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some-messed-up-writing-for-you · 3 years

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Continuation of Request #14?

Request #23

Warning: mentions of past rape, beliefs of oneself being unlovable/unwanted.

Honestly, at first, I wasn't sure where to go with this, but I ultimately gave it a wholesome(?) ending that I'm satisfied with. (Of course, If y'all want another continuation, I'm down to write more in the future.)

Enjoy!

Part 1

~~~~

Welp...

It was morning now.

...

A sigh left Villain's lips as they lay freshly awake in their bed, staring at the ceiling. They had to go and deal with Hero, even though they really didn't want to. They were still rather puzzled about what had happened yesterday. Why the hell...? Did Hero actually enjoy...?

Shaking their head to clear their thoughts, the villain lifted themself with a slight groan and dragged themself out of bed. Now, first things first, they were in dire need of a shower. Their nemesis' unexpected late-night visit had drained what little energy they had at the time, so they had just collapsed into bed as they were, all sweaty and gross.

Entering the bathroom and turning on the water, Villain freed themself of their clothing and hopped right in. As they rubbed shampoo into their greasy hair, they pondered how they should deal with this situation. On the one hand, they could probably use this to their advantage. They could make an arrangement of sorts. Hero gets what they want as long as they follow Villain's orders.

Lightly chuckling, they imagined the looks on their nemesis' teammates' faces as they realized the hero had betrayed them. And only to fulfill some fucked up fantasy of theirs, too.

But on the other hand, this was super weird, and the villain probably shouldn't indulge Hero. This could get out of hand very fast. After all, the hero had already snuck back into Villain's base; who knows what they might do next to get what they're after.

With another sigh, they turned off the water, grabbed a towel, and went to get dressed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hero sat in the corner of their cell. Their arms had gotten tied behind their back, and the familiar power-suppressing collar was back on their neck. They weren't sure why they had come back. I mean, they knew why they came back, but they also... didn't.

It was such a stupid idea. Of course, Villain would freak out! Why the hell did the hero think they would react any other way?! What was wrong with them? Why did- Why did Hero enjoy being used like that...?

Were they into all that shit, or were they just... really that desperate for contact?

...

Hero couldn't deny that they did, in fact, enjoy being at the villain's mercy, but... physical contact was still their main desire. Even during their fights, they often let themself get pinned down, just so that they could be close to someone, even if only for a short moment. And Villain... Villain just happened to be the one person who willingly got closer to them...

...

Maybe they were just sick in the head... People probably avoided them for a reason... Villain didn't care about them; they were enemies after all. They only got close to the hero because they were fighting. It made sense, didn't it...? It made sense that Hero was unwanted-

The door suddenly creaked open, and light flooded the small room, blinding the hero for a moment. They blinked their eyes a couple of times to adjust, and once they did, their gaze met with the dark form of their nemesis.

With their arms crossed and a stern calculating look on their face, the villain stood before them, looking down at them. Hero fidgeted nervously under their stare and eventually looked away, head hanging low in their shame. The sigh that left Villain only made them curl in on themself more.

"Hero." - the criminal started, mentally preparing for one hell of a ride. "Why did you come back? I mean, you told me why, but- but why?"

Silence was all they received as an answer, and it honestly got on their nerves a bit. Hero fucking breaks back into their base and then doesn't even want to talk? Fine. They would do this a different way then.

Villain's footsteps echoed through the cell as they approached the quiet hero whose face still turned away from them. As they knelt down, they grabbed the other's chin and forced them to turn their head. The villain noticed the way Hero shivered from their touch and had expected them to try and pull away in fright, but instead, they leaned into it, albeit a bit hesitantly.

With how cold it was in the room, the villain could easily feel how hot the captured's face burned. As their eyes met, the hero looked embarrassed and like they seriously didn't want to be here right now. The sight just made Villain's blood boil even more.

"Why so hesitant all of a sudden, Hero? You were so eager earlier." - the villain spat out angrily, their nemesis' indecisiveness irritating them. Just what the hell did they want?

Hero tried to stutter out an answer. They wanted to explain themself, they really did! But all they managed to say was a quiet "I-I'm sorry..." as tears slowly gathered in their eyes.

"You're sorry?" - Villain pressed, demanding a better answer.

Tensing up as their stomach twisted in their stress, they tried to explain again, voice meek as they admitted, "I- I was just... lonely..."

Their captor was quiet for a moment, studying their face. Trying to figure the other out, they eventually asked, "You let me rape you because you were lonely?"

"Um... Well... when you... put it that way... I... um..." - the hero mumbled, their gaze darting all over Villain's face, avoiding their eyes, too afraid to look into them.

The villain was silent again, slowly catching onto what Hero's deal was. The way the other's eyes were moving all around was annoying, so they decided to test something. Using their free hand, Villain softly cradled the hero's face, making them freeze, their gaze locked on the new point of contact. The criminal's touch slowly glided to the back of Hero's head, making them shudder as their hand tangled itself in the captured's hair.

The hero's eyes looked off to the side, trying to ignore the new feeling, but Villain brought them back to attention as they suddenly gripped Hero's messy locks and roughly pulled, getting a yelp out of them. They shivered as the villain forced their faces closer and ordered, "Look me in the eyes, or I'm leaving."

With a small whine, Hero's eyes immediately snapped to Villain's own.

"Bingo." - the criminal thought as they loosened their grip on the other's hair and instead tenderly began to massage their scalp.

As another whimper crawled out of the hero's throat, they pleaded meekly, "S-Stop... Y-You- You d-don't-"

"You're touch starved." - Villain said, matter-of-factly, anger disappearing as their expression turned more neutral as Hero's tears started to flow down their face. "You let me hurt you because it meant I would touch you."

"I- I- I'm-" - the hero tried to deny their nemesis' words but ultimately failed as they broke down into sobs, still looking into the other's eyes, not wanting them to pull away.

The villain paused in their petting and instead cradled Hero's face with both their hands, the hero inhaling shakily at the feeling. As they hiccuped and sniffled, Villain continued their conversation.

"I admit, seeing you under me is fun, but you seriously need some help." - the criminal watched as Hero only cried more, still desperately keeping eye contact. They really needed help. I mean, to just let themself get raped? They could've just told Villain what they wanted, and they would've let them go!

And yeah, sure, the villain wasn't the best for doing that to them in the first place either, but they only did it because it was Hero. Raping some random person is of no interest to Villain, but the hero? They knew what they were signing up for when they picked this job, so the villain didn't mind being ruthless to them.

But still... this was... honestly just sad. Did Hero genuinely have no one who cared about them? Villain supposed they had fans, but that wasn't really the same thing. Someone liking them as a hero is a lot different than someone loving them as a person.

...

Did... Villain like them?

...

They didn't exactly hate them, but were they interested in the other like that?

...

Well, they did tell their henchmen to put Hero in that... revealing outfit...

It was mostly just to humiliate the hero, but...

...

Shit.

...

With a small sigh, they made their decision and continued talking from earlier. "And I'm gonna be the one to get you that help, 'cause God knows you won't get it yourself."

"W-Wha...?" - Hero's confusion made them pause their crying. What- What did Villain...

"W-What do y-you mean?"

"You're staying with me."

Hero's chest fluttered at that. Villain... wasn't going to push them away?

"R-Really...?" - the hero asked uncertainly, doubt still gripping at their heart.

With a smile that melted their worries away, the villain answered, "Yes, really. We'll get some oxytocin going in that brain of yours." They gave Hero's forehead a gentle boop for emphasis, and the hero found it oddly comforting.

"Also, we're getting you a therapist." - Villain added, more seriously this time. "And... you know what? Fuck it. I'm getting myself a therapist too. Got some shit of my own to deal with..."

In a slightly better mood, Hero playfully asked, "B-By 'get' do you mean you'll literally g-go and grab some therapists?"

The villain snorted in reply, and as they pulled the hero to their feet, they said, "For you? I'd kidnap a therapist any day, darling~."

The blush on Hero's face only worsened at the nickname, but they still found themself smiling, a bit giddy. As Villain undid their restraints, they rubbed at their wrists and neck, shyly looking to the other. "S-So, what now?"

"Now, we're going to go and have breakfast." - the villain answered, offering the hero their arm, which they flusteredly took as their stomach grumbled and as Villain grinned at them endearingly.

As the two of them walked, they talked about how exactly to proceed from here. Neither of them was of a very... healthy mindset, and such, this relationship probably wasn't the healthiest one out there. But... that was fine. They would get there someday.

If no one else would help them, then they would help each other.

#hero x villain #villain x hero #writing #writeblr #hero #villain #short story #prompt #writing prompt #request #request prompts #prompt request #hero x villain community #writing community

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edwinas · 2 years

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Re: Edwina's behavior in connection to my other post, I'm already seeing some people being like "well Kate was 18 when she had to take over her family's finances, why are you using Edwina's age as an excuse to hate on her?" like first off both of those situations aren't even remotely connected to each other (not to mention that shockingly Edwina ALSO lost her father when Kate did, she was 10 years old....), and I don't support anyone who hates Kate for trying to get a deal going with the Sheffields. Frankly I fully support the idea because the Sheffields are loaded, Mary is their direct descendant and therefore Edwina is as well. Why shouldn't they benefit from the money that is rightfully owned to them? The main issue is the fact that Kate was never honest but even that is a fault that like Edwina's passivity in a way, I don't want to blame Kate for, because she thought it would be best to self-sacrifice in secret without anyone else knowing. There's an added layer to this with Mary apparently being very detached after their father died and again, Edwina being just a child by then (like idk how y'all expect me to blame her as a 10 year old for....not making up some other master plan on how to get their family money?? Of course she would go along with whatever Kate told her, she was a child, Kate was her older sister by nearly a decade). And some fans fully don't want to understand the fact that Edwina's overall behavior about the wedding isn't just because of Kate's lie but also because of the ideals Kate raised Edwina with about romance and love. Again, I don't blame Kate for this, but Edwina herself tells Kate that she's been lying to her the entire time, not just about Anthony but about the "illusion" of love alltogether. Kate was fine with entertaining the notion that Edwina's wedding would be "a true love match" despite knowing otherwise, so of course once Edwina figures out that practically all of it was a lie, she would react the way she did because everything up to this point was apparently in some way or another not truly real. Hence why even some complaints that are all "Edwina was angry that it wasn't just about her" make no sense because it IS about her, Kate's entire plan, Anthony's proposal to her, the wedding, all of it IS about her and relies on her even when you don't want it to be. The anger afterwards isn't because Edwina "didn't get Anthony" from Kate, it's because she didn't receive honesty from her sister. And other complaints like "well, Edwina would've thrown a tantrum" again, make no sense because we saw how she reacted when Kate's deal with the Sheffields was revealed. She was hurt but she still wanted to talk to Kate and wanted to be on equal footing with her in terms of where they stand with honesty. I'm also pretty sure that she would've greatly preferred being told that actually, the groom in question is thinking about cheating on her with her sister once they're married before even getting to the wedding. And I don't even blame Kate for this because Anthony owed Edwina just as much honesty which he never gave. It's not Edwina's job to figure out if a man 11 years older than her is honest or not when every other adult around him except for her sister is just singing praises about the man.

Yep, Kate became the de facto head of household when Mary was grieving. As you said, Edwina was a child. She just wouldn’t have the capabilities or knowledge to make financial decisions. AND Kate made sure she didn’t have to think about it. But Edwina wasn’t lazying about either?? Again she lost her father and had to work twice as hard as the sole eligible child in her family. So fans going on and on about Edwina having an idyllic life… shut up. But Kate lying by omission to an 18-year old Edwina was a mistake. Kate didn’t want Edwina to be weighed down by the Sheffield dowry plan and she probably still saw Edwina as the little girl she raised. Why make her worry more when it would all work out? We saw again and again that Kate acted out of love.

I don’t think Kate was lying about "true love" (she believed in it) but that’s not how it came across to Edwina. As you said, discovering at the altar that Anthony was eyeing her SISTER (who was doing the same), the same sister who soothed her pre-wedding doubts, who raised her on tales of true love and happy endings… it broke Edwina. She was unbothered by Anthony but couldn’t get cast Kate aside because she loves her so much more.

I HATE this argument that Edwina would have thrown a “tantrum” either way when what we got was a disillusioned traumatised young woman or that she wasn’t equipped to handle the truth. Doesn’t matter if she was or wasn’t, she deserved to know the truth about her life and future. And she COULD handle it, see how she acted after the Sheffield dinner.

Anthony is 100% more at fault than Kate. I do wish Kate told Edwina the truth when Anthony confessed he would never love Edwina and cheat. Kate didn’t want to ruin her most important relationship i.e. the one with Edwina, Anthony was Edwina’s only viable option to not be destitute and convinced herself that he would forget about her. But letting Edwina be saddled to Anthony without knowing the full truth… yeah. All this to say all Bridgerton characters are flawed, including Kate. People can say that without immediately having to add that Edwina was the worst.

#edwina sharma #my/rambling #LOVE getting your asks #they always make me think!

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dreaminginvelaris · 3 years

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sorting acotar characters into hogwarts houses

idk why i decided to make this post but it was fun sooo...

lmk if y'all agree or disagree. Also please no hate, sometimes a post is just for fun and i don't need any negativity. UNLESS its hate for elain which by all means go ahead ;) (because of ppls sensitivity, this joke isnt an invitaion to go on a full blown elain hate rant just offer a few jabs, especially if you agree on the elain section and move on, if you wanna go on a rant, message me or submit a post and i'll response, all the love <3)

Slytherin: Ambition, Cunning, Leadership, and Resourcefulness

Rhysand: of course Rhys is Slytherin, the man screams Slytherin. We all know he's cunning, often coming up with plans to get what he wants, leader well duh, he's a high lord and loves it and is great at it, he's ambitious, he's a dreamer, so of course, he wants more, and he's resourceful, always being able to think on the spot. Rhysands second house would be Ravenclaw for sure though.

Eris: uhhh do I even have to explain? wants to be Highlord, boom ambitious. seems to be the one in charge of his brothers and has many responsibilities, boom leader. being able to achieve what he wants, boom cunning. resourcefulness...yeah I don't got an example for that one, anyways 3/4.

Azriel: daddy az is a Slytherin, I mean obviously this is the best house (is it obvious yet that I'm a Slytherin ;) but fr, I debated sorting him into Ravenclaw, but even though yes he shows Ravenclaw traits it's not the ones we see the most of or the ones that really shine through Azriel's reserved personality. The main traits azzy boo here has from Slytherin are Cunning and Resourcefulness, and imo these are the ones we see from him every page.

Amren: im putting amren here too, she's literally both!

Gryffindor: Brave, Courage, Daring, Chivalrous

Cassian: this one is self-explanatory, how many times has he put others before himself, how many times has he endangered his own life to save others. that's a Gryffindor soul he has. he always tried to do the right thing, he's brave as hell and reckless at times it seems from the little snide comments we've gotten from the books, he would have been a marauder no doubt.

Tamlin: I hate to do this I do because I love my lions, but I had to put this piece of shit somewhere and since he reminds me of peter Pettigrew bc of his cowardness, I'm sorting him in here. I'm so sorry guys ;(

Morrigan: helloooo, the house colors are red and gold??? obviously mor would demand this house, yes demand. but not just that she's crazy brave, at only what 18? i think, she stood up to her family, making a decision she knew could have her ending up in a horrible situation. but she always is brave, shes gotta when her evil family is still in her life.

Hufflepuff: Loyal, Kind, Patient, Hardworking

Gwyn: i choose my girl gwyn for Hufflepuff bc let's face it, she is the embodiment of Hufflepuff. She's loyal to her new friends, emerie and Nesta, and the priestesses. She's kind as we can see when she first met Nesta and when emerie and Nesta shared their stories. She's very patient never snaps at that bitchy priestess who idk the name of as well as patient when it comes to her and Azriel's tender new friendship and hardworking, always doing her job, running around the library, for her work, always researching more ways to help the Valkyries. i debated putting her in Ravenclaw, because of her intelligence, but i think she's a Hufflepuff through and through.

Elain: IT HURTS MY HEART PUTTING PLAIN ELAIN IN THIS HOUSE. but I gotta, the only trait this plant sniffer has out of all the houses is "kind and patient" EVEN THOUGH SHE'S NOT REALLY LMFAO. I've made a post on explaining why this dirt lover isn't as kind as the books make her out to be, and I would argue she isn't actually patient at all, I mean did we miss how she was basically frustrated Nesta wasn't getting better even though it had been like what 2 weeks, LMFAO. but yeah I mean she's not loyal unless you have food and money then oh yeah she'll be loyal and she's not hardworking bc I mean she never did jack shit and still doesn't, sorry to do this to y'all.

