Tumgik
#But I also understand why there was never an issue dedicated to this
wedding-shemp · 4 months
Text
In the 2014 Ms Marvel run they showed Kamala writing fanfic about superheroes presumably to make her relatable to the target audience of teen girls who also wrote fanfic about Marvel characters. But Kamala LIVES in the Marvel universe where those are just real people. So we have to imagine that Kamala got into some very tedious RPF discourse on the 616 equivalent of Tumblr
17 notes · View notes
cthulhusstepmom · 11 months
Text
Ghost is a walking dichotomy, Soap has discovered. He's watched him strip the layers of a man's skin away to get information from him, seen him snap someone's neck in as little time as it takes to take a breath. But he's also so capable of heartbreaking kindness. His genuine concern for the fish, the way he saves the best part of his plate for Soap; offering it to him with reverence. The way he's cleaning Johnny's wound so tenderly. It's in these moments of gentleness where Johnny almost forgets what they do, what they've seen, who they are.
So when Ghost's voice snaps into that serious tone it's almost like a slap in his dizzy, goofily smiling, face.
"Wha?"
"Where is it? I'll get rid of it for you." Under the sharp tone is still that lethal gentleness, and even under that is a shaking fear.
"Oh, oh Ghost." He shifts, uncomfortable in his skin and wanting to be anywhere but here. "Ye... Ye cannae get rid of it."
His Lieutenant draws back a little, a mix of apprehension and offense in his eyes.
"It hurt you, nothing else matters."
Soap can feel his heart splitting as his throat starts to burn. Ghost stares up at him with fiery eyes, hands still holding his wrist so so softly.
"Where is the snake Soap? I promise you it'll never hurt you again. Whoever brought it in is going to have hell to pay too." He earnestly promises and Soap feels a single hot tear slip out of his eye.
"Ghost..." He chokes out. "Simon... It's mine."
The small room goes silent. Nothing even dares to move but for the violent flinch the sentence rips out of Ghost.
He doesn't dare say anything, doesn't dare to move or even breathe. He looks down at Ghost and Ghost meets his stare with turmoil roiling in his gaze.
Soap doesn't know what he expected, screaming or sobbing or angry silence but the frantic confusion he can see in the other man is as far as can be from what he'd thought he'd get.
They sit there like that for a few long moments, each absorbed in his own thoughts, before Ghost slowly rises from his kneel. If Johnny were in better spirits he would tease him for the quiet cracks his knees make. And with that violent tenderness he slowly curls an arm around Johnny and leans him down into the bed, pressing behind him and holding him close just like they'd done on any number of frigid nights out in the blind. And they just sit there holding each other in silence as they slowly drift into a dreamless sleep.
#in this canon this is the first time theyve done something that can't be explained away by extenuating circumstances#but you don't really save the best parts of your meal religiously for your subordinate who youre friends with#Ghost is devoted to Soap#full stop#and Soap is dedicated to Ghost 100%#i hear you “Cthulhu why are the emotionally constipated military men just cuddling instead of resolving their issues unhealthily?”#to which i say:#Ghost just had his world tilted on its axis#a constant in his life is that snakes are bad and the people who keep them are bad people who do bad things#like his father#but here's John “he owns my soul” MacTavish bleeding profusely and still not letting Ghost kill the snake also being unquestionably good#even though he understands intellectually that Soap has done bad things#hes watched the little punk blow up shit for the sake of it and literally clip a car battery to a man's ears#that doesn't matter because Johnny is Good with a capital G and he is the exact opposite of Ghost's father#so he really doesnt have it in him to be angry and he just needs to hold close to the constancy and try to reconcile his new information#And Soap is just so so ready to be immediately rejected and never see Simon again#he doesn't want to sacrifice what he maybe has with Ghost to protect his rescues#because they need him and they didnt ask to be what they are or where they are#so hes just so so relieved that Ghost hasnt ordered him out and killed all of his babies#because he's seen Ghost shoot a dog in yhe head on a mission for barking and Ghost loves dogs#he doesnt want to see what Ghost would do to an animal he doesn't like#I HOPE THIS IS BETTER THAN THE CLIFFHANGERS#GUYS THERES SO MUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT COMING#AHOFFBIDKSHAIAKBZJA#cod mw2#fish person gaz#ghost x soap#ghostsoap#reptile person soap
24 notes · View notes
dcxdpdabbles · 5 months
Text
Freelance Inventor Part 2
Dedicated to @jimmysorsprinkles Thank you for enjoying my random dabbles. I saw that you wanted more Dads, Danny/Bruce, who are unknowingly co-parenting, so here it is! (set during the first prompt through the years of Danny just being a dad whenever he's home)
"I just don't know what to do," Bruce admits, watching Dick stomp about in tiny angry circles, muttering in his native tongue under his breath. He's been out there for about a half hour, doing laps in the yard. Danny knows he deliberately chose to do so under the window leading to Bruce's office.
The kid definitely wanted his guardian to know he was mad at him .
It was the fact Dick was unconsciously hunching his shoulders, curling his fist, and even raising his knee slightly higher than he needed for his stomps that were a nod to Bruce whenever the man was upset.
It seemed like Dick had picked up habits from Bruce during his short time here. If anything, Danny thought it rather cute if it weren't for the fact Dick was so upset.
"What happened?" He asked, standing beside Bruce, overlooking the pre-teen throwing a fit.
Bruce's frown is sharp and hinted with just the edge of uncertainty that anyone who didn't know him well would have dismissed. "He was being reckless in one of our extreme sports, and when I rightfully scolded him for it, he took it as me not trusting him."
Danny tilts his head, considering. It's been over three years since he became acquainted with the Waynes, and in that time- between his travels, his inventing, and his general desire to learn all he could in any way he could- he noticed that Dick was very quick to anger as a defensive mechanism.
This clashed horribly with Bruce's own mechanism- which was shutting down or at least emotionally wise. While Dick sneered and raged against the world, Bruce tried his best to forget he was human and detached himself from the situation.
Which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't feed into Dick's insecurities or Bruce's anxiety when they both reacted to adverse situations.
He has spoken to Jazz about it, and his sister has given him some advice that has helped him smooth things over with the young boy. Empathizing and paraphrasing the boy's issues was a big step in letting him feel heard and his feelings acknowledged.
For Bruce, he treated him like a ghost who had never seen a human. Plenty of ghosts were never human, were born in the ghost zone, or had been there for so long that they had forgotten what humans were like. Danny took time to explain why someone reacted the way they did- at least, why he thought so- and never made Bruce feel less for needing the help.
It was fun, in a way, to see Bruce's eyes lighten up with understanding and get him to talk about his rooted issues, but having to do so on carefully balanced tones and word choice. Phantom had so much practice de-escalating ghosts that it was a walk in the park with Bruce.
"I'll talk to him," Danny promised, leaning over to rest his hand on Bruce's shoulder and not batting an eye when the taller man landed down to rest his forehead on Danny's shoulder.
Where Bruce couldn't say in words, he yelled in his actions. It reminded him a bit of Wulf.
Bruce took a deep breath before nodding. "Thank you."
Danny hummed, reaching up to pet Bruce's hair like he would soothe Wulf, on days the werewolf would twitch too much at the door slamming, and suddenly his friend was mentally back in Walker's prison. "No problem. But, I will also be speaking to you later, and you are going to listen to Dick's side of the story without interrupting at dinner."
"Yes, Danny"
Alfred threw him an approving smile as he marched outside to meet Dick's rage-filled eyes and nervous hand twitching. He could catch the ending bits of whatever rant the boy was muttering.
"You're right. Bruce is an idiot sometimes." He starts grinning as the boy's eyes narrow further.
"You don't speak Romani."
"I may not understand what you're saying, but trust me, I feel it." Danny chirps, watching Dick's shoulder relax a little. " What did he do this time?"
"You won't even believe it!" Dick snaps, and then he's off, Danny keeping pace with him step by step as the boy works himself into another frenzy.
Later that night, Dick explained that he hated how Bruce made him feel so belittled and unimportant, his voice tight with a itch to fight, and Bruce carefully- with significant prompting from Danny- explained how he didn't mean it that way. He was only worried that he was about to watch Dick die in front of him, and he couldn't live through losing his family again.
Dick looked shocked to be considered family, and Danny swore he helped the boy sneak into Bruce's office, which so happened to have the adoption papers Bruce was hiding. Alfred gave him a large sample of pudding for dessert.
______________________________________________
"Hey, kid," Danny whispered, watching Jason tense up momentarily. It's not overly noticeable, but Danny has grown used to seeing little ghost blobs show emotions by how they twisted and twirled over the years, so he could tell what the slight tightening of the fingers around the book meant.
Anxious.
It would be understandable if Jason had been present for another one of Dick's and Bruce's explosive arguments. He came from a household that had an older male figure beat him whenever Willis got in a mood, so while he knew that Bruce or Dick would never hit him, Jason still tried to make himself scarce.
Jazz was the one to point out Jason's usage of escapism in the form of books to comfort himself, and so Danny took whatever time he could manage to read the same books as Jason while on his travels.
"What?" The boy grunted, voice soft but weary.
Danny sits across from him, making sure to stay in Jason's eyesight at all times. He had realized in only his second visit after meeting Jason that the boy did not like having someone too close in his space.
He grew up on the streets where being weary of older men kept him alive- Danny would never fault him for what he had to do to survive.
Unlike Dick, who was always down to talk about why he was upset if only to rant, Jason preferred to have a distraction. So he offers him a smile that he hopes projects You're safe with me and pulls out a book from his bag.
Jason's eyes light up at the cover. "I had some theories on Mr. Darcy being in love with Mr.Bingley before he met Elizabeth, and Bruce won't agree with me. Help me find citations as proof?"
"It's so obvious that he was, how can the old man not see that!" Jason snorts, tilting his head in a cute habit that he picked up from Dick. He really looks up to his big brother no matter how tense things can get.
Danny is glad he's gotten Dick to explain to Jason that he didn't hate him, but he was going through a lot, and Jason as a street kid, understood on some level.
"The old just hate listening to other people's suggestions even when we're right!." Jason leans over to read the book Danny places between them, considering Jane Austin's work while Danny files away the real reason he's upset with Bruce.
Later, after Jason and he present a bemused Bruce with a report on why Mr.Darcy is bi and had feelings for his best friend before meeting his wife, he tells Bruce to explain why he didn't consider Jason's suggestion in their extreme sport.
Jason goes to bed that night with a better answer than "because I said so," and Danny forces Bruce to go up to his room and re-read Pride and Prejudice to connect with his youngest.
Alfred offers them extra blankets and pillows since the two get so caught up reading to each other that Danny just decides sleeping in Bruce's bed is easier than walking down two wings to the guest rooms.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm not going to bed," Tim snapped when Danny knocked on his door. His fingers are flying over the keyboard of his computer, his little face glowing from the computer screen, and Danny is almost reminded of himself whenever he gets caught up in his work.
It may worry Bruce and Alfred, but Danny is a Fenton. He knows what it's like to have his brain run over time and sacrifice sleep or meals to get his ideas into the world.
His mother is the same, his father is the same, his sister is the same, and even Danny's clone is the same. It's fitting that the little boy he caught following Batmam around with a camera is the same since he all but forced Bruce to adopt him.
He hadn't meant to.
He had been testing an air purifier when he returned to Gotham since Bruce and the kids were out of state, and his ghost hearing picked up the sound of a camera click.
Imagine his surprise that when he turned to the roof opposite him, he found the tiny little face of an eleven-year-old staring back, holding a camera, and Batman swinging away in the distance. Danny became attached to Tim that night, even after he chased the boy down to ask if he was safe.
He did not like the implications of his parents always "working" while Tim ran amok in Gotham.
It took almost two weeks of following Tim around Gotham to help him with his photos before the boy allowed him to take him to Wayne Manor. It took three more before Bruce realized that Danny wouldn't allow Tim's parents to win him back, and together, they took the Drakes to court.
