#you know he's mentally practicing introducing his family to her

[mellpenscorner]

You know what I loved in Twisters (besides literally everything)? The moment where Kate goes "SHE'S GORGEOUS" and Tyler has to Physically Restrain Himself from committing a class A cliche by mumbling something stupid like "she sure is...:

Kate: SHE'S GORGEOUS!!

Tyler:

[cringe--is--dead]

𝖀𝖒𝖊𝖒𝖎𝖞𝖆 𝕳𝖆𝖏𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖝 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗; 𝕬𝖗𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖉 𝕸𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖌𝖊 𝕻𝖙. 3

𝕻𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝕺𝖓𝖊

𝕻𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝕿𝖜𝖔

𝓐/𝓝: again, I go into writing these as blind as y'all reading them so I'm so sorry if this is rushed! >.< Also! It's been a hot second! So sorry! I had a bit of... a mental health crisis, got myself put under a bit of a 72-hour hold... but I'm here! And back! Kind of. I'm not super proud of this chapter, I'm so sorry!

It had been a few days since your arrival, since your official first meeting with the man who was to be your husband. Yet, though you assured him and Kotoha you were well rested now, that's all he remained. The man who would be your husband.

It was almost... frustrating to deal with. Your first meeting with your oldest brother's wife was at their wedding; she was beautiful, quiet in her white, lacey, dress. It was quick, you were scolded when you fidgeted in your dress, and your brother and his wife took off not long into the reception. The same thing happened when your second and third brother got married, and it wasn't until you turned thirteen you had learned what happened after a wedding such as those.

Your sister's wedding had been different, the man she had married was kind with both his words and his actions. He allowed your sister to mingle with her family, mainly you and your mother, before he introduced her to people he knew; those he did business with, his own family that had managed to show up and, looking back on it you realized now, a handful of his concubines.

Though she hadn't been taken to bed right then, the wedding was still a quick affair, and you were beginning to question why Umemiya was prolonging yours.

"You seem upset by something."

You thanked the years of etiquette practice that you didn't jump and drop your spoon, merely turning your gaze towards Kotoha who was sending an almost pitying look your way. You placed the spoon down, hands falling to your lap.

"I'm just thinking, I suppose."

Cherry meowed quietly, upset that Kotoha had stopped petting her. Your future sister-in-law continued to pamper her, studying your figure, "Is something the matter?"

"I'm just..." You bit your tongue.

You were allowed to speak freely here, so far. But you were worried that there was a line you'd accidently cross.

"Go on," Her voice was kind, reminding you, in a way, of your own mother.

"It's been about a week since I arrived here, and well," You twisted the fabric of your outfit in your hands, the clothe more comfortable to move around than the ones you grew up in, "There's been no discussion of when I shall be married to Umemiya officially. Have I... done something to offend him since arriving?"

You can only imagine how angry your father's letters will be once they begin arriving. At this rate, you had been gone for months, and he hadn't received one word of your wedding. You wouldn't be surprised if he appeared on one of his ships, demanding answers.

“No, you haven’t done anything,” Kotoha leaned towards you, gently placing her hand atop of yours, the warmth comforting, “I promise you. He’s just… working on finishing a few things.”

“And those things happen to be completed!” Umemiya’s voice was loud and boisterous, having the two of your startle where you were, turning to see him walking towards you, a large smile on his face.

“Kotoha, if I can borrow my fiancé for a moment?”

You felt your cheeks warm at the title given to you. Yes, you knew logically since you two were to be married you were his fiancé, but he said the word with so much warmth.

She looked from him to you, before nodding, telling you she’d find you later, and leaving you two alone. You weren't entirely sure what to say; he must have known you were growing rather antsy to wait, not that you would have disclosed that to his face.

If he was anything like the men you grew up with he would have exploded at you by now, reminding you that your opinions and your annoyance was of no importance to him, to know your place. Instead he smiled at you, and it was as warm and welcoming as it was the first time you ever saw him.

"I know you must hate waiting as long as you have been," He began, gently taking your hand in his and tugging you to follow him down the hall, leading you towards the entrance to the estate, "But I promise you, I think it will have been worth it."

You merely nodded, unsure of what it was he was planning. Maybe he had more business to attend to before becoming a married man? Granted, there was really only one type of business you could think of that would be affected direly due to his marital status, and though you may not know him all too well, you felt as if that wasn't within his character.

Outside the estate was an older woman, much shorter than you, accompanied by a man a few years older than you both. He was holding some type of clothe cover, allowing the older lady to gently fuss over whatever it held.

"Granny!" Umemiya paused, and you followed suit, nodding your head politely while he bowed towards her.

She turned, a serine smile on her face when she saw the pair of you, "Oh goodness! Umemiya-kun wasn't lying, you're quite beautiful young lady."

"Oh," You felt your heart skip a beat in your chest, cheeks ablaze as you thanked her, glancing towards your fiancé who didn't look ashamed at the statement.

"I know our traditions regarding weddings are rather different," He turned towards you quickly, and you felt a bit confused as to what the point he was going to make was, "So I had Kotoha and Tsubaki find different styles and ideas that were closest to Western wear that they could, and we commissioned this for you."

The lady began gently unwrapping the cloth her son, or grandson, was holding. Your knowledge of Japanese wedding kimonos was rather limited, but you knew immediately that the dress before you was not one. It was beautiful, to say the least.

It was far less showy than the dresses you had seen at all your siblings' weddings, but that was fine with you. The fabric appeared rather light, swaying in the gentle breezes that danced past. It wasn't too thick, no extra padding or extra fabric that would make your skin itch and crawl.

"It's beautiful," Was all you could muster to say, eyes wide as you stared at the dress-- at your wedding dress.

"I'm glad you like it, my dear," She quickly wrapped it back up, ushering her son to take it inside, "It was quite fun to make, I made sure the fabric was softer than the poor examples Tsubaki-chan brought me. The dresses your father sent with you were rather uncomfortable, I do hope you'll let me make more clothes for you in the future. Your children, too."

"C-Children?"

"Alright, granny!" Umemiya cut in, pointedly, but not unkindly, all while the older lady giggled rather mischievously, "We've got one more place to go to, thank you for the gown."

She waved you two off as he led you two out, hand on the small of your back as he ushered you out. The estate wasn't quite as large as the one you grew up in, but it was large none-the-less, and you two were quickly eloped in a comfortable silence. He had yet to move his hand from your back, and the touch was burning, in an unfamiliar way.

It was rather... nice.

"Thank you. For the gown. It really is beautiful."

He smiled, eyes crinkling as he chuckled, "It's your wedding as well, I wanted to incorporate some things from your culture as well."

"You didn't have to."

He shrugged in response, "But I wanted to."

He wanted to. For you. Your heart fluttered once more, your chest squeezing uncomfortably, and you quickly looked away from him, studying the cherry petals that danced in the afternoon breeze.

"I know that this marriage isn't something you had asked for," It was startling how quiet he had become, his voice lacking the boy like charm or the energy it had contained before.

"But I promise you I will do everything I can to be the best husband for you, I'll make sure your needs are always met, that you're never left unhappy or wanting." He had stopped walking at this point, and, in turn, you had stopped as well, facing him with wide eyes.

"You will have freedom here, to study and learn whatever your heart desires. You'll be able to help with decisions for the town if you so choose, your opinions and voice matter her," Your hands were in his, and you dropped your gaze to them.

They were much larger than yours, and you could feel the callouses on the palms of his hands. He worked hard, he held power over his town, but he worked with them as well as for them. You'd seen first hand these past few days how many people felt comfortable and safe coming to him with problems, requesting aid or help, and how quickly he was to ensure they received that help.

"I- I don't doubt it," Despite how certain he always seemed, you could hear the vulnerability in his voice, the desire to make sure you believed the words he was saying to you, "You... have been far kinder than most men in my life before now."

He nodded, and you glanced up, noting that, while that seemed to assure him, the sentence seemed to make him deflate a tiny bit. The melancholy look was quickly replaced, movement seeming to catch his attention. He nodded over to where he was looking, and after a moment of confusion, you looked over, curious as to what he was trying to show you.

"It's rather beautiful here," You felt your mouth open, a gasp much louder than intended falling from your lips, "Seems a rather nice place to settle down."

You were taking off down the pavement before you realized it, warm tears budding in your eyes as you ran. For how quickly you made your way to your destination, your sister had managed to drop the bag she had been holding, uncaring as it fell into the grass. You all but fell into her arms, sobs of-- what? Happiness? Sadness?

Whatever you were feeling, you were sobbing in your big sister's arms, her holding you as close as she had when you were a mere child. Her hands were combing through your hair, and you felt a few warm tears of her own fall onto your head.

"You look beautiful in your kimono, darling," You laughed, squeezing her tighter.

Some part of you was vaguely aware of Umemiya walking to join you all, greeting her husband, the pair of them allowing you two your moment as they directed where the bags should be sent to.

Finally, you pulled back, sure your face was blotchy and red in all the wrong places, "What are you doing here?"

Her hands cupped your cheeks, thumbing under your eyes as she rid you of the few tears still falling. She smiled, looking as radiant and beautiful as she always did to you.

"I'm here for your wedding, silly goose," She placed a gentle kiss on your forehead, "Your fiancé sent us letters as soon as you departed from father's, we would have been here sooner but we ran into a minor storm on the way here."

Before you could panic over that idea she shushed you, "It's all fine now. We just may have to stay a bit longer now," She winked, "Just to ensure our ship is in top shape."

"You all are welcome to stay as long as you please," Umemiya spoke, and you turned to him; he was smiling, a true smile, large and happy and warm and everything you were feeling in that moment, "We have enough room."

Your sister stepped back, thanking him, her husband moving to pick up her bag, smiling softly at you, "It's nice to see you again."

You nodded, rubbing at your nose, "You as well."

Umemiya shifted to stand a bit closer, "I hope the waiting seems worth it, I was hoping things could have worked out perfectly, but I'm not one who can control the weather. Nor do I understand making clothes, Tsubaki scolded me every time I went to check on your dress--"

You threw yourself towards him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders, having to stand on your tiptoes as you pulled him into a tight hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much." You felt as if you sounded borderline hysteric, but you couldn't bring yourself to care.

He wrapped his arms back around you, the weight on your waist oddly comforting, grounding.

"Anything for you," You pulled back after a moment, flat on your feet as you looked up to him, "I mean it."

A/N: part four will (should be) the wedding! and maybe more!

[ovaryacted]

(TW: talk of abuse/domestic violence)

I’ve been thinking about Leon and his daughter. I am 100% sure this man is not above using his ties to the government to wipe anyone who harms his daughter/abusive partner off the face of the earth.

His perfect baby girl comes to her daddy with a bruised eye and crying? She’s an adult, sure. But Oh he’s going scorched earth.

He kisses his precious little girl on the forehead, lets her sleep in in her old bedroom, and once she’s settled, he grabs his gun and goes.

I really REALLY do not think he’d let an abuser live. Someone put their hands on his little girl. His perfect little baby has gotten hurt by someone she trusted/loved?

Yea I don’t think they’d survive.

CW: mentions of abuse and domestic violence; talks of violence as payback; Leon & the reader are together and have a daughter (unspecified age but 21+)

Anon, this message made me hurt inside, and you sent it to me a while ago so I apologize for not responding until now. But wow, we're getting really angsty...damn. This hurts, but I get where this idea coming from. I think seeing something like his daughter being hurt because of someone else will actually break Leon as both a parent and an individual who puts his life on the line for his family.

Ever since his daughter was born into the world, Leon vowed to protect her with his entire being. He worked so hard to keep her safe from the dangers of the reality that he was all too familiar with, keeping his princess in bubble wrap and tucked away in the safety he knew he could provide. It worked for some time, watching her grow up into her own human being, as gentle and as precious as he imagined, practically his spitting image with his eyes down to his smile.

No matter how old she got, she will always be his little girl. Leon wanted to keep her at home for a while longer, nervous about sending her off to college but she reassures him, promising to call once a week and on the weekends to ease his anxieties. He knew she'd have to venture off into the real world eventually, and his daughter stuck to her promise, often coming back home on her breaks and using that time to catch up with her parents.

He thinks he's done well in raising her alongside you, smart and charismatic, doing everything to ensure his child grew up to know what love and acceptance felt like so she'd never have to be without it like he was.

When Leon was introduced to her current boyfriend, he tried hard to accept him, run his own mental background checks, and make sure he was enough to take care of his daughter and treat her the way she deserved. His daughter was happy, so he relented, giving this new guy a chance. So long as he saw his daughter smiling, all was right in the world.

That's why when Leon gets a phone call from his daughter sometime at midnight, he's confused, but the hair at the back of his neck raises as he gets a weird feeling that something is wrong.

"Hi dad", he hears her on the other line, her voice shaky and unstable.

"Sweetheart? Are you okay? What's wrong?", he gets up instantly and walks out of the bedroom so he doesn't wake you up, not wanting to bring a panic just yet.

"Yeah, I'm okay", he hears a sniffle, he knows she's lying, but he doesn't mention it. "I just...can I come home? Please?"

"Of course you can, you can always come home. Do you need me to pick you up?", Leon asks without hesitation. He didn't care if there was a tornado outside, he was going to get his child back home.

"It's okay, I can drive, traffic isn't too bad. I'll see you in a few okay?", she was hiding something from him, and if that were the case it must be bad. And that scared him.

"Sure thing honey, please be safe", she hung up the phone, the anxiety getting much worse because he didn't know what to expect. You wake up soon after that to ask what's wrong, and decide to wait for your daughter to come back home and make sure she's alright.

Was she safe? Did something happen? Why did it sound like she was crying? Did someone hurt her?

So many different scenarios play in his mind that the sound of a knock at Leon's front door brings him back to the present. Opening the door, he tries to hide the way his heart crack at the sight of his child standing in front of him with a bruised eye. He doesn't say anything as she drops the duffle bag she brought and instantly falls into his chest, crying heavily and shaking in his arms.

Sometime later on the couch, she explains how she got into an argument with her boyfriend, and in a fit of rage, he threw a punch before walking out of the apartment. Just hearing her retelling this and not being able to stop crying is what breaks Leon inside, having his daughter, whom he's tried so hard to protect from this world be a victim of abuse from someone who was supposed to love her hurts him greatly.

He blames himself for letting his daughter get hurt, for letting that bastard get anywhere near his angel and hurt her like this. Whispering apologies into his daughter's blonde hair, he cradled her close as he repeated "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry sweetheart".