Note: some of yall are so soft. this is not an anti elain post. sorry i insulted her but hey its my post, and i have commentary on each character to explain why i feel they belong in a certain house. sorry i happened to insult your fav. but this isnt an anti elain post, just like its not anti tamlin or anti eris. its just a post about all the characters period, which is why i inculded all of them in the tags. hey, i even insulted Nesta a little bit, but I'm not gonna tag anti-Nesta bc it's not a fucking hate post. get off this post if it comes across you and you don't like what I say, it's not hard to literally just scroll, trust me I've done it multiple times especially when it's a hate post on my beloved characters and they didn't use the anti tags. it's not fucking hard, grow up.

Ravenclaw: Wisdom, Wit, Individuality, Intelligence

Feyre: I debated putting queen feyre into Slytherin, I mean she shows the traits for sure, but it's not really if she shows the traits it's what shines the most in her. Ravenclaws are known for their creativity (bae luna Lovegood <3) and feyres an artist, even in her darkest times she remained an artist, always seeing portraits in her mind, always admiring the beautiful colors of the world. We know she's intelligent, picking up reading and writing quickly, and we also see it when she's strategizing, with the inner circle. Feyre is so wise, she had to be, she had to grow up quickly, you often see her in the books giving advice, because even though she's only 21, she's lived a lifetime. and the whole book of acomaf can show you how witty she is, I mean its what made us fall in love with feysand.

Amren: tiny snowball amren is literally a slytherclaw, she has all the traits from both. but because of how well she is with coding languages and how she always reads and does puzzles i think she'd enjoy being a Ravenclaw.

Nesta: I thought about this for a while, really looking into where she would thrive, Ravenclaw is for her no doubt. She's herself, always has been even when that wasn't such a good thing... but she's witty too if you make sure to not count the "the book is about...a book" I'm sorry that line makes me laugh every single time. we haven't really seen much of her intelligence but I'm guessing she is. but really she would love to be in a house where ppl are themselves and read, i can already imagine her creating a book club where people can be themselves and enjoy smutty books like her.

Lucien: originally I was going to sort him into Hufflepuff but then I remembered how intelligent he is, how witty, and I remembered in acowar he talked about how being the youngest of what 7 heirs? he had the chance to really educate himself which he loved to do, to really learn about his court, idk this man just screams intelligence to me.

I left out emerie bc i honestly don't know where to sort her, i feel like i just don't know her too well or understand her enough to sort her, so feel free to lmk where she would belong :)

#acotar #acomaf #acowar #acofas #acosf #nesta archeron #feyre archeron #rhysand #tamlin #cassian #azriel #elain archeron #mor acotar #lucien vanserra #amren #gwyneth berdara #eris vanserra

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isuckatreadinglol · 3 years

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Six of Crows Review

Alright, first book review on this blog...here we go: *spoiler warning, duh*

Book: Six of Crows Author: Leigh Bardugo

My Rating: 5/5

First off, this is the first YA fantasy I've ever read so I have no idea what I was expecting...and I fuckin loved it.

Second, I binge read this book in three days and it usually takes me a month to read anything ever so that's definitely saying something. I came for Kaz Brekker after watching Shadow & Bone on Netflix and stayed for the amazing plot, diverse and intricate characters, the incredible action and twists, and of course Kaz Brekker. The one thing that I loved was how fast paced this book went, and I genuinely could not stray far from the book because of how addicting it was. There was something in every chapter and you never got bored. The last part had taken the most time for me to complete because of how much action Leigh crammed in the last 60 pages, which made it a bit hard to follow along but it was still epic.

The Characters:

Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, Matthias

"“What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s wallet?” “Knife to the throat?” asked Inej. “Gun to the back?” said Jesper. “Poison in his cup?” suggested Nina. “You’re all horrible,” said Matthias."

The most diverse set of characters I have ever met. There were 6 characters, and the POV's were constantly changing and at some point, while I read someone else's chapter I was worried about the other characters and anticipating the next chapters. This was honestly an amazing decision to tell this story and I never got sick of the characters (except maybe Matthias, sorry).

Not only does Leigh do an excellent job portraying trauma in her characters (especially Kaz), she also keeps the character's as diverse as possible, from Nina being a plus sized character with badass confidence to Wylan overcoming his dyslexia and even Inej being a brown character. Every character had their own stories and the flashbacks/backstories were always a pleasure to read through.

Kaz Brekker is a stone cold, morally grey, manipulative, and terrible criminal which of course...makes him an even better protagonist. He definitely rocks the Hot Boy Who Is Mean To Everyone Except That One Chick Because Of His Tragic Backstory trope.

"There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken."

He is an anti-hero with his own plans and goals, while also caring so much about his crew that he would do anything for them. I'm very excited to see his character develop with Inej in Crooked Kingdom as well as his relationship with her because I am too obsessed with the two of them. I also enjoyed how Leigh allowed Kaz to fuck up and make mistakes, showing that he wasn't just some perfect character that knew everything about everything, and reading his inner dialogue when he realized his fuck-ups felt refreshing. His backstory was very well written and very tragic (we get it he's emo). It felt so personal knowing why he was they way he was when he sealed himself off from the world. He's also drippy as fuck.

Inej Ghafa just radiates bad bitch energy and when Kaz called her "dangerous" I screamed "DAMN RIGHT". Her mental drive was beautifully written during her chapters, especially while she climbed the incinerator.

"The heat of the incinerator wrapped around Inej like a living thing, a desert dragon in his den, hiding from the ice, waiting for her. She knew her body's limits and knew she had no more to give. She'd made a bad wager. It was as simple as that. The autumn leaf might cling to its branch, but it was already dead. The only question was when it would fall...

Should she jump now or simply wait for her body to give?

Inej felt wetness on her cheeks. Was she crying? Now? After everything she'd done and had done to her?"

Most importantly, she was a raw character who pushed herself throughout the book not just for herself but for the rest of the crew. She was selfless but she was also incredibly strong, driven by her future. Inej is the most inspiring character in the book and I have fallen in love with her more times than I could count. (lowkey carried the team imma be honest)

JESPER FAHEY Y'ALL. My queer sharpshooter king. I think I related to him the most and I loved every chapter with him. Though, I felt like Jesper was treated more as a side character than a main one, especially since he was stuck with Wylan for the entirety of the heist but BOY WHEN I FOUND OUT HE WAS A FABRIKATOR...I might have also screamed. He was definitely the comedic relief and he always kept me laughing at his little comments. Excited to see him and Wylan get together and also hoping for more of Jesper's character.

"Well, we’ve managed to get ourselves locked into the most secure prison in the world. We’re either geniuses or the dumbest sons of bitches to ever breathe air."

“If any of you survive, make sure I have an open casket. The world deserves a few more moments with this face.”

Nina Zenik...bro. She is so powerful. The moment she took parem was *chefs kiss* and it was the most badass scene I had ever experienced. When I began reading her chapters I didn't really enjoy them but when the heist actually began her inner dialogue won me over completely. When she was with Jarl Brum I could not stop laughing at the things she was saying in her head, and even when things were intense she always had something to say which made her character come to life. Her personality is hilarious, and sarcastic and she's also so HOT like my gay ass was swooning. She is who I aspire to be, that is all.

Matthias Helvar. Personally, I didn't really like his character so much because of how stubborn and he was (and how many times I wanted to punch his stupid ass), however he was still a pretty cool character with some good moments in there. He demonstrated religious corruption well, and he definitely faced a lot of inner conflict due to the pressure of what he was taught when he was younger. His POVs were a little boring but I loved it when he called Kaz a demjin.

Wylan Van Eck was a super fun character to have around. I definitely enjoyed watching his character grow as he spent more time with the Dregs. I didn't love him as much as the big three (Kaz, Jesper, Inej) and don't have much to say on him except that I admired his strength throughout the last part, especially when confronting his father after hearing all the horrible things he said about his own son. Jesper defending him made me melt big time.

"He's smarter than most of us put together, and he deserves a better father than you."

I literally could not have asked for such a creative group of characters and to see them work together makes me feel like I'm part of a big, criminal family.

The Ships

The ships were a fun addition to the story and the best part was that they never overstepped the actual objective of the plot but rather worked with it to enhance the connections between each character.

Kaz and Inej: Let me just cry for a second.

"She'd laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him."

"I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all."

"I'm going to get my money, Kaz vowed. And I'm going to get my girl."

This one hurt me. I am in love with these two and their relationship with each other makes it so much better. They are not meant to be together yet they are connected in so many ways. I did not think I would fall in love so easy, but here I am.

Matthias and Nina: I was not convinced by these two, especially with how weird their relationship was. They constantly seemed like they hated each other (valid) and some of their romantic scenes felt forced. In the end, I enjoyed seeing Nina grow on Matthias to wake his stubborn ass up. I swear that man refused to have feelings. Anyway, I still have mixed feelings on these two.

Wylan and Jesper: They are so cute. Like insanely cute. Like even I was blushing during their cute scenes. Their relationship isn't as developed yet so I am excited to see them in Crooked Kingdom.

Final Thoughts:

Representation? Check

Map? Check

Two maps?!? Fuck yeah

Amazing plot and worldbuilding? Check

Hilarious banter? Mhm

Great writing? Check

Well- written characters? 100%

Overall, this story will forever be my comfort book and I was impressed by the YA fantasy side of literature. It's hard to believe yet comforting that these characters are my age, makes me feel powerful. I loved every bit of this book and now I kinda wanna grab some friends and pull a heist.

#six of crows #grishaverse #the grisha series #crow club #shadow and bone #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #no mourners no funerals #the dregs #soc #sabspoilers #the crows #book review #booklr #ya fantasy #kanej

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chainofclovers · 3 years

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This Way Up season 2 thoughts and feelings

We finished watching the second season of This Way Up last night (watched it in two sittings over Friday and Saturday) and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would though the season did feel uneven at times. The story also made me feel incredibly, incredibly sad, and my brain is so cluttered with thoughts that I'm not sure I'll be able to actually make sense of the show if I don't just go on and share my impressions, as scattered, self-indulgent, and based on the limited memory of a single viewing as they are.

Where was I when I was watching this season of television?

Physically, I was on the couch with my wife, repeatedly remembering and forgetting that the Olympics were happening. And so, interspersed with this deep dive into the mental health and personal and professional challenges of London-based Irish sisters Áine and Shona, I experienced some archery, skateboarding (those bros honestly seem tooooo cool to even want to come to something as embarrassingly earnest as the Olympics, but good for them!), and men's gymnastics.

Mentally, I was contemplating some significant professional (and, yes, personal in their way) life events that are neither here nor there for tumblr dot com. I was also considering the season two premiere of Ted Lasso and my fannish relationship to that show. For it is true--the person I was while watching season 1 of This Way Up is not the same person who watched season 2 this weekend, because in the meantime a 45-year old white man from Kansas (and every person he knows) managed to become my primary media preoccupation, and I am surprisingly chill about how not chill I am about this anxiety-ridden ray of sunshine/football coach (both footballs). But as we all know, being chill does not mean feeling chill. That make sense?

Anyway. This Way Up. It's about to become a mess of spoilers and feelings in here, so venture behind the cut if you dare!

For Obvious Queer Reasons I was extremely curious to find out what happens between Shona and Charlotte and Shona and Vish. As such, while it was uncomfortable to watch, I think my favorite scene in the whole season is when Shona and Vish have video chat sex and Shona has this intrusive memory of sleeping with Charlotte that feels like the ONLY moment in the entire season that she isn't performing or editing herself in some way.

My other favorite moment is when Charlotte talks about how upsetting it is to feel like a "lesson learned" chapter in Shona's autobiography.

I cannot believe I'm about to type these words, but I think the writing on this show might actually put too much trust in viewers to pick up on things. I know, this never happens! This is my dream! Why am I typing this? But hear me out. I think there are a lot of interesting parallels in terms of whether Shona and Vish (established, engaged, committed) and Áine and Richard (new, taboo [but is it really that crazy that she ends up dating the dad of someone she tutors?], exploratory) are truly able to listen to each other and accept each other's needs. It's about honesty or lack thereof, and it's also about what's really happening inside someone's mind. It's such an incredible moment when Richard tells Áine he likes that she's always so "up" and she has this private moment where you can see this heartbreak in her eyes because of course we know that she really struggles with her mental health and with depression. And I like that the show has both Bradley and Charlotte in the position of being on the overlapping outside of those relationships, offering their own wisdom from a place of really, really caring about Áine and Shona. But I just wanted MORE of that. This episodes are so short, and I needed there to be more of a tight story about those parallels, more of a sense that we'd hurtle towards some kind of revelation by episode 6.

I realize this is a thing about UK shows, but these seasons are just too short. The episodes are like 24 minutes long and there are only six of them and I felt that while you could create an effective season of TV with those constraints, this season jumped between scenes too frequently. I wanted to live in the scenes for longer. I didn't want to feel like I was watching the editing and decisions about what to show happen before my eyes.

If season 3 happens, my second biggest dream is that Bradley and Áine can have a conversation following up from the observation that it would be nice to be with someone they're just comfortable with (spoken while they're slumped on the couch together having one of the warmest conversations two characters share all season). My biggest dream is that Shona and Charlotte can have a respectful conversation about how Shona defines her sexuality. I want Shona to be safe explaining if she'd want to use the term bisexual or queer or pan or even lesbian or some combination of those terms. Not because the labels are the most useful thing, but because in this case it would be incredibly useful for her to force herself to choose some words, not in the context of feeling Vish-related pressure. To be brave enough to describe herself, and to be safe enough to know that Charlotte isn't going to make some snide comment about men. It's totally fair that Charlotte is so hurt, but she needs to be able to listen, too.

I do think this season does an incredible job capturing Shona's intense ambivalence about herself, and how she is SCRAMBLING to deflect from that by focusing on her sister, work, family, wedding-planning, the hen do, basically anything but dealing with her own little brain and heart. I mean, when COVID starts to arrive in their lives, it feels like she really wants Vish's asthmatic uncle to be the golden ticket they need to call off the wedding.

I have mixed feelings about how frequently Áine references the feeling of being an actor or the feeling of experiencing things as someone might in a movie or show or the feeling that someone else is treating her as an actor or character rather than as a real person. I think it's an interesting thing to write about, but upon first watch I struggled to figure out if it was a commentary on the other parts of the story or an additional thread Aisling Bea wanted to weave into an already incredibly short season of TV.

It was very jarring to have a COVID plot. The only mainstream media I've seen so far with a COVID plot is--LOL (to quote Áine, who says LOL so many times this season)--the final scene of the Saved By the Bell remake. Again I say LOL!!! I didn't hate it or love it, necessarily, I just thought it felt strange because we're still in the pandemic and everything is strange.

Everything with Tom was so, so, so painful. I don't know if I can even get into it. I just felt visceral devastation and was hurtled into strong memories about people in my own life who died prematurely. (Suicide but not only suicide.) The way the last scene ended felt like--immediate tears just pulled from my eyes without me even realizing what was happening. And God, the way Tom-in-the-flashback calls her a "soppy cunt" (I think?) and we realize Áine used those exact words to jokingly refer to Richard's previous girlfriend who was a human rights lawyer? GOD.

While Áine and Shona don't really engage with each other in the same way my sister and I do, my sister and I are also really, really close and I'm the older sister and watching this show always gives me a lot of emotions about siblings. This is actually part of why the rapid scene cuts and feeling that they both were leaving so much unarticulated stressed me out. Áine nails it at the end when Shona has finally told her about Charlotte and she says Shona needs to tell her more, but I wanted to SEE that conversation happen. I wanted to FEEL Áine's reaction, because Áine's reaction matters more than Vish's or their mother's or anyone else's. It was frustrating!

I dunno, y'all. I really love this show. I think it is exactly what it wants to be. I could not tell you today if I will ever rewatch it even though I (think I) still consider it a favorite. I honor and respect the fundamental messiness and pain and hilarity of this show. What a wild experience.

#this way up #this way up spoilers #meta by me #cw suicide #about me #this is all over the place but then again I am all over the place

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piscesparker · 3 years

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Undercover Lovers

Mob!Tom AU

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Your visits to the mansion became more and more frequent than expected and practically every second day you and Tom, spent "getting to know each other." Soon enough you realized that it made you deter from your mission.