Danny has never been more grateful that Bruce was loaded with money and that his inventions gained him contacts in high places that wouldn't mind taking the Drakes down.
Tim was a lot like Bruce- where he shut down- but he needed people to be around him more. Sometimes just sitting in the same room- where Tim could glance up and see him- was enough for the boy to be at ease.
This was great for Bruce, who thought he didn't need to do much to make Tim happy- until Danny reminded him that Tim was a poor boy who was gutted for any form of parental approval.
He had to almost punch Bruce after overhearing him tell Tim he was proud of him, but there was room for improvement. Bruce meant it as helpful, constructive criticism, but Tim- whose parents all but drilled how useless he was- only heard criticism.
Only heard, he was not enough.
So now Tim was going, who knew how many hours without sleep, trying to fix whatever issue he thought he had caused. How a fourteen-year-old could have caused issues at his adoptive dad's multimillion-dollar company was beyond Danny, but it meant a lot to Tim, so he didn't need to understand it.
He just needed to respect it.
"Don't want you to," Danny grunts, throwing himself on Tim's queen-sized bed. "I just wanted to know if I could crash here. Bruce pissed me off."
Tim's fingers pause. "What did he do?"
"He tried to tell me how to handle my inventions' payment. I'm a freelancer! I know how to do that." Danny complains while twisting under the covers. Tim slowly turns around to look at him, but he acts like he doesn't notice. "I know he'll try to talk to me in the guest rooms, but he won't find me here. I just don't want to listen to another "I can do it better" lecture."
After a moment's pause, Tim admits. "He did the same to me and my team."
He means Cassie, Bart, and Conner. The little team of photography buddies Bruce introduced Tim back when they started homeschooling him. Dani suggested pulling Tim out of school is one of the best advice his clone ever gave him.
Tim took the pictures, Cassie and Conner modeled, and Bart made the clothes. Their work was slowly gaining traction online, and Tim seemed to glow whenever the Team was mentioned.
"Course he did." Danny sigh. He leans back into the pillow. "Know why he did it, too. Bruce doesn't want me to be taken advantage of, but it's hard not to hear him think I can't keep up, especially when my family is doing the same thing."
"Yeah," Tim's voice is soft. "It's frustrating that all your hard work is overshadowed or that everything you've done so far doesn't prove that you know you can."
Bingo. Danny discovered Tim's issue; now he just needs to bring it home.
"I know I'm great at what I do. You said so yourself- my past proves I am crazy good at work. I leave other people breathless in awe all the time. I can adapt and overcome so much faster than others. Bruce can see that, but he forgets to praise it." Danny huffs like he's trying not to be forgiving, and it causes a smile to unwillingly appear on Tim's face.
"I'll talk to him tomorrow but today I'm being petty and hiding. Thanks for letting me sleep here"
"You're welcome, Danny." Tim goes back to his typing, but only after a minute or two of Danny asking if he can turn off the light does the boy save his work and shut his computer down.
The room is plunged into darkness but Danny doesn't need the light to see how Tim sinks into his mattress. Tim is smart- crazy smart that every part of him that's Fenton crows with pride- and he can easily see through Danny.
"Thank you Danny" He doesn't say what for but he doesn't need to.
Danny reaches over, grabs the blankets, and makes sure they cover the small shoulder, tucking Tim in properly. "Any time kid"
The next morning, Bruce wakes them up with a powerpoint of all the things he thought were impressive about Tim and his team's last photo session. A powerpoint for Pete's sake.
But it makes Tim smile so much that Danny lets it slide. At least he listened when Danny chewed him out for forgetting to praise Tim.
Alfred offers Danny some of his private tea jars, which according to Dick, means Danny is in for life as Tim, Jason, and Bruce go over the PowerPoint again. Jason has begone to heal for his bitch of a mother's betrayal a few months ago.
Thankfully, Danny was in the area when he called and reminded the lady why she should not mess with Bruce's kids. Dani paying her a visit in her jail cell was just the Fentons' sending their regards.
(His dad gave Dani the ani-creep stick, and his mom hacked the cameras to loop. Jazz just watched hours of her to realize what made the woman scream and cry before sending the clone on her way. It was a good family bonding moment)
No one believed the woman claiming to be haunted that her son was Robin. Honestly, where on earth she got that idea Danny would never know.
His Jason, the sweet school-loving boy who graduated as valedictorian, running around punching criminals? Honestly, what was she going to claim next?
Bruce being Batman?!
Please.
2K notes · View notes
lizthewriter · 6 months
Text
general theodore nott headcanons
Tumblr media
• theo is the textbook defintion of dark academia
• his wardrobe is only filled with varying shades of black, grey, brown, and green; he mostly wears suits, but when he wants to feel comfortable, he'll thrown on a knit sweater
• he is very quiet - around people he doesn't know, he doesn't speak; around his friends, even, he doesn't speak too much
• he is highly intelligent; he's literally right up there with hermione, top of the class
• does a lot of free reading - mostly nonfiction but will tell no one about the romance novels hiding under his mattress
• sleeps around because parent issues - even though he doesn't really speak, he still gets bitches . . . probably because he is handsome af and also cause when he does speak, he is smooth
• he plays quidditch, though he doesn't care too much for it - when draco saw how good theo was on a broom, he begged and begged theo to join quidditch until he finally agreed
• does smoke, but would stop if you asked him too
• he is the adopted introvert . . . prove me wrong
• he's only really close with blaise, but because mattheo and blaise are best friends (by the transitive property of arithmetic), mattheo and theo are good friends too
• he's extremely protective (and slightly possessive) of the people he loves, probably because he lost his mother and he's afraid to lose the people he loves too
• scary dog privileges
• was almost sorted into ravenclaw
• loves winter and fall too much - he kind of looks out of sorts in the warmer months
• has never worn a pair of shorts in his life . . . i'm not kidding
• he's a little self-obssessed, but mostly just with his hair (you do NOT touch unless you have permission)
• he's not a hopeless romantic, but he'd do the most romantic shit and pretend like he did nothing, this mf 💀💀
• *sets up an entire romantic, home-cooked, candle lit dinner* *sits down, places napkin in his lap, and begins to eat* "well, aren't you gonna sit down?"
• doesn't tell anyone he has a crush on you
• he pines after you for ages - at first, he's kind of mad at you, cause he can't understand why he feels this way about you, but then this man is HEAD over HEELS for you
• he wants to figure out the perfect way to ask you out
• he gets really overwhelmed and stressed about it
• blaise sees theo huddled over his desk, hair all crazy, muttering like a maniac and asks him what's wrong - theo just starts shouting at blaise about you and he realizes his best friend is in love
• blaise is a good bro
• he helps theo plan the perfect date in hogsmeade - now all theo has to do is ask you out
• theo actually hasn't interacted with you too much, you have some classes together and you've been partners in potions
• he kind of just finds you after class one time and hovers behind you until your friends point him out to you
• you shook away your friends and turn to face theo - he stands completely straight and he looks obviously distressed
• "all right, nott?"
• "come to hogsmeade with me. please."
• "uh, sure. all right!"
• he takes you all around hogsmeade to anywhere you want to go
• he's not sure exactly what to do - he's never been on a date before . . . he wants to kiss you but doesn't know the perfect moment so he ends up forgoing that paticular thing
• he loves massaging - idk why, but I just feel like he would love to just run his fingers through your hair while you're cuddling or rub his back but his massages are >>>>>
• he thinks far into the future - living together, marriage, having kids, growing old
• he's a daydreamer
• he's a bit of a perfectionist too, but he never let's that side of him show to others
• everything HAS to be perfect for you
• he stops sleeping around once he gets with you, dedicates to you completely
• won't even look in the direction of another girl
• he prefers to sleep in with you - his love languages are quality time and physical touch
• he will help you study whenever you need
• will also drop any plans he has for you (hoes before bros)
• prefers to take you out to nice and exotic places for the holidays instead of having you over at his place (his father is a nightmare - he's adamant on ensuring that the two of you never cross paths)
• will propose to you spontaneously, approximately six months after being together
• he will not take no for an answer; will compromise, but he will not let you say no unless you despise him
• you are his favorite person in the world, his one and only, and you'd best remember that he's do ANYTHING for you
tags: @annaisabookworm
792 notes · View notes
sweatervest-obsessed · 7 months
Text
Quand Tu Voudras
Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader
WC: ~7.2k
TW: kissing, angst, blood, burns, cuts, bruises, arguments, crying, depression, mention of EDs, panicking, explosions, drinking, self-image issues, mentions of addiction, mentions of drug use, mentions of Maeve
A/N: Third and Final Part babyyyyyy let's GO. I'm actually excited to watch each part get its own vibes, but also be a cohesive story. I really hope you all enjoy it! Thank y'all for doing me on this crazy journey!
Dedicated to New Lovers , You're Keeping Me Down
Tumblr media
“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” ~Orson Welles
It was the most beautiful you had ever looked. 
Shopping for a wedding dress was one of the most terrifying experiences you had ever lived through, and you had been shot multiple times. 
But being surrounded by your closest friends and family members as you tried on dress after dress kept you going. 
You finally found the perfect one in a small shop outside of the DC area, hidden in a little suburb where life wasn’t as rushed as it felt. 
You tried on only three dresses at this little boutique. The second was almost perfect, and you were about to “say yes to the dress,” but someone was reorganizing the front rack, and that’s when the one you were currently wearing appeared, sent by the higher powers. 
It fits you perfectly. 
You started to cry when you saw yourself in the mirror, which caused Garcia to start crying, which caused Emily and JJ to cry, and the rest of your family quickly followed. 
So it was only natural that staring at yourself in the mirror right now made you tear up again. 
“Oh, Babe, no.” Emily was quick to fan your eyes as you tilted your head back, letting the tears melt back into your eyes. 
“I can’t help it.” You grumbled, eyes wide as you tried calming your breathing slowly. “It’s just so pretty…” 
“I know, I know. My money is on Derek crying first.” 
“Oh, please. We all know Rossi won’t stop crying the second he takes his seat.”
You had decided that the only people you wanted at the ceremony were close friends and family. That meant the team, their little ones, and each of your parents. Small. Peaceful. Intimate.
Derek was over the moon when you asked him to officiate your wedding, wanting him to be there for you in every way since that’s always been his role. 
You had taken him out for coffee under the very real guise that wedding planning made you want to rip your head off and chuck it out to sea. 
“Okay, baby girl, talk to me.” 
The ice was melting in the cup from the warmth of your hands, making your hands wet with the condensation, hiding the sweat from your nerves. 
“Do you know how much flowers cost?” 
Derek chuckled and shook his head. “No. I don’t think I do.”
“The government doesn’t pay me enough for the amount of flowers I want at my reception.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have picked the Peabody Library as your reception location.”
“In my defense.” You furrowed your brows. “You were with us when we toured it. It’s perfect, Derek. Don’t tell me it’s not.” 
“No, it’s perfect; I just don’t understand why you need that many flowers.”
“Sometimes, I feel like you don’t even know me, Derek Morgan.” 
“He’s going to cry first.” Emily smiled, lightly dabbing under your eyes with some of your powder foundation to show that you weren’t almost crying. 
“I will buy you a whole bottle of Möet that Rossi will cry first.” 
As JJ entered the room, you and Emily shook hands, giggling like school girls. “Almost ready?” 
You nodded, glancing over at yourself in the mirror. 
Honestly, you had never thought this day would come. Your wedding day. After everything you had been through, all of the heartbreak, all of the confusion, all of the traveling and running away. Everything you could possibly think of going wrong just went wrong. Suddenly, the flowers weren’t delivered, and then no one showed up to the reception, and then you were left at the altar, abandoned and unloveable again. You couldn’t breathe; your chest was seizing. It was too tight. There wasn’t enough fresh air in the room. Your heartbeat was too loud, and you couldn’t look away from yourself in the mirror. This wasn’t real; Everything bad happening was in your head. 
Or maybe it was an awful dream, and you need to wake up before it gets too far and your heart gets shattered again. 
JJ whispered your name, reaching out for you, sending a shock of electricity through your arm when she touched it. 
