#its the fuck around and find out season and we reached the find out part

[sixthsensewulf]

A fucking small thing that no one is pointing out. Murph helping Ally do math with the short rest as well all of them going "are we all good? Who needs healing."

Like both the bards offering to do Song of Rest to get Gorgug up to full. They care about each other.

But the camera swapping over to the Lou, Ally and Murph side of the table, Ally rolling dice and Murph counting is very sweet.

Despite all the posting about the Rat Grinders and the disappointment... They are literally all comedians and Best/close friends making a fucking show together. . As well as filming about 3-4 ~2h30 episodes in about the space of 2-3 days plus their ~30 minutes APs. .this doesn't include their breaks for food, checking in with each other, and changing outfits. .

Like this season could have been pushed into intense filming mode because of the writers strike last year.

But to say that the IH don't care about the story or the Bad Kids are acting harsh towards the Rat Grinders and not look for redemption. . .

They fucking tried throughout Junior Year right.. if the Rat Grinders used strategy and had Buddy as well as Ruben heal their party at this point. . But also the Bad Kids are in a "here we go again" situation. .all their time at school has been LETS SAVE THE FUCKING WORLD. it's a kill or be killed situation. The situation that they are used to.

Like come on. . The Freshmen Year one fell into their laps because Riz wanted to find out what happened. Gorgug and Kristen died in the first fight.... They got curious and were only taught how to use the battle strategy by Bill Seacaster. .

Sophomore year was a spring break task given to them by the principal. . That was their assignment....

The night Yorb was their fault. .well mainly Riz's fault but it was the Bad Kids fault to investigate the name Night Yorb right... But they fixed it, they owned up to their mistakes.

This year? Yeah I'm still in the mindset that they would have figured out some of the plan without the Rat Grinders being the Rat Grinders right. . like they might find Lucy. . The Vulture dimension shit could have still happened... The Rat Grinders could have been in the background but TBK could have been aware of them.

Like they found out about the rage crystals BECAUSE OF LYDIA. they found out about Ankarna because of a mixture of Bakur and Lydia as well as what was happening with Cassandra.

Like Buddy Dawn information was found out via Kristen's brother.

The Frosty Fair was at Gorgug's house and Riz's mother was researching it. Just so happened Ruben was there as well as Grix.

The chances of them going to the temple in the mountains, them finding out about Ankarna, Fig becoming the champion are all very high as well. Like come on. . Kalina mentioned Ragh because she was using a way around a spell/curse. .the mystery is dangling for the Bad Kids. Like it's a mystery of why is an unnamed god causing rage etc.. it's what the bad kids do.

If they had arrived at the gym post election party. . They could have had the dragons from Oisin anyway... The fight wouldn't have changed.

This fight wouldn't have changed. Like there are 6 students actively HELPING TWO TEACHERS END THE FUCKING WORLD. Even if they are not manipulated into doing so. . The Rat Grinders actively hate the Bad Kids. . The Bad Kids are naturally going to take out the support so they can do what they do best. . .

Sorry for the rant when talking about something sweet that the 7 IH do for each other. .

Like if you are that annoyed, take a break. Or just find something else. If you don't come back thats also fine. . .

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #d20 #fantasy high junior year #wulf ramble tag #d20 fantasy high #fantasy high junior year spoilers #fhjr spoilers #am i upset on that the rat Grinders are not getting insta redeemed? no im not #they are doing this themselves. #they are finding out what the Bad Kids can really do #porter dealed most of the damage to the Bad Kids #Porter downed Fabain Fig and Gorgug #Porter turned to Adaine with Gorgug's unconscious body and asked how he should kill her friend #its the fuck around and find out season and we reached the find out part #the Bad Kids deserve to be a little angry. like Porter bullied Gorgug because Gorgug's rage isnt Porter's style of Rage.

[afewproblems]

Season Two Halloween AU Part Five

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Synopsis: What if Eddie had been at Tina's Halloween Party in Season Two? Featuring Steve!Whump, Stancy Breakup, and Eddie just trying to keep up with all these new revelations about who King-Steve actually is...

Huge huge HUGE shout-out to Jess @strangersteddierthings for being my sounding board and letting me send such long messages full of spoilers!! I can't thank you enough!

***

“Dustin, what the hell are you doing here?” Steve says as he hurries towards the kid, he looks around as though expecting another person to follow behind him. 

“I can’t find Nancy or Jonathan, you’re the only other one who knows about--”

The kid, Dustin, tilts himself to look past Steve at Eddie with suspicious eyes, “you know”.

Steve freezes, his shoulders a rigid line of tension as Dustin steps around him to head for the screen door.

Eddie had to give it to the kid, he certainly had guts just waltzing in here like this. 

“You still have your bat?” 

Steve looks from Dustin to Eddie and lowers his voice to mutter something that has Dustin shaking his head rapidly.

"The one with nails, Steve".

"Your what?" Eddie blurts out, forcing the other two to turn towards him. Dustin full on glares. His eyes narrow in irritation while Steve's face pales before smoothing out in that same guarded expression from earlier.

Dustin steps closer to Eddie and crosses his arms over his chest, "who are you?"

"Dustin--"

"That was a rule," Dustin cuts across Steve, smacking the back of one hand into the palm of the other, "no one else gets to know, and I can't tell Max, so you can't just tell him--"

Steve jerks his head as if slapped, a flush building on his cheeks and ears, "I haven't--Eddie's not, I don't--"

Dustin waves his hand dismissively and turns towards Eddie once again. 

"Look, it's cool that Steve is expanding his social circle but you should leave".

The attitude on this kid.

Eddie holds out a hand at Dustin and laughs but it tumbles out with a tinge of hysteria, "I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole Nail Bat thing?" 

Steve groans, his head swings back and forth from Eddie to Dustin as though he's not sure who to answer first.

He sighs and runs one hand over his face, roughly from the slight wince he makes as he brushes the black eye, "look," Steve barks out, "he's a friend".

Something in Eddie's chest warms at the words despite the incredulous scoff that threatens to tumble out. Steve Harrington, friends with Eddie Munson? 

Dustin snorts, "you don't have friends? I only ever see you with Nancy and Jonathan".

Steve flinches slightly at the words, but Dustin carries on talking, brushing past Steve to the house.

"We don't have time for this, I've been looking for you guys all day and now it's dark and there are lives at stake--"

"Je-sus, okay, okay," Steve takes three long strides to catch up to Dustin and steps in front of him, he reaches out for the kids shoulder but seems to think better of it and instead runs the hand through his hair.

"You said lives are at stake?" 

It's like a switch is flipped in the kid, he whirls around on Steve, a stream of near gibberish falling out of his mouth at a mile a minute, Eddie can hardly follow it.

"And now he's this big," Dustin hisses, throwing his hands nearly two feet apart from one another.

Steve holds up his hands, "okay, Christ, how do you know it's not just a lizard, Dustin?" 

"Because its face opened up and ate my cat, Steve".

Steve looks up at Eddie, meeting his gaze with a nervous laugh, "listen, Dustin, uh, he watches too many B-Monster movies, I'm just gonna take him back to his house".

Now Eddie wouldn't say he's necessarily a, 'go-with-the-flow' kind of guy, but he can roll with the punches --any Dungeon Master worth their salt needed to be able to think on their feet when the time came. 

Which is probably why he opens his big fucking mouth. 

"I mean, life and death situations with cat-eating Kobolds sounds exactly like my kind of night fellas". 

Steve frowns and tilts his head, staring at Eddie while Dustin perks up, his eyes widen in surprise.

"Kobolds? You play D&D?" Dustin says skeptically, pushing past Steve to make his way up to Eddie now.

Eddie laughs at the question, "kid, I run the D&D club at Hawkins High". 

Suddenly it's like there's a different kid standing in front of him, his face lights up in wonder and he opens his mouth to continue when Steve makes a sputtering noise behind him.

"Henderson," Steve bites out, hands on his hips, "I swear to God, if you interrupted us for some Halloween prank, you're dead".

He stands there for a moment scowling at the pair of them before turning on his heel and walking towards the house.

"It's not a prank," Dustin huffs defensively, his arms cross over his chest and his face scrunches into a frown. 

He looks up at Eddie briefly, all good will from the D&D revelation earlier now forgotten as Dustin follows Steve's path towards the door.

Eddie sighs, he could just leave at this point. Either this is the most elaborate way someone has ended a smoke session with him, or the weirdest role playing game Eddie has ever found himself in the middle of. 

But something about the fear in Dustin's voice has Eddie lingering beside the abandoned loungers. He bends down to pick up the forgotten joints and puts them back in his lunchbox before putting the lunchbox back in the backpack. No sense in letting some perfectly good jays go to waste. 

The screen door slides open again revealing Steve, who blinks in surprise, "you stayed?" 

Eddie shrugs, "I said I would, didn't I?" 

Steve nods, and ducks his face, but he can't quite hide the smile that blooms, his eyes crinkle at the corners for the briefest moment before it falls.

"Listen, I know that it sounds like a load of shit--"

"Understatement," Eddie cuts in with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, but you need to know, if you come with us, you're in it. I'm not joking, this is your chance to just walk away". 

It's almost as if Steve is pleading with him, and it's then that Eddie notices what Steve has gripped between his hands. 

A fucking baseball ball bat, studded with nails that have been haphazardly hammered into the end of it.

Eddie looks from the bat, to Steve's face as Dustin steps out of the house now with two walkie talkies in his hand. He reaches for Steve's backpack and unzips it to place them inside before zipping it up again. There's a grim determination on both of their faces that Eddie has never seen on another person in real life and suddenly he's speaking without thinking again.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

***

Eddie swipes a shaking hand through his sweat matted hair as he watches Steve and the rest of the party move about the Byers living room. 

As though mere hours ago they didn’t just fend off a group of flower faced creatures hellbent on entering their fortified school bus to tear them apart.

It was crazy. 

It was absolutely batshit that all this time there were creatures from another dimension running around their sleepy little backwoods town. 

Eddie shudders at the memory of the sounds they made, the horrible grating wails like metal on metal, echoes in his mind. 

And now…a person was dead. Mr. Newby.

Eddie had met him once while buying a used amp at the Radio Shack just a few months ago. He was nice, asked about the band and what instrument Eddie played. He had even offered to help Eddie get the amp out to his van.

And now, he was dead. 

Mr. Newby would never take Joyce out for another date, he would never walk into his job and help take inventory, he would never offer a helping hand or piece of advice ever again.

Eddie can't help but think about how close they had all come to ending up like Bob, how one of these things had almost crawled into the bus.

What if they hadn't been called away? Bob had a gun and that hadn't been enough to stop the pack of creatures from…

Eddie looks to Steve.

Steve who hasn't stopped pacing the Byers living room since Hopper herded all of them into the house. 

He takes five steps to the window at the front of the room, and five steps back to the door of the kitchen, again and again.

And suddenly, things make so much more sense. 

The strange haunted expression on Steve's face Eddie would see between classes whenever he thought no one was looking.

The way the three of them, Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve never let the kids go anywhere without a ride. 

The way Steve had looked at his empty pool yesterday.

Things happen in the dark, in the woods.

On the fifth pass, Eddie reaches out to Steve and catches the hand closest to him. 

Whatever trance Steve was in dissipates, leaving him to blink once and look down at Eddie's hand before slowly curling his fingers more firmly around Eddie's and squeezing gently. 

"How're you holding up?" Steve asks quietly as he drops Eddie's hand to pull a dining chair up to where Eddie is seated on a beaten up recliner. 

Eddie scoffs at the question and shrugs, "when I figure that out, you'll be the first to know".

Steve nods, a small half smile climbs up his face. 

It drops as he looks across the room at Will.

Jonathan kneels beside the couch, talking quietly to his brother, who stares blankly at the ceiling while Nancy watches on beside them. 

Eddie's eyes follow Nancy's hands, the way she hesitates to touch Jonathan before eventually giving in and draping her hands over his shoulders. 

He looks back at Steve who also seems to be watching Nancy. He breathes out a long sigh and shakes his head, before turning back to Eddie.

"If it makes you feel better, you're taking it better than I did the first time".

Eddie raises one skeptical eyebrow and smirks, "I highly doubt that--"

"I ran away," Steve cuts across him with wide eyes, "I almost left Nance and Jon with a monster, one of those things that took Will," he holds Eddie's gaze for another beat before dropping it to the floor.

"So, don't sell yourself short". 

Eddie opens his mouth to tell Steve he should take his own advice but Hopper suddenly makes his presence known once more as he closes the door to Joyce's room behind him and walks back into the living room. 

"Okay, we may not have backup on route for a few more hours--"

"If they're even coming," Mike scoffs from the corner, "who says they believed you anyway?"

"Listen, until we are told otherwise, we need to sit tight," Hopper barks, sending a glare Mike's way. 

Hopper deflates slightly, as though realizing who he's talking to, and takes a deep steddying breath which he releases slowly through his nose, “we can't just charge in without backup--"

"If we sit here on our asses those things will eventually make it to town, you saw the tunnels Hop," Dustin bites out this time, shooting his own fierce glare at the chief as he stands beside Mike.

"They'll tear everything apart," Max says softly from the floor. She's settled against the back wall of the living room against the collage of drawings that Will had completed in his frenzied state, Lucas sits closer and takes her hand in his own.

"Oh no," Steve mutters under his breath, he spares Eddie a glance before standing up from the chair, "no, no, we can't fight these things by ourselves, we're outmatched here Henderson". 

"Not if we know how they work," Mike insists. He walks towards where Max and Lucas are sitting, nearly stepping on the pair of them in his haste.

"Jesus Mike," Lucas hisses under his breath while Max settles for stomping her foot against Mike's own. He jumps at the sudden pain and the three of them dissolve into vicious bickering and name calling until Steve and Nancy pull the kids away from each other. 

"Okay, just, keep going Mike," Nancy tells him, once everyone has settled down once more. She gestures to the drawings taped up around the room. 

"As I was trying to say," Mike sneers at Max who scoffs and crosses her arms, "what if it's all connected, the tunnels, the dogs, Will?" 

No one speaks, the words seem to hang in the air as all eyes move to the couch where Will lays  wrapped in blankets and staring unseeing at the ceiling.

Mike continues, "this all started after that day in the field--" 

"And if he was infected," Dustin interrupts with a gasp as Mike nods rapidly, pointing at him and then the drawings again.

"It's like a virus, connecting him to this, this--"

"Hivemind," Lucas supplies, his voice hollow as he stands up to join the rest of the kids, "like what Mr. Clarke told us".

"Okay, okay, slow down God Dammit," Hopper huffs as he lifts his hand to pinch his fingers into his eyes.

"Hivemind?" Steve says slowly, as though rolling the word around on his tongue, "like bees?" 

Dustin blinks once, his face morphing in surprise, "kind of, it's like a superorganism made up of several others all working together, one collective consciousness". 

"A Mindflayer," Eddie whispers, just loud enough for the kids to turn their heads towards him.

He's been quiet for so long, sitting on the sidelines of this group that had clearly worked together in a crisis before. It was almost like listening to Jeff, Gareth, and Grant in a Hellfire session, watching them work out a trap in real time before executing their plan. 

It would be endearing if there weren't actual monsters running about.

"Holy shit," Mike breathes out while Dustin darts off towards the bookshelf in the corner.

He flips up some of the drawings until he finds what he's looking for and loudly crows, "yes!"

Dustin marches back to the kitchen table and slams the book down on the surface before flipping several pages. He slaps the back of his hand on the page in triumph as he sends Eddie a confident grin. 

"This isn't a game kid," Hopper sighs but steps closer to look at the book nonetheless.

"But it's the closest metaphor we have," Dustin argues back.

"Analogy," Lucas says as he steps towards the table, a shit eating grin pulls at his mouth as he catches Dustin's eye.

"Fine, analogy, whatever!" Dustin mutters, a red flush climbs up his neck until it settles on his ears, he slaps his hand on the books again, "can I get on with it or do you have more vocab for me?"

"Dustin," Nancy sighs, reaching out for his shoulder with one hand, she gives it a slight shake, "what would this even tell us?" 

"Well," Dustin turns to Nancy now and points at a section below a horrifying drawing of a humanoid man with a squid for a head. Four tentacles point in all directions while its hands wield a terrifying glowing orb. 

It's not something that Eddie has thrown at his players in years now that he's managed to figure out how to balance his encounters properly. 

Because Mindflayers…were horrific.

"They're basically from another dimension, and they travel to different worlds to conquer other species that they see as inferior to themselves". 

"Conquer," Steve breathes out beside Eddie who can't help but shuffle closer to brush his shoulder against Steve's own.

Steve gives Eddie a brief smile before looking back to where Dustin and Hopper are arguing once again. 

Eddie lets his gaze drift only to find Nancy staring at him curiously, her sharp blue eyes flit from Steve and back to himself, the weight of her gaze makes Eddie want to pull away from Steve but he holds his ground and stares right back. 

Nancy offers him a tentative smile, which does nothing to ease the sudden tension in Eddie's chest, feeling as though he's been caught. 

He could easily explain this away, despite the rumors running rampant at school about Eddie, there is no way anyone would believe the same would be true of Steve Harrington.

Eddie ignores the unhappy weight that settles in his stomach at the thought, he let himself get way too close, way too quickly. 

Besides, there wasn’t a chance in hell that Steve was, that he could be…

Eddie shakes himself and moves away, lamenting the loss of Steve’s warm shoulder as he lets Hopper's voice pull him back to the matter at hand.

"Okay then," Hopper nods, looking around the room. 

"How do we kill it?" 

***

They have a plan.

Or at least, half of them do.

Going based off a thirteen year olds hypothesis that their friend is basically a spy for a creature from another dimension -which in hindsight is definitely not the craziest thing they’ve experienced today.

Is it something that Eddie would have never come up with in his wildest dreams? Undoubtedly.

But that was before a girl with literal mind-powers showed up and tossed a dead demodog through the Byers window.

Jesus Christ. 

So, with El and Hopper on their way to the lab, the rest of the party busies themselves by packing the Byers Station Wagon for the drive to Hopper's cabin.

They have to flush this thing possessing Will out of him before it's too late and the cabin is far enough out of town that whatever happens hopefully won’t affect anyone else.

Eddie tries not to think too deeply about what that might mean.

He manages to find another portable heater in the Byers basement and hauls it into his arms before turning around to walk back up the stairs.

When Eddie reaches the landing his heart stops for just a moment when he realizes he can't see the kids. He takes another step into the kitchen and breathes out a sigh of relief when he sees the four of them huddled around the kitchen table with the still open Monster Manual. 

Eddie pauses for just a moment when he spots a Hawkins County map beside the book. 

It's covered in red marker.

An intricate design of lines ending with two circles…both around areas outside of the city center. 

Eddie shakes his head and keeps moving, much to the visible relief of the kids as he makes his way to the back door. 

One problem at a time.

He knows that Steve is around here somewhere, he was helping Jonathan carry Will to the car while Joyce and Nancy gathered as much rope from the shed as they could carry.

God, it's so dark now. 

Eddie understands what Steve meant before, the way the trees rustle in the wind and the moonlight catches on animal eyes that shine in the dark. It's enough to put him on edge as he makes his way around the Byers property. 

Every snap of a branch was a demodog prowling in the brush, every distant howl was a monster coming to drag him into the Underdark.

He shivers and keeps moving, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder every few steps.

Eddie finally makes his way to the shed, peering inside only to startle as Nancy's voice floats through the cool November air. 

"Thank you, for staying with the kids," she says quietly.

Eddie freezes where he stands with the heater in hand. He knows he shouldn't be here for whatever this is, listening in on yet another private conversation between Nancy and Steve but his feet remain planted in the earth. 

"Yeah well, I might be a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out I'm a pretty damn good babysitter," Steve hums so casually that Eddie wonders if it's really him speaking. They’re on the other side of the Byers shed, Eddie can almost make out their shapes between the uneven slates of the wood.

"Steve--"

"It's okay, really," Steve takes a deep breath, "you should go with Jonathan". 

"Steve," Nancy's voice is wet this time as she speaks but Steve hushes her with a sigh.

"It's okay Nance,” he pauses for a beat, “all I want is for you to be happy, and I don’t think you’ve been happy for a long time”.

“What about you,” Nancy whispers, so softly that Eddie almost misses it this time.

Eddie hears the sounds of footsteps and the rustle of fabric, a muffled sniffle and several whispered words that he can't make out from this distance. 

The whispering goes on for another minute or two before they fall silent, only the sound of cicadas and frogs echo in the midnight air around them.

Eddie takes this as his cue to begin to loudly walk over, purposefully grinding his steps into the gravel and walking more heavily than he normally would.

He comes around the corner of the shed to find Steve holding Nancy, his head on top of her own as she presses her face into his chest. 

Eddie clears his throat and watches as Nancy steps away from Steve. He lets her go, both of their movements lighter than they have been in days.

"If you guys checked the shed, Joyce said it's now or never".

Nancy nods and walks over to take the heater from Eddie, giving him a warm smile as her gentle hands brush his own, and huh --he kinda gets it now. How Steve could have fallen head over heels for this secret badass girl, Nancy Wheeler. 

"Thank you," Nancy smiles and Eddie sputters, running his now free hands through his hair.

"For what, I didn't--"

She raises a single eyebrow, and looks from Steve, before bringing her gaze back to Eddie.

"For being there, for all of them". 

With that, Nancy walks back towards the house leaving Eddie to feel as though he missed a lot more of that conversation than he should have. 

***

They finish refortifying the Byers house, boarding up the broken window that El had tossed the dead demodog through. Eddie adds one last nail and hammers it in before stepping back to admire their handiwork.

Steve lowers his hand from where he held the board in place and shoots Eddie a grin before he collects the box of nails from the floor and turns to put it on the coffee table.

"Steve?" Eddie says quietly. He doesn’t need to really, the kids aren't paying attention to the pair of them, but this is just for Steve. Eddie doesn't need four pairs of eyes staring at him as he tries to say this.

"I just, I'm sorry about Nancy".

Steve tilts his head in confusion, but Eddie keeps going.