It was just another regular morning when you woke up next to Tom, admiring his freckles and the little adorable snores that left his mouth, but no, you didn't give in, you had to focus on your mission. Getting out of the bed you picked up one of Tom's shirts which was discarded on the floor last night and carefully made your way out of the room, to find out what he's behind and take him down.

Walking down the empty hallways you admired the various paintings and artifacts just lying around, when a certain door caught your eye. There was something about that glossed wooden door that pulled you towards it; the room looked more posh than the hallways which was a given since he had a "company" of his own. Rushing towards the desk drawers you quickly began to search for something, some file, that could be potential evidence against them. You were so engrossed in searching for it you didn't notice someone standing near the doorway.

He caught your attention by clearing his throat, getting up quickly from your squatting position you meet the blue eyes of the man standing, hands across his chest, "Looking for something?" Harrison asked sternly.

"I see your thumb's all better," You retort back avoiding the question. He scoffed, looking at the injury you gave him. "you're pretty bad for a marksmen though, you missed your best friend."

"I wasn't aiming for him, and I know you're trying to avoid the question."

"Maybe," you shrugged, "what are you going to do about it? Tell him? He won't believe you, I have him wrapped around my finger, and you can't do anything about it."

"You think you're so smart-"

"I know I am." You cut him off.

"But just you wait," he laughed, "soon enough he'll realize how you're playing him and we'll take you and the government down." He threatened.

"Ooo I'm scared." You say blankly. Harrison knows what he's doing and he knows that you've gone soft for his best friend, he just needed some more time to execute his plan.

Tom spending more time with you resulted in loosing is focus and responsibility to the mob, It was yet another afternoon when he came back after a date with you.

"Where the hell have you been?" Harry yelled at his older brother who just entered, "I've been calling you for hours!"

"Okay calm down dad," Tom smirked, "What's wrong? You seem tense."

"Come on." He said leading him into his office where Harrison and Sam were already seated.

"It's about fucking time you showed up!" Sam barked.

"Ok what is up with you people why are y'all mad at me?" Tom asked as he took his seat in front of them.

"Here," Harry said as he shoved a file in his hands. Opening the file, the first thing he saw was your beautiful face and then read the paper attached with it, Y/n L/n aka Jane Bond aka 007 . His eyes went wide and then he looked at the three boys sitting in front of him, and then he turned to Harrison who was giving him a 'I told you so' look.

"Well what do we do?" Harry interjected.

"I have a plan," Harrison said getting everyone's attention,"but lover boy here must agree." He said as he stared at Tom's panic stricken face.

"So what do you think?" Harrison asked everyone in the room as he elaborated his plan.

"Honestly, I think its great! Tom?" Harry quipped. Tom was sitting back in his chair still thinking if it was the right decision.

"So lemme get this straight," he began as he sat up straight,"you want me to get closer to her, make her fall in love with me and then take her and the government down before they take us down?"

"Precisely!"

"Looks like that's what we're gonna do." He sighed, but deep down he didn't want to show the boys that he's already in love with you and is scared of hurting you; he still wanted to prove he was tough and doesn't go soft for the most beautiful girl he's ever seen.

"So 007, what do we know so far?" M asked.

"Well we know that on the night of the gala, Harrison wasn't there to take Tom down but he's coming for me."

'What is he playing at?' M thought to herself, "007, we need new information and we need them fast!" M ordered. You, Moneypenny and Q exit M's office, when Moneypenny pulls you aside to talk to you,"Y/n, I need to ask you something, but you have to answer truthfully," You nodded, "are you falling for him?" You didn't say anything, instead you hung your head.

"Is that why you've been so distracted? This is not professional 007, you could be in trouble."

"I know that, but its just that," you sighed,"I can't get him out of my head, and yeah its unprofessional, but he's different."

"Yes, because he's England's biggest mobster!"

"His job doesn't define him, he's really nice." You admit. It was true what Moneypenny asked, but you weren't just falling for him, you were head over heals for him now and was he. The two of you thought the other was faking it so neither of you wanted to admit how you really felt, for Tom it was the fear of his best friend where as for you it was M.

"Now where are you going?" Harrison asked, exasperated.

"Calm down I'm just going doing what you asked me to do." Tom answered.

"Well just try to be a little quieter when you two get back." He winked at his best friend, as his eyes went wide and cheeks red in embarrassment.

General Taglist: @in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh @peaches-parker @veronica011sblog @hollanderfangirl @calltothewild @parkerpeter24 @whatthefuckimbisexual @musicalkeys @rnatasha @hollands-weasley @peterspideysstuff @ethereal-beauty-p @parker-hollandx @theonly1outof-a-billion @miraclesoflove @theliterarymess @osterfieldholland01

Tom Holland Taglist: @words-to-accomplish-something @asshatgrace @spideyspeaches

#tom holland #tom hollandxreader #tom holland imagine #tom holland x you #mob!tom #mob!au #mob!tomxagent! reader

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nellie-elizabeth · 3 years

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: One World, One People (1x06)

Oof, okay, so I obviously enjoyed watching this, but I do have some things I would like to discuss.

Cons:

The biggest one is honestly about Isaiah. I understand that this is a superhero show, and there's some cheesiness baked into the very concept of it. I like the idea of a triumphant ending for our heroes, where amends are made and everyone is brought some measure of peace. BUT, I feel like a more nuanced, more true to reality ending here with Isaiah might have been different. Maybe he gives a tip of the hat to Sam, says he's happy he's found his peace, but he still doesn't agree with his choices. See, the thing is, some people who have been hurt by systems want that system to acknowledge its mistake, to apologize, to make amends. That's what Sam is pushing for. He believes we can do better, and all that. And that's a wonderful perspective. But other people who have been hurt by systems might not want anything to do with that system ever again. At the end, when Sam sets up the part of the museum for Isaiah, he says "now everyone will know what you did for this country," and Isaiah seemed pleased and touched by this. But I couldn't help but think... he was forced into doing those things, and then punished for doing them. If he'd decided he didn't want acknowledgment, didn't want to be linked to the idea of American heroism... I couldn't blame him for that. It might have added more nuance to the ending. Sam could have even said that it's okay if he and Isaiah don't agree on the best way forward, they still have mutual respect, or whatever.

As a white lady, maybe I'm off base. I'm just really curious at what the reaction is going to be. All through watching this show I kept saying to myself that an ending where Sam takes up the shield and becomes Captain America can't stand on its own. There's got to be nuance. There's got to be some good justification for it. And as I'll talk about in a moment, I think they've done an okay job... but I also wouldn't be surprised to find some people enormously dissatisfied with this conclusion. Steve Rogers handed the shield to Sam, yes. But should we forget what he did before handing it over? Well, he walked away from the government and was on the run because he didn't respect their choices. Just some food for thought.

I also just want to say: ????? to that ending for John Walker? It was so bizarre to see the light banter moment between him and Bucky after Walker had quoted Lincoln. Like... that felt so out of place. And now he's being made into an American agent? I don't understand that random lady's role in events. I don't know if I'm supposed to think it's sinister and creepy as fuck that John still has a uniform, and even the suggestion of authority (I do think it's creepy as fuck, for the record), or if I'm supposed to be... pleased that he got a new job? Just, tonally, the stuff with Walker in this finale was all over the place. He didn't seem to really matter, and yet he was still there, and the episode didn't seem able to reckon with his presence.

Oh, also, I can totally respect a bit of ham-fisted politic in a show like this. It's really the only way to do it. But Karli saying that Lamar didn't matter, and John saying "you think Lemar's life didn't matter?" was, perhaps, a little on the nose. I'm not sure I like the BLM mouthpiece being blond haired blue eyed John Walker, especially when Lemar's death, at least as a narrative function, only happened to allow John to get sad and angry about it. Where's his wing in the museum, huh?

Also Sharon Carter, she's my girl or whatever, but I gotta admit she was kind of boring to me in this whole series. I wanted more from her. The reveal that she was the Power Broker had me shrugging. I wanted to be more shocked, but she was so clearly telegraphed as being fishy from minute one. The fact is, we haven't had enough time with this character to figure out who she actually is as a person, yet. I don't understand her, and that's a shame.

Pros:

That was a long "cons" section, especially for an episode that kept me riveted the whole way through!

First off, the action was exciting and different and had so many classic "superhero moments" while not totally abandoning a more grounded feel. Sam holding the car up was such a Moment. Also the "that's Black Falcon!" "No, that's Captain America" moment was so cheesy but exactly the right kind of cheesy, you know? We got to see everyone being a bad-ass, crowds applauding, Sam's fantastic entrance with the new suit, the wings, the shield... damn. It was all cool in the way the best Marvel products need to be.

So, Sam taking the shield. I think it works because of his speech to the politicians. Specifically calling out the power they have, and the people they have in the room with them when they make the decisions that will affect so many people. There's this wonderful moment when one of the politicians asks a legitimate question: what about people who came back after the snap to find someone else living in their house? It's so complicated. And as the show ends, we're not given a simple answer. Sam merely points out the miracle of having everyone fighting the same fight for once. These rich and powerful people have had no idea how impossible it can be, and now they're getting a taste of that. There might just be the power of equalizing in all of this.

And most important to me? The government didn't hand Sam the shield. Sam took it and took ownership of it on his own terms. Think back to the legacy of Steve and the shield, honestly. Yes, he was given it by the government, but then he stole it when he ran away, then he gave it up, then Tony gave it back to him... it's a lot more complicated than it might first appear. Nobody's going to argue that the shield was Steve's to give, and he gave it to Sam, and Sam took it for his own. That made it work for me, as a direct contrast to the way in which John Walker got his hands on it.

Karli's death was inevitable and tragic. While I never cared all that much for her character as an individual, she worked quite well as a symbol. Sam points this out in his speech as well. Hasn't anyone stopped to wonder why people believed in this cause so much they were willing to die for it? That matters. It means something. And more will follow. I appreciate that the show ends on an ambiguous note. The people in power are still the people in power. And yes, their decision has been postponed. They've decided not to relocate people and replace the borders immediately. But what is the long-term solution? How does the world begin to heal? Well, we don't know. We don't get to see that.

If anyone got short shrift in this finale it was Bucky, but I'm honestly okay with that for a couple of reasons. One, this is Sam's show and I'm happy that it stayed that way. And two, we saw Bucky's emotional arc come to a head in last week's episode. The work isn't done, but he knows what the work is that he has to do, and we see him start to do that. He gives the journal up to his therapist. A way of letting go of his guilt, but also of saying goodbye to Steve in a way that can give him some actual closure. He confesses to his friend Yuri what really happened to his son.

And more than all of that, he shows up to hang out with Sam and his family. He brings cake. He goofs off with the kids. He hugs his friend, his partner, Sam Wilson. I can see Bucky coming to peace with some things. Coming into his own. It breaks my heart that we don't get to see more of that play out on screen. The show had to make a choice about whose story to prioritize, and in my opinion it made the right choice. This was a show about Sam's journey and Sam's decision here at the end was the capstone of that.

That scene at the end, though... the kids hanging off of Bucky's metal arm was such a poignant image for me, because this man is a killing machine, was designed to be so, but has remade himself into something else, and this moment really showcased that. Also, that gay-ass ending of Sam and Bucky looking out over the water together and then strolling away, Sam's arm around Bucky? Thank you for my life, Disney, I guess. And we got Bucky calling Sam "Cap," and his obvious admiration and pride in him for his speech... I just love them, y'all. I really do.

I wouldn't say anything about this show broke the mold or made me really excited about Marvel again. I enjoyed it, because I already liked Sam and Bucky, and I got to spend more time with them. I was nervous about how they were going to navigate certain political stickiness, and honestly I think they did... an okayish job. I could have wished for them to go even further, but they didn't take the easy way out, in my opinion.

I hope they make more of this someday. Regardless, I'm not ready to say goodbye to Sam Wilson or Bucky Barnes, so I hope we get to see Captain America and the White Wolf grace our screens again in some project or other!

8.5/10

#review #fatws #fatws review #the falcon and the winter soldier #the falcon and the winter soldier review #falcon and the winter soldier #falcon and the winter soldier review

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anyathefandom · 3 years

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How I would make millow a bearable ship...

Topic of conversations: I'm going to need them to not have such a limited topic of conversations because their either talking about wiley or being insecure about their feelings about one another. Also when they are shown talking to other people (which is rarely) it comes off self absorbed when it seems like their just waiting for the chance to bring up wiley or their significant other

It wouldn't hurt for them to be shown having a life outside the other. They both have jobs and yet never seem to be at them. Their always in the q's living room picking up toys or talking about wiley and their relationship.

Sidenote: I really don't need michael and chase to be friends again. Michael scene with dante and how he was talking about chase last week rubbed me the wrong way.

Also I can see it already a pattern of michael making decisions without consulting willow so he need to cut that shit out. Nevermind them being together, they have a whole kid together and she should be included in decisions that is going to affect her and wiley and I hope when she finds out about michael wanting to join the mob she has plenty of words for him. Let him know she isn't going to repeat the mistakes his own mother made with him and she tells him now that she has a second chance at motherhood she's not going to waste it and she means that. I really need the woman who was going to go to jail to protect her baby to jump out.🤷

It would be great if they actually showed us their wine guy coming over and them trying them together and for them to get out of the q living room and go on dates.(not at the metro court where carly is going to come over and interrupt) They could take a limo and go to that newer restaurant and run into brook lynn and chase getting dinner. Willow can show a bit of subtle jealously by glancing over at their table when she thinks michael isn't looking. Michael notices but doesn't say anything to they get back to the limo. They have a heated argument about it then they have limo sex willow afterwards assures michael he has nothing to worry about.

I would appreciate it if willow called michael out on letting carly making decisions about wiley and other aspects of his life. I want her to say " I love carly like she's my own mother but she doesn't get to order you around. It's not okay. No disrespect intended but were adults."

Sidenote about willow: Would like to see liz giving willow advice about the job and willow admiring liz. Y'all it would be cute.

Sidenote about michael: They should give Michael a friend who isn't a family member. Maybe get someone who is his complete opposite in every way but the friendship magically works.

#michael corinthos #willow tait #I still wouldnt ship them but I would understand why others do if this happened.#i'm trying so hard to be okay with them because they have so much screen time🤦#general hospital

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miraculousandbts · 3 years

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RM | Baby Sister

Summary: Your brother visits you after a long time, and you’re the happiest person on Earth.

Pairing: Namjoon is y/n’s brother.

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: y/n gets a little too overwhelmed and starts happy crying a little. Adorable Joon because that should be a warning.

You opened your eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. Your phone had been ringing for the past 10 minutes, and it was kept under your pillow, which meant you felt it vibrate near your head. You begrudgingly placed your hand under your pillow and searched for the object, taking it out when you touched it. You opened it and saw 5 missed calls from your brother.

"Joon?!" You sat up with a start, all thoughts of sleep long forgotten. Your brother finally had enough time to call you. Not once, but five times. You clutched the phone to your chest and smiled at nothing in particular. Then your phone rang again, almost giving you a heart attack. It was him again, you saw. Before you could pick up, you did a mini happy dance, which was basically just wiggling sitting in your bed looking like a homeless hobo with your bed hair.

You swiped the accept button and nearly screamed, remembering in the last minute that you just might blow your brothers' ear drums if you actually did scream. "Hey, baby sister." He greeted. "Joon!!!" You replied back, a little too enthusiastically. "Woah! Are you on a sugar rush this early in the morning?" He chuckled. "Nah, I just missed you a little too much."

He sighed. "I'm sorry, love. All this idol business is...you know." You did know. Being an Idol was not easy, especially if you were as famous as them. He wasn't only a part of the team, he was also the leader and the translator. Plus, handling six hyperactive kids was not an easy task. He had apologised countless times, giving the same reason again and again. You knew, at this point, he was getting fed up of himself. "It's okay, Joonie. I get it. And I'm proud of you, so don't apologise, just tell me when we'll be seeing each other again." You went from serious to yourself in a second without missing a beat.

"About that," he sounded full of life again, "we have to shoot a Run episode in a water park, and I may have suggested One Mount." You let out an excited squeal. "And the staff may have agreed." Hearing this, you yelled loudly. (Y'all will understand what I'm talking about if you've seen episode 13 of Run BTS! If you haven't, I'll tell you. One mount is a water park (I think) in Ilsan, Namjoon's hometown. They shot episode 13 there, so that's the excuse I'm using, cuz I'm a person who has a lot of ideas but they are completely unrelated to the topic. Thank you.)