You jumped. 
“I want to talk to him.” You blurted out, looking over at JJ. “I–I need to talk to him.” 
“You said yes.” 
You nodded, staring down at your wine glass, pondering if it was the right decision. Emily was wondering the same thing. 
“I don’t know if it’s the best idea for you to go back to—”
“It is.” You cut her off, not harshly, just firmly. “I haven’t been the same since I left the BAU, and I left for perfectly valid reasons, Em, I know. But….”
“But?” 
“But I miss it. Don’t you? It flexes my muscles in ways I couldn’t replicate, and I was so good at it. I felt smart and useful and not lost, wandering the islands of Greece.”
If you didn’t know her so well, Emily’s fake gasp could have easily been mistaken for a real one. “We had a fantastic time, and you know it.” 
“Yes, but I also know that I was feeling so unfulfilled intellectually that I went off and got a Ph.D. Like, come on, I never wanted a PhD before I left; I just didn’t know how to challenge myself.”
“That is fair. I just think you need to consider the fact that you’d be working with you know who.”
“You can say his name, Emily. He’s not some dark lord; he’s just an idiot with an IQ of 187.” 
“Yeah, Yeah, look. I have to go, but we are not done with this conversation, okay? I’ll need a full PowerPoint presentation with all the pros and the cons.” 
“Yes, ma’am, I can do that. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”
You heard the click of her line going dead before there was a knock on your door. You quickly pressed play on your movie, letting one of your favorite rom-coms (When Harry Met Sally) play in the background as you scrounged around for where you had left your wallet. 
Clad in an oversized shirt you’ve had forever, plaid pajama shorts that were once part of a Christmas set, and your comfiest fuzzy socks, you slid over to the door once you had found your wallet. 
You opened the door. “How much…”
His eyes met yours, and you took a small step back. 
“You are not the pizza guy.” 
“No. I’m not.” 
His answer caused you to laugh a little bit, filling his chest with a warmth he hadn’t felt in over two years. 
“Can I–” He gestured into your house, and you moved to the side, allowing him to enter. 
“I, um….” You bit your lip and eyed him up and down. “As long as you’re okay with When Harry Met Sally playing in the background.”
“Time for the annual rewatch.” He smiled at you nervously, but a very small part of yourself enjoyed the fact that he remembered. 
You headed back towards the couch, casually trying to clean up as you went to give the impression that you were cleaner than you were. 
“Shoes off before you get to the couch.” You called over your shoulder. 
The door closed behind Spencer with a soft click. 
“Honey, you said you don’t want a first look.”
“We don’t have to look at each other—I don’t know, like a corner or something. I just..I-I-I.” 
JJ watched as your panic started to bubble over, and she took your hands in hers. “Want to call him first?” 
You nodded. “Y-Yeah, let’s try that.” 
JJ handed you your phone off the vanity, watching as you dialed the number, panicking even more when it wouldn’t connect—there was no service. 
Spencer had asked you to play chess with him that night, and you obliged. Something about falling into an old routine felt good; it felt right. A movie you chose in the background while playing chess against Spencer. Some things were always meant to be. The night was filled with laughs, small talk, and contentment–life feeling like it should. 
A familiarity shrouded you both, mocking the comfort you once used to feel.
When you won, he was a bit baffled. You had only beaten him a few times, and he was focusing on all of the outcomes. How could he not notice—
“You can’t win every game, Spence.” 
His heart lodged in his throat at the nickname, and he looked up at you, that goofy half smile on his lips. 
Lovestruck. He looked lovestruck. 
And then you exhaled. “We can’t avoid it forever. I know that’s why you came here in the first place.” 
He blinked away the love, replacing it with guilt, hurt, fragments of something you both had grieved in your own time. 
“Y-yeah. Let’s um, let’s talk about…”
You redialled the number only to be met with the same beeping as before, eyes wide as you looked at JJ. “There’s no service. JJ, I can’t–he won’t…” 
Emily handed you her phone–it was ringing, thank god. 
“Hey Emily, is everything okay?” 
“It’s me.” You said simply, but the wobble in your voice said everything he needed to hear.
“oh–Honey, talk to me. What’s going on? What’s wrong?” 
“I-I…” You swallowed your tears and looked over at your two friends—you gestured slightly, silently asking them to leave the room so you could talk to your future husband alone. They obliged, letting the door close. It was nice of them to pretend like they weren’t running over to see if they could eavesdrop from his room, but they were just met with Derek in the hall, who had also been booted out. 
“Is she okay?” 
Emily shook her head. “No idea. She was fine one moment, and she was about to burst the next. Like a complete shift of personality.” 
Derek sighed. “I’ve never seen him switch so quickly either. He was all nervous one minute, but the second he heard her voice….he almost sounded like Hotch doing damage control.” 
JJ laughed slightly at that, glancing back at the door hiding you behind it. 
“Do you think she’ll go through with it?” Derek whispered slowly, making sure no one was around to hear him. 
Emily fidgeted with the bracelet on her wrist. “She’s terrified he’s not going to.” 
“Look, Spence, I get it. Shit happens. But you don’t know what it was like, coming home one day and you were laughing with someone else. You hadn’t laughed for months, almost a year, before then.”
“I know. I’m so–”
“Say sorry one more fucking time. Sorry isn’t explaining…or talking to me. I know you have trouble expressing whatever bullshit is going on in your head, but you have to try. It’s me, for fucks sake, Spence, And while I am willing to wait, I can only be so patient for so long with no actual explanation—” 
“I was terrified of you.”
“What…” 
Spencer stood up, pacing back and forth in front of your coffee table, trying to find the right words. “You were so far gone when Em died, and you had sunk into this pit of despair, and I was scared of watching you push down this path, destructive and–and; I didn’t know who you were, and I was so scared to watch you go down this path so I turned away instead.” 
“Spencer, you ran to JJ. You just left me here, alone. And then, when she comes back, you fucking threaten the fact that you were having Dilaudid cravings?”
“I think he’s even more mortified that she will back out on him. He knows everything she’s gone through. I mean–I love her, but she’s got major commitment issues.” 
JJ slapped his arm and glared at him. “And for good reason, Derek.” 
Derek grumbled an ‘ow,’ rubbing at his arm. “I’m not saying it wasn’t justified–I completely side with her on it--I’m just pointing out what we already know.” 
Spencer closed his eyes. “I don’t love you anymore.” 
Your heart leaped into your throat, or maybe it was vomit, you weren’t sure, but all you could do was stare at him from across the kitchen countertop. 
“Since this was my place first, uh…I can give you a couple of weeks to find a place, and I’ll even sleep on the couch…”
You hadn’t even spoken yet, shaking your head. “Stop. Spencer. What.” 
Your head was pounding, hands gripping onto the counter to try and steady yourself.”
“Sorry.” He whispered. He couldn’t even look at you. He was just staring at his hands, almost unsure about what he was saying. 
“Sorry?” You laughed, tears starting to track down your cheeks. “Spencer, this has to be a sick fucking joke..” 
He shook his head. 
Behind the door, You were just pacing back and forth, listening to his voice, trying to erase this memory from your mind and find a new one to replace it, barely listening to the man on the other end of the line. 
“Hey, listen to me. It’s going to be okay. If you want to call the whole thing off, everyone will understand. If it’s not right—.” 
“No.” You responded immediately. “I–I, I want to do this, I want to marry you…just…”
“You just needed some reassurance. I know.”
You nodded, not realizing he couldn’t hear you nod, but somehow, it felt like he did. 
“I love you.” 
You smiled, exhaling shakily. “Good.” 
His laugh bubbled through his lips, causing you to take another breath.
“I’ll see you out there?” 
“Can you just stay on the phone for another minute or so? I just need, like—”
You could hear him nod over the phone. “Anything you want.”
Somehow, you were back in that fucking elevator. Again. 
But this time, it felt like a homecoming rather than a curse you were trying to break. 
When the doors opened, you saw your family leaving little presents on your desk—flowers, balloons, chocolate, even cupcakes from your favorite bakery. They were all so busy setting it up that they didn’t notice as you walked up behind them, peering over their shoulders. 
“Looks good, guys.” 
“You think—” Derek did a double take and clutched his chest. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.” 
You laughed and smiled at him, dropping your bag onto your chair. “It looks wonderful. You guys didn’t have to do anything for me–”
“Actually, we did. How could we not? I mean! She’s home! She’s back solving crimes in sexy-looking outfits!” Garcia wrapped her arm around your shoulders, resting her head on yours. 
“I love it, guys, thank you.” 
JJ briskly walked past you all, giving you a brief smile, almost running up the stairs and into Hotch’s office. 
“Well, looks like you’re getting thrown right back into it.” Derek sighed. 
Hotch came out of his office and smiled at you before nodding at the others. “Wheels up in forty, everyone. I’ll brief you all on the plane.” 
“Good.” 
“Just breathe y/n. Okay? I’ll be the one at the end of the altar with the incredibly well-tailored suit and those flowers you like so much pinned to my chest.”
“You’re gonna cry.” You whispered jokingly, taking in a deeper breath than before. “I look so good in this dress. I actually was crying about it before I made Emily call you.” 
“It’s like you’re trying to kill me.”
Derek knocked on your door, leaning his ear up against it, trying to hear what you were saying. He called out your name, and after about a minute, you told him it was unlocked. 
“Can I come in?”
“If you want Derek, it is entirely up to you.” 
He opened the door, tears welling up the second he saw you. 
Hearing him enter, you faced him, smiling softly at him. 
All Derek could do was take you in for a second, unable to really think of what he was about to tell you. This felt a bit ridiculous since he was there when you picked out the dress, but watching you now, ready to actually wear it for its intended purpose, was a whole different ball game. 
“You look…..”
“Right.” You whispered, walking over and squeezing his hand. “I’m ready. Let’s do this thing before shit goes south.”
______________________________________________________________
“Y/n, You are the love of my life, and I could give you an eternal list of every single moment of my life where I felt nothing but complete and utter adoration for you. But then last week, you picked the movie you thought we should watch: a nineties rom-com, obviously, with big romantic gestures and a heroine who doesn’t need to be tamed. And those two inspired me to give you instead a list of the ten things I hate about you.” 
Spencer had gotten a good look at you for the first time in a long time. He had already felt guilty about the fact that he had Maeve and that you had broken up. But what he had failed to realize was the same thing Derek had–You were someone entirely different, a ghost of yourself. The guilt was gnawing through his stomach when he told Hotch what was going on, and he had begged Hotch to let you sit out, trying to save you from this, but clearly, Spencer couldn’t do anything right for you anymore. He hadn’t been able to in a very long time. Hotch had cleared his throat while Spencer shook his head. “I-I tried Hotch, I really didn’t want…”
He just nodded at Spencer. “I know, Reid, but you must have known there was no way this conversation would go any better than that.” 
Reid just nodded and stood up, going out into the bullpen, not missing the way all of their eyes snapped to him as Penelope dumped her broken mug into the trash. 
Before anyone could say anything, Hotch walked out of his office and looked at everyone. “As you all could have guessed, Agent Y/L/N will not be joining us on this case. I expect everyone in the conference room in ten.” with that, Hotch walked past Reid and down the stairs toward where he had assumed you had run off to. 
Reid just returned to his desk, sitting and staring at your now empty desk. Hotch had fulfilled your request, letting you move across the bullpen so you didn’t have to sit next to him anymore. 
Some part of the thought that you couldn’t even look at him anymore caused his gut to lurch, causing his hearing to burst for a moment. Maybe this was too fucked up. Perhaps he had been wrong. He thought he was doing the right thing by letting you go, not weighing you down with all his own bullshit, but he realized he had failed to pay attention. 
Spencer thought long and hard, trying to piece together everything he had thought about in the past couple of months when it came to you, and that’s when he realized it was every day. He thought about you every day. 
But he had ignored you. He had failed to notice as you crumbled to nothing in front of him. 
