#Everyone has betrayed Gabby on this day | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

In February 2021, Tumblr had 518.6 million blog accounts.

#Everyone has betrayed Gabby on this day

canonically47 · 2 months

Note

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

OF COURSE!!! THANK YOU FOR ASKING I WAS JUST ABOUT TO MAKE A POST LOL

here we go...

DCAS episode 3 thoughts

spoilers!!!

(no duh.)

first of all, somebody spoiled in chat that lake would be the vote, so i’m pissed off enough as it is

patrons... when i catch you patrons...

seriously fuck all of the leakers & patrons that spoil stuff. i hate you guys. hope your pillow is hot on both sides

anyways!!! genuine opinion time

tom, my baby, my love, the light of my life, you did a good job voting for lake. this might be controversial but i think that, out of everyone, she is definitely someone to get out early. maybe there will be some sort of comeback challenge that she’ll win, because i don’t feel like her story is fully over yet, but for now, i’m satisfied she was the one to go.

connor and riya make me more uncomfortable by the day, but thank you to riya for putting an end to their situationship. not looking forward to connor doing pathetic puppy eyes and sighing broken-heartedly throughout the challenges though. and just between you and me, i truly hope one of them is the next vote.

also why did she say "i’m not your daughter" when they’re supposed to be interpreted as a couple/situationship thing... isn’t that a weird writing choice... or is it just me skull emoji fire emoji

on the note of another weird couple, yul is showing his true colors. i told you it was only a matter of time before he showed his true colors... grett, baby, you deserve so much better. i hope when this ship inevitably crashes that grett kicks him in the nuts at one point. she deserves to crush his balls. as a treat :3

love to see a potential alec-fiore-miriam alliance, and miriam back on her gaslighting shit. i have the feeling she might make the merge, but ellie will have her revenge against her and get her out by exposing her somehow. but for this to work, we would need someone dumb enough to vote for her, and i really wonder who- nvm jake is still in the game!! (and tom could probably be manipulated ORRR he could change his priorities and realize that jake and miriam ain’t shit

DEREK AND TREVOR ARE SOOO FUNNY derek’s voice actor is the best of the bunch and i am dead serious. he is sooo funny his deliveries are always so good (compared to many of the others that i would be burnt at the stake for giving the names of lol) derek forgetting THEY are the interns made me laugh so hard i love them

ashley please stop fueling jake’s dumbass fantasies he’s bad and fucking stupid enough as he is

jake can you just accept some people can be friends or are you going to be arophobic this entire series /hj. only a joke because of the arophobia but has this man never heard of platonic male relationships? not to be mean but [CENSORED] [CENSORED EVEN MORE] [CENSORED AS IF IN THE COMMUNIST ERA] [MY LAWYER ADVISED ME TO DELETE THIS ENTIRE SEQUENCE]

fuck jake

fuck riya

fuck connor

fuck jake

fuck yul

fuck jake

fuck yul

oh and how could i forget?

FUCK JAKE

sorry i know he didn’t do much this episode i just hate his ass

tess was really smart with her vote tbh... love that for her. she gets it

aiden and tom alliance PLEASE I CAN FEEL IT BLOOMING I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP SO MUCH ARGHHH

fuck jake

fiore deserves better, she hasn’t even done anything this season, why will nobody give her a damn break lol? ashley and jake when i catch you...

hunter fuck you. you know what you did

ally-hunter-fiore alliance getting out jake WHEN WHEN WHENNNNNN!!!!!!!! not a want but a NEED!!!

fuck yul

fuck jake

FUCK JAKE!!!

also fuck riya and connor and their stupid ass drama

and fuck yul

but how could i forget? fuck jake

that’s all :3

(fuck jake btw)

placing my bets for the next episode...

ally-hunter-fiore alliance blooms but hunter is visibly hesitant about it. thank god he doesn’t have to vote, or he’d have probably already betrayed the alliance...

tom-aiden bonding, tom reluctantly accepts ellie as an ally, and gabby tries to get the two closer to each other, at least to work together if not to be friends

yellow team loses. riya goes home (more of a hope than anything though, realistically i think hunter and/or ally have good chances of leaving...)

alec-miriam-fiore alliance also blooms. throw connor in there too, but only as an ally of alec’s. alec is the one to convince connor to vote for riya.

jake explodes and fucking dies

yul explodes and fucking dies

riya explodes and fucking dies

#disventure camp #disventure camp all stars #dcas #campamento desventura #odd nation cartoons #asks #my asks #anon #anonymous #answered anon #answered ask

8 notes · View notes

kim-ruzek · 3 years

Text

Contentedness

Summary: Antonio Dawson is back in town for a charity event, and gets to meet baby burzek.

Established Burzek, AU as it goes off the premise Kim never miscarried.

Word Count: 3.2k words

Read on AO3

Notes: This is just a lil fun fic, mostly formed from a conversation with Cíara (as, tbh, most of my fics now are!) @justanoffalygirl

I hope y'all enjoy!

Kim doesn’t know how life gets better than this.

It’s a warm spring day, the beginnings of summer starting to break through. She’s in the park, on one of the spacious fields, surrounded many of the people she loves so dearly, soaking in the sound of laughter and playful banter that fills the air.

Days like this, to be around so many people on her day off, are few and far in-between. She’s only recently begun to be more adventurous with where she goes, and how long she stays out, and when already it’s so hard to get everyone together with their own shifts and lives, it’s hard to organise. So when opportunities like this come about, Kim leaps at the chance, especially when it’s doing something for charity.

And if that hadn’t already made her commit to attending, learning that this was an event organized by a charity the Dawson siblings were involved in would’ve. Antonio and Gabby might’ve left Chicago, and maybe not on the best of terms, but the first responders of Chicago are a family, and so the Dawsons’ will always be their family as well.

Kim admits, at first she was a little reluctant to see Antonio. They were partners, they had been through so much together, and he had just...left. Without a word to her. She’ll always be happy for him, that he got himself clean, that he patched back up his life, but she can’t ignore how betrayed she felt at him just leaving. Especially with what happened in her life after.

But she finds it so hard to keep onto those feelings, not when, despite the lack of sleep, despite the way it’s made her have to relearn her own ethics and morals, despite turning her world on it’s head, Kim’s never been more happy, more content with how her life is.

The reason for her happiness squirms in her arms, and Kim looks down at her daughter. Alice Ruzek is only ten months, but Kim can’t remember what her life was like without her in it. Alice, or Ally as Adam affectionately nicknamed her from day one, has changed her life in so many ways.

No longer does she stay up late for fun, the way Kim used to think she was behind on shows with just her job now seems like a dream, her head is full of Children’s lullabies and Alice’s cries, and she can’t count how many times her and Adam has had such stupid yet infuriating squabbles about things just because of lack of sleep or stress from being away from her for too long.

But all of that pales in comparison to how the sound of her laughter, her babbles, is the most beautiful sound Kim has ever heard, to how Kim could stare into her eyes all day, to how seeing Adam holding their daughter, rocking her, singing to her is the most loveliest sight she has ever seen.

To how Alice has managed to do the one thing they’ve struggled to do for years, to make them learn how to be partners, to communicate, to not let the little things matter, and have allowed them to realise just how much they need each other, to be each other’s person. To how Alice has truly completed their lives, how she’s brought them peace and love neither knew was possible.

“Kim!” The sound of Antonio’s voice drags her away from cooing at her baby girl, and she turns around, ready to greet him. They had briefly seen each other when he was at the precinct the other day, but intelligence had a case and he was busy, so they hadn’t been able to say more than a hello to each other. Kim’s been here at the picnic for half an hour, enough for Alice to be cooed over by her various aunts and uncles, having only been left alone, now. Kevin had stolen away Adam—the only person who could distract Adam from his daughter—to help him, and Kim had been just enjoying the moment before she was going to go over to friends.

Antonio looks good, healthy, relaxed. She had thought so when she saw him the other day, but she can truly appreciate just how much good Puerto Rico and charity work has done for him now, when he’s dressed casually, and out in the sun.

Kim grins at him, happy she did decide to put aside all her hurt feelings on how he left. He’s grinning at her too, but as he reaches her and she turns fully around, his grin falls off, shock overtaking his face. She’s only confused at the change of his demeanour for a second, as before she can wonder too long, he’s speaking again.

“You’ve had a baby! Congratulations!” He exclaims, happiness for her replacing the confusion. Kim doesn’t wonder for a moment how he was so easily able to deduce that Alice is her’s, and not someone else’s that she’s just holding, having had way too many people tell her just how much her daughter looks like her. It’s something Kim does agree with, but at the same time, all she can focus on is all the ways she looks like Adam, loving how she’s a beautiful mix of the two of them.

Kim smiles down at Alice, her perfect daughter, before looking back at Antonio. “That I have,”

“Seriously, Kim. This is amazing news; I’m so happy for you. Parenthood is one of the best, fulfilling things you can ever do. And she’s so beautiful,” Antonio says, his words warming her heart. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before, but she never tires at it, and hearing Antonio, her partner, one of the first people in intelligence to believe in her as a cop, say how happy he is for her is particularly heart-warming.

“So I’ve heard,” Kim replies. She had. Everyone and their mother had told her just how fulfilling parenthood is. A lot of the time it had come unsolicited, often with advice she didn’t ask for, nor want, but the times it came from someone she cares about—like Natalie, Voight, Herrmann—she really appreciated it.

Kim introduces Alice to him after that, Antonio immediately questioning, correctly, if her name is a little nod to Alvin, and he coos over her a little, holding her as they catch up.

The day progresses at that, Gabby coming over and meeting Alice as well, and them all mixing back into the crowd of their friends. Kim had participated in some of the charity events, Alice being with Adam when she was doing that, and with her honorary grandmother Trudy when they were doing stuff together.

Adam had joked at one point they should receive some of the raised money, with how their big responder family had all demanded time with their baby. Kim loves it, so does Adam, that their daughter was being raised around so much love and around so much wonderful people, getting the childhood neither of them had gotten.

It was a few hours later now, and Kim sits on one of the picnic blankets, next to Sylvie, the two of them soaking up the sun. Sylvie watched her man, Matt, chuck a ball with Kevin, and Kim watched where Adam sat with Alice. The sun’s high in the sky, and while it was getting past midday now, it’s still quite hot and bright, so he sits in the shade with her.

There’s an aching in her, that wants to get up and join them, join her family, but she resists, knowing she wants to make the most of getting the chance to be in the sun, knowing Adam will just shoo her away, making sure she enjoys something she wouldn’t have hesitated to before she was a Mom.

Instead, she settles for watching him, and continuing to fall so deeply in love with him at the way he so softly and lovingly interacts with Alice.

“Needing a break from her?” Antonio asks, sitting down beside her. Kim glances quickly at Sylvie, knowing her friend had told her that everything is okay and not awkward—well, not that awkward—with the Dawsons’ but doing it on instinct anyway, the nonplussed expression on her friend’s face reassuring her.

“No, it’s just hot. She needs shade and Mommy, mommy needs sun,” Kim replies to her. Everyone at work teases her about how easily both her and Adam slip into referring to themselves as what they are to Alice when talking about the girl.

“It’s okay. She’s with Adam,” Kim continues. There’s a pause, a silence.

“They’re very close, aren’t they?” Antonio says. His words seem careful, calculated, but Kim doesn’t focus on that, instead grinning at him, her heart fluttering once more at just how much fatherhood suits Adam.

“Yeah, they are.” Kim can’t keep the happiness out of her voice, not that she’d want to. She’s looking back at Alice and Adam, watching as Adam plays with her. She’s too far away to hear them, but she’s watched scenes like this so many times before that she knows exactly what he’s cooing at her, and knows exactly what her laugh sounds like.

“What does, uh, the father feel about that?” Antonio asks. Kim looks at him, frowning a little, confused.

“Happy, I’d think.” She replies, shrugging off the weirdness of the question, and turning her attention back to her family. Natalie has walked over to them now, and Kim watches as her friend coos over Alice, and how Adam’s face lights up with pride, at his daughter being so popular.

“I thought mommy brain was meant to be gone by now,” Sylvie says after Antonio leaves. Kim looks at the paramedic, confused. Sylvie’s looking at her amused.

“You do realise that question he asked—it means he doesn’t know Adam’s her father?” Sylvie tells her. Kim’s mouth opens, about to argue against that, because of course he knows that, but then the pieces fall into place and she realises she never actually told him, never told him that they’re back together, forgetting it’s information he wouldn’t automatically know.

“Oh.” Kim says. “Oh.” Sylvie laughs at her.

“It’s amusing, if you think about it. Every time you announced your pregnancy to someone, everyone guessed she was Adam’s before you told them, but Antonio didn’t. And he’s been seeing Adam with her!” Sylvie points out, making Kim laugh with her.

“Finally!” Kim laughs, remembering how just how many people asked if her baby was Adam’s, or didn’t look at all surprised when she told them, when she was pregnant.

“Is it bad that I kind of don’t want to correct him?” Kim asks after. “Just to see how long it takes,”

Sylvie giggles. “I might be bias because he’s my ex, but no, not bad at all. In fact, you rest, I’m gonna go tell everyone he might talk to about it and tell them not to correct him either,”

Kim laughs, loud, as her friend jumps up, excitedly, running off to tell everyone. Sylvie is such a ball of fun, never giving Kim a dull moment when she’s around, and Kim’s once again reminded that they made the right choice to make her and Kevin Alice’s godparents.

Her laughter has attracted the attention of Adam as, after securing Alice’s hat back on her head, he gets up and heads towards her.

“Having fun without us?” Adam asks, sitting down next to her. He looks down at Alice. “Hm, what d’you think, Ally? That we should be upset she’s having fun without us?”

Alice, in response, loudly babbles back, making large smiles spread across both Kim’s and Adam’s faces.

“Hey, Ally,” Kim coos at her. “Having your own fun with Daddy?” she holds Alice’s hands with her own, her heart clenching at the way her fingers wraps around hers in response. Kim looks from her daughter, catching Adam’s eyes, seeing how he’s watching them with such love, such adoration and fondness and Kim knows, then, life really doesn’t get better than this.

The day was coming to an end. All the events had finished, the money raised calculated and announced and most people had left. All who remained was the Dawsons’ first responder family and their charity workers, all of them helping to tidy up.

Kim stood among her friends, all of them chatting between them, winding down and getting ready to leave. Adam stands next to her, Alice in his arms as she makes sure everything is in her pushchair. Alice rests against her father, sleepily, and Kim knows it won’t be long until she’s napping once more.

“It was really good seeing you, and of course getting to meet your beautiful daughter,” Antonio is saying to her, standing on her other side. Kim smiles at him. During the events of the day, when they were catching up, Antonio had apologised for how he left, that he didn’t even tell her. Kim had waved him off, but she appreciated his admittance to that it wasn’t very good of him, depending they were partners.

