. While everyone was trying to figure out how the two of you found out, Denki was practically shaking in his seat with guilt. Thanks to his nerves, he accidentally made a small spark go off and zap a nearby Sero.
“Ow! Kaminari, your quirk is all sparky,” Sero winced in pain.
Denki zoned back in from his endless stream of thoughts and apologized profusely. After Denki caught Mina’s attention she remembered something. “Hey Kaminari. Didn’t you try to eavesdropp on them yesterday to see if they were freaked out by our prank? Did they say anything to you or something?” She asked.
“Nope,” He said a little to loud. “They didn’t say anything.” He kept darting his eyes from Mina to the very couple they were discussing. Everyone furrowed their eyebrows and gave him questioning looks.
“Kaminari, do Bakugou and y/n know we’re pranking them?” Jiro asked. He wouldn’t look at them, just kept his eyes on the ceiling.
“Nope.”
“Denki” she insisted.
She continued to stare him down. It felt like she was drilling holes in his skull with her eyes. He knew he was cornered, nowhere to run. He looked back at all his friends and his stomach dropped. He put his shaky hands up in defeat. “Alright, alright they know ok. Just stop looking at me like I killed somebody, it’s freaking me out.”
The group's tension deflated. Mina rested her head on her chin. “So what do we do now?” She asked.
“I think we should still do it. See how far it will go until someone cracks first.” Todoroki proposed. Everyone turned to look at him. He had been silent during the entirety of this discussion and has made very few reactions as well. Most of them forgot he was even there he was so silent. “Why do you say that?” Momo questioned.
“Because bakugou isn’t the type to give up. And he especially doesn’t like to lose. He is going to keep playing along with this prank until you guys crack.” He explained.
“Ooooh I like Todoroki’s idea! Let’s do that.” Mina responded excitedly.
“You do realize you’re going to be the one doing the flirting right?” Kirishima added. Mina’s former bubbly excitement deflated and turned to dread. “Oh no.” She turned to survey the table you and bakugou were eating at. “I did not think this through.”
After lunch Mina didn’t get a chance to talk to bakugou. However, now that classes are done for the day, the fun can begin. Almost the entire class was in the common area, waiting to see something happen.
You were especially on edge. You knew that your friends had probably figured out that you knew their little plan. You also knew that they would specifically target Bakugou more than you because he was a difficult target. Bakugou had determination that was matched by few and he especially did not like to lose. It also ticked you off every time you saw Mina, one of your best friends, flirt with the man that was yours and only yours. Of course it was fake and didn’t mean anything; but on the other hand it worried you a little bit.
Why was Bakugou so comfortable with playing their game and flirting back? Was it because it was fake? Or maybe it was his competitive spirit and turning their practical joke into a competition. Either way, you didn’t want to lose either. Let the games continue.
You were seated on the couch watching tv with a few others. From where you were seated, you could see Mina follow Bakugou into the Kitchen when he left to get a drink.
“Hey Bakugou! How’s your day been” She started off in a cheery tone. He turned to face her, “pretty boring until you showed up.”
You could tell Mina was on edge. You’ve seen her be quick and composed during missions, but right now seemed like she was one wrong move away from cracking. It seems like you guys won’t lose after all.
“Aww who knew the big and strong Bakugou was a softy,” she playfully pushed his shoulder. You could see his jaw clenched. Bakugou was putting in all of his self control to not scream his ass off like normal.
Mina leaned her elbows on the counter and rested her head on her hands. “So are you doing anything later? Because I was thinking maybe the two of us could hang out or something.” She proposed.
He plastered on a fake smile. “Sure, I’ll do whatever you want.” He replied.
She leaned forward, “how about we do something now? Maybe go somewhere a little more private?”
“Where um did you have in mind?” He hesitated.
She started to lose her cool, she moved her hands to the sleeves of her hoodie and started fidgeting with it. “How about my room?” She asked with the fakest smile you’ve ever seen.
“Absolutely.” The color was slowly draining from his face.
Your heart was racing as you noticed them walk away. Your boyfriend gazed at you, you don’t even know what kind of eyes. He just looked like he was going to snap within the next 30 seconds. You couldn’t believe Mina was being so forward. They definitely were pulling all the stops to get the two of you to crack.
You slipped your phone in your back pocket and stood up from the couch. You looked up and everyone was staring at you, probably waiting for you to admit defeat, WHICH YOU WERENT. However, you did want to make sure your friend wasn’t trying to be sneaky and make out with your boyfriend, even if it’s fake.
“I’ll be right back I need to get my charger from my room,” you blurted out and practically ran to the elevator.
By the time you got up to the floor with Mina’s dorm you saw the whole Scooby gang come out of the stairwell. You stared at them and they stared back.
“What are you guys doing up here?”
“we want to spy on them,” Todoroki replied calmly. The whole group froze and turned all their attention to him. “Roki! You don’t tell her that.” Denki scolded.
You clenched your fists, “whatever.” You walked to Mina’s door and everyone followed. A handful of you had your ears pressed to the door. Because of the walk and the detour in the hall you probably missed most of the conversation.
“So um, I guess we’re really gonna do this Huh?” Mina started. That the first thing you all heard. Her voice was shaky and high pitched.
“I um, I guess so,” he replied.
You were about to throw open the door. This has gone way too far. It was ok with you to have your boyfriend flirt with Mina for the sake of the prank and getting back at your classmates. HOWEVER, kissing her was going way out of line. Your jaw and fists clenched and your blood was boiling. You were seconds away from activating your quirk and sending this door flying when
“AHHH ALRIGHT FINE I CAVE! Get off my raccoon eyes! I can’t kiss you!” Bakugou screamed.
Mina giggled in surprise, “AH HA! And why not? She asked.
“Because I’m in love with y/n.”
“You you WHAT?” She gasped.
Huh? What did he say? Did he say that word. The word you guys haven’t said to each other yet? Everyone around you froze and landed their eyes on you. All of your faces went pale. You shakily opened the door and stepped inside.
“You what?” You mumbled.
Bakugou’s eyes softened when he turned his gaze to you. He walked over to your direction and placed his hand in yours. “I love you dumbass.” He said confidently.
“I love you too jackass,” you replied as you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss.
Although as touching as this moment was, the loud screaming and cheers from 2/3rds of your class was kind of killing the vibe.
“YOOOO! “Holy Shit!”
“Oh My God, was that their first I love you?”
“Sero owes me $15”
“I thought you guys were just hooking up, I didn’t know you were in love!”
314 notes · View notes