“Number ten is that I hate the way you fold laundry. It’s incredible how you manage to fold every single item in a completely different manner. It baffles me. One of the great mysteries in this world that we might never have the answer to.” 
“So you two spoke?”
You held up your finger as you finished the prosecco in your glass. Once you finished, casually, you picked up the bottle and poured yourself a second glass, only beginning to speak when the glass had been filled to your liking. 
“He came over to my apartment, Derek. I had already opened the door, and what was I going to say—”
“How about no?”
“It’s rude to interrupt Derek Morgan.” Penelope elbowed him and took a sip from her own glass. “But he’s right, Y/n. You could have said no and slammed the door in his face.” 
“But that’s not who I am. You know I’m a sucker for closure. You know I wanted to talk to him anyway. I just wasn’t expecting the discussion that ended up happening….”
Derek raised his eyebrows and tilted his head. “Do tell Princess.”
You shrugged and took another sip. “We talked about Maeve.”  
The looks you received were exactly what you had expected, only because it was how you felt about the conversation. 
“Number nine. I hate how you pick out what we will watch each week. You just skim through every single title on every platform until the one with the right ‘energy’ calls out to you. And they’re never the same. You manage to match a film to the night perfectly, and I hate how well you can pinpoint that about me. 
“Eight. I hate the way you drive. You manage to be the safest and most dangerous person on the road. There’s nothing more to that one. You terrify me.” 
“I cannot believe you, Spencer Reid. You have the audacity to come to my house, lose at chess, and then accuse me of being the reason our relationship ended!?”
“That’s not what I said.” His voice was desperate. “I’m not blaming anyone but myself, okay? I fucked up. I know I fucked up. I just—You were so–”
“I was so what, Spencer. What about me was just soooo fucking terrifying to you that you decided you didn’t want to propose to me anymore.” 
“That’s not fair.” 
Your jaw dropped. “You’re fucked in the head if you think the part that isn’t fair is me calling you out on that.” 
Spencer paced around, running his hands through his hair. He was going to wear a path in your carpet the way he was pacing back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. 
“Seven. I hate how captivating you are. Whenever you tell a story, there’s no use in getting any work done because all anyone can do is wait for the story to be finished. If there’s no ending–I’ve watched Morgan sulk at his desk until you returned from a meeting because you were running late and didn’t wrap up the end of the story for him. Something about the way you speak, the way you capture people’s attention, is one of the most dangerous weapons I’ve ever seen on the planet. 
“I hate—oh, sorry–Number six.” He smiled at you and squeezed your head. You were shaking slightly as you rapidly blinked away tears, trying to inhale and exhale through your nose. It wasn’t working. Every word this man said made you one second closer to jumping onto him and kissing him senseless. “I hate how smart you are. It’s ridiculous. You can argue so beautifully and eloquently that it makes anyone arguing against you look like a fucking idiot. You speak four fucking languages, making you invincible and even more aggravating since you’ve decided to start learning a fifth one. You have started to beat me every other game in chess, which is actually humiliating for me, and I can’t figure out how you’re doing it. You read everything under the sun and still manage to have a life, friends, and family. I don’t know anyone in the world who could compare to your intellect.”
“Five. I hate how you steal my chocolate-covered pretzels. I bought you a whole fucking cabinet’s worth, and somehow, mine still got eaten.” 
You watched him give you a bit of a stink eye for that one, causing you to kiss his hand lightly. “My apologies.”
“You don’t mean it, and you know it.” He grumbled, flipping his page so that he could keep reading. 
“I hate how beautiful you are. It’s distracting. I can’t work near you anymore because all I want to do is daydream about you. I want to watch you smile for the rest of my life if I can help it.” 
“Three. I hate how much you care. It terrifies me how much you care about other people. I have seen you at your best and your worst moments.” You squeezed his hand in reassurance. “I have seen the worst outcomes of cases we could ever imagine, or the best, and yet you put the same amount of effort and care into all of them. It’s infuriating because you put your life on the line constantly to be able to give people a chance, whether that be to save them from others or to save them from themselves. You are the most considerate person in the world, even to those who might not deserve it.” 
This was not a good case. 
It was never a ‘good case,’ but this one just sucked the absolute life out of you. You had been back for only a month, and it was going too well. You were on top of your game. You were better than ever—but you knew the other shoe would drop.
And it did. 
You were never a big fan of getting shot at, but you would prefer that rather than have to escape a burning building. It was one of your biggest fears, and here it was, being realized. 
You had managed to crawl down to the first floor before everything started to go black. He had sealed the windows. He had sprinkled broken glass along the stairs, causing you to rip open your legs and hands as you slid down the stairs. The more significant shards of glass shredding the back of your pants. It was fucking painful. But you had managed to make it to the kitchen. 
That’s when you saw the firefighters bursting through doors, trying to contain the fire surrounding you. You could feel the burn on your skin as they pulled you out of the building, blood dripping down your legs and hands. 
You must have been one fucked up sight for Hotch to drop everything he was doing and run over to you. But you wished he didn’t because the building behind you exploded. The flames must have hit the gas line, and the house came crashing down. 
You were thrown back from the force, causing you to land on your back. Nothing was broken, nothing was sprained, but adding road rash and hearing loss to your ever-growing list of injuries was not fun. 
Spencer and Hotch, who were shoved to the ground by the blast, scrambled over to you, where you were just lying on the ground, facing the sky, trying to breathe. 
Maybe they were yelling your name or just trying to speak to you, but your head buzzed with the remnants of the explosion. 
You watched as the sky above you filled with smoke and flickered with red hues. At some point, you saw Spencer come into your line of view. He was definitely mouthing your name. 
Just then, like a wave crashing over you again, your hearing came back. Overwhelming could barely describe the feeling of shock running through your body. Your eyes widened as tears sprung to your eyes, your lungs gasping for air, and your mind flooded with adrenaline, with panic. 
“Y/N. Hey. Listen to me. Hey.” Hotch had been trying to get you to sit up. He was going through his own internal panic attack—this scene was a little too close to NYC, to Kate. 
Ambulance sirens blared, and you could hear a beam crash down and spur on the fire—” It hurts. So. Bad.” You finally managed to whisper, still gasping for air. 
Reid wasn’t sure you were even registering that you were sobbing and that tears were racing down your cheeks. 
“Can you sit up?” 
“My hands.” You mumbled. “There-there was glass…so much…” 
You flinched as Hotch yelled for a gurney. 
“I need you to try and sit up, okay?” Spencer was next to you. He was on his hands and knees, slowly trying to gain your attention. There is a gentle touch on the arm here and a brush of your hair out of your eyes. He was just trying to give you peace, a breath amid everything going on.
“Spence.” You whined, flexing your hand, wincing when a tiny shard of glass shifted in your palm, causing even more pain. 
“I know.” He said to you, gently taking your hand and wincing as he saw the microscopic shards scattered across your palm. “I need you to sit up for me.” 
“Please don’t make me get up, Spence.” You whispered. 
Hotch had moved away from the both of you, trying to clear a path so two EMTs could reach you. 
“Once you sit up, I promise you won’t have to do anything else.” 
You closed your eyes and let out a cry. It felt so relieving to just let whatever tension you had left in your body. But the thought of not doing anything sounded even better, so you slowly made your way to a sitting position, leaning against Spencer’s chest as he kissed your head and carefully ran his hand up and down your arm. 
Spencer’s entire body relaxed into yours. He had never been more grateful that you could make it out of that building before…he didn’t want to think about what else would have happened. The two of you had just started talking again. You were hanging out. He would have never forgiven himself if he left things the way they were. 
It felt wrong for him to be grateful at how much you got hurt because all of your limbs were still intact, and you were still conscious, still breathing. But he was thankful as he held you on the pavement, in the middle of the road, while everyone ran around you both. 
You, on the other hand, were not happy to be sitting up. The adrenaline started to wear off, and your body was no longer buzzing. “Spence.” You whispered to him, trying to get his attention. You were nauseous, and the world was spinning. Everything was phasing in, and out of clarity, you could actually feel the earth rotating. 
“Spence.” This time, it was said with more urgency. And it caught his attention. “I need to lie back down.” 
“You can’t—”
“I’m gonna vomit.” 
“Shit shit shit, okay, nausea is usually a sign of a concussion, a really bad one, most likely in the red zone—”
“Spencer, please.” You mumbled, closing your eyes and slumping against him, trying your best to hold down whatever you felt slowly creeping up your throat. 
“I can’t let you lay back down.” He mumbled, turning you in his arms, prepping for whatever would come out. 
Luckily for both of you, the two EMTs and Hotch had made it back over, bucket in hand, because Hotch had told them you most likely had a concussion. And god bless that stupid bucket because it managed to save some of your dignity by not throwing up all over the street. The EMTs had checked you out, flashing that stupid fucking light in your eyes, looking at your hands and doing their best to pull out some of the larger chunks of glass, and then helping to get you onto a gurney, and eventually into an ambulance to be shipped off to the nearest hospital. 
Spencer was the only person you would allow to come with you in the ambulance. 
“Two. I hate how well you know me and can read me like an open book. I have never met someone who knew me in the same way you could. You know things about me before I could even fathom the possibilities. You have been there for me in some of the darkest times of my life, and I would not have survived if it wasn’t for you. You picked me off the ground countless times, more than I could ever repay you for.” 
“And last but not least. I hate how I can’t live without you. I hate that if you’re not in the same room as me, I can’t breathe. I hate how you manage to make my days filled with comfort, support, and love when sometimes I don’t deserve it. I hate when you go away to conferences, and I have to wake up to an empty bed, and the only thing that motivates me is the fact that I know you’ll text me as soon as you’re awake. I hate how you are the last person I want to see at night before I go to sleep. And I hate that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
You were fully crying, tears tracking down your cheeks, as you squeezed his hand tightly. You laughed slightly, trying to wipe away one of the stray tears, but he beat you to it, using his thumb to wipe away your tears gently. 
“Did you just quote When Harry Met Sally at me?” 
He smiled cheekily, handing the paper back to Derek, who put it in his pocket. “What else would I be able to quote at you? It was playing that night…” 
You shook your head, unable to stop the smile across your face. You heard him whisper, “I love you,” but it still made your heart ache. 
“Okay, Doctor Reid. Work your magic.” 
“You make it sound like I’m performing a spell or something. I’m literally just fixing your computer.” 
You snorted and shrugged. “Isn’t it you who always said that physics and magic are basically the same thing.”
“Okay, yes, but—”
“And computer science is a science, right?” 
Spencer just rolled his eyes, realizing he would not win this argument, and began to futz with your desktop. 
It had crashed on you while you were in the middle of a report. At home. In your pajamas. 
This was a practice that was familiar to Spencer. Whenever you were working on something that was not classified or very sensitive information, you had gotten special clearance from Hotch to bring it home. So Spencer has seen you write up preliminary profiles for cases around the country in nothing but your pajamas many times. 
Except he hasn’t seen you in just pajama shorts and a tank top since, well. 
He was supposed to be focusing on the desktop, and that is what he is going to do. 
“I really appreciate you coming over at like 10 pm, Spence. I really do. I’m sure you were busy, so I really appreciate it.”
He shook his head and looked over his shoulder at you. “It was no trouble, really. Besides.” He turned back to the screen with a cheeky grin across his face. “I know how you get when something breaks.” 
Your jaw dropped slightly, and you leaned against the kitchen counter. “Spencer. Are you…flirting with me…”
His face turned slightly red as he quickly faced the computer screen again. “And so what if I am,” he mumbled, focusing on the task at hand. He wasn’t sure how you managed to freeze your computer this badly, but he was determined to work it out. 
You shrugged and checked your phone, looking at the text from Emily that you had chosen to ignore. Maybe she told you not to ask Spencer over. Maybe she had warned against moving too quickly with anything. 
But you were a grown adult, you could make your own choices. You could—
“It’s, uh, it’s all fixed for you.” Spencer had stood up and was nervously fiddling with his hands. He hasn’t been like this towards you since you had both started dating over seven years ago. 
You bit your lip and casually turned your phone on DnD. 