“It’s been good seeing you too. I’m glad you sorted your life out,” Kim replies, knowing she’s being truthful, and knowing that finally she’s gotten closure on that part of her life, that no longer will she have any left over upset feelings over how he left.

“I’ll definitely keep more in touch; I’ll want updates on this one,” he says, indicating at Alice and Kim’s smile widens, happy that he doesn’t want to go totally no contact with her, with the 21st, again. The way being in this profession, the bond you have with your unit, your partner, isn’t something she can ever truly describe to anyone outside this life; the bond is indescribable, you spend so much time with these people, you trust them to have your back—so when someone just leaves, when you have no idea how they are, it leaves a hole in your life.

Antonio’s eyes drift beyond her, smiling. “Hey, Trudy,”

Kim turns to look at Platt, who’s approached, Mouch by her side. Kim doesn’t know if she’ll ever get used to seeing Platt like this, the person she is outside of work, when she lets a little more of her softer side oout

If you had told her all those years ago, when she first met the desk Sergeant, that she’d consider Platt family, one of the main people she feels comfortable confiding in, that Platt will be one of her main support during her pregnancy, that she’ll be her daughter’s honorary grandmother, Kim would’ve called you certifiably insane. But that’s how her life has turned out, and Kim wouldn’t change it for the world.

“I told you, it’s still Platt to you. You may not be a detective in my district, but I’m still your sergeant,” Trudy gives him a look, but her usual scariness is undercut by the clear affection in her expression. She then turns to look at Adam, or more importantly, the sleepy Alice.

“Now, how’s little miss Ruzek?” Trudy says. Kim thinks that if Platt was anyone else, she’d be cooing the words, but this is Platt, so it’s said still in a manner-of-fact kind of way, affection only an undercurrent.

“I know Adam can be scared at the stupidest of things, but calling him a girl is even too harsh for you, Trudy—uh, Platt,” Antonio laughs, and Kim grins, thinking he’s making a joke, until she realises he still doesn’t know Alice is a Ruzek.

Trudy fixes him a steely look, a true Platt stare through and through. “I was referring to my granddaughter, not her father.”

Platt’s voice is equally steely, as she accepts Alice from Adam’s arms as he passes her over. Antonio looks at the interaction, his expression comical as he processes the information. As he processes that Platt isn’t making a joke, as he processes Platt calling Alice her granddaughter, as he processes exactly why Adam’s been playing and holding Alice all day long.

“She’s Ruzek’s? Adam’s a dad?” Antonio says, shock in his voice, turning to look at Kim. “You’re finally back with Adam again?” He then looks back at Trudy. “Did you just call her you grandmother?”

“Someone’s got to be, and if we trust the ones who raised these two idiots, Alice will be lucky if she doesn’t need therapy and communication lessons before she’s ten,” Trudy speaks first.

“Hey! We communicate well!” Adam protests, before adding, “Now,”

“Listen, Ruzek. I was critising your parents, not you two. For all your past idiocy, you’re good parents.” Trudy looks down at Alice, who’s now sleepily lying against her. “You’ve got to stop crying so loud, Miss Ruzek, you’re deafening your father and god knows he’s already a big enough idiot as it is,”

“When did this happen? When did you get back together?” Antonio asks, once more bringing attention back to him, and his state of confusion.

“About ten months ago, give or take,” Kim grins. They don’t have an official getting back together date, as when Kim was pregnant they were still focused on primarily being co-parents, deciding they need to learn how to communicate well before even thinking of getting together, not wanting to subject their child to having parents like theirs, but they still behaved so incredibly like they were married already.

Their initial plan was to wait until Alice was a year before assessing if they should be more that co-parents, but after the stress that was Alice’s birth, and seeing Adam hold their daughter, Kim knew she’ll never want anyone else, never want to be more with anyone else but him.

“If was up to me, it would’ve been sixteen months ago,” Adam comments, his tone joking, even though Kim knows he’s being perfectly serious. Antonio frowns, connecting the dates and the age of Alice, his eyebrows raising.

“You mean...oh,” Antonio says, realising. Adam smirks, and even Kim finds the reaction amusing. At the start, when they first was telling people, Kim described announcing was more like telling people that she hooked up, unprotected, with Adam rather than telling people she was having a baby—Voight may have hugged her, but she’ll never get over the mortifying knowledge that she essentially had to tell him that she and Adam are each other’s booty call—but now, with Alice being ten months and her and Adam actually being together, Kim sees more amusement in this stuff than anything.

Antonio looks between the two of them, before shrugging. “Well, then. I guess congratulations, man. I’m happy for you,” Antonio shakes Adam’s hand, them going in for a bro hug. They pull back, and Antonio looks at Adam, proudness on his face.

“No wonder you’re so relaxed, fatherhood suits you.” He compliments and Adam beams. Kim knows that Adam still harbours some issues towards Antonio, but Antonio is still family, and family is important to Adam.

“Yeah. It may have been messy and complicated, but I love being a father,” Adam snakes his arm around Kim at that, pulling her to him and giving her a soft kiss on top of her head. Kim rests her hand onto his, squeezing it, and smiling up at him. And in that moment, in his arms, their daughter and family with them, and a contentedness in her heart, Kim couldn’t disagree with him even if she wanted to.

It may have been a messy and complicated journey, but now she’s here, now this is her life, Kim knows all of that was worth it; and that life really doesn’t get better than this.

#burzek #chicago pd #kim burgess x adam ruzek #burzek fic #Chicago pd fanfiction #ree writes #ree's.writing

27 notes · View notes

keyofjetwolf · 3 years

Photo

“Gabrielle, who did this?”

“I did.”

This is it, this is everything this episode has been building to. Not Caesar, not Xena’s checkered past, not her efforts to make amends and rebuild trust, not the plight of the Britons nor the heroism of Boudicea, not religious zealotry and persecution. It’s just Gabrielle, and this choice she made, and the unimaginable repercussions.

Not that it would, because it’s the entire point of the thing, but I can’t say enough about how absolutely unshakable the show is in this having been Gabrielle’s CHOICE. No one can steer this otherwise, they can’t make it pretty and excusable. Not the audience, and not Xena herself. AND OH SHE TRIES. Immediately, Xena seizes a narrative that makes this not Gabrielle’s fault.

The things to love in this are nearly endless, from the simplicity of the exchange to the way it’s performed (SUPERBLY) and shot. There’s something BROKEN in Gabrielle, something Xena keeps willing to still be there, but it’s gone, and as that becomes too true to dismiss, all Xena can do is hug Gabrielle close. Until Krakoa appears and puts a punchable face on the whole thing, but that’s barely relevant.

Like I said, there’s a lot here to love, but let’s start with the smaller, almost incidental thing: how Xena can’t live in the lie. I’ve brought this up a bunch of times, apologies for the repetition, how Gabrielle has such a firm narrative surrounding Xena that she’s built in her head, and it takes years of life together, day in and day out, for the monolith to erode and for Gabrielle to finally see Xena as XENA, warts and all.

Xena has her own version of Gabrielle too, this isn’t just a problem for Gabby to deal with, but as we see here, that problem has nothing to do with refusal to see what’s directly in her face. Twice, Xena tries to deny that Gabrielle has just done the unthinkable. Twice, that’s it, then she accepts what all evidence is screaming at her and ... well, “moves forward” is what I want to say, but as we know, it’s not that simple. She doesn’t keep denying it, though, that’s where I’m going with this, and I love it as a counterpart to the countless times we see Gabrielle given direct hard proof of Xena’s worst impulses, and still she remains absolutely devoted to the parts she wants to believe, because she wants to believe them.

This is going to keep biting Gabby in the ass, and this episode is where the show begins to double down on it. The framework through which is makes those moves is subtle, and brilliant for that subtlety. I mentioned a few times how Caesar in this episode is a red herring, making us think we’re about to watch Xena once again lose all perspective and reason when it comes to fucking up his day. That’s not why we’re here, sad to say for everyone involved (except, I suppose, Caesar), but including him threads the overall ideas a bit deeper in fascinating ways.

When it comes to Xena and Caesar, destruction is the only way things can ever go. Of troops, of strategies, of land, of their friends, of each other. When Caesar betrayed Xena, the only answer she could ever bring was fire and ashes. Dahak and his followers are Gabrielle’s Caesar. She, like Xena, believed the world they spun for her and trusted the place she would have in that world. Also like Xena, when betrayal came, she was left hurt, broken, and forever changed. But while Xena took all that had been done to her and vowed destruction, Gabrielle embraces creation. She NEEDS this to have been something good, needs it to have meant something. She insists that Hope is her child more than Dahak’s and refuses to accept even the possibility that things could go any other way. It comes in a nicer wrapper, certainly, but Gabrielle throws herself into her *ahem* HOPE just as blindly and every bit as reckless as Xena embraces her darkness.

But nothing in the world of Xena is ever that black and white, and Gabrielle’s refusal to deal with the trauma of what’s happened to her and what she’s done sends her into a different but parallel spiral to Xena. Gabrielle’s judgment in the wake of all this becomes massively and completely fucked, as we’ll see all too plainly with The Debt in a hot second. Gabby is now primed and ready to step off a cliff she’s carved for herself, the repercussions for which will continue to haunt her through Season 4.

All this is even more incredible when you realize this moment in The Deliverer is one the show has been carefully, intentionally building toward, reaching all the way back to a little tiny thing from two years and nearly fifty episodes previous. Hello to Season 1 Episode 3′s “Dreamworker”.

This whole exchange carries incredible weight just on its own, particularly given that it’s so early in the series. We know Xena’s speaking from experience, that when she killed for the first time, when she realized she could (and maybe even liked it?), she stopped being the person she was and took her first step toward the monster she would become.

What we of course don’t know then, couldn’t possibly, is that this isn’t just Xena talking to Gabrielle, but Gabrielle talking to herself. She echoes back these exact words to Xena (who knows, she already knows, how she must hate hearing the certainty of it from Gabrielle).

SO GOOD SO SO SO GOOD. What a kick in face, too, to go back and rewatch the scene in Dreamworker on the heels of this, to see Gabrielle so young and fresh-faced and naive to this broken woman who’s seen and done too much.

But the Dreamworker moments don’t stop! Gabrielle’s “blood innocence” is a central idea in that episode, too, with the first act showcasing how she pretty much isn’t listening to a single goddamn thing Xena is trying to teach her. Denied a sword, Gabby goes behind Xena’s back and buys a weapon of her very own.

Which Xena of course immediately discovers and confiscates. We see the boob dagger come back at random times throughout the series, usually as a little nudge-nudge continuity callback, which I genuinely appreciate. That’s all it ever is, up until it isn’t.

It’s not exaggeration to say the boob dagger changes the momentum of this fight. Xena’s losing, and losing pretty badly, but the surprise weapon and the proof of Krakow’s own mortality throws him off, and gives Xena just enough of an edge to win. Could she have pulled it off without the dagger? She’s Xena, so probably, but looking at the fight as it happened, the dagger was crucial.

SO HERE’S WHAT I FUCKING LOVE ABOUT THAT. Is Xena specifically using the boob dagger to win a statement on how all of this was inevitable? If Gabrielle hadn’t bought the dagger, Xena wouldn’t have taken it, and she wouldn’t have had it on-hand to beat Kravenedge. Gabrielle was the vehicle for this violence, in the distant and recent past both.

But she’s just as much the vehicle for putting a stop to it. Had Gabrielle not bought that dagger, Xena may well have lost this fight, and setting aside this specific conflict, a world without Xena is a darker, bloodier place. Had Gabrielle not stopped the cultists, even as she played directly into their hands, someone else would have been their sacrifice, another would have been chosen to bring Dahak’s child into the world. Odds are high that person wouldn’t have a Warrior Princess at their side. Odds are high that person wouldn’t have the heart and love and willingness to sacrifice as Gabrielle. Dahak’s time is now, and he is coming. He uses Gabrielle to make it happen, but by her actions, it’s Gabrielle herself who stops those plans and saves the world.

When the dust settles and we have the full picture, it becomes clear that all along, It’s Gabrielle who is The Deliverer.

#jet wolf watches xena #xena ep 3x04 #BOY WAS THIS AN INTERESTING DAY AND TIME TO TRY AND FINISH THIS UP AND BRING IT ON HOME #now if you'll all excuse me #i have to go immerse myself in busy work that does not actually require my brain to be present

39 notes · View notes

thebladeblaster · 3 years

Text

What if SMT4 was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe au?

I know it’s a weird idea but I couldn’t get it out of my head and wrote the basic gist of it since I never think I’ll actually have the time to write this especially with college.

The SMT4 movies:

(Precedes Avengers) Phase 1

The Cobalt Samurai-Basically the events of the first part of the game all the way up till them seeing the Underground which instead of Tokyo is New York in the MCU. Most of the superfluous side quests are shown through montage (Ex. The side quests that are a part of the challenges Navarre gives them.). At the movies midpoint the events of Kiccigiori village would transpire. The events of Kiccigiori are expanded on and a big chuck of the movie. Flynn is given more of a character before the events of Kiccigiori he feels a bit homesick and thinks of what he left behind. We see what actually happens to Flynn’s parents in the movie rather than it being left ambiguous like the game. For the first time the others see a strange flicker of gold in Flynn’s eyes which becomes clearer and continues throughout the movies. The finale is the Minotaur fight and then them gazing upon New York.

(The beginning takes place before Avengers but the middle and latter parts are mostly after the Avengers) Phase 2

The Cobalt Samurai: The Black Samurai- They leave the sky tower which disappears behind them seemingly leaving them trapped in New York. They continue the journey while they are pursued by a Hydra agent named Medusa. Nozomi first appears in this movie and helps them adjust to life on Earth. Nanashi and Asahi have a cameo. We also hear about gods starting to return. The movie is road trip esk. On their way to find the Black Samurai they run into familiar faces like Xi Wangmu,

the Ring of Gaea, and even have a brush in with the Avengers. The Avengers being led by the Hydra controlled Shield are told that they are planning to destroy Earth and must be stopped. This is the movie’s climax afterwards Lillith is captured and they bring her back to Mikado. Sister Gabby uses her powers to allow them to return. The movie ends with them learning of her returning to life after being executed.

In between movies

After Flynn and Isabeau leave in Civil War they go around helping people across Earth. Isabeau notices a strange golden light flickering in Flynn’s eyes as he starts to gain people’s hopes. His perspective on things starts to change and he starts thinking of the people of Earth more and growing attached to them. He was so focused on the Black Samurai before he had mostly ignored everything else. Without her he’s finally letting himself be enthralled with Earth’s splendor. They actually meet Nanashi and Asahi who are just kids right now.