Leon lets her stay in her old bedroom, tucking her into bed the way he used to when she was little and running his fingers through her hair as gently as he could. He knows you'll watch over her as she sleeps, and will probably slip into bed alongside her to hold her in your arms the way a mother should.

"I promise you, he's not going to hurt you ever again. I swear", Leon tells her, and his daughter believes him wholeheartedly. He gives you a knowing look as he walks out of the bedroom, and you don't try to stop him.

He takes his gun out from the locked safe in his closet, not sure when he last held it in his hand but the muscle memory quickly comes to him. Throwing on a jacket and grabbing his car keys, he got into his Jeep and headed on the road, gripping the steering wheel tightly until his knuckles were white. Maybe being on the road while he was seething and seeing red wasn't a good idea, but he had to handle this or he would never forgive himself.

A part of him thinks that he should get Hunnigan on the phone, should have her knock some sense into him, and tell his ass to turn the fuck around. But he doesn't, hitting the gas and imagining tearing off this man's head for laying a hand on the most precious thing he has in his life.

He doesn't remember the last time he was this pissed, and he certainly didn't know he could want to hurt someone when he had been so focused on saving others for most of his life. But he finds himself caring less and less about the consequences of his actions and doesn't feel guilty for wanting to do what he knows is necessary.

Justice is what Leon calls this, and it brings him back to his time studying for the police academy, how doing the right thing felt so fundamental to him that it was always a part of his character. He's doing this out of love, out of knowing his daughter will be safe from this monster, and that makes it right.

Yeah, that man better start praying, cause it might be the last time he gets to.

[adventuringblind]

“My Favorite Sainz”

Carlos Sainz x sister!reader & Charles Leclerc x Sainz!Reader (can be read as platonic or romantic)

Genre: hurt/comfort, angst, fluff

Request: yes! I hope this is what you were thinking! My requests are open so please send your ideas!

Summary: Carlos has a new girlfriend, one who obviously didn’t care much to get to know him. When his sister starts getting bullied by her, it’s time for someone to step in.

Warnings: toxic behavior, bullying, social media being poison

Notes: written in third person. Kinda short compared to my other fics.

Masterlist

She was definitely more private than her brother. All her socials set to private. She only used her last name if it was necessary. So it didn’t shock her that her brothers new girlfriend didn’t know they were related.

Most of the staff around the Ferrari garage knew. Simply because Carlos was so excited when she finally decided to come to the paddock that he introduced her to everyone as “my baby sister,” much to her dismay.

The Leclerc family was instantly warm towards her. She liked teasing both Carlos and Charles. If she wasn’t with Carlos, she was probably with Charles.

When Carlos mentioned he was going on a date with a model, her and Charles teased him. It went on for months until he finally let the two meet her at the paddock during a race weekend.

It was obvious that the woman didn't care much to get to know him. The younger Sainz picked up on the way she practically ignored him when he spoke.

She pointed it out to him a few times but was just dismissed. Thankfully, Charles also saw it and reassured his favorite Sainz that she wasn't crazy.

Carlos simply pointed out that she didn't know her and that since she's a model, she deals with media and interactions differently.

She felt hurt by his words. Why didn't he see what she did?

Then the jealousy started.

Being a sister obviously meant being there for Carlos when things came up. No matter the result, it became routine for her to find him after races and slather him in sibling affection.

Depending on his mood, he’d either bat her away playfully or let console him. It was one of these moments that someone took a picture of. The culprit was Carlos’ girlfriend. She knows because she watched her take a picture with the flash on.

She let it be though. Maybe she thought it was cute.

The reality of what was really going on set in when she woke up that morning to the image circling the internet. Gossip articles claiming Carlos to be a cheater and her to be a slut.

Was it that difficult to want privacy? She wanted to watch her brothers races in peace. Do her job without interference from fans. Now, her want to remain unnoticed was the cause of drama for Carlos.

She tried to keep it to herself. Tried to let it all go because she knew the truth. But the fans were getting out of hand. They’d dug up photos where she appears with other drivers. Charles in particular.

As the words they used got stronger, she found herself struggling with how to cope.

She tried to talk to her brother about, but he’d just said he hadn’t seen anything and not to pay any mind to the haters.

It didn’t surprise Charles to see her at his door the following afternoon. Carlos had called him saying he couldn’t understand what was going on. Charles didn’t really know either. But when he saw the tears in her eyes, he knew it wasn’t good.

“What can I do for my favorite Sainz?”

~

Charles made a mental note that day to talk to Carlos, but he could never find a good opportunity to do so. In the meantime, he tried to help get rid of any rumors sounding the two.

She had bigger things to deal with then fans. Mostly the now very aggressive comments that came from a certain model. She was constantly telling her to back off.

“Can’t you take a hint?”

“I’m his-“

“I don’t care what you are, leave us alone.” She sneered. Again not bothering to listen to what anyone had to say.

Carlos had started noticing that both his sister and friend had been pulling away from him. He wanted to get to the bottom of it. But his girlfriend always placed herself between him and any answers. It was starting to become frustrating for the Spaniard.

~

This weekend she was going to celebrate Carlos’ birthday. He’d planned a large party at his apartment. She knew who was going to be there and almost decided in feigning sickness. She couldn’t do that to her brother, though. She’d just do her best to avoid any sort of spectacle.

When she arrived, the anxiety had already set in. More pictures. More words. More confrontation. She hated what this had done to her.

She takes a deep breath, opens the door, and immediately looks for her brother. He was easy to spot in the sea of bodies. Thankfully he spotted a her as well and pushed past the group to get to her.

He embraced her and planted a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m so happy you’re here! I feel like we haven’t seen each other in forever!”

She lets out an airy laugh. “We just saw each other last week and you said I was the worst sister of all time.”

“You ate my food.”

“You didn’t label it yours.”

The conversation was quick but she was relieved to be on her own again. No sight of anyone sneaking pictures of her or wanting to start anything. She made small talk with a few friends and family members. Then decided a drink was necessary if she was going to get through this party without passing out from the anxiety.

Before she made it to the bar, someone had snagged her wrist. Her body being dragged through people into the hallway. The two now secluded and away from earshot if any of her friends.

“How many times to I have to tell you? Stay away from him.” She could smell the alcohol on the woman’s breathe. She didn’t want there to be a scene. Not tonight.

She looked for a way to escape since words would do nothing. Being pinned to the wall by her shoulders was not helping her options.

~

Charles had arrived a few minutes ago. She had texted him before the party started admitting her nerves. He promised to find her as soon as he got there, but she was nowhere to be found.

Eventually he ran into Carlos. They greeted each other with a hug and a course of happy birthdays from the monegasque.

“Have you seen your sister anywhere?” He asked. His concern for the younger Sainz only growing as he’d yet to see her.

Carlos looked at him in confusion. “I was hoping you would know.”

The two split off to find her. Looking in places where you may have gone to get away.

Charles found himself down a hall that looked relatively quite. Until he heard the slurred words of a familiar female. He peeked around the corner and saw the girl he was looking for being held by the shoulders against the walls. Eyes glazed over like she wasn’t present.

Charles jumps out from around the corner and clears his throat. “There’s my favorite Sainz! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

The model and the monegasque stare at each other as one slowly releases her into the arms of the other. Carlos peaks around the corner in confusion. Not understanding why his sister was shaking, his girlfriend looked like she might punch Charles, and Charles looks like he’s going to run away with his sister.

“I’m so tired of this!” The mode, finally scream out. Loud enough for anyone nearby to stop what they’re doing. “Did you marry her or something now too?!”

Carlos deadpans and Charles starts laughing. The model only continues her monologue. “She’s a slut and want all your attention all the time, Carlos!”

Now they’ve switched. Carlos looks like he might punch the wall and Charles expression immediately deadpans.

“Get out.” Carlos spits. His voice firm and determined.

“What?-“

“I see what’s been going on now. Nobody gets to disrespect my family.”

“Your sister?”

The model begins fumbling around in confusion and embarrassment. Not knowing how not understanding what anyone was trying to tell her. Someone made sure she was escorted out.

Carlos thanked Charles for stepping in and helping his little sister. She smiled at her brother. “Never doubted you for a second.” She chuckles.

After she is in the safety of her own home, she sighs heavily. Charles had brought her up and walked her inside to make sure she was ok after everything that happened.

She almost tackled him with her surprise hug and muttered a ‘thank you’ into his chest.

He embraced her back. Whispering “of course, anything for my favorite Sainz.”

[little-pondhead]

Wanted to hop in on the supervillain Danny au questions! Do we think Valerie would have any interest to get in on this? Between being a pawn for Vlad as Red Huntress and her "friends" ditching her as soon as she stopped being rich, I like the idea that evil billionare mastermind is her general vibe. Heck, maybe she and Tucker flip roles and she becomes the guy in the chair, not being a front line powerhouse and actually coming up with elaborate plans.

And on that note, do we think that if Vlad somehow found his way into this mess, he'd see the whole thing as a fun little game of "opposite world" and try his hand at being a hero? Because I for one think that would be hilarious, I actually don't have ideas for that because I can't imagine a heroic Vlad.

Amyway, that's all I got for now. Love your work!

You're one of the vertebrae creatures who keep hoarding all the brain wrinkles, aren't you??

---

[Okay, so I lost your ask, wrote this shit, then found it again so it's not exact but I'm trying here.]

Let's start with Valerie, or keeping up with the trend, Gray in the DC universe.

Valerie is so tired. It's a different kind of tiredness that has a grip on the others. Danny is tired of being a hero, Sam is tired of her parent's expectations, and Tucker is tired of being unable to protect his friends. Jazz is tired of being the bigger person, and Dani is tired of not having someone to rely on. The DC universe is their escape, and honestly, it's doing wonders for their mental health. Valerie notices. She has a shaky truce with Phantom and his crew, but she can't just let him get a leg up on her, can she? So Valerie follows them, through town, through the portal, through the new world they popped up in.

There, she stops. Phantom is now Fenton, and doesn't that make sense? Many things click into place and Valerie starts to understand as she watches the others from the shadows. She's surprised they haven't noticed her, but a little green sticky note on her visor says she had a little hand in her reconnaissance. So when she's done, she returns to her dimension. Back to Amity Park and back to her bed. Valerie lays there for a while, staring at the ceiling and fingering the sticky note, committing every detail to memory.

And you know what? Valerie gets pissed. How come Danny and his friends lovers? and family get to just visit other dimensions whenever they want a break and have no repercussions whatsoever? Just because hero work is hard?? She's a hero too, dammit!

Obviously, someone out there apparently agreed with her because, in a quick, dizzying moment, Valerie finds herself suddenly in the Ghost Zone, plopped down on a ratty blue couch with a very old ghost sitting across from her. He introduces himself as Clockwork, the ghost of time, the regent of the king, and Danny's guardian. Mentor? She wasn't sure; ghost speech always gave her a headache. Either way, Valerie found herself exceptionally calm and somehow struck a deal with the Ancient. To her chagrin, Clockwork informed her that Valerie was well and truly Liminal now, despite her best efforts. (What did she expect? Her suit was practically drenched in ectoplasm.) As part of the deal, Clockwork extended the same courtesy to her that he had to the others. Anytime she wanted, Valerie could have free reign and access to the DC universe and could do anything she liked with no bad consequences. And because of her liminality, he was able to grant her just enough power for her to create her own portals directly to the other realm.

[What did Clockwork get out of this deal? Well, that's up to someone else who's not me.]

So Valerie goes to this new universe. She switches her name to Gray, as if to mock Fenton, who had no idea she was there. She does not try to become a supervillain. And what's this? Outfit analysis time!!

In the show, I've always liked Valerie as a character, and whether it was intentional or not, her design seems to fit her attitude and actions. They were in high school in the early 2000s before her dad lost her job; Valerie was very popular, from what I remember. Her family had money. Other kids expected her to keep up with social norms, so her outfit looked more stylish than practical. She wears yellow, which is most commonly seen as a happy color. Her hair is slicked back so people can see her whole face. She has nothing to hide. She's confident and youthful, ready to lead, and overall enjoying her lot in life. Then ghosts start appearing, and we all know her backstory as Red Huntress. Her suit is tight to her skin, bright red, and overall she's armed to the teeth. Everything about that screams DANGER! Valerie is a threat now.

Her civilian outfit also never changes, which is understandable because this is a cartoon from 2004. But it's secretly genius because yellow is often considered a cautious color. It turns from being a happy color to a warning. Yellow is also associated with anxiety, betrayal, and even egotism, which is something both she and Danny experience during their interactions. She's uptight and constantly on edge. She feels like she has to provide for her family and is quick to anger.

Now for the opposite of that? Valerie is tired of being angry all the time. Rather than go apeshit on a bunch of poor heroes and villains-been there, done that-she treats this whole thing like an actual vacation. Gray wears a soft long sleeve, sweats, and fuzzy slippers. Her hair is relaxed and in a bun, with her bangs hiding half of her face. It takes some pressure off of constantly keeping her expressions in check. People also can't see how she's silently judging them. She lets the stress melt from her shoulders and lets herself curse like a sailor whenever she feels like it. Her clothes are dimmer colors, which don’t stand out or demand attention. She lets herself be not perfect.

Although, just because this is a vacation for her doesn't mean Gray can't just lounge around doing nothing. She has no money! So Gray, after shuffling through a couple decades of this world's history and discovering that Craigslist is universal, applies for the first work ad she sees. In short, Gray joins the Goonion. She ends up making a deal with the guy who hired her. And her new boss. And her new neighbor. And-

Gray very quickly becomes the John Constantine of the criminal underworld. She brushes up on her people skills and learns to talk rings around other people, getting people to owe her favors as much as she dishes them out. Balance is the key here, as she’s learned from Danny. Gray is never tied down by too many IOUs at a time, and her tight grip on her companions and team quickly earn her a questionable but reliable reputation. She presents a morally-gray character, if you will.

Gray’s quick climb to power-that was definitely sped along by Clockwork-earns her a powerful position in the Goonion. If she plays her cards right, Gray doesn’t have to do any work at all. She just leans back and enjoys being paid for wearing pajamas all day and occasionally signing some paperwork. She siphons away bits of her own paycheck to a dimensional bank account she threatened asked Technus to set up, and Gray is finally able to slip more than a few tens into her father’s wallet when it’s time for him to pay his rent. It’s a good life.