“Thanks, Spence. I really appreciate it.” 
He nodded, doing his best to stop eying you up and down. 
The two of you stood there, unsure of how to continue on with one another. 
The tension was thick, almost like a humidity in the air that covered your skin and ruined your hair, just by stepping into it. 
Spencer eventually broke eye contact and wiped his hands on his pants. “Well, I’m going to uh…Have a good night.” He quickly grabbed his bag from the counter and shut the door behind him. 
Your hands dragged down your face as you sighed and shook your head. Maybe it was for the best that you two just stayed friends. Maybe it was for the best that you two never were in a relationship again. You remembered what happened last time. Maybe you should just finish the report and go to bed. Or maybe you should run after him. It wouldn’t be that embarrassing, considering he was staring back at you, right? 
Who said you didn’t deserve to make a bad decision every now and again. 
You grabbed your keys and slid on your slippers, not even bothering to grab a coat. You opened the door and came face to face with an out-of-breath Spencer just about to knock on your door. You took one look at each other. 
And that’s when he reached down and brought your lips to his. 
Emily reached over and gently handed you your vows.
“Fuck fuck fuck.” You whispered, causing everyone around you to laugh softly at you, desperately trying to stop crying. 
“I said I was going to try not to cry during his, and that obviously was not the case.” You slowly exhaled your lips, taking his hand and smiling up at him.
“Hey.” You whispered, causing him to whisper it back to you. “So–um. I wrote my vows a long time ago. Like, a while back. And I was looking for them and almost couldn’t find them. But I remembered that I had written them in that really small brown, leather journal thing that you got me for one of my birthdays that I kept losing because I always put it down and never remembered where.” 
The small, collected group laughed together, watching you turn the page in that small brown leather journal. 
“I didn’t know where I wanted to start when writing my vows. I knew how I wanted it to end, though. I’ve always known how I wanted my life to end and everything to go. So that’s what I did. I started at my endgame and worked my way backward. But shit happens, and life never goes according to plan. Never.” 
He squeezed your hand. 
Those weeks after were fucking brutal for you. 
Relaxing was something you were never fantastic at, so having to take two weeks off to recover from your concussion, burns, cuts, and bruises was excruciating. 
Maybe it would have been worse if a certain someone wasn’t basically living in your apartment with you, doing anything and everything to be there for you. 
You woke up to freshly brewed coffee, sometimes breakfast if he wasn’t away on a case. Sometimes, he’d be home in time to make you both dinner. It felt oddly domestic for you, reminding you of before Maeve, before everything that had gone down over the phone. 
Once the two weeks were over, he might have visited to check up on you. There would be nights where he would stay over just in case your head or back started to hurt again. It took more convincing for Spencer to let you go back to work than it did for your actual neurologist. 
“Need I remind you I’m a doctor too, Spencer. I’m going back to work on Monday, meaning two over one, majority rules.” 
Spencer scoffed and crossed his arms. “The lights will cause headaches, and staring at screens and files will only add to that. It’s a bad idea, y/n. Especially if we have to go somewhere, traveling across the country in a plane. You might as well knock yourself out because the air pressure would kill your head and ear drums.” 
“Always the one for dramatics, aren’t we.”
Spencer rolled his eyes. “I’m not being dramatic. I just care about your well-being, apparently more than you do—”
“Spence.”
“What.”
You kissed him softly. Just to shut him up. There were no ulterior motives. None. 
He hummed, hands sliding around your waist, keeping you close to him as you broke the kiss. 
That was another development you were keeping under wraps. The two of you might have decided to give it another shot. It had been over a month since you rejoined the BAU, and even before you got severely injured, Spencer had been doing everything he could to apologize. Whether that be his apologies or through his actions, he was stepping up. 
But both of you had yet to outright tell the others. Emily knew something was going on, especially when you showed up to work in the same outfit two days in a row, but she had assumed you had seen someone else, not your ex. 
You didn’t mind, though, when he took such good care of you when he bought you fresh flowers every week, when he kissed you past the point of breathing when he would—
“What are you thinking about?” Spencer whispered, interrupting whatever spiral you had started.
“What book I should read next.” 
“Liar.” He squeezed your sides, laughing softly and kissing you again. 
“There’s not much I can say about how life doesn’t go as planned since everyone here with us understands and knows how quickly life changes. But I realized that I need to have you by my side regardless of how it changes. I don’t want to be back in a place where I’m not with you because it just didn’t make any sense.” 
“My vows are short because I would never make it through them if they were any longer.” 
This caused another ripple of laughter throughout your friends, giving your fiancé a moment to wipe away another stray tear on your cheek. 
“All of this to say.” You cleared your throat, but it didn’t stop the tears from clouding your vision. “Shit. Give me a second.” 
Emily gave you a tissue, which you used to wipe under your eyes. You shook your hands slightly, trying to calm yourself down and shake out the rest of the emotions so that you could at least finish saying your vows. 
“Having begun to love you, I love you forever—in all changes, in all disgraces, because you are yourself.”
Spencer beamed joyfully, realizing you followed his same path, quoting something you knew the other loved. 
And suddenly, the stars aligned. A soft breeze picked up, and the world was quiet. 
Everything was alright. Everything was okay. 
And for that beautiful, brief moment, you had everything you could have ever asked for, and there was nothing you would have changed, nothing in the whole world that was worth the love and happiness you felt in this moment, beaming at Spencer as you both said
I do. 
“To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.” - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
______________________________________________________________
Taglist: @gubzgirl @onlyspence @vxnilla-hxrddrugs @mynameisnotokay @kalulakunundrum @academiareid @lilsunshine1092 @brilliantreid @shqwqrma @cluelessteam @lockwoods-coat-and-reids-vests @hereforfun22-blog @yoursarahg @r-3dlips @lilrios-world @hereforfun22-blog @mega-kittyglitter-1
453 notes · View notes
kittenface40 · 4 months
Text
I.M.P is irrelevant to Helluva Boss
Tumblr media
When Helluva Boss Pilot came out,I was really excited, to know more about these characters, their personalities, their relationships to each other and how they would develop. Additionally, I was also wondering on why each of these characters joined I.M.P and why did Blitz start his own business.
However, as the series went on, the show went on to become the Stolitz show along with dedicating episodes to fan-favourite characters that have nothing to do with I.M.P (Ozzie, Fizz and Stolas).
This is one of the (many) reasons why I'm disappointed with the current state of Helluva Boss, I.M.P's irrelevance to the main story, while I do enjoy the new episodes. There are a lot of story issues that I have with it, the fact that IMP is basically irrelevant to the Helluva Boss.
NO IMPACT ON THE OVER ARCHING STORY:
So far we only had five out of fifteen episodes (excluding the times where it's offscreen), of IMP doing it's job is the main plot of the episode, while five episode may seem fine for some it becomes a problem when their actions are basically inconsequential to the main story.
The only times where they are important is for one-off adventures like in Murder Family, Spring Broken, CHERUBS & Unhappy Campers. The problem is that their existence doesn't impact Stolas' story in anyway (aside from Blitz), like why are we focusing so much screentime on Stolas (a secondary character) who isn't even employed at IMP. And instead focus on Blitz, the titular character, protagonist and him being the boss of IMP. Understanding his goals and reasoning as to why he wanted to start IMP.
HELLUVA BOSS? WHAT BOSS:
Another problem I have with IMP, is the fact that we don't know why Blitz wanted to start a business on killing people, was it because of his tragic past and to distance himself from it, is it that he discovered he's really skilled at killing people and decided to make it big , is it because he wants love and new connections from his employees, is it to prove the higher class or his father that he can make it big and break class traditions. What is it? We only now why he wants love and respect from his employees due to his tragic past. But we don't know why he started his business.
Also we never get to see him develop into a caring boss that genuinely cares about his employees, with the show only showing the ending of the development in the same episode but none of the development.
In addition, we also never get the chance to see him as a leader of IMP, you think Blitz would be the leader and he needs to grow into being one for his employees. But the show never has Blitz develop into becoming a Helluva Boss.
NON EXISTENT SURFACE-LEVEL RELATIONSHIPS:
Another thing I really hate is that the relationships between employees at IMP, are never explored beyond the surface level. The only one I can say this doesn't apply to is Moxxie and Blitz.
We don't get to see the M&Ms relationship grow outside of loving each other, and when they do explore it, it's written poorly (Unhappy Campers).
We don't get to see Millie and Luna, relationship grow, they don't even talk to each other that much in the show. What is Blitz & Millie relationship, why do they get along with each other, why is she fine with Blitz behaviour. Luna and Moxxie relationship, why is Luna so mean to him, how does Moxxie feel about Luna bullying him, has she ever went too far, would Millie get angry at Luna for bullying.
(Side tangent; but why is Millie not standing up for her husband when Blitz and Luna bully Moxxie, they do it right in front of her. Wouldn't she get angry at them, edit: I checked and she did get angry at Luna for calling Moxxie fat, but not at Blitz for joking about this. But she needs to say something, put her foot down, not just make an angry expression)
EMPLOYEES LACK OF REASONING:
We don't know what the employees motivation was to join IMP. Why did Moxxie and Millie join IMP, was it to prove their parents wrong, to make it big, or is it for similar reasonings to Blitzo.
Why did Luna join IMP? Was it out of gratitude for Blitz saving her, was it because she couldn't get a job as a hell hound, was it to be with her father more.
-----
Anyway, that's my thought for a day, on Helluva Boss, let me know what you think about IMP. Do you agree? Disagree? Why? Let me know!
385 notes · View notes
bottle-of-harpoons · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Bruv, this took soo fucking long.
New AU dropping, boys.
So basically it's a hybrid between the 'toxic chain/possessed Kieran' AU and the 'Kieran is Ogerpon' AU.
In this AU, the events of the teal mask play out normally.
After Kieran looses his fight to Julianna, he starts hearing a mysterious voice in his head. It starts playing with his insecurities and telling him he needs to be stronger.
"That's why the oger didn't want you as a trainer. You were too weak".
Thanks to the voices advise and 'encouragement', Kieran quickly rises through the ranks of the Blueberry League and becomes champion. However, he also becomes a massive jackass.
The voice tell him that everyone is beneath him. He starts bullying other club members until the point were everyone is too imtimidated by him to hang out with him.
He is distant and aggressive towards the Elite 4. He doesn't even attend meetings and barley does any of his champion responsibilities, causing Amarys and Crispin to step up. Lacey was too busy helping Cyrano with academic duties. Drayton dedicated all his time to helping out the trainers Kieran bullied.
Kieran started skipping classes and dedicated all his time to training. The only person who still talked to him was Carmine.
However, after months of trying to reach out, Kieran finally snapes at Carmine, causing her to retreat from him. After this, Kieran finally realises he is truly alone. But thats when the voice makes a deal with him.
He could continue living his life alone and unloved or he could dawn the mask and start a new life. Kieran takes the mask, not fully understanding the deal. He ends up loosing his human form and turning into an Ogerpon. It is then that the voice reveals itself as Pecharunt and it steals Kieran human life.
Because of Kieran's shitty behaviour, he suspended from the academy for one month and 'Kieran' is sent back to Kitikami.
Kieran is left roaming around the Terrarium, dealing with the fact that he is now a pokemon and a whole fuck load of self esteem issues.
However, he is eventually found by Carmine and the new exchange student, Julianna.
Some notes in this AU -
Kieran isn't evil. He's a young child who needs help and the only people who notice are also children themselves. (Carmines doing what she can but she's still young and inexperienced)
Pecharunt has no control over Kierans actions or emotions. He basically says things to Kieran to encourage his negative thoughts and continue his unhealthy downward spiral.
I didn't explain this earlier but when Kieran put on the Ogerpon mask, he left behind a human mask that represents his human form. Pecharunt is currently wearing it.
Pecharunt wants a family again. He woke up many years later to find the old couple he used to live with had died. He wanted a family again but he wanted to live equally among the humans as well. So he started scheming to steal Kierans human life.