(Takes place in alongside Infinity War) Phase 3

The Cobalt Samurai: Divided We Fall- After Flynn, Jonathan and Walter get sucked into the reactor they end up traveling to 2 parallel New York’s one of chaos and law. The law one is a dystopia not unlike 1984. The chaos one is marvel zombies. In the alternate worlds they meet alternate versions of the Avengers and fight Lucifer and Merkabah in their respective worlds. After their defeat Jonathan and Walter start to feel strange before they are sucked into the world of the white. The white try to drive Flynn into despair by revealing everything to him and that no matter what choices he makes the world will suffer and he will die. He is nearly taken over before Jonathan and Walter snap him out of it, surprising the white that they are here when they weren’t in the other worlds. They are more surprised when the ghost of Navarre becomes visible and gives Flynn his support. Jonathan and Walter with Lucifer and Merkabah’s powers will Isabeau into being transported to the white realm who also knocks some sense into Flynn. Flynn’s fellows declare that they’ll stay by him and defeat their fates together. Hope starts to overflow within him and Masakado’s katana materializes in his hands simply called “The Godslayer Sword”. Together they all defeat the white and the movie ends with the samurai returning to a post-Infinity War Mikado.

The movies that are altered:

(In Iron Man 2 their presence is mentioned in the movie as the supposed “Angels from the Heavens”.)

Thor-Their is an extra scene with Odin talking to Matrieya and telling him that he is no longer a part of the Divine Powers. Thor overhears this and questions Odin who refuses to elaborate. Matrieya offers Thor to join them and Odin drives him away.

(They are not present but are referenced in Avengers)

Thor: The Dark World-(This movie sucks) So, instead the one trying to get the reality stone is Matrieya who Thor fights. Some of the members of the Divine Powers appear in this movie and Krishna is foreshadowed. Thor finds out earlier about his father’s shady past, but this time it involves the Divine Powers who helped Odin conquer the 9 realms.

Captain America: Winter Soldier-They actually run into each other during the movie and they reveal everything about Tayama and Lillith. They were looking for the ‘face of true evil’ that Lillith told them about. That evil is being done by Hydra who Tayama is a part of in this version. They agree to help out Cap and expose Hydra from within Shield. They find out about all the very messed up things Hydra have done and realize Hydra is the true evil.

(The messiah is mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy)

Guardians of the Galaxy vol2-Ego is in league with the Divine Powers.

Avengers: Age of Ultron-A young Hallelujah appears in this movie alongside Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The samurai appear and fight the Ultron bots alongside the Avengers. Due to their meeting in their sequel they are acquainted with the Avengers. As things get hairy Nick Fury picks them up and has them join the fight. We find out that currently the were on their way back to Mikado to report to Shene Duke. In the end credits we see the archangels. Hallelujah doesn’t join the Avengers since he’s too young. Like Wanda and Pietro he gets his powers from being experimented on.

Captain America: Civil War-The samurai have completely split off now going their separate ways. We see a flashback of Jonathan and Flynn killing Lillith when Jonathan mentions it. They are dragged into the discussion at the beginning of the movie clearly not on speaking terms with each other especially after Walter hears that they killed Lillith. Isabeau awkwardly shuffled around feeling very nervous and out of place especially with all the tension. After the Sokova Accords are revealed Walter sides with Cap and Jonathan sides with Tony. Jonathan is surprised when Flynn doesn’t take a side simply not seeing it as their problem. Since it isn’t their world anyway. His head seems in the clouds after defeating Lillith and he walks out of the movie with Isabeau following behind them. From there the movie is the same, but with Walter and Jonathan included. They both start to question how they stand as those they favored flipped. Previously Jonathan would favor Cap and Walter would favor Tony. This whole conflict makes them realize things may not be as black and white as they thought.

(Flynn and Isabeau are referenced in Spider-Man: Homecoming. This is where it is revealed that they have been going around helping people.)

Thor: Ragnarok-Hella is a part of the Divine Powers and Shesha makes an appearance.

Avengers: Infinity War-Isabeau and Nozomi are in the movie on the Earth team. Isabeau reveals that her fellows have disappeared after going to the reactor. Flynn had convinced her to stay behind because she didn’t really have a stance in the conflict between Jonathan and Walter. Strangely, Flynn appears later in the movie but is acting awfully strange. Isabeau is transported to the white’s world right before the snap. After the snap he takes the gauntlet right off Thanos and Krishna reveals himself. Krishna explains that he allowed Thanos to do the snap on purpose to half the forces of law and chaos. His allies had been transported to another world when the snap happened; ‘Flynn’ even briefly disappeared before returning out of nowhere foreshadowing this. Flynn is revealed to be Shesha who fights Thanos. They are actually pretty even in power, but due to the Avengers wearing down Thanos before he gains the upper hand and defeats him. Krishna gives his salvation speech and Shesha flexes on everybody. He also mentions that his kalki, the true godslayer, will return to Earth.

Avengers: Endgame-Isabeau informs them of the snap. They actually appear after the time skip due to their trio back to Earth being wonky. After seeing even Mikado was ravaged Jonathan further questions his earlier values. We actually see Gaston who is fully grown to his age in Apocalypse. Many of their families were decimated or mostly gone after the snap. This whole thing brings the group even closer. Gaston joins them on their way back to New York. After arriving Toko appears trying to assassinate Flynn. The whole world thinking him and Shesha were the same and he betrayed them. Flynn defeats Toki and they try to convince her that it wasn’t Flynn who took the gauntlet. After her defeat Toki begrudgingly stands down and leaves, however claims she will kill Flynn one day which makes them nervous. They are also joined by Nozomi. Then they join up with the Marvel heroes who are wary at first, but Cap is able to realize that Flynn obviously wasn’t Shesha. They have to track down the Divine Powers who currently possess the stones. Krishna plans to use the stones to get to YHVH’s realm and have Flynn kill him. They fight the rest of the Divine Powers and it is revealed that Walter and Jonathan can transform into Lucifer and Merkabah. After their encounter in the other worlds an incomplete version of their power went into them. They fight Krishna and after seemingly winning Krishna slips into Flynn. Vishnu-Flynn is born and fights everyone after getting through to Flynn on the inside he breaks out and finishes Krishna. They take the infinity stones and restore everyone to normal. The samurai realize that there is a bigger threat and the universe is bigger than they imagined. Thus the samurai split again Flynn and Isabeau while Navarre and Walter depart to space while Jonathan returns to Mikado.

Spider-Man: Far From Home- Nanashi and Asahi are present. In the movie after one of the accidents Nanashi is revived by Dadga. It is also revealed Krishna is still alive and has only been sealed.

Pending waiting for more movies…

Demons shown:

Flynn-Centaur, Jack Frost, Minotaur,

Naga, Zu Tuen (you know the one I can’t spell) , Frost Ace, Cu Cualain (I can’t spell his name), Quetzalcoatl, , Cerberus, Tenkai, Shiva, Demonee-Ho, and Masakado

Isabeau-Napea, Pixie, Leane Sidne, Medusa, Xi Wangmu, Valkyrie, Isis, Jeanne D’ Arc, Pallas Athena, Lakshmi and Isanami

Jonathan-Angel (and the rest of the hierarchy), Master Dwarf, Theron, Apsaras, Ame No Uzume, Aniel, Orcus, Mastema, Metatron, Michael and Seraph

Walter-Liam Dherg, Gryphon, Oni, Ose, Pendragon, Seiryu, Asura,Orobas, Bishamonen, Samael, Lilith, Fafnir, Surt, Mara (would Disney even allow that?), Koga Saburo, Beelzebub, and Demiurge

6 notes · View notes

anotheronechicagobog · 4 years

Text

Yeah, I Would Part 2/Final Peter Mills x reader

written by @anotheronechicagobog

warnings: swearing, mention of corruption, slightly Erin bashing, canon compliant bombing/accident

You arrived at the diner, taking a deep breath. You spotted Peter working the grill and talking to a man who was sitting at the counter, the detective Peter had told you about presumably. “What’s up buttercup?”

“Not much hummingbird. Gumbo and a milkshake?”

“Please.”

“What kind?”

“Surprise me, I trust you.”

“Ha, good to know. Before I get started on that, this is Antonio Dawson, the detective. He’s good, you can trust him, okay? I’ll be back with your food in a sec okay?” He kissed your hair, gave you an encouraging dimpled smile, and then left you with Dawson. “Hi, it’s good to meet you. So you’re the guy investigating my dad?”

“Yes, Ms. Voight and I-”

“It’s Y/L/N, actually. I took my mom’s name when I turned eighteen.”

“Alright, Ms. Y/L/N, I don’t know exactly what Mills told you, but I have been investigating your dad and I need to talk to you about that, and you can’t tell him.”

“My dad is corrupt. Dirty. There’s not enough time in the day to talk about it. But still, I was raised by a cop and a social studies teacher, so one thing I learned very early on in life is that evidence is key. So, here,” you handed him a Hello Kitty flashdrive that you’d kept in your bra, he took it very gingerly, clearly uncomfortable with where it was placed, “I started collecting evidence on my dad once I figured out what he was doing. And every piece of it is on that drive. It’s not the original, and I have multiple other spares, but there’s years of photo and video evidence as well as scanned copies of documents and written statements from me on there. If you need stuff in hard copy I can give it to you before the trial, if it even gets there, because I want to make sure this sticks.”

“Okay, thank you for your time. I’ll leave you with your food. Here’s my card, I’ll be in contact.”

“Of course, have a good night.”

“Here you go, let’s move to this booth over here.” Peter unloaded a tray of Gumbo and milkshakes onto the table on the booth behind you. “You ready to dig in?”

“Oh absolutely.” He held off on asking until you’d gotten a few bites of food and slurps of milkshake in because he knew you got drained just thinking about your family. “How’d it go?”

“Good. At least I think it went well.”

“And how’s the food.”

“Incredible, but it always is.”

“Only the best for you hummingbird.”

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

A few days later you walked behind Mills over to the rest of 51. You were a bit skeptical, you didn’t think that a picnic was cause for wearing celebratory blues, but hey, you weren’t a firefighter. You were, however, proven right when you walked over to a picnic table with about six guys laughing their asses off. “I can’t believe you actually did it candidate!”

“You look ridiculous!”

“Really? Cause I don’t think so.” The men you’d had yet to be introduced to watched as you pulled your boyfriend down into a full-on liplock. You bit your lip as Peter coughed, a little dazed, and you marvelled that you had that effect on him. “Uh, well, hi. I uh. My name is Brian Zvonecek but everyone calls me Otis. And who are you, exactly?”

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N, Peter’s girlfriend.”

“Peter did not tell you about us, we would remember if he had- uh, Joe Cruz by the way. No nickname, just Joe.”

“Capp”

“Tony.”

“Kelly.”

“Matt.”

“Well, hi, everyone. It’s nice to meet all of you. Sorry that didn’t happen sooner, but I thought it might be best if Peter found his footing with you guys first and then I had to work out of the country for a bit.”

“Well, it’s nice to finally meet you. You should introduce her to the chief Mills.”

And so he did. Along with Mouch and Hermann, the chief teased him for the blues before congratulating him on snagging a great girl. Cindy was lovely, just as sweet as her brownies. The day was going really well, even with the tension Gabby was creating with just about everyone. She was basically drooling over Matt and literally everyone was noticing, and for some reason, she was acting particularly cold towards you. But all in all, the day was a success, especially since it ended with the arrest of your dad, brother, and sister.

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

Erin was glaring at you so hard that you were thankful Antonio had gotten a freelance security detail hired for you. As it turned out, since a lot of the evidence you had was about your dad covering up the shit your siblings did, that they were in violation of the law as well. Part of you felt bad for Erin, she had worked really hard to get where she was. Yes, she made some mistakes when she was younger, but most of that was due to her mother’s neglect or influence, which you made sure to tell the court, but she still looked like she was planning your murder. “Be grateful detective Lindsay, you’d be going to prison and losing your badge if it wasn’t for Ms. Y/L/N.” She hmphed at the judge and you shrunk into your seat. Peter rubbed your arms, everything about him calming you.

“I hereby sentence Justin Voight to five years in prison with the chance of parole on charges of theft, DUI, neglectful driving, and conspiracy to commit corruption.”

“I hereby sentence Hank Voight to forty years in prison with no chance of parole on charges of corruption, money laundering, stalking, property damage, witness intimidation, and drug conspiracy.”

You left the courtroom feeling much lighter. You obviously didn’t feel good about sending your only remaining biological family to prison, but what other option did you have? They weren’t going to stop or pay reparations to the people they’d wronged. Just threaten and scare everyone who got in their way. And while you knew that Erin agreed with you on some level, you knew that she believed they shouldn’t go to prison. She would cover for them too, she had actually. And it was because of that that she was demoted to officer and barred from taking the detectives exam for five years. She stormed up to you, resembling a raging bull, after both trials had finished. “How could you, they are your family-”

“They have cost people their livelihoods, Justin actually paralyzed someone! I couldn’t stand by and do nothing, if they weren’t going to stop they had to be stopped. You have to realize that.”

“I just can’t believe-”

“Erin, you’re not joining them, and the only reason you’re not getting arrested for any of the shit you’ve done is because I spoke up and said it wasn’t your fault. All of it would have come out eventually, you know that. Now you don’t have to worry about when that happens. Don’t you get that?”

“You just betrayed your family-”

“Nope, you don’t get it. Goodbye Erin, I’ll talk to you when you pull your head out of my dad’s ass and apologize to me.”

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

ONE YEAR LATER

You woke up but it was difficult to see and breathe. You could feel dust entering your mouth and throat whenever you tried to get some air, there were some beams of light coming in but you could still see very little, only the shapes of concrete and metal. You didn’t feel good. Nauseous, light-headed, pounding in your head, ringing i your ears, and your thoughts were moving so muddled and slowly.

You remembered Kim, the CFD logo, and something about the nurses’ station? None of it made any sense to you, and thinking only hurt your head more. You were so heavy, and so tired, so you just let your eyes close.

The sunbeams were gone when you woke up, you heard sounds instead. Machines and ‘whooping’ mostly. But there were some people, you could not for the life of you hear what they were saying. And then you realized, ‘for the life of you’, Kim, CFD booth, charity race sign-up at the nurses’ station, three steps away, boom, nothing, rubble, rebar, dust, minimal light, minal air. The hospital exploded and you were underneath who knows how much of said hospital in pieces! Panic built up quickly, and suddenly you noticed metallic smelling liquid, aches, pains all over your body, something on top of your right leg. You didn’t think, you just acted. You screamed. Loud. In terror. In pain.