Now, Vlad? Oh, he's fucked. This can work for whatever redemption au you want. He can be exactly like he is in the show or working towards bettering himself as a person. I imagine him being halfway to a redemption plot, and in an effort to gain the Fenton's trust, he starts hanging around with the family more. Jack loves this. The others do not, but what can they do? Everyone is just trying to be civil to each other in an effort to make Jack happy. Since old habits die hard, Vlad very quickly notices Danny's improved state of mind and is attuned to the Zone enough to feel when Clockwork stops time on their end. He starts to purposefully rile up Danny and realizes that the time stops happen right after Danny leaves the room in a fit of anger. Then the boy comes back all smiles and sometimes doesn't even remember what Vlad had said to him in the first place.

So he puts his ear to the ground. Whispers are floating around about a new portal that's been opened near Phantom's Keep. A natural one. A permanent one. No one can investigate due to its location, but the young king and members of his fraid have been seen frequenting it more often than late. Not suspicious in the slightest, Danny would have protested. Vlad goes poking around. Entering the Keep uninvited felt like millions of bugs tugging at his skin, but turning human helped ease the sensation. It was laughably easy to slip between the cold stone walls of the Keep, avoiding Fright Knight's walking path and sticking to the shadows. The portal was in the courtyard, under the watchful gaze of two stone gargoyles leftover from Pariah's reign. Right before Vlad can investigate further stick his head in and see what happens the world warps, and suddenly the older halfa is sitting on his ass in front of a very old ghost.

Looks like Vlad fucked around and found out.

Basically, Clockwork yoinked Vlad to his side of existence right before he entered the portal. Even if all he wanted to do was relate to Danny in an effort to mend their relationship, The Master of Time wasn't okay with Vlad going off into the DC universe all willy-nilly. Oh no. Letting Vlad loose in this world would lead to bad things regardless of his intentions. Even if Vlad promised to play by all the rules and pretended to be human, he was bound to slip up and cause trouble.

So there were two courses of action Clockwork could take here. One, he could pull in a few favors and wipe Vlad's memory, sending him back to his own universe until he inevitably went sniffing around again, and this whole song and dance continued. Or second, he could equip Vlad with similar ghost artifacts Manson and Foley possessed and temporarily seal away Vlad's powers while he was gallivanting around the DC universe. He'd be on Clockwork's payroll, so to speak, and could only act on the older ghost's instructions. Clockwork presented these two choices to Vlad. The older halfa chose the second option after weighing the pros and cons. He didn't want to be controlled by Clockwork, but he also didn't want to lose his memories (over and over again, from how he worded it.)

This is how Vlad's hero persona is born. I'm unsure if he should stick with his last name, Masters, or take on something different to distance himself from Fenton and his family. Let's stick with Masters for now.

Clockwork has this drowning little rat man on a rehab program and uses some fancy ghost jewelry to inhibit his halfa abilities. He doesn't make Masters do much, just drops him in here and there when the DC timestream needs a little nudge. It's not like Clockwork will have Danny deal with it; the kid already helps out with every other timestream when asked. Masters can help out here. And since his halfa abilities are blocked, he gets to do everything as a human, which brings its own set of challenges. The idea is that by throwing Masters face-first into a new world filled with people who could end his existence and be forced to win every fight or else, he'll come to appreciate what Danny goes through on a daily basis.

The JL Dark becomes very familiar with the mysterious Masters, who doesn't seem to have any powers but still fights like he does. The man can be extraordinarily clumsy and short-tempered but still graceful and light on his feet when it matters the most. More than once has someone caught Masters muttering under his breath, cursing out gravity and a 'purple-cloak wearing bitch.' Masters always shows up out of the blue at the most random times. He is literally just there, and sometimes even Masters himself looks shocked about his sudden scene change. But he's always suited up and ready to go, so not many heroes question it. They usually need the help anyway.

In the DC universe, Masters is wearing four magic bands, each engraved with the words Dominion of Time on them. Several bands made from tungsten were buried deep with Clockwork's Tower in an old wooden box made from aspen and diamonds. Each band was a blank slate, glowing slightly from magic long past. Clockwork had simply selected the four he needed, engraved the spells needed in ghost speech, and handed them over. Vlad grumbled and tried to find a loophole in the artifacts, but ultimately accepted his fate and wore them whenever Masters was needed.

Vlad's new outfit for this outfit is similar to Valerie's; it's loose and uncomplicated. (Actually, there are a lot of parallels between these two.) In the show, Vlad always wears a tailored suit and dress shoes. He's well-groomed and his hair is slicked back. He always tries to show off his wealth and power by having full control over his appearance. In layman's terms, he's the walking cliché trope of a rich billionaire villain in every superhero media to ever exist. After all, in a kid's show with a teenage protagonist, what's more intimidating than an adult nemesis who has their life together?

As Masters, Vlad is forced to throw all that out the window.

The hero outfit he wears was literally picked up off the street. If glowing metal bands were not adorning his arms, some would assume that Masters was a homeless man. The top was dug out from a dumpster behind a costume store, and the sandals were given to him by a woman who couldn't wear them anymore. His arm sleeves were sewn together from some blackout curtains he found at an old housing demolition site, and the pants were just some sweatpants that were a tad too short. The mask was bought from the corner store, his belt salvaged from a junkyard, and his scarf was actually a gift from Jack-not that he'd wear it around the oaf. The only 'expensive' things Masters wore were the four magic bands, a handful of large glass beads hanging from his belt, and the sharp metal claws he wore on top of each finger. The claws were bought on a whim years ago when Vlad was building his fortune, and boy, was he glad for them now. They were the only real weapons Clockwork allowed him to carry for some reason.

In other words, Masters is exposed. With his loose hair and flowing clothes, Masters is forced to trust the others around him to have his back. He's humbled every time someone covers an obvious blind spot of his that he's not used to compensating for. He gets dirty and messy, fighting to survive against enemies he knows nothing about. His outfit symbolizes his efforts to change. Masters is re-learning what it's like to be truly vulnerable in a world you don't understand with no help whatsoever. Clockwork has no issue pitting him against demons and ghouls even John Constantine would hesitate at, and his narrow victories quickly earn him an invitation to the Watchtower.

The Justice League is puzzled by this walking lump of wet spaghetti. He disappears so easily into the background and doesn't stand out at all. Every once in a while his eyes scrunch up like he's confused about something, but he won't admit that he's lost the conversation. Masters will offhandedly say weird things and turn as if expecting someone to be there, then suddenly stop himself with a soft flinch. He refuses any form of payment. He can stare down Batman. His appearances are random and the man carries no form of contact. Masters often has an aura of resignation and regret around him, as if he didn't want to be there in the first place. He's awkward around kids but fiercely protective of a few teen heroes. (Mostly Conner.)

It finally starts to come together in the JL's mind when Masters becomes more widely known in the world of supers. One of the higher-ups in the Goonion hates him. Dani held a gun to his head. Manson screeched bloody murder when she saw him. Nightingale declared herself his official nemesis. The final piece was when, after a long and exhausting fight, Masters temporarily removed his mask to wipe away some blood around his mouth.

The Flash, who was sitting next to him, nearly let out a squeak.

Masters' blood was bright green.

Masters' teeth were shaped like a shark's.

Masters was another fucking Fenton, wasn't he?

[league-of-sam]

Don't Be Shy | Konig x Reader

Kӧnig x TF141 x AFAB!Reader

PART TWO

Summary: Transferred against your will to a new task force to calm a troubled soldier, you felt way in over your head - especially when you came face to face with a 6'10" mountain of Austria. 18+ MINORS DNI! t.w // angst, mental health, language, violence, human trafficking, death, sexual themes/SMUT, military inaccuracies, language inaccuracies (google translate).

1 / 3 / 4 / 5

As predicted, and as the newest addition to the task force, Fender wanted to see your abilities in action.

For days, he pushed you.

He had you run through all of their training exercises, of which you completed with full marks. By the time you were done, you were completely exhausted, and starving.

“Hey! Newbie!” A voice called as you laced up your boots.

Looking up, you saw a group of soldiers approaching you, two males, one female.

“Uh, hi.” You said, wiping your hands on your trousers as you stood.

“Horangi.” The first introduced himself, “This is Hutch and Calisto.”

“Calisto.” You hummed, “Cool name.”

“Not as cool as yours, Karma.” She replied, nudging you playfully.

You laughed, “Yeah, I got Soap to thank for that.”

“So, you’re 141?” Horangi asked.

“Yeah, been with them about a year, transferred here temporarily to-”

“Deal with Kӧnig,” Hutch cut you off, “Yeah, everyone knows why you’re here.”

You frowned.

No wonder Kӧnig kept to himself outside of missions, these people treated him like utter shit.

You looked around for the giant but came up empty.

“He seems nice.” You spoke.

Calisto snorted, hand moving to cover her mouth, “The guy is silent, doesn’t speak to anyone.”

Her laughing rubbed you the wrong way, and despite the two of you having a rather...hostile start, you felt the need to defend Kӧnig.

“Have you tried talking to him instead of waiting for him to speak to you?” you challenged.

She shrugged, shaking her head somewhat ashamedly. Hutch bared the same reaction, which told you all you needed to know; no one had even given him a chance.

“Say, uh, wanna join us for dinner?” Horangi said.

At the mention of food, your stomach grumbled loudly, making the group laugh, “Now you mention it, I’m starving.”

With that, the four of you made your way to the canteen, the darkness of the night drawing your attention to how late it actually was. The canteen was bustling, murmurs of numerous conversations flowing around you, creating a sea of sound.

It was strange, coming from a small, elite, taskforce to one that had at least 40 soldiers. You were used to home-cooked family meals with the 141, mostly cooked by you. Here, it was a full on cafeteria, trays and all.

You thanked the servers profusely as they placed the meal onto your tray, and then turned, scanning the room for a place to sit.

Calisto called your name, beckoning you over to the table she was at, sat alongside Fender and Roze.

Something else caught your eye, though.

In the corner, pushing the food around his plate, was Kӧnig. He was sat alone, and even the few tables in his immediate vicinity were empty. People avoided him like the plague.

With a soft smile to Calisto, you shrugged, and made your way to him.

Might as well get started now.

He didn’t look at you as you sat down in the seat opposite, but the room practically fell silent. It was enough of a change for him to finally look up, and that’s when you noticed the colour of his eyes.

Blue.

A gorgeous, crystalline, blue.

They widened as he saw you before him, his fork scraping against the pottery with an agonising squeal. You offered a small smile, fidgeting a little under his gaze.

“How is the food here?” you spoke. He didn’t reply, continuing to gawk at you, “It any good or am I about to get poisoned?”

You cringed internally at your attempt to make a joke, and his lack of an answer made things so much worse.

He looked the furthest from pleased, his eyes narrowing and the grip on his own fork seeming uncomfortably tight. You ate in an uncomfortable silence, until the density of the air became a little too heavy.

“What did you have?” you spoke again, nodding to his torn-up-but-barely-eaten food.

He just continued to stare at you with a shark-like gaze, as if you were some silly warbling seal swimming up to him in his lair. You tilted your head, confused by his reactions to your words. You wondered if, maybe, he’d get angry, but instead his eyes began darting around the room, as if he was waiting for someone to strike.

“I-is something wrong, Kӧnig?” you asked, trying to follow him in whatever it was he was searching the room for.

“Why are you asking me all these questions?” he finally spoke.

Your gaze faltered from him, an embarrassed blush creeping onto your cheeks, “Oh, uh, just trying to make conversation. We are partners after all-”

“I don’t need a partner, don’t need you.” He spat.

“I know it’s not exactly ideal for either of us.” You frowned, “But I’d like for us to get to know-”

“Who put you up to this?” he said, cutting you off with a raised voice, “Was it Horangi? No, Roze? Calisto? I saw you laughing with them.”

His voice got louder and louder with every word he threw at you, leaning in your direction angrily. Your hands began to shake, you were never good with hostility and confrontation, that’s why you were a sniper in the first place – you were out of the action.

That’s why Ghost was so protective of you.

He saw one of the rookies giving you a mouthful in the briefing room, once. Your small hands were shaking at your sides as you tried to swallow down tears. He’d wasted no time in saving you from that situation and giving that rookie a piece of his mind.

That’s when he and the rest of the 141 realised what a soft, kind, human you were, and how protective they all felt of you.

So, in this moment, when you could feel that lump in your throat rise and your eyes sting, you weren’t at all surprised. Annoyed with yourself, yes, but confrontation was not your strong suit.

“N-no, not at all!” you struggled to speak, “I wanted to speak to you, no one has made me do anything I swear.”

“Just leave me alone.”

He stood from the table with such force, that it sent the chair he’d been sitting on screeching and clattering backwards, toppling over with a deafening blow. It made you jump, but you did nothing as he stormed past you, whispering under his breath in a mixture of German and English.

The entire cafeteria was looking at you now, some looked terrified, some looking not-so-surprised.

Guess you knew now why no one spoke to Kӧnig.

You’d rushed from the canteen not long after him, the tears threatening to spill forcing you to the safety of your dorm.

Before you even had a chance to breathe, your tablet rang, signalling a video call.

When you answered, the faces of Soap and Ghost popped up, smiles on their lips as soon as they saw you.

“With all due respect, Lieutenant, this really isn’t a good time.” You sniffed, rubbing your eyes.

His and Soap’s excited demeanour immediately changed, the two of them sharing a look of concern before bombarding you with questions along the lines of who hurt you? Do we need to come? Say the word and we’ll kill whoever it is-

“Fucking hell, shut up!” you stopped them, but a giggle escaped your lips at their protective nature, “It’s fine, just…this guy is tougher than I thought.”

“I’ll say!” Soap spoke, “We read his file, lass. The man is an absolute nutjob.”

“That isn’t nice, Soap.”

“It’s true, kid. Did you read his file?” Ghost said, propping the camera up more.

“Only what Fender gave me.” You sighed.

“What about the classified stuff?”

“Funnily enough, Soap, I didn’t see that. In case you forgot, classified means not accessible.”

Soap grumbled under his breath at your retort, Ghost whispering for him to shut the fuck up. The sight made you laugh, honestly. The two were already like an old married couple.

It was adorable.

“What’s in the classified then? Anything I should know?” you pressed.

“He took out an entire human trafficking base in Berlin alone. Breached the doors and killed all twelve men in there on his own, without weapons. The guy is a psychopath.”