His plan just consists of him manipulating Kierans life until he was completely cut off from his friends and family. Once Kieran has nothing, he could trick Kieran into trading him his human life, then he could rebuild Kieran's life from the ground up.
Kieran's not having fun adjusting to life as a pokemon but he believes it's his punishment for being a dick to everyone.
Juliana's meowscarada is called Verde (haven't figured out what the rest of her team consists of yet). Carmine's mightyanna is called Subarashi (Suba for short), her sinistchi is called Chia, morpeko is Kamu and ninetails is Kyu (I used google translate for this, sorry if they're weird). Kieran's furret is called Shippo and his hydrapple is called Ringo.
Fun fact - This plot concept was taken from an old submas fanfic I started writing but never finished. Short summary was Ingo coming back to modern day Unova but he still has amnesia. His and Emmets relationship becomes very strained. Emmets ends up making a deal with Giratina to help turn him into a zorua and use hi illusion powers to get close to Ingo again. (I may post a full summary of the story one day)
Because of this, in the original draft, Kieran was going to turn into a zorua. I changed it just incase I ever wanted to revisits the old fic. Also I thought it would be funny if he turned into ogerpon.
This was heavily inspired by the Kieranpon au, the possessed Kieran au and the movie 'a whisker away'.
Sorry for any spelling errors. No excuse just can't spell for shit.
216 notes · View notes
graceraindrops-blog · 3 months
Text
How much of a terrible mom was Cordelia? A full explanation.
It's a shame that the first post of my blog is dedicated to a rather ''interesting'' take @yuikomorii showed me, but taking into account that I've done my research involving the mothers, I find it a perfect opportunity to make a full explanation of Cordelia's abusive behavior.
Before I start, I would like to talk about why Cordelia acted the way she did (I AM NOT JUSTIFYING HER ACTIONS).
We know that Cordelia's father was neglectful towards her after the death of her mother which made her lack the ability to understand love.
Karlheinz manipulated Cordelia into marrying him and giving him children FORCEFULLY (because Cordelia did not want to have children). He also convinced Cordelia that it was okay for her to have many lovers and to have sexual relationships with FAMILY members
Cordelia's abusive behavior towards the triplets also comes over the fact of her jealousy and obsession with Karlheinz and surpassing Beatrix and Christa.
Getting this out of the way I will now start explaining why Cordelia was NOT a good mother despite her traumas.
Tumblr media
It's not strange to view Cordelia negatively if she's one of the antagonists of the franchise. NEVER did Diabolik lovers ever paint Cordelia as a good person and constantly tell us about how shitty she was towards her children and how much it affected them.
2. I'm not denying the fact that around those times parenting was more strict, however, you're forgetting that Cordelia didn't just slap, ground, or yell at her children, she put intense waves of pressure on Ayato, and drowned him, she sexually abused Laito, manipulated him and groomed him when he was a KID, forced Kanato to sing until he bled and made him watch her have intercourse with other men. This was the abuse the triplets went through until they finally had enough and attempted to kill Cordelia, which they succeeded.
Tumblr media
3. Yes, it's true that Beatrix wouldn't give the triplets much attention or love, she would probably neglect them due to not being her biological children and belonging to her rival, however, Beatrix WOULD NEVER do the messed up stuff Cordelia did. Yes, she was a terrible mother to Shu and Reiji, yet she would've never stepped down at Cordelia's level.
Tumblr media
4. A normal mother doesn't drown and threaten her child due to personal issues, A normal mother doesn't sexually abuse her child and grooms him to make him depend on her, and a normal mother doesn't force her child to watch her have sex with men and doesn't use his singing voice to get horny. If she was an affectionate mother ayato wouldn't have found the need to HIDE himself from her and the triplets wouldn't have considered killing her.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
5. I would also like to add, that no matter how badly influenced Cordelia was, and no matter how much childhood trauma she went through, that would never be a justification for the way she treated her children. This does not only apply to Cordelia, this applies to every character and to real people as well. It's a reason why they behave that way, but never a justification. Also, Cordelia doing the bare minimum and behaving like an actual mother for a few moments does not mean she cares about her children. I don't think this is explicitly told, but I believe in those particular scenes she's grooming Kanato to become dependent on her like she did with Laito and Ayato.
Tumblr media
6. ''She never spoke that way to her children'' I'm sorry but I have to laugh?? I would've understood if you were an anime only (not really) but taking into account that you do know about the games this is really really wrong lol. I don't why it's difficult to understand that Cordelia didn't love her children. Cordelia is such a bad mother that when she was resurrected in Ayato's DF route, she didn't even apologize to him or to his siblings, and yet he still forgave her! She even told Ayato to APOLOGIZE to her and continued to insult him
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
(Credits to @dialovers-translations)
I understand (I think everyone in the fandom does) that Cordelia had her reasons to behave this way (childhood trauma and manipulation) but that doesn't excuse her actions. I don't agree with people hating on Cordelia and loving Karlheinz but I also don't agree with people defending Cordelia and saying she did nothing wrong when she did.
Cordelia isn't a black-and-white character and she's not a bad character either, she's very well-written for her purpose (an antagonist) but she's not a good person or mother. She never regretted what she did and if she was still alive during HDB she would've still been abusive to the triplets.
This is my problem with morally grey characters/Evil characters. They can't exist in media if people ignore their wrongdoings and actions and try to justify said actions. I'm not saying that they shouldn't exist but I'm tired of people painting them as good people or justifying their actions when their whole purpose as a character is to show that they're not good people and their actions are/were wrong.
To finish off the post I would like to say that I love Cordelia's character and I consider her to be one of the best-written characters in Diabolik Lovers. In my opinion, I would've liked to know more about her in further games but even if I feel this way about her I don't justify her actions and that's something we should all do. I'm glad the fandom no longer justifies the actions of the characters (with some obvious exceptions). And even if I like Cordelia as a character I don't shame others for not liking her, at the end of the day she was a horrible person lol.
306 notes · View notes
flowersadida · 4 months
Text
I don't like "The Runaway" episode. Imho this is a very strange plot, pulled out of thin air. And most importantly, it ignores Toph's really interesting conflict that could have developed her character.
The episode begins with Toph and Katara fighting over their differences. The most disgusting thing here is not even that their quarrel was taken out of nowhere, but a flashback to previous episodes. The authors based the series on the misunderstandings between Toph and Katara at the beginning of their relationship, completely ignoring their subsequent beautiful friendship. Not only did they throw out Katara's concern for Toph in the desert and their time together in Ba Sing Se, but they also pretended that this particular episode resolved all the misunderstandings, which means it was important. This is ugh.
Do you know what I would do instead of this unnecessary quarrel? I would finally resolve the misunderstanding with Aang that has been going on since the episode “The Desert”.
Remember when Aang blamed Toph for getting Appa stolen? Why not resolve this obvious and hanging misunderstanding? I mean, Aang and Toph don't talk alone at all after that episode, and that's bad.
A dedicated episode about their relationship would have filled that gap nicely and would have also strengthened the characters' bond.
Also, it's in this episode that I would show how Toph learns sandbending. Imagine the conflict that could have arisen: after losing Appa in the desert, Toph realized that she isn't such a great earthbender, because there are things that are beyond her control. She hates feeling inferior, especially when that deficiency caused her to lose a friend.
The sand is too loose, she loses its sight as soon as she lets it go. And the only one she can turn to for help is Aang.
Think about it, why are the dunes in the desert so mobile? What spreads sand and makes it so unstable? The answer is the air. To bend the sand, Toph will have to turn to the opposite element and to the one with whom there was no time to resolve the issue: Aang. And all this is connected not only with her desire to get rid of the imperfections of her bending, but also with the goal of never losing friends again and always being able to help them. And also finally make peace with Aang, her very first friend.
Imagine how Aang would teach her to feel the sand in the air. How, for example, she could see the currents of the wind... How the grains of sand would become her guides into the gaping void above her head that Toph had never seen before.
What wonderful emotions we would witness. The blind girl finally saw what was unattainable even with earthbending. I'm sure it would greatly impact Toph's personality and expand her understanding of things, and I want to experience it with her.
If there is a fanfic about this, I'd like to read it. Because the canon, alas, has lost all possibility of implementing something like this. After all, Toph learned sandbending off-screen, as if there was no emotion associated with it
241 notes · View notes
Note
I am IN LOVE with your writing!  I’m a dedicated reader! 💓💓 thanks for taking the time to do it!
Hear me out. Reader pulls a 24 hour shift in the local clinic on a busy day and we get a protective worried din?
He would also be busy but he would definitely pull reader out and make her take a nap AT LEAST. 😂 anyway, I just thought that would be cute to think about.
I hope you have a wonderful day and keep up the good work! 
[a/n: anybody wanna guess how many times it took me to try and post this b/c tumblr wanted to keep glitching and destroying it?? FUCKING FOUR. lord, im gonna go scream in a pillow. anyways, thanks anon for the great idea! also pls consider this my apology for the cliffhanger that i am so sorry (but not really) for.]
'A FRESH START' DELETED SCENE
Din Djarin x Female!Reader
Warnings: reader overworks herself, mentions of injuries (burns specifically) but not in great detail
Word Count: 1,934
Summary: Everyone needs a break, and Din is hell bent on ensuring you don't skip yours.
Tumblr media
#MID 17: TAKE A BREAK, DOC
[so not between chapters, but a scene within one of the time breaks in chapter 17.]
.
"be with someone who will take care of you. not materialistically but take care of your soul, your well being, your heart, and everything that's you." -unknown
.
Trying to get the emergency clinic established was not easy. You agreed to the job, and Karga had given you free reign. The High Magistrate was essentially allowing you to run the clinic as you saw fit. Which in part was fantastic because it gave you incredible freedom, but it was also your worst nightmare. All your training had taught you was how to handle the medical aspect of an office. The business and organization side was a whole other issue. Especially because the people of Nevarro were not understanding that this was for emergencies only. 
“My ankle hurts.”
“Alright, when did this start? When did you get hurt?”
“I twisted it while jogging three years ago.”
“You⏤ Wait, what?”
In order for this to work the way it needed to, you’d have to focus on actual emergencies only. Alone you would never be able to handle the patient load that would come with servicing an entire city. Plus, you really didn’t want to. The amount of time it would take to even attempt that was insane, and Din needed your help with Grogu.
So, the plan would be to establish that this clinic was emergencies only, emphasize it to everyone who walked in the door, but for today you’d manage all the small, routine problems.
Just for today.
By lunch time, you had already seen 47 patients. None of which were emergent. In fact, the biggest injury was a young man who had dropped a glass plate at home and accidentally cut his hand. He needed four stitches. 
“Aayla?”
“Four more in the waiting room, doctor!” Aayla called out without even having to be asked the question. She was a gift from the Maker today. Already, you had decided to try training her more in depth medically and hire someone else to work the front desk. “You also have a guest.
“What?” You breathed, barely able to catch her words.
Aayla didn’t need to repeat herself because that was the moment Din swept into the room with the same confident strut he naturally seemed to have. At the sight of him, you couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as your lips curled up into a smile.
“What is going on?” Din asked as he drifted closer to you. There were still two patients sitting on cots waiting for you to finish with them, but Din commandeered your attention by settling his hand on your lower back and staring down at you. Even through the helmet you could feel his concerned gaze. “Why are you so busy? I thought you were hired for emergencies only.”
“I was, but apparently nobody told all of Nevarro that.”
Din stiffened. “Did Karga⏤”
“No. I don’t think he tricked me into this or that this was on purpose.” You said quickly. “And everyone who comes in, I’m telling them that from now on it’s emergencies only.”
“But today?”
“Today, I am seeing every Nevarro citizen.” You chuckled. “You want a check up, Mando?”
“Ner kar’ta,” Din shook his head, “Have you taken any breaks at all?” You shot him a sheepish smile. “Come. Let’s get lunch.”