Peter, pizza, apartment, cat, Netflix, Cruz, Otis, pancakes, Molly’s, Hermann, Dawsons, coffee, doughnuts, Platt, Al, Justin, Erin, dad. Images, memories, flooded your mind, panic still securing you in its chokehold. You found an engagement ring in Peter’s nightstand last week. You were going to die. You were going to die. You were going to die. You were going to die. You hoadn’t been aware that you’d spent the entire time screaming as much as your lungs could bear until you vaguely recognized someone yelling at you. “Hey! Hello! Are you okay?”

“No! Help me- please!”

Everything was a blur, whether from your tears or your memory you weren’t sure. But in what felt like minutes you were out from and above the rubble, the night’s sky and a group of firefighters meeting your eyes. Their voices were muffled as you felt hands over you and you let yourself fall asleep again.

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

Crying, someone was crying. It wasn’t you but you could hear sobs coming from right next to you. The room was dark, the only light in the room coming from the cracks in the door and the machines attached to you. You were still in a lot of pain. Your head was throbbing, but not as much as earlier, your lower right leg was in a cast, you could feel bandages on various parts of your body, gauze wrapped around your chest, and there was a plastic lining around your nose in mouth and stale air making its way into your lungs. Your body didn’t feel as weighed down as before, but you could still feel the exhaustion throughout your body. “Peter?”

“Y/N? Oh, thank God. Dr. Rhodes? She’s awake!”

After a flurry of nurses and doctors and tests, Peter was let back in. Dr. Rhodes followed, giving a tentative smile. “Well, Y/N, you are lucky. After being unconscious for five days you have a severe concussion, four broken ribs that we might have to perform surgery on to make sure they don’t pierce your lungs or heart, a broken ankle with three torn ligaments, numerous lacerations, and your oxygen levels were low when you came in. You were initially on a breathing tube but your levels improved so we took it out and put on the mask instead. Is there anything you want me to go into further detail about?”

“My ribs; how close am I to needing surgery?”

“Very, we’ve done our best to secure and monitor them but we really think that surgery would be best, it’s just that your next of kin are arguing about the best course of action.”

“What? But Peter is my next of kin, my only next of kin. Who has been coming to you thinking they have any power here?”

“Uh, it’s your dad, Y/N. They went to the hospital board and argued that they should be considered next of kin. The board agreed. I tried to fight it, but you know how many strings your dad can pull.”

“What? Are you kidding me? Well, I’m awake now, and I can make medical decisions for myself now, right?”

“Yes, I have been told by the hospital’s lead attorney that once you completely woke up you could make all the decisions necessary. We’ve actually been hoping for that because your family has been causing a lot of trouble over this.”

“Do you recommend surgery?”

“Yes. Based on our observations surgery is inevitable. And the fact that your family opposed Peter and your doctors has actually added a significant amount of risks for you.”

“Alright, do the surgery.”

“A nurse will be in to prep you shortly.”

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

You looked at Peter’s tear-streaked face. “I thought you were dead.”

“I thought that I was going to die, I hadn’t even been aware of where I was or what had happened for most of the time I was down there. I was so scared that I would never make it back to you.”

“When I found out that you were in that building before the bomb went off, I just lost my mind. I was digging through rubble screaming your name, Casey and Severide had to pull me away and restrain me from searching for you. When you weren’t found after eight hours, and all that crews were finding dead bodies, I... The look that Boden and the lieutenants had with each other... It was without a doubt the worst day of my life. I love you, so much.” He was stroking your face, looking at you as if you were a gift from the sun. “I found the ring, almost two weeks ago now.”

He smiled and pulled the black box out of his coat pocket which was draped over the back of his chair. “You mean this one?”

“Yes.”

“I had a much more romantic proposal plan, but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late. I do not want a life without you. I want to spend the rest of my existence with you. Will you please marry me?”

“Yes. I love you so much, Peter. So, so much.”

Your moment with Peter was broken by Doris entering the room “... I hate to break up this moment, I really, really, do, seriously you guys are adorable, but I have to prep Y/N for surgery.”

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

The firehouse took turns visiting you and Leslie in the hospital, celebrating the fact that you were both alive and well and that you and Peter got engagement. Eliza, Peter’s kid sister, showed up with balloons and flowers. Peter spent the rest of your time in the hospital holding your hand and looking at you like you put the sun in the sky. And you looked at him like he hung the stars just for you. Everything finally felt like it was falling into place, and everyone, including your guilt-ridden dad, couldn’t be more happy for you two.

#One Chicago #Chicago PD #Chicago Fire #peter mills x reader #peter mills #hank voight #hank voight x daughter!reader #erin lindsay

87 notes · View notes

softlass27 · 4 years

Text

oh man, doing a bit of a rewatch for fic-writing purposes, and some clips have just reminded me why i fucking HATE the dingles as a family and their “blood and biology over everything” mentality.

(to be clear, i do mean the dingles as a family unit, not the characters themselves. i like/love some of them individually.)

so in 2016, lisa decides she wants to go back to using her maiden name after, y’know, the man she’s married to bloody cheated on her and they’re not together anymore (a perfectly reasonable and normal thing to do). and when the dingles find out, they freak out SO MUCH and call lisa to the pub URGENTLY, pretty much ambushing her and insisting that she CAN’T change her name because she’s one of them, she’s practically the matriarch of the family.

lisa reassures them that her having a different last name doesn’t have to change anything, she still loves them all just them same. but no no no that’s not good enough, they just can’t bear it if she drops the name of the man who – let’s say it again – CHEATED ON HER AND BROKE HER HEART. their attitude is so dramatic... why would you ever want to leave this family?? how can you BETRAY US like this??? you can’t go lisa please we need you!!!

so lisa – partially out of the goodness of her heart and partially because she’s quite touched – keeps the name, so as not to upset them. the moral of this little moment is that the dingles see lisa as their family no matter what.

whatever. personally if my cheating ex’s family tried to make me keep his name i’d tell them thanks but no thanks. but whatever.

now skipping forward to 2018 and the drink spiking storyline. when lisa very nearly dies after being drugged by liv and she – quite rightly – reports it to the police. and WOW DO THE DINGLES TURN ON HER.

suddenly, she’s betrayed the family by not covering for one of their own. which is wild considering, y’know, liv isn’t even a dingle. but she is related to one, and we all know how those dingles feel about dna and blood. blood before everything else. when lisa – again, quite rightly – refuses to back down or give into the pressure, the dingles LITERALLY SAY THEY’LL KICK HER OUT OF THE FAMILY. chas is so mean to lisa, repeatedly shouting at her, bullying and threatening her in the nastiest way. it’s so gross to watch.

but wait... what happened to... “lisa you CAN’T change your name, nooo lisa we love you, we can’t cope without you!”

apparently, the decades that lisa has been part of that family, everything she’s done for them, all the care and kindness and mothering she’s given them... suddenly counts for fuck all. because she’s done something they don’t agree with, and she’s done it to someone who may have only been around for a couple of years, but who has a biological link to the family. if it had actually been gabby who’d spiked the drink, the dingles wouldn’t have cared in the slightest if lisa reported it. they’d probably encourage it, they’d be supporting her and they’d be calling gabby all sorts of horrible things. but liv is related to aaron, she’s his blood – and therefore she is untouchable.

lisa sums it up here: “it seems as far as everyone’s concerned, liv is the victim and i’m the villain.”

but as soon as lisa gives in and does what they want, ohhh suddenly all is forgiven, they love her again. chas is flitting around wishing well cottage admiring lisa’s new dishwasher as if nothing happened. as if she hadn’t been hurling abuse at her the day before.

i swear to god, everyone who marries into that family should unionise. because if marriage is your only link to them, if you’re not a biological dingle, their love is 100% conditional. it doesn’t matter what you do for them, how much loyalty you show or how many years go by... they will turn on you at the drop of a hat.

look at lisa. look at how after the nate/moira affair, moira was cast out but nate – being cain’s son – was accepted in. look at how mandy tried to force billy and ellis out of marlon’s house after jessie left, because they weren’t his “blood” and he needed his “real” family around him. don’t get me started on how they treated robert.

THE DINGLE FAMILY IS SO TOXIC I CANNOT STAND IT.

#i HATE the *dna over everything* mentality #it's so stupid #give me a found family trope anyday #oh and also #i didn't have the energy to go into this properly but #this sort of shit sometimes happens WITHIN the family too #depending on which member it is #look at the lack of family support charity got during her rape storyline #versus how much support aaron got during his #the dingles pick and choose who deserves their love and when #wow ok i didn't mean to rant so much #but i have a lot of feelings #lauren rambles

14 notes · View notes

bitofthisandthat · 4 years

Text

EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE !!

BOLD whatever applies to your muse. italicize the things that only somewhat apply / are verse dependent. REPOST , DON’T REBLOG.

TAGGED BY: I stole from Josie >:P TAGGING: Everyone’s doing it, it’s the coolest! Do it and be one of the cool kids!

NEGADUCK.

GABBY MCSTABBERSON.

#HEADCANON || NEGADUCK #💣NEGADUCK 💣#HEADCANON || GABBY #{ Putting the 'Lellow n' Blacks on one post for ~a e s t h e t i c~ }#🗡️GABBY MCSTABBERSON 🗡️

2 notes · View notes

inevitable-anna · 5 years

Text

Escape The Night Spoilers S4X10

Here it is, guys! My final S4 reaction post. It’s been a long, funny, yet sad journey.

Anyway my series review should be up at sometime tomorrow.

For now, I hope you enjoy this post.

[[MORE]]

Is that the society lady? Jael? Or Ryu? Who is she with?

So this lady went into the museum for a mission.

Whoever this is, she is a badass!

Uh oh, here's The Collector.

Don’t open it! It’s what The Collector wants you to do! Don’t listen to her!

Oh no. What’s happening?

Waaahhhhh? She's the Gorgon?

Well, I didn't see that coming. Although I do like that they’ve given The Gorgon a backstory.

Watching the intro just hurts now that pretty much everyone is dead.

The way Colleen's smile falls when The Sorceress betrays them.

Oh sh*t, The Collector is alive again.

RUN YOU NUMBSKULLS RUN!

OMG it's Benjamin, Lucy, High Tower, The blue harpy, a vampire from S2, the guardian from S1, and The Carnival Master!

"It's like bloody Christmas everyday!"

Ohh yes! The Sorceress vs The Collector round 2!

The Collector definitely is gonna win.

Okay, they can kill The Collector by turning her to stone. Pity that The Gorgon is dead.

Egyptian exhibition is first up.

1/7 emblems found!

Joey: "The plan is to stick together."

Monsters: *come running in*

The group: *screams and runs in different directions*

Joey: "The plan has failed. And now it's every man for himself."

Now they have to help Garuda pay his penance in Hell? Hell naw, he bludgeoned Tim to death!

I wasn’t expecting Colleen to burp when she's scared.

Colleen got captured! :(

SAVE HER!

Joey: "If one of us gets captured we need to stick together and rescue them."

Colleen: *gets captured*

Joey: "Nm, lets go get the note."

Colleen trying to volunteer to be evil is actually sad to me, she's so scared of dying for a third time, that she offers to betray her friends.

Carnival Master, please don't sacrifice Colleen! She's the only the one left that I like. :(

Colleen: "you speak a very similar language to my newborn baby. I have a newborn baby."

Carnival Master: *chanting*

Colleen: "I have a newborn baby."

Carnival Master: "Shut up!"

Okay, Colleen trying not to get murdered/sacrificed is sad yet sort of funny?

Bretman: "Look, right here. Right here. I've got your back."

Colleen: "This is really uncomfortable, so maybe... we can, you know, this is not a good angle for him over there. You know, there's... it's a mess down there. You don't want people to see that, but that could be my power that I kill people with, just show em the vag. It's terrifying down there now."

Carnival Master: "Do you ever stop talking?" I love how the CM doesn't actually sound angry, he sounds genuinely curious.

Bretman: "The warrior statue is probably the one that looks the most warriorie, like obviously." No, Bretman, really? I thought it would be the one holding a ton of grapes!

Colleen: "I'm telling you, it's like a reflex, like I'm terrified so I can't stop talking. I also desperately need water, I have like cotton mouth."

Colleen: *in confessional* "I know I'm like p*ssing off these monsters and that means they're probably gonna kill me even sooner, but I literally can't stop talking." Well, at least, it’s stalling for time?

Yay, they saved Colleen!

Omg! Joey, Bretman, and Colleen are hiding under the table and they are so squashed together! How did they even fit under there?

The Collector and The Sorceress are still fighting?!?!?? I guess it keeps them both occupied from trying to find the guests

3/7 emblems found!

"Where flesh becomes stone." So Mortimer or the Gorgon's lair?

I feel like the whole ETN fandom just forgot that Mortimer died... again

The Gorgon's killer? So The Minotaur?

Wait! If that's The Minotaur's severed head, then who killed The Minotaur? Because Alex ordered The Minotaur to go back to the labyrinth and stay there.

Joey hiding behind that statue is hilarious! It reminds me of that scene in 'Aladdin' where he hides behind the strongman.

Joey ducks down under the statue and immediately sees its butt.

4/7 emblems found!

To get the sword that will turn The Collector to stone, they have to cover Excalibur in the Gorgon's blood. Lovely!

Yes! The Gorgon is gonna get revenge... even if it is from beyond the grave.

5/7 emblems found!

That map is the challenge grounds where Tana and Justine where for the first challenge. The Black steps are the stepping stones they need to use to get to the red one, where the emblem will be! I think? Are the flesh-eating scarabs still there?

Yeah, I was wrong.

6/7 emblems found!

For the final emblem they have to play a tune on the drums

7/7 emblems found!

I feel like the reason it's so quiet is that the monsters are gonna try and ambush the group.

Oh, they have to trap the monsters to get them out of the way, so the groups can turn Excalibur into The Sword Of All Legends.

It worked!

The monsters are now inside the exhibition cases! :D

Since we see a close up of all the monsters in the exhibition cases, I think the woman playing the harpy is quite pretty.

Although at 25:23 am I the only one thinks that Lucy looks scared?

Spell time... and they messed it up already...

*Spongebob narrator voice* “1 year later”

Yay! They did the spell! And it worked!

The Sword Of All Legends looks amazing! I want one!

HOW ARE THE COLLECTOR AND THE SORCERESS STILL FIGHTING?!?!!

The Sorceress is dead... again.

Joey: *stabs The Collector and turns her to stone*

Me: "YEAH! That's for Liza, Gabbie, Destorm, Tana, Justine, Alex, Tim, and... and Ro..."

The vault is open!

Is that the box that corrupted the Gorgon?

Grab the sphere and RUN!!

That box has the same Cthulhu looking thing as the 'Cursed God' statue last episode. The one that the caveman touched and I think got possessed by.