Your eyes widened in shock, “Christ…what the fuck has Price got me into? I just tried talking to him for the first time in days and he yelled at me in front of everyone and pushed a chair practically across the room.”

“Ya need to be careful, bonnie.” Soap said, worry striking his features.

“They treat him like shit here. I need to help him. He has issues with anxiety and not one person ever speaks to him outside of missions.”

“Just make sure you keep yourself safe, can’t have this guy hurtin’ ya.”

“Careful, Ghost – you’re really teetering on the edge of sounding like you care!” you teased, earning you an eye roll, “Besides, I don’t think there’s a whole lot I can do. Kӧnig is 6’10 and built like a brick shithouse.”

You couldn’t help but lose yourself in thought as your mind took you back to the office, seeing his giant body tower over you.

Unfortunately, Soap was being very observant, and he did not miss the way your tongue slowly licked over your lips.

“Karma…do not tell me you have a crush on this guy?!”

“W-what? Soap- no! I’ve just met him!” you screeched, but once again your face was heating, and you didn’t dare look at the two men before you.

“Fuckin’ steaming hell, you do!”

“No, I do not-!”

A knock at your door cut you off, and you breathed a sigh of relief.

Spilling out a rushed goodbye to the boys, who were speaking over one another to get you to stay, you cut them off, tossing the tablet behind you and approaching your door.

With a heavy hand, you pulled it open, only for your eyes to be level with a very hard chest.

Slowly, you tipped your head up, finally making eye contact with the last person you’d expected to see. You were cast in darkness, his frame completely blocking any light from the hallway seeping through.

“Oh, u-uh, Kӧnig…hi.” You said softly.

He looked down at you, shifting on his feet, “Commander said I had to come and…apologise?” he said, almost a question, as if wondering if that was the right word to use.

“Right, uh, no problem.” You nodded. “People aren’t nice to you, it’s natural to be wary, I understand.”

He nodded, opting not to speak.

A part of him did feel bad. You’d only tried to be nice, something he’d prayed for every single day, but the second he got what he wanted, those voices nagged in his head. He found it hard to believe your intentions were pure.

After all, you were everything he wanted to be, and he was coincidentally paired with you for this mission.

It was bullshit.

You stood there, twiddling your thumbs anxiously under his gaze, until he moved swiftly, stalking back the way he came. It left you dumbfounded for a moment, until the sound of Soap and Ghost calling you back on the tablet caused your eyes to roll, and you shut the door.

[theacemenace]

Haunting Adeline is bad.

It only gained hype because of the controversial themes because the construction is crap. A poorly written book with shameful dialog and characters shallower than the drain in my sink. The book makes an effort to be profound, showing how cruel and dark the world is, but in the end it tries so hard that it's more like those One Direction fics kidnapping Y/N. Adeline herself as the protagonist seems to have come straight out of a Wattpad self insert. It's also unnecessarily long. There's no justification for this story being 600 pages long, let alone a sequel. If you take away all the unnacessary bullshit, the whole duology could fit into a single book.

Such a long book, but it still fails to introduce us to the basic concepts of the characters. So many things are poorly explained that they basically expect readers to accept just “because...”? For example, Zade's motivation? I finished the book without understanding his backstory and why he would go so far to do what he does. “That's because he's angry about the existence of child trafficking”, congratulations Zade, you're a normal person who is outraged by child violence, so what? One person finding abuse wrong (which in itself is ironic when it comes to Zade, given what he does to Adeline) isn't enough to justify everything he does. He ends up being the author's puppet for action and smuty kinky scenes, rather than a complex character.

Speaking of kinky, I see a lot of people (including the author apparently) who don't know the basic difference between fetish and abuse. All fetish and kinks, including cnc, needs to be done in a healthy, safe and consensual way. These are the basics of the practice and are non-negotiable. Practically all the sex scenes in this book that take place between Adeline and Zade fall into the dub-con (dubious consent) spectrum. Whether it's because he's forced himself on her, coerced her, manipulated her, etc., from the lightest to the heaviest, all the sex between them has a non-consensual aspect in addition to the disparity of power in the relationship that was not negotiated between them. So you can't use the excuse that it's a fetish so anything goes, because that's simply not the reality. If you let go of the dark romance for a second and actually research how this works, you'll quickly realize that the way this book deals with fetish is extremely off the mark.

Lastly, there's the issue of human/child trafficking. I see a lot of people criticize how graphic the scenes are, which for me wasn't a problem, but very few people talk about how the vision portrayed in the book refers to a line of thought that connect whit the crazy right-wing american conspiracy theorist mentality . Whenever there was a scene involving violence against children, I had the impression that H.D Carlton had studied the subject on the QAnom forum. Anyone who does the slightest bit of research on the subject knows that the main victims of this kind of violence are not the white suburban American children of the traditional family, as we see repeatedly portrayed through Zade's missions. It's not a black van that springs up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood and steals away a beloved child while their parents cry copiously over the loss. Those who are targeted are usually non-white, disabled children from very poor areas who are generally forgotten by the system. Not to mention that the book kind of implies that most of the guys involved in the dirty work of kidnapping the children are Mexicans and mestizos. These are the people we see Zade, the white guy, fighting against to save the day. Also I'm not Jewish so I can't say 100%, but the way the author constructed the secret society plus all the strange and conspiracy-oriented things in the book gave me an anti-Semitic vibe. The secret society in this book is literally a ctrl+c ctrl+v of Blood Libel. Maybe I'm going too far with my interpretation, but considering that the author literally had to put a disclaimer at the beginning that she has no connection with conspiracy theory groups, I don't think I'm so wrong to notice parallels.

[shes4twnksinatrnchct]

Hell of a Show

Jake Kiszka x fem oc

Fifteen years after resigning from Greta Van Fleet, for reasons undisclosed to the public, Coley Payne is asked by her former band members to tell her side of the story.

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI, explicit language, angst, fluff, first love, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health struggles, character death, familial grief, reference to sexual situations, *explicit sexual situations (smut warnings will be mentioned pertaining to each chapter it occurs in).

Words: 2.8k

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has liked/commented/reblogged and even has just read this story so far. It really does mean a lot and I appreciate the support and your time! Thank you.

Please keep in mind this is a work of fiction and enjoy!

***LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED***

***Table of Content***

The Beginning: Part II

JAKE: Greta Van Fleet was born about four years later, and was done so without Danny or Coley, initially. 

It was me, a drummer that my brothers claim I “poached” from Jazz band in high school, Josh was singing, and Sammy—who Josh and I had ‘practically press-ganged into playing with us instead of doing his homework one random afternoon–was on bass.

2013

She can’t put into words the utter admiration and love that fills her while watching them perform, cheering and whistling as if it was her first time experiencing it anywhere else aside from the Kizska’s garage. 

And it doesn’t evade him—the undivided attention she offers up on a gold platter through starry-eyes and beaming a smile that shines a light of its own back onto him from where she’s made sure to get closest to the stage every show. 

It’s branded his memory like an iron, his mind tracing over the stamp of it as metaphorical bows are taken and curtains fall, the four guys finishing their set and making their way towards family and friends who have come to support them. 

He sees her engaged in conversation with Sherri and Julianne, Ronnie and his mother having joined them. 

When the girl his eyes are set on takes notice of them, she lights up. 

Jake’s always holding out a hope that perhaps one day, it’ll be him that she automatically locks eyes with after it’s all said and done, grinning ear to ear as she does so. 

But for now, she’ll go out of her way to ignore him to save herself some grief, and he’ll continue to step aside to let her bypass him and his brothers without interruption. 

As always, he refuses to watch her jump into Holton’s arms—her fingers in the damp locks of his ginger hair while letting out a laugh that she fakes to convince herself she’s happy—before the feeling of victory is run out of Jake’s body by defeat, and solidified in a kiss. 

JAKE: Holton was our first drummer, before Danny came into the picture…he was also Coley’s first boyfriend. I introduced them without realizing I was introducing them, and Holton chased after her endlessly until he got her. 

I realized, rather quickly, it was a conflict of interest by the time Coley joined the band.

The Kiszka’s garage rattles with the loud bouts of hollering taking place between the group of teenagers. 

“Look, we can try it and see if it’s—” Coley’s attempt to calm her riled friend and fellow bandmate is in vain as Jake ignores her entirely and cuts out to Holton, “I’m tired of repeating myself! I said I didn’t want the double pedal and you—”

“—You won’t even give it a chance, Jake!” Holton snarls at him. 

“Guys, please just take a breath, it’s not that serious!” Sammy pipes as Josh simultaneously shouts, “I just want peace!” despite the fact he has no problem ensuing such chaos of his own with his brother. 

“I don’t have to give it a chance because I know it sounds like shit!” Jake snaps back to the drummer, not even acknowledging his brothers or Coley. 

“Okay, Jake, let’s not start—” Again, Sammy is cut off. 

“—I’m surprised you can even hear it over the sound of your train-wreck shredding that you demand be blasted at the highest capacity!” Holton hisses, stepping closer to Jake, prompting Coley and Josh to ease between them should it result in the many arguments Jake and Josh get into. 

“Hey, we’re not doing this shit!” Josh harshly scolds them, needing this rehearsal to wrap up so he can head back to the school for his play practice. 

“It’s to cover up your lack of fucking tempo, prick!” Jake harshly barks back to Holton. 

This jumpstarts the both of them in a screaming match, sounding like two dogs fighting as they push closer to one another until Josh is dodging out of the way and yanking Coley back with him upon the realization that neither of the boys are paying any attention to either of them.  

Karen’s furrowing her brows in her bedroom, hearing the distant commotion of shouting downstairs, followed by the sound of breaking glass. 

Ronnie’s standing in the doorway of the kitchen’s entryway to the garage as she watches the scene before her with wide-eyes, having rushed to witness what was unfolding. 

Josh, Coley, and Sam have stumbled back to avoid getting hit with flying shards. 

The double-bass pedal lies in the grass of the yard, having sailed through the window of the garage by Jake’s hand. 

It issues silence momentarily, Coley’s hands resting over her mouth in shock and fear of Mrs. Kiszka barreling in here to let all of them have it.  

Holton only rolls his jaw, keeping his cool the best he can, and stomps to leave the garage to retrieve it. 

 Jake, in turn, rushes past him to get to it first—his two brothers and best friend running after them. 

“Stop being a child!” Coley scolds him as he fights Holton off the pedal, and slings the piece of equipment even further away from them. 

As soon as he turns back to face Holton, the drummer’s fist is colliding with his cheek. 

SAM: Jake and Josh would get into it all the time. Thrown equipment and punches were never a big deal because they were brothers, you know? They’d go at it, mom would come out screaming, and in a few minutes they’d be back to normal and complimenting one another's genius…but Jake and Holton got along great until Coley joined…I think it had a lot to do with the fact that Holton didn’t want Coley in the band and Jake knew that—but asked her anyway. 

Karen angrily finishes making dinner, fed up entirely with her son and his bandmate while overhearing Coley shouting at her boyfriend over the phone from the guest bathroom down the hall. 

She can somewhat manage Jake and Josh throwing fists and equipment, but Holton isn’t her child. 

He’s someone trusted in her care, and she’s not at all comfortable with the idea of he and Jake knocking heads so harshly that it comes to the destruction of property and results in blows. 

“…He threw it, Coley! That isn’t cheap!” Holton says to his girlfriend, who’s glaring at herself in the mirror as he speaks, her heart rate still high from witnessing Josh and Karen have to peel the two boys from one another once Jake tackled him. 

Thank God Holton’s mom was as understanding as she was, chopping it up to, “They’re boys. Boys fight over stupid things. They’ll grow out of it.” 

“Holton, you don’t hit people just because they make you angry.” Coley fiercely defends Jake, which is no surprise. 

“He threw $179.00 through a fucking window, Coley! I don’t think you’re hearing what I’m saying!” He outbursts. 

“I hear what you’re saying, and it’s still not an excuse to lay hands on someone!” She exclaims, her voice hurting her own ears in the small half-bath tucked away in the Kiszka’s downstairs hallway. 

“We’ve been together for a year now.” He says to her, pacing his bedroom. “You’ve been in the band for half of that, and that’s coincidentally how long he’s been a complete dick to me.” 

“What the hell do you want me to do about it, Holton? He’s his own person.” She exhales, waiting for his response. 

He wants her to care that their band mate is disrespectful and dismissive toward him. 

The drummer always looks at Coley to agree with him, take his side, and railroad Jake’s opinion the way Jake manages to do to his. 

But she endlessly tries to coax her boyfriend to just trust Jake’s judgment on a song, or a sound…

That’s what started Holton’s speculations that she has feelings for their lead guitarist. 

And, because he’s not blind, he knows for a fact that Jake cares about her beyond the reach of friendship and band-like comradery. 

He can see it plainly from his place behind the drums: the looks they exchange right in front of him, the silent flirting, the obvious attempts Jake makes to impress her…

In fact, the one thing Holton and Jake can agree on is the fact that Jake very much likes Coley, and she knows it—choosing to play stupid for the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings. 

Holton falls silent, collecting himself before he says something to potentially hurt her feelings even more, eventually getting out, “Are you gonna crawl his ass like you’re crawling mine right now or is he gonna get puppy-dog eyes and a half-assed, ‘Please, don’t do that again, Jakey’?”

Wrinkling her nose, she rolls her eyes and states, “I’ve never called that boy ‘Jakey’ in my life.”

“I don’t know what the hell you call him when I’m not around, Coley.” He blatantly blurts, not even hiding the venom in his voice as he does so. 

Coley digs her teeth into her tongue, exasperated with the amount of times this gets brought up. 

So exasperated, infact, that she feels no need to defend herself anymore in the midst of his allegations, and hangs up on him. 

Leaving the bathroom, she rubs her forehead and lets out a deep breath before stepping into the kitchen. 

“I’m about to go, Mrs. K.” She tells Karen, softly. 

“Before you do, can you grab that bag of fruit from the fridge and go throw it at Jake? I told him to put it on his cheek and he didn't listen—shockingly enough—and I don’t want him to swell up anymore.” 

The icey chill of the freezer air nips at her fingers and she grabs at the mixed fruit in its bag, holding it up. 

“This?” She inquires, to which Karen glances at her and pipes, “Yep. He should be in his room.”

Jake winces when he tries to prop his pick between his lips in the midst of playing around with a riff he’s stumbled across. 