"If we do make it out of this, I don't want you to think you were a 'shitty' anything". 

Eddie winces as Steve's eyes narrow slightly.

"I'm guessing you were standing by the shed a lot longer than we thought," Steve says slowly as he looks back at the kids and takes another step even closer. 

Eddie winces at being caught and nods, “I was looking for you originally to see if you guys needed any more help, and then I heard voices and just,” he shrugs, “I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay or not, after that”.

“And for what is worth, you definitely have changed,” Eddie offers with a sly grin, “I don’t think anyone would have expected Steve-the Hair-Harrington to use Faberge, let alone let us plebs in on his secret”.

Steve’s mouth opens and closes before breaking into a wide grin, a startled laugh falling from his mouth, growing in volume until Eddie can’t help but join him.

Steve raises his hands to run over his face and into his hair as he looks at Eddie, the grin on his face softens slightly the longer he looks.

Suddenly, his eyes harden and the look of determination from yesterday takes over. Steve squares his shoulders and breathes out a strangely broken sigh before he reaches out for Eddie's hands. He takes the hammer from him and sets it down on the coffee table beside them.

"My Nonna told me once," Steve whispers, using his hand to point into the middle distance, "Steven, people will come in and out of your life all the time, and the ones that are meant to be there will stay, and if they go, then it wasn't meant to be". 

Steve breathes out a sudden nervous laugh, "she was so straightforward and I loved that about her".

Eddie doesn’t dare to breathe as Steve shakes his head.

"And you, you stayed," Steve continues softly, "and I just…" 

Eddie's own breathing picks up as Steve leans closer, enough that Eddie can count the freckles on the bridge of his nose.

"Fuck what Dustin said, I think I need more people in my life like that". 

Eddie's eyes widen slightly as the words begin to register. No, no way, this can’t be happening.

He lets out a strangled laugh and leans away from Steve’s space, “more friends in your life right?”

It all happens so quickly after that.

Steve freezes where he stands. His face moves through several expressions, some so brief that Eddie can’t quite tell what is going on before it smoothes out once again into something blank; Steve lifts his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose before dropping it to his side and nodding.

“Yes, right, friends, duh,” Steve laughs but it's not at all like the bright wild one he let out just a few seconds ago.

This one was dull, hollow.

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, anything to wipe away the horrible emptiness in Steve's eyes but Dustin suddenly pushes past Eddie to grab the sleeve of Steve’s jacket.

"Steve!" Dustin says frantically, "Steve, we have a problem!" 

The sound of a car door slamming outside catches their attention and a sinking feeling begins to form in the pit of Eddie's stomach. There's no way Hopper and El would be back from the lab yet, and Jonathan said they would radio if there were any changes. 

So who the hell was outside?

Part Six

Tag List:

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and for some peeps that I think may be interested! @steddierthings @steddie-there @steves-strapcollection @henderdads @stevesbipanic @spooky-brakers

#season two halloween au #stranger things #stranger things season 2 au #steve harrington #eddie munson #the party #now we really get into the meat of canon #steve and nancy breakup #eddie is having all sorts of complicated feelings about steve here #i will never get tired of halloween party aus #you can pry them from my cold dead fingers #cw offscreen character death #bon newby does still die in this but its off screen #dustin meets eddie early #mike wheeler #lucas sinclair #max mayfield #nancy and steve kind of talk it out in this #nancy wheeler is much more observant than people give her credit for #afewproblems writes #throw in some pining as a treat #is it mutual #who could say #man where is my robin to knock some sense into these chuckleheads

[chirpsythismorning]

Mike's character regression can be explained in large part by one emotion in particular: guilt

Just want to preface this by saying that, this is not Mike slander. I love this dude. In fact, I think what makes Mike such an interesting character is that a lot of his behavior throughout the series can be explained in part by previous moments, and after really looking at all these moments together, what you end up with is a pretty fucked up story.

So while some might want to take this as Mike slander, these points I'm making are a part of Mike and things he has done and said and whether they were intentionally harmful or not, it's Mike. It's all shaped him and his role in the story. The fact that we're seeing a visible shift in his behavior at all, with plenty of moments from the show to back up what brought us here, makes it compelling enough to talk about.

So, without further ado, back to our roots:

Ah yes, the infamous canon proof disputing Mike's I think my life started that day we found you in the woods, claim during his monologue. Not only that, but in this original scene from 1x02, it turns out Mike actually intended to send her away the next day (all of which El could hear Mike saying from the open bathroom door).

Mike outright calling El a weapon, again telling the others they need her because they stand no chance at getting Will back otherwise.

I wont elaborate on this now, because there is way too much to unpack that'll honestly be more worthwhile discussing further on.

For now, this is a secret tool that will help us later.

These next couple scenes right here though, are pretty painful if I'm being completely honest. The way its shot, specifically El's very visible exhaustion, accompanied by the varying priorities of others around her, leaves me feeling pretty unsettled upon rewatches.

I obviously can't remember how I felt when I watched these scenes for the first time, but I imagine I viewed them as this huge romantic moment for Mike and El (I was tricked by heteronormativity, okay?). But, again, upon rewatching them since then, I've realized I get this sort of sad feeling by the end. You'll see what I mean.

El obviously just went through something extremely traumatic. She tried to go find Will and Barb in the void, only to find Barb dead and Will presumably alive, but then slipping through her fingers at the last second (no, literally).

We then got a moment where Joyce held El while the others sat by quietly because she clearly needed a moment of comfort given what she just endured.

Then in this scene shortly after, everyone is leaving to get ready for their final attempt at saving Will.

Now, notice how not only Lucas, but also Dustin make the effort to reach out to El to comfort her affectionately after that traumatic event, with those twos' actions specifically being showcased in sequence?

Lucas, who spent the better part of the season being critical of El, is now ending the season rubbing El's shoulder to warm her up, literally soothing her to make her feel better.

Then there's Dustin, who right after Lucas' gesture makes a gesture of his own, putting his hand on her knee reassuringly, to show her he's there and he's happy she's okay.

And lastly there's Mike, who is so kindly allowing El to rest her head on his shoulder. This placement of Mike and El here is definitely a testament to the fact that Mike has vouched for El this whole time in contrast to the others and so, understandably, she put her head on his shoulder for reassurance, because out of the three of them, he's the one whose been looking out for her the most. (Right?)

Now you might be thinking that this sequence's only purpose was to show Lucas and Dustin's development with El, and that it wasn't intentional that they focused on Lucas and Dustins' priorities in this moment in contrast to Mikes'. And I raise you, this next scene.

Here we have a focus on Mike looking on to where everyone left, while the others beside him are presumably just processing what went down and taking a rest (and boy oh boy do they (El) need one).

Mike on the other-hand decides to take this moment of rest to display the most cliche and universal forms of distracted unrest known to man: he checks his watch.

Mike then stands up abruptly, causing El to fall without his shoulder there for her to rest on anymore, all while her and Dustin are looking on after him, sort of like... Okay?

It's small. It might seem insignificant. But if you actually pay attention to what this scene is trying to make you feel, after really looking at it for what it is, it's kind of sad.

In a moment that chooses to highlight the other boys' acknowledgment of El after what just happened, and not only that, but at the tale end of their final battle of the season, Mike is... distracted?

Mike, who has been presumably looking out for El more than the others in the party this whole time, is conveniently out of commission? And right now when El is looking for his reassurance the most? Mike doesn't even have a moment to say, 'Hey I'll be right back, I just want to check something. Can one of you?--', asking Lucas or Dustin to sit next to her in his place. No. Dude just stands up without even acknowledging her.

If it was any other moment in the show, under less post-traumatic circumstances for El, then I wouldn't even think much of it. But it's at this point in the story when El is essentially at her most exhausted and quite literally seeking out support from others, specifically Mike, that makes his distractedness so eery.

Again, you might still be thinking that this isn't that deep. However, I think based on the events leading up to this, and what follows right here, could quite literally hold the answer to the guilt Mike is still keeping to himself to this day.

So... How are we feeling?

Are we feeling like Mike None of you are thinking about El's wellbeing right now! She could get brain damage from using her powers too much! She's not a weapon!* Wheeler is a little bit of a hypocrite? (I told you that tool would come in handy!)

It's actually quite terrifying how similar this scene is framed to the scene in Hopper's cabin in s3, where Mike pretty much says the exact opposite. In s1 Mike goes from being one of the first people to refer to El as a weapon within the context of them using her powers to find Will, with him being completely un-attuned to the fact that she is exhausted in this moment while the others are saying El's rest and safety is the most important, to then in s3 completely flipping script and saying El was using her powers for nothing, blaming the others for treating her like a weapon and not taking her wellbeing into consideration.

It would be one thing if Mike had a little arc where he acknowledged this script flip. Because that's what it is. It is them having Mike use a word in s1 to describe El, that being weapon, only to say the others are treating her like that with that same word being used. It is them having Mike not agknowledge El's well being after overusing her powers, only to say the others aren't taking her wellbeing into consideration for overusing her powers.

And it would be one thing if Mike had spoke to El or literally anyone about how he felt like he wronged El for planning on sending her away the next day after they found her so that they could go back to looking for Will, or how he said she was a weapon that they needed in order to find Will, essentially being no better than the people she just escaped from, who also used her for her powers. But we don't get that (actually we do.. but it's not acknowledged for what it is aka survivor's guilt. It's instead seen as romantic... another tool for later...)

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think any of Mike's behavior takes away from what Mike did do for El, because yes he was kind and accepting when the others weren't. But even despite all of that, at the end of the day, he was often at the forefront of expecting El to risk her life for them, even if he wasn't outright asking that of her.

Before you freak out, No. I don't think Mike, a literal child, was capable of fathoming that El was going into these situations risking her life. She's a superhero. El's alternative was literally going back to the lab, running, or staying with Mike. This was her safest option.

After a bunch of rewatches and putting together a lot of these moments as a whole, I've come to a point where I believe that Mike's behavior throughout s1 was him thinking that because of who El was, she's already in danger at all times. That is a constant reality for her. And so why not have her help them find Will, because she is able to, all while he can also help her. And El clearly wanted to help them, because she wanted to help good people and finally do something meaningful with her powers for a change. Unfortunately, she also had to endure PTSD flashbacks almost every single time Mike and the boys had her use her powers to help find Will.

Speaking of Will, he is currently missing and possibly dead. Will also, in contrast to El (for now...), does not have any sort of superpowers.

Mike's concern over the threat of Will's livelihood is much greater than Mike's acknowledgement to the true risks El is exposing herself to each time she uses her powers to help them. That is s1 canon.

Is there times when Mike is focused on El and her well being. Absolutely! But is there also times when Mike is not showing any display of concern to El's well being in the moment, in complete contrast to the other characters around him... Also yes.

And so the events happening the way they did, with Mike himself not fully comprehending the severity of what's been going on during these high stake situations going on around him, makes sense.

And that's what makes it all the more sad that when Mike finally does realize what he's truly been asking of El this whole time, which is to risk her life for them, it's too late.

This whole scene is obviously very emotional. All of the boys are crying, but the focus on Mike calling out for El painfully is heartbreaking.

But what's even more sad to me, is that El has been sort of used to mistreatment her whole life. She's used to having to find any comfort she could get from people in her life, all the while they were using her for her powers. I mean even despite Brenner being who he was and doing what he did, she still showed these signs of wanting to love him despite it. Which is very very fucked up. But knowing what she's gone through, makes sense.

Mike on the other-hand does greatly contrast Brenner because he was one of the first people to actually treat her with genuine kindness right from the start (before he even knew she had powers), making it a lot easier for her to care for him even despite that pesky trait of using her for her powers being almost synonymous with Brenner's very similar trait.

So when she looks back at Mike, and points him out specifically before sacrificing herself, it feels like a few things at once.

It feels like her acknowledging the fact that she appreciated him specifically for taking her in and supporting her more genuinely than anyone has in her entire life.

And yet it also feels like her, either intentionally or unintentionally, acknowledging the unfortunate side affect caused by days of Mike leading the efforts to find Will, with the expectation of her to do things to achieve that, which could have all lead to her demise technically. And so now when it all comes down to it and the stakes are at their highest yet, same as the risk, she's got to a point where she believes there is no other choice but to do just that, risk her life, especially if it means saving them.

While this is happening, Mike is backtracking in real time. He is trying to get El to stop and it's because he doesn't want her to die. Obviously.

But that's the fucked up part isn't it? When he finally realized what he's been asking of her this whole time, it's too late.

Which takes us to S2 Mike Wheeler, known by many for being a boy whose been calling his true love everyday for almost a year now because he's just so in love, but is actually in fact a boy suffering the most intense form of survivors guilt, one that involves a person who genuinely feels responsible for the persons death...

But that will probably take at least another 2,000 words so I'm thinking maybe I better split this into multiple parts.

I will tease that the next part involves one specific detail in particular that I never see anyone talk about, a detail that I think, in combination with what's discussed in this post, is so important to understanding Mike's breakdown for what it truly was at the end of season 2. I will also probably do more posts beyond that for s3-4, to delve into the impacts these moments from the first two seasons have basically put in place a perfect recipe for what is currently going down.

So feel free to stay tuned for those nonsense updates.

Continued

#byler #stranger things #mike wheeler #this is not mike slander! #this is mike deconstructed #this is mike in all his glory #well not all his glory #bc i think s2 and s3 and obviously s4 build off of this #making all of these moments all together overall a lot more compelling as a whole #but these right here are our roots ppl #find the root of the problem and everything else just falls into place #i can't wait for part 2 though #it's even more heartbreaking and tragic somehow #the suppressed guilt of it all #the denial #the shame #the gall at times #it's only gonna pile up for this kid #watch out dominos (mike wheeler) #your dominos are gonna fall...

[paddockbunny]

Only Once

Summary: Lando’s drivers room gets a little unexpected action Rating: 18+. Pairing : Lando Norris x Reader Word Count : 1,140 - ONE SHOT. Trigger Warnings : 18+, NSFW, adult material, adult language, oral female receiving

All you could feel under your fingertips was the cool metal walls behind you. There was no fabric to grab, no material to grip, nothing. You were desperate at this point. So utterly damn desperate for something, anything, to grasp and yet couldn’t find a single damn thing near at hand. Fuck drivers rooms.

“Fuck…” you heard Lando sigh under his breath as he pulled your thin - already soaked - panties down. He was on his knees and your heart pounded away in your chest at the fact this was happening. The electricity that sparked through your whole body was practically enough to start a fire but as he drew his mouth closer to your core you heard your work phone ping and instantly your heart sunk. It would be someone asking where you were - well, where Lando was because you? You didn’t really matter.

“Wait!” You exclaimed as Lando pushed your work issue skirt up around your waist. He looked up at you with his eyes full of expectation and lust. His face now just mere inches from your silky, wet folds and it made your stomach flip at what he was about to do but the interruption from your phone couldn’t be ignored. “We shouldn’t be doing this. Especially not here.” The words were barely out of your mouth when a shit eating grin appeared across Lando’s face.

This whole thing started a few months ago before the season even began. At first it was innocent flirty banter while you got to know him during pre-season. Being the “new girl” meant you had to find your place amongst the already established PR team and getting the drivers to like you seemed the easiest and best way to do it. It was innocent teasing (ok, with a slightly sexual nature) at first. It was the type of messing around you could easily write off as being nothing more than two young people who had the same humour and liked to wind each other up. Then it evolved into small touches and gestures before it manifested shockingly quickly into its current sexual form where every single chance the pair of you got you were ripping each others clothes off. It was a gross misconduct on your part and really, you should have been a lot smarter than to continue it after the first time. But Lando was hard to say no too. He was hard to resist and once you had a taste you were addicted. You were utterly hooked on the thrill, titillation and pure arousal that doing something so morally wrong as hooking up with the “talent” gave you that you couldn’t wait till race week, where you could sneak into each others hotel rooms, anymore.

Lando’s hands ran up and down your soft, sleek thighs. His eyes had fallen back to look at the very thing you were trying to deny him. He could see how excited you were at the simple thought of him. He could see the shiny dripping mess begin to pool at the apex of your thighs. It felt like an invisible hand was reaching around your throat and squeezing the moment was making it that had to breathe. He had an appearance of pure hunger as his eyes flickered up to you while he pulled your thigh up to rest upon his shoulder. If anyone walked in right now you would be fired instantly. “That’s why it’s so hot.” You felt his hot breath mere inches from your core and you didn’t (couldn’t) protest anymore. Your mind went totally blank as all of a sudden Lando’s mouth was on you and air caught in your throat instantly.

His tongue rather expertly run up and down you collecting your arousal on his tongue and spreading it around. He lapped at your folds with a mixture of strong long licks and short quick ones before finally settling upon your sensitive clit. When he groaned against you your hands finally found something to grab, his hair. You shoved your fingers through his perfectly coiled curls and pulled. There was nothing in your mind anymore. All you could focus on was the fucking phenomenal feeling that came from the tip of Lando’s tongue. You missed the sound of your phone pinging again because you couldn’t hold back your shaky gasp as Lando continued relentlessly driving you toward an orgasm. He gripped your thigh tighter as he pressed his tongue down on you with more force and drew indecipherable patterns upon your most delicate bundle of nerve endings. His name whimpered from your lips as he increased the tempo. Your hands gripping harder on his thick locks as you could feel the unmistakable high edging closer and closer by the second. “Lando….” You breathed out louder than you were expecting and you felt him smile against you. God, he was so fucking smug but you couldn’t comprehend wasting time on his arrogance now that you were right on the tip of ecstasy. As a matter of fact, without any sign of warning, you came.

The high was so astronomical that you were glad Lando had his hands on you to keep you upright. Your teeth sunk down hard into your bottom lip as tremors wracked your body. And yet Lando kept going. His tongue continually working over your soaked folds as he helped you ride it out. If anyone walked in now, you would tell them to fuck off so Lando could bend you over the end of the sofa and rail you into next week - but then he would probably miss the whole days media and get himself one hell of a fine. When he was satisfied he purred against your thigh as he pressed his cheek to it. “That’s my favourite taste in the whole world.” You finally looked down at him and his chin was glistening with the product of your high. It made a shaky laugh slip out of you and you sensed he would have enjoyed making you laugh in what was a fairly serious moment.

As Lando fetched you some tissue to clean up a little with you had to check your phone and see how much trouble you had gotten him in. It wasn’t as bad as you thought but it was bad nonetheless. Lando would have to run to make his press conference now but to you it was worth it. He came back and passed you a wad of tissue while picking up your little pink panties. “I’m going to keep a hold of these.” He rolled his tongue in his mouth before adding “an incentive for you to come to my room tonight so I can finish what I started.” “What do you mean? I came!” You quietly exclaimed (remembering where you were). “Once. Once isn’t enough.”

#lando norris #lando norris fanfiction #lando norris fanfic #lando norris fic #lando norris imagine #lando norris imagines #lando norris one shot #lando norris x reader #lando norris x you #lando norris x y/n #f1 x reader #f1 x you #f1 x y/n #f1 fanfiction #f1 fanfic #f1 fic #f1 imagine #f1 imagines #f1 one shots #f1 one shot #f1 smut #lando x reader #lando x you

[taeiris]

okay guys here’s my crazy unsupported st5 theory that is mostly just me projecting my need for madwheeler bonding and drama and angst also byler duh

disclaimers: i never make theories so this is extremely messy probably, i know jack dookie abt writing shows i think of this as my own little version of what i would think would be very cool to happen, if this has loop holes dont ask me anything bc idk either

OKAY LETS GET ON IT

so first things first here is what i am taking into consideration for the theory to happen:

• mike pov, self reflection and introspection (he is gay and in love with will byers okay)

• madwheeler bonding, theyre both complex n misunderstood

• the upside down isnt just one dimension, i came up with this bc of how different the ud looks now

compared to when henry arrived.

to me theres like an umbrella dimension (yellow one) and others under it (blue one/hawkins ud, the void, etc)

this is also lowkey supported by the silly boobie diagram the writers posted abt

OKAY PREPARE FOR THE WORD VOMIT

in this silly theory of mine, a new dimension variant of the ud will be revealed in season 5, serving as a parallel to the void. this is where max is

OKAY another thing is this is also heavily based on those “leaks” that were going around twitter (for me at least) earlier when the strike first started. i remember a few of them claiming that we would get a deeper insight into mike and his own things, so this is my interpretation

this would serve as another vanishing, not really bc its shorter, but this time mike will be getting stuck in this other dimension, eventually finding max BOOM madwheeler serve

i mean look at them. the potential is insane

ANYWAYS

this dimension is like a combo of all the other ones, picture it like the hawkins ud, with the void’s wet floor maybe

lets go back to the fact max is here, this is her coma nightmare, its like this purgatory dimension vecna put her soul in

in this dimension inhabit your ghosts

this overwhelming, haunting, tormenting realm in your mind where you are constantly confronting all your bad memories, maybe this is kind of how vecna keeps max under his grasp, no happy memories allowed

okay so, mike gets there. how? when? i dont fucking know this is honestly just word vomit fanfiction to me

at first hes confused, scared but mostly confused, picture him screaming for wills name (the parallels) at first it’s empty and eerily quiet, but as he accepts it, the ghosts start coming in.

he gets BOMBARDED with these bad memories, some of them he cant even remember because come on, bro is always neglecting his internalized feelings/monologue in fear of what they say about him

this is where we get his pov on the whole will and eleven situation, amongst other things (like the way he’s constantly stressed thinking about the safety of the people he loves)

for a moment we see him break, bc these ghosts are LOUD and MANY

but it stops

max is here, she’s like “MIKE?”