Joey just opened the soul jar... but what is going to happen to those souls now? Are the guests from this season in there or... like what was the point?

Aww that soul was Liza! At least she's not in Hell like I thought she was.

They opened the portal!

Bretman and Colleen are through!

Me: “Hoe, don’t do it!”

Joey: *runs back inside the museum*

Me: “Oh my god.”

Yep, he's going back for that stupid box.

Joey! You idiot! (No hate on real life Joey.)

29:42 Mat realising that Ro isn't with them... it’s so sad, I wanted her to live and be reunited with him.

Mat: "What happened?"

Bretman: "I don't know."

Colleen: "He didn't come through."

Me: "That's because he has to leave this season on a cliff hanger so they can make S5"

Joey opened the Cursed God's box... like a dumbass. (Again, no hate on real life Joey.)

And he's gotten sucked into the box. Like The Collector said to the Gorgon, "Looks like there's a trace of evil inside you."

Although I think that I would like to see a series where Joey is actually the big bad.

And that’s my final reaction post done! Woah, this has been a journey, and it’s been lovely to share it with you all. :D I hope you all enjoyed my posts about this season.

Hopefully, I shall be able to do another reaction series for S5, if there is one. My series review should be up tomorrow if everything goes according to plan.

But if any of you have an ETN questions for me, whether it’s about my favourite characters or something completely different, I would love to answer them! :D

I hope you have a lovely day!

#escape the night all stars #escape the night 4 #escape the night spoilers #escape the night #etn all stars #etn season 4 #etn spoilers #etn4 #etn

17 notes · View notes

rustandruin · 6 years

Text

why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?

AO3

The second the words sink in, Robert goes from 0 to livid, fast.

“So she outed her? In front of everybody?”

Or, where Liv reacts to the events of her birthday party, and Aaron and Robert try and help her (and each other) through it. [Set after Liv's birthday episode.]

AARON

“Experiment.”

It’s that first word that sticks in his mind; loud and large and unable to be contained. It’s a button that’s been pressed and now there’s a klaxon blaring as a thousand thoughts run through his brain as he watches what should be his sister’s best mate completely betray her.

Liv? Experimenting? Jacob?

He’s shaken out of it by Liv’s pleading, “Gabby… Please. Don’t.”

He springs into action, ordering the other girl’s immediate exit. Because he can’t stand to watch this happen. Not with that look on Liv’s face. Not before he’s had a chance to speak to her first. Not with all these people just watching.

Thankfully his mum is already acting on it, but it’s not before Gabby reaches into her arsenal of hurtful moments for yet another twist of her knife.

“She kissed me. What’s that about Liv?”

Gabby deploys those words with the kind of callous nonchalance that only a teenager could.

And then she’s being dragged out of here by Bernice, while Aaron’s left holding the pieces of what should be Liv’s big night.

He can feel his mum’s eyes flash toward him, but his main focus is his baby sister.

He can’t see her face, but he doesn’t need to to know what it feels like when someone throws those words at you, long before you might be ready for them to see the light. He reaches for her arm, an attempt to soothe or comfort her. But she shrugs it off and speeds up the spiral staircase.

Suddenly Liv’s odd behaviour these last few days make sense and his heart just aches. Because he more than anyone how hard this process is — not to mention the doubt and denial and confusion that comes with it. (If it even is a “process” at this point.)

With that in mind, he acts.

“Alright everyone, the party’s over,” he calls out, shifting the attention onto him, without any tact or charm whatsoever. “So, you know, do one.”

People are slowly turning to look at him, the gay older brother, like somehow that would explain whatever just happened. Suddenly he can't wait for all of them to just get out.

In fact, he can’t wait any longer. So now it’s him bounding up those stairs, his mind only concerned with the clearly hurt 16-year-old who needs him. Behind him he can hear Paddy step up to the plate, echoing his words.

“You heard him! Party’s over! Thanks for coming!”

:::::

When he gets to Liv’s door, it’s (understandably) locked. But he still persists, knocking on it gently.

“Liv, it’s me… Aaron,” he says quietly into the edge of the door. And then he’s struck by a complete loss of words. It’s funny, but he never thought he’d be the one dealing with a teen who’s questioning her sexuality. So he’s currently completely unprepared for what comes next. But he still gives it a try because he can’t just stand here and say nothing. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about whatever Gabby said, but I just… I just want you to know it’s okay. It’s alright if you’re just experimentin’.”

He gets no response, which is fair enough because he didn’t think he would. So he decides to just close on what he wants he wants her to know most of all, “If, and when, you are ready to talk… I’m here.”

And then, for good measure, “I love you.”

:::::

The only people left downstairs are his mum, Paddy, Gerry, and Alex, who until now, Aaron had completely forgotten about. He holds in a sigh of frustration.

“How’s she doing?” His mum asks. She’s standing in the kitchen with Paddy, having just put the kettle on.

“I dunno.” He tells her honestly. “She wouldn’t open her door.”

“Well, you know, teenage girls.”

She means for it to be a joke, but it falls flat because this teenage girl has a very good reason to be upset. And on her 16th birthday too. Aaron sighs.

“I’m sure Liv won’t want to see all of us just standing around,” Paddy states, cutting the grim silence that’s currently blanketing all of them. He turns towards Chas now, “So why don’t we go and give her some space?”

“Good idea,” his mother concedes, stepping forward to give Aaron a kiss on the cheek.

“Give her our love,” she says, before pulling him into a tight hug, during which she whispers, “Good luck.”

Letting go of him, she reaches out and links hands with Paddy as they exit.

Aaron turns towards Alex and Gerry who are both sitting on the couch.

But then, in a night that is already full of surprises, the youngest man graces them with another. “All that dancin’s made me knackered. Think I’m gonna just go to sleep.”

He gives them both a quiet, almost solemn nod goodnight — a big change from his usual enthusiastic hollers — and heads upstairs.

And then there were two.

:::::

It’s wrong, he knows it, but even the sight of Alex right now is proving stressful.

Because he’s sitting there with this gloomy expression on his face and Aaron’s not entirely sure if it’s because of what’s happened to Liv, or if he’s just back to focusing on his own professional predicament. (To be fair, he does understand why the Doctor would be more concerned about one than the other, but right now his favourite family member is in emotional distress and Aaron kind of needs that to come first.)

He sighs again and goes to join him on the couch. Though he’s barely settled in his seat — a good few inches away from the other man — when he remembers that this was where he was sitting on Valentine’s Day. As the memory of what almost happened that night plays in his mind, temporarily distracting him, he can’t help but feel another surge of annoyance at Alex and his penchant for repeatedly turning up anytime he needs to be alone so he can actually process his feelings.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Alex tells him, interrupting yet again. “Liv’s tough, she’ll get past this.”

Aaron now looks at the other man. Really looks at him. Because he cannot believe the empty platitudes he’s spouting like it's just any other day.

Yes, Liv is tough, and yes, she probably will get past this but it’s upsetting that this even happened. That’s when Aaron realises that Alex doesn’t quite know Liv.

In fact, he hasn't really gotten to know her, one of the biggest parts of Aaron's life, at all.

When Liv had been weird on Valentine’s Day, he’d brushed it off. When she’d continued acting strange yesterday, he’d put it down to her simply being a teenager falling in and out of love. Only that’s never really been the case with her, has it?

Liv may be a teen, but she’s also his sister, which means she was never ever going to be “typical.” None of the Dingles are. And that’s what Liv is now. A Dingle.

He tries again, a small part of him needing to know that Alex can get this. “But she shouldn’t have to, should she?”

“I know it’s rough, being outed like that,” Alex says at least acknowledging some of Aaron’s concerns. “I’m gay and I work in A&E, so I’m more than aware that the world isn’t always so kind. But times have changed now and young people are lot more accepting. Plus she’s clearly got friends and family who care about her.”

“Gabby was her friend,” Aaron points out, not bothering to conceal his annoyance. “And look where that got her.”

Alex remains quiet, clearly unsure of what he can say in response that would be comforting.

Thankfully, he puts them both out of their misery when he says, “You’re clearly dealing with something big, why don’t I stay over at a mate’s and maybe we can grab lunch tomorrow?”

“Uh, yeah,” Aaron agrees distractedly, giving him a nod.

Alex gets up, gives him a kiss on the cheek and then he departs, leaving Aaron sitting on the couch by himself.

And then there was one.

:::::

LIV

She’s had nightmares before. Little things, like showing up at school only to learn there’s an exam she hasn’t studied for, or when she was much younger, that she’d lost her mother on a crowded street and was unable to find her again.

None of that compares to now.

Because right now it feels like the world is spinning out of her control and she’ll never breathe properly again.

Because Gabby somehow got it into her head that Liv and Jacob might be seeing each other — even though she literally told her best friend she didn’t know what a crush even felt like.

Because now everybody knows about all those little questions she’s been housing deep inside her heart, trying in her own way to figure out the answers. (She’s wanted to go ask Aaron, she really has. Especially after her chat with Belle. But she’s seen the way he looked at Robert, maybe not Alex as much, and she knows that he probably wouldn’t get it. How could he? She can hardly wrap her feelings around it.)

Because now there’s yet another person in her life she can’t trust. Not really. First her dad. Then Robert. Now Gabby.

With friends like these, who needs enemies? Her own mind snarks at her amidst the tears and the pain.

She sniffles and curls up tighter on the bed, hoping the action will soothe the raw ache that’s begun to spread in her chest. It does a little.

She feels her heart start to slow down a little, and her stomach begin to unclench, only now there’s a couple of knocks followed by a voice carrying through her door.

Aaron.

If she didn’t know, she would now, seeing as he’s introducing himself?

She snorts out a chuckle at her older brother’s awkwardness, before sitting up and wiping away any tears. She knows he wasn’t expecting to have to broach anything like this with her — especially not today after he went through so much effort to make this night perfect for her — but bless him, he’s still trying.

“I know you probably don’t want to talk about whatever Gabby said, but I just… I just want you to know it’s okay. It’s alright if you’re experimenting.”

Again, she wants to open the door, she really does. But he’s right in that the last thing she wants to do is talk about what happened tonight when it’s still fresh in both their memories. Doing so would just remind her that it was real.

“If, and when, you are ready to talk… I’m here.”

That’s followed by a very heartfelt, “I love you.”

He can’t have known this would happen, but his latest words set off a round of fresh tears on her part as she finds herself unable to deal with just how understanding and supportive he’s being about the whole thing. Even as she hides away and refuses to communicate. (It’s not like she expected anything less from Aaron Dingle, Best Brother In the World. It’s just that she isn’t prepared for it now that he is offering. And that just adds to her internal agonising.)

It weren’t supposed to be like this, her mind insists as she hears him walk away from her door, his footsteps hesitant and heavy. She isn’t sure just exactly how it was supposed to go down (or even what was supposed to go down), just that it wasn’t supposed to be like this.

She lets out a slow breath and feels a familiar desire come over her.

I need a drink.

Only all the alcohol is downstairs, with Aaron. And probably Alex and Gerry.

Liv lets out a low moan at the frustration of it all. Then she remembers those bottles of booze she and Gabby managed to stash at the Pavilion, just in case her little meeting with Jacob did come to fruition.

It’s a dumb idea — even she can see that in her current state — but something about it has galvanised her and given her the strength to actually pull herself together and climb out of bed and head for her bedroom window.

One of the perks of being a tomboy without many friends who constantly moves around a lot, is that you spend a lot of time in parks and get verygood at climbing trees. And if you’re Liv, you know to ask for the room with the window closest to the tall oak they’ve got growing in their back garden.

Any guilt she might be feeling about not talking to Aaron is easily outweighed by her desire to forget this night ever even happened.

:::::

It’s chilly. But she doesn’t quite notice until she’s halfway to the Pavilion when she remembers shrugging off that amazing hoodie Aaron had gifted her with that morning. Only now it’s too late to turn back and she’s stuck reliving the memory of her having shrugged it off in the living room before the big tattoo “reveal.” She shudders at the thought of something she’d loved so much being tainted by tonight’s awful events. (Aaron had said that she’d picked it out, but it was actually all really his doing. The only thing she’d really had to do was agree with his tastes when he’d sent her a couple of photo options, all of which proved to be spot on.)

Just a few more minutes, her mind reminds her as she picks up her pace, rubbing her upper arms upon and down in an effort to warm up. The thin maroon lace of the top Gabby had picked out for her (despite her initial protests), is doing nothing to provide any form of warmth.

You’ll warm up once you have a couple of drinks in ya, she tells herself.

:::::

The door’s open, as it always is, and she quickly finds the light switch and heads to the corner where there’s a pile of newspapers and other old junk. Shifting the strategically placed mess to a side a little, she fishes out the mostly full bottle of vodka they’d swiped from Sandy, who probably won’t be noticing it anytime soon.

She unscrews the lid and takes a big swig, the clear alcohol rushing down her throat and leaving a bitter, but comforting taste in her mouth.

Happy sweet 16 to me.

:::::

Eventually, she’s drunk her way to the bottom of the bottle, and she feels ensconced in a wave of warmth that radiates through her from the inside out, pulsating through her all the way from her face to her toes. The events of this night have now (thankfully) become a bit of a distant dream, the tipsy feeling in her head granting her the space she’d been seeking hours ago.

Who cares what she thinks? Liv tells herself as she works to crawl to her feet. Gabby’s a stupid cow anyway. And a bad friend.

Suitably bolstered and finally ready to head home and crawl into her bed, she gets to her feet, wobbling a little bit as she does so. Still, she manages to steady herself. And make her way out.

:::::

As she makes her way home, Liv is overcome with another wave of warmth, the heat building up under her skin, as the cold night air does nothing to help it. She frowns, having gone from too cold to warm to too hot.

She can feel the flush in her face, her cheeks probably the bright red they always turn when she’s had too much to drink. She tugs at her stupid collar again, her fingers pulling against the lace. It does nothing to help. Neither does her fanning at her face with her hands.

Why can’t anything just go right for once? She wonders, her mood starting to go downhill now. All she’d wanted was a drama-free birthday with friends and family. Why did Gabby have to go and make things so complicated, always talking about boys and her feelings and Jacob?

Liv lets out a groan.

Jacob.

He’s the only one that’s really been a mate to her through all this, and for that she wants to stop by his place and thank him before she heads home. Only she has to kind of deal with this slight overheating problem first.

Luckily, the answer appears right in front of her in the form of the footbridge over the river leading away from the village green.

Maybe she can go for a quick swim… She vaguely remembers someone — possibly Belle — telling her that it wasn’t too deep. But that doesn’t matter. She’s one of the strongest swimmers in her class. Another perk of being a tomboy who moves around and barely has friends. You get good at activities that require no other people.