You were meeting your brother in person after an year. An year! You both were very close before he became a trainee and suddenly didn't have any time for you because he was all the way in Seoul. You always knew about his dream about being a rapper though, so you always supported him in whatever decisions he made. Granted, you freaked out a little when he suddenly changed his hair style to an afro, of all things, but still, you were his sister, and you had to support your brother.

You were so happy, you felt like crying. You let out a sob and a hiccup involuntarily, and brought your free hand to cover your mouth. "Wait, shit, are you crying, love?" He sounded worried. "Aw, baby, don't cry." You might hate it when other people babied you and you might go around getting into fights with boys, but with your brother, you did a complete 180 and became his baby sister.

You sobbed again. "I-I'm fine. J-Just, we'll b-be seeing each o-other after such a-a long t-time..." you trailed off. "I know, love." You could practically imagine him sitting in his studio, smiling gently. "I love you, but I've gotta go right now. I still have some packing to do!" He said in a cheery voice. "I love you too." You simply replied while he hung up.

You wiped your tears, internally thankful you hadn't cried enough for your nose to get runny. You already looked like you had been dragged through a barbed wire fence backward with your hair open, the last thing you needed was a runny nose. Finally deciding to start your day, you get out of bed and head to the bathroom. You thanked the Gods it was a Sunday today, or you would have been running around the house wearing mismatched socks and uncombed hair looking for your car keys despite the fact that they're always kept at the same place, knowing you were late for college.

You randomly let out a giggle and hugged yourself tightly while brushing your teeth. You were meeting your brother again, and you couldn't be happier.

*****

Namjoon was excitedly packing a duffel bag with a few pair of clothes and other necessities, while a big grin was plastered on his face.

Taehyung and Jungkook entered the room while talking something about gaming. Namjoon wasn't even mad that they had not started packing yet, even though he knew how long Jungkook takes just to pack a duffel bag. "Uh, Namjoon hyung?" He looked at Taehyung, who was looking at him weirdly. "Stop smiling like that, it's creepy." Namjoon only shrugged and went back to packing.

"What are you so happy about anyway? I mean, I know we're going to Ilsan, but I did not see Taehyungie hyung, or Yoongi hyung grinning like idiots when we went to Daegu." Jungkook plopped down on the bed and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not excited because of that. I'm going to see y/n after an year." He dropped the shirt in his hand and sat down beside Jungkook, his expression changing to a gentle one.

Both the younger boys looked at each other and smiled. Taehyung was thinking about his younger siblings, while Jungkook smiled at the thought of his elder brother. All the members had siblings, either elder or younger, but they had also found family in each other.

"We'll leave you alone, because we know we won't be able to stop you from smiling, and it really is creepy." Taehyung took Jungkook's hand and pulled him outside. Namjoon sighed. He picked up his discarded shirt and put it in the bag, zipping it up. One more day, and he'll be hugging and kissing you like before.

*****

It was early in the evening. You were anxiously waiting for your brother at the airport.

He said he'd be there by now. You looked around, clutching your phone tightly. You noticed you had been doing that a lot recently. That's when it happened. You saw him. You smiled so big, you were afraid that your jaw would fall off. You let out a small giggle, and ran towards him. Not too fast, you did not want people to think you needed a mental asylum.

That's when he spotted you, and smiled a really big smile. When you neared, he opened his arms and you jumped on him, wrapping your arms around his neck, squeezing tightly. You missed him, so so much. "I feel like crying but I can't stop smiling. My cheeks hurt." You muttered, nuzzling your nose in the crook of his neck. You heard him chuckle, and then he pulled back.

"Still so pretty." He pressed a light kiss on your forehead. You heard someone clearing their throat behind him, and that's when you remembered that he wasn't alone. Being his sister, you had met the other guys a couple of times, which was enough for you to get comfortable around them. You were that kind of person; it took you a very short time to make friends and remove the awkwardness people tend to have when meeting someone for the first time.

You looked back and gave them a smile. Seokjin smiled back at you and moved in for a hug. You gave him a side hug, while the rest of them followed. While you all exchanged greetings, two cars arrived, for all of you. "How did you come here?" Jungkook asked. If you had to choose who were the closest to, except Joon, you'd choose Jungkook, considering he was the closest to your age.

"In my car." You answered simply. "Can I go with y/n to her house before coming to the hotel?" You turned around at Namjoon's voice. He was asking this to his manager. The manager told him he could, while warning him to be on time and to be careful around paparazzi. He also jokingly told him to let you drive as he didn't have a driving license. Everyone knew Joon could be clumsy.

Everyone said their goodbyes and went to their respective destinations. You and Namjoon entered your car, while he complemented how you maintained it over the last few years when he gifted it to you. You had gotten into your dream university and had bought a small one bedroom flat near the said university.

He had told you how proud he was because your university was one of the biggest in the city, and getting in was hard. You had worked so hard, all the while doing a part time job to earn enough money to buy your own house. You were inspired by him, to work hard and not depend on anyone. The only thing your parents helped you with was making sure you were not overworking yourself and putting yourself in danger.

Shortly after you had gotten in, he had sent a small car as a birthday gift. You had almost cried that day. He had told you he didn't want you to take the bus every other day, or spend any more of your hard earned money on a car. Knowing you well, he had attached a card to the car which said that he knew you wouldn't accept it easily, and being your elder brother, he was ordering you to accept it wholeheartedly.

"So, how are your studies?" He asked, as soon as you started the car. The airport was fairly near to where you lived. "Good. I do wish that the teachers would give deadlines for projects accordingly though. The toughest ones have the shortest deadlines, while the easiest ones have the longest." You rolled your eyes. "Ah, I know the feeling. You work your butt off for a week for the harder ones, and something always goes wrong. Be it the spelling, or the wordings. And then you spend two weeks chilling, doing the project in a day, just waiting for the day you turn it in."

You both chortled. The drive was filled with laughs, while you both caught up with each other. You told him stories about what happened in your friend group, while he told you the boys' antics. His stories were absolutely hilarious.

You finally reached your apartment building, and parked the car. Helping him with his stuff, you both silently reached the elevator. Getting in, you pressed the button for your floor. A while later, you both found yourselves in your house.

"Go freshen up. I'll make dinner." You kept his stuff near the table, and pointed to the bathroom. "I like your style." He looked around and made his way towards the bathroom. "Stop complimenting yourself." You shook your head. You both knew how similar you both were. From your love for crabs and trees, to how you decorated your house, you had gotten almost everything from him.

You made some simple ramen, and you both had dinner quietly, making small talk. He looked tired, and you were ready to sleep too. You asked him to go to bed, promising you'll join him shortly. You cleaned everything up, and entered your room to take some pajamas. You can never forget the sight that awaited you.

Namjoon was curled up in a ball, hugging a pillow to his chest like a little koala, while snoring loudly. You cooed at the sight. It made him look like a baby, and for a moment, you felt like you were his elder sister, determined to protect your big baby at all costs. After silently taking out your pajamas from the closet and changing into them in the bathroom, you got in the bed.

He let out a small sigh, and moved closer to you, wrapping his arm around you torso. You remembered the old days, when you both would sleep together, and while he wasn't a big fan of cuddling, you both would end up doing just that. You weaved your fingers through his hair, and fell into a deep peaceful slumber.

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theolddarkmachine · 3 years

Text

Imaginary - Chapter Eighteen

Midoriya Izuku’s life was turned upside by fate.

Eri’s life was turned upside down by circumstance.

And Bakugou Katsuki is about to learn that even imaginary friends need to grow up.

Chapter 18 of 19

Also on AO3

A/N: I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. Since posting the last chapter of this, I interviewed for a new job. Got that new job. Had to deal with all the fun stuff that comes with leaving your old job. And have been dealing with the huge change that came with starting a new job lol

So, it's been a bit of a trainwreck tryna figure out a schedule.Good news though, I went ahead and just knocked out the last chapter and epilogue since 1) I'm scared of making y'all wait hella long for the epilogue and 2) the epilogue was not long at all. which would honestly have made waiting suck lol

Anyway, WELCOME TO THE ENDING OF THIS FIC! THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING ON THIS RIDE WITH ME! <333333

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

The park is beautiful, Izuku thinks, as he watches Eri skipping happily ahead of him holding a fuzzy stuffed fish haphazardly in one hand.

After making his grand declaration that they were going to go out, he had found himself a bit at odds with what exactly they were going to do out. Which was how they had found themselves parked in front of the aquarium before deciding to cap things off at the botanical garden.

Which is how he finds himself thinking about how beautiful the park is.

It truly is, and yet, he can’t help but feel like something is missing.

Like someone is missing.

And there it is. The aching void at the center of his chest, rearing its ugly head yet again to taunt him.

To remind him that while their little family was more than enough, he also could have had just a little something more. Had, in fact, had something more before it had slipped cruelly through his fingers right after the realization.

It made him feel selfish in his desire, which only made his chest ache worse.

“Daddy Izuku?” Eri’s voice is colored bright with her curiosity, pulling him back from his thoughts as he finds himself stopped several feet from his daughter. The same brightness colors her gaze as she looks up at him, her head cocked just to the side as if to further punctuate her questioning tone. Izuku gives his head a small shake to dislodge the feeling.

It doesn’t go anywhere, but it was worth a shot, he supposes.

“Yeah?” He asks, trying to bite back the defeat that threatens to turn his voice bitter as he looks down at her.

“You’re happy, right?” She asks. It’s an innocent enough question, filled with a childish naïveté that Izuku misses, and it hurts. It hurts because, well, that was the question, wasn’t it.

“Of course I am, Eri,” he answers immediately, because he is. In the beginning of it all, he hadn’t been sure he really could be. Had wondered if the decision he had made to become a single father to a young girl who had lost everything had been the right one, for either of them.

It had been though, that he was certain. Izuku wouldn’t change that decision for anything in the world.

And yet that acrid, burnt taste of his bitter selfish want was still tainting the edges of that happiness.

“Of course I am,” he repeats, voice softening as he knelt down to her height. Gently reaching out, he brushes his palms over her shoulders before softly squeezing her arms in what he hopes is reassurance.

“Why do you ask?”

Eri shifts her gaze down to the ground where she twists the toe of her bright pink Chucks into the grass.

“I just thought you might be missing Kacchan,” she says earnestly, her voice wobbling slightly at the admission. Izuku huffs a small sound of surprise, if only to mask the way he winces at the sudden flare of pain that dances along his sternum.

He releases his hold on her right arm to lightly tap her chin upward, lifting her gaze back up to him.

“I’m happy, Eri,” Izuku says before shifting his gaze back and forth around them as if to make sure no one was within earshot.

“But can I tell you a secret?” He continues, voice lowered conspiratorially. Eri’s eyes go wide at the question, her gaze shifting around them before she looks back at him and nods quickly. It takes everything in him to swallow down his laughter as he leans in closer.

“I do miss Kacchan,” he whispers. The confession leaves him easily, taking with it the most infinitesimal weight, and yet he already feels as if he can breathe easier.

“I guess I can do both,” Izuku continues as he ruffles her hair and pulls way. “But I’m more happy than anything. How could I not be when I have you?”

A comfortable quiet fills the space between them for the briefest of moments before Eri’s mouth twists upward into a wide smile.

“I’m happy too, because I have Daddy Izuku!” She exclaims as she launches herself at him and wraps her arms tight around his neck. Heat burns at his eyes as he wraps his own around her middle, holding her close. Another chunk of weight, larger this time, falls from his chest and is replaced by the full warmth of his love for Eri.

This is enough, he thinks as he squeezes her just a little tighter. It always will be.

“You’re squishing me, Daddy Izuku!” She laughs as she tries to tug backward out of his hold. It pushes another laugh from deep within his chest as he turns his head to blow a raspberry on her cheek.

“Alright, alright, I’ll let you go. I just have to give you as many hugs as I can before you don’t want them anymore,” Izuku says before ruffling her hair again.

Eri scoffs as she shakes her head, fixing him with a look of indignation.

“I won’t ever stop wanting hugs,” she huffed as if the very thought was preposterous.

“Okay, I’ll remember that when you’re in middle school,” Izuku says, more to himself than to Eri, as the young girl turns her attention back toward the direction they had originally been heading in.

“Can we go see the butterflies now?” She asks excitedly, any remaining ire falling away in the face of the fluttering insects.

Laughing quietly, Izuku just nods as he pushes himself upward to stand.

“Of course we can. Lead the way,” he gestures forward before pressing his hands deep into his pockets.

A high pitched sound of happiness tears from Eri as she turns around and starts skipping toward the glittering dome of glass situated on the other side of the park.

Standing there, he watches the way she bounds across the grass with the sun tangling itself in her hair. It radiates off her in the very same way as her happiness and he can’t help but smile.

At least, not until he notices that she’s headed straight on a crash course with a power unsuspecting bystander.

Stepping forward, Izuku opens his mouth to call to her, only to feel her name catch in his throat as he hears her cry out a name.

“Kacchan!”

Time seems to slow, almost stopping entirely as Izuku sees the man Eri was about to crash into turn around.

It’s him, he thinks as his mind clumsily trips over itself at the realization. It’s him, it’s him, it’s him.

Katsuki.

And he looks the same and yet wholly different as Izuku watches the way his face eases into something like pure joy as he looks down at Eri. From this distance, he can’t hear what Bakugou says, but he can see his mouth move as he speaks quickly to Eri. It’s as unassuming as anything, and yet something about the ease in which Bakugou has as he talks with her, as if he hadn’t disappeared on them for a month, breaks the spell that held Izuku frozen in his tracks.

Time falls back around him with the suddenness of a car crash as he pushes himself across the distant between himself and the pair, catching up just in time to hear Eri squeal as she jumps up to hug Bakugou.

An aching, burning anger lights his veins as he watches Bakugou return the hug, his face turned into Eri’s hair before pulling away and standing to look at him.

The seconds pass all too quickly and yet all too slow until Bakugou finally speaks.

“Hey, nerd,” he says slowly, unsure, and that’s all it takes to break down the only resistance between Izuku and his roiling, burning rage.

Stepping forward, he reaches out and grabs a fistful of Bakugou’s shirt.

He’s so fucking angry, but also so fucking happy. Painfully so, in fact, as he pulls Bakugou in close. Izuku’s teeth pull back from his teeth in a sharp snarl as he hisses, “what the fuck are you doing here?”

This close, he doesn’t miss the way Bakugou’s eye widen, leaving his own vision filled with their startling scarlet as he fixes Izuku with his silent, open wonder.

“No, you know what,” Izuku says harshly, cutting off any chance Bakugou may have had to answer. “I don’t care. Fuck you.”

The words push through his lips with a hissing contempt, each one biting into his own skin in the very way that he hopes they’re biting into Bakugou’s. Pausing to search the blonde’s stare for any hurt or shame, he bristles as he’s met with the same brazen awe.

As if he’s seeing something beautiful. As if he’s finally found what he’s been looking for.

That damned look sparks something bright and wanting within him, and it only pushes him further toward anger as he jerks Bakugou just that much closer.

“Actually, no. I do care. Because what the fuck, Katsuki? I said I-” Izuku stops, his next words falling away like ash and coating the back of his tongue with their dry taste.

Swallowing around the lump they’ve created, he pushes on, ignoring the way his voice wobbles around its edges.

“You just left. And then I have to find out that somehow, impossibly, you were Eri’s imaginary friend? And what? You thought we should just have to deal with that?”

“It was the job,” Bakugou finally says, and god, had Izuku’s memory not done his voice justice at all. It rolls over him, like thunder, cascading through him and cracking the hardened weight clinging to the center of his chest with the bright flare of hope at the past tense that he uses.

Pushing the optimistic feeling down, Izuku holds onto the vestiges of his anger as his knuckles ache with the tension in them.

“I don’t care what ever the fuck it was. A job, a game, whatever it was that wasn’t what it was to us.”

He pauses, breathing in, then breathing out before he continues, his voice lowered as he flicks his gaze down just long enough for his confession to drop between them.

“That wasn’t what it was to me.”

Glaring a hole into the center of Bakugou’s chest, he breathes again, counting each inhale and exhale before he slowly shifts his attention back up to the blonde’s face. Astonishment still colors Bakugou’s stare, his expression still schooled in a look of softened disbelief. It stays there, frozen, as if he isn’t sure what to say.

As if he can’t say anything at all.

“Tell Daddy Izuku what you told me!” Eri says, her voice shattering whatever spell had come over Izuku as all the sounds of the park around them come rushing back into his ears. His grip on Bakugou’s shirt loosens just slightly, but he doesn’t shift away from him.

He can’t.