“MAX?”

shes been here for a fat minute, she knows how to handle these ghosts in fact shes been going thru them one by one ever since, because shes done hiding. and she suspects that the only way to get out is by confronting them.

max saves mike from his ghosts, explains that this place is seemingly a purgatory with levels of memories and ghosts to overcome

this is how we get our madwheeler bonding we so graciously need, as they are part of eachother ghosts since theyre so similar it makes the other mad

this is how our complex misunderstood characters are broken down, explained to the audience, while also discovering the mystery that is this new dimension where at the finish line they might just figure out how to defeat vecna.

because they will

after overcoming the ghosts they find the place that vecna didnt think they would reach as he was so sure they would break and collapse on their own madness

think of it as how el found the source in season 3

or how max found vecnas lair after running away in dear billy

except this place is vecnas actual mind, they can see hear and feel what vecna is thinking, his plans and everything

mike wonders how will feels being able to feel this all the time

will feels this all the time

will is always connected to this piece of vecnas mind, to this source

he can always hear vecna

until he suddenly hears max… and mike and theyre calling for help

theyve figured out key clues on how to defeat vecna, and they have an idea on how to get out. this is how will’s connection comes in handy

mind walkie-talkie

maybe thats what this theory should be called, idk

-

so thats how we get our byler confirmation, madwheeler bonding like never before, mike focus, and the key to defeat vecna

at least in my head

i know this was messy and all over the place but it was very fun to explain and drop all my thoughts ive been vomiting on the gc for months now

let me know what you think, what you would add, if theres anything you think will support this theory?

its all just a theory, for fun! pls keep that in mind

thank you if you’ve read this far🫶

#mind walkie-talkie gate #stranger things theory #st5 #st5 theory #st5 headcanon #stranger things 5 #stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #max mayfield #madwheeler #will and the mind flayer #byler #< target audience #taeiris word vomiting theories #mind walkie-talkie

[enchxanting]

our love is god [ethan landry]

read part 2 here || all parts

pairing: ethan landry x fem!reader

warnings: nothing yet but this fic is heathers-inspired, so be warned for the future.

author's note: hi guys, long time lurker first time poster. this is my first time WRITING fic so feel free to leave any critique. also i don't know if i did the cut right lol i have a lot planned and hope you like!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Diary,

I should’ve never let Mindy convince me to start this operation. 

Sure, it’s nice to have a steady cash flow, but nothing is more aggravating than everyone and their mother asking for doctor’s notes, report cards, prescriptions, and absence notes when I’m just trying to make it to fourth-period math. When I was ten, I expected to use my Nancy-Drew-inspired skills to unearth hidden staircases or find whistling statues, not help someone’s checked-out mom get a Xanax. 

Yet I forged three (3) permission slips today. Why? Because, next to mysteries, I love the sweet smell of cash in the morning. Yesterday, I added $150 to the rainy day fund. Hopefully, when the weather’s right, I'll be inspired to buy a car and ditch Woodsboro. This town is fucked, alright. Just ask Chad, Mindy, Sam, or–

“Tara! Jesus Christ!” I rub my leg where her sneaker connected. “What’s your damage?”

“Are you done, Shakespeare? You said you’d get lunch with me like, fifteen minutes ago.”

Tara isn’t so great with patience. But, again, I am not so great at keeping track of time. “Yeah, whatever,” I say. “Let’s go see what they’ve cooked up for us today.”

I follow her through the winding path of tables, chairs, and teenage bodies. As we go, I collect bills from outstretched hands and replace them with papers of varying sizes. Tara turns to smirk at me. “What was the event this time?”

“Oh, you know. It’s report card season, and this school is not known for its stellar GPAs.”

“We just have you to thank for keeping it floating below a 3.0,” she teases. “Tell me, Y/N. Does all that extra brainpower of yours get used up matching the way people dot their i’s and cross their t’s?”

I roll my eyes at her. “Sure, Tara. Let’s just get some lunch. I’m seriously starving.”

We grab trays and join the line, aimlessly chattering about the day. Tara’s been my friend since the beginning of the year when I was the only new kid in a town struck by tragedy. We were the only new buyers in Woodsboro over the summer. The rest are still empty, the memory of last year’s Ghostface attacks having driven out long-time residents.

What’s surprising, though, is that the so-called “Woodsboro Four” are still here. Sure, Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad mostly stick together, but despite the terrible tragedy that they witnessed, they let me and Annika, Mindy’s current girlfriend, into their lives. I could never measure up to that. I’m just glad they want to be my friend.

I’m taken out of my musings on friendship when I feel someone’s eyes on my back. Without turning around, I recite my usual speech. “$5 for report cards, $10 for prescriptions and absence notes, and an extra $5 for rush fees.”

“Woah, um, tempting, but I’m not looking for any forgery.”

Confused, I turn around to put a face to an unfamiliar voice. The guy’s tall, almost as tall as Chad, with curly brown hair and brown eyes that widen when I meet them. “Sorry, I was just going to get my lunch, but you dropped some cash back here.”

For some reason, my voice is not working. All I can do is look up at him, suddenly captivated by how shy he seems to be. When I pause for a few moments too long, Tara reaches around and takes the money from his hand. “Uh, thanks. I’m sure my friend here appreciates it. Usually she’s more talkative.”

“Oh, god, yeah, sorry,” I finally get out, stumbling over my words. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Suddenly, I think he remembers to be bashful and walks away without another word.

When he’s gone, Tara laughs. “God, Y/N, drool much? I’ve never seen you like that before.”

I flush red. “Whatever, Tara, you’re the worst.” I give her a playful shove and walk off to buy my lunch. I hand the money to the cashier, but all I can think about are those big, brown eyes, and I know I’m fucked.

#ethan landry #ethan landry x y/n #ethan landry x reader #scream 6 #scream 2023 #jack champion #heathers #heathers au #high school au #ethan landry fanfiction

[quoththemaiden]

Aziraphale: The Sword that Guards the Tree of Life

Looking where the furniture isn't

This post is dedicated to @meatballlady's excellent insistence that if we want to try to predict where season 3 will go, we need to look at where the furniture isn't. That is, what must have been there but wasn't shown?

For this one, my source material is going to be Genesis. That is, in no small part, because it does in fact fuck severely that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett took the angel with the flaming sword and the serpent of Eden and made them kiss (@joycrispy, @ouidamforeman). It's also because Genesis, quite simply, exists, and it seems safe to assume that most everyone in Gaiman and Pratchett's intended audience has been exposed to at least its first few chapters dozens of times.

What does Genesis tell us about Aziraphale's purpose?

3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—  23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

@joycrispy's analysis above highlights Aziraphale's role as given in the last verse: as the angel chosen to wield the flaming sword, he was sent down after Adam and Eve were expelled to prevent them from returning. Instead, he chose to protect them by giving that sword away. His desire to protect humanity is indeed beautiful (@give-soup-please, @snek-eyes).

But wait, what came right before that? "And take fruit also from the tree of life...?"

2:9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That's right: What we see in the show is that Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden so that they'd have to deal with the rain and the animals and have to work for their food, but that was never the primary motivation. God planted two special trees, and after Eve and Adam ate from one of them, God was terrified at the prospect of them turning around and eating from the other. And thus, the Garden of Eden was made off-limits and set to be permanently guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

So, the flaming sword.

Twice now, Aziraphale's sword has helped humanity survive complete and total destruction (@nottobehornyonthemain). The first time, he handed the sword to the first two humans, which protected not just them but the entirety of the human race via Adam and very pregnant Eve.

The second time, he let it be wielded by The Them, who used it to best the Four Horsepeople of the Apocalypse and save the billions of humans already alive as well as unborn generations.

Perhaps the flaming sword was only intended as a plot point in the first season. However, if its purpose were completed, it could have easily been destroyed. As a narrative piece, it could have broken dramatically at the end of the face-off against the Four Horsepeople. Or, Watsonianly, God could have chosen to break it Herself; after all, it was already used against its intended purpose twice, so why let it keep existing?

Instead, it's carefully taken away to... where? Heaven?

The place Aziraphale is now going?

Or at least a place where he could likely find a record showing where it's being stored?

Whether you call it "rule of threes" or "Chekhov's gun," I think it likely that Aziraphale will be getting his sword back in season 3. He probably doesn't want it (@createserenity, @ineffableigh, @doctorscienceknowsfandom), but he'll need it.

The question, then, is what would Aziraphale do with the flaming sword he was given to prevent humans from reaching the tree of life?

If we're looking at where the furniture isn't, the biggest stretch of an interpretation would be to say that the missing furniture is the tree of life. If anyone knows where Eden is, it would be Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate. We know that both Heaven and Hell want to end humanity. The opening credits have humanity walking to their judgment after their deaths; what better way to prevent that than by preventing those deaths?

The most intense version of this theory says that the audience should be familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden and know damn well that there are two special trees there and that Aziraphale was put in place to guard the second one — the one humanity hasn't eaten from yet, the one that grants immortal life. That's where, if I were truly trying to swing for the hills by aiming at where the furniture isn't, I would ideally like to end this post. If that were the case, season 3 could even open with Aziraphale walking towards the Garden of Eden, sword in hand, but this time approaching it from the outside with the intention of tearing the wall down.

But, let's be honest, making individual people immortal doesn't feel like it would fit with the themes of Good Omens, nor with Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett's world views.

So, let's take the tree of life symbolically: Instead of the tree of life granting individual humans immortality, it could instead represent giving humanity immortality. In that case, the thing that's where the furniture isn't is Aziraphale's sword. You know, the sword that's already saved the human race from extinction twice now, with both times being because Aziraphale gave it away.

I suspect that the sword will wind up in Aziraphale's hands again in season 3. I also quite suspect that it won't be staying there. In the end, I expect it will once again be up to humanity to reach out their hand to take the apple from that second tree.

#good omens #good omens meta #good omens season 2 #good omens season 3 #aziraphale #the guardian of the eastern gate #the sword #the tree of life #self post #did i overdo it with the citations? #writing this activated Essay Mode and i went all in on crediting my inspirations #if i could draw this post would definitely include a picture of aziraphale stalking towards eden through the desert with sword in hand #because even though i don't think it's likely it would be one heck of an epic scene #with him tiny and small under that great wall but so so so fierce and determined #alas that i cannot even manage stick figures #anyway i've been kicking this post around in my head for two months now so hopefully someone still finds it interesting! #(feel free to make your own guesses as to what parent of unborn generations might take up the flaming sword in season 3)

[softness-and-shattering]

Ok the latest episode of dungeon meshi is gory as fuck.

Major episode 11 SPOILERS

Given that the episode is dragon part one, I assumed they would fight the dragon, mostly fail, cliffhanger, and the next episode would be defeating it.

I did NOT expect them to kill it, root around its insides, and find Falins fucking bones!!

The foot comes down on Senshi and he immediately vomits blood? Chilchuk knocked out by bricks to the head, Laios loses his leg?! (Nitpick but. If the leg was disconnected what was keeping him from falling out the dragons mouth? Anime rule of cool physics?)

And then. Chilchuk and Senshi is heaps of pain and Laios' leg is just itchy? Its a good joke, but I think there's more. Those heals were too easy after that amount of unprecedented violent gore.

Laios had a btw-line about of the dragon and is mating and then dismissed the thought with no given reason. So I think next episode theres gonna be a second Red dragon. ( Its possible part 2 will be next season, but following more common episode title namings, red dragon 1 and 2 will be the season finale. )

And theres the unanswered question of the whole season, why is the dragon more active, why is the ecosystem of the dungeon off-balance. I think next episode will be our big clue.

Re Falin, its no coinicidence we were introduced to the racist rich guy who assures us that souls dont leave bodies in the dungeon. That was confusing up till the last episode because the characters sure act like death is possible, and we've seen dead people and heard about body-retrieval. Then Namari goes to revivals to ask about Falin and there are bodies stored behind the desk guy. Which puts the pieces together, bodies that can be retrieved are retrieved, and the people can be revived. If someone cares to, and presumably pays for it. Someones gotta pay for retrievals.

Its also no accident that our warm-fuzzy sibling scene before finding Falins skull is about a ghost who is trapped with his body, and Falins intuition/ability with ghost magic. Can she be revived, will she stick around as a ghost, remains to be seen. (Remains.)

As someone who hasnt yet read the manga, Im also curious about long term story. Ive gotten the impression that theres significant story to go, possibly probably they reach the end of the dungeon? But Ive not seen Falin present in any of the art, and for the story to continue they need motivation to keep going.

So Im guessing that Falin ends up as a ghost, or unreviveable, and they have to get to the bottom to find the mad mage, work out what stops people from crossing over post-death (does that include monsters, orcs, humanoid mermaids or fish-oid[???]mermen), and only then can they bring Falin back to life.

That or they revive her and theres some other plot hook, but my guess is what I just described.

(Another silly nitpick, the fire is blocked by the adamantium but the heat isnt a problem until after the fire is done? "WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE TO EXHAUST ALL ITS FUEL" THAT WOULDVE LEFT FALIN BEYOND ALL HOPE!!!!!!)

And its funny re Senshi's knife, ooh its mithril it can cut through anything, well of course! he's used it to cut every single monster theyve eaten! And we never wondered how! Foreshadowing by cookware, its ridiculous and I love it.

Last point is it just me or are...is it Kaka and Kiki? Theyre discount Vex and Vax, right?

#for ppl who dont know me my nitpicks aren't hating on the show #i just have a brain that points out these things and they need expression #its not a negative #theres always gonna be a level of movie magic #its fun to find where that line is of what just needs accepting and whats secret foreshadowing to extrapolate from #also no major spoilers please! #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #mine #review #sort of

[xcaptain-winterx]

Shiny Tree

dad!lloyd Hansen x reader

summary: Lloyd decides to show junior their big Christmas tree

warnings: fluff, baby, swearing, Lloyd

a/n: English is not my first language, meaning you will probably find a lot of misspelling etc.

Main Masterlist Daddy Sociopath Masterlist

Lloyd has never been a fan of Christmas, there’s music 24/7, stores are full of people buying stuff for their family, old men dressed up as Santa begging for money. Everybody is acting all nice, smiling during Christmas dinner with their family, all for gifts. The parents gift their kids toy cars, dolls, pets and fucking Christmas sweaters that you will never wear. He never had something like that, no one ever gifted him something when he was a kid, never. Every families were celebrating Christmas and got a tree while he sat alone in his room. Lloyd had to see all these happy families, wishing he was part of them. Once he grew up and started his business he made sure to ban everything that has to do with Christmas, no Christmas stuff will get near him. All that changed though, when he met sunshine.

The first Christmas together, sunshine gifted him a painting of the sunset in Paris where Lloyd took her for their first date. She did it for him, she took her time painting it with every single detail, just for him. In this moment he realized that he needs to propose sooner than he had already planned.

This Christmas will be especially special because it’s LJs first one, Lloyd made sure that everything is perfect, but it seems that LJ is only interested in one thing.

“Look, that’s our Christmas tree”, Lloyd says as he walks in the big living room with high ceilings, holding LJ. The huge tree decorated with gold and green ornaments stood tall at 16 feet compared to the 22 feet walls of the mansion. There was no way to overlook it. “Made sure that its perfect” he speaks, looking at the tree before turning around, on his way to show his son the rest of the decorated mansion.

A whine and some quite hard kicks stop him “hey, remember we don’t hit daddy”, LJ doesn’t stop though, even letting go of Mr. Mustache to continue kicking his dads stomach and chest. “LJ” Lloyd says in a stern voice, giving his son a glare, “stop that or I put you down for a nap”, he picks Mr. Mustache up and puts him under his arm. LJ turns his head to the tree, letting out a high pitch scream, “Mister, my patience is running thin, stop it, this is my last warning”. Lloyd doesn’t understand what’s making his son throw a tantrum. Maybe LJ is starting to show his dads genes.

He looks at his dad with a scrunched expression . Lloyd sees that and sighs “Don’t, son”, that’s all it takes for LJ to start screaming at the top of his lungs. LJ trashes around in Lloyds arms, tears escaping his eyes, wanting to look at the tree again.

“WHAT IS WRONG”, Lloyd is so done at this point but he’s still trying to stay calm. LJ reaches up to his face and pulls on his dads mustache. “AHHHH LLOYD JUNIOR”, Lloyd tries to pull his hand away, which only results in LJ pulling harder. Baby fists are stronger than anything else.

LJ pulls his fist in the direction again, Lloyds face following, “you got to fudging kidding me, the tree?”. He just almost got his mustache pulled out because of this tree. Taking a deep breath he remembers it’s the Christmas season, he needs to stay calm, it’s Juniors first Christmas.

“Ok, if you let daddy’s mustache go we can go back to the tree, deal?”, LJ may not understand everything but whatever his dad is saying sound like it’s a good thing. He lets go of his dads mustache and claps in his hands. Lloyd turns LJ, so that his small back is against Lloyds chest, facing the tree. He walks over to the big tree, making sure that Mr. Mustache is still secured under his arms. His sons eyes go wide when they get closer to the tree, the shiny lights almost hypnotizing him. Lloyd is now directly in front of the tree, so that his son can touch it. LJ reaches for the lights, touching them and looking at how the light can disappear in his hands when he closes his fist. It’s funny how LJ like the lights more than about 89% of all the toys that he owns.

Lloyd looks at his sons face, seeing the Christmas lights making his sons eyes sparkle, “do you like the tree, I know it’s shiny, right?” he says, not taking his eyes away from his son. LJ smiles and looks away from the lights when something else spicks his interest, the gold ornaments. Lloyd sees that and carefully brings LJ a bit closer to the ornament his son been eyeing.

“Careful, junior” Lloyd says, when LJ touches the ornament.

He knows that the ornaments are quite heavy because he obviously made sure that they are real gold ornaments, so he puts one of his hands under the ornament to support it.

The more he looks at the tree the more he realizes that something is missing, every year they had a ‘classic’ Christmas tree with no special ornaments but this year is different, he’s now a parent. The tree needs something….cute.

He looks at his son again, thinking what he would like. His son likes for his few months of existing already some things, lights, mama, Mr. Mustache, dropping stuff, music boxes, food- he can put candy canes in it!

LJ is definitely not allowed and able to eat them yet but it’s something that’s cute.

He calls for the staff and not five seconds later they arrive, “get green candy canes and put them in the tree”

“Oh, uhm, are you sure?”

Lloyd looks at them, “Yes, I’m fucking sure that I want some in the tree”

“It’s just that it took almost a day to get this tree decorated and putting the candy canes in would take-“

“Get some fucking candy canes before I hang you up the fireplace and don’t drop any ornaments while you put them on!” Lloyd demands, trying to not lose his temper in front of his son, though, LJ doesn’t even seem to care whatever is going on.

“Yes, s-sir, we get some a-and won’t drop something” the staff says before running away. Lloyd can’t believe that the fucking staff just told him that they don’t want to do it because they don’t want to work, it’s their job to work. They will definitely not be at home during Christmas.

A evil smirk appears on his face, making him look like the Grinch. Lloyd looks down at his son, “Junior, do you want the staff to get in trouble?” he says in a dorky voice, knowing that LJ will want it, just because his voice sounds funny. LJ claps in his hands, smiling from ear to ear.

Lloyd stops supporting the ornament, which he did for safety so that the ornament doesn’t fall, and says “throw it”

Without Lloyd supporting the ornaments LJ finally has the ability to touch the shiny thing without something stopping him.

It doesn’t take long before the ornament drops and shatters into pieces. Junior looks up at his dad, scared that he did something wrong.

Lloyd makes a funny expression that says ‘oh no’ in a mocking way, “Looks like the staff is in big trouble now.” he kisses his forehead before smiling “We should drop some more, so that the staff gets in more trouble”LJ gives his dad a smile when Lloyd takes an ornament and drops it.

“Don’t worry, mini me, we will get even more shiny ornaments to put in the tree”

#chris evans #lloyd hansen x you #lloyd hansen x reader #lloyd hansen x y/n #lloyd hansen #dad!lloyd hansen #the gray man lloyd #chris evans character x reader #chris evans character #chris evans character fanfiction #daddy sociopath

[georgiapeach30513]

That September Night, Part 1

Summary:   Unlucky in love, you go against everything you have ever believed, and signed up for The Bachelor.  You didn’t want to, but didn’t want to miss out on the experience.  You didn’t expect the bachelor to be the ridiculously handsome Nick Vaughan.  Didn’t expect an instant connection.  But you also weren’t prepared for the drama, the anger, the hate, the worry, the constant cameras, or Nick’s need to steal you away from the cameras any chance he could.

Pairings:  Nick Vaughan X Reader

Rating:  fluff

Warnings:  mild language, the start of gossip, 18+ ONLY

Word Count:  3.9K

Series Masterlist

*dividers created by @firefly-graphics​

You smile as you look around the third location of The Bubble Bea Beanery.  What started as a cute quaint coffee and tea shop had turned into something so much more.  Growing beyond your expectations.  The new site was coming along perfectly.  You didn’t even have to tell your assistant what you wanted, she just knew.  It had the same vibe as the other two locations, but each store had its own unique spin and personality.

Your cousin yells your name as she slings the door open,and you turn to greet her.  Spinning around in the store with your arms spread wide and the biggest smile on your face.  You were so proud, “So we need to talk,” Chelsea starts off, without even a short sweet hello.  

“About what?” Chelsea was always up to something, and always getting you in trouble.

“You know I love you, and I love what you’re doing here.  The Bubble Bean is adorable.”

“But?” There was always a but.  Especially with the way she had approached this conversation.  

“You don’t have anyone to share it with.”

“Ugh,” you scoff, rolling your eyes as you head towards the storage room.  Chelsea follows you, wanting to start speaking, but you cut her off, “Do you not think I haven’t tired?  You act as if I hole up alone every night in my apartment.  I don’t.  I just don’t think there’s anyone worth my time.  I would rather be single than settle, and…why are you smiling?”

“I did something stupid, but it paid off,” you open your eyes wide as you hold out your arms, glaring at her.  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You are smiling, and you said you did something stupid.  I’m not doing speed dating nonsense.”

“I’m not asking you to.  I…I can’t proceed down this path without your consent.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what it is,” she counters.  Following you as you walk further away.  Starting to pack up bags of coffee beans.  “I’m trying to help you.”

“No.”

“But I want to help you.”

“Absolutely no.”

“Please, just hear me out,” sighing, you stop your movements and give her your undivided attention.  “It’s not the best timing.  And before you say anything, just listen.  I know you’ve got the third store opening, and there’s still so much to do, but I signed you up for something.”