“I can’t. I’ll just get further behind.” You mumbled. Din looked like he was ready to argue with you. In fact, his hands even drifted to his hips as his head tilted. You had seen him take on the same stance before lecturing Grogu. You wrapped your hands around his forearm and gave him the most reassuring smile you could muster. “It’s fine. I’m just sorry I’m bailing on you for lunch.” He sighed. “You poor thing, now you’ll have to spend more time with Mayfeld.”
Din huffed and you chuckled. Aayla called out that more people were filling the space, and for a second you thought the Mandalorian Marshal was considering sending everybody home just so you could have a moment for lunch. You squeezed his forearm. 
“Fine.” Din grumbled.
“Also, I know this won’t help my argument or convince you of anything, but,” You scrunched your nose with a small wince, “Do you think you can pick up Grogu today?”
Din seemed taken aback based on his voice alone, “How long do you plan on staying?”
You knew his question was one more focused on the concern of you staying here for too long versus him being upset that you couldn’t get Grogu. When you shot him another sheepish smile he just grumbled under his breath in Mando’a. Din caught you off guard by leaning forward to lightly rest his forehead against yours for a second. 
“This conversation isn’t over.” Din said simply and you just chuckled in response.
He squeezed your hand once before leaving and you were forced to return to the patients you had. Ten minutes passed at the most, you got two patients out with Aayla’s help, when Din’s heavy footfalls returned. You glanced over your shoulder to see he was holding a bag of food. He crossed the space to set the bag in your hands and you peered in to see it was your favorite sandwich from the local shop. Your eyes glanced back up at him with a grin. The warmth of being seen and known settling in your chest.
“Eat.” Din said firmly.
“Thank you.” You replied. “I’ll eat it as soon as⏤”
“No.” He interrupted. A tilt to his head and a challenge in his voice. “I’m not leaving until I watch you take a few bites. At the least.”
You rolled your eyes, in good nature, and handed him the bag so you could wash your hands in the sink off to the side. On your way back to Din, you asked Aayla to bandage one patient’s knee and get imaging of another patient’s hand. Din had already pulled out your sandwich to set on the desk you had brought into the corner. Before you could reach for it, Din pointed to the desk chair. With a chuckle you dropped down into the seat, the first time you were off your feet all morning, and only then did Din push the sandwich toward you. 
“Thanks.” You said after your first bite. More sincere than your last. Din was leaning against the desk beside you. Close enough that your arm could press against his thigh if you moved it over even an inch. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“Apparently, I did.” Din chuckled. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have eaten at all.”
You couldn't argue. Instead, you just shook your head, “Not gonna lie, I always did have a bad habit of getting caught up in my work.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“Doctor, can you take a look at this?” Aayla called out.
You quickly took one last, large bite of your sandwich before standing. Din pushed off the desk to tower over you again. He nodded. “I’ll pick up Grogu, but if you’re not home by 5 I’m coming back to drag you home.”
“Is that a threat or a promise?” You teased.
Din leaned over to lightly tap his forehead against yours and you chuckled. He reached over to pick up your sandwich and held it up towards you. You raised an eyebrow at him, but he didn’t budge. Rolling your eyes, you leaned over and took another bite. Holding a hand over your mouth, tucking the food into your cheek, you spoke. “Happy?”
“Yes. Be careful. Message me if you need anything.”
You watched him leave with a bemused smile.
Tumblr media
Never before had you been so acutely aware of the saying ‘when it rains, it pours’. Today had already been stressful and busy so it would make sense that at 4:25 in the afternoon an actual emergency rolled in. Nothing to test and stretch your skills like having to handle a trauma case after a full day of working. There had been an incident, on the other side of this world deep in the lava plains, where a group of smugglers got a bit too close to a river of lava with their weapons and nearly blew one another sky high. 
The least injured of the three had flown them in. She had some superficial burns all along her left side. Then the other two had third degree burns that required some serious fluid replacement. You didn’t stop working, barely paused to take a breath, until all three were stable and resting comfortably. Only then did you drop down into your desk’s chair and rest your head on your arms with a sigh. 
About twenty minutes later, a pair of hands settled on your shoulders, squeezing in comfort, and you would’ve been startled if you didn’t recognize the creak of Din’s leather with the comforting smell of his flight suit’s detergent and the polish used on his beskar. 
“What time is it?” You groaned.
“8:42.”
“You’re nearly four hours late.”
Din squeezed your shoulders once more before letting a hand settle on the back of your neck. You found the weight of it grounded you. “I got here at 4:50. Saw you were busy with something important. Left then came back.” His thumb caressed your skin, and you pushed your head up to glance at him. Din had the hand not on your neck resting on the desk. “You alright?”
“Just tired.” You mumbled and rubbed your face with one hand. “Grogu?”
“He’s with Peli. Missed you at dinner though.” Din replied. “He acts up when you’re not around.”
“No, no. He’s a perfect angel, always.”
Din snorted at that, and the sound made you chuckle. You glanced over at the cots that held the three smugglers who slept soundly. All their vitals still stable. Din’s hand slipped down to rub your upper back soothingly. “You coming home?”
“I can’t. Not until the emergency shuttle gets here to pick those three up.” You sighed. “They have to be at a facility with a higher level of care than just me.”
“‘Just you’ saved their lives.”
“You know what I mean.” You shrugged. “You should go though.” Din tilted his head. “There’s no telling how long it’ll take for the ship to get here. I already sent Aayla home. I’m just babysitting right now. You should pick up Grogu and head home. Get some sleep.”
Din shook his head as if it were the stupidest thing you had ever said. He gently wrapped his hand around your upper arm and pulled you up from your seat. You let him drag you along to the fourth cot in the room which was currently empty. “You sleep. I’ll babysit.” 
“Din…”
He lightly pushed down on your shoulders until you were seated on the cot. You stared up at him in question, but he just shook his head. “If something changes with their status I’ll wake you.” Din pushed you down a little further so you were laying down. The moment your body hit the relatively soft bed you felt yourself sink into it with exhaustion. Din went to walk, but you grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the cot as well.
“You can babysit while laying down, can’t you?”
“My armor isn’t gonna be much of a pillow.”
“Neither is this cot.”
Din chuckled and dropped down to lay beside you. You rested your head on his chest, the cool metal of the beskar biting into your warm cheek, and just sighed. It hadn’t occurred to you how tired you truly were until now. Din had an arm wrapped around you so he could grasp your shoulder with his hand and use his thumb to trace patterns there.
“Take a break, doc.” Din hummed. “I got you.”
Tumblr media
taglist:
@aheadfullofsteverogers @yyiikes @kneelforloki @c-ms1ut @sgt-morgan @luthienaliceisilra @fawn-kitten @missbabyjay @coldlamaspersonspy @dilfsaremyfavourite @jamesbuckybarnes @yorkeylover @teawrites01 @emily-roberts @djarinxore @impala1967666 @shelbyteller @faithrenner @dindjarindude @dankfarrick29 @rh1nestonecowg1rl @garbo-lesbo @anythingforattention @tearfulsolace @onceinamando @catharinaroxastova @uwu-i-purple-you @modiddys-blog @stagerightlauren @mini-bees @xxinvisblexx @adoringanakin @sagegreensensei @spidey-3 @sydney-1209 @thepascalofus @hrtsforpascal @banana-lol @daybleedsintonightfall11 @lil-dragon-draws @guccistardust @ideajpeg @harriedandharassed @leithatnight @elfamosotoga @damnzelsoul @the-anchored-sailor-girl @morks-watermelon @katelynmarieyt @taylorann2013 @chonkercatto @dheet @liadamerondjarin @fallinallinmendes @missdicaprio @jennaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa @alphaash99 @djarinsmixtape @pcrushinnerd @closedaddition @thelovelyhann @harrys-sunflower-bakery @mayaaaaah @theway-thisis
449 notes · View notes
pathetic-sapphic · 8 months
Note
could u mayhaps do arcane women (and more specifically JINX!!) with a S/O who has body image issues :( and mainly how they would cheer them up!
Vi, Jinx and Caitlyn with a S/O who has body image issues
Tumblr media
VI is generally a very touchy person who often showers you with compliments. However, as soon as she notices the way your body tenses up, she is quick to ask you if she made you uncomfortable. Once you explain that that isn't the case, she gently pulls you to sit down next to her and asks you to explain what the issue is. She patiently listens and holds your hand the entire time, nodding and humming softly to let you know she's paying attention. Once you've finished, she pulls you in a hug, tearily apologizing for not noticing sooner and vowing to make you feel like the prettiest person in the entire world. She knows it may not be easy, but she's ready to dedicate all of her patience and support to you.
''Oh babe, I wish I knew this before. It's okay, you can cry all you need. I'm right here baby and I'm not leaving. I'm sorry that you have to deal with that pain, I promise I'll help you learn to love yourself. I know it might not be easy, but you have me and I'll be with you every step of the way, okay? Good, I love you, we're gonna get through this.''
Tumblr media
JINX is a very clingy person who will give you the weirdest (but also sweetest) compliments and an array of cringey pet names. Soon she notices that you're not giving her much of a reaction whenever she calls you pretty or compliments your body. Makes you face her and demands you tell her what's wrong. Initially panics when you start crying but manages to pull you into her lap, gently shushing you, and lightly scratching your head. Once you reveal your insecurities, Jinx is shocked. She could never believe that someone as wonderful and beautiful as you could have such dark thoughts about themselves. I've touched on this topic before but she would absolutely write compliments all over your body with a body-safe marker.
''C'mon toots, just tell me what's wrong already! I can tell that something is bothering you, tell me what it is! What's- Oh no, you're crying. Why are you crying? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so harsh, babe! Come here, lay in my lap. There we go, it's gonna be alright, trinket. Just tell me what's got you looking so glum, I promise I won't be mad. What? Why would you think that? Well, none of that is true, you have to know that, right? In that case, sit tight, I just gotta get my paints and then I'll show you what masterpiece you truly are!''
Tumblr media
CAITLYN is quite observant so she quickly notices the way your face drops whenever you meet your reflection in the mirror or how frustrated you sometimes get when getting ready. She doesn't want to push you into talking about it so instead she'll take you shopping. Caitlyn makes sure to pick out clothes that are both your style and suit you well, giving you compliments and praises whenever you try things on. However, it only seems to make you even sadder. So, when the two of you get home, she sits you down and practically begs you to tell her what is the matter. Caitlyn's heart breaks as soon as the first tear falls and she winds up an arm around your waist, the other one caressing your hair away from your flushed and wet cheeks. She kisses your forehead and reassures you that none of that is true, it pains her to know that you have such a negative opinion about yourself and she will do anything in her power to diminish it.
''Darling, please stop evading my questions, I can tell you that something has been bothering you for a while. Please tell me so I know how to help you. Oh, I'm so sorry you've been feeling that way, my dear. But it's okay, I understand now and I'll be here to help you. I'll help you see yourself and love yourself as I do. You're my sweetheart and I never wish to see you hurting, I'll do whatever it takes for you to feel happy and comfortable in your skin.''
287 notes · View notes
Note
Am I the asshole for blocking my friends who I suspect wrote mpreg about “me”?
I (21ftm) have two friends who have recently been writing a story together, I’ll call them O and S, O and S are both cis woman my age. They openly discuss the story on our friend groups discord server in a channel dedicated to this story. O draws the character designs while S primarily writes and they added a character into their story a few months ago who I believe was meant to be me, or at least inspired by me, they’ve done this in the past with other friends of ours who have side characters and cameos, I can usually tell because the character has a name similar to their real life counterpart and a design similar as well, such is the case with “my” character, he is a trans man who looks like me and his name is a shortened nickname of my chosen one.
I wouldn’t have an issue with a character inspired by me but they made him gay and began shipping him with a pre-existing male character which made me uncomfortable because I am very much not gay, the other characters inspired by our friends weren’t given love interests or anything so I can’t say they’ve changed the sexualities of those tribute characters. I don’t care if a character is gay, but this character is clearly meant to be representing me and I’m very uncomfortable with this. People assuming I’m attracted to men is a BIG dysphoria trigger to me and they KNOW this because I told them in the past and when they first wrote this in, all my life I’ve had people assuming I was into men because I was AFAB and I’ve dealt with a lot of “comphet” stuff, I’ve been harassed and haven’t been believed when I told people my actual sexuality, the expectation that I would one day get into a relationship with a man and have children with one was treated like an inevitability by the people around me and it scared the fuck out of younger me.