“About how the brat after you was nowhere near as cool?” Bakugou asks, words nothing but hard, rough edges as he replies to Eri without shifting his attention from Izuku.

Giggling loudly, Eri softly kicks at Bakugou’s shoe.

“No, silly. The other part!”

Deflating slightly, Bakugou continues to hold Izuku’s stare.

“Oh, that part,” he says lowly. So low that Izuku suspects he would have missed it if he wasn’t so close. Gritting his teeth, he swears he hears his jaw creak.

“Spit it out, Bakugou,” Izuku pushes out.

The order earns him a quick, sharp tsk as Bakugou cuts his gaze down toward the ground between them.

“I was wondering if maybe I could stick around for awhile,” he mutters, his bangs falling across his eyes, shading most of his face as he keeps his stare turned downward. It does nothing to stop Izuku from catching the flush of pink that runs itself across his skin and over his ears.

His gasp punctuates the short quiet as Izuku pushes back every so slightly from him, but still not letting go of his shirt.

“Ya see, I’m a bit unemployed at the moment,” Bakugou continunes, “and a lot more visible.”

Shifting his attention again, Bakugou drags his stare behind Izuku’s shoulder, as if to stress that latter fact. Quickly, he raises his hand in a placating gesture toward what Izuku can only assume are some bystanders they’ve undoubtedly attracted.

That alone makes Izuku’s stomach roil.

Disbelief, and happiness, and anger, and exhausted content mix themselves at his core until they fizzle and crack like popping candy. He feels the way all the emotions creep up his chest and tickle the back of his throat as he tries to push back the burn at the edges of his eyes.

He’s so, so angry.

But god, is he so fucking happy too.

“Well, nerd?” Bakugou speaks up, the question colored with a hopefulness that seems foreign for him.

Rearing back slightly, Izuku watches the way Bakugou’s eyes widen as he snaps his head forward. It isn’t until the very last moment that he slows his momentum, softening the blow so that their foreheads tap together gently.

“You aren’t allowed to disappear anymore,” Izuku mumbles as he presses gently against him. The soft brush of Bakugou’s relived sigh tickles across the bridge of his nose.

“As long as you both want me, I won’t be going anywhere,” he assures with a low chuckle that Izuku feels vibrate through both of their chests. Dragging a slow breath through his nose, he can’t stop the high curl of his lips as he pushes up onto his toes to capture Bakugou’s own.

The kiss burns through him, colored by the sun that continues to dip down into the horizon. It fills him, and chases away the lingering ache just over his heart as he feels the way Bakugou presses closer into him.

It’s a good kiss, one filled with a honey colored promise.

“Daddy Izuku!” Eri cries, her sudden exclamation cutting quickly through their haze and finally pushing them apart.

“Stop hogging Kacchan!” She continues, mouth turned into a pout as she reaches a hand out to Bakugou. His laugh as barking as he steps back from Izuku’s hold.

“We’re going to see the butterflies! C’mon!” She says, stretching her hand out closer to Bakugou, impatience thrumming vibrantly through her small form as she waits for him to take it. Izuku doesn’t miss the way his gaze slides between him and Eri, or the way his lips twisted slightly upward at their edges in a small, secretive smile before he takes her hand.

“Alright, shortstack. Lead the way!” Bakugou says loudly, barely finishing his sentence before Eri takes off with him in tow. Her voice lingers behind them as she begins to fill him in on what he’s missed.

Watching as they move toward the butterfly enclosure, Izuku lets his mouth part around his own bright laughter before he follows behind them.

**********

#midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #bakudeku #bkdk #technically the last chapter! WOO! epilogue to follow in like 3.5 seconds lol

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salty-cs · 3 years

Text

Hey there. Before I begin I will explicitly state: you have the right to not forgive nor like anyone. That is your own choice of who you interact with and I am in no way attempting to invalidate this. Your opinion is yours.

Yes, I am friends with Dat and Cambion. That is not something I'm ashamed of. Is that something that deserves hate? Who knows, that's your choice. You have every right to not wanna interact with me because of it.

Neither of them have brought me harm in any shape or form. Nor do I condone a majority of their past actions and I already told them that I don't. It also is not my duty to forgive their actions either. But via my own experience, we have a pretty solid friendship that is very much going well.

Also, neither of them acted with harmful intent ever. I feel that is important to mention.

I am a strong believer and am rather optimistic that people can change (except extremely harmful and illegal actions with bad intent. You know what I mean). Everyone makes mistakes, especially when they're this young. Does age excuse actions? No, it doesn't. But the adults in Dat's situation are also at fault and let us not pretend they are not. I infer it was a collective clusterfuck and an overall bad experience for both parties (yet again, this is my own interpretation). They have every right to not like Dat and Dat has every right to not like them.

However, I must condemn everything that is currently happening. Let's not act like insulting others is a good thing to do.

No matter where you stand, insulting people is not right. Privately, do what you will I suppose. But going out of your way to click through tabs just to say something mean is more of a reflection on your own character than the one you're insulting. Being mean isn't okay. Nobody died, nobody got assaulted. Toxic friendships suck and they happen. Block and move on.

Going onto a salt blog where you know people agree with your negative sentiments only creates a toxic atmosphere and frankly it becomes a bullying brigade. Surely the one being targeted can just "not come on and see it", but let's not pretend that that excuses the fact people are blatantly insulting others. You know you saying stuff will get attention and you know it will ruin someone's mental health and reputation. It's purposeful and malicious. This isn’t salt, this is harassment.

Let us think critically together. Regardless of whether I've done anything wrong or not, is someone calling me annoying out of nowhere valid and okay to post without much of an explanation? So if I'm just casually checking the blog, completely ignorant of the fact someone had posted about me, is it my fault that it made me upset even though I'm the one being called names? No. You cannot justify that.

I'm not attempting to say that venting is wrong--that's not true. It is perfectly okay. I just strongly believe that if you're going to do it, do so with friends, not the internet. Ask questions instead of forcing opinions. Get information and learn instead of bandwagoning. Seeking public validation is understandable, but please realize your words have weight...especially when you're a popular oekaki artist.

We're not big celebrities here...this is a pets site in a small corner of the internet. Criticism and skepticism are understandable responses; calling others names and saying they'll never have friends in life is immature. Don't act like you have the moral high ground when you're so enthralled in internet drama that you publicly celebrate someone quitting and then get upset when they retaliate. You must be aiming for a reaction, what else could make you say the stuff you do?

Now I'm speaking generally but if you're offended then I guess you know it's about you. Harassment is never justified. You don't have to like anyone here, but your mouth is a weapon.

To continually insult someone who you are aware has a horrible mental state and is suicidal is incredibly irresponsible. You are part of the problem. You can hate Dat, but you really have to let go and move on and stop being toxic yourself. That's what Dat wants to do and has stated. Make that active choice. Both of them already apologized countless times before and we all know another apology isn't going to change some of y'all's minds. And that's okay at the end of the day, because that's not my or their job nor responsibility. You have to think for yourself and make those decisions on your own.

Both of them have grown so much and I am very proud of them. I am not excusing them from what they've done, but they are most certainly not pedophiles nor monsters. Please think critically about the fact you do not know everything about either situation. Sometimes people do shitty things, and I say this towards both sides of the argument, and it's best to let the friendship die instead of prolonging the hurt.

Everyone should aim to educate instead of ridicule. You may remain judgmental and skeptical, but how is calling someone a bitch or something or other, remotely helpful to the situation? It only makes it worse. Someone not understanding a term does not mean they're invalidating said term. Educate them. Provide resources and information. It's not difficult.

Now I've said more than I probably should've for being a complete nobody. Sit back, relax with your favorite drink, close your web browser, and realize there's so many better things to do than be a part of an online drama. Now have a fantastic evening. I'm surely going to rest well so I hope you do too.

#mod squid #off anon #submission #paperjack #cambion #dat #mudkip

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rpbetter · 3 years

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Hi Vespertine. Sorry to add to the pile, I promise I will send in some writing related things to compensate later. I also misgendered that user in a comment by accident with she/her. I blocked them, but they still looked at my blog, and they made a post that said by using the wrong pronouns, which they thought was intentional and meant to hurt them, I purposefully called them a hysterical woman stereotype. Obviously that wasn't true. I was just going off a comment someone else made on my blog where they used she/her, and I thought I had to correct myself. It was a case where good intentions, even if I was not happy with the user's behavior or expected to talk to them again, I was still going to use the right pronouns, but my intentions were warped by someone with an agenda. I'm sorry to hear you're getting the same heat. I didn't use my rp blog to interact with the user or talk about them because I was sure something like this would happen, either by them or other people like that callout blog, and I think other people had the same idea. I dodged a bullet there, but I'm still paranoid. I'm paranoid I'll hear a notif and see my rp blog in a callout for this, because someone hunted it down, or a callout for trying to talk to the person who started all the drama. Nobody should be scared to talk about someone on their own blog. Nobody should be scared to talk openly, in general. Nobody should be called out for trying to talk with someone either. This culture of fear is so disturbing to me.

Hey there, Anon!

Oh, I would love that, but you totally don't have to, of course. Don't feel bad for adding on, I'm here for anything at all, and honestly, with the job I'm doing IRL right now, it's really hard for me to concentrate well enough on finishing any of the advice posts (at least, to be the quality y'all deserve). It's a hot topic, it's included so, so, terribly many people in the RPC. It's also one that's generating some great, needed conversations. So, it isn't like you're adding to anything bad, annoying or distracting me, or contributing to the inflammatory side of this.

Hell, it's got to be really nice for some of the people in messages I've received to see proof that they weren't alone in this experience. I can keep publishing the hate anons for exactly that reason, and I can promise people they aren't the only ones (in this or in any such horrible behavior), but it's different to see it coming from a third party! So, thank you for that.

Though, I am deeply sorry that you were treated to more than a ringside seat in this debacle.

It's not very encouraging to be thoughtful and respectful of other people when literally nothing you can say or do will result in anything other than more twisting of your words, and that's a big problem I have with this shit. Things like actual transphobia, intentional misgendering, actual infantalization and shit treatment of ND people, actual harassment, etc. etc. etc. matter. It's just more trivializing of real problems for the sake of blowing nonexistent bullshit up, and that is immensely disgusting to me. The fact that you damn well know someone out there has had the reaction to this behavior of, well, fuck you then, fuck trans people is really upsetting.

Like, yeah, let's be real, if you require social rewards to do the right thing, you have some problems lol but at the same time, you know who does require social rewards to develop themselves? Young people. And the RPC is largely comprised of people in their early twenties who, for a variety of possible reasons, are still at that point

Furthermore, no, it's not anyone's job to be good representation at all times, especially when that performance comes at a cost to themselves, but maybe don't go out of your way to be the person that is the necessary push in the wrong direction of someone's formative experience with people of your community. If it's costing you nothing to not clown on serious issues, but is costing the entire world another bigot for you to clown on serious issues, the choice should be a bit obvious here. Whenever you're in a safe place - physically, emotionally - and capable of that kind of logic, exercise it, damn.

It's definitely a better course of action than playing out skewed activism by vilifying innocent people, more worthy of one's effort than losing their collective shit over a very easy mistake. One that I'd say was even less avoidable in your case. AGAIN, how, exactly is anyone supposed to know this shit when they're blocked? When they aren't subverting the blocks they, themselves, put in place? I know for a fact none of them are looking at the information of the people they choose to try to drive out of the RPC, but everyone else is supposed to make zero reasonable assumptions, check and recheck blogs they have made an effort not to visit for good reason. Sounds absolutely reasonable and sane!

So, you know what? I'm going to be even more offensive here and talk for a moment about why these mistakes are reasonable.

When we see a post and reblog it, it's not unreasonable to assume that the OP had knowledge we didn't. Since we blocked the offending party, but they're discussing them. OP uses the incorrect pronouns, we end using the incorrect pronouns as well. This is not malicious intent. It isn't intentional at all, it's just having a discussion. A discussion that wouldn't have even transpired if they hadn't taken it upon themselves to (what a coincidence) take personal issue with a RPer they repeatedly took out of context and decided to shame for it, before proceeding to get an even bigger stick and pot.

When we decide to block a blog, it's our responsibility to stay off of it. Not go looking at it for any reason. That is now off-limits. When someone blocks us, it's also our responsibility to respect that decision, no matter how outrageous it was, no matter what we might need to verify. That's the issue with blocking when we don't exploit how easy it is to get around blocking on tumblr; we've cut ourselves off from any further meaningful communication, including passive communication like rules and posts. Kind of like how you cannot expect an apology to mean a damn thing when you've blocked everyone you harassed, then made that apology in a post on your blocked blog. Don't put up walls you expect people to see through, then get upset when they can't see through them.

As a community, the RPC is primarily afab. That's never a problem to bring up when someone wants to be angry about their female muse not getting equal attention and so on, but it's a problem to discuss any other time, about any other problem. Dealing with the things that we're socially raised to ascribe to as afab people is that problem. It's reflected in our behaviors, interests, and speech. We may not want to live in a gendered world, we may eschew that, but we were raised in a gendered world and it shows. One which has a lot of complications for being that, like almost everyone feeling safer around afab people by default of the All Men Are Bad, All Women Are Harmless bullshit.

We not only know that the RPC is primarily afab, we tend to assume comfort, especially in hostile situations, by assuming those pronouns in others.

And it so does not matter how much any of us like it, some people have more masculine or feminine tones. Even in text. That means neither that someone's gender identity should be disregarded nor that this text-based presentation is correct, but like every other unfair thing that exists, it's a thing. Like you, Anon, you genuinely come across in tone as primarily neutral, slight lean toward masculine. Even if I wasn't inclined to do so, not knowing you and all, I'd use they/them for you instinctively because that's what your speech is giving me. That isn't any more unreasonable than ascribing another set of pronouns based on the same information.

Oh yeah, I know, lurkers, the difference is that they/them is the appropriate choice when one does not know. I know that logically, but people aren't always operating like robots, weirdly enough. We default to a lot of instinctive behaviors, and we aren't always operating at the top rung of cognition either. Being human works like that, it's really that simple and not malicious if you're not reading that into it.

As we're all aware, it is being read into, and your experience is exactly why; you now feel worried every time you get a notif, you've been outed as a supposed transphobe, and while it is incredibly fortunate you stopped this from transpiring on your RP blog, it still transpired somewhere and has had a negative effect. If they find they correct thing or set of things, they can get so many more people to dogpile you over it. Get enough people to do that, make someone miserable enough, especially people who are already going through a hard enough time already, they'll leave.

It is a terroristic act, and it has the effect of all terroristic acts; people are afraid to exist outside of shifting bounds (that shifting is a part of the terrorism). They can't have an opinion, write any muse/topic they wish, be honest on their own blogs, support the "wrong" topics, muns, or blogs. Attacking people for a mistake, not allowing them to address it either, just furthers all of that. It's showing the community what happens when you aren't on the "right" side, even if that isn't even the case. They certainly turn on their own quickly enough.

So, of course, it's a culture of fear and it is disturbing as hell. No one has any right to make someone feel unsafe over fiction or a hobby or a difference of opinion. Everyone has the right to say whatever they want on their own blogs, to talk openly, and yes, to try to talk to others without feeling at risk.

Even if what someone says is genuinely unpleasant. This isn't the way one handles it. By all means, have a problem with something, have a problem with someone, but grow up and talk to them openly, without bringing everyone you can dredge up to join in. I have no issue with people arguing, I have an issue with bullying. If it's your whole goal to harass people without consequences to the end result of deactivation and lockstep behavior from everyone else, that's what you're doing, folks. Bullying.

If you can't win an argument, especially one your own ass began, in any other way than this, you're not engaging in an argument.

#vespertine #answered #anonymous #callout culture #rp harassment

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andrewmoocow · 3 years

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Steven Universe Alternate Future chapter 3: Cracks and Buds (originally published on December 21, 2020)

Author's note: Like I said last chapter, this will be where things get interesting and diverge a bit from the original version of Future. In addition to merging Rose Buds with Volleyball, A Very Special Episode will mostly be skipped since while I did enjoy that one, it pretty much rendered itself non-canon by the end. However, elements of that will be incorporated into the final episode of Part 1. But I've been talking too much, let's get on with the show!

Synopsis: Steven is forced to air out more of his mother's dirty laundry when Pink Pearl and a group of Rose Quartzes visit Earth.