You roll your eyes because it was always something she was wanting you to do.  Cousins, but also best friends.  She found love early, and had children early.  Now she wanted to live vicariously through you as you navigated trying to find someone that was worth having more than three dates with.  “You were approved to go on The Bachelor.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“The season you're on has a music producer named Nick Vaughan on it, and…”

“Shut up!  The Bachelor?  Like the show we have a FaceTime call every Monday night to watch?” Chelsea nods her head, and reaches into her pocket for her phone before she shows you a picture, “This is Nick?”

“Yep.  And I know what you’re thinking…”

“He’s hot.”

“That is not at all what I thought you were thinking.  But I’m going to shut up, you work it out in your head.  Can I make a bubble tea?”

“No,” you groan, trying to think things through logically.  What would it actually feel like to date a guy that was obviously dating twenty other women?  To know that you weren’t the only person he was talking to.  You wouldn’t be the only person he was spending time with.  Was developing sincere feelings even possible?  You enjoyed the show, but that didn’t mean you wanted to be on the show.  That was a lot to think about.

“We’re on time crunch.  There’s other girls that want to be on.  And they chose you.  I don’t know what the criteria is, and I’m not going to pretend to know, but The Bachelor with that hot guy.  What do you have to lose?”

“I’m opening up a new store.”

“And Claudia has made all the decisions.  You just told me that yesterday.”

“But it’s not open.”

“Claudia and you hired several new employees.  Rick is going to test them on their coffee making skills.  Babes, even though you’ve got a new store opening, you’ve got this down.  It’s completely perfect.  And you can do this.  You can go on this stupid show and have fun.  Maybe make out with a hot guy, and make your last boyfriend that lasted a total of three months, jealous.  You could have that hot man make out with you on camera, and try and get it in.  And every man that used the excuse that they weren’t in the right place in their life can swallow rocks while you fuck Nick.”

“You can’t do that.  It’s what the fantasy suite is for,” it actually didn’t sound like a bad idea.  It sounded fun.  But could you trust everyone on your team to make this store happen?

“Okay, you get to travel, have fun, meet this incredibly hot guy, spend time with women exploring different locations, and then there’s this possibility of finding love.  How bad could this be?”

“Why would you say that?” You ask, childishly stomping your foot.  She knows how superstitious you are, and that was not necessary.  “You have ruined everything now.”

“So does that mean you’re going to go?” Chelsea taps her knuckles on the cabinets three times before you ever nod your head yes.  You were going to do it, but it was only to have fun.

Nick rubs his hand over his brows, scrunching his eyes.  He is annoyed.  “Why am I doing this again?”

“It’s good publicity,” Nick’s hand slaps down on the arm of the chair as he glares over at his manager.  “You said you didn’t have time to date, and you weren’t into just sex.  Here you go.  You get to date twenty-six women at once.”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“And they all know that you’re dating all of them,” Nick rolls his eyes, settling back more into his chair.  Dating around out in the open when you were the only male, and the women lived together, “Nick, it’s for a few weeks.  What is the worst that could happen,” Nick’s eyes turn into saucers as he stares over at his manager, and Mickey taps his knuckles on the table beside him three times.

“Seriously?  You know I hate sentences like that.”

“And I did your odd little ritual or knocking on wood three times.  You signed the contract though.  You’re doing it.  Just have fun.  Meet women.  Enjoy yourself.”

Nick did not think he would enjoy himself.  He thinks this show is going to be corny.  The only thing he can hope for is maybe some fun.  Maybe get to meet some attractive women.  But he knows the drama is coming.  He knows his normally private life is going to be exaggerated to make it look more exciting on television.  Fake dates, and too many women; a lot could go wrong.

Nick looks out at the property of the mansion, shaking his head.  The women are gorgeous.  They seemed interesting, and first impressions aren't everything, but there was nobody he had met that he actually saw himself with.  There could always be something more.  But it was starting to feel monotonous.

Gorgeous women.  And this was just speed dating.  It is all it was.  He says his hellos, nodding his head.  He’s polite, and notices the camera.  They all put on a show for him.  They wanted him to remember them.  And still they blurred together.

He looks over at the producers, giving them a curt nod as he sighs.  “How long is this supposed to last?”

“You signed the contract,” a nameless, faceless producer reminds him.

“Right.  Is that all of them?” He had been standing here for ages.  When they shake their heads, he lets out a dramatic puff of air.  “She’s late?”

“Yes.  Her driver.”

Nick wants to fire the driver.  “Is she the last one?” Another nod from the producer.  This is what he didn’t like.  Things weren’t in his control here when in real life they normally were.  He was the director of things in the studio.  He told other’s what to do.  And now he was being controlled by people he didn’t know and a bunch of giggly women.  He is already exhausted thinking about it.

“Finally,” Nick whispers as headlights shine on the damp pavement.  

Pursing your lips, you exhale slowly as the car rolls into place.  He looks annoyed.  This was a terrible idea.  He couldn’t even look at the car.  The driver couldn’t find your location.  You knew you were going to be the first to be sent home.  You couldn’t even see his face.  He was disinterested before even meeting you because of something beyond your control.

Grabbing onto the door handle, you pull the lever, and step out of the car.  Nick’s head tips forward, and your eyes lock in with his crystal blue eyes.  “Hey,” he says with a boyish grin.

“Hey,” you smile back.  His pictures didn’t do him any justice.  He is handsome, but it was so much more than that.  There seemed to be a young mischievous quality about him.  You give him your name, and he pulls up your hand up to his mouth, kissing over your knuckles.  

“I’m Nick.”

“I know,” he hadn’t dropped your hand, and you had no intention of removing it.  “I’m sorry.  I’m nervous.”

“I was,” you clear your throat, looking down to the ground.  It was too soon.  You did not want to be the one saying you were in love the first night.  “So…uh…what do you do?”

“I own a couple coffee shops.  Putting up the third.”

“I love coffee.  What’s it called?”

“The Bubble Bee Beanery,” Nick’s eyes somehow get brighter, and his smile widens.  His thumb starts making shapes on the top of your hand, and you become even more nervous.  Who was this man to get you to act like a school girl?

“You’re a New York girl?” Staring at him confused, you nod your head.  “Upper East Side?”

“Yes,” your word drags out.  Had he done some research on you ladies, and he just knew it was you.

“I love the Bubble Bee.  My order is the Metropolitan.  I don’t always get to go in there; my assistant gets it most of the time.  I prefer the flagstone store.  And…that’s yours?  I’ll admit the bubble tea is not really my thing, but the coffee is top notch.  Naming specialty drinks after parts of the city is cute.  It’s just good coffee.  Not too gimmicky.  And you did this show for what reason?”

“To hopefully find love.  Isn’t that why you signed up?” You couldn’t tear your eyes away from him, even if you wanted to.  He still hadn’t quit touching you.  His hand was steadily in your own.

“Yeah.  Yeah, I did,” his eyes coast up and down your body, admiring every bit of your soft curves.  You are surprising to him, in the best way possible.  Not at all stuffy like the other girls.  There was a playfulness.  A soft quality.  While everyone else was just trying to be sexy, you are being lighthearted.  

“You should probably head in for cocktails.”

“Will I get to talk to you the rest of the night?  Or are you going to mingle some more?”

“I have to mingle.  But I definitely want to see you out in the garden.  Just you and me.  Bring a drink,” a producer beckons Nick over to him, and Nick runs his thumb and forefinger over his beard.  Making you weak, and visioning sinful thoughts about him.  Maybe this experience isn’t going to be too bad.  And maybe you could at least have some fun.  You did like what you were seeing.

It feels weird to be in a house of women that are looking at one guy.  The same guy that you couldn’t keep your eyes off.  The very man that you had to keep telling yourself that he was not locking eyes with you.  He couldn’t be sitting on a couch with four other women, and his sight drifting to yours.  That was most definitely not what was happening.  Never.

Nick stands from the couch, giving each lady a nod before walking right over towards you, his hand going towards your free hand, “What are you drinking, bellissima?”

“Are you Italian?”

“Not that I’m aware of.  But beautiful just seems a bit too cliche tonight.  Bellissima has a spark.  What’s in your cup?”

“It’s a whiskey sour.”

“Hmm,” he says with a grin, pulling your hand into his.  “Follow me.  Let’s get a bit of privacy.

Holding onto your hand, he leads you outside, and you hear whispers immediately.  Could feel eyes stabbing in the back of your head.  You were going to be talked about.  You had seen the show enough that anytime a girl was pulled away from the group, everyone had something to say.  You didn’t go to Nick, he came to you.  Now you were a target.

He sits down, and pulls you right along with him.  His arm wraps around you.  “If we were here, I would have already taken you home.”

“What makes you think I would have followed you?  I’m not that kind of girl, Nicholas.”

“Oh, she likes using the whole name when she’s calling me out.  So, what kind of girl are you, Bella?” Your brow perks up, and you find yourself leaning slightly more into him.  “I can’t go around calling you bellissima in front of the other ladies.  They’ll get jealous.  So, Bella, what kind of a girl are you?”

“Someone who wants a partner.  I can do life by myself.  I just want to enjoy life with someone.  I don’t need a man, I want a man.  Have our shared moments, create new memories, and have fun.”

“Well, this show is for marriage,” you’re not an idiot.  You knew it was for marriage, and respond with a grin, and a slight nod.  “Clearly, you want to be married, so that’s good.”

“And what about you?  Is marriage something you’ve wanted?” There is something oddly liberating about not holding back with this line of questions.  Both of you knew the end goal, and that was marriage.  You didn’t have to go through months of dating only to realize he didn’t believe in marriage.  Or waste your time because you were not the girl he wanted to marry, he had a different vision.  It was always an excuse, but it was never you they wanted.

“I’ve always wanted marriage.  I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic.  I find women nowadays don’t align with what I want.”

“Oh,” he had to have a flaw.  And here it was.  He was going to tell you.  He had a sick idea of a housewife that had no personality.  Of course he had to have something wrong with him.

“I want…I think people see me as a way to meet celebrities.  I want to be able to bring my girlfriend, or wife with me to parties, and events.  I just don’t want her to run off with one of the artists I’m working with.  They have the fame, and the adoration.  I have the talent behind the scenes, why would they want me?”

“Why would they not?” He gives you a serene smile, but you know he’s been hurt.  From the sounds of it more than once with a cheating girlfriend.  “If someone is going to leave you like that, or cheat on you like that, they never loved you to begin with.  It was a means to find someone else.  I hate cheaters.  I’ve never understood it.  Just leave.  Cheating hurts everyone involved, and nobody realizes that until it’s too late.  Oh…”

You take a deep breath in as Nick’s nose touches your own.  His cologne mixes with the beer he had been nursing, and it makes you dizzy.  It isn’t until he pulls your drink out of your hand that you realize that your legs were laying over top of his.  Things felt comfortable, and you had only met this man.  

“I’d like to kiss you,” Nick’s lashes flutter on your cheek, and you want nothing more than to touch his lips with your own.

“You say that to all the girls here,” it was the first damn night, and every movement of your mouth has your lips brushing up against his.  

“They’re boring.  Let me kiss you,” you respond by puckering your lips and pulling him into you.  You had told yourself that you wanted to have fun, and didn’t want to hold back.  You didn’t believe you could find true love on this show, but getting to kiss a sexy man was worth it.

“She’s already kissing him,” Nicole says as she marches back to the other girls.  “She’s going to be a problem.  She’s a fast mover.  She probably said something to him when they first met.  He couldn’t take his eyes off her.”

“It’s the first night.  She’s just trying to get a rose,” Holly sighs.  Everyone was here for the same thing, and that was him.  It sucks that she wasn’t the one to get a kiss, but she couldn’t fault you.

“No, they’re totally making out.  It’s the first night.”

You have to pull away from Nick, gasping for air as you stare into those bright blue eyes.  Noticing all the different shades that made up the color blue that was unique to him.  “You felt it?” He whispers.  “Don’t play games, Bells.  I’m not.  You’re getting the first impression rose.  I’ve…I need some air.”

There was a difference with kissing him.  Nothing had ever felt better.  Nothing has ever even tasted better than his lips.  His tongue.  And there were cameras capturing it all.  Even the tightness of his pants, and quick departure.

Jena grabs the card, squealing as she starts to open it, “Make sure you’re laser focused,” after she says your name with the other group of girls, you lose interest.  You are going on a group date, with something that involves lasers, and you are getting to see Nick again.

“So is he a good kisser?”

“Hmm?” Looking up from your bland coffee, you stare at one of the nameless contestants.  You couldn’t keep up.  There were so many of them.

“You going to play innocent when Nicole saw you and Nick kissing.  So was he any good?” You didn’t have to listen to this.  You aren’t opposed to making friends, but the point of the show wasn’t them.  It was him.  “That bad or that good?”

“What do you want me to say?  Nick and I kissed.  I’ll admit to that, as to everything else it doesn’t matter.  I’m going to get dressed for the date.”

“He left the cocktail hour.  Barely talked to anyone.  Maybe her kiss was the one that was so bad he couldn’t stand being around her.”

“She got a first impression rose.  I don’t think it was a bad kiss.”

“And he still asked her for a group date.”

They weren’t slick, or quiet.  No wonder there was always so much drama on here.  You could hear everything.  And you learned quickly that if you didn’t hear it someone would tell you what you missed. A constant trying to pit everyone against each other.  It was going to be a long seven weeks.  If you made it that far.

Laser tag.  Of course that’s what the date card meant.  And of course you being caught making out with Nick had everyone immediately wanting to go up against you.  Not all could.  You had to be put into teams.  Your team got lucky, you’re an excellent shot.  

“Oof!” You choke out as someone pulls you into a hidden alcove of the arena.  Back slamming against the wall, and then the softest touch of his fingertips run down your side, “Nick, we can’t…”

“I had to see you.  There’s never enough time with you.  There’s no cameras here.  And I can’t stay away.  You feel it right?” Biting at your lip, you nod your head.  Trembling as his hands grips to your hip.  Fingers digging into your skin, while his thumb makes shapes on your stomach so tenderly.  His hand rests on the wall beside your head, and you suddenly understand all those romance novels.  This is the perfect angle for him.

“You’re getting a rose,” he informs you, biting at his lip.  Unsure of whether this was part of the show or not, but you liked it.

“I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“I want to be open and honest with you about what I’m thinking.  You’re getting a rose.  You’re not going anywhere, and from how I feel right now, you’re not going anywhere anytime soon.  I need you to stay and see where this goes.  Kiss me.”

Shaking your head no, you pull him closer.  Your hand drops the laser gun and you run you shaking fingers up his back, “You better kiss me, or I’ll make sure Nicole gets a good shot at you.”

“This is too fast,” was it the show or getting caught up in the feelings that made people fall so fast.  When you watched the show you laughed at these women.  Now you understand.  You could see it happening, and feel it right before your eyes.  It didn’t even feel free.

“So?  This is not a normal way of dating.  This is entertainment for millions, and this kiss is just for us.  Kiss me like you wanted to last night.  No cameras.  No bullshit.  Just…” your hand coasts to his neck, and you pull him into you.  Slotting your lips on his, and the hand beside your head moves to the back of your neck, and he presses his weight into you.

Breathless isn’t even the word.  It’s shocking.  Lightning sparks through your veins when his tongue licks over your lips, and you grant him access.  Whimpering in his mouth, and clinging to him so tightly.  This wasn’t a normal first kiss.  This was just the beginning of passion.  Had this alcove had more room, you would have been pulling him to the floor.  

Nick starts ghosting his lips down your jaw, settling on your neck, and gives you a tiny little nip.  Rolling his hips into your body, “Nick, we can’t.”

“I want to.”

“I want to, too, but,” your words drown out as his mouth dips even lower on your body.  “Nick, please.”

“I love that word coming out of your mouth,” you mewl as he kisses down your chest.  Fingers weaving through his hair.  “My god, Bella…”

“Stop.  Stop stop,” he stands up immediately, staring at your kiss bruised lips.  “They already hate me.”

“I saw the footage.  It seems to just be a couple that hate you.”

“I watch the show.  I know how girls can be.  Just…I like this, but we have a contract.  And not all of us want to buy ourselves out of it.  This was fun.”

“Maybe, we’ll do it again?”

It was cruel.  Having to follow someone else’s rules, and not just your own.  They weren’t even Nick’s rules, but the studios.  “You know where to find me,” you playfully answer, and his eyes drift down your body as you begin to leave.  

“I’ve got a rose just for you,” and let the games begin.  

Next

Masterlist

Taglist: @tis-thedamn-season​ @marveloustaylortot​ @pono-pura-vida​ @sstan-hoe​ @missusbarnes-rogers​ @peaches1958​ @seitmai​ @smile1318​ @andydrysdalerogers​ @cjand10​ @midnightramyeoncravings​ @maroonsunrise83​ @kmc1989​ @patzammit​ @misshinson​ @jlw2334​ @sebsgirl71479​

#that september night #the bachelor #the bachelor au #nick vaughan #nick vaughan x reader #nick vaughan x fem!reader #nick vaughan x y/n #nick vaughan x you #nick vaughan fanfiction #nick vaughan fics #nick vaughan fic #chris evans #chris evans character #before we go

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K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 23

Hello all, time to see the episode where the writers give up on making their writing believable in favor of cheap, uninspired emotional appeals!

Now, with this episode, I could take my time ripping into the show fixating on this fantasy in its head that Chloe is a genuine threat... but I'm not going to because that topic has been talked to death a hundred and one times. Instead, I'm gonna focus on the moral of this episode... and how it utterly falls apart.

Namely, the episode seems to be pushing the narrative that you can't wait around and rely on people to solve your problems for you, you have to do it yourself... or at the very least just reach out and let others KNOW you need help. Why does this fall apart? Because in addition to the fact that Chloe being a problem at all is forced by the writers blatantly ignoring how she has no real power and the police could just drag her out of office whenever they like... Adrien does literally nothing this entire episode to solve HIS personal problem about his dad forcing him to move.

He never mentions it to any of his friends OR his girlfriend (who he can hold down a long-distance relationship with if it DOES come down to him moving, as his and her video-chatting in the prior episode demonstrates), and the one time he bothers to acknowledge that there's nothing that can be said to his dad to make him change his mind, it comes off more as a lazy excuse on his part not to share how he's feeling. Throughout this entire episode, and all the episodes in which this plot has been leading up to now, Adrien takes the worst decision every time towards opening up and sharing his problems while also doing nothing on a personal level to help himself. He just... stands around, feeling sorry for himself.

How can you push the idea that people need to stand up to injustice themselves when you can't even have one of the two main leads stand up for HIMSELF?

I could add more details... but I think this gets my point across nicely. Thank you, and now, onto the review! As always, warning for any profanity on my part.

Episode 23: Revolution

Okay, and we get the opening scene of "Mayor Chloe" talking to Nadja that she has "Outlawed Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Monarch." Because outlawing someone who is already a terrorist that nobody can find and the only people capable of stopping him is SUCH A GOOD IDEA FOLKS!!! God fucking dammit. I'm not too pissed off yet, but the fact that nobody in law enforcement is dragging her out of that office and calling her out on her BS of being Mayor because her dad was Mayor is utterly stupid. If this is meant to be some kind of jab about "the rich are the new nobility/royalty" or something like that, it fails. Miserably.

Nadja asks if "this will last long" without actually specifying what "this" is, with Chloe having to be fed lines by Lila over an earbud so as to not blow it already. She also fumbles "democratic" TWICE. News flash Astruc, Dumb Blonde jokes have been in bad taste for a few decades by now!! Chloe then ends things while declaring that her new robots will be upholding "her law in Paris," never mind that not only is her position totally illegitimate, Mayors DO NOT HAVE THE POWER TO ARBITRARILY DECIDE WHAT IS OR ISN'T A LAW.

Now, we get to the heroes, with Chat pointing out that they have a moral obligation to stop Chloe, and Ladybug saying that they can't because she's not Akumatized... which is bullshit, as both the specials and incidents like the fight against the flying dinosaurs proved. Yes, they can't attack her... but why the hell would they NEED TO ATTACK HER? Literally just going in, marching her out to the ACTUAL police and having them detain her would accomplish literally the exact same thing. Saying "they'll look like the bad guys" is a completely bullshit non-answer.

Aaannnd... they passed the buck onto "adults, an authority figure" to handle the problem. Because clearly that's a good lesson to teach kids, don't stand up to what you see as a systemic problem in the world or an abuse of power, even if you have the means to oppose it, just leave it to someone else. THAT'S what you should be teaching kids, not that doing what is right, even if it's hard, is important.

Now they head back home, and Marinette is watching videos on the news reporting what's going on and citizen reactions. First up, a pair of ladies who I'm thinking that Astruc had designed to give off the same vibes of "smug, elitist, rich white person" vibes as Chloe is meant to give off, saying it's a good thing that Chloe is in power because she's a "young person, like us, representing us!" Next we get the racist cop who denounces superheroes as pointless due to not stopping Monarch yet, and then publicly airing a conspiracy theory that they are all in on it together. Then we get another adult, who points out how utterly stupid having a teenager declaring herself Mayor is.

Now it's on to Adrien, I wonder how he's doing? Staring at a picture of Marinette on his phone it looks like. And once again all that's going on is that he's angsting over telling his girlfriend that he's moving. After all, it's not as if he can HAVE A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP, or, I dunno, PRACTICE TELLING HER BY TELLING HIS OTHER FRIENDS!!! Seriously, do Nino, Alya, and the rest of his classmates mean NOTHING to him in terms of telling this info? Does he honestly believe they'd have no advice to share!? What is wrong with this guy!?

His answer on why he's not saying anything? He's hoping he'll be able to convince his dad not to send him... fuck that. Dude, FUCK. THAT!! For absolute FUCK'S SAKE THIS IS THE GUY WHO HAS DONE NOTHING BUT BE AN UTTER BASTARD TO YOU FOR YEARS, YOU AREN'T GONNA CONVINCE HIM!! HECK, HE MADE IT CLEAR HE'S DOING THIS TO SEPARATE YOU FROM MARINETTE!!! JUST RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!!