When they first wrote this relationship, i asked them to change it, i said that if they wanted to put this character into a relationship he could have one with a woman instead, they refused and said they liked the rep it gave, though there is already lots of gay rep in the story and I said that it would still be rep because the character is trans but they didn’t change it, so I then asked that this character could be changed so he wasn’t actually related to me in looks and name and they again refused, which made less sense to me because I didn’t (and still don’t) understand what they got out of writing someone who was basically me into a gay relationship. I gave up because I didn’t want to cause drama in the friend group and other the next weeks I spent less time on the friend groups server and never checked the stories channel because I was still extremely dysphoric and upset. It made me feel angry that they didn’t consider how I felt and dismissed my suggestions.
The next time I checked on that server was a month later and they were discussing the future of the story where some of the characters had children, among those characters that had children were the male character my tribute character was in a relationship with, I came into the chat and asked them how that character had kids, O posted a blushing emoji and said he had kids “the fun way”, I asked further and they said my character also had children and at this point I got really angry and just left the server and blocked them.
Later on one of the friend group J (22nb) dmed me saying that I was being dramatic and that I had no right to control what they put in their story, we had an argument and two of my other friends said I was “ruining the fun” and trying to censor their story and it wasn’t “explicitly clear that it was me”. I originally thought that if you are writing something inspired by someone and it’s making them upset you should stop right? But now I’m not so sure and I’m still feeling very down, I don’t know why they decided to write that in, and especially about someone meant to be a tribute to me, it feels like they’ve taken everything I told them about my dysphoria and distilled it down into something to hurt me.
Aita?
What are these acronyms?
141 notes · View notes
resisteverything · 29 days
Note
Just for fun (I am really not invested, haven't even watched the full thing): why do you dislike Hazbin Hotel?
This is the biggest one, the hotel is useless. Charlies whole goal is to redeem sinners with the hotel, but by the end of the season there are only two guests, and then one of them dies. This is particularly bad because of the six month deadline set in episode one. Like what is Charlie even doing over those entire months?
The main characters are weak. I expected to learn more about Angel dust in the show itself, and see a new side to him, but in the end his entire character is summed up with Addict, except the show gives him less personality than Addict does. And he's the best one. Charlie is just a Disney princess parody, the only unique trait of hers being that she swears randomly and has daddy issues, the latter only mattering in one episode, the other seven either shafting her character or giving us no new information about her. Vaggie never once does anything that isn't what Charlie told her to. Alastor is vague and mysterious, but the intrigue and fear factor he brought is just sort of ruined in the show proper. He doesn't work as a foil to Charlie or an antagonist because he never does anything for forward the plot.
Nothing happens in this show. Episode one's only contribution is the dead angel and six-month deadline, everything else is skipable. Episode two changes nothing except that Pentius is at the hotel now, and he doesn't do anything. Episode three is only important in that Alastor hears about the dead angel head, info which he doesn't use until episode seven, like no other character is aware of the angel head. Episode four is only important in that episode six centers on whether or not angel has redeemed himself, except in episode six has the question be answered with "Actually heaven doesn't care about that and was never going to listen to Charlie", episode five is only important in that it's setup for Charlies meeting with heaven, a meeting that ends in her being kicked out and nothing having been changed. Episode six is that meeting. Episode seven is Charlie literally giving up on her motivations to prepare to do battle with heaven, and episode eight is them fighting that big battle. Nothing Charlie did from episodes one to six actually brought them closer to resolving the conflict, and season two is just a return to the previous status quo of hell.
The series is packed full of side characters that should not be so numerous in an eight episode season. Why is Carmilla Carmine, a character that shows up in two subplots a more relevant character to the narrative than any of the main characters? Why did we get half an episode dedicated to the Vees dicking around in ways that in no way affect the plot but never got to see Charlie and Angel dust have a real conversation that wasn't antagonistic? Why did Charlie work out her issues with Vaggie with a completely new side character she's never met before this episode instead of with Vaggie? Why is Vox spying on the heroes for all of episode eight instead of doing anything? Didn't one of them actively try to incite a war against heaven? Shouldn't she be siding with the heroes?
The show has a bizarre relationship with the pilot. It expects you to understand that Charlie taking Alastors hand is a big deal, or know who Cherri bomb is, because these things are in the pilot. But it also Retcons things like Lucifer's characterization, or Husks reason for staying at the hotel. It makes the show hard to follow plot wise.
The tone is all over the place. Pentius dies as a joke that kills a serious moment but then they try to make it serious. Charlie and Vaggie have a serious conversation with jokey slapstick noises in the background. Valentino flips between scary and goofy at random. Angel gets raped and it’s a big deal, pentius gets raped and it’s a joke.
82 notes · View notes
prying-pandora666 · 6 months
Text
Azula In The Spirit Temple
Okay okay! I have seen you blowing up my inbox asking for my thoughts! I honestly hadn’t had a chance to sit down and write down my thoughts.
The comic is pretty much confirmation of things we already knew.
⁠Azula wasn’t born a monster and doesn’t like being one. She was made this way and never taught any other way to be.
She’s made a lot of mistakes and has done bad things but is so overwhelmed that she would rather deny and avoid. She needs help. Is desperate for it even. But all she has is her pride to protect her for now.
While many Azula fans may feel some vindication over this, it also seems others are quite frustrated that this comic didn’t move her forward in either direction. And while I can understand that frustration after 15+ years waiting for a redemption or confirmation of her villainy, I think the trouble is that this story was never intended to add anything.
It was intended to subtract.
That’s why there’s no mention of Kiyi or Azula’s plan to make Zuko a better Fire Lord. That’s why the Kemurikage are gone now and Azula suddenly declares she wants the throne against everything she has said and done previously.
Because this comic, while a fascinating primer into Azula’s psyche, was never meant to further the story.
It’s mean to be a soft reset. A way to place Azula back to where she was at the end of the show so Bryke can ignore the convoluted and contradictory mess that’s been made in the comics and just pick up where the show left off.
This also fixes the issues that they have two different demographics to appeal to now: show-onlies (the bigger group) and extended material fans (the more dedicated group).
Now they can freely write new animated content without having to recap the show-onlies on what they missed or having the extended material fans feel betrayed if they completely ignore or decanonize the comics.
Cynical and unfair for fans? Yes.
Predictable business choice? Also yes.
Hopefully this means they have big plans for her in the animated content.
The art was lovely. Wartman continues to improve and deliver.
Just my take on it.
For fans of @book4air? We will continue working on our own content regardless. We have big plans for Azula, don’t you worry!
If the comics disappointed you and you’d like to help us create our content? Consider supporting us on Patreon.
153 notes · View notes
theotterpenguin · 7 days
Note
I really like the nuanced take about Zutara and why it makes some people uncomfortable and I can see both sides of it. I ship Zutara now but at first I didn’t and it made me really uncomfortable but I think it was just because of certain fan content I was coming across. Some people do portray Zutara in an extremely fetishized & creepy Stockholm syndrome way that makes Katara come off like some helpless damsel stereotype. It made me feel really gross thinking about as a young WOC but rewatching the show and seeing the true dynamic of these characters made me fall in love with them again. So I guess my feeling is that in canon i really love the dynamic but I hate the way *certain fans* twist it and refuse to acknowledge the racism & misogyny in what they’re doing
this is a complicated topic with many layers to it but first - i am sorry if you have ever felt unwelcome in the zutara fandom due to experiences with racism/misogyny.
it would be ignorant to claim that the zutara fandom is somehow uniquely unaffected by systemic racism or sexism, but it would also be disingenuous to claim that these issues only exist in certain parts of the atla fandom. racism, sexism, and general bigotry exist in every fandom due to institutionalized inequality in social structures. and to make it clear, i'm not directing this criticism towards you, anon, you are entitled to your own personal experiences, but i have seen a broader trend of people attempting to use fandom racism to moralize their position in ship wars, which is diminishing from the actual problem - the focus should be on acknowledging the existence of fandom racism/sexism, combatting implicit biases, and creating spaces that can uplift marginalized voices, rather than focusing only on optics in an attempt to gain moral high ground in a silly *fictional* ship war.
however, given all this, the reason that i am still in the zutara fandom is because i appreciate how many people in the fandom are dedicated to unpacking issues of racism and sexism and cultural insensitivity in atla's source material, which i personally haven't seen in many other sides of the fandom (that often sanitize what actually happened in the text to avoid acknowledging these issues in their favorite show). of course this is a broad generalization, but that's generally why i stick with the non-canon shipping side of the fandom because fans that are willing to stray away from canon are often less afraid to engage in critical analysis.
i also do think the zutara fandom has come a long way from the early 2000s when the show first aired. for example, when i first joined the fandom i had mixed feelings on fire lady katara, but i have since read some fanfics that have done an excellent job deconstructing some of the problematic ways that this trope could be interpreted and balancing respect for katara's cultural heritage and autonomy with the political and personal difficulties of being involved with an imperialist/colonialist nation. the fire lady katara trope, capture!fic, and other complicated topics/tropes are almost never inherently racist/sexist, but rather, their execution is what matters. and all this is not to say that issues of systemic racism/sexism do not still exist in this fandom, but it personally has not significantly negatively impacted my experience in the zutara fandom due to the wonderful content that so many other fantastic people produce, though everyone's mileage may differ with what they are comfortable with. anon, i hope that you are able to find a place in the zutara fandom for you! but i also know many people that have stepped back from other fandoms due to experiences with racism/misogyny, so i understand that decision as well.
on a final note, i think it's important to acknowledge that fandom doesn't exist in a vacuum and broader issues of racism and sexism are rooted in the media, the entertainment industry, and mainstream societal norms. while i do sometimes focus on fandom dynamics/discourse in my criticisms, i think it is equally as important to acknowledge how issues of prejudice and inequality are perpetuated through larger social structures, which is why it frustrates me when the atla fandom refuses to acknowledge the flaws of the original show, which has far more influence and social power over the general public than discourse over fandom tropes ever will. personally, i don't understand the phenomenon of holding fan-made material to a higher standard than mainstream media.
56 notes · View notes
Text
I appreciate how open FR Staff is being about this mess but as a writer I have so many questions as to how it got to this point.
I understand not wanting to rapidly expand the team but when you hit an event like BotE and you don't have everything written at launch you gotta look around at some point and go "are we biting off more than we can chew"
The 3 to 5 page limit on stories I'm sorry what are we, in Intro to Creative Writing? I understand an upper limit so a whole novel isn't written but like, that's a limit of ~2500 words single spaced, or, since we're apparently turning in essays 1250 words double spaced (so says google and I'm just to flabbergasted to check).
The lore not being something we can engage with until Adventure Mode. I say this affectionately but this is beginning to look like that meme (staff: "Adventure mode. Save me Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode save me.")
They were all just... doing it? I understand it is a small team and the multiple hats but see point 1. Also like, hello?!? Writing is no less of an art than well, art and like... I own Undel's how to draw dragons books. I could follow them step by step and my dragons would not be identical to hers. Similar but not the same, why would writing be different what are youndoing no wonder there's little tonal consistency.
Really my conclusion is they should've hired a dedicated lore writer years ago. (Full disclosure, when I was in college I was desperately hoping they would open the position, I would've loved to have applied but they never did... see point 4 again.)
Like much much too late now but a dedicated lore writer could've done a lot and helped with the energy high following BotE because people liked the stories, and I think more lore consistently, even if it was just short stories once a month, might've been appreciated. Especially as Adventure Mode continues to not come out and Tidelord is still missing and we had such curiosity but nowhere to direct that energy.
Like, people who know nore than I have spoken about the issues with the Auraboa article. I'm just weighing in as a writer and player, that the way they go about releasing and writing the lore also leaves a lot to be desired
63 notes · View notes