The ache in his cheek has spread to the muscles connected to his mouth, making it uncomfortable to even speak to himself under his breath. 

It’s when Coley shakes the bag of frozen goods that he stops what he’s doing and notices her standing in the doorway. 

“Your mom wants you to use this.” She throws him the bag and it lands on his bed next to him. 

Glaring at it, he disregards his frustrated mother’s attempt to ease his pain. 

He takes in a hiss when Coley plops down on the bed in front of him and presses the bag of frozen strawberries to his swollen, bruised cheek, not even bothering to flinch back and see if she accidentally hurt him any more. 

He eyes her like a wounded puppy—his big, obnoxiously pretty, brown eyes looking at her. 

“I’m so sick of this, Jake.” She tells him, her phone vibrating with the notification of Holton’s incoming call that she ignores, and he watches her do so, before he’s starting, “Maybe if he’d stop being such a dick—”

“—You took it too far.” She’s fast to get it out, shaking her head. 

“He punched me in the face, and I took it too far?” He inquires, furrowing his thick brows. 

“You threw it through a window!” She scoffs. 

The look of defeat on her face pulls guilt from him for the first time. 

Of course he feels bad for once again screwing up the window in the garage, but it seems he’s trampled all over Coley’s feelings in the process of proving a spiteful point to her irritating boyfriend. 

“I can’t keep defending you when you act like this.” She adds, having never volunteered to be the one trying to keep the peace between her boyfriend and her best friend—although she feels as if she has.

“You defend me?” He knows she does, he can see it in any disagreement he and Holton have.

The blonde rolls her eyes at his question, looking at him pointedly but not saying anything, to which he adds, “You don’t have to, you know—defend me, I mean. I’m a big boy. I can handle a few bitch fits.”

“I know.” She mumbles. “But I also know that Holton tends to be more harsh toward you even if it’s unwarranted, so…” 

His eyes shift as they look into hers, his hand leaving its stagnant place on his guitar to gently lay overtop hers that’s pressing the frozen bag to his face. 

Pulling her hand away, slowly, his eyes flicker to her lips. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s entirely unwarranted.” He speaks to her lowly, feeling a lump form in his throat. 

“Don’t look at me, look at the guitar,” is what he would say to her at least once each time he’d work with her after they turned fifteen, smiling almost shyly at the fact she had completely forfeited her specific attention on his teaching to just study him.

By the time they were sixteen, Coley was having to tell him the same thing in the process of trying to run a riff by him that she had learned on her own, feeling nearly paralyzed under his brown-eyed gaze. 

“Don’t look at me, look at the guitar.” She had stated, to which he didn’t even bother looking away from her to say, “I don’t need to look at the guitar. I can hear if it's right or not.” She  didn’t doubt him for a second because the only way he had learned to play was by ear, but his cocky little smirk highlighted the fact he used that as an excuse to permit himself to keep memorizing her the same way she had done him…then Holton started coming around, and because she wasn’t friends with him prior, and didn’t run the risk of losing him altogether, he was the more comfortable choice. 

Regardless of that choice, however, Jake’s list of priorities that included guitar and his freshly formed band, had shifted to make room for Coley, too. 

Rarely does he go without letting her know it without even having to say a word. 

The repeated ringing of her phone once again rattles against the bedding, pulling her away from him while she whispers out a soft, “We can’t.”

“Why not?”

It’s the million dollar question that she has yet to provide a good enough answer for. 

“I’m with Holton.” She repeats what she has to every now and then when it's just the two of them. 

“You don’t have to be with Holton.” He states. 

“We’re not shitty people who sneak around and cheat, Jake.” It sounds as if she’s trying to convince herself of it, pulling her brows together. 

“It’s not cheating if you leave him, first.” 

“Me breaking up with him and immediately getting with you is no different.”

“Things happen, feelings change, and avoiding them doesn’t make them any less real. Not everything has to be so damn black and white, right and wrong, Coley.”

“This is wrong.” She motions between them. “He’d be crushed if he knew we were even having this conversation, Jake.”

He stares at her, watching as she pulls her hand from his and grabs the bag of frozen fruit in her palm. 

“I promise you, Coley, he knows we’re having this conversation.” He says it while his fingers go back to the strings of his acoustic, picking at them quietly as if ending the conversation before she can argue. 

They both know that her boyfriend isn’t oblivious to what’s been brewing between the two of them for years now. 

“I have to go.” She mumbles, grabbing her phone to see she has two voicemails from her boyfriend.

Jake observes her blank stare momentarily, before pulling his gaze from her when she adds, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah.” He quips, not attempting to speak anymore about it for the night. 

It’ll inevitably get brought up again in another month or two, and they’ll continue on as if it doesn’t exist. 

COLEY: It was a miserable place to be in for all three of us. I think relationships are supposed to be fun at any age, especially when you’re still kids growing into adults. 

None of that was fun for me or Jake—regardless of what the third party has spoken publicly in the past. 

I didn’t enjoy having feelings for someone else, while also bearing this self-imposed responsibility to stay with my partner at the time because I believed it to be the most sound decision. 

And Holton being kicked out of the band had nothing to do with any interpersonal workings of anybody’s feelings.

JAKE: Quite a bit was tolerated through that whole year of Holton being with us. 

Him being late to rehearsals, him wanting to be paid for rehearsals, skipping out on rehearsals altogether…lucky for us, Danny and Sam had grown to be close friends, so he was over at the house quite a bit, and even played guitar and drums. 

So, when Holton would no-show practices, Danny would step in. 

The last straw was the night that Danny officially replaced him. 

.

.

.

.

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Tag List: @edgingthedarkness , @zooweemama555

[sweetestpopcorn]

Hi 🍿! I just realized how religious the post-dance targ family is. Like I know Maegelle joined the faith but it seems like she was the only one so into it. At least she was the only one in her generation. But the post-dance targ family had three! (Not to mention Bealor who is a little bit 🤨) Do you think this has to do with the greens? I mean like their line died out but their whole mindset went on and influenced the Targaryens. Or are there any other factors you think lead to this situation?

Hi there and sorry for this huge delay :)

Why are you even considering the Greens when neither Baela, Rhaena, Aegon III, or Viserys II were influenced by them or spent any time with them except Baela and Aegon III when they were captive? Yes, they influenced politics in Westeros... to the extent that they solidified something that was already a practice of House Targaryen and an established custom that was only interrupted by King Viserys.

Nonetheless, please let's not pretend that any of the Greens was the thing that turned House Targaryen religious or introduced the Seven to the Targaryens because that is a blatant lie if I ever saw one.

Cases in point:

Rhaenyra is shown to value the faith of the Seven. She makes Jace and Luke swear on the Seven-Pointed Star. Aegon II - a green - shows no such behaviour so you could make an argument that she was more religious than him. She also seemed to have a particular notion regarding marriage, and vows taken.

Rhaena (Daemon's daughter) was said to pray for her second dragon egg day and night hoping it would hatch.

Jaehaerys understood the importance of religion even making a septon his Hand. Furthermore, he was quite conservative and did not take it at all kindly to know his daughter Saera had lovers prior to being married referring to her as a wh0re.

Alysanne is also shown to be quite religious, wanting to bathe in the sacred waters of Jonquil's Pool, and saying that the Mother loved her children more than she did -> using it as explanation of why so many of her children had died.

Septon Eustace had once been Queen Aemma's confessor.

Both Maegelle and Rhaella (or Aerea depending on what you believe) became septas.

The Targaryens followed the Faith of the Seven post Conquest, and even before the Conquest there was a sept in Dragonstone.

I make no secret that I am not a person who cares about religion, I don't and am mainly against it. I can however, from an objective viewpoint understand why people at times cling to it, and it has much to do with hardship, with pain, and with a desire that the unfixable can be fixed. With faith.

The children of Aegon III and Viserys II were born in a time of great vulnerability of House Targaryen, to parents who had experienced war, significant loss, and deep trauma. Many of the siblings were said to cling to each other - e.g., Aemon and Naerys, Daena and Elaena; examining their lives it is quite clear to see why they sought after comfort in religion. Just consider Naerys, she was born sickly, her mother left when she was a baby, she was raised by a father more concerned with ruling a kingdom than caring for her, learned about the downfall of their House and their dragons, was forced to marry a brother who abus€d until she died and had many miscarriages... what else but her Faith and her love of her brother Aemon and her son would keep her going?

There is also a possibility that perhaps there was some hope or faith that the gods could intervene and help to bring their dragons back. Let's remember how Rhaena (Daemon's daughter) prayed that her egg would hatch as I mentioned above.

But we do see an example of clinging to something else, in Daeron, for instance, who thought that it was through conquest and military prowess that they would regain their power.

Baelor was a... special case I would say, and without a doubt he had some severe mental illness.

In any case in the AU where we get Fire&Blood 2 I am sure many of these issues will be further explored. And impossible as it may seem, it is still more likely to happen than redacted being good or giving justice to anything we saw in Fire and Blood.

Here's to hoping and to stop giving the Greens importance they don't have in 2024.

All the best!

[toasttt11]

introducing carter

Carter Reese Hughes is the youngest of her family and was born june 8, 2004.

Carter was the first overall pick of the 2022 draft to the Vancouver Canucks.

Carter grew up playing hockey and started playing on girls team but ended being to much to play with the girls and started playing on boys teams and just never stopped.

In 2020 WHL draft she was drafted first overall pick to the Regina Pats and ended up meeting her best friend Connor Bedard, She became caption and Connor was assistant Captain.

Carter and Connor have always been an exceptional team on the ice and work better together than with anyone else.

Carter was captain on the Canada national team and led her team to winning the WJC, while beating the USA team in the final also happen to be the team her brother Luke was on.

Carter and Luke are the closet in age out of all the siblings and Luke loved to drag Luke into his schemes when they were younger, Luke is a big cuddler with his family and he loves when he can cuddle with his little sister.

Carter is closest with her older brother Quinn, always having looked up to him and she secretly always wanted to go to the Canucks to be on the same team as him.

Carter has always been the closet Quinn, Carter and Quinn always having a very special connection and bond between the two.

When Carter got drafted Quinn was ecstatic for his baby sister, he hugged her first. After the draft Quinn was telling her about every teamate she’s going to love, all his favorite food places they are going to try and that there’s already a room waiting for her in his apartment.

Carter and Jack aren’t the as close as they were growing up as they live two completely separate lives and they rarely have time for each other. They are both so different from each other, Jack knows he can always find a calm and quiet place with Carter and enjoys spending any time he gets with his little sister

Carter had a tough time mentally during her rookie year and when Jack finds out he upset his baby sister had a hard rookie year as well.

Luke and Jack both sometimes get really sad about the fact they never seem to know a lot of Carter’s life not because she hides stuff but because she is more a quiet person it’s hard to learn stuff about her if you aren’t with her.

Carter has really curly hair but doesn’t really care to style so she usally throws into a bun or a ponytail.

Carter is 5”8 so pretty tall for a girl and Quinn and Jack get slighty salty when they realize their younger siblings got all the height genes in the family.

Always had a hard time falling asleep when she was younger and would sneak into her parents or brothers bed cuddling them to fall asleep.

Had a really hard time during her first year along at the Regina Pats falling asleep, only fell asleep when she was exhausted but her second season Connor joined the team and they automatically became best friends and one day after a practice she sat next to resting her head on his shoulder falling fast asleep and Connor sat their for hours on the floor letting her sleep on him.

Carter and Connor then started being roommates on away games and Connor never had a problem letting Carter sleep cuddled to him, because honestly he sleepy better with her next to him.

She moves into Quinn’s apartment for her rookie season but the next season she gets her own apartment in the same building as Quinn just a next door.

Carter is more of a quiet and introverted person, rather listen to people talk then talk, but if your the right person she will talk a lot to you.

[agendabymooner]

colour me your colour || toto w. x ofc (7)

Summary: Tilly Marie nearly loses faith in her passion as she refuses to listen to everyone who told her to quit. Everyone but one. And it’s the man she met years ago at a racing event she didn’t want to attend. Who would have thought that her father’s partial ownership of three brands could take her to the zone of Mercedes and meet the love of her life?

Chapter summary: It turns out, Tilly and Toto looked like they were loving each other up constantly - so Tilly's mother, Blanche, had decided to step up to warn her about the wonders and failures of being in a relationship with someone more mature.

Content warning: Age gap relationships, use of explicit language, brief mention of Max Verstappen x OFC (Sylvie), mention of divorce and mental health problems

masterlist

vii. age is just a number and love is just a shame

LOVE ON CAMERA: Future Racing Teams Major Shareholder Tilly Hearth Sends Mixed Signals Alongside Toto Wolff

“Are they the newest power couple of F1 or is this putting their teams to shame?”

AGELESS ROMANCE: FIA Executive’s Daughter Tilly Hearth Cozies Up with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team Principal Toto Wolff Post Qualifying Interview

“Is this a ploy to get a favourable result for this year’s championship?”

This isn’t the kind of day I’d like to have today. I’m not going to be distracted by some silly gossip outlet’s article.

“I’ve read that. That’s fucked,” Daniel huffs out, peering over my shoulder. Today’s going to be a disaster. I haven’t even seen my family just yet, and now I’m being hounded by gossip sites about my love life. Was I ever thankful that I told my sisters about the “rumours” that’ll soon circulate around the paddocks and F1 world beforehand. 

“Tell me about it,” I mutter, resting my head on the table that I sat on. 

“That should have stayed in the garage or something, I don’t know how they’ve managed to even know it’s Toto,” he says. 

I look up at him and answer, “The Daily Mail caught me arriving in a Mercedes with him yesterday. Remember?”

“They’re fucking fast to capture that,” Daniel shakes his head incredulously, “you were practically running away like you robbed him.” 

“I told him that the British media are too invasive,” I scrunch up my face, “some of them were just here to get some drama to broadcast throughout England and fuck all.”

“Sorry you have to go through that,” he offers a sympathetic smile as he pats my shoulder, “I hope they’ll fuck off for once.”

I gave him a lopsided grin. “Don’t expect too much from them— shouldn’t you be waiting in your driver’s room right now?”

“TILS!” My back nearly broke after I turned my upper half around. A strangled screech escapes my mouth as I stand. Daniel, who’s standing behind me, is accidentally pushed off to the side as four arms wrap around me. I can’t even see Daniel’s reaction but I can hear him introducing himself to a woman. 