Okay, now we got Plagg, the guy the show has made repeatedly clear LOATHES and is annoyed by romance, shilling Marinette as "the most amazing girl in the whole universe." Please give me a moment while I hurl; it's not even over how utterly fucking CHEESY this is, it's how unironic they are at shilling the girl who has dropped the ball REPEATEDLY, and has routinely violated Adrien's boundaries without his knowledge. This is disturbing to me. At least he's stating the simple solution of asking someone for help... still fucking pissed that it's all centered around MARINETTE rather then exploring his OTHER FRIENDSHIPS that are a lot closer than whatever tangled mess he has going on with Marinette. You know, like his best friend that the narrative conveniently forgot about as soon as they could?

And upon a call from Marinette, NOW he decides that this is the right time. It's really fucking ironic that all of Adrien's scenes and relevance to the plot this season is all about Marinette, whereas Marinette's scenes actually DO SOMETHING towards expanding upon what's going on around them all. And it is immediately derailed by Marinette asking him to watch the news. So much for her call being "a sign." Now we get more reactions to Chloe's dictatorship, Hooray! First off is a guy saying she can't be worse than her father... yeah, she absolutely can, seeing as her dad was corrupt, but she's corrupt AND a literal teenager with no qualifications. And another guy brushing off any issues since they'll have an election soon. It's really, REALLY fucking stupid how these people are both taking her at her words, and ignoring how A TEENAGER DOES NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO ASSUME POWER AT HER OWN SAY-SO!! SHE IS NOT EVEN AN ELECTED OFFICIAL!!!

"Someone's bound to do something." Nope, no one will, never mind the fact that CHLOE NEVER SHOULD'VE EVEN GOTTEN THIS FAR! Oh and Marinette interrupts Adrien's attempt to explain his situation by calling everyone to do something. Clearly this can't possibly go wrong and will have an actual meaningful impact! Surely it will. /s

Now we get a scene of Chloe playing with her toys testing the incredibly advanced "police robots" Gabe and Tomoe are bribing her with supplied to City Hall, once again having the narrative IGNORE HOW NONE OF THIS IS EVEN REMOTELY LEGAL!!! Oh, and Audrey is present too for some reason. She also fires that one butler that is more prominent than the rest of the staff because she's got robots now... whatever happened to her words at the Diamond Dance, what was it again, something about how the robots aren't as fun because she can't boss them around or something?

Gabe proceeding to layer the flattery on thick with Chloe... wonder how that'll go. Probably terribly. "All the superoffenders have disappeared." BITCH IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN A FUCKING WEEK YOU ASSHOLE!!! But that's also the perfect thing to say to Chloe in this scenario, she's too much of a self-centered idiot to spot the obvious fault in her decision. Oh, and it looks like Lila had Chloe recording the meeting.

So far, I'm mostly just banging my head against a wall over how stupid this entire plot is. THERE IS NO SITUATION IN WHICH A TEENAGER IS GOING TO HOLD THE POSITION OF MAYOR. EVER. Tomoe and Gabe proceed to plot about how they are going to use Chloe's incompetence as a Mayor (STILL IGNORING HOW SHE CAN'T LEGALLY HOLD THE POSITION!!!), and at least acknowledge that there isn't a chance in hell Chat and Ladybug are gonna ignore this for good, before Monarch personally visits Chloe... instead of, you know, sending the Butterfly and communicating with her directly, something he is FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING!!! Meaning the guy is deliberately waltzing into the lair of someone who has declared him an outlaw. Not as if she couldn't just have her robots capture him, take his Miraculous for herself, and establish herself as Queen of Paris in truth, but that would require the writers to think these things through and for Chloe to be allowed to have a brain.

Oh look, they actually had Chloe be smart enough to have her robots target Monarch! Now if only he wasn't LITERALLY STUPID ENOUGH TO SHOW UP IN PERSON. And we learn that as the creator of them, Tomoe has an override of the system... how in the world did she even see the screen targeting Monarch? She's supposed to be blind, right?? Can she hear them targeting through the screen or something!? And just as Chloe is about to do the smart thing and refuse Monarch's offer for an alliance (YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE THERE IN PERSON, IDIOT!!!), Lila tells her to accept... ugh...

This, this is just stupid. IT IS IDIOTIC!! IT IS BULLSHIT!!! NOTHING ABOUT THIS MAKES SENSE!! IS CHLOE MENTALLY DISABLED!? IS THAT WHAT THIS IS!? BECAUSE NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY BE THIS STUPID!! SHE IS NOT A THREAT, SHE IS JUST A DUMB KID DANCING TO SOMEONE ELSE'S STRINGS!! HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TAKE HER SERIOUSLY AS THE "WORST OF THE WORST"!? WE CAN'T!!! FUCK THIS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!

And we learn the specifics of the deal is that Monarch will Akumatize her, yadda yadda yadda, make it look like she's not an Akuma, yadda yadda yadda... NONE OF THIS EXPLAINS WHY HE IS IN THE FUCKING ROOM WHEN HE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE!!! HECK, HE COULD HAVE GIVEN HIMSELF THE POWER TO COMMUNICATE AT A DISTANCE!!! The obvious answer is that they wanted an excuse to keep Monarch from learning about Lila feeding Chloe lines, but that if anything just shows how weak their efforts in making Lila a threat are. If she's only a threat when they actively keep the antagonist from knowing she's in the know, then she's not a real threat.

Oh, we also get the stupidity of Chloe's robots having multiple powers. Not even gonna get into that bullshit.

Now we are back to the school, and Adrien announcing his determination to tell Marinette everything... because obviously it's only Marinette that deserves to know that his father is forcing him to move to London, and not any of his other friends. (Rolls eyes)

Apparently Marinette, Alya, and Mylene came up with some kind of protest...? Watch and be amazed as it amounts to nothing when Chloe shows up in her "covert Akuma form," with once again NO ONE OBJECTING TO THE FACT THAT A TEENAGE GIRL IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE THE FUCKING MAYOR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!! Oh, and Chloe also lying to the news about giving limitless freedom to the citizens of Paris... I'll be honest, I could actually see her doing something like that, not out of any kind of goodness of her heart but more due to just being too ignorant to understand the consequences of basically letting everyone do whatever they want, no questions asked, and doing so would make her own life easier as well.

And it turns out the protest is over Miss Bustier... because their fired teacher, who the Mayor NEVER HAD THE AUTHORITY TO AUTHORIZE THE FIRING OF, is the real issue over the fact that one of their classmates is illegally holding a position of power. Also, them calling her "Miss Bustier the Great" is pretty cringe. It's blatantly forced just to make the rhyme work.

And their big protest is... to refuse to go to class. Okay? That... is utterly fucking pointless. Seriously, "REFUSING TO GO BACK TO CLASS" IS THE BEST THESE IDIOTS COULD COME UP WITH!? WHO FUCKING CARES!!! IT'S NOT A COMPELLING THREAT BECAUSE IT'S NOT HURTING ANYONE BUT THEMSELVES AND ISN'T DISRUPTING ANY OTHER PROCESSES OR EVENTS GOING ON!! IT IS ENTIRELY PERFORMATIVE BS THAT AMOUNTS TO JACK AND SHIT!!!

WHY should Chloe CARE that none of you want to go to Class!? SHE DOESN'T!!! Oh, right, Lila is talking in her ear. Also, I don't know why Chloe singled out Zoe for "pretending to be her sister" since I'm pretty sure that isn't exactly public knowledge!? She didn't even CALL YOU her sister, so why are you bringing it up!? Also, them shoe-horning "libertarian" in there; that... amounts to nothing.

...She's seriously calling them willfully sabotaging their own education "holding the school hostage"? This is... this is moronic. That is the only thing I can call it, this is utterly MORONIC. Aside from her blatantly slandering Miss Bustier, her throwing shade at Damocles' obsession with acting like he's a Superhero is spot on as he's shown that he hasn't learned his lesson, and how it negatively impacts his work; her refusing to reinstate him (not that she even COULD) is one of her few smart decisions.

The protesters do point out how she's twisting the situation stupidly, but it falls apart since this ENTIRE FUCKING PLOT is held up by tissues and prayers by writers high off their own farts. Seriously, why is Lila even BOTHERING to try and manipulate Chloe? Chloe can't even keep up an act good enough to last TWO SECONDS when around anyone who doesn't enable her BS, this entire thing is stupid as fuck. What is the point? What is supposed to be going on!?

Okay, the one interesting thing going on is that Chloe tried to burst Marinette's bubble about what Adrien is being made to do... seriously, DO NONE OF THESE IDIOTS REMEMBER THAT A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP IS POSSIBLE!?

Mylene and Ivan disappear after having publicly stood up to Chloe, Hmm, I wonder if there's a connection!? We also see that Chloe SOMEHOW managed to get a gold statue of herself made. HOW!? WHEN!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!? Oh, and Chloe literally having Ms. Mendeleiev prove to be a fucking disaster of a teacher by spoon-feeding her her own propaganda.

Chat and Ladybug doing nothing about the stupid as fuck statue because "Monarch had nothing to do with it," DID THESE IDIOTS LOSE THEIR FUCKING MINDS!? SERIOUSLY, CHLOE'S POSITION IS ILLEGAL!! IT HAS NO BASIS!! NO LEGITIMACY!! YOU COULD LITERALLY DRAG HER OUT "OFFICE" BY HER EAR AND IT WOULD BE JUSTIFIED SINCE THE POSITION OF MAYOR DOESN'T PASS TO THE MAYOR'S CHILD!!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!

Yet another case of Adrien trying to tell Marinette only to clam up when she asks him to talk to his dad to get him to stop Chloe... it's funny how this episode is ignoring that Gabe is a fucking terrible person, ESPECIALLY MARINETTE!! Girl, HE THREATENED YOUR FUTURE IN DESIGNING AND IS A TOXIC CONTROL FREAK!! YOU KNOW THIS!!! WHY THE HELL WOULD HE EVEN CARE ABOUT STOPPING CHLOE EVEN IF HE WASN'T MONARCH!!!

"Talking to my father won't solve anything." That's the most reasonable thing anyone has ever said this episode. And just as he's about to elaborate, Chloe shows up in a helicopter and yells at the Ice Cream Idiot if he got his permit, which he said he doesn't need. THIS is one of the very few good things she did this episode; over dramatic or not, you shouldn't EVER have someone without a permit selling food, especially not out of a fucking pushcart!!!

"No one can ever prevent you from bringing so much happiness!" What happiness? He's an annoying idiot who is hyper-fixated on relationships and throws a temper tantrum bad enough to get AKUMATIZED whenever he's "wrong."

And now Alya's missing!! What could ever be going on- oh for fuck's sake, it's obviously Chloe!! Seriously, how in the world is it that hard to wrap their heads around the idea that Chloe is snatching up and arresting anyone and everyone who she dislikes!? Even without Akuma powers, she could probably get it done by just hiring some shady goons!!!

And apparently Chloe sent the Dupain-Chengs to Detention... whatever the fuck that's supposed to be, for the crime of expecting her to pay like everyone else. Why the fuck is that even a dealbreaker for her!? HER WHOLE DEAL NOW IS THAT SHE'S RICH SO SHE DOESN'T NEED TO WORK OR DO ANYTHING, SO FLAUNTING HER WEALTH SHOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM FOR HER!! Seriously, I'm pretty sure they only did this to ensure Marinette "got on the right track."

Honestly, I'm genuinely confused on what Chloe's end goal is even supposed to be. She's just getting rid of anyone that annoys her. What is she gonna do when there's no one left to make go away?

Now FINALLY Adrien catches on that something is weird, and it looks like everyone is missing by this point, and when he finally goes to confront Chloe... her big "threat" is just to tell Marinette that Adrien is leaving to go to London at his father's insistence, which, again, even ignoring how she has no way of knowing that Chloe couldn't possibly know that he's been trying to tell Marinette ever since this nonsense started, LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS ARE A THING!! I GUESS that the fact he's been lying to her would put a strain on things, but not THAT big of a fucking strain!!

Also, while it's meant to be mean-spirited mockery, Chloe is basically spot-on that Adrien's been acting like a spineless puppet for who knows how long by this point. Even ignoring the whole "He's a sentimonster" thing, he has been completely spineless and a wet blanket regarding Gabe and refuses to actually stand up to himself for real.

We get a look at what "Detention" looks like, and apparently she even sent Andre there. I can't tell if Chloe deliberately designed the place without an exit, or if she just forgot. She's been made so stupid I wouldn't put either one past her.

"How can Chloe pull this off?" SHE IS AN AKUMA!! SHE LITERALLY TELEPORTED YOU INTO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AREA!! HOW FUCKING THICK CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE!? IT SHOULD BE ABUNDANTLY OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO SHE HAS BROUGHT TO "DETENTION" THAT SHE IS AN AKUMA BY THIS FUCKING POINT!!!!

Honestly, it's a bit weird that Chloe would have her screens say "I'll protect you, you can always count on me." Like, it honestly sounds GENUINE when the screens say it. If I didn't know that it's meant to just be a sign of how EEEEVVVIIILLL she is, I'd say that it's a reflection of her own deluded belief that she's the good guy and is in the right for her actions.

Okay, ignoring how Chloe somehow has this weird facility just... IN PARIS for some reason. Not even gonna acknowledge how much of a blatantly stupid cop-out it is. I'm just baffled how no one collapsed from hunger if she's had them literally doing nothing but walking in a huge-ass loop for hours?

I'm sincerely baffled how anyone would buy that Chloe has made "Paris utterly better then how it was before." She's basically done NOTHING, and why the FUCK would Chloe think anyone besides her mom and her mom's cronies would actually BUY THIS!? FOR GOD FUCKS SAKE!!! THIS ENTIRE BULLSHIT IS RUNNING OFF OF EVERYONE IGNORING THAT HER ENTIRE POSITION IS BULLSHIT!! WHY THE FUCK HAS THIS EVEN LASTED THIS LONG!? GET THIS THE FUCK OVER WITH!!!

At this point, I think there won't be anything more of depth to be said, so to spare my blood pressure, I'm just gonna wait for when she's defeated and I can unleash my rage on the ending.

Never mind, already reached my breaking point, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS BULLSHIT!? CHLOE LITERALLY JUST ADMITTED TO BEING AKUMATIZED IN PUBLIC!! HOW THE FUCK HAS NO ONE COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS!? WHY THE FUCK DID IT TAKE SEEING THE INVULNERABILITY-ENHANCED SHELTERS BE WHAT TIPPED THEM OFF THAT MONARCH IS INVOLVED, SHE LITERALLY PARALYZED AND TELEPORTED THEM WITH ROBOTS!!! THIS IS UTTER FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!! FUCK THIS ROTTEN NOISE!!! BURN IT ALL DOWN TO THE GROUND AND DANCE ON THE ASHES!!!!

Oh, and the entire plot of "we can't wait for someone else to solve this problem, WE should've been solving it from the start" doesn't work even remotely because CHLOE NEVER EVEN SHOULD'VE BEEN A FUCKING PROBLEM THIS EPISODE!!!!

OH AND NOW IT APPEARS THEY CAN JUST TELL THEIR DETRANSFORMATION NOT TO HAPPEN BECAUSE FUCK WHATEVER INTERNAL CONSISTENCY EXISTS IN THIS BULLSHIT I GUESS!!!

WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY EVEN DOING THIS STUPID SPEECH ABOUT "KEEP FIGHTING WITHOUT US" SUPPOSED TO BE!? WHAT FIGHTING!? THIS ENTIRE PLOT IS UTTER STUPIDITY BASED ON THEM ALWAYS DOING THE STUPIDEST POSSIBLE OPTION!!! FUCK ALL OF THIS!!! FUCK THIS PLOT!! FUCK THIS AKUMATIZATION!!! FUCK ALL THIS STUPID FUCKING NOISE!!!! THIS IS NOT SOME INSPIRATIONAL SCENE!!! IT IS STUPID!!! IT IS NOTHING BUT A WASTE OF FUCKING AIR!!!!

AND NOW GET THE POINT WHERE THEY LITERALLY FORCE THE DETRANSFORMATION TO REVERSE BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT!? WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK NOT!? WHAT BETTER WAY TO TOP OFF THIS BULLSHIT SUNDAY OF A FIASCO BY GIVING THEM THE ULTIMATE WRITERS COPOUT TO HAVING BEEN SET UP TO FUCKING FAIL IN THE MOST RIDICULOUS WAY IMAGINABLE!!!! GET THE FUCK OVER IT ALREADY!!!

"I guess they must've grown up, Master." GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE WITH THAT STUPIDITY!! THAT IS NOT WHAT BEING A GROWN UP MEANS!!! THIS IS JUST STUPIDITY!!!!

AND IT LOOKS LIKE THAT WHAT LILA WAS AFTER WAS THE STUPID FUCKING LAPTOP TOMOE HAD, NOT LIKE SHE COULDN'T HAVE JUST HAD CHLOE ARREST THEM WHEN THEY WENT TO MEET HER!!!

"I'm sure the people of Paris would love to have a Mayor like you!" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK UP!!!!

AND NOW WE GET TO THE UTTER STUPIDITY OF CHLOE GETTING VERBALLY ABUSED BY AUDREY WHILE ON THE WAY TO NEW YORK!!! THAT IS CLEARLY A FITTING PUNISHMENT FOR AN ABUSED CHILD!!!

"I'm going to take control of your life again, starting with your education." WORD TO THE FUCKING WISE, ASSTRUC, IF YOU WANT TO CLAIM CHLOE ISN'T ABUSED, DO NOT HAVE THE WOMAN YOU REPEATEDLY MAKE VERBALLY ABUSE HER IMPLY THAT SHE HAS ABUSED CHLOE IN THE PAST!!!!

Huh, they actually had Chloe show an extremely brief moment of regret and vulnerability when looking at Sabrina's photo in her phone, too bad that won't amount to anything, especially when she immediately starts flicking over to Marinette's contact! Speaking of which, why the hell does she even HAVE Marinette in her contacts?

And Adrien never actually manages to tell Marinette he's leaving, what a WONDERFUL resolution to this stupidity thus far! And once again Nathalie proves to be a spineless worm in her refusal to actually stand up to Gabe's abusive control of Adrien and enabling his crimes.

And we get to see Adrien having an argument with Gabe about him living his own life. Wow, it's almost as if he's both forgotten that he can have a long-distance relationship AND can just, you know, run away?

If this scene of him calling Marinette with tears in his eyes is meant to be sad, it's ruined by the fact this show has utterly squandered Adrien's character by reducing EVERY FUCKING THING IN HIS LIFE UP UNTIL NOW TO BE ABOUT MARINETTE!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUY WHO BROKE OUT OF HIS OWN HOUSE TO GO TO SCHOOL!? WHY IS HE STRUGGLING NOW OF ALL TIMES TO STICK UP FOR HIMSELF!? WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT OF IT ALL!?

I'm seriously baffled why Gabe's current plan requires Adrien to be away in a different country "to be safe," because it's not as if Adrien being safe has ever fucking factored into any of his plans prior to now!!!

And.... they kiss. Now. On the entryway to a plane, after WHO KNOWS HOW FUCKING LONG of teasing this bullshit. Also, HOW THE FUCK IS THE GORILLA AND A GROWN MAN STRUGGLING TO SEPARATE TWO FUCKING TEENAGERS!?!?

Now we are at the moment Chloe tries to tell Marinette the truth to hurt her, and it ends in Chloe crying alone on the plane when Marinette shuts her down by revealing she already knows (too late) and that she's fed up with Chloe's bullshit, despite having already said that in Season 1, and the entire thing ends on Lila trying to pry open the laptop she stole from Tomoe.

#miraculous ladybug #mlb season 5 salt #mlb season 5 spoilers #mlb writing critical #mlb writing salt

[queenvidal]

No Means Yes

Negan x Reader (Rick's Daughter)

(Not my gif - found it on pinterest. If it's urs, contact me for proper credit)

Chapter 7: Benefits (End)

Chapter Summary: Negan wants you and is done playing games - No is no longer an answer.

Wordcount: 4184 Era: Season 7 - Part 2 of the The One And Only Series -

Note: I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes or wrong spellings, English isn't my first language.

Chapter Index: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6

Next Part / Masterlist / Negan x Rick's Daughter Series

“You’re gonna take two cups a day, okay?” You tell the little boy in front of you. Nancy, his mother, puts her hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. The boy noods and you stand up from your roller stool to catch a bottle of dry syrup from the cupboards. 

“Do you know how long this is going to take?” Nancy asks you, while you search for the right bottle.

Once you get the desired one in hand, you return to them with the medicine. You hand it over to her and look back at the boy. “About seven days, but he better take the antibiotic for at least ten.”

It was just a matter of time for the town to come down with a cold or flu. With the kids that had been constantly playing in the snow you’re surprised it didn’t happen earlier. “Rayn’s gonna have to stay at home, though. He’s contagious and we don't have the necessary means to treat more people at the moment."

“What does that mean?” The little boy asks, wiping his runny nose with his sleeve.

You lean down to get on eye level with him. “That next week’s gonna be pretty boring, buddy.”

Nancy picks her boy up and he rests his head on her shoulder. “Thank you, Y/N. We’re lucky to have you.”

Her words warm your heart a little and you softly smile at the other woman. “Anytime. Let me know if the fever gets worse, okay?”

Nancy nods and says her goodbye before she goes for the door, the little boy already dozing off in her arms. But before she reaches for the door, she turns around again. "Uhm, Y/N?" 

"Yeah?"

"Are you heading out tomorrow?" She asks. 

You nod at her. "Yeah, I'm gonna go before the Saviors come, scout out some places for the Scavengers and will be back tomorrow evening, I hope."

"Okay. Well, I was wondering if you could keep an eye out for pants for him?” Nancy looks at her shoes nervously. “I know, it's not nearly as important as medicine or food, it's just-" 

"I'll be looking for some, Nancy." You tell her with a small smile. "Clothing is actually the easiest to find. Can’t promise that I’ll find something fitting, though."

"Thanks." She beams at you with a bright smile of her own, more than happy with your answer. “I’ll leave you to your work then.” 