So she makes her way to the water’s edge. Even though it’s night, the water looks still, cool, and inviting, everything she needs to temper the warmth still gathering under her skin. She smiles in relief and bends her knees, preparing to dive in.

Just as she’s about to jump, an arm shoots out and grabs her.

:::::

ROBERT

It’s just past 10:00PM when he finally gets done with all the work he’d had scheduled for the day. Finally ready to relax, he goes and plops himself down on the couch next to Vic.

“What are we watching?” He asks, not actually curious, just eager to speak to someone who isn’t a newborn baby.

“Not sure… I was thinking maybe I’m a Celeb?” Vic replies, still not having changed out of her chef’s clothes. “Seb go down alright?”

“Yeah, actually got stuff done tonight,” he tells her, kind of proud of everything he’s managed to accomplish for the day.

“That’s nice…” She tells him, her focus on the TV. “You know, you’re getting better at this ‘bedtime’ thing.”

Robert rolls his eyes. He’s not quite at the point where he knows what he’s doing when it comes to parenting — and he’s not sure if he’ll ever get there — but it’s still nice to hear that from someone who’d had to put up with that first week of him absolutely struggling to put his son to bed. He still doesn’t understand how Aaron doesn’t seem to have any problems doing that. (There was a brief moment of sleeplessness-induced insanity where he’d been convinced Seb was trying to Parent Trap him and his ex-husband together. But then he’d remembered what Victoria had told him about his looking for something between them, and Aaron’s mixed signals lately and decided that maybe his months-old son wasn’t that devious. Maybe he just wanted that to be the case.)

“Thanks,” he responds, moving to keep his feet up on their coffee table.

His ankle comes into contact with a stack of envelopes. “What’s that?”

“Oh. Some mail came in for ya,” Vic tells him, looking over at what he’s referring to.

Eager to knock off yet another thing off his almost-impressive list of finished tasks, Robert reaches forward and grabs the pile.

He slowly flips through each of them, before finally stopping on the last one. He keeps the rest down on the coffee table and starts slowly ripping at the edges to see what’s inside. As he manages to get it open, he catches a glimpse of what’s inside. Something sinks a little in his stomach as he remembers what it is…

Concert tickets.

For him and Liv.

He’d ordered them months ago. Before everything had happened. In all the turmoil with Rebecca and Aaron and his marriage imploding, he’d forgotten about them, and it appears that they’d only just been dispatched now that the concert’s officially a month away.

It’s just another reminder of what today is: Liv’s birthday. (Like he’d forget after last year.)

He’d actually woken up this morning, with that knowledge fresh in his brain. Because while there’s a lot of things you can accuse Robert Sugden of, forgetting birthdays isn’t one of them. (In fact, in the lead up to Aaron’s he hadn’t been able to stop his automatic internal countdown as it had kicked off, causing him to want to do something to help celebrate it, but of course, he had been more than aware that it wasn’t his place anymore.)

Just like this. As much as he wants to be there with Liv as she celebrates her special day, he knows he can’t.

And yet…

He’d hate for her to miss out on this opportunity simply because he’s the one responsible for it. Not when everything’s all planned and paid for. If anything she can take Aaron, which would actually be advisable since the concert is all the way in London, as is the hotel he’d booked them a three-night stay in.

With that, he makes up his mind. He’s simply going to go hand them over to Aaron. That way, he can be the one to present them to her. (Possibly even frame it as his doing.) Robert snorts at the irony of helping make concert plans for yet another member of the Dingle family. Because that is what Liv is now. A Dingle.

Unlike you, his brain reminds him. Not anymore.

But he ignores it as he gets to his feet.

“Forgot to take care of something,” he explains to Vic as she casually glances over. “Would you mind keeping an eye on Seb while I pop out for a bit?”

“Yeah, no problem,” she nods at him as he goes to grab his coat. “Oh and Rob?”

He turns to look at her, one arm already through his sleeve, the envelope carrying the tickets now in his mouth.

“Wish her happy birthday from me too.”

:::::

He’s down the road from the Mill when it hits him what he’s doing and he pauses.

Is he really going to go over to Aaron’s house in the middle of the night just to give him a pair of concert tickets for Liv? Especially after he’d said he’d give him some space? Isn’t this something that could wait until morning?

He takes a deep breath in.

This is crazy.

He’s crazy.

He lets that breath out.

Aaron may have confirmed that Robert hadn’t been reading into what’s been happening between them lately, but that doesn’t give him the license to do something like… this. (Even if he does miss Liv and kind of wants to at least see her for a bit on her big day. They may not have seemedclose, but every time he’d planned for his and Aaron’s future, she’d been there, a permanent addition to their lives. Because she’s his sister too now. Or at least was.)

So he takes another breath in, letting the cool air wash over him and hopefully bring with it some semblance of common sense. Because as he’s learned the hard way over the past couple of years, his just seems to fly out the window when Aaron Dingle is involved.

They do say love makes you blind, his inner voice chirps up unhelpfully. And in my case, deaf and dumb as well.

Having achieved a bit of calm now, he decides to turn this aborted mission into a late night walk. Especially since he both needs to clear his head and never has any time to himself anymore.

Anything to get his mind off Aaron.

:::::

He’s on his way to the Pavilion, having decided that the open space was more preferable than a turn of the town, when he spots her.

Liv.

His grows concern when he notices that she’s not wearing any jacket — an oddity because, like him, she runs cool and requires at least one extra layer on at all times, much to Aaron’s endless, warm-blooded amusement — and she stumbles, like she’s drunk.

What are you doing? He wonders before he notices her turn slightly left towards the side of the riverbank, instead of the footbridge. And then he notices her eyeing the water like she’s going to jump in.

Robert calls out to her, but she doesn’t seem to really respond and he wonders just how much she might have had to drink — and if there was anything in there.

So he takes off, rushing towards her tinier teenage form. His heart pounding as he sees her come to a halt at the river’s edge, really focusing on the inky black surface of the water beneath him.

“Liv!” He calls out once more. And yet again, there’s no response. Only now she’s bending her knees like she’s preparing for a dive.

She doesn’t hear him.

He speeds up, watching as she swings her arms back, ready to jump, only the next second he’s there and his hand is curling around her elbow and she’s being tugged backwards, to safety. Because she’s not expecting him (and because she’s inebriated), there’s no resistance as she’s pulled back into his arms.

He hugs her tight, his heart jackhammering against his chest as all his pent-up concern gets converted into immense relief.

“Get off,” she protests a minute later, trying to wriggle out of his grasp. “I’m trying to swim!”

He lets her go, but only until she’s an arm’s length away, his hands holding onto her partially covered shoulders. As he suspected, she smells of vodka.

“Liv, what are you thinking?!” He asks her, trying not to yell at her and make the situation any worse, even if all he wants to do right now is shake her until she realises just how terrified he was.

“Swimming,” she informs him her words slurring just the slightest.

“You can’t swim when you’re drunk!” He tells her, attempting to talk some sense into her.

“Shows what you know,” she tells him, turning to go try again. “I can do anything.”

Then it’s like a coin drops, and she realises who it is she’s talking to and she tries to push off. “What are you doing here? I told ya, I hate you.”

He swallows, knowing that even though she means that, he can’t go about obeying the wishes of a clearly decision-impaired 16-year-old.

“Well, I don’t hate you,” he tells her matter-of-factly. “So I’d prefer it if you don’t go and hurt yourself.”

She can’t seem to form an argument against that so Liv just goes with, “Then let go of me.”

Despite her alcohol-impaired attempt at a death glare he doesn’t. “Only if you promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

“You mean like you sleeping with Rebecca and breaking our family apart?”

He flinches at that painful burn, but he doesn’t disagree. “Yes, exactly.”

She fixes him with one of those searching looks she always does when she doesn’t know if an adult is being entirely truthful with her. Finding his words to be adequate, she nods in agreement. “Yeah, it’s not like I need to anyway now.”

She shivers a little as she says the last part, and Robert notices that the temperature seems to have dropped a little in the past few minutes, leaving her with even less protection against the biting cold.

He lets go of her and immediately shrugs out of his jacket, instantly grateful he’d decided to wear his blue sweater over his dress shirt today. When he moves to drape it on her, he expects her to refuse, but she actually lets him put it on her, sliding her arms into the sleeves, clearly colder than she’d been letting on. As she zips it up, he almost smiles at how massive the article of clothing is on her. Sometimes he really forgets that despite her big mouth, and even bigger attitude (when it comes to him in particular), she’s still a pretty small person.

“Thanks,” Liv mumbles, once she’s all bundled up.

He waits for a beat before he asks, “Now, you want to tell me what’s going on?”

“No,” she answers quickly. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

She looks down when she says that, a look of guilt and something else playing across her face. He takes note of her let-down hair and makeup, letting his natural deductive skills do the rest.

“If there really was nothing to talk about, you wouldn’t be out here in the cold without a jacket,” he tells her gently. “And you’re clearly all dressed up for your birthday party, so excuse me if I don’t believe that you’d leave willingly.”

She doesn’t answer him for a few seconds. And then, “There’s no reason, okay? I just got bored.”

“So you came out to drink by yourself?” He asks, not quite buying her story. She’s not the only one good at fishing out lies. “Where're all your friends? Where’s Gabby? Isn’t she usually around, makin’ everything worse?”

He thinks about that day last year when he’d had to track both girls down to Laurel and Ashley’s home, only to find Liv safe and sound in the living room, sitting beside some strange boy he didn’t recognise. His worry and concern then are nothing compared to now.

She looks away at that, like he’s brought up something she doesn’t want to think about.

“Just leave it, okay?” She half tells, half yells at him. His brow furrows. There’s a sore point there. He’s tempted to poke at it, but he doesn’t.

So he just nods and says, “Does Aaron know that you’re here? Because he’s probably worried sick wonderin’ where you are right now.”

Liv’s expression softens and turns guilty at that. So Robert swallows nervously and takes a bit of a gamble. “Look, I know you probably won’t believe this, but I still care about you. And honestly, I’m more than a little worried by all this. So if you’re not going to talk to him, at least talk to me. I can’t promise I won’t tell him, but I can promise that I’ll listen.”

She looks up at him when he says that, an unreadable expression on her face. In that moment Robert’s struck by the uncanny resemblance between the brother and sister, but he doesn’t mention it, not wanting to ruin this moment. Instead, he just looks at her, hoping for some sign that she’s forgiven him. All he gets is a grudging nod in return.

Encouraged by this little piece of acceptance, he offers a suggestion that’s partly motivated by the temperature dropping another couple of degrees while they’re standing there and he’s slowly starting to freeze. “Feel like heading home now?”

He gets another nod and feels his spirits rise. Even with Liv barely talking to him, he hadn’t realised just how much he’d missed this.

:::::

LIV & ROBERT

“Did you love Rebecca?”

They’ve just crossed the footbridge when she lobs this question at him, her eyes focusing on the ground in front of them.

“Love her?” He repeats carefully as he turns to look at her, confused by her question. “What do you mean?”

“You know, like you loved Aaron?” Liv explains, still not looking at him.

Robert considers the question.

“Well, I haven’t loved anyone the way I love Aaron,” he tells her honestly, not even bothering to hide the fact that he’s not over her brother. And then, because he has this kind of inexplicable hunch, he adds, “I mean, I’ve always been… attracted to loads of different people, like Rebecca, but no one’s even come close. Your brother… He changed everything for me.”

He sneaks a look at Liv out of the corner of his eye and sees her nodding as she listens to his answer.

They walk a few more steps. Then he hears her ask, “What does that feel like? You know, love.”

That’s when he gets it. This is about a crush. It has to be. Why else would she be asking? Suddenly he feels a lot more relieved than he’d been a few minutes ago. If she’s just heartbroken because of someone she likes, well, that’s not as bad a problem as the scenarios he’s been imagining since he found her.

Eager to alleviate her tension — and actually support her — he says, “You know how when sometimes you eat some chocolate cake and then can’t seem to stop? And then later you spend all your time thinking about how great that cake is?”

She slowly nods at that, getting the bones of his analogy.

“It’s like that, only instead of cake, it’s just wanting to spend time with that special person,” Robert explains. “You want to get to know them and hear what they have to say and you can’t stop thinkin’ about them or how you want to kiss them even when they say or do stupid stuff. Or when they make you so mad you can’t think straight.”

He chuckles at his little pun as he focuses on how Aaron makes him feel. “All you want to do is just be with them… and be good enough for them. Because you never quite feel like you deserve to be with them.”

He feels his cheeks get a little heated as he then admits quietly, “And it means you’ll always choose them, and their annoying kid sisters, over yourself.”

There’s a long pause, during which the Mill becomes visible in the distance as they arrive closer.

Liv then asks her next question, “And you’d feel that way about a woman as well?”

There’s a glimmer of something in her question that he can’t quite place. A kind of unsureness he doesn’t quite understand. But he answers her anyway.

“Technically, yes,” Robert clarifies, thinking of Katie and Chrissie and how he’d loved them, but they’d never been able to compare — not really. “Being bisexual means you can like either men or women. But you still date and fall in love with just one person. Just like everybody else. It’s like if I were ordering from a menu. There are loads of things I can choose from, but I’m only ever going to pick my favourite. Because that’s the one I love. It doesn’t matter if it’s savoury or a desert. All that matters is that I love it.”

He knows it’s not the most perfect metaphor, but it’s all he has right now, and he hopes it’s enough. When he finally braves a look at Liv, she appears to be mulling this new piece of information over.

He wants to ask her just who her crush is on. But he doesn’t think they’re there right now. At least not yet.

They continue walking in this hard-earned amiable silence — Liv now stepping a lot closer to him than she had been at the start — as they reach and then turn into the driveway to the house. Only she stops short when she notices the living room lights are still on.

“What’s the matter?” He asks, noting the deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face.

“I may have snuck out,” she tells him, her cheeks growing flushed again as she bites her lip.

“Yeah, I kind of guessed that,” he points out. “There’s no way Aaron would have let you out for a bit of late night drunk swimming. Even if it is your birthday.”

She looks up at him, with a curious expression on her face. “You said that, before. About it being my birthday.”

“Yeah,” he tells her. Now his turn to blush. “Can hardly forget it can I? Not after you made such a big deal about it last year.”

That earns him a semi-amused eye roll. Maybe there’s hope for them yet.

“What?” He asks her playfully like it’s no big deal. “I told you, you’re still my little sister. No way I’d forget you turning the big 1-6.”

He can tell she’s fighting the smile that’s threatening to break out on her face.

“Does that mean you got me a present?” She asks him teasingly, hoping to trip him up.

“Actually, yes,” he replies, delighted at being able to sidestep her like this. The look of surprise on her face is more than worth it. “Check the inside left pocket?”