I pull away from the embrace as I look between my sisters. Last time I checked, Aimee- our youngest sister- was on her trip to Scotland. What’s she doing here? I look at Stevie, her hair tied neatly, her ponytail coming out of the Mercedes cap that she’s wearing. 

“What’s with the Mercedes get up?” I look at Aimee, who’s wearing a white Mercedes shirt. They’re in the Red Bull hospitality. 

“Hello, too,” I shake my thoughts away as I grin, looking past my sisters and approaching our mother.

“Maman!” I exclaim, hugging her tightly before giving her a once-over. “Still pretty I see.”

“You’re still as hilarious, Tilly,” she rolls her eyes, keeping her arm around my waist. I look at Daniel and he’s standing there with a grin.

“Daniel, you’ve met my mom,” I gesture at my sisters, “these are my sisters, Stevie and Aimee. Steve, Aims, this is Daniel. He’s a driver for Red Bull.” 

Stevie immediately reaches out to shake his hand. She looks more like our grandmother, according to Maman. Nobody could ever mistake her for someone else besides Nan. Her honey-blonde hair and blue eyes are the kind of features that’ll make you feel like you’re in a tropical paradise. 

“Holy shit, you really weren’t joking when you said your sisters are models,” Daniel’s eyes widened as I nodded. “How do you push yourself through it?” 

“It’s— ehh…” Stevie scratches her head and tries to answer his question, “Modeling is kinda fun… if you’ve been doing it for a long time. Like racing.”

Aimee only waves at Daniel, then she’s hiding behind Stevie. Her mother always encourages her to be more… out there yet she disagrees. She can be whatever she wants to be, she’s 14, but she pressures herself to stick to one thing like an adult. She told me once about wanting to model as well and expressed how she wouldn’t do well like Stevie and our other sister would. I don’t know what made her think that; her brown skin and eyes made her glow, like she has her own spotlight. She’ll need to be encouraged more. Or perhaps I should just accommodate her and her camera shyness. She didn’t like being in front of the cameras.

Speaking of our sister. I look around and ask, “Where’s the other one?” 

“Causing ruckus somewhere in the pits,” Stevie jokes. I look at her with my frown becoming more obvious. What is she even doing in the pits? How did she even get in the pits? It was a question never asked yet Stevie has an answer to it. She tells me, “We met Lew in their area and he gave us access to the garages. Just to say hi to a couple people we might know. Now she’s probably running amuck in there—“

“Stupid, stupid, dumb boy,” I hear a hiss nearing us. Daniel peers over Maman’s head.

He gestures in her direction, “I think we found her.”

The middle of the three approaches us as she wraps her arm around me, still seething and her head rests on my chest. I turn to look at Maman and my other sisters, my forehead creasing as if I’m asking for an explanation. They’re just as clueless as I am.

I pat her on the back, “Daniel, this is Sylvie. Sylvie, that’s Daniel— the driver for Red Bull.” 

“Hi,” she nods curtly before her eyes burn with irritation and anger. She gives me a dirty look. “You know— if Father is giving you Red Bull, do you think you can fire that idiot?” 

Daniel’s eyes widen at the comment while Maman hisses at Sylvie, “Sylvie!” 

“What?” Sylvie scowls at our mother, “he’s such a bloody nuisance—ugh!”

“You’re not even telling us who it is, sweetheart,” Daniel pipes up, his face expressing amusement as he continues to goad Sylvie into spilling her feelings. 

“Verstappen! Did you know he’s the reserve driver for Toro Rosso?!” Sylvie stomps her feet like a child as she groans aloud. She’s so bloody dramatic. 

But hearing her answer makes me say, “Ahh. Max.” I can’t say anything else besides those two words; Sylvie despises Max Verstappen since god knows when… maybe at birth. The thing was that they’ve been best friends— like soul mates since birth so it wasn’t exactly hatred that they’ve shared for the past few years. She claims that she sees him all the time and “thinking about his ego gives her a migraine.”

And she quit racing. She enjoyed karting as much as Aimee did, but for some reason, she quit attending the tournaments two years ago. She pushed herself with modeling even more instead of joining Formula Three. My father wasn’t happy with that. Sometimes, I’d like to think that her hatred for Max would soon disappear and that he may be the reason why she quit. I’m not blaming him of course. But there should be a reason why she’s acting like that towards him, right?

“Tilly, please please promise me you’d fire him,” Sylvie whines dramatically, clutching onto my Red Bull jacket as I continue to stare at her. She’s growing taller and she’s beginning to look more like an adult, but her petulant behaviour says otherwise.

“No,” I pushed her off with a sigh, “I can’t do that, lovie.”

“Why not?”

“Because Verstappen is a good driver and if your sister did fire him everyone would chase after him. It would be a shame if Red Bull loses an asset,” Daniel answers for me, making me nod in agreement. 

“And he isn’t in Red Bull, love,” I explain, making her groan aloud. 

“He’s shitty,” Sylvie curses out, crossing her arms with a grumble, “he’s an ugly Neanderthal. He pisses me off to no end. You can be good at driving and be bloody handsome, you know? Clearly he doesn’t—“

I rolled my eyes, now turning to Daniel as my pager went off. Looking down at it, I give Daniel a once over and say, “Garage. Go now.” 

“Fine fine fine,” Daniel rolls his eyes before grinning at my family, “I’ll catch you pretty ladies later, yes? Sylv, maybe you can rant more about him later. If you want, I can pass a message.”

“Dis-lui que je le déteste,” tell him that I hate him. Sylvie tells him with a huff. Daniel gives me a look and I can only tell him, “Don’t worry about it. Go.”

“Get that P1, Daniel,” Maman tells him, making his grin stretch until it reaches both of his ears. 

Daniel winks at her, “I’ll make sure to dedicate my win to you, Mrs. Hearth!” He stalks off. I look at the four of them. 

“I’m going to the Mercedes zone to see Lewis,” I announced with a shrug.

Stevie’s eyes brighten at the announcement and she exclaims, “I’m coming along!” 

“Haven’t you seen him already?” Sylvie snickers—surprisingly happy now— beside me as I chuckle quietly, trying to avoid having to laugh loud. 

“You know,” Aimee begins with an evil smile, “some people might think that you’ve got you know… a crush on Lewis?” 

Stevie, who’s standing between the two, has taken the chance to reach out and pinch their sides. The girls cry out at the pain, leaving me no choice but to hit Stevie at the back of her head as lightly as I could. She pulls away, shooting the both of them a death glare. 

“You three,” I jeered, “if you won’t stop I’m going to leave.” 

It did not take long until Toto found me and met my family. Him finding me somehow made me think that he has some sort of antenna that’ll lead to me. How he manages to either come across me or find me is amazing. Like a mastermind.

It didn’t take my sisters long to catch onto the stories that Lewis clearly wanted to tell about the time spent with Toto. He was rather vocal about his feelings about the three being here — not wanting to save face and be pretentious around his teammate any longer. The interview yesterday was nothing but a way to avoid the fines— Lewis really didn’t want to act all friendly but had to do so. I was only there to make the situation better… somehow. Lewis texted me yesterday about how thankful he was to have me there for the interview.

“Tilly,” I look around and ask myself where the voice came from, only for me to find a 6’5 figure nearing me. Toto Wolff’s rare smile appears as I nod as a greeting. “Nervous?” 

“About my drivers?” I scoff, “No way. Are you?”

“Eh, I’m confident that Lewis and Nico would do a good job,” he answers lightly.

“I know my boys would do alright,” I murmur next to him, “but it seems like the power unit’s been fucking them over. At least Vettel is being fucked over by it.” 

“Well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time.” 

“Christian didn’t have an outburst in Austria for nothing,” I joke quietly, making him chuckle under his breath as he refrains from laughing. Oh my god. Handsome.

“Oi, lovebirds,” I sigh as we both turn around to face my siblings, my mother and Lewis. Sylvie continues to tease, “Tils, if you’re done being flustered—“

“I forgot how bloody blunt you are,” I interrupted her with a glare. She cheekily smiles as I look at Toto. I gesture at my family, “My sisters— from left to right are Aimee, Stevie, Sylvie. That’s my Mama. Everyone, this is Toto Wolff. He’s the Team Principal of Mercedes.” 

“Oh look at that,” Toto teases me with a smirk, pointing at their Mercedes hats, “everyone’s a Mercedes fan.” 

I roll my eyes, “They’re bound to run the teams you’ll be competing against, Toto. I wouldn’t be that excited.”

“But at least now I know where their hearts belong,” he continues with a shrug. He looks at my family, reaching out to shake my mother’s outstretched hand. “Pleasure to meet you all.” 

“Likewise,” my mom introduces herself, “Blanche Ford.” 

“Ah, you are the lovely Miss Ford that Tilly’s talking about,” he grins, his charm obviously taking effect on no one but me. “I finally found where your beauty came from, schatz.” 

My face suddenly feels warm as I look down to my feet, watching them as I rock back and forth. 

I didn’t notice Stevie slowly inching toward Lewis but I can hear her say, “Oh she is in love love.” I can’t even debate on anything in front of the person that they think I’m in love with. Am I not allowed to admire a fine specimen such as him? 

And Stevie is literally in love with Lewis! She’s been cracking the worst jokes ever and Lewis is laughing, she’s so proud of herself. She’s telling me, of all people, that I’m in love with the Mercedes team principal whereas she’s literally pining after his driver. 

“Hey Lew,” Sylvie then turns towards Lewis as he gives her a questioning look, “mind if you make Toro Rosso cry a little bit?” 

“Sylvie,” I warn her, “you cannot just say, ‘please make them lose a bit harder’ to someone just because you hate the reserve driver.”

Toto’s forehead creases at my warning. Sylvie ignores the look on his face as she says nonchalantly, “You’re right, I can just smack him in the face if I “accidentally” come across him at their garage.” 

“Stop resorting to violence,” Lewis tells her with a scowl, “there’s other ways to handle a situation than a fight.” Yeah, like he wouldn’t have done that last Monaco race.

My eyes peel away from the conversing people as I look at Toto, “I’m off soon enough. Are you ready?” 

“Ready,” he answers me with a nod. “Will you be there at our after party if we win?”

“I’m not exactly the full on party kind, to be honest,” I tell him, “it gets overwhelming talking to people. It doesn’t sound as bad, though. But it’ll get overwhelming at some point.”

“Fair enough,” he agrees before pausing, then he looks at me once more and asks, “How does dinner sound?” 

My mouth did not even hesitate to answer, “Depends. If either Red Bull or Mercedes get a podium then sure.” As if I was expecting it to happen. Toto felt the same, I think. He didn’t take a second to think about his next move as he continued,

“If we get a first?”

I shrug out, “Well, I’ve got no clue just yet.” 

“I’m looking forward to it then,” he grins. 

Yeah, Mercedes is definitely getting a podium today. 

“You’re thinking again,” my mother says, pulling me back into reality as I shake my head and glance at her. “That must be hurting your head.”

“Maman—“

“I’m joking, ma fille.” 

It’s so hard to lie to someone who practically knows everything about you. Even the dirty laundries I’ve never aired out? Yeah, she knows about them yet she never mentions anything. 

She pays attention to details as she’s used to staying at home as a mother. She told me once that she has enough money that she doesn’t need to work, but she writes under pen names that eventually makes her a lot more than what one should have. Her marriage and divorce clearly never stopped her from pursuing her dream all while she takes care of her three daughters by herself.

Julius Hearth, I rarely call him father now, divorced Maman shortly after Sylvie was born. I was 13 and with enough support from the staff in the household, Maman was able to cope without endangering herself nor anyone. Was I ever thankful for having a chauffeur? Absolutely. If it wasn’t for Jordan, the lovely driver, I wouldn’t have been able to get home earlier so I can spend my time with my sisters. Maman was resting, and I always made sure she’s doing that. 

Now that she’s feeling better, she’s managed to get back up and running. The Mother’s Day celebration in our middle school had her running across the field with bare feet. She certainly loved the game especially when Stevie and I were screaming our ears off. She began taking Stevie to her karting class, which then changed into modeling the moment my sister claimed to work as a model. 

So throughout my life, she could sense the emotions deep inside her daughters. She could tell which career we wanted to have and if she was able to support it. 

She could tell anyone a thing or two about themselves just by looking. So it wasn’t a surprise that she decided to deduce me. 

And since she kindly observed what I’m thinking, I decided that this is the right time to discuss the shitshow that we call Julius Hearth. 

“Father is naming me as the shareholder for his teams,” I’m staring at her as if I’m feeling so solemn about such a matter. “And he’s giving me everything. Did you know that?” 

“Yes and no,” Maman tells me. I’m so glad the girls aren’t here and being watched by our personal guard as they prepare themselves to watch at the grandstand. I didn’t want to expose them to this for now.

Maman continues, “I knew he was going to give up his position in his teams but I didn’t think he’d pass it down to you. Or to your sisters for that matter.” 

“He wants me to hold ownership on those teams and his money, Ma,” I tell her, “all because he wants that promotion at the FIA and to keep Red Bull on a leash.” 

“He only said he trusts you and your sisters enough to do his part,” she sighs, her sympathetic smile can be interpreted as a charming one. “I wish I could do more but… I’ve no place in power.” 

The sad truth is: she’s right. She can only do so much with the company. Even if I’ve taken her in, word would still get out to father. He still doesn’t trust her, despite being the one to cheat and be absent in the household. 

“Toto is a decade older than you,” I must have zoned out again because her voice drowned out while my eyes squinted. But her voice returns the moment she mentions him. 

The cold tone on her voice after saying that has me questioning her. She then continues, “Much like your father is to me, Tilly. He’s an older man.” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” I ask her, actually curious about what she’s insinuating. 

“Just—be careful with him,” she tells me quietly, her voice warning me like she’s been there before. She had been there. She married our father when she was 28 and he was 40. “Older men, no matter the validation they’d give you, would hold their maturity above your own. I’m not saying most men but… be careful when you’re falling in love with someone who’s seen more in the world than you have.

“They tend to hide that away from you.” 

Her advice, while it’s something to remember, has me laughing as if it is actually a joke. But still, a piece of it was etched into my heart and brain. “I’ve only met him,” I shrug and deny, “I don’t think I’d fall for him that fast.”

She rolls her eyes as if she doesn’t believe it. She says, “With how you two looked at the picture? Some are already saying that you’re smitten. Just as he is. I think you should give him a shot.” 