You turn around to your tray full of utensils, cleaning them. When you grab a bottle of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect your equipment, you suddenly hear an audible gasp. Alarted, you whip your head around towards Nancy, who is wide-eyed and frozen in place. 

Are you fucking kidding me, you think to yourself when your eyes land on the more than familiar black lether jacket. You roll your eyes so hard, you half expect them to get stuck.

Negan is standing on the threshold, staring down at the other woman. Nancy's eyes quickly move to the floor, that poor woman doesn’t dare to move a muscle. Quickly you snap into action, coming to her aid.

With a piece of candy in your hand, you swiftly move to her side. “Here, buddy.” You hand the candy to Rayn, breaking the more than uncomfortable silence. Nancy slightly relaxes next to you, visibly thankful for your help. “I'm gonna do a check up on him tomorrow, okay?”

Nancy only nods, not saying a word. Her eyes switch between the floor and Negan, who is still blocking the way. After a drawn out moment, he finally steps aside, making room for her to leave. Nancy quickly hurries past him to get home. 

Once she’s gained a bit of distance, you return to your tray. You grab the bottle of alcohol again to pour its contains all over your hands and forearms. "Do you have to scare my patients?" You ask in a sarcastic voice.

A low chuckle can be heard behind you, followed by steps. “Not my fault it’s that easy.” The steps continue until you hear the boss leaning against the bookshelf.

Satisfied with your disinfected arms, you move back to your desk. “You’re early.” You state with an irritated undertone. 

You knew you could not doge him forever but you hoped it would work for a little while longer. It’s not like you regret what happened, because you don’t and that's where the problem lies.

When you and Negan were ‘done’ and you came down from your high, panic set in. You’ve quickly rearranged your clothing and run back to your home. Negan went back to his Saviors who were still aiming at everyone to keep them in place. He ordered to get everything out of your car and they all left pretty much immediately. 

You not being there let everyone believe you’ve been killed. Scared like hell, Daryl and Carl quickly raced to the infirmary only to find it empty. With no trace from you they kept searching, Daryl went to the gardens and your brother to your house. Carl practically crashed into you, when he found you freshly showered sitting on your bed. Only in that moment did you realize what you’ve done. While Carl clinged to you in a crushing hug, your mind was spinning. He talked to you, but you barely registered his voice.

All you could think of was how good it felt and how little guilt you felt for doing it.

The boss let’s out another chuckle. “You know, Rick told me the exact same thing. Made a little scene at the pantry.” You sit down at your desk, returning to your studies. Negan's smile subtitles slowly, he doesn’t seem to appreciate not having your full attention. “Your father is a pain in the ass.”

This actually makes you look up at him. With a faint smile of your own you reply, “Tell me about it.” You can imagine how pissed off your father must be at the moment. Due to the current tension in Alexandria, Rick’s been constantly on edge. When you weren’t on the road or hunting with Daryl, you just hid in your infirmary to get away from him and his foul mood. 

Finally with your eyes on him, Negan nods at one of your cupboards. “You got something for headaches?”

That bad, huh? You reach for the drawer on your left to get him something. After a quick glance at the label, you throw him an orange tube of Aspirin. He catches it and inspects it. “I only need one.”

You shrug your shoulders. “Then take only one.”

Negan opens the tube and shakes one tablet out. He plops it into his mouth and swallows it but not without pulling a face at the bitter taste. Deciding to push your luck, you put another candy on the end of the desk. “With no water? Very brave.”

He just shakes his head with a smile. “Little shit.”

After a faint laugh, you clear your throat, turning serious again. “Is there a reason for the early visit?"

“What?” Negan raises his brow, still grinning. “Pissed you couldn’t avoid me for another week?”

“Obviously I am not as subtle as I thought.” You let out a put on sigh, “Though I am flattered that I'm the reason for all of this." Your eyes fall back onto the book in front of you and out of the corner of your eye, you can see Negan fetching your rollerstoll. A longer visit then. Lovely. You groan inwardly. Almost three weeks were not enough time to sort things out.

Negan sits down on the other side of your desk. “Got you something.”

You raise your eyebrows at him. What's coming now? He opens his jacket to retrieve whatever he brought with him and after a short moment, he places his gift on the desk. You can’t believe your eyes. 

It’s your knives.

You don’t know what to say, nor how to react. Negan looks at you, expecting you to do something. All kinds of emotions are swirling through your brain. How are you supposed to feel about it - happy because you’ve got them back? Angry because he took them in the first place? Or insulted because all it took to get them back was to sleep with him? 

With narrowed eyes, you eventually ask, “What’s that?”

Negan states the obvious, “You knives-”

“I know what they are.” You interrupt him quite harshly. “I mean, why my knives and why now all of the sudden?”

Negan considers you for a few moments before clarifying. “Undeniably it’s impossible for you to stay put here, might as well give ‘em back to you, before you decide to run off with nothing good again. Knowing you, you'd probably move out with only a screwdriver or shit.”

You fight not to smile on that comment. He’s not wrong. Still undecided about your emotions, your eyes switch between him and your knives and after a bit, you ask, “What's the catch?”

Negan just huffs a laugh, “There is no catch.” Again you raise an eyebrow at him, not believing him for a second. His grin grows larger. “Sweet thing, I promise. No catch.”

“Well, in that case-” You still don’t believe it, but decide to play along with it. “Thank you.” 

Again he smiles at you, “My pleasure.” 

You remove your knives and put them into the drawer. Even though you know better, you still hope this was everything he wanted. But Negan doesn’t seem like he wants to move, so you ask, "Can I go back to my books or is there something else you need?”

He folds his arms on the table, his smile promptly gone. “I think you know why I’m here.”

You’re playing dumb, hoping he would get the hint. While writing in your journal, you say, “No idea, Negan.”

“Really, Y/N?” He asks, slightly frowning at you. “We’re gonna pretend like nothing happened?”

Your head snaps up at that, “There is no pretending because there indeed did nothing happen!” 

“Sunshine, come on-”

“No, Negan.” You interrupt him again with a firm voice, “I am one bad day away from exile and I don’t want to imagine what would happen, if people found out.”

Negan’s frown only intesevies at your little outburst, “Why’s that?”

After a deep sigh, you explain the current situation, “Word got around that the reason everyone got lined up at the pantry was due to the fucked up inventory I’ve signed. So now they all think I am responsible for their almost demise.” 

Negan's eyebrows slightly raise at that. Genuinely curious, he asks, “Can they even exile you? With Rick being the leader and all?”

“Yeah,” You confirm. “My dad's position won’t change anything if enough people speak out against me, all they need is something to charge me for.”

“Huh, sounds like a win on my end.” He tells you with a small grin on his face. He's still expecting you to go with him? This man is unbelievable.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath, Negan." You try to explain, "My people can fight, the others don't. Do you really think my father would send me into exile?” But before he can utter a word, you admit, “When we first came here and we were told I might had to leave, my people were ready to take the town by force."

But the boss still doesn’t seem to understand the severity of your situation, saying “My door’s always open for you." 

You can’t suppress the annoyed groan “Negan, I am so tired of this topic. I’m not gonna leave Alexandria. Not for you, not for anybody. We’ve been a one time thing.”

"Says who?” He asks, leaning back from the desk again. “All I hear is you being afraid of getting caught. Now, that's easy to obviate. I already got some ideas.”

“So, what exactly are you proposing to me right now?” You ask, irritated like all hell. “Enemies with benefits?”

That earns you a tired sigh from him, “I’m not your enemy,   Sunshine.”

“No?” You push yourself from the desk, ”Didn’t you hunt my family down and kill my friends?”

“They’ve deserved it!” He sneers grimly and with narrowed eyes, he adds, “You’re here because you get that.”

To be fair, it’s not like you feel sympathy for either Glenn or Ab anymore. You still miss them terribly but when you’ve asked everyone to leave Hilltop with their problems alone, they too decided to go against it. You wouldn't go so far and say they deserved it, but it's still been their own fault. Negan might have killed them but their decisions were what got them killed. 

But your opinion on that matter is of no importance. 

“You are the enemy in their eyes, Negan.” You stand up from your chair and go for the door. “It’s not worth the risk.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Negan slams the door of his bedroom shut behind him. He’s exhausted and so damn angry. This never happened before. Usually when he’s restless, he’d visit one or maybe two of his wives to blow off some steam and fall dead asleep in his bed afterwards.

But not today, not yesterday, not any day for the last three weeks. 

“Shit!” He curses as he leans against the door, resting his head against the wood. This is absolutely maddening. This fucking goddamn woman! Y/N crawled into his mind like a goddamn parasite. No matter what he does, he can’t keep his mind from spirling back to Alexandria. 

Arat tells him about their supply lines and all Negan can think about is how smoking hot Rick's daughter was when she was angry and yelling at him. 

Simon gives a report on how things are going in the Hilltop, but all Negan hears is the scouts suppressed moan, when he pushed himself into her for the first time.

Gavin tells him about the Kingdoms latest delivery and all he can focus on is how she clawed on his jacket when he nailed her to the desk. 

Regina would complain about God knows what and Negan can only think about the way Y/N’s head fell back and she let out that most unholy moan he’s ever heard when she came on his cock. 

Hell, it's impossible to work at the moment. Images of her would constantly pop up in his head. But that's not even the worst part. After all she's done to him, she dares to avoid him - to reject him?

Annoyed by his half hardon, Negan opens his door again. He hasn’t visited Sherry in a while. On his way to his wife's bedroom, he thinks back to the talk he had with Y/N this morning.

It’s not like he doesn’t understand his Sunshines reasoning for rejecting him, because he actually does. He is just absolutely pissed by the fact that it’s not because she simply doesn’t want him, but because of these useless shitheads in Alexandria. They can go to hell for all he cares. Instead of being grateful he didn't kill anyone thanks to her for racing to get the needed cans in time, they want to exile her. For something that wasn’t even her damn fault! They would have probably cheered, if he had to kill her. 

When Rick's substitute told Negan she was still on the road, he was so relieved. Of course he wouldn't have killed her, maybe the fat lady, she’s been thorn in the side of him since day one, but never his Sunshine. Although unobedient, she’s damn good at her job - getting him supplies.

But he knows he can use that reason only for so long until it's raising suspicion. She’s been acting out way too much in the past. No one would dare to question the boss, but he still has to be carefull, not wanting to give his men any reason to doubt him. And surely Alexandria would be wondering why he favors her, too, even though that should be more than obvious. That stupid asshols.

On his way down the hall he decides that he is not giving in. Now that he’s got a taste, there is no turning back anymore. He wasn’t joking when he told her he had some ideas.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Aaron walks up and down the wall. You try to ignore the sound of his steps but it's getting significantly harder. When he passes you for the fifth time, you finally speak up. "Aaron, for the love of God. Can you please sit down for a minute?"

“They haven’t come back yet.” He mumbles, looking at the road leading out of Alexandria. "I'm worried."

Rick pretty much demanded five more people from Alexandria for the Scavengers and Eric was among those who volunteered. He and Sasha went out to D.C to loot an abandoned block you’ve scouted out prior.��

Not much changed on your end other than not being part of the Scavengers anymore. Now you just take a look at places that are relatively close by for the newbies. Not too crowded by walkers but still worth looting.

The place you’ve sent Sasha and Eric to was downright peaceful, but you understand why Aaron is worried, it’s a big deal after all for them and so you try to calm him down, “Sasha knows what she's doing and they are not too far out. And if we don’t hear from them until midday, I’ll go after them.”

Aaron just sighs before plopping down on the crate. “The Saviors are around the corner. They were supposed to be here before them.” 

“See it that way,” You smile at him, “All they find we can eat at the campfire tonight.”

This actually cheers him up. After a snort, he says. “Well, if you put it that way.”

He turns around on the crate to face back onto the street. Suddenly Aaron jumps up and his shoulders tense up immediately. “They’re here.” He whispers.

You roll your eyes, he’s so dramatic. Still, you stand up from your chair and ask in a nonchalantly tone, “Do you open up or should I?”

Aaron shakes his head. “I’ll do it.” And quickly climbs down the ladder to get the gate open in time. You fold your arms and watch the trucks getting closer and closer.

One of the trucks catches your attention immediately. Is that an RV? Are they gonna camp in the town now? Totally bewildered by the vehicle, you watch them all coming to a stop around the gate. The Saviors jump out of their trucks and start swarming around immediately, moving past you and Aaron, towards the pantry. You watch them go with minor interest until you hear your name being called.

You turn around toward the source of the voice. Negan’s standing among the trucks, holding up a folded piece of paper. While grinning from ear to ear, he tells you. “Got a new list from my Doc.”

Here we go. Quickly you climb down the ladder as well, jumping down the last few rungs. Aaron is standing on the other end of the gate, but seems to be ready to intervene if something happened. The event at the pantry sure did leave a mark, making everyone more alert, on edge.

Negan leans against the frame of the gate with his shoulder. His eyes look you up and down before he reaches his hand out to give you the note. You take it without a word and unfold the small piece of paper. Let’s hope it’s not gonna be antibiotics. You take a look at the list. 

‘Meet me in the RV in fifteen minutes.’

Your eyebrows move into a frown, when you read the message the second time. Eventually you look up to meet his eyes again. He’s still grinning at you. “Think you can manage that?”

What’s his plan, you wonder although you already got a guess. You quickly look back at Aaron, then the RV and finally to Negan again. Unsure by the whole situation, but still kind of curious, you just nod at him.

His grin splits into a big and toothy smile. “Good.” He coos before pushing himself off the gate and moving past you. When he makes his way to the pantry as well, you go over to Aaron. He’s watching you with a slight frown of his own. 

You tell him, “I’m gonna go get them the meds.”

“What do they want?” He asks, folding his arms in front of his chest.

“Nothing wild”, you say. “I’ll go catch it.”

And with that you take your leave. You hurry down the street to get to the infirmary but instead of entering it, you just walk by. Your pulse starts to take on speed. What the hell am I doing here? You round the house and come to a halt behind it, hidden from sight. With the rising heart rate, your hands start to sweat. You want to know what all of this is about, but at the same time you don’t. Anxiously you look through one of the windows of the infirmary, trying to catch the clock on the wall. Ten more minutes.

Fuck it , the voice in your head says. The curiosity eventually got the better of you. 

Slowly you make your way back to the gate. Looks like Aaron is still patrolling. Walking the line in front of the gate up and down, looking out for walkers. There is no real way to avoid him, you could slither around the trucks, but he'd probably hear you.

After a deep breath and trying to calm your nerves, you walk straight up to him. When he turns around and notices you, he relaxes a little. “You got everything?”

“All good. “ You tell him with a forced smile. “Hey, can you go to my house and look after Olivia and Judith? Since the thing at the pantry, she’s very skittish around the Saviors. I’d go and look after them myself, but I don’t want the others to think I am hiding.”

Your heart is about to jump out your chest, but you try your absolute best to appear calm. After a pause that felt way too long, Aaron nods at you in understanding. “Yeah, sure.' You stay at the gate?”

“Of course, still have to finish my shift.” Again, you smile at him but more genuine this time, relieved your little trick actually worked.

“Okay.” He simply says before turning around and walking into town. 

You look after him for a moment, making sure he’d see you still at the gate, if he decides to turn around. Once he’s out of sight, you quickly move past the trucks and to the RV. You open the door and slip inside.

The air inside is stuffy. The RV probably hasn’t been used too often before. You let your eyes wander around. It’s nothing special, standard furnishing, but with a surprisingly lot of space. You lean against the small counter. Actually this is quite nice considering. Maybe, if you ever actually do decide to leave Alexandria again, you should find yourself an RV, too. You’re living in your car most of the time anyway, might as well upgrade to something more comfortable.

But before you can delve into that fantasy, the door opens. You jump a little at the sudden sound but calm down at once at the sight of black leather. Negan takes the few small steps in one big stride and closes the door behind him again. 

His stern expression morphs into a wide smile at the sight of you. He turns to face you and with his hands in the air, he asks. “And? Whatcha say?”

“A bit dusty.” You tell him jokingly. “But other than that it’s nice, I guess.” You let your eyes wander around the interior again. “Though I am wondering what all of this is about.” 

You look back at expectantly, but Negan’s just shrugging his shoulders. “No one’s questioning me going into my RV and you are obviously very capable of sneaking into it. So.”

“So?” You’re raising an eyebrow, still waiting for an actual answer.

His smile slightly grows, “So no ones gonna know.”

You let your head drop a little, while a deep sigh escapes your lips. After a second, you glance back up at him again. “You’re really serious about it.”

“Dead serious, Sunshine.”

You slightly shake your head, but don’t say a word. Your eyes move around again, looking everywhere but him, while you try to make up your mind. This is the point of no return, isn’t it?

Negan moves to come to stand right in front of you. “Let me ask you one question, Y/N.” Your eyes find him once more. “Do you regret it?”

No.

It’s been the first time in a very long time you were able to forget the fucked up world outside. No walkers, no Saviors, no Alexandrians, no family or friends. Just you and Negan. And it felt so damn good.

Was ist wrong? Yes. Is he the last person on Earth you should have done it with? Absolutely. But deep down you know you’d never regret it.

After a moment of consideration, you truthfully admit. “I don’t.”

Pleased with your responses, Negan almost beams at you. Both of his hands come to rest on your hips. His eyes stay on yours and you forget to breathe. “Come on, sweet thing.” He whispers. “Live a little.”

Ever so slowly he is leaning down, giving you enough room to change your mind and pull away, but you don’t. You meet him halfway - kissing him. 

Fuck it!

Chapter Index: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6

Next Part / Masterlist / Negan x Rick's Daughter Series

Taglist: @starry-night-20 / @joceymoo / @srhxpci / @ladykxxx08 / @sunneeflower

#The Walking Dead #negan smith #negan x oc #twd negan #negan #negan x reader #negan / reader #rick grimes #carl grimes #michonne #daryl #daryl dixon #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #twd #twd fanfiction

[coldshrugs]

longing's favorite season 🔹 part two

pairing: io laithe / estinien varlineau rating: explicit word count: 2.5k additional entries: prologue 🔹 part 1 🔹 stable scene 🔹

Estinien's head swims with ale as they step off the swaying lift. It groans behind them, relieved of their weight, and begins its descent to the lower floors of the Congregation.

"Onward then?" His guest gives him a sly look. There is a suggestion—no, they left the realm of suggestion on their barstools in the Forgotten Knight—there is an invitation in his voice as he puts his hands on Estinien's chest and moves him backward, against a wooden support beam.

What was his name? V-something.

He drops a hand to Estinien's groin and cups him. He's rough. Estinien's head meets the wall behind him, and he barely gives a fuck what his name is. Gods, it's been a long time since he's felt a touch like this. "And upward, hm?"

Estinien licks his lips, takes the hands roaming his body and spins the man whose name he swears he knows so that he is the one against the wall. Estinien pins his wrists over his head and the stranger's hips shoot forward, grazing his. It feels like a lifetime since another's arousal has pressed against him so blatantly, the bloodrush of need held right to the place his own should be, and all he can manage is a growing knot in the pit of his stomach.

This is new... Inadequacy where desire should be. And still, he's come this far. He wills his body to react, to stiffen. To show some physical sign of his intentions.

He can want this.

"Quiet. My quarters are at the end of the hallway."

He nods through the low light, looking up at Estinien with dark, dilated eyes and pretty, expectant lips (it is then another set of lips flash in his mind–more full, more beautiful than the ones in front of him—too fast to place them, but the uncommon urge to graze them with his own lips floods his senses…). All of him is pretty, really. His short pointed ears, giving away more than a passing trace of Hyur ancestry. His ocher skin dusted with little moles. The thick, dark lashes that frame his eyes in a way that is almost familiar...

A stray spark catches and there is hope of a fire yet. Yes, he wants this.

Estinien releases him and leads him down the dark corridor, fumbling with the key when they reach his door.

His pretty companion clicks his tongue. "If we manage to get inside, I hope you're more accurate in bed, Ser," he slurs, bending over to watch Estinien work the lock. The key finds its home and the lock clicks open. His grin spreads in slow triumph. "Lucky me. Looks like I'll find out after all."

They stumble inside and Estinien shoves the door closed. Some middling recruit has seen to his hearth and a few lanterns around the room. Everything else is how he left it: orderly, simple, comfortable enough for him and Cat, who must be prowling the tower halls.

The only abnormality in this scene is the ambitious seducer undressing by his bed, and even that was not so strange a year ago. Then, he often sought release, from pain, or anger, or grief, in the bodies of others. It was easy to lose himself in them for a few hours, and easier to bid them farewell. But tonight, he is… off.

Too much drink, perhaps.

"Remind me," Estinien says quietly. He strides slowly across the room as his guest removes his pants with a sensual twist of his hips. Estinien's eyes hang on his erection, so very aware of his own lack. "Your name is...?"

"Victorien Riemort," he smiles, freeing long, sand-colored hair. Hm. "I serve House Durendaire as a retainer. You may call me Vic, if it's easier to remember."

Victorien moves in front of him, skin glowing orange-gold in the firelight. He casts his eyes down, making quick work of the buttons on Estinien's shirt, and Estinien admires his lashes from this angle too.

"Vic," Estinien repeats, testing how it might stick in his mind. His eyes close. Firm hands explore his exposed chest, groping, admiring, and he swallows a coarse moan as his shirt falls to the floor.

Fingertips ghost across his left shoulder and Estinien sucks in a breath. Besides his chirurgeon, no one has touched the craters Nidhogg's eyes left in his skin. He wills himself not to flinch, to stay. Tells himself the violent, florid scars are not so different than any other wound earned during the Dragonsong War. He is not monstrous, or bizarre.

Just a man with a history more visible than most.

Vic offers no further touch to that particular expanse of skin, and the heat of his fingertips leaves entirely.

Estinien opens his eyes to find him looking at the scar. Not quite grimacing, more worried than that. Pitying, almost.

"Does it still hurt?" he asks, voice free of the flirtatious wit he's used all evening.

"No." He lifts Victorien's hand and places it on his chest. Somewhere neutral, where only the memories of common scrapes and cuts live. "Pay it no mind. And please, stop talking."