Robert nods at the jacket, and Liv follows his instructions, slowly unzipping it a little as she reaches inside. A few seconds later, she pulls out that same envelope he’d opened earlier.

“Happy birthday,” he tells her with a nervous smile.

The teenager slides out the contents of the envelope onto her hand, her eyes widening at the sight of the two tickets on her palm.

“Little Mix tickets?” She asks incredulously, looking back up at him.

The recognition in her eyes tells him that she’s also thinking about that day after Christmas when she’d been doing some holiday homework on the dining table and he and Aaron had been doing the washing up and one of the band’s songs had come up on the radio and like the consummate music snob he is, Aaron had gone to change the channel — only both Robert and Liv had stopped him because as it turned out they actually both liked that track. When Aaron had splashed some water at Robert in annoyance, it had started a full on water fight that had left both men soaking wet as Robert purposefully held a squirming, ticklish Aaron close to him, while singing along loudly in his ear to annoy him as Liv continued to splash him further until he conceded that it was indeed a good song. After that, anytime Little Mix played on the radio and Aaron was around, either she or Robert would turn up the volume as a reminder.

He clears his throat. “There’s also a bit about a weekend in London. But you can take Aaron so it’ll be the perfect wind up.”

Robert then gives her another sad smile. Liv responds by looking up at him with a smaller one of her own. It’s accompanied by some unexpected tears that she quickly wipes away. “Thank you.”

“Say that after you and Aaron get back,” He brushes it off affectionately. “Not sure if Mr. Grumpy can survive that much pop music.”

They both laugh at that one.

“Alright,” he says, clearing his throat and trying to bring them back on track to the matter at hand — especially with the chill starting to settle in his bones. “How exactly did you get out if he’s in there?”

“Climbed out the window,” Liv admits, her voice small but proud.

He shakes his head even as he grins. “I told Aaron that’s why you picked the room with the big tree out back.”

Liv blushes at his memory, but sticks out her chin defiantly, “Yeah, well, serves you right for still letting me get it.”

He raises an eyebrow at her snark. “You do realise that you’re still too drunk to climb back up. So it’s not exactly the foolproof plan you thought it was.”

“Are you going to help me or not?” She asks him, using her annoyance to cover up her embarrassment at that error.

He’s about to reply to her when his phone starts ringing.

Liv fishes it out of his jacket pocket, the Carly Rae Jepsen song he’s set as his ringtone slicing through the night air, and shattering any calm that has formed between them.

It’s Aaron.

:::::

AARON

For a second he thinks he can hear the faint sounds of Robert’s new ringtone in his living room. But then Aaron realises that it’s because he actually can…

… only the sound is coming from outside?

What on Earth is Robert Sugden doing here?

:::::

LIV & ROBERT

As the phone continues to ring, Robert and Liv stand there frozen, unsure what to do, or what this could even be regarding.

Does he know Liv’s gone? Or is he just calling to finish what he was going to say on Friday?

The older man finally snaps out of it, swiping to answer. He lifts the phone to his ear to be greeted by a confused, “Robert?”

That’s followed by an even more confused, “Liv?”

They both look up to see Aaron standing in the doorway.

:::::

AARON & LIV & ROBERT

He can’t believe what he’s seeing. His teenage sister who he’d thought was upstairs in bed is instead standing in their driveway, in what looks like his ex-husband’s coat. And by the looks of it, she’s been crying.

“What’s the matter? Is everything okay?” Aaron asks, springing forward filled with concern. “Liv, what are you doing out of bed? How did you even get out here?”

“As much as I love the third degree, mind if we take this inside?” Robert interrupts him.

The younger man looks at him and realises that the blonde is shivering. He nods, still distracted by the surprising sight in front of him.

As soon as both Liv and Robert are inside the Mill’s much warmer living room, they’re both suddenly able to speak again.

“I just came over to give Liv her birthday gift,” Robert says, mostly telling the truth of the matter.

At the same time Liv blurts out, “I called him. To talk.”

They both shut up at the same time and turn to look at each other, before looking back toward Aaron and attempting to look innocent. For his part, the bearded man regards both of them with one of his long, inscrutable gazes.

“Liv, mind if I talk to Robert for a minute?” His tone makes it clear that he doesn’t want an audience for this.

Cowed by her brother’s sudden sternness, Liv nods. She shrugs out of Robert’s jacket and hands it back to him, mumbling “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” the older man tells her with a small smile as he takes it back from her. He can see that she’s still holding on to the envelope with the tickets.

Liv awkwardly takes a slow, deliberate step back, giving him a goodbye nod, before turning and heading up the spiral staircase. He almost tells her to watch out, knowing how slippery they are, but seeing the way she rushes up them, he decides to hold his tongue. Besides, there’s another Dingle who requires his attention right now.

:::::

AARON & ROBERT

“Thanks for bringing her home,” he tells Robert as soon as he’s sure Liv’s out of hearing distance. He sighs as he adds, “I didn’t even know she’d snuck out.”

“Yeah, well I really was bringing over her present when I ran into her,” the older man tells him. When Aaron’s eyes flick to his face, he finds his cheeks growing warm. He clears his throat. “What exactly happened? I thought there was supposed to be a party.”

Aaron purses his lips, considering what he can and cannot say without betraying his sister’s confidence.

At his silence, Robert continues, “Liv didn’t exactly want to tell me, and that’s fine. But I just want to make sure she’s going to be alright. She was pretty drunk and about to go swimming in the river when I found her.”

There’s a shocked expression on Aaron’s face, and he growls in response, “I’m going to kill her.”

“Who? Liv?” Robert asks surprised at the other man’s reaction. “Bit harsh, don’t you think?”

“No. Gabby,” Aaron says, correcting him in his annoyance.

He realises his mistake a second later and lets out a deep sigh, both frustrated with himself and exhausted by the situation they’re in. Having already spilt the first part, he does some speedy mental math (He was family, and He’s going to find out anyhow, most of the village heard, and perhaps most importantly, He’ll understand) before he decides to reveal the next. “Gaby told everyone that Liv was cheatin’ on her with Jacob.”

“Well, that’s not so bad,” Robert says slowly, shrugging off what he'd kind of suspected was a teen love triangle gone awry.

Aaron pauses, letting him settle before he allows the other shoe to drop. “Then she accused Liv of ‘expermentin’ and said she’d kissed her.”

The second the words sink in, Robert goes from 0 to livid, fast.

“So she outed her? In front of everybody?”

There’s a barely restrained fury in the older man’s voice, and a kind of protectiveness emerging in his demeanour that Aaron had almost forgotten about. Right now though, he’s happy to see it — and more than glad to finally have someone on his side who’s as outraged as he is on his sister’s behalf, rather than just surprised that she might be even questioning her sexuality. (Alex hadn’t said it, but Aaron had almost half expected him to. In fact, he’d even been expecting it from the usually obtuse, but surprisingly sensitive, Gerry.)

The younger man nods. “That’s why the runaway routine, I s’pose. I tried talkin’ to her. But you can see how that went.”

“That explains it, then,” Robert says, his voice a bit calmer now, though his temper remains idling under his skin.

Aaron snaps to, narrowing his eyes as he looks at the blonde man. “What do you mean?”

“On our way here, Liv was askin’ me some questions,” Robert tells him, before blushing slightly. “About you and Rebecca, and me bein’ bisexual.”

“Oh.” Aaron replies, twin streams of relief and disappointment running through him. “Guess she really did want to talk to you.”

Robert recognises the emotions on his ex-husband’s face for what they are. “That’s only because I was the person who just happened to be there. You’re her older brother. It might take some time for her to come to you. Especially if she's still, you know, experimentin'. I bet she barely knows how she feels.”

Aaron smiles at that, Robert’s words making him feel a little better. But then he remembers his failed attempts earlier in the night and that smile falls off his face.

“But what do I tell her when she is ready?” He asks. “Other than ‘It’s okay’ and ‘I understand’? Because all I’ve managed to do so far is completely freeze over.”

He runs a hand through his dark curls as he thinks. “Maybe I should just have Mum or Paddy talk to her.”

“You know that’s mad, right?” Robert asks him, looking at him like he’s grown a second head. “You’re the only person she needs right now.”

“What? So she can sneak out of the house and go get drunk again?” The younger man asks him pointedly. “Yeah. Because I’m great for that.”

“This is just the first part of whatever she's going through,” Robert tells him gently. “You remember what it was like when you were comin’ out? You half beat Paddy to death. I refused to say the word ‘bisexual’ for years.

Aaron grimaces at the memory, but he nods as he remembers the pain and the shame and the sheer level of self-denial he’d felt back then.

“But you still got through it,” the blonde man continues. “That’s what Liv needs right now. For you to show her she can get past all this hard stuff and figure it out in her own time. Because yeah it’s a struggle right now, but it is going to get much better. If she lets it. Just make sure she knows that she has you to turn to. And if she’ll have it, me.”

Aaron nods again, letting the words sink in. He gives Robert a smile, grateful for his support.

“Fatherhood’s changed ya,” he teases. “You’re actually good at givin’ advice now.”

Robert rolls his eyes in response. “I’ve always given good advice. You just never listen.”

They stand there for a minute, just smiling at each other; Aaron’s hands in his pockets and Robert continuing to hold his jacket in his.

“Thanks for the talk,” Aaron tells him, genuinely meaning it. “I just… I wasn’t prepared for this.”

“Is anyone ever?” Robert asks him, sharing a knowing expression on his face as he flashes back to his own tumultuous coming out. He shakes his head with a shudder. “And don’t mention it. Consider it payback for all the times you’ve helped me with Seb. Trust me. I’ll take a confused, possibly bisexual teenager over a fussy newborn any day.

“Who knows, you might just have one on your hands,” Aaron jokes, thinking of a young Seb nervously trying to break the news to his probably more-than understanding dad.

Robert laughs wryly. “Finally, a part of fatherhood I’ll actually be prepared for. Only 13 years to go.”

They both chuckle at that, falling into that easy camaraderie that’s at the baseline of any and all their interactions.

As the moment stretches just a beat longer, Robert gives him a slightly wistful look, turning towards the door and saying, “Speaking of Seb… I should probably get back. Let Vic get some sleep.”

Aaron nods and walks him to the door, which he opens wide, allowing Robert to step out. “Thanks. Again.”

“I'm just glad Liv's doing okay,” Robert responds warmly. “And that I could help.”

He turns to leave.

“Robert?” Aaron says, causing the other man to stop in his tracks and look back. “Should I be worried about this birthday present?”

All he gets in response is a loud and slightly prolonged burst of laughter as the other man just continues to walk away.

:::::

AARON & LIV

There’s a knock on her door, and a minute later Aaron enters, carrying the black hoodie from that morning in his hands.

“You left this downstairs,” he says as he goes to drape it on the back of the chair by her desk.

Liv looks up at him from where she’s sitting in her bed. “Are you mad?”

“No, of course not,” Aaron tells her reassuringly as he comes and joins her on it. “I just wish you’d come to me instead of running off and getting drunk.”

She isn’t surprised Robert had told Aaron. He’d said as much when he’d walked her home. It probably didn't help that she smelled a little like vodka right now either.

“Yeah, well I didn’t want to talk about it,” she tells him, still firm on that point. "Still don't."

He nods in understanding and they then sit in silence for a few more seconds as Aaron works on choosing his next words more carefully.

Finally, he settles on what he wants to say.

“You know, I kissed Adam once.”

“You what?” She says, shocked by the reveal. "Adam?"

“What? It wasn't half bad,” Aaron tells her with a good-natured shrugged, the incident well enough in the past to become an almost-fond memory.

“No,” Liv makes a face. “He’s your best mate.”

“Yeah, well we’d just got in a car accident and I was pretty relieved we’d survived,” He explains, still able to remember the adrenaline that had been pumping through him in the moment. “Plus, I was still figurin’ things out at the time. Couldn’t tell if he was just my best friend or if I liked him like... that.”

She doesn’t say anything. And she doesn’t look at him either, keeping her eyes focused on the bedspread in front of her.

“All I’m sayin’ is, I get it,” Aaron tells her, remembering what Robert had advised him. “All this, it’s… confusin’. But it does get a little easier if you have someone you can talk to. Someone who gets it. So, when you're ready to have someone listen, or just answer any questions, I'm here for ya. Always."

Liv remains quiet, but she does nod at him, which he takes as an affirmative that she'll come to him in her own time.

Having gotten through what he'd known would be the hardest part of it, he lets out a sigh of relief and decides to change the topic.

“So, you gonna tell me how exactly you got out?” He asks, giving her a questioning, but no less playful look. “Let me guess… You climbed that big tree outside.”

He nods in the direction of her bedroom window. The curtains are currently drawn, but they both know what’s out there.

She looks surprised at his having figured it out. But it soon turns into a look of stubborn pride at her own actions.

He smirks knowingly. “You know, I told Robert you might do that. But he just said this was your house and that you should have a say in where ya sleep.”

She gives him a confused look as she finally speaks “He what?”

Aaron can tell she’s surprised by this new piece of news. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but he really does care about ya."

Liv is silent for a minute, like she’s thinking about something. She then reaches over to her bedside and picks up an envelope that she then hands to Aaron. He takes it from her.

“It’s my present.”

He slides out the tickets and reads what they say. He then reads the accompanying reservation details, eyebrows raised the entire time. Aaron looks over at her.

“And I thought I got you a great gift,” he quips.

“I said I loved your gift,” Liv informs him, before rolling her eyes at his expecting more praise.

He taps the tickets against his hand as he considers what to do. "How about I see if I can take that weekend off? Have a bit of a birthday do-over."

Liv's face lights up and she nods.

"I'd love that," she confirms shyly.

"Good." He says, getting to his feet. "Now get some rest. I still have some tidyin' up to take care of downstairs."

He smiles at her before leaning forward to give her a kiss on her forehead. As his lips meet her head, he feels her arms wrap around him in a hug. He returns the gesture, squeezing firmly as he wills every bit of reassurance as he can toward her.

"Aaron," she whispers, her voice carrying just the slightest bit of a wobble. He feels a little dampness on his shoulder.

"Yeah?" He replies, just as softly, feeling his own tears rush to his eyes.

"Thanks."

He doesn't say anything. Just grips her a little tighter.

Yeah, he thinks, savouring the moment. Everything is going to be just fine.

NOTES

I'm actually very nervous about writing and posting this piece because it's definitely one of the more personal things I've written. (I'm still a little stressed by Friday's episode and kind of wrote this to deal with those feelings/ to fulfill my desire to have Robert be involved in this storyline from the beginning and see Liv and Aaron hug it out. Because I'm impatient for those sweet, sweet Roblivion feels.) In terms of talking about the coming out process and discussing bisexuality, I basically just used a mixture of what's happened to all three characters on the show, as well as my own personal feelings. (So apologies if any of that doesn't sound quite right to you, but it's how it feels/felt to me. Also I really just couldn't come up with a more original/non-food related metaphor.)