“Oh, Maman,” my eyes narrowed at the comment, “Don’t believe what you see on the internet.” 

“I’m just telling you what I can see,” she giggles quietly, finally standing up and gestures, “Come on, do you really want to miss out on Lewis winning?” 

“I’m supposed to be rooting for Red Bull,” I mutter to myself, standing as I begin to take her to where the girls are.

At first, I wanted to ask myself why she brought up Toto as if I was meant for him. I wanted to ask her what made her think that I’m even willing to try things out just like the others are thinking. 

But everyone is slowly seeing it as much as I am seeing it. For such a short period, he has already decided to do the things he wouldn’t normally do just to reach out to me. In this busy weekend alone, he’s managed to squeeze me into his schedule no matter how stressed he looked before everything. He acts as if he’s much calmer than me when he has a whole team and another to run. 

Maybe my mother is warning me about the price that relationship may come with. Perhaps she’s afraid that the fate I want for myself isn’t something that I’ll get if I continue on with this.

Or she’s just scared that she’ll have to watch that scene again. But instead of her falling apart, it’s me this time. 

Who knows. 

[elizabethemerald]

A Shade Darker than Red: Part 9

Danny and Jason hovered over Jazz’s bed in her apartment while she worked on her computer. She had been looking at opening a practice as a psychologist, and with all the conversation going around about the happenings in Gotham she was investigating how expensive an office in the city would be. Not too high, all things considered and she had saved quite a bit by being a partner for a practice in her current town, and having two other roommates helped her save on rent. Maybe after she had her own practice for a while she would be able to apply to Arkham and start to actually help the people there. 

The two ghosts were busy discussing how they wanted to make Jason’s presence known to his family. Jason had said that now that his first killer was dead and he wouldn’t have to worry about his family getting hurt by him, that he wanted to meet them again, let them know that even though he was dead didn’t mean he wouldn’t still be in their lives. 

“When I came back as Red Hood, I sent a first edition book to Alfred to let him know it was me.” Jason said. 

“Hmm. Usually when I get summoned by some cult or another, I really pull out all the stops, tentacles, supernovas exploding into forming stars, multiple eyes and mouths, the whole lot.” 

“Maybe you could carve my initials into a wall with ectoplasm! Or I could haunt a few of the rival crime lords who messed with Crime Alley!”

Jazz slammed her hands down her desk causing both of the boys to freeze and stare at her. She growled and snatched a magazine from her desk drawer and rolled it up into a tight tube. With a flick of her wrist as she turned, she infused the magazine with ectoplasm. Danny and Jason watched her in confusion for a few seconds as she stood there with the magazine, clearly going through a breathing exercise. 

“Are you ok, Jazz?” Danny asked. 

He got a rolled up magazine to the face for his trouble as Jazz began smacking both boys with her magazine. She smacked them both again and again as she berated them, all the while wrestling them to keep them within easy smacking distance. 

“Just fucking talk to them! I swear to the Ancients if you don’t cut all the unnecessary dramatics and just talk to them I will put both of you in a thermos for a month! The same thermos! By all that is holy and all the undead in the Realms, just fucking talk to people!” 

She continued her tirade and assault for a few minutes more before she settled back breathing heavily. 

“Danny, you will open a portal when they are all gathered together, introduce yourself, and swear an oath not to harm them. It won’t be perfect but it should hopefully keep the paranoia of the family down for a few minutes. Jason, you will come out of the portal next and you will sit down and explain, clearly and succinctly, that you are a ghost.” 

Both boys stared at her, more than a little fear on their faces in the face of her fury. 

“I understand vigilante types are allergic to healthy communication, but I swear, if you idiots just talked to each other, half of your problems would disappear.” She stepped back and sighed, running her free hand through her hair, though she still held the magazine and gestured to the boys with it. “Do you need me as a living person to be there to help calm down any misunderstandings?” 

“Yes Jazz, that would be great.” Dannny said with a small voice. “Also thank you.” 

“I know theatrics are part of being a hero and part of being a ghost, but please, please just communicate.” She finally set her magazine down causing the ghosts to breathe out sighs of relief. “We can go over talking points and common questions about the Realms so we can explain things in the least traumatizing way. And I’ll pick up a pizza or something and bring it to help destress.” 

“Yeah that would be best. I’m not sure when they will be all together, and if we’re just going with the ‘talk like a mentally healthy person’ plan, then it will probably be best to get them all done at once.” 

“I think I know someone who will be able to help us get them all together.” Danny said thoughtfully, then when Jazz’s hand strayed toward the magazine again he quickly clarified, “In a healthy communication and living person approved way.” 

“Good. You better.” 

.

Some time later, Jason and Danny emerged from a portal in the air over Gotham City. Jason followed as Danny began flying around searching the alleys for whoever it was that Danny was sure could get the remainder of the Batfamily back together. 

“Uh, do you know what you’re looking for? Cause I respect you as like the King of All Ghosts or whatever, but I fear your sister way more. And I do not want to spend a month stuck in a thermos with you if this doesn’t go off perfectly.” 

“It’ll be fine. Just give me a minute to- Ah! There we go!” 

Danny was off like a shot, Jason right behind him. The two of them shot into an alley that Jason distinctly remembered Bruce coming and laying flowers in multiple times during his time as Robin. This was the alley where Bruce’s parents had been killed. He paused, unsure if he should intrude. He had always tried to give Bruce his space when he had first been alive. 

“Come on in, Jason.” The voice that called to him wasn’t Danny’s. It was older. 

He hesitantly floated into the alley to see Danny standing next to two older looking ghosts, ones he recognized from their portrait in the manor. Thomas and Martha Wayne. Thomas had been the one to wave him in, while Martha was currently hugging Danny. As soon as she saw him, Martha broke away from Danny to pull Jason into a hug as well. 

Jason didn’t know how to react at first, hugs had been few and far between for most of his life, especially after the first time he came back. Danny and Jazz were always quick with physical affection, which was nice, but this was the first hug he had received outside of those two. After freezing for a moment, he wrapped his arms around Martha and hugged her back just as tightly. 

“It’s good to finally be able to meet my grandson again.” Martha said warmly, and Thomas also gave him a wide smile. 

Jason couldn’t help but look awkward at that, he wasn’t certain that he still counted as their grandson after what had happened, so he started to pull back from them. Martha’s face fell, but she still gave him a sad looking smile. 

“I know our boy hurt you, and we are so sorry that his mission got in the way of his relationships with the kids he’d taken in. We still love you and care for you, and if you’ll have us, we’ll still be your grandparents.” 

Jason whipped his tail in agitation for a second before he relaxed and allowed Thomas and Martha to pull him back into an even tighter hug. The hug with his grandparents was warm and safe in a way he hadn’t felt in such a long time. They both pulled back at the same time as a wave of power swamped the alley. 

The power was unlike anything he had felt before, yet it still felt familiar. It wasn’t the same as when Danny used his full power as King of All Ghosts to destroy the clown’s soul, but it still felt like it could match even some of the Ancients Danny had introduced him to. Maybe not Clockwork level but still. 

At the end of the alley the ghost of a woman appeared. She was beautiful in a way Jason struggled to describe. She wore an ivory flapper dress, under a long evening coat. She had brown skin and riotous curls forming a halo around her head. She was beauty and danger and safety and… home. She felt like home. She also felt horribly sick. Her aura almost drowned him in pain and the scent of rot. 

“Lady Gotham.” The Waynes bowed deeply to her and even Danny inclined his head to her though he did not bow. 

Jason did the only thing he could think to do at this moment. He knelt, falling to one knee in the rank alley they were in, his head bowed low. This was Lady Gotham, the city of spirit of his home. He didn’t feel worthy to be in her presence. He was just the failure Robin who had died too young and came back wrong only to die again. A gentle hand on his chin broke him from his spiraling thoughts. 

“My dear Knight.” Gotham said softly. “You don’t have to kneel before me.” 

He felt his breath catch in his throat even though he didn’t have to breathe as Gotham helped him to rise to his feet, her face filled with kindness and love. He swallowed with difficulty to try and clear his throat. 

“Am I really your knight anymore?” He asked, his voice breaking a little in the middle. 

“Oh, my dearest heart. You have been my Knight since you first put on that cape. And you will remain my Knight in my heart until this entire city has long crumbled to dust. I have watched over you since you were a babe in arms and I mourned you both times you died.” 

Jason took a shaky breath. Lady Gotham opened her arms and he went willingly into her hug. He held her tight and breathed in the smell of the city he loved. The city he was born into and had fought to keep safe. He took one last shuddering breath and stepped back, a weight removed from his shoulders to see how much the city he loved, loved him in return. 

“Will you really be able to get the rest of my family together?” Jason asked her. 

“Oh certainly. It is easy to guide my Knights to one location. However, there is something you must do for me.” 

“Anythi-” Jason stopped mid word as Danny put his hand on his shoulder. 

“You need to know what’s involved before you agree.” Danny no longer was his playful and sarcastic brother. Just like when he had faced the clown and dealt Jason’s revenge, there was a weight of responsibility and duty to the way he carried himself. This was Danny as the High King of Ghosts. “Gotham, the city and the spirit, are deeply cursed.” 

Jason wasn’t certain he could be less surprised to learn that. The air was filled with smog, the streets ran red with blood, and Gotham city was cursed. No one who had fought the crusade in the alleyways and warehouses for as long as Jason had could be surprised by that news. He kept himself from cracking a joke about the obviousness of the curse solely due to the gravitas that Danny was speaking. 

“I have fought the curses that have held sway over me for as long as I could.” Gotham said. “It is this curse that leaves the city shrouded in shadow no matter the hour or season. This curse that feeds the corruption of the power hungry, bends the mind of the cruel towards even greater cruelties, and leaves the victim broken and bleeding in the gutter.” 

“Are you saying it’s not the criminals’ fault? That this curse makes them commit crimes and hurt people?” Jason said, fury bubbling up inside him. 

“No. It merely twists and grows what is already in their hearts.” Gotham said and stepped back from him. “If I were not fighting this curse every single day, with every ounce of my strength it would corrupt even the kind and the good.” 

She opened her evening coat to reveal a gaping wound in her side. Blood and ectoplasm oozed from the wound, staining her dress. He could see the white of her ribs through the gore and the wound stank of rot and decay. 

“I cannot heal from this injury without the ectoplasm of the Infinite Realms, yet the curse binds me to this city, to the very bricks and stone. I cannot leave. I need you and your siblings to break and shatter the anchors that hold this curse in place so I can return to the Realms.”

“And that will end the curse?”

“If only it were so easy.” Gotham looked truly tired at this point, and he could imagine how much she had been fighting, every moment of every day to keep the curse at bay. 

Danny took over the explanation as Gotham recovered her injury. 

“Even without the anchors, the curse will linger, and with no one to fight it would continue to worsen and spread. In a way it is like radioactive decay. It could take eons for it to fully disappear and the entire time Gotham won’t be able to heal because she’s still fighting it.” 

Jason stopped to think about what they were saying. He hadn’t been Robin for years for nothing. He could be as good a detective as any of his brothers. 

“You need a powerful ghost to take on the role of Gotham’s spirit to keep fighting the curse and helping the people while you heal.” Gotham smiled and nodded at him. Jason turned to Danny. “Can you-”

“I can’t take the position.” Danny shook his head with a frown. “I am the King of the Infinite Realms. My responsibilities to the rest of the cosmos are too great for me to focus my time and energy on one single city.” 

Jason pondered the problem for a moment longer. 

“Who else is available?” Danny gave him a knowing look, while Gotham gave him one filled with pride. “Wait, me?” 

He had a hundred reasons why he couldn’t be the one to help protect his city, but it seemed that Gotham and Danny had discussed this already and were ready for him. 

“Jason, you were born of this city, love this city, and fought every day for years for this city.” 

“You already have such strength from fighting what you called your Pit Rage. Even with the worst of corrupted ectoplasm running through your veins you still tried to protect the people within your haunt.” 

“Even as a new ghost you have power and control that is almost unheard of. You bent the entirety of the Infinite Realms to call me to your side. You learned in months what took me years to master, what most ghosts take decades to understand.” 

“You have such a close connection with the defenders of this city, you could guide them and protect them as they continued the crusade to protect the people of my city.” 

Danny stepped forward and put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, looking closely into his eyes. 

“If you take on the role of city spirit, you could stay in Gotham, rather than having to live in the Infinite Realms. You could see your family whenever you wanted to. You could protect them from stray bullets and bend the shadows around them to keep them safe. You could guide them to those who are hurting, even those who would have been missed by the keen eyes of Gotham’s Knights.” 

Jason felt overwhelmed, but he knew Danny’s words were ringing with truth. He desperately wanted to make up for his family’s blood that he had on his hands, and if he could protect them, keep them safe, it would be worth any cost, any struggle. Though there was one concern. 

“What about you and Jazz?” He didn’t want to lose his new family any more than he wanted to lose his siblings. Danny gave him a smile. 

“Jazz is moving her practice here. I can open portals to her or you whenever I want. You’re not going to get rid of us that easily.” 

Jason nodded. Then nodded again more firmly. 

“I’ll do it. Though we’re going to need help from the others if we’re going to break those anchors.”

[fleshwerks]

I do want to use Veilguard's 'be who you want to be' philosophy to segue into Anthem, and why it worked in Anthem. Now, Anthem had to benefit of being a first installment, a new IP, and so it had the opportunity to establish tonality, and it did. It was very much 'found family, heroism, save your city, love your friends, be who you are.' and it remained entirely consistent in it.

It saw your friends struggle through the changing world and expectations, yes. And I'd say, the NPCs in Anthem felt a great deal more 'human', and their struggles appropriate and realistic. You have Faye who's a bit of a mind-mage in a society that controls her kind and uses them for labour. It establishes threats caused by the condition (wandering too far and getting lost, being reduced to a hollow husk, a meat body as your mind and spirit fly too close to the sun). Their mental abilities are also very useful and very dangerous and invasive to others. Faye struggles with that, she's a perfectionist, practical, and holds people at arm's length because of it. She has patience, but gets pretty aggressively upset with irrational and stubborn people who don't do what they're supposed to do for the greater good. You have Haluk who's grappling with being an aging rockstar type, who can no longer do what was his claim to fame and self-fulfillment and self-image in the first place, and who's impulsive, aggressive type depressed, and who really, really, really can't accept the fact that yes, his impulsiveness got his entire fleet of lancers killed, that he's no longer a hotshot, not even a cold shot, and that what few friends he had left abandoned him.