Cast:

Zach Callison as Steven

Estelle as Garnet

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst, Ocean Jasper, Lace Amethyst, Famethyst

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl, Pink Pearl, Shell, Mega Pearl

Tom Scharpling as Greg

Kimberly Brooks as Shy Rose, Superfan Rose, Hippie Rose, Angel Aura Quartz, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Carnelian, Skinny Jasper

Christine Pedi as Holly Blue Agate

Amy Sedaris as Teal Zircon

Lamar Abrams as Wy-Six

Cristina Vee as Jay-Ten

Dee Bradley Baker as Lion

Noël Wells as ?

"Thanks for stopping by to help me with this painting while I help some of these Gems today TZ." Steven, wearing a doctor's uniform, thanked Teal Zircon while she stood before a painting of her former leader Rose Quartz. "Seeing this after all I've been through recently is kinda making me uncomfortable, so I want it moved somewhere else."

"Can do Steven!" Teal exclaimed while keeping her eyes on the painting, contemplating what to do with it. "Now where to put this."

First, Teal tried hanging the portrait above the temple gate. "Naw, no good."

Next, Teal went up to Steven's conservatory and thought Rose's serene expression would fit well among the greenery, but then changed her mind. "Hm, needs to be more grandiose."

Then, she tried going up to the temple's hand and hung it on one of the fingers. "Nice view, but I'm not sure."

Warping back down to Steven, Teal Zircon carried the Rose Quartz painting over to the kitchen and leaned it against the trashcan. "Hey Steven, you think this is a good spot?!" she called to Steven, who had just wrapped up healing a Ruby.

"Wait, in the garbage?" Steven asked as he walked over to the painting near the trash. "Why would you choose that place?"

"Well, it's simple really." Teal explained. "Y'all think Rose is trash now so therefore, she belongs with actual trash."

"No, it's not like that!" Steven objected to the Zircon's decision. "Rose may have done some highly questionable things, like faking her own death as Pink Diamond and lying to both sides for thousands of years, but that doesn't mean she should just be thrown away like that!" Before Steven could continue, there was a knock at the door. "Hang on, gotta take this."

When Steven opened the front door, he was greeted with tons of Quartzes with cracked gems and physical deformities. "Volleyball must've gotten real wild, eh?"

"You said it!" Biggs Jasper replied, sticking out a finger that had an eyeball at its tip.

A few minutes later, all the Quartzes were back to normal thanks to Steven, and they returned to their volleyball game while he waved them off. "Come again!" Steven cried. "But not like, too soon. Remember, volleyball isn't a contact sport!"

"Yo Schtu-ball!" Steven's father Greg called for him while he walked towards the beach house with Amethyst in tow. "Did you and that crazy Zircon find a good place for that painting yet?"

"No can do." Teal answered with a shake of her head.

"What she said." Steven agreed. "After everything that's happened lately, I don't know if I still want her hanging over us, y'know?"

"Hey, speaking of pink Gems, I think someone might wanna talk with you." Amethyst said, and she & Greg moved out of the way to reveal Pink Diamond's former Pearl standing behind them.

"Oh, it's you!" Steven exclaimed, recognizing Pink Pearl from when he managed to free everyone from White Diamond's control, including her. "What brings you to Earth?"

"I came here because I heard you might be able to help with this." The Pearl said, stepping forward while gesturing to her hideously cracked eye that extended to parts of her face and even a small portion of her hair.

"Well step right on in!" Teal Zircon exclaimed before she and Steven walked Pink Pearl into the house and sat her down. "You came to the right guy. You should've been here earlier. He was able to fix up all these Quartzes, including one that had an eye growing on her finger!"

"Thanks TZ, but let me take care of this." Steven said. "I'll have you fixed up in a jiffy." He began to lick his palm, which grossed Pink Pearl out. "Don't worry, it may seem gross but it gets the job done." He placed his healing saliva-covered palm on his patient's gem and waited for her eye to be healed. But sadly, nothing happened.

"Did it work?" Pink Pearl quietly asked.

"Maybe you should try touching her eye?" Teal suggested.

"That's exactly what I was going to say." Steven stated before he licked his hand again. This time, the spit went on Pink Pearl's injured eye. But just like last time, nothing happened. "This can't be right!" he said to himself. Steven rushed over to a plant and plucked off a leaf to double-check. He tapped on the stem the leaf came from, and out of it came a bouquet of flowers. "It's alright, my powers are fine."

"But what if there's something more to this?" TZ guessed, sitting down where Steven once sat right across from Pink Pearl. "Tell me, I've been told you were controlled by White Diamond once. I know this might be a touchy subject, but is there anything you remember from that time?"

"Nope!" Pink answered. "8,000 years just, blip! Gone!"

"So you don't remember getting cracked in the first place?" Steven asked.

"Oh no no." Steven's patient corrected him. "This was from before."

"So White must've hurt you at some point!" Teal guessed earnestly. "Is that right?"

"Oh stars, no!" Pink Pearl stated. "This was all Pink Diamond's doing!"

"My mom?!" Steven yelped at this revelation and began tensing up, turning a little pink in the process.

"Told you." TZ muttered, unintentionally making Steven more nervous already until Pink Pearl let out a gasp.

"Are you okay?" Pink Pearl asked Steven, who began to ease up more thanks to her.

"Sorry, it's just baggage." Steven let out a sigh of exhaustion. "And thanks a lot Teal."

"Oop, sorry!" Teal giggled nervously. "No hard feelings?"

"It's fine." Steven said to Teal and turned back to Pink Pearl. "Anyway, I think I know just the Pearl to help us fix you!"

As Steven took Pink Pearl outside, Amethyst joined the two as they began searching for Pearl. "So, I take it fixing her eye was a no-go?" she asked.

"You're right, and that's why we're looking for Pearl." Steven said. "You know where she is?"

Before Amethyst could answer, a stray volleyball zoomed past her, Steven and Pink Pearl. Right in front of them, the same group of Quartzes Steven healed earlier were playing a very aggressive round with Pearl serving as the referee.

"Think fast!" Angel Aura Quartz yelled before she spiked the ball towards Zebra Jasper's head, followed by Pearl blowing the whistle.

"Next set!" Pearl declared before she noticed Steven. "Oh, if it isn't my favorite medical professional. How's your clinic going?"

"Hey Pearl, you got a moment for she and Steven here?" Amethyst asked, pointing to Pink Pearl.

"Sure." Pearl accepted as she looked at Pink Pearl. "Did you come to compete?"

"Pardon?" Pink Pearl asked confusedly.

"I mean, in the volleyball tournament." The other Pearl blushed awkwardly.

"Actually, we came here because we need your help." Steven said.

"Okay, what can I do for you?" Pearl asked the two.

"So, this is Pearl." Steven introduced Pink Pearl to Pearl. "She was Mom's, I mean, Pink Diamond's Pearl too, a long time ago." Unfortunately for Steven, introductions quickly got confusing. "And Pearl, you remember Pearl? She was also Pink Diamond's Pearl, AGH! That's too many Pearls!" he snapped in befuddlement. "We should probably give you a nickname."

"A nickname?" Pink Pearl blushed in surprise.

"Yeah, a nickname." Steven repeated.

"Like how Steven calls Teal Zircon stuff like Teal or TZ." Amethyst said. "Maybe we could put an eyepatch over that eye and call you Captain Pearl!"

"Oh, I know what a nickname is." Pink Pearl stated. "It just reminds me of how Pink Diamond once gave silly little names to everything." She added, reminiscing on her former owner with a longing stare. "She was so funny like that."

"Looks like someone's still holding a torch, am I right?" Amethyst snarked. "Now if only I had an eyepatch lying around."

"How about-" Steven began just before a volleyball hit him in the face, and an idea hit him just as hard. "Volleyball!"

"Volleyball? You're so funny!" Pink Pearl, now known as Volleyball, blushed with a cute giggle. "You're just like her."

"No, I'm not like," Steven yipped in surprise. "Anyway, we're here because of the crack on-"

Steven was cut off however by the beach growing darker as a large rumbling sound rang out, and an equally large dagger-like silhouette descended towards them.

"Uh guys, is that who I think it is?" Greg rushed to join the Gems, as the shape grew closer to the Earth.

"Um, is whoever's in there with you?" Volleyball asked nervously.

"Yep." Steven answered, before the Human Zoo docked itself right in front of him. "They're with us."

"Ste-Van, greetings!" Wy-Six, one of the humans inhabiting Pink Diamond's former human zoo, merrily greeted Steven alongside Jay-Ten through the communicator in Steven's conservatory.

"Jay-Ten, Wy-Six, how did you get your space station all the way to Earth?" Steven asked just as cheerfully.

"We took the Zoo ship and made it into a cruise ship!" Jay-Ten answered.

"Um, I don't think I was told there were humans that made it to space." Volleyball stated.

"You were still under White's control when Pink had this human zoo made for her." Pearl suggested to Volleyball just as Greg, Amethyst and Teal Zircon arrived in the conservatory. "I'll fill you in later."

"Oh hey Jay-Ten. Hey Wy-Six." Greg nervously greeted the two Zoomans, whose pleasant expressions turned sour in his presence. "I haven't seen y'all since the Choosening!"

"You mean since you DIDN'T choosen us?!" Wy-Six said angrily. "Don't you have any sound discs to listen to in your wheeled conveyance?"

"Yes, yes I do." Greg replied as he nervously walked away from the conversation.

"Now that he is gone, we'd love it if you came by for a visit." Wy-Six offered.

"Sure thing." Steven accepted the offer. "Is it okay if Amethyst came along and saw the Famethyst?"

"You're right, I gotta introduce the Quartzes to them!" Amethyst exclaimed before preparing to run off. "Oh we're gonna have such a ball!"

"As long as she is not Ga-Reg, she is welcome." Jay-Ten smiled.

Since Steven had last been there, the Human Zoo had received a massive overhaul. Now that Era 3 came with the end of the caste system, the Famethyst and the Zoomans essentially took over control of the zoo from Holly Blue Agate and turned it into a paradise for themselves.

"Ste-Van, welcome to our cah-ruse!" Wy-Six declared, introducing Steven, Pearl, Volleyball, Amethyst and the Little Homeschool Quartzes to the new & improved Human Zoo.

"Wow, it looks so much different that last time." Pearl gasped in astonishment at how much change they brought to the space station.

"Um, was it always like this?" Volleyball asked the Zoomans.

"Kind of." Jay-Ten said to the Pearl. "We were descended from humans that were taken here and choosened, but it's all different now for us while the Amethysts and Jaspers laze around like delinquents! Am I right Holly Blue?"

"Stop relaxing and get back to your posts, you low class twits!" Holly Blue yelled orders to the relaxing Amethysts, despite the fact that she no longer had power over them. "How can anyone function with this total lack of order?!"

"Aw come on Holly, chill out." A Carnelian the size of Amethyst said while another Amethyst put a flower crown on the angry Agate's head. "You know you want to."

"I give up. No one answers to me, and I answer to no one." Holly Blue kept ranting, unaware that Steven and Volleyball were standing behind her. "I'd give anything for an order from the Diamonds, but all they ever talk about is Steven, Steven, Steve-STEVEN?!"

"Hi Holly!" Steven casually greeted Holly Blue. The Agate gave a stink-eye to Volleyball before nervously shuffling away while performing the Diamond salute, and ran off as her former subordinates laughed at her expense.

"Soon boy. Soon." Holly growled under her breath as she ripped the flower crown off her head and the doors slowly closed behind her. "That Pearl we made into a sleeper agent better work."

"Bye Holly." Steven said just as casual, unaware of what Holly Blue murmured.

"Yo, Famethyst!" Amethyst called to her fellow Quartzes. "Meet some of my new homies!"

"AMETHYST!" the Famethyst cried out happily before Amethyst spin-dashed towards the group and knocked them all down like they were bowling pins.

"Hey, you came here with Amethyst here?" a very skinny Jasper asked Zebra Jasper as she held up Amethyst. "You guys are gonna love it here."

As the large group of Quartzes laughed and played together, Steven looked on with a grin. "What a weird, happy family."

"Ste-van, we have some special friends we'd like you and your Pearls to meet." Wy-Six said to Steven and the Pearls before he led them out of the Zoo.

"They wanted to meet us?" Pearl asked in total confusion.

"Yes, it is they who wanted to come with us to Earth." Jay-Ten replied before they stood in front of the door that led to a room where so many Rose Quartz gems were bubbled by the Diamonds. "We cannot wait to see the look upon your faces when you see their faces! Ooh, here they come!"

The door opened, and standing before Steven, Pearl & Volleyball was a Rose Quartz with a face and hair eerily similar to the Rose that Pink Diamond had disguised as. While Steven and Pearl stood wide-eyed in shock, Volleyball was still left in the dark.

"Yes, that's the look we wanted to see!" Wy-Six exclaimed.

"I suppose she looks familiar to you?" Volleyball asked her friends, who were still silent in alarm as two more Roses, a medium pink-colored messy haired Rose with her gem on her shoulder and another with her gemstone on her chest and slightly straighter hair of a lighter color, rushed out of the room, where tons more formerly bubbled Rose Quartzes frolicked about.

"S-s-so many Rose Quartzes." Steven finally stuttered in surprise. "But how?"

"Now that it's Era 3, we were all unbubbled, so now we're making up for lost time!" the shoulder-gem Rose revealed excitedly while shaking Steven's hand. "Hi, I'm Rose Quartz! And you, you must be Steven!" she added while picking the boy up. "You're so much smaller than I thought you'd be! Is it because you're half-organic? Isn't he amazing Rose Quartz?"

"It's, like, we were bubbled but, like, now we're not." The chest-gem Rose pointed out while speaking like a hippie while her super-excitable companion presented Steven to her.

"Uh yeah, it's really great." Steven laughed awkwardly. "I'm glad to see you're adjusting well."

"Oh, isn't Steven just the best?!" the hyperactive Rose exclaimed. "You're so kind and friendly and brave and smart and handsome and gentle, and we haven't seen the Earth since we first emerged! Tell us, what's it like living there?"

The familiar-looking Rose Quartz peeked out from behind the hippie-like Rose, continuing to make Steven & Pearl nervous while Volleyball still looked befuddled.

"I'm sorry, what?" Pearl stuttered.

"You know, the planet you live on, Earth!" the happy Rose shouted as she lowered Steven to the ground. "What's a day in the life like for a hero like you?"

"Well, most days I am pretty busy." Steven answered shyly. "I wake up pretty early and-"

"Where's your house at?" the hippie Rose interrupted with a question of her own.

"Oh, we have a beautiful view of the ocean." Pearl answered.

"I've never seen the ocean before!" the exuberant Rose said, placing a hand on Steven's shoulder.

"I've never smelled it before." Her relaxed friend added as she placed a hand on Steven's other shoulder, making him even more disturbed. "Speaking of smell, what's it like breathing?"

"It's mostly nitrogen." Steven explained. "My friend Connie says-"

"I bet you sleep ALL the time!" the Rose that had pretty much become Steven's new number one fan cheered.

"Well, not all the time." Steven replied. "I only need eight to ten hours of sleep at night at my age."

"What's it like eating food?" the fangirling Rose squealed eagerly.

"W-w-w-well why don't you come to dinner and find out?!" Steven blurted out while looking at the shy Rose with a massive degree of unease. "That is, if you want?"

"I'm still lost. Why are Rose Quartzes such a touchy subject for you?" Volleyball piped up, breaking up the tension.

"Oh ye of little faith." Pearl declared as she put a hand on her fellow Pearl's shoulder. "You have so much to learn."

Just then, the Quartzes suddenly arrived via conga line led by Amethyst; seemingly unaware of what just happened. "Yo Steven!" Amethyst cried, before she turned catatonic at the sight of the Rose Quartzes with Steven and the Pearls. "Uh, what did I miss?"

"Family reunion." Steven answered meekly before the Quartzes conga-lined away. "So what do you say girls?"

"I'd love to Steven!" the shoulder Rose cheered and gave Steven a big hug. "Come on guys, Steven's having us over!"

"Like, wow man." The chest Rose replied. "You really are a real sweet guy Steven."

"You go on ahead, I'll catch up later!" Volleyball laughed while Steven and Pearl walked away with the Roses. When she was left completely alone, Volleyball hesitantly knocked on the wall and a peephole opened up. "I've come to report Holly Blue."

"Excellent, at least I have one bright spot." Holly Blue sighed happily from the other side of the wall. "Can you give me any important info?"

"Yes. Apparently this Rose Quartz they once spoke so highly of is a rather uncomfortable subject for the Crystal Gems." Volleyball said nervously. "I could see it in Steven, the Pearl and the Amethyst's eyes when they met those Rose Quartzes."