For the purposes of keeping this largely canon compliant, I didn't actually touch on asexuality, because other than maybe Robert, I don't think Liv or Aaron know the word for that yet. (Robert proved he might be familiar with asexuality when he attempted to define LGBTQIA for Vanessa in David's Shop during her brief coming out arc.) So at this point, everyone is just going off of what's happened on the show, and what they know. I actually had finished outlining a multi-chapter fic focusing on Liv's coming out, but I've since shelved it because the show actually wound up doing some of stuff I was going to do (Gabby getting jealous and Jacob being supportive, but minus the public outing). I may still do one where Robert kind of gently nudges Liv in the right direction, but we'll see, time and my muse permitting.

I also don't think this is my strongest writing to date, but I was just so stressed at various points of this, that I'm still hesitant to go back and touch those up. But hopefully, the general emotions and feelings that I was going for in various places came through. If you have any other thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns, please leave me a comment, or just hit me up over on Ao3 under her_dark_materials.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Almost Thursday Everyone!

#robron #roblivion #emmerdale #robron fanfiction #robron fanfic #robron fic #robron fics #roblivion fanfiction #roblivion fanfic #roblivion fics #rust and ruin writes #writing #my writing #my fics #kind of a fix it #her dark materials #anti alex #liv flaherty #their dark materials

56 notes · View notes

xhellnhighheelsx · 6 years

Note

Huh, well if we're still open for song lyrics as fic titles allow me to submit "you just couldn't fight for this (but it's not your fault)" from Gabbie Hanna's 'Out Loud'. It also features the line "but you're just a ghost now" which is what made me realize it was so fitting for Doctor/River in angsty mcangstville. ^_^

Okay, I know this took me forever to answer, but I’m so glad I waited for the right inspiration, because boy did I find it.

Originally, I was taking this in a River/Doctor way because, like you said, the song is just begging for some angsty opt fic. But I already wrote a ghost River one. So then I thought about the Big Finish quote where River compares the Doctor to a ghost. And I thought about doing a series of snipits throughout River’s life where she always saw the Doctor as this untouchable specter. THEN I listened to rest of the latest River Song Diaries and it was all my darkest Kovarian headcanons come to life and it gave me this idea:

“you just couldn’t fight for this (but it’s not your fault)”

A fic dedicated to River and her relationship with the Ponds. Neither River nor her parents ever stood a chance at changing what happened, and what’s more is, they never really try to fight to get back what they lost. The Diary ep even says they never talk about it, and honestly, of course they didn’t. How would they even begin?

How can they even breathe when the air between them is clouded with guilt? Amy and Rory can’t see past their failure to save their only daughter, and River is constantly feeling that she betrayed them somehow because, even given the chance, she wouldn’t change a thing. There must be so many questions that never dare get answered. After all, what would be the point when nothing spoken could ever change what happened and any questions they might ask would only lead to nightmares. The Ponds don’t want to hear about how River played with knives rather than dolls. They don’t want to imagine their little girl locked in a dingy cage. Amy and Rory have to keep their distance, otherwise their trauma becomes too real.

River knows. She sees the pain in their eyes when they look at her, and it hurts worse than any punishment Kovarian ever doled out. So River doesn’t force their love or look to Amy as a child should their mother. River keeps it casual. She pops in from time to time and they share a bottle of wine like old friends, like a person you know but don’t really miss when they’re gone. They talk about things that are safe, like what the Doctor is up to and how he ruined River’s dress or brought Rory back to life again. But River never asks about Amy’s local friends or their weekend plans because Amy always gets that look in her eyes when she talks of baby showers and birthday parties for her friend’s children. And River never asks Rory about the hospital he works at because she knows they love him down in the children’s ward and he volunteers there every other Sunday. And it hurts, how good they are with kids. It hurts, acknowledging the normalcy that she never got to have. No dance recitals or blowing out birthday candles. They’ll never know River’s first words or sneak a lost tooth out from under her pillow. They’ll never hear her giggle or know where she was ticklish. Truth be told, River couldn’t tell them if they asked, because the only touch she received was a pat on the head for a well placed bullet and the sounds she remembers most vividly are screams.

Just looking at her, their little girl all grown up, is a reminder of what they lost. River is basically a ghost to the Ponds. She’s a walking, talking echo of the daughter they never got to raise. Likewise, Amy and Rory aren’t any more tangible to River now than the faces in the picture frames she hoarded in her orphanage bedroom. She grew up before they ever knew she was born and they’ll always be too out of sync to ever really be her parents.

And maybe one night when Rory has gone to bed, Amy and River get a bit drunk and one story leads to another and River makes a joke about one of the Doctor’s other faces, and the next thing they know, Amy swallows hard and asks how it feels to regenerate. And River doesn’t want to tell her that one has to die to do it. That for her it felt like a persistent cough in a cold alleyway and a bullet in her abdomen. “It’s different for everyone,” is all River says, throat a little dry and voice strained, head light from the forth or fifth glass of red. And the liquor has made Amy’s tongue loose, too, because she’s slurring out, “Mels deserved better than what she got. She hated Hitler, well, I suppose everyone hates Hitler, don’t they?”

Amy snorts and River forces a small laugh, eyes on her wine glass because she doesn’t miss how Amy says her name in third person, as if the woman who wore the skin of her childhood friend isn’t sitting right beside her. Because they don’t see her as the people she’s been. She is still just River to them, even after they know who she is.

“River, just tell him (about the solar flares)”

“River, what did he tell you?”

“What’s River doing in a book?”

Amy knows that River and Mels and Melody are all the same, but only in the way that people who’ve never been to space know the Earth is round. It’s a fact you’ve been told. Something you can tell at the right time of day or when you stare or into the horizon for long enough. But it isn’t something they think about on a regular basis. It doesn’t effect their daily lives. River is woven into their timeline like a tapestry and yet her connection to them is nothing more than a detached fact that exists in their subconscious. She’s no more the woman who went to school with them than she is the child in a suit or the infant Amy held in her arms. All those people are ghosts and their relationship is nothing more than a sweater, littered with loose threads, that neither of them dare touch.

And maybe they only ever speak of Kovarian once, when River’s fresh from the Byzantium and Amy is crumbling under the weight of a moral crisis. River listens as Amy speculates on what it makes her now, if she can take a life. River carefully holds her tongue and wonders if Amy even realizes who she’s talking to sometimes, if she fully grasps how much of a killer River is capable of being. River literally made the entire universe scream in pain and yet Amy is the one with remorse in her eyes and blood on her hands. She talks of murder in an aborted time line and River sits as stoic as she can, as much distance between herself and the name Kovarian as physically possible as she consoles her mother that it doesn’t count. It’s just a bad dream. It never happened. But inside River has just a flicker of pride and jealousy. What she’d give to see the light drain from that woman’s eyes. It’s a revenge that’s far too cold to serve a purpose and too time rattled to count, but Amy had the strength to do something River never did. They talk of murder and it’s a bit too twisted to dwell on the fact that River’s never felt closer to her mother than she does at this moment.

And only sometimes, on very rare occasions, does Amy see past River’s disguises and harder outer shell. Sometimes, when Amy’s at her most vulnerable, she sees River for what she is, a little girl who lost her family. Only then does she call her Melody, and it makes River want to bristle and weep at the same time. It’s evidence of her mother’s love but it’s also a reminder of the nightmares of her youth and of everything she never got to have. They call her by the name she left behind and River fights the urge to flinch because of what it means.

Think about how much River must have hated that name- Melody. Amy gave it to her but it was Kovarian that used it, that spat it like a curse. Melody was a shell, a creature that never had a choice, but River is the name she chose, possibly the first choice she ever made for herself. It’s what the Doctor calls her even after he discovers who she is, because he knows all about the importance of a name. But River never tells Amy and Rory that her birth name fills her with rage. She doesn’t take that away from them, the thin thread that binds her to her parents.

Maybe River almost prefers it on the days they don’t know who she is yet, when she can let the pretenses fall and see faces that aren’t darkened by shadows. Maybe she prefers when things are easier, when she can confess things to her father, when she can speak to Amy candidly, when she can look after her and make jokes in a Maze of the Dead, when she can tell her that she’s brave to stare down an Angel without blinking. In these days at least one of them can play mother, at least she can say all the things Amy would have said to her if the universe was fair.

And then one day, they’re gone, stolen again, and she misses them.. but not like she should, like a real daughter would. Maybe it’s because Amy willfully left her this time. Maybe River encouraged Amy to chase Rory into the darkness because she knows they’ve always fought harder for their husbands than they have for each other. Maybe she knew it would be an easy decision for Amy to make, because she wasn’t choosing between her husband and her child at all. Deep down, River knows she’s more of a ghost to them than the tombstone with Rory’s name on it.

River never had parents, but she isn’t a fool. She knows that as much as one loves their spouse, they’d never choose them over their child. And yet, Amy does. Because her almost daughter is grown and never really needed her in the first place, so of course Amy chooses Rory. Of course Amy doesn’t look at River before she disappears forever. She reaches back and tells her to be brave because that’s all she’s ever really been able to give. The last River sees of her mother is a flash of red hair as she spins to face the Doctor, and funnily enough it’s what she remembers from when she was born as well. Her mother’s hair a crimson stain in an all white room. It’s what she remembers when her child self was strapped in a suit, the way her mother’s hair cut through the air like a knife as she turned and pointed a weapon at little Melody’s face.

And they’re gone now, shattered like a picture frame and scattered like dust, taking with them any semblance of family River had left. She doesn’t blame them, but she almost wishes she could because she’s just so angry. At everything she never had, at what could have been, at herself for squandering away the little time she had because she was too scared to have the hard conversations. She’s angry she never fought harder and she’s haunted by all the things they almost said or almost did. Like when she was brand new and they were standing over the Doctor’s body and Amy reached for her but never took her hand. Her whole life feels like that, like shes so close to something she’ll never get to have.

Beside her, the ageless, untouchable God she calls husband mourns his Ponds because, quite possibly, he knew them in a way this face never did. And that’s what mattered most, the face she wore, the one that wasn’t quite their little girl. And the Doctor sighs, apologies on his lips because, “River, they were your parents. I didn’t think.”

And River just shakes her head like the psychopath she was trained to be, because of course he didn’t think of her that way. And that’s okay. “It doesn’t matter.” His Ponds never thought of her that way either.

#ask #codenamesailordarillium #doctor who #river song #drfic #the ponds #I know this isn’t exactly the brand of angst you were looking for but I hope you’re not too disappointed this isn’t river doctor #the song itself absolutely is. it wrecked me. I must have listened to it 50 times on repeat lol #prepare for tears

25 notes · View notes

msawesomeworld · 6 years

Text

What happens in summer stays in summer, Chapter 13

A/N: Look at me! Only taking 6 months instead of a year to update... YAY!

Read or re-read the previous chapters here.

Danielle’s P.O.V.

After he left, I was stunned and stood there for a few seconds trying to comprehend what had just happened.

If this was normal circumstances, I would never have gone for a guy like him. We probably would never have met. We come from different worlds I guess. I was not even sure that I liked him. Yet I could feel myself walking to the door he had left through, looking for him. When I saw he was long gone. I walked around trying to find him. After a little while I concluded that he had gone into the woods, and if you go there, you do not want to be disturbed. I went to the food court and got some breakfast. As I finished eating a group of girls came in talking about how Harry had bruised knuckles earlier.

I got up and was both worried and a little mad at him. Because what the hell had he done to get all bruised up? Was it because of me?

I walked towards his room and saw him in the hallway. We made eye-contact, and I could feel my breath catch for a moment there. He looked hurt and shook his head at me. Before walking into his room and closed the door. I hated this feeling of confusion, and a little rejection. But I decided to try and respect his privacy and give him the space he needed. Even if it was him who kissed me. I spent the day doing my normal things, and preparing how to get rid of my sister.

To the untrained eye, I might have been unnecessarily cruel to her. But that was only to the untrained eye. I hated my sister with good reason. She was 8 years older than me. Because of this age gap we had never been too close. What 14 year old wants to hang out with a toddler? I hated her because she was a little miss perfect. It was always, Gabby has done this, Gabby won this. She had the perfect life in my parent's eyes. Had a Harvard education, a perfect job in dad’s company. She was the perfect wife, to her husband Peter, whom everyone also adored. He was a businessman too. I hated him even more than her because he had once been hitting on me at a family party. I told my sister, who accused me of lying. And so the gap between us grew deeper. Yet I still had to listen to how I should behave more like Gabby. Besides the fact that I wanted to be a gymnast, and if that did not work out. I did not just wanna go work for my dad, being on the board and stuff. I wanted to work in marketing, I liked creating content like that. Had actually been an adequate web designer, with what we learned in computer class.  But was that as good as Gabby’s business degree? No way in hell.

Now she was here, to force me to spend my summer with her and the monster.

I needed a way to convince her into letting me stay. I talked a little to Anna about it, she just said she would help out however she could. I did not linger too long on that subject. Not really wanting to tell my entire life story right away.

I also spent the day being ignored by Harry, who was performing his normal job. And gave some lame excuse about boxing practice gone wrong, with his wrists. No one questioned it. The other girls just fawned over how hot it was that he boxed. I tried to talk to him, throughout the activity, but he either ignored me and if it was really important answered in the shortest way possible.

After we finished that day, I waited for the other girls to clear away. Which took a while, because they all volunteered to help clean up, to hang out more with Harry. I had to help out too. When we were done, he must have seen it coming that I would stick around, so he started walking away. But I was not giving up, and followed after him, saying his name to get his attention. I was getting bored with this act. I finally got so sick of it, I ran in front of him, put my hands on his shoulders and stopped him. He looked at me a little angry. When he felt that I was not moving or letting him move. He looked around seeing a few other people from camp. And looked me dead in the eye.

“Not here.” He mouthed and motioned towards the lake where there were no people.

We walked to a secluded area, intense silence. When we got there I turned to glare at him.

“What the hell? You kiss me, and then don't talk to me all day. What the hell Harry?” I said frustrated with him.

“Can you blame me? I was expecting you to have left by now.” He said also angry.

“What? Is that what this is about? I am not leaving. My bitch of an older sister called my dad and now she wants me to. But I was not gonna leave, I called my dad and told him that.” I said a little more calmed down.

I could see the look in his eyes go a little softer. He still looked troubled by something but relieved that I was staying.

“Good. I thought I had lost you for a second there.” He said and smiled a little.