You have the secondary cast, one of whom is a Ft Tarsis cop who's chafing under wanting to do things by the book, but also, not wanting to do the things by the book, and generally not relating to people because of her being fairly evidently on the spectrum, struggling to make sense of the world at all, and coming across as incredibly abrasive at first because she just doesn't know how to relate, and it's made her hurt and closed off, deep down.

You have an obsessed dude who gets split in three, and grapples with not just all three of him dying slowly as a result, but also the fact that he's not 'whole' as he was before, but now there's three of him and all three share one person's memories, but are learning to be three separate individuals. And one of them's a real jackass.

The rest of the world does gossip about you and there's interpersonal conflict, but the tonality holds strong: work out your frankly chafing differences, hold fast, stand united, 'stronger together'.

That's the entire setting. Of all things that Anthem got wrong, it got the human element of acceptance, found family and friendship not just incredibly right, but it's consistent with the world, its lore, its philosophy.

Veilguard it seems to me tried to do something very similar, but the established lore supports none of it, and that's why it's so jarring. What's worse, it is absolutely scared to death of being 'problematic'. Anthem had no such qualms, all of your friendly supporting NPCs were lovable, but also utter pieces of work that butted heads often and ferociously, and you as a player were the glue between them. Veilguard is terrified of introducing strife that doesn't get solved with an one minute dialogue by Rook suitable for addressing 5-year-olds fighting over a toy. So not only is the world sanitised, but so are the interpersonal relationships, and the tonal shift of Veilguard in comparison to the previous games just makes for an absolute mess that doesn't feel like Dragon Age at all.

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

There's been something going on in my head lately. This topic is about Shinichiro and I feel disappointed. Because Shinichiro is a man who I see as the ideal older brother and parent, who is really good-hearted and loves his siblings more than anything. This is definitely Shinichiro. He is a really good-hearted man who can be easily trusted. But today, some of the things written in Izana's letter confused me a lot. We had discussions about this issue on Twitter and many things came to my mind. Our topic is this friends;

Shinichiro knew that Izana was brother to Emma, so he went to the Philippines to pick up his brother. He picked up his younger brother and went back to Japan. He gave Izana an incredibly beautiful day on the first day, and in fact, in Izana's words, gave him the best day of his life. He gave her the opportunity to live her beautiful day. Afterwards, she continued to take care of him and spend the day with him. What bothers me is that Shinichiro knew that Emma and Izana were sisters. Why didn't he come and tell Emma this in the first place? Was it such a difficult thing to say that you found your brother? For God's sake, he wasn't just Emma's brother, but theirs too. As soon as he found Izana, why didn't he bring her home and introduce her to Grandpa? Why didn't he take Mikey and Emma to their orphanage visits? Why did he promise Izana an empty family?

so apparently, from the letter we saw in the trailer, we find out that shinichiro actually /knew/ that emma and izana were related and still kept them separate when he could have adopted him...shinichiro, that's so sick and twisted shit is there an adult who didn't do izana wrong?The adoption process is surely hard but at this point he could have simply brought emma to visit him and introduce izana to mikey when he got to see him at the orphanage. Mikey was positive about the idea (as we see in the manga) so why didn't Shinichiro do anything about it?When he talks to mikey asking him his opinion on having another brother , he was already an adult, so why didn't he do anything? It's like he kinda forgot about izana because they're not "related", but at that point, why did he get izana's life in the first place? Because he was Emma's brother? And like this we get to the initial point again: he could have, at least, introduced them all

Well firstly I'm pretty sure Shinichiro didn't pick Izana up from the Philippines at all. Since Izana was in a foster home adoption type place and then juvie in Japan (that's how he met Kakucho at the foster home and then the S62 at juvie). I'm also not sure how a Japanese teenager would've been just allowed to take a kid from the Philippines to Japan like that. Actually Izana doesn't even seem to have known he had family in the Philippines until Karen told him. He thought she was his mum and that he had the same dad as Shinichiro (not clear if he knew the guys name or what he looked like though).

I agree though, from our perspective it does seem like Shinichiro made a big mistake here with not introducing Izana to the others or at least telling them. However Shinichiro didn't have our perspective. Shinichiro had no idea what was going to happen or what the consequences of doing that would be. I feel like this is one of those things which will divide the fandom, with some ageeeing and some disagreeing (both are totally fine though).

Like I think Shinichiro was right not to rush into things here, taking on the care of another child is a big responsibility and Shinichiro was already practically raising two, not to mention what kind of impact a change in environment could have on Izana's mental health, a kid he had known for a few hours at this point. I don't know a lot about the irl adoption process but I'm pretty sure you have to spend more then a few hours with the kid before deciding anything. I think that's why they then started exchanging letters, as a way for them to get to know each other better and get more comfortable with each other.

I'm guessing the next part of Shinichiro's plan was to get to know Izana better and get Izana more comfortable with him before introducing him to the others. We know Shinichiro was at least thinking about introducing Izana to them because of the question he asked Mikey.

But then I'm guessing what stopped him was all the complications. Aka Mikey ripped Sanzu's face open and Izana beat up a bunch of kids and then basically forced one to take his own life. Put them together and they don't get along and you're going to have a big problem on your hands. Like I understand why Shinichiro wanted to move slowly here, this isn't something that should've been rushed. Not to mention the warning signs Izana was already showing towards Mikey by asking Shinichiro to stop talking about him and saying hearing about Mikey gives him a headache.

I'd say the main mystery here is why he didn't tell Emma/ bring Emma with him to visit. I'm not sure if he didn't wanna get her hopes up or if he wss worried about her or Izana's reaction (though they both seem like they would've been positive), or if he didn't want to make Emma keep the secret from Mikey but didn't want to let Mikey know yet. That is a bit of mystery.

Also to be completely fair to Shinichiro I don't think he ever would've expected things to play out the way they did. He was only a teenager himself when he first met Izana and even as a young adult it's a big responsibility to bring Izana into the house and make sure all his siblings were doing ok. He clearly wanted to unite them all but wanted it done in the correct way. Shinichiro has only been shown to want the best for his siblings so I'm sure he thought he was doing the right thing here. Though obviously this is just my take and we're all going to have different opinions on this.

[itsvivace]

VIVACE TRAUMA DUMPS WHILE MAKING A CANDY SALAD ♡︎

a/n : credits to @mar-zi @bluwavez + @lcmonheads and anyone else who did this trend ! i’ll be writing refering to the girls by their stage names but some will introduce themselves with their real names. also not entirely sure which candy is exclusive to america so lets just say kyuri and noelle brought some 🤕

WARNINGS : talks of cheating, abuse, violence, seizures, near death experiences, mental health struggles, death threats, attempted murder, death, cults

the video starts with kyuri inside their company recording studio. “hi celeste! i’m bored, and all thirteen of us finally have schedules together, so i decided we should do the trend of making a candy salad while trauma dumping!”

kyuri holds a huge clear plastic bowl up to the camera. “i’m kitty and i brought the bowl. when i was nine, i walked in on my dad cheating on my mom with my aunt, and when i confronted him about it, he said he confused them for each other and it was an accident. my aunt married into my mom’s side of the family. she’s not even asian either,” kitty says laughing.

the video cuts to mei mei standing over the bowl which is sitting on a table. “i’m mei mei, and i brought the strawberry sour punch straws,” she says, pouring them in. “at my middle school, some kid made an anonymous account and used the school’s chatting website to spread private rumors and stuff the other students did. it got so bad the police got involved, and some kids even went to jail, but they posted that the reason i fractured my knee was because my parents hit me. which isn’t true at all,” she says, sighing.

“but then i found out after the three months the account kept tormenting us, the poster ended up being my best friend, and they got jumped, and their mom pulled them out of school, and neither were seen again.”

the next scene is of hayeon walking up to the camera. “no clue why kyuri wanted us to do this so bad, but whatever,” she says, rolling her eyes. “i’m min hayeon, and when i was like twelve, my mom had a mental breakdown and tried to sell me on the black market,” she deadpanned. “oh i also brought the skittles,” she adds, pouring them in.

“hii celeste,” soomin greets, drawing out her words. “i brought some gummy worms! i had a seizure in the middle of a family gathering when i was a kid, and nobody cared or tried to help me. i only survived because one of my uncles came over to me to help after almost five minutes. but then my family told me i was attention seeking,” she says, shrugging.

“i’m naiyana, and the reason i left sm entertainment is because they kicked me out after i missed one single practice to attend my best friend’s funeral. i also brought the hershey’s kisses,” yana quickly says, pouring in the chocolate.

eunmi walks up to the camera, smiling. “hello, i’m sim eunmi, and i brought sour patch kids.” she starts, putting two bags in the bowl. “when i was sixteen, after my sister died, my mom told me it was my fault, and that she wished she never had me.”

“i’m hitomi, and i brought some m&m’s. after the dating scandal i had when i was a soloist, my parents forced me to move to korea to become an idol over here because i was blacklisted in japan. i got death threats everyday for the first two years of being in vivace because people hated me being in the group that bad.”

“hi! it’s sarang and i brought the airheads xtremes,” she greets as she puts them in the bowl. “when i was in high school some girl started bullying me, had her friends hold me down, and broke my left hand with a hammer,” she says. “juyeon you know EXACTLY who you are. i still have a fear of hammers to this day.”

xinyi enters the camera next. “kyuri bothered me so much to do this, so here i am.” she pours a bag of starburst into the bowl. “i’m xinyi, i brought starburst and when we debuted i had to force myself into getting better at korean because every interview we went to, interviewers would make fun of me being chinese,” she scoffs.

“hey everyone, it's haeun, and I brought nerds candy,” she starts. “a kid at my elementary school brought fireworks -not sure how he got them- but we were playing with them in a field next to the school, and someone shot one right in my face.” haeun puts the candy into the bowl. “i was rushed to the hospital and barely lived. i ended up with a scar on my forehead, which i still have, and i’m partially deaf in my right ear.”

the next shot is of yerin standing in front of the camera holding two ziplock bags of candy. “i couldn’t decide on one, so i brought warheads and bean boozled because i want to disturb the peace,” she laughs, dumping them in. “i-doll evil edited me so bad to the point when only three weeks after debut, i had a panic attack backstage, none of the staff helped me, and some even recorded me to laugh about it.”

“my name is ara, and i brought some twix.” ara walks up to the camera and opens the bag. “when i was eight, my dad told me he was going out to run errands, but he was gone for two weeks, and i found out he attempted to murder my uncle,” she tells while emptying the chocolate.

the last girl, noelle, appears on the screen. “i’m olivia, and i brought mini oreos because i hate candy.. but thats just me oversharing.” she laughs. “in my senior year of high school, my math teacher said he wanted to sell me to a cult and even tried kidnapping me but i ran across the street, and while he was chasing me, he got run over, and they forced me to go to his funeral and his wife told me i was his favorite student.”

the last few seconds of the video show all the members on screen. “we hope you enjoyed the video! please look forward to our upcoming comebacks, which are coming very soon,” eunmi says, waving. “bye!!” the girls wave.

[lavender-bundle-blithe]

I Died and Reincarnated as a Tiger Prince?! | BSD!AU

( . . . ) I've been watching too much isekai/slice of life/fantasy anime lately, so I'm just gonna put some random stuff here and just- tackle it later, I don't know what's become of my brain- (Welcome to my brain, I am sorry in advance)

Right out of the park: Atsushi ends up dying in the orphanage.

The next thing he knows, he wakes up to an otherworldly universe that's full on fantasy; I mean "Dahlia in Bloom", "By The Grace of the Gods", HELL EVEN "Snow White with the Red Hair" too.

We have magic, guilds, monsters, mystical beasts, you name it!

Anyways- he wakes up in what looks to be an infirmary, but it was... different. For one thing, there was a nurse and someone else there.

They introduce themselves as the royal doctor, Yosano Akiko, and the royal captain guard, Byakko, who she claims to be his mother though the difference between her and Atsushi were evident; she was a pure shapeshifter but human, and Atsushi is a white tiger half-human.

They kept it vague but explained that he was now safe, and would be living with the royal family in the mountains, where they are now currently. He doesn't have to worry about what happened before, but he has a hunch it's something similar to the orphanage, though he never brought it up.

Byakko teaches Atsushi all she knows about this world, their home practically converted into a big library. Which he didn't mind, he adored reading as much as he did back in the orphanage. Although his new features are still something he needs to get used to.

He becomes acquainted with the people in the castle; their staff, the administration, and the royal family. But the most he found himself staying close to was his mother when she does guard training or the bandaged brunet prince and his begrudging advisor who is half/half wanting to strangle said prince. But if either were busy, he would hole himself in the castle library or befriend the people that live in the castle besides the royal family.

As he grows, Atsushi learns about combat and magic to the point he's mastered even his mother's magic besides his own (that being turning into a tiger) and especially how the world works. But never once has he left the castle, only ever staring at the castle walls and into the town on the mountain with them. Because even then, the mental scar from the orphanage still haunt him that the outside world was dangerous.

News spread quickly of the royal family gaining a new member, a white tiger human with unique colored hair and eyes to boot. Atsushi thought that it was normal as people can be born half-human. But apparently not as rare as a white tiger half-human. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped him from living a life that he wished for years.

By the age of 18, a royal family from the coast came to visit for some kind of business; an alliance of sorts. They have been neighbors, but things have always been neutral but it has for as long as history reads, so they may as well start an alliance supported by a trade system and something else.

At first, they were thinking of a marriage proposal between their gingerheaded guard captain and the bandaged brunet, but it seemed the news of the new tiger prince reached them, and suggested a second marriage proposal; this time with either half-human black dragon siblings and Atsushi.

(A/N: Damn, this really happened because I'm got invested in slice-of-life-isekai-fantasy anime, christ. This post was supposed to be vague bullet points on an idea that seemed interesting [hell I even did the cheesy name title and everything] but the more I got to typing this and visualizing it in my head, the more it became fleshed out and- hhhhhh T~T"" | aaaaaaaaaaa yeah I don't know what else to say other than it'll be a while until I flesh this out entirely, and yes I made this entirely because I've been watching By the Grace of the Gods and just- yes- I don't know what else to say on that- | Atsushi getting to know everyone is-like- season 1. The marriage proposals and surprise surprise SSKK is season 2.)