"The boss will like this." Holly Blue purred mischievously. "Return to that boy at once and see what else you can gather."

"That reminds me, I think I'd like to back out of this revolution." Volleyball murmured. "I know it's because of Pink Diamond that I'm like this, but Steven is barely anything like her! He even gave me a nickname!"

"You one-eyed moron!" the Agate yelled at the Pearl. "Our master has brought us together in the first place because Steven bent all of Homeworld to their knees by being a controlling brat, just like how Pink constantly threw tantrums because she didn't get what she wanted! Is that clear Pink Pearl?!"

Volleyball didn't listen however, and instead walked faraway from Holly Blue. "I still won't have any part in this." She declared hotly. "And by the way, they call me Volleyball now."

"What kind of stupid nickname is that?!" Holly shrieked furiously. "Get back and do as you're told, like the slave you are!" Her yelling fell on deaf ears and Volleyball was gone, leaving Holly to panic. "The master will not like this."

"He's cutting one of those carrot beans again." The excitable Rose announced as she, her fellow Roses, Garnet and Pearl watched Steven cut up some carrots on his dinner plate. "Going up…..into…his mouth!" she continued before Steven picked up a piece of carrot to eat. "Ah, and it's gone! No one can eat a carrot bean like you!"

"I've been doing this for most of my life now." Steven said, still unnerved by the Roses' obsession with him. "I'd hope that-"

"Hey Scthu-Ball!" Greg cheerfully greeted his son as he entered the beach house. "Any idea when the Zoomans will leave? I haven't had this many of my exes visiting since-"

"You must be Steven's human dad!" Shoulder Rose exclaimed. "Hi, how are you?!"

Greg completely stopped in his tracks at the sight of the three Roses, especially the one that looked almost exactly like his late wife. "I can feel the rest of my hair falling out."

Just as Greg was about to leave, Steven tried to stop him. "Don't go Dad. You wanna join us for dinner?"

"Nope!" Greg answered without hesitation, and left just as quickly as he came. As Mr. Universe left, Volleyball finally returned to Steven.

"Hi everybody, sorry I took so long." Volleyball fibbed. "Amethyst wanted me to stay a while."

"Uh…" Steven muttered.

"Okay, now back to this eating thing!" Shoulder Rose continued while she took Steven's plate for herself. "So, you take this food stuff and you put it in your face hole like this, right?"

"Yeah, that's basically it." Steven laughed nervously.

"Y'know, if I had my own Pearl, I'd totally, like, want it to be just like you." Chest Rose said as she gazed at a very unnerved Pearl. "You tried this butter stuff? It's real groovy."

"It's okay, but thanks anyway Roooooose." Pearl answered very uncomfortably.

"Excuse me Pearl, but are you alright?" the shy Rose Quartz asked Pearl.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Pearl abruptly declared and, as she stated, moved away to the bathroom.

"Yo, you're lookin' kinda tense." Chest Rose said to Garnet with a hand on the fusion's shoulder. "How about I give you a nice relaxing message while we talk?"

"I'm also in need of the bathroom!" Garnet stated and got up to follow Pearl to the john.

"Okay Steven, I think I got this eating thing down." Shoulder Rose proclaimed while holding a carrot from Steven's plate in front of his face like he was a little boy. "Here, open your face hole." With that, Steven reluctantly took the carrot and ate it. "Good job!"

"I, uh, should probably see how Garnet and Pearl are doing." Steven nervously said. "Why don't you talk to Volleyball here while I chat with them?"

As Steven left for the bathroom after Garnet & Pearl, the three Roses stared at Volleyball.

"So, what was it like as Pink Diamond's Pearl?" Navy Rose asked Volleyball.

"They're not her." Steven whispered to himself as he watched the Pearl talk with the Quartzes, with a hand on the doorknob. "It's not weird at all."

Steven found Garnet and Pearl waiting for him in the bathroom as he closed the door behind him. "So, how's it going?"

"Don't you think this is super weird?" Pearl asked her son figure. "I mean, we've lived without Rose for sixteen years now, and then here come these Rose Quartzes that were bubbled because of her! And one of them even looked like her!"

"Of course it's super weird Pearl!" Garnet answered bluntly.

"Come on guys, we can't all be like this." Steven tried to calm the two down. "It's like Pearl said, they were bubbled because they looked like Mom. Now they're finally free, and all we're doing is hiding away in the bathroom whispering to each other about the same thing."

"I know it's wrong," Garnet stated. "but I'm overwhelmed."

"You know what? They don't just look like her, they are here!" Pearl exclaimed. "Because she made them!" The ex-servant took a deep breath and buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "I thought I'd be more prepared for this."

Just then, they heard someone rushing down the stairs, followed by a familiar voice. "Hey Steven, where are you?! I still need help with the painting!"

"That's gotta be TZ." Steven recognized the voice and prepared to go back outside. "You two wait here, I'm gonna go back out to make sure they're having a good time. And that they don't see the painting."

"Oh Steven, come out come out wherever you are!" Teal Zircon called for Steven around the house while she hauled the painting around on her back, when she noticed Volleyball and the Roses. "Oh hey Pink Pearl, who are your new friends?"

"Oh, you're that Zircon from earlier." Volleyball said. "I was about to tell these three Rose Quartzes about how I got my eye cracked when you came around. How are you doing?"

"I still can't find a good place to hang this doohickey that won't make Steven freak out." Teal explained as she flipped the painting off her back to show Volleyball. "I understand why he doesn't want it within his line of sight, but it's a very nice lookin' "meep morp" as I've heard some Gems call art."

As Steven finally emerged from the bathroom, he saw that Teal Zircon was presenting Rose's painting to Volleyball while the Roses looked on.

"I think we should leave." Navy Rose suggested. "We wouldn't want to overstay our welcome."

"But we're having so much fun!" Chest Rose complained, and the trio looked at Steven with hurt on their faces.

"Do you not want us here?!" Shoulder Rose asked Steven sorrowfully.

"N-no, you're totally welcome here!" Steven stuttered bashfully, taking a brief moment to glare at TZ for bringing up the painting at such a bad time as he slightly began to turn pink. "I-in fact, I think there's still something we should t-t-t-t-took, I mean talk about, like Volleyball! We haven't brought up your eye yet!"

"Oh yes, it's a real shame what White Diamond did to this poor thing!" Pearl dramatically agreed as she impulsively burst from the restroom, realizing far too late what she just did and covered her mouth in shame. "Oh, darn it!"

"Yeah, I mean, Steven's healing powers won't work on her eye." TZ replied. "Hey Pearl, you know a place where she can get fixed?"

"Well, when a Pearl was damaged, they're usually taken to the Reef." Pearl explained. "It's located on one of Saturn's moons

"Yes, that's exactly what Pink would do!" Volleyball chirped happily.

"Ooh ooh, can we come too?!" Shoulder Rose asked Steven and Pearl. "I always wanted to know how Pearls are made!"

"Oh sure, the more the merrier!" Steven accepted.

"That's so awesome!" Shoulder Rose yelled, and she dropped down to the floor. "I'm dying, I'm dying, I am dead! I am dead Rose Quartz!"

After they all had a good laugh, Steven, Pearl, Volleyball and the Roses all left for the Reef via Warp Pad, leaving Teal Zircon all alone in the living room. At least until Garnet peeped out of the bathroom. "I predicted you would play a role in screwing the pooch TZ." She coolly stated.

"Was it something I said?" Teal said meekly.

Far from Earth, past Saturn & Jupiter and on the moon called Titan rested the Reef, a Gem facility that was essentially the birthplace of Pearls. And it was just the place that Steven was looking for.

"Here we are." Pearl announced as the Warp Pad took her, Steven, Volleyball and the Roses to a clamshell-like building surrounded by water.

"So this is the Reef." Steven declared as he looked around the place.

"This is where Pearls are made, right?" Navy Rose asked.

"Were, but you're right." Volleyball answered. "It also serves as a luxury boutique and center for refurbishment & repair."

"Repair, yes!" Steven exclaimed. "Just what I needed to hear." When Steven pressed his hand on a nearby pedestal, the facility turned on and a voice similar to Pearl's spoke to the group.

"Welcome, Pink Diamond." The voice greeted Steven.

"No, my name's Steven Universe." Steven corrected the voice.

"Welcome, Steven Universe." The voice corrected itself. "My name is Shell, your guide to the Reef."

"Wow, it sounds just like Pearl!" Shoulder Rose chirped eagerly.

"Well, this is a place for Pearls." Pearl stated with a chuckle. "Anyways, tell Shell why we're here Steven."

"Okay." Steven said, and then he turned to Shell. "My friend Volleyball here has a big crack on her face, and we'd like to get it fixed. Can you show us where you can help?"

"Understood." Shell obliged as a path to the center of the facility was lit up. "Please follow the illuminated path to the Care Center."

"You really didn't need to go all this way for something so trivial." Volleyball smiled.

"It's not so trivial Volleyball." Steven assured Pink's former Pearl. "Soon, we'll all be able to put this behind us."

"And don't you worry." Pearl added while taking her fellow ex-slave's hand. "I'll be with you the whole way."

Steven and his Gem friends began following the lit path to the Care Center while they examined all the boutique's accessories and holograms of Pearls.

"This is like, so cool." Chest Rose commented. "Pearls are so lucky to get all this cool stuff."

"Please feel free to take your time looking at the boutique's latest offerings as we make our way to the Care Center." Shell instructed. One offering in particular caught Volleyball's eye.

"Look at these darling fans!" Volleyball exclaimed, pointing to an assortment of fans.

"I'm taking one of these for the road." Chest Rose snickered while taking one of the fans for herself.

"What about you Pearl?" Steven asked Pearl. "Any memories rushing back into you?"

"Please, nothing like examining all these glitzy tchotchkes to get you remembering the simpler days." Pearl scoffed when she found a ribbon wand on display. "I mean, who even needs something as tacky as a ribbon wand, right Volleyball?!"

"What a sweet ribbon wand!" Volleyball gasped at the wand on display. "It looks just like mine!" To demonstrate, she summoned a ribbon wand of her own just like what was displayed and began twirling it around. "It was a gift from Pink. Isn't it exquisite?"

"Ooh!" Shoulder Rose whooped in excitement.

"Takin' this one too." Chest Rose declared as she snatched the ribbon wand from its stand.

"It's sweet she gave you all these keepsakes." Pearl laughed sardonically. "But I don't think there's any need to get attached." She tried to remove the ribbon wand from Volleyball's grasp, but the other Pearl refused to lose it.

"Guys, can we keep moving already?" Steven said impatiently.

"Yes, let's." Pearl obliged grumpily before she stomped away to the Care Center. "I've had enough of this old circus of objectification."

"Welcome to the Care Center." Shell introduced the almost featureless round room to its guests as they stepped into it. "We have everything you need here to update and repair your Pearl."

"If only I had something to help us remember this trip by!" Shoulder Rose whispered to her fellow Quartzes as Volleyball stepped onto a panel in the middle of the Care Center.

"Hey, I got these." Chest Rose replied, holding up the trinkets she took from the boutique. "Can't wait to show everyone at the Zoo."

"Scanning in progress." Shell informed as the one-eyed Pearl was scanned for any injuries to her form.

"So how do I look?" Volleyball asked Shell, but the answer she got was nothing like she expected.

"I am sorry." Shell apologized. "There is nothing I can do."

"But I thought this place was for fixing Pearls!" Navy Rose exclaimed. "There's got to be some kind of misunderstanding!"

"That's right! What's wrong with her?" Steven agreed.

"There is no visible damage to her pearl." Shell analyzed. "Perhaps the damage was severe enough to impact her even if her gem shows no signs of disrepair."

"So, it's psychological?" Steven gulped at the AI's answer.

"That's absurd!" Volleyball laughed creepily while turning to the others. "I'm totally fine!" The forced smile on her face and the worsening cracks on her eye, on the other hand, told a completely different story.

"How could White be so careless?!" Pearl shouted furiously at Volleyball.

"Oh no Pearl, you got it all wrong." Volleyball revealed. "This was all Pink's doing."

"What did you just say?!" Pearl yelled in Volleyball's face, as Steven watched in horror.

"Ah dudes, I don't think Steven's looking too hot." Chest Rose muttered while she noticed Steven sweating very nervously.

"It's a real funny story." Volleyball said. "Once, Pink got so fed up with Yellow and Blue Diamond refusing to give her a colony that she went straight to White Diamond. Of course, White told her that she wasn't fit to have one, and that set her off."

"Set her off?!" Pearl shouted, currently unaware of the stress Steven was under at the moment. "What kind of crazy talk is that?!"

"You know how Pink's powers were so destructive, how she threw tantrums left & right and that her screams could crack walls!" Volleyball continued explaining, accidentally earning her more of Pearl's ire. "But she didn't mean to hurt me! I was just standing a little too close during one tantrum and-"

"It doesn't matter!" Steven yelled while averting his ears from more of his late mother's dark secrets. "I don't want to hear anymore, I just want to fix this!"

"Destructive powers? Tantrums?!" Pearl exclaimed in disbelief of what Volleyball was saying. "The Pink I knew was a healer who kept her feeling secret!"

"The Pink I knew couldn't keep a secret to save her own gem." Volleyball admitted.

"Are you kidding?!" Pearl replied as Steven's angst reached a boiling point. "If anything, she was too good at keeping secrets! In fact it was because of one secret that we're even here today!"

"STOP IT!" Steven finally screamed as he fully turned pink and his shout knocked the Roses off their feet, catching the Pearls' attention. "I've had enough with hearing about all the horrible things she did! I get it already, she was the absolute worst, can we just cut it out already?! I don't want to think about it anymore!"

"Steven, please!" Pearl cried out, shocked at both Steven's outburst and how it changed his body.

"I just want to fix it!" Steven exploded, causing a room-wide shockwave created by his fury, forming a crater beneath where he stood. Pearl rushed to the traumatized Volleyball's defense as the pink-colored Pearl curled up into a ball on the floor. When Steven finally calmed down, he gazed at his reflection in the broken floor and immediately regretted what he just did.

"I am terribly sorry for the troubles these defective Pearls have caused you." Shell coldly apologized while the whole Care Center turned an ominous red. "Rejuvenation is required to contain these two."

Suddenly, a pair of oyster shells emerged from the ground and began trapping the Pearls inside of them right before Steven and the Roses' eyes.

"Zoinks man!" Chest Rose yelled, a complete 180 from her usual hippie-like persona. "What do we do?!"

"We have to use our heads!" the panicking Shoulder Rose suggested, and her two sisters turned to face her. "Uh, what are you looking at me for?"

"When the process is complete, they will obey you without fail." Shell continued while pulling up a viewscreen showing the Pearls inside the clam-like trap.

"What have I done?!" Steven yelled frightfully while banging on the shells. "Please, let them out!"

In the midst of the chaos, a loud clanging noise was heard from the other side of the shell, which came from Chest & Navy Rose trying to use Shoulder Rose as a battering ram to help free the Pearls. "I didn't mean use my head!"

"Do not worry Steven Universe, your Pearls are about to be better than new!" Shell assured the boy while presenting him the viewscreen. "Feel free to examine this process from the outside using this screen."

While Steven was forced to watch as Pearl & Volleyball were writhing from the pink energy they were zapped with coursing through their forms, the Roses kept on using Shoulder Rose's head to try breaking them out.

"What are you three still doing?!" Steven cried out at them.

"We're just trying to help, uh doy!" Shoulder Rose yelled while rubbing her head.

"Can't you all take a hint?" Shy Rose stated. "He doesn't like us because we look like his mom, and us coming here made it worse!"

"There's no way that's true, right Steven?" Shoulder Rose began sobbing in disbelief.

"That's not important!" Steven replied. "What's important is that we have to save them!"

"Wow dude, not even considering our feelings?" Chest Rose said. "That's just cold!"

"Never meet your heroes." Shoulder Rose began crying.

"No please, don't leave me like this!" Steven yelled for them while they tried to escape the Reef. "You can still help me, it's just that you guys look so much like my mom! I thought I could finally move on from her, but then here you three come and start making feel all twisted up. I've been pretending I'm fine this whole time, but to be honest, I'm not."

"We've been pretending to be fine too." Navy Rose confessed.

"But not pretending to have fun with you!" Shoulder Rose added.

"And not pretending to take all this cool stuff." Chest Rose also stated.