"If you say so." Vic slides both arms around his neck and presses his body close, closer. His mouth, set in a temptingly crooked smile, tilts toward Estinien's. He wanted to put his lips on something, on someone, did he not?

He turns his face away.

"Ah," Vic says, "one of those."

His head falls against Estinien's shoulder—the unmarred one—and the flicker of familiarity he felt in the corridor rushes back. Evening air and cold, wet stone. The dreary sky above him, and Io... Io in his arms, her head on his shoulder, her warmth washing over him as his arms wind under her cloak–around the body in front of him. There is heat on his neck, real heat.

Victorien.

His lips pass over sensitive skin, clumsy in their eagerness. Estinien steps out of his memory and back to the present, to the hand wandering down his chest, his stomach, into his trousers. Victorien does not delay, his stroke is immediate, urging Estinien to rise and meet him.

He lifts his lips to Estinien's ear. "It will not do for me to have the Azure Dragoon without his lance at the ready. If my hand does not please you, would you prefer my mouth?" His tongue slides up the blade of his ear, making his point clear as crystal.

If Io had turned her lips toward his neck, would they brush in the same way? Is he allowed to wonder? Her mouth is the one his addled mind seems set on conjuring, after all. His friend and comrade.

She knows him easily.

She knows him best.

How would she touch him? How would she want to be touched? Pieces of an image form in his mind, and another spark catches.

"Aye." Estinien's chest shakes as he reaches between them and unlaces his pants. Vic takes his wrist and leads him to the bed.

The mattress edge dips and he spreads his legs so Vic fits between them, on his knees.

Now is when he chooses to slow, to touch him with careful hands. His breath is hot as he closes in. Estinien closes his eyes and lets his head roll back. His hand settles on the nape of Victorien's neck, and if this someone who is not Io can manage to let him pretend, he can see this through.

He can appreciate the searing heat of another's tongue gliding over his most sensitive places, and soft lips moving to a rhythm that beckons his hips to follow. It doesn't have to be the pretty stranger he met in the tavern. It could be...

"Halone's fucking tits, you really are something when you relax." Vic's laugh rings high and clear in the space of his chamber, ruining any hope Estinien had of enjoying this facade. And this is the foolish beginning.

He looks down, and Victorien is gazing up at him, holding uncomfortably fond eye contact as he puts his hand, and then his mouth, back to work.

His eyes.

Estinien thought his eyes were darker... Not that he'd sought any certain feature, but lately, he's found himself inexplicably drawn to a specific shade of midnight. In the tavern, out on the street, and in the dark of the hallway, Victorien's eyes looked nearly black. Estinien was less sober in the tavern. Perhaps he saw what he wanted to see.

Here, in the lantern light, his head is clear, and Victorien's eyes, even blown wide with lust, are a bright, clear blue.

What he couldn't explain to himself before, what he has been failing to fight all night, what he already knows he wants… it washes over him all at once.

"Leave me," he says, "now." The words carry no threat, but the gravel in his voice does not invite debate.

Victorien's too-light eyes widen, and there is a small satisfaction in seeing him thrown off, but he ceases his task and sits back on his heels.

"You know," he begins, mouth held in a long, tight line and using Estinien's legs as leverage to stand straight. "You are not good at wearing a mask. A helmet, maybe, but not a mask."

He snatches his clothes from the floor and tosses them next to Estinien, redressing at his leisure. Estinien rolls his eyes and falls backward on the bed, half-dressed, half-hard, and willing this unfamiliar man to make haste as he stares at the ceiling.

But he must admit some curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"I was in front of you all night—my mistake, really, Ser Varlineau, and your loss—but you were looking at someone else. Looking for someone else. Your business is your own, but if the real thing enthralls you half as much as the shade you hoped to find in me, well... I only hope you let them know."

Estinien's brow pinches. What is there to tell?

Victorien becomes a barrage of sound and movement, his annoyance heightened by Estinien's skyward gaze—or so he assumes. Alberic and Aymeric tell him he is 'avoidant,' but most find him inordinately direct. Vic wrangles his boots on loudly, shaking the bed, and Estinien wishes either of them were anywhere else. When he has finished dressing, Victorien blazes a path for the chamber door, ensuring he is heard as he leaves. Estinien smirks as the door slams behind him—a small price to pay for the ire he stoked.

He is alone.

The fire crackles and pops, but all else is still. He fills his lungs, deeply, slowly, until tonight's humiliation begins to burn away. One thought rises to take its place:

A week or so ago. He is standing in the Jeweled Crozier, looking up at Io Laithe. The sun is in her squinting eyes as she turns to him, already smiling, and he doesn't dare move. Her breath hangs in the air around her, a hazy frame, and his own is stuck in his lungs. Had he truly missed her so much? Had he always been a parched field, and when did she become rain?

It occurs to him there are parts of himself still untouched, pieces unknown to even him. He met Io while consumed by vengeance, so singleminded that he hardly noticed how his edges smooth when she is near. But now...

For a moment, the news Aymeric had so casually delivered was untrue. How could he believe it, when for one frozen, flawless second, the whole of the star condenses to them on the stairs? His awareness shrinks to the space between them, where his sudden solace echoes from himself to her, and back. Io is just as relieved to see him.

Years of rigorous training, honing his body and steeling his mind for every eventuality, and none of it left Estinien prepared for this. For the sun in her eyes.

And now he must endure her bond to another—a backbreaking demand when he has refused to even think of it. Prayer has never suited him but, in his way, this denial is a small, selfish plea, to Halone who seems to favor him, to Nymeia who has ever scorned him, to whichever deity might hear it and reverse this wrongness—

But this is her reality, and his. 

He will accept it. When next he sees her, he will ask about her husband, a man he should like. He will ask about her life here. He will use her stupid fucking formal address if he must.

In the meantime, he closes his eyes and she is here.

Io's earnest beauty is matched by no one he's ever known—every inch of her dark and inviting, and her eyes most of all. In his mind's eye, she fits seamlessly among his things, few as they are, and makes herself comfortable in his space. She turns her gaze to him, on display at the edge of his bed. Fantasy and reality blend.

What would not budge for Victorien's very real touch, stirs impatiently at the simple thought of Io. 

Estinien shivers as his fingertips drift across his ribs, down his belly, and lower... until he brushes himself. He will finish what he started, what he longed for but could not admit. Light at first, matching how he thinks Io might test the feel of him, his reaction to her touch, and he does not bother to stifle the groan.

He sees her hands moving over his skin, her body moving against his. His hand tangles in his quilt as his own touch intensifies and pictures her graceful, needy. Guiding his hands to the places she wants to be touched. The choked little moans when she discovers a way to be closer, to take him deeper, to have more of him, as if he is not already hers entirely.

His stroke grows erratic, as does the touch he envisions. His hand (her hips) moving with furious determination, one goal in mind. His chest heaves.

His end is within reach.

The image shifts and he wonders at the taste of her skin. Salt and sweetness as his mouth roams her back, her belly, lingers at the slick center of her thighs. Imagines bringing her to the peak of bliss, her body trembling against his tongue. And when he crawls up to face her, she is smiling (as she was on those stairs) before her lips collide with his, softly, suddenly, and he would not turn away.

Estinien shatters, and so does the illusion he can painlessly bear this.

With a ragged gasp, he rises on an elbow, unconcerned with his mess; the vision of Io clings to his senses, and he is not yet ready to push it from his mind. He holds it for as long as he can, eyes squeezed shut as he laments what he will never have, what he cannot touch.

He rises to clean himself and dress for bed, and attempts to slot Io—her smile, her freckle-scattered skin, her soft voice, and her eyes—back into the realm of friendship. She fits as he remembers. She occupies some new space as well.

He will figure it out later.

Tomorrow he will make for Fortemps Manor. He promised her an adventure.

#azia writes #longing's favorite season #ffxiv #io/estinien #misery au #🤡 CLOWN BEHAVIOR HERE 🤡 #sorry to make him obsessed with her in every universe it's just that he thinks she's wonderful all the time

[sunflowersoldat]

All is Fair in~ Wounds & Woes

Chapter 20: Wounds & Woes

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Main Master List

Series Master List

Series Summary: Family is important, but so is the Family business. Everyone has secrets, some are deadly. Your the best in the business, but no one knows who you are. Tensions are high, will you raise the stakes or fold under the pressure?

Series Warning: 18+! Mentions of blood and violence, bad language words, smut, manipulation, gaslighting, death, trauma, please follow the warnings for each chapter.

Chapter warnings: 18+ Only! Emotional trauma, Bad language words, mentions of death and physical trauma, nightmares.

Pairing: Mob!Steve x Assassin!Stark!reader

Word count: 4.2K

A/N: It feels like I haven't posted in years, even though its only been like a week, if even. The Holiday season really fucks me up... as always, likes, comments and reblogs are always welcome! Anyhow, enjoy!💕

You must have been out of your damn mind bringing him into the lion’s den. After everything the two of you had been through, you should have left him with his people. They would surely hunt you down. Especially if Barnes was running things in Steve’s disappearance, and as Steve’s second in command, you knew he would be.

You shouldered your way into a separate part of the casino; a safe house if you will, an entire miniature apartment. You shared a floor with the others, but you knew they weren't home.

You hadn’t used your safe house in over a year when you decided to retire. You hadn’t needed to use it, but most of the time it felt more like home than your actual house near the museum, nonetheless, you slipped your keycard from your pocket, nudged open the door then kicked it shut when you finally stumbled through with Steve.

Making your way into your room, you gently lay him on your bed, wincing when pain shot through your side, your hands stained red, along with Steve’s shirt. Panic threatened to take control, but your instincts went into overdrive, you reached for your side, a bullet had grazed you, but not deep enough to cause this amount of blood. The realization had you tearing open his shirt, a deep bullet wound sat right above his hip, pouring blood. You tore through the rest of his shirt, using the fabric to apply pressure and stop the blood flow, you needed the med kit you kept in the other room. You dared a glance at his face, the color had drained, leaving him unnaturally pale, his skin sticky with sweat.

A sudden knock on the door ripped you from your panic.

“Death?” Wade’s voice pierced through your skull.

“Wade! In here, hurry!”

You heard the door unlock and slam open, followed by Wade’s swift footsteps, you turned to him as he slid to a stop in the doorway, his face falling as he took in the room. 

He doesn’t think, he just moves, gently taking your place on the bed and applying pressure to Steve’s wound.

“Focus kid. Get the medkit, we need to stop the bleeding.”

You stare wide-eyed at the man bleeding on your bed, dread seeping into your bones; this couldn’t be it, after everything you had been through—

When you don’t move Wade turns to you quickly, his hand meeting your cheek with a loud crack. Snapping out of your trance you glare at him, “Do you want to die?!”

“No, but he will if you don’t focus. Medkit. Now!”

His words crash over you sending you into motion, you hurry from the room, slamming into the bathroom door, scrambling to find your medkit. When your fingers finally wrap around the thick military-grade box, a wave of relief crashes through you but is crushed when you enter your room again to see Steve even paler than before. 

You take a deep breath and focus, he needs you. You shut your emotions down, letting Wraith/Death take over. You move like a machine, going through the motions of cleaning the wound, a sliver of the weight lifts from your shoulders as you and Wade realize, it was a clean shot. When the two of you are satisfied with ensuring the wound won't get infected, you help Wade stitch the wound closed.

Steve is still deathly pale, the pit in your stomach gapes open as the wall you threw up breaks back down, what if he lost too much blood and this was all for nothing? What if you lose him anyway? What if you never get to properly apologize and tell him you—

“Death.” Wade's firm voice rips you out of your thoughts, his tone tells you this isn’t the first time he has spoken your name, “Do you know his blood type? He needs a transfusion.”

You numbly shake your head, “A hospital, we should take him to…” you swallow thickly, your eyes darting back to Steve’s unconscious form on the bed.

“There’s no time for that…” Wade breaks off, scowling, “I’ll be right back, watch him.”

You reach after him, but he is too quick, there one second then gone the next. Before you can move he is back, a bag of blood tucked under his arm to warm it. He pulls it out, nailing it to the wall, before placing a needle into Steve’s arm.

You cock your head, eyes flickering from the door Wade came through to the blood, to Wade, then back to the blood, “Where did you get that?” 

“My room.” His answer is so calm, and nonchalant like it was normal for them to have bags of blood in their rooms. He continues as if you aren’t staring at him in utter confusion, “We really need to talk to the boss about having a stockpile in case of emergencies…” he turns back to you, raising his brows, “What?”

You scrunch your face, “What do you mean what? You just pulled a bag of O-negative blood from under your couch cushion? And you expect me to not be dumbfounded?”

He purses his lips, “Like that is the most absurd thing I’ve brought out of there…”

Frowning you raise your brow, before nodding, he isn’t wrong, Wade’s apartment is off limits, solely because no one knows what is in there. One time you were walking by as he closed the door, and you could swear he had a rainbow unicorn onesie on a mannequin, riding a rocket. And you're ninety-nine percent sure there was a full-grown alligator chilling on his couch two weeks later.

Wade sighed as he stood, stretching, “Well, my work here is done, consider that my apology for having to bossnap him…” he grimaced, “Think he’ll forgive me?”

You stifled a laugh as if he really cared… Wade left the room heading for your apartment door, “Put in a good word for me dearie…” your door clicked shut, leaving you alone with an unconscious Steve, who was still quite pale.

You looked back at Steve lying on your bed, before plopping into the chair next to him, you will get up in a couple of minutes to shower and fix your wound, the medkit lay discarded on the bed, within reach, but for now, you just want to watch over him. The color is slowly creeping back into his cheeks, his chest rising and falling in a more steady rhythm. His face and body were covered in wounds and bruises, your brother had done a number on him before you arrived; it was nothing compared to what Steve’s men had done to you, but it was enough. Leaning over him, you brush the hair from his forehead, placing a soft kiss there, before settling back in the chair, your eyes drifting shut, despite your efforts to stay awake, sleep yanked you under.

—

A few hours earlier— 

Bucky’s mind was reeling, he didn’t understand how you were alive, but at this point, he didn’t care. There were too many coincidences where you were involved. You show back up in town the same night Peggy Carter dies, then you miraculously don’t die after he leaves you in the upper bay? That is a big red flag, a normal person wouldn’t have been able to survive half the shit he did to you that night, yet you were standing in Steve’s office mere minutes ago. That was a major red flag, they had just been attacked by Tony’s men at the penthouse, you want Steve dead, and Tony wants Steve dead, why? Bucky couldn’t understand. All he knew was you were dangerous, and his best friend was blind to that danger, Bucky wouldn’t let Steve make the mistake of trusting you and losing his life because of it. 

You had almost outed him in front of Steve earlier, lapdog, who did you think you were, calling him such a thing. He had half a mind to go back into Steve’s office and talk some sense into the man, but he thought better of it, he knew Steve needed his space, needed to blow off steam. Hell, the minute the door closed he could hear glass shattering and all of the furniture clattering on the floor. If Steve hadn’t put a hole in the wall he would have been surprised.

Bucky descended the stairs into the main foyer, Sam and Peter were already making their way in from the kitchen, Peter’s mouth full from whatever dish Wanda had prepared for them. Bucky ran his hand through his hair as they approached,

“What the fuck was all the commotion? Was that gunfire?” Sam questioned as he took in Bucky’s agitated state.

He shook his head, “It was a misfire, don't worry about it.”

Peter piped up, raising a brow, “We heard yelling, a female’s voice…”

Bucky’s eyes narrowed on the two of them, “Listen, do the two of you have a problem or something you would like to ask? Because both of you have been on my ass for days now!” taking a deep breath, Bucky lowered his voice, “As I said, it was a misunderstanding between Steve and me, and a gun misfired. Period.” he gave them both a pointed look, before walking back towards his room.

“You killed Ace.” Peter’s voice was a knife’s edge slicing through the air. A pin-drop silence followed. It wasn't a question, but a statement, but Bucky could hear it in Peter’s voice, he wanted it to be false. He stiffened, not wanting to turn around, but not wanting to take another step away,

“That is quite the accusation, Queens.”

“Yet you don’t deny it. You killed her, even after Steve spared her life. You killed her. Why?! What gave you the right to take her from him?!”

Bucky turned to face Peter, his movements agonizingly slow, his face a hard mask of emotion, “She had all of you fooled.” his eyes flicked between Peter and Sam, his voice rising with each word, “She didn’t care about you! This was a job to her, another fucking hit, nothing more!”

The crowd in the foyer began to grow as Scott, Wanda and Barton joined to see what was happening. Sam stepped between the two of them, his hands raised, “Easy Buck, just calm down, and tell us what happened…”

“I don’t owe any of you an explanation! I did what I had to do to keep Steve safe, as his second in command! He trusts me to keep him safe! —”

The lights in the mansion flickered out, leaving them all in pitch darkness, the front doors exploded open, the ground shaking as gunfire broke through the air, followed by the cacophony of men yelling orders. 

Instantly Bucky bolted for the stairs, he had to make it to Steve…

He was cut short when a hand grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around, “Hello Barnesy…” Bucky knew that voice, but he couldn’t place it, “Hey! Don’t you dare touch the kid, tie him up, and put him to the side, if a single hair on his head is misplaced, I’ll kill you myself!” The figure turned back to Bucky, his hot breath puffing in his face, “Sorry Buckaroo, where were we? Oh yes, Death isn’t one for revenge, but I am…”

All Bucky feels is pain, his consciousness slips from him, as his assailant laughs.

Later– 

There you were again, outside of Stark tower with Steve, broken and bloody from whatever you and your brother had done to him. You were probably taking him with you to finish him off and get paid for finishing the job. His blood boiled, and he ignored Sam and Peter next to him screaming as he aimed for your head. Peter slammed into him as he pulled the trigger, Bucky watched it hit its mark on your vest instead, momentarily knocking you off balance. Then you were on your bike and gone from their reach. 

He turned to Peter, seething, but the little shit stood tall against him, he wasn't afraid of Bucky… 

Bucky furrowed his brow, taking a deep breath, Queens didn’t need to be afraid of him, he was his brother, not his enemy. Shaking his head he threw the pistol into the passenger seat as he settled behind the wheel, “Get back in the car, we need to regroup…”

—

The two of you were on the roof, your gaze meeting his, so much pain swam in those beautiful eyes, and his heart stuttered in his chest. “Do you trust me?”

He couldn’t help the reply that drunkenly left his lips, “I used to…”

He watched your heart shatter at that moment, but your reply was swift, full of conviction, “It’s time I earned it back…”

The next moments were a blur, you shoving him backward, the air rushing from his lungs as he began to freefall, then your warmth surrounding him. He felt the hard asphalt under his feet, and the screeching of tires pierced his ears.  Followed by yelling—

Bang

The memory has Steve jolting awake, his body involuntarily convulsing, a fire erupting in his abdomen searing through the rest of his body. Grimacing, he stifled a groan, his eyes peeled open, the room he’s in isn't one he recognizes, but the sleeping form in the chair next to him he does. You had fallen asleep next to him, the medkit he assumes you used to patch him lay discarded on the bed at his feet, your head hanging uncomfortably on the back of the chair. You hadn’t even taken off your uniform, his eyes began to droop again, sleep slowly pulling him back under as his eyes landed on the blood that coats your hands, from the stitched wound on his abdomen, he knew it was his own.

—

Blood. There was so much blood, you couldn’t find the wound it was coming from. It coated your hands, it was covering the floor, thick pools of crimson blood. It rained down onto your skin, dying your hair and mask, it seeped from the walls. 

And in the middle of it, all laying in a pile were the ones you couldn’t bear to lose, eyes glazed over, all the color drained from their faces. You dropped to your knees in front of them, your tears mixing with the thick liquid as you reached for them with a trembling hand. 

A hand shot out of the pile with breakneck speed, wrapping around your wrist, their vacant eyes pleading, their mouths agape with words unsaid—

You jerked awake, eyes flying open, limbs stiff, neck aching from the unnatural position you had fallen asleep in. 

Your heart is hammering in your chest as you straighten in the chair, your gaze finding Steve still lying in your bed, the color is mostly back in his cheeks, the bag of blood no longer nailed to the wall, Wade must’ve come in to check on him after you passed out. 

You rise from the chair for only a moment, heading into the kitchen you grab a glass, and one of your bottles of vodka. The wound on your side is still biting at you, an annoying reminder to stitch and clean it before infection sets in.

As you entered the room again, your eyes locked on his, he was tense against the headboard, eyes fixed on you. Not on you, no they were glued to the weapons strapped to your body, and the obvious bullet hole in the middle of your kevlar vest.

He had seen you like this before, in your uniform, but you could tell it still stunned him.

“Do you usually sleep in that?” his voice wrapped around you like a brisk autumn breeze, as you discarded your gloves, pouring yourself a drink, your brow creasing. When you didn't respond he continued, “Or is it only when you need to make a clean break?”

Oh…oh. Shit, you reached up to your eyes and face, gently removing the contacts, and mask, you give him a small shrug, “Sometimes I forget I have it on…” your eyes traveled his body, and though he was no longer restrained, he kept himself still, until your mask and contacts were discarded, you noticed his body finally relax.

“Steve… Listen I–”

“I didn’t kill Howard and Maria.” the words left his mouth in a whisper so soft you almost missed it.

Your shoulders sagged, dropping his gaze, “I…I know…” you leaned forward, gathering the antiseptic and towels from the bed, “Tony didn’t hire me to kill you…”

“I know… he told me.”

You paused, but he continued, “I mean not blatantly. We had met at a restaurant, and threatened each other, I told him he shouldn't have sent you to kill me if he didn't want you hurt…” you locked gazes again, his beautiful ocean eyes so full of sorrow and pain, “He didn’t even know you were an Ace?” his voice wavered on the last part.

You shook your head, your gaze again dropping to your hands, where you mindlessly pulled at one of the loose strings. “No. No one knew… well except you… and your men.”

Swinging his legs off the bed he scooted closer, a grimace pulling his face tight as he pointed to the hole in your vest, where your heart would be, “I never thought your brother would actually shoot at you…”

You batted his hand away, huffing, “Neither did I, but that isn't from Tony…” you gesture to the bullet hole, “it’s your men’s third attempt at killing me.”