"Your mom created us, and then we were bubbled because we looked like her." Navy Rose said. "Because we were Rose Quartzes. I don't really expect you to understand."

"But I do understand." Steven responded softly. "If anyone knows where you're coming from, it's me."

While Steven and the Roses were still outside, Pearl and Volleyball were on the verge of being rejuvenated into completely new Pearls, and used these last moments of their current selves to confide in one another.

"I'm sorry for not believing you!" Pearl apologized quickly to her fellow Pearl. "I just can't stop making all these excuses for her!"

"Is that what you've been doing?!" Volleyball asked while twitching in agony. "Like I said, she didn't mean to do this to me!"

"But you were hurt!" Pearl yelled. "Badly hurt!"

"You were badly hurt too!" Volleyball exclaimed. "But how did you stop all the hurt?!"

Pearl simply responded by hugging Volleyball tightly and proclaiming, "I didn't." When Volleyball hugged her back, the two began glowing in harmony.

"Don't worry Pearls, we got you!" Steven exclaimed as he and the Rose trio raced to the viewscreen just as it disappeared. "Oh no, are we too late?!"

Thankfully for Steven, his question was answered in the form of the clamshell exploding and from its remains came a fusion of Pearl & Volleyball, standing calm and confident. The fusion had a single gold eye while the other got its cracked eye from Volleyball, and was dressed in very regal attire.

"You fused!" Steven exclaimed joyously. The Roses were just as amazed, particularly Shoulder Rose who just kept squeeing in amazement.

"WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY SIGHTED!" Shell roared in alarm while activating the Reef's defense systems. "FACILITY DEFENSE PROTOCAL INITIATED!"

"We can cheer later dudes, we gotta bounce!" Chest Rose cried out as claws emerged from the walls. The Pearl fusion, however, detained all of the claws with elegant ease using a weapon that was Pearl's spear combined with Volleyball's wand.

"That's so awesome!" Shoulder Rose cheered. "Go Mega Pearl! Yeah, that's what I'm gonna call her, I call dibs!"

"Hang on everyone!" Mega Pearl exclaimed as she rounded up her four friends and sliced the Care Center's door open immediately after it was shut. Laser began firing from the walls, which Mega Pearl nimbly maneuvered through. But as one last defense, smaller clamshells tried to block the exit while tendrils emerged to keep Mega Pearl restrained.

"We were almost there!" Steven groaned in frustration, before Mega Pearl picked him and the trio up in her hand.

"You four take it from here." Mega Pearl said before she turned her ribbon spear into a lance that pierced straight through both the clams and the exit. She then tossed Steven, Shoulder Rose, Chest Rose & Navy Rose forward, and Steven used his shield to slide on as he reached for the pedestal to shut down the facility once again.

With the defense systems finally off, the door opened and Mega Pearl was lying gracefully on the ground, now free from the tendrils, and gazing tenderly at Steven.

Steven smiled back just as Shoulder Rose rushed up from behind him. "That, was, SO AWESOME!" she squealed and squished her cheeks in excitement.

"Best day ever." Chest Rose declared with her face to the ground and a thumbs up in the air.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Navy Rose sighed, exhausted but relieved that everyone was okay.

Unbeknowst to all the Gems as they left the deactivated Reef, a peculiar device left out some dying beeps in the Care Center, and then finally shut down.

Night fell by the time Steven and the Gems returned to Earth, and they all gazed out at the ocean together.

"Wow, everything looks so pretty at night." Shoulder Rose muttered in awe.

However, Steven was silent for most of the night, until he turned to Mega Pearl and the Roses. "I'm sorry that this whole trip was for nothing." He apologized to the fusion, and then turned to the trio of Quartzes. "And I'm sorry I made you guys feel bad."

"Nothing personal Steven." Chest Rose accepted the apology. "And like you said, no one could understand us more than you."

"Yeah. Guess that kinda makes us siblings in a way." Steven admitted.

"What does that mean?" Navy Rose said shyly.

"Well, my mom created you, just like how she created me." Steven guessed. "I think that would make you my sisters in a way."

"That sounds awesome!" Shoulder Rose cheered, and she gave Steven a big hug. "Siblings forever!"

"I'm glad to be related to you." Chest Rose agreed with the sentiment.

"I can't wait to tell all the other Rose Quartzes about this." Navy Rose said. "It was very nice getting to see Earth."

"This whole endeavor wasn't for nothing." Mega Pearl finally said softly. "Your mother's Pearls just never knew the whole story. One knew your mother as she was trying to change, but didn't know why. The other never expected her to change at all. But now, I can understand it all, and they can have each other."

With that, Mega Pearl unfused back into Pearl & Volleyball, holding hands and gazing out at the night sky. As Volleyball leaned on Pearl, Amethyst and the Little Homeschool Quartzes suddenly returned.

"Yeah, Famethyst for life!" Amethyst cried, accidentally ruining the mood as the others stared at her from behind. "Hey, what did I miss?"

"Oh, Steven!" Teal Zircon yelled as she raced towards Steven. "First things first, sorry for making your guests feel bad. And second, I think I finally found a place to put Rose! And no, I won't put her in the trash this time."

"That's great TZ." Steven smiled at the Zircon. "What did you have in mind?"

Later that night, Steven was lying peacefully in bed with Lion by his side. And within Lion's mane, Rose Quartz's painting leaned against the tree within its pocket dimension, no longer hanging over everyone.

"So she just up and left?!" a voice barked at Holly Blue Agate from a computer screen in a hidden room at the Human Zoo. "Why didn't you stop her?!"

"I tried your clarity, but she refused to listen!" Holly Blue pleaded on her knees. "Please forgive me, I can do better on whatever assignment you give me next!"

"Okay, I'll let this slide." The voice sighed, bringing joy to Holly Blue's face. "Return to Homeworld at once, I have another assignment for you. But in the meantime, what about that tracking beacon we planted on the Pearl?"

"It seems to have short-circuited, last I checked." Holly Blue declared. "Last known location was the Reef on Titan."

"And that's why you never send a Pearl to do, well, anyone else's job!" a slim, black figure wearing a white cape complained on the other end of the call via a green visor, pinching the gemstone replacing her nose in irritation as she arrived via Warp Pad at the Reef. "I'm already at the designated location. I'll keep you all updated with further orders."

Pushing the pedestal, the facility suddenly reactivated, to the figure's delight.

And cue For The Damaged Coda! Gotta say, this was probably my longest chapter yet. Now that we have yet another load of dirty laundry cleaned up, it's time to ask some bigger questions. Who is Holly Blue taking orders from when she said earlier she didn't take orders from anyone? What does this mystery character want with the Reef, and how will Steven react to a possible revolution taking place right under his nose? Join us next week for more answers, and happy holidays!

#steven universe #steven universe future #steven universe alternate future #steven quartz universe #garnet #amethyst #pearl #pink pearl #teal zircon #superfan rose quartz #hippie rose quartz #shy rose quartz #holly blue agate

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shadedrose01 · 4 years

Text

Truth or Dare (Yes, I Double Dare You)

Ships: Parkner (Harley Keener/Peter Parker), mentioned Thompsborn (Harry Osborn/Flash Thompson)

Summary: Peter play Truth or Dare with his friends.

Tags: Febufluff, Day 8, I dare you to kiss me, Truth or Dare, Party Games, Birthday Party, They play truth or dare y'all, Peter has a crush on Harley, Harley likes him back, Thompsborn is in this too, Bisexual Peter Parker, Gay Harley Keener, Dare, Calling your crush, admitting feelings, Mutual Pining, First Kiss, Kissing, Cute, Fluff, a lot of swearing, I dont know why i made them swear so much, im sorry lol, Bad French, Poor translated french, I Tried

Day eight of Febufluff: "I dare you to... kiss me"!

"Hmm, I dare you to speak in a French accent for the next three rounds." Flash grins over his cup, swirling the drink in front of his mouth before taking a sip, watching the smile drop off of his boyfriend's face, an incredulous expression replacing it.

"Seriously?!?"

"Yes, seriously! And that wasn't in an accent!"

"Oui, oui, baguette." Harry deadpans, looking so entirely done with Flash's bullshit, the entire room erupting into laughter as said boy sits up, shoving his boyfriend's shoulder hard.

"No halfassed bullshit, dickwad. The real deal."

"Fine, you want the real deal?" Harry sits up straight, and Peter starts giggling like a mad man from the other side of the room, leaning against the wall to watch the scene unfold, knowing exactly what is about to happen. Harry clears his throat, holds a dramatic pause for a few seconds, before- "Tu veux un accent francaise, tu vas recevoir un accent francaise."

"Oh my god, I forgot he spoke French!" Flash moans, slowly slipping down the wall in shame.

"Oh la la, ma chérie, qu'est ce que tu as fais, eh?" Harry grins, smug, cheeky, knowing he's won this hand as his boyfriend sinks even lower, his head almost level with the ground, his face red.

"And why is it so hot?!?"

"Okay, okay, enough." Ned laughs, sitting chris cross apple sauce beside Peter, the party hat sat on the top of his head beginning to sag.

It was Ned's 17th birthday, and instead of throwing a big party full of alcohol and loud music like most people in their classes did, he decided to have a smaller party, a sleepover full of board games, video games and now party games, with his closest friends, with their friend group. So here they all were, packing into Ned's smaller sized room, Flash and Harry practically conjoined at the hip sitting against the wall, Peter and Ned sitting on top of his bed on the other side of the room, and MJ and Harley leaning against said bed, sat on the floor, playing what would hopefully be a quick game of Truth or Dare. Hopefully.

Peter had never liked this game. There was always too much risk for him in this game, of being asked to reveal one of his many secrets, or of being asked to embarrass himself for laughs. He gets the appeal of it, the adrenaline rush, the amusement of watching your friends do something stupid, it's a fun game to watch, but that doesn't mean he likes playing it. He hadnt even called on yet though, and he was hoping to keep it that way.

He shouldn't have jinxed it.

As if his thoughts manifested into reality, Harry turns to stare at him with a unknown, horrifying glint in his eyes. Oh no, this is definitely not going to end well. "Action ou Vérité?"

Peter sighs, looking up to the ceiling as he mumbles "Dare.", assuming that's what Harry asked. If he's going to go down, he may as well go down in style.

Harry's grin widens, and Peter is already regretting his decision. "Je te défie de telephoner ton béguin."

Peter blinks at him in confusion, before MJ translates, "He's daring you to call your crush."

"What?!?" Peter sputters, Harry cackling at his flushing face while Harley speaks up for the first time in a while, his ('beautiful, gorgeous, fuck-') face turned towards MJ, scrunched up in thought.

"You know French? Since when?"

MJ just shrugs, face impartial, the only sign of her shyness being her pushing a stray hair behind her ear. "Since I got bored one day and learned it."

Harley just nods, like that makes sense, all while Peter is internal freaking the fuck out. Normally, this type of thing wouldn't be an issue. Sure, your friends will find out who your crush is, and tease you about it, and it'll be embarassing and whatever, but that's not the problem. Oh no no no no no, that would be too easy for Peter Parker. No, the problem with this question for Peter is that his crush is in the damn room, sitting directly in front of him leaning against the bed, an easy smile tilting up his thin pink lips, showing off his adorable dimples as he scans the room again with those big, stunning ocean blue eyes, hair coiffed back just right, messy, but just neat enough to be perfect, one stray blond curl falling in front of his eyes and fuck, fuck, frick fuck.

What is he going to do?!? He can't exactly call Harley when he's right in front of him, but he can't exactly say that he won't do it either, he wont be that guy. And now everybody is staring at it, expectant, waiting, shit, shit, shit-

Ned's eyes are the only ones that are sympathetic, because he knows, he knows who Peter likes and why this is such a big deal. Harley is one of Peter's best friends, they've been friends for years, and Peter is closer to Harley than he is to anybody else, he cant just throw it all away because of a game, can he? Harley definitely doesnt like him back, so if he does call him, it'll only end badly, but theres this tiny, tiny, traitorous part of him that wants to fo it, wants to tell him, if only to get it out in the open. But he cant ruin their friendship like that, he cant, but- but- oh god, oh no-

"Come on, Parker, we don't have all day." Flash complains innocently, not knowing of Peter's internal dilemma as he throws a stray piece of popcorn at him, Peter catching it subconsciously and throwing it into his mouth, just to try and get a few more seconds of peace before all hell breaks loose, before he destroys his closest friendship with his stupid ass feelings, goddamn it-

"Yeah, Pete, come on, dont keep us on the end of our seats." Harley teases, placing his head onto the blankets and looking back at him upside down, his hair surrounding his head like a halo, making him look even more angelic that he normally does, and god, why him, why? "Who's caught your eye, hm?"

Peter takes a deep, long, shaky breath, trying to prepare himself for the worst (and failing), taking his phone out of his pocket and scrolling down to Harleys contract, the black letters and two heart emojis on either side staring back at him mockingly. He hovers his thumb over the call button, noting how much its trembling, before he gulps and presses it, placing the phone to his ear, squeezing his eyes shut like a coward, unable to watch, knowing that Harleys expression was going shift, was going to turn from soft and warm, friendly, to hard and angry, to hatred and disgust and-

ACDC blares out into the room, the noise very obviously Harley's ringtone, and Peter grits his teeth, biting his tongue hard, his heart hammering in his chest.

"Wha-" Harley sounds so confused, so so confused, and Peter's squeezes his eyes shut tighter, holding back the burning tears that are threatening to spill. "Peter, why are you- wait..." He stops, pauses, and Peter digs his nails into his palm, squeezing his phone until he hears it start to crack. "...really?"

His voice is shaky, and god, Peter made him upset, he is probably so hurt, so confused, so disgusted, god stupid, you're so stupid, why would you do that, why didnt you just not do it, why why why-

He nods once, slowly, swallowing down a sob before whispering out "I'm sorry," into the now eerily silent room, his friends seemingly shocked into silence. He doesnt even want to know what they're thinking, what expressions are on their faces-

Theres another pause, another moment before he hears somebody shifting, Harley standing up, he's leaving, he's leaving- Good job, Parker, now you're forcing him to leave, you made him feel so uncomfortable that he's leaving, good fricken job, god, what is wrong with you-

A hand rubs his cheek gently, so so gently, spurring him out of his head as it brushes away a tear that had broken free, before another hand joins it on his other cheek, cradling his face. Peter blinks opens his eyes, shocked to see that its Harleys hands on his face, and that its Harley sat right in front of his face, with a wide smile and glowing eyes, face bright. "You mean it? You really mean it?"

Peter just nods again, so, so confused but also filling with a spark of hope, of joy as Harley's smile grows even more, filling his face before he launches into Peter's arms, hugging him tightly. "Oh thank god," he breathes into Peter's shoulder, and Peter is so lost, what is happening- "I thought you were gonna call someone else, and I was gonna have to act all happy and like it didn't bother me when it totally would have and-"

"Wait, wait," Peter finally puts together the pieces, and pulls away to stare at Harley with wide eyes, the beginning of a smile twitching at his lips. "You like me back?"

"Yeah?" Harley cheeks grow a rosey hue, and he looks away bashfully. "I thought it was obvious."

Peter shakes his head wildly, eyes still wide, this cant be happening, he likes me back, he likes me- "No, no it wasn't, it really really wasn't-"

"So, what I'm hearing," MJ cuts in, tone blunt as always, but with hints of warm amusement softening the usual edge, "is that you two are oblivious idiots."

They both laugh breathless, staring into each others eyes. "Apparently." Harley murmurs, his blue eyes swirling and flickering up and down, looking down at his lips before looking back up again.

Peter gets an idea, a cheesy, cheesy idea, and grins. "Hey, it's my turn now, right?" He asks to the group, never taking his eyes off of Harley.

"Yeeup!" Ned responds enthusiastically, seemingly thrilled to see his two best friends realizing their feelings for one another.

"Well," he leans forward a bit more, watching as Harleys pupil's grow bigger. "Truth or dare, Harls."

"Dare." He responds easily, quickly, seemingly getting more and more antsy by the second. Peter can't blame him, he feels the same way.

"I dare you to kiss me." Peter doesnt even finish his sentence before Harley's lips are pressed to his, his hands moving upwards and running through his hair, fingers grabbing lightly onto the strands as Peter grabs his hips lightly, pulling him closer, both of the boys grinning into the kiss. Peter can hear MJ gagging in the background, Harry exclaiming "gross!" like he doesnt kiss Flash every two seconds, and Ned squealing like a fangirl, but he ignores it all, just focusing on Harley, focusing on this moment, his heart swelling in his chest.

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