His face pales further, the only color on his beautiful face is the full brown beard that now adorns it, “Third? What were the first and second?” His voice was raspy and strained as if he were trying to force the words to the surface, like the thought of you dying pained him.

You couldn't help the laugh that clawed its way out of your throat as you searched his face, but when he stares at you full of confusion you elaborate, “Steve, the basement? You tortured me, I was this–” you gesture with your fingers only millimeters away from each other, “close to bleeding out. Then, you send Bucky to strap cement boots to my feet and throw me in…” you trail off, the rest of the sentence no longer important because he is looking at you like he did that night in the warehouse; heartbroken and full of disbelief. 

Your face falls, the anger you held toward him slowly melting away, “You didn’t know…” 

He shakes his head numbly, tears lining his eyes, the color finally rising to his cheeks, “I heard the jab about him being my lapdog at the mansion, but I hadn’t realized…” his jaw clenches, “Believe me, Angel,” the use of your pet name stirs something in your chest, “I never sent him to kill you…” his fingers trace up your vest and you hold your breath, “Did he do this too?”

You look at his hand, gently tracing the spot on your chest, then slowly raise your eyes to his, letting out the breath you were holding. The nod you give him is barely discernible, but he sees it.

“There will be consequences for his actions.”

One corner of your lips tilts upwards, “It’s not entirely his fault… I may have threatened to kill you–”

“It doesn't matter, he almost succeeded in killing you. He disobeyed my wishes, he will be dealt with.”

A lump began to form in your throat, “According to the world, he succeeded. Besides, if it hadn’t been him, it would have been another one of your men. Like Ronin, he would kill me on sight—”

Steve shook his head, “No, Barton follows orders, he is good at his job, and efficient at retrieving information, but he knows his place. If he would have seen you, he would have known I kept you alive for a reason…”

Your brows shot up, “Oh? There was a method to the madness? A reason for my suffering?”

“Angel,” Steve's voice lowered, “you attempted to kill me, I had to find out why… Taking you to your brother’s was the only way to keep you safe—”

Your lip trembled, “From who?! You? Did you really think it mattered?!”

His jaw clenched tightly, “I spared your life.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing, couldn’t stop the scoff that left your mouth, “You condemned me! You tortured me within an inch of my life! Then sentenced me to live in a gilded cage!” you shoved up from the chair, the force causing it to clatter onto the ground behind you.

“Don’t act like you have no blame for how this turned out.”

“Excuse me?! I was doing my job! Not all of us have the luxury of choice! You chose to do all those things to me, chose to keep me alive as punishment.”

He rose to his feet, his hulking frame towering over you, even injured he was the embodiment of power.

 “Punishment?! I didn’t keep you alive for punishment! I could have done worse things. After what you did…” his face fell, his eyes clouding as his hand raked through his hair, “You lied to me Angel, played me for a fool.”

He stepped closer to you, crowding you against the wall, your blood roaring in your ears, your body felt too hot, his breath puffing in your face, “You betrayed me, Angel. In the worst way possible.”

“Then why not kill me.” you spat the words, like bile on your tongue.

He growls “Because I fucking love you!” his hand slams against the wall next to your head, the impact reverberating in the room, his chest is heaving now, “I know I shouldn’t. I can’t, but I do.”

His shoulders sag as he pulls away from you. Turning he walks towards the bed, shaking his head, “I can’t get you out of my head… I kept you alive because I couldn’t bear killing you. I know it doesn’t make what I did better, what I allowed Barton and Bucky to do to you is unforgivable…” he pauses, his voice now barely above a whisper, “I have hated myself every day for even letting them lay a finger on you. I was angry. It isn’t an excuse, I know that.”

You swallowed thickly, his back was toward you, but you could see the light tremble in his shoulders, the sharp intake of breath.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

Your apology was genuine, you hadn’t meant to hurt him in that way, everything had gotten so out of hand…

Steve sighs loudly, “I wish I could believe that, I really do, but I don’t. After all the lies, I can’t trust a word you say. I can’t trust you.”

His words sting, but you understand, if you were in his position, you wouldn’t trust you either, but you won’t accept defeat, you can’t. You’ve come this far, you’ve been beaten, shot at, and lost everything you ever worked for. Because you thought he was worth it. Pushing off the wall you stalk around him, you are toe-to-toe with him now, your hands trembling as you reach up to caress his cheek. 

He stiffened at your initial touch, before closing his eyes and relaxing into your palm. Thumb lightly brushing his plump lips, “I don’t think you understand,” you whispered, your other hand sliding around his neck as you rose onto your toes, “I would never kill you…” you brushed your nose against his, “if I had to choose my life or yours, I’d give mine in a heartbeat.” You breathed against his lips before crushing your lips to his, as he stumbled backward, his back colliding with the wall. His mouth melded with yours, you could feel the fight within him, he wanted to pull away, but couldn’t. The familiar taste of bourbon and mint filled your senses. Breaking the kiss, you scrunch your brows, and tears begin to stream slowly down your cheeks, “Steve, I would burn the whole world down to keep you safe.”

He only allowed you a moment of control before he had you flipped, your back hitting the wall, breath leaving your lungs. The two of your hands held in only one of his, his other hand lightly brushing the tears from your face. His voice was low and menacing, sending a shiver up your spine and your stomach doing flips, “Such beautiful promises mean nothing when they fall from a forked tongue that has told more lies than truth.”

Your eyes searched his sapphire ones, he was trying and failing to hide behind his anger and hurt, you could read him like an open book. He wanted to crumble to give you his heart and soul until there was nothing left of him, and so did you, you wanted it so badly you couldn’t breathe. His name left your mouth in a broken plea, no violence would break you, no amount of torture or broken bones, but him.

This beautifully broken man in front of you would be your undoing, “Tell me one,” he took a shaky breath, “tell me one truth.”

You released a breath you weren’t aware you were holding, “I love you.”

@dontbescaredtosingalong @texan-tazzy @tianamontag @daiseychaindisaster @silently-killing-you @buckyfan12 @leyannrae @justlovelifeblog @austynparksandpizza @captainson-of-coul @betareader7 @vicmc624 @bigphattygyal @calwitch @buckysteveloki-me @curlyladylazarus111 @talesofadragon

#mafia au #steve rogers #bucky barnes #marvel au #mob!steve rogers #mob!steve x reader #assassin!reader #all is fair in... #steve rogers x bucky barnes #bucky x steve #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x reader smut #steve x reader #tony stark #stark!reader #Stark!sister #sam wilson #Howard Stark #the howling commandos #captain america #mob au #marvel #avengers #bucky #yelena belova #mafia!steve rogers #mafia!bucky #loki laufeyson #thor odinson #peter parker

[gunpowder-tim]

so. podcast reccomendations

putting this under a read more it got l o n g

Ones i have listened to -

*Inkwyrm - COMPLETE, My ultimate fav podcast ever -id listen to the original first ep before the first ep redo cause i think it kinda makes more sense idk, Putting up with her boss is hard enough, but with the cutthroat fashion industry, and whatever is trying to kill everyone today, Mella and the gang have their hands full. One part sit-com, one part space opera.

*Kaleidotrope - COMPLETE, the cutest fucking shit ever filled with tropes and gayass idiots, The plot centers around Drew and Harrison, two reluctant college radio co-hosts-turned-accidental-advice-givers who find themselves in the middle of the campus’s oldest mystery: Do happy endings really happen at Sidlesmith? Can you really find your trope?

*Hell or High Rollers - 11 eps so far! dnd podcast but very rp based much less mechanic based /pos,  A table top role play podcast following the adventures of 4 Villains and their attempt to escape eternal damnation. theyre trying to escape hell and they have to get through all nine layers before they can!!

The Beacon - season 3 coming, After surviving a dangerous encounter with a monster, Bee discovers she has the magical ability to control fire. Confused and with no heroic aspirations, she reaches out online to try and find others with impossible powers like hers - but finding them is only half the battle. only listened to a few eps of this but its v enjoyable

Girl in Space - season 2 coming, Nothing fancy here -- just the simple audio diary of a girl in space. Also, there’s this weird and potentially ominous light in the distance that seems to be growing steadily closer. fun space stuff!

Violet Beach - COMPLETE, On New Year's Day, 2018, the lives of seven friends in the town of Violet Beach, Maryland, change forever. As weird sci-fi happenings become less "fi" and more reality every day, they begin keeping record of their experiences. These are those records. dont remember much abt the content (listened to it a long time ago lmao) but i remember enjoying it v much

Overkill - COMPLETE(?), After 19-year-old Aya Velasquez died mysteriously in Harding Park, no one seemed to care. At least not until a preteen medium accidentally summoned Aya herself to solve the mystery. With no memory of her death and no shortage of questions, Aya must make friends with her fellow ghosts and discover the truth behind the nation's most haunted park. v cool ghost shit but not horrory and also gay

Midnight Radio - COMPLETE, Drawing inspiration from 1950s radio serials and ghost stories, Midnight Radio follows two women finding love through an unlikely correspondence about community, leaving your small hometown, our relationship to the past, what it means to be haunted, and what we leave behind when we die. Remember: all ghost stories are love stories.

Death by Dying - season 2 in progress(?) The Obituary Writer of Crestfall, Idaho finds himself deeply in over his head as he investigates a series of strange and mysterious deaths… when he is supposed to simply be writing obituaries. Along the way he encounters murderous farmers, man-eating cats, haunted bicycles, and a healthy dose of ominous shadows. nightvale esque with a weird lil town, fun concept cool characters, the obituary writer is on the podcast tumblr like all the time and is v nice sauifgdsukf

36 Questions - COMPLETE, musical podcast! bit :/ cause its like got real celebs n shit in it but its good!!!!, In a last-ditch attempt to salvage their crumbling marriage, a couple uses the 36 questions—an experiment known for making strangers fall in love—to save their own relationship.

Directive - 2 seasons, when this came out the tumblr for the podcast messaged people to ask them to listen to it skjdfgdsk, listen to all of part 1 all at once, i didnt know there was a season two so idk abt that but this is sad so just bear that in mind , A Sci Fi series about a man stuck alone for 20 years, taking care of sleeping passengers on a ship to colonize a new planet.

*Love and Luck - hiatus since 2020 possibly finished, Love and Luck is a fictional radio play podcast, told via voicemails.  It’s a slice of life queer romance story with a touch of magic. very cute and nice and lighthearted

Dining in The Void - season 3 coming, When six alien celebrities are trapped onboard a space station, they will have to work together to survive--or die at the hands of an unknown monster. pretty sure i was/am mutuals (or sth) w someone who voice acts in this which i didnt know when i started listening, heavy themes i think kinda

Raising the Dead Again - indefinate hiatus, Raising the Dead Again is a triweekly podcast that follows a young, modern-day necromancer - a young man by the name of Quincy Bejanaro - before, during, and after making the biggest mistake of his life: resurrecting long-dead adventurers. really really loved this one sad theres only 9 eps :( and the story is unfinished

some of these do not have great input from me bc i listened to them years ago n my memory is garbage - starred ones are my favourites, pink is my opinion, italics are official descriptions

other ones i love but Do Not Reccomend are king falls am and eos 10 bc the creators r stupid ass losers and also the last season of eos 10 is so fucking stupid lmao

#rai.txt #there is 14 podcasts on this list #i can reccoomend more perhaps but these ones. #idk like i didnt wanna reccomend like taz or wtnv yknow? #but yeah #hope yall think these r good suggestions #if u wanna know a bit more abt one of them send an ask or sth!

[xazz]

Lightfall, I loved it

First off: Story was great. Jot that down.

Second off: Strand is fun as fuck. Yes. Even Titan you whiny babies.

Third: Nimbus is the best egg. Anyone who finds them cringey or weird is just mad Cayde’s still dead. Love their silly quips. Love their excitability. If anything their VA could have been even more over the top.

Four: fucking Cayde memorial. Stop fucking asking. He’s dead. Get over it. Bungie has moved on. I know he was your favorite character. He still can be! He’s just. Dead.

Five: I love that Mara has been beaten down enough to have some actual fucking humility while still being That Bitch. Love that for her. I like Mara because she’s a bitch and a bad person.

Some more long thoughts below the cut. I do talk about the end cut scenes so lots of spoilers!

Why your bitching about the story is wrong

Story was great! Anyone who complains about the story I am SO sorry to tell you but its a shooty game. Just because it’s got lore doesn’t make it not a shallow shooty game where your main interaction with the narrative is ‘point gun/magic at enemy’. Halo’s story was not as great as you remember it. MC was still going around the narratie with ‘point gun at enemy’. Bungie has def gotten better at story telling but they’re still Bungie and still telling, honestly, pretty basic narratives. That is not a complaint. That is not a disparagement.

They are telling a banger of a cyclical epic while this is effectively ‘part two’ of a trilogy. Prequel was Beyond Light. Part one was WQ. Part 3 is Final Shape. This is the set up for the Final Shape. People going into it thinking this is not a second part of a three part story are out of their minds.This is not Return of the Jedi. This is Empire Strikes Back. Everyone get with the program 👏

Every. Single. Cutscene. Was. A. BANGER!

Every time we had a cutscene I was so excited and they were all done so beautifully! Our Guardian TALKED! And like talked a lot for us. Amazing. No notes. Every time our Ghost was Affected by the Veil or the Witness I had some INTENSE feelings.

Also the cutscene after we beat Calus? When Caiatl said ‘shoot it’ and we put our gun up to shoot our Ghost??? My heart was in my fucking throat. NOPE NOPE NOPE! Bungie how dare you! Especially bc Caiatl knows how important our Ghost is. I get why she’d say that in the moment but holy fuck. The noises of absolute distress I was making!!

Calus

I’ve seen some ‘Calus should have been more threatening’/’Calus should have killed the Witness’/’Calus xyz’ and YOU FOOL! Calus isn’t threatening and never has been to the Guardian. Even in Caiatl’s new lore we see Calus is not a threat and never has been. His hubris is greed and lust and desire for power. That was always going to be his undoing. And it was! He reached for glory and found it and just like Caiatl said found it... wanting. He held that goblet the entire time but it was never filled with wine. Calus was unfulfilled. That is the point. Calus is a creature of greed and avarice. He can never be satisfied. And because of that he can never be truly powerful, because he’s afraid. I believe even the Witness remarks on this.

Also people saying Calus should have just killed the Witness??? Fucking?? How?? We can’t even kill the Witness. How the fuck is he supposed to when he can barely keep his shit together.

The final showdown with him was pretty fucking fun. Me and a friend beat our heads against it super low level for a while, went and did seasonal content and then came back more leveled and wasted him. But when we were underleveled it was VERY threatening. Everything hurt. Everything wanted you dead. We did Strand once but that was a Mistake. Nailed him down with some Void subclasses and Ghally.

Osiris

Oh Osiris. I have so many feels about Osiris. He’s so... frantic and obsessed in the beginning. Desperate to be right and to have all his anxiety and fear validated. To show he can be trusted again. All of this was for Osiris feeling like he’d earned everyone’s trust again. That he wasn’t mad. That his visions from Savathun weren’t just more lies and trickery. And bro he’s SO ANGY in the first 2ish missions when we’re first learning to use Strand.

Osiris shows more emotion in like 4 lines of dialogue than we’ve seen from any other NPC in like 10 years holy shit. When he yells at you I fucking felt that. Holy shit.

This expac was for haughty fucks to get their temperance. And Osiris absolutely is a haughty fuck. He was so obsessed with the Veil and then had to be brought back to see what was actually happening out of his tunnel vision by the Cloud Striders (and us. Just bc Bungie doesn’t let us be in cut scenes doesn’t mean the Guardian/Ghost didn’t affect him).

Rohan

If anyone was surprised Rohan died I just wanna know... how??? As soon as I saw him interacting with Nimbus I was like ‘oh, he’s dead before this expac is over’ and yeap! He was. Like it’s the classic ‘old cop 4 days from retirement gets killed in the line of duty’ trope like I said Bungie tells very good basic ass stories and then the young rookie has to take over. I didn’t know how Rohan would die but as soon as he went into the mast both me and my friend said ‘oh he’s for SURE dead’.

And honestly I think his death was fine. It was a heroic sacrifice. Not much else you could want for a character like Rohan.

Nimbus

I started off not liking their voice. Not the actual voice but the mechanical/digitial overlays and tuning Bungie did to it. It was insanely grating on the ears. I’ve gotten used to it but I still don’t love it. I also think that below the collar bone their design is... weird. Idky their girdle is so fucking tight.

End of anything bad I have to say about Nimbus. Their the best. I love them so much I find them so charming and sweet and absolutely adorable. They’re so excited about living and helping people and being a Cloud Strider. They know a lot but still come across as... naive isn’t the word I want to use exactly but its that vibe of it. Innocent isn’t quite right either. They’re just so excited about who they are and what they do and fuck I love that for them.

I thought they way Bungie handled Nimbus not handling their grief was also pretty well done. Go with the flow only gets you so far but sometimes you need to just sit and reflect and be sad jfc.

Strand

I thought Stasis was pretty ham fisted in getting us to learn it in Lightfall. It was very much ‘go here, do the thing’ which I did not feel in Strand. Strand felt a lot more woven (heh) into the story and actually important to the story. I never felt like Stasis was other than we just wanted Eramis not to have it. It also helped us connect with Osiris and fulfilled his story line.

Love that you learn Strand just by using Strand and we don’t have those fucking HORRIBLE fragment/aspect missions like we did with Elsie. Omfg I’d have rather died than get Strand on all 3 of my characters.

I originally played Strand on my Titan and I don’t care what people say: Stand Titan is FUN. Like it’s so fun! I don’t find Void, Stasis, or Solar Titan to be very fun to play personally. I like to just hit things which is why I’m a HoIL Arc Titan scrub. I haven’t unlocked it fully yet tho but I’ve seen some Strand Titans in the battlegrounds and strikes and BRO! They are killing ittttttt

Now I’m playing on Hunter, my main and BOY! There is a lot to keep track of and its so... fuN! I am slowly learning how to properly micromanage my knife toss to catch it. I catch it probably... 75% of the time? But I have to be watching it. The catch is VERY forgiving thank god. And I have to fight between wanting to throw the knife ALL THE TIME (gambler’s dodge) and also using my dodge to suspend enemies which is ALSO so fucking fun! The super is a little... floaty and is a disc which is... so strange. It’s taking some getting used to that your super is a plane and not a rounded AOE. Which makes sense! It’s a rope dart but. I wish you could throw your rope down a bit easier.

Have not played any Warlock but my story buddy did and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEED THREADLING FRIENDS SO MUCH!

Witness and Traveler

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Had a lotta headcanons validated in these cut scenes my dude. My YW can like... do a Light burst in my lore. Which is not healthy for her or anyone else btw and afterwards there’s just... spontaneous plant growth. LIKE HELL YEAH!!! Traveler fucking shooting a fucking terraforming beam RIGHT at the Witness? Fucking cool as shit.

The only reason I wasn’t screaming during the final cut scene was because I was on vc and that’s rude. But BRO!! BRO BRO BROO BOR BRO BRO

what the fuck

Admittedly: super fucking confusing. Witness used the Veil to connect to... something? I haven’t read the lore books yet. And then teleported there? Also the fucking Traveler’s got a TRIANGLE ON IT NOW!?!? Is the Traveler dead? It can’t be dead we still use the Light. And now the Witness is gone after cutting a hole in our ball and took six fucking Pyramid ships with it...

that cANNOT BE GOOD

Season of Defiance

Mara’s got some fucking humility. Love that for her. But god she can’t be humble without also rubbing out noses in the fact that she’s ‘amazing’ and perfect and going to protect and save us or whatever. *gag* The fact that she talks to us like a person and not a thing (which she was doing in Season of Lost) is a HUGE step forward. Love it when a bitch gets some character development. But also love she’s still a bitch. Mara stans/girlbossers DNI. She sucks and I like that.

I’m side eyeing Bungie so hard with the Amanda stuff. If they make Amanda/Crow canon I will be very upset. I think Amanda is one of the most boring NPCs in the game. Like Light doesn’t make you interesting. She’s just not. So sorry for Amanda likers out there. But also I think Bungie knows so many people ship their Guardian with Crow I don’t think they’d do that.

BUT! I do want Crow to have friends and I want Crow and Amanda to be friends! I’m glad Bungie just didn’t hand wave the fact that Crow is Uldren away and make Amanda cool with him. I’m glad this will take a bit to reconcile. If they ever properly do.

The battleground thing is fine. Just the same shit we’ve been doing before. I’m super excited for a formula change up Bungie said they were doing in coming seasons!

Commendations

They’re fun! Give them to people fuck. I ran a battleground and someone just left without giving any. Wtf man????

Neonumi NPCs

The Neonumi who give us patrol bounties??? Sam, Sid (?) and... librarian fuck I forget her name. All them?? LOVE THEM! They’re all so actually rather fleshed out and have distinct personalities. I think they’re all great!

The Veil

I for sure thought they were gonna cuck us on seeing the Veil. Like what’s it do? What’s it look like? Well what it does is be a McGuffin. Like I’m still not 100% on what it is exactly?? Like it’s a power source and attuned to the Light? But idky Witness wants it so bad :Y I’ll have to dive in the lore later.

Also I was SO emotional when we first saw the Veil. Standing over it and looking down I got a little teary?

Also also; its an eye? When we were under the Veil its tendrils looked like the back of your eye, the optic nerve. And then in the second phase of the Calus fight it grows longer and absolutely looks like an optic nerve.

Exotic Rohan Quest

I thought it was fun! Hot take: I like that raid XD I think Garden of Salvation is a good raid y’all are just mean/don’t know how to build platforms at the boss. Love going into Garden and seeing the beautiful skyboxes and the Black Garden itself. GoS is a BEAUTIFUL raid too omg. My friend had only been in GoS once to get Div when you could fuck around with 12 man fireteams. So it was neat we got to go back!

Andddddd I think that’s it! For now.

#destiny 2 #lightfall spoilers #destiny the game #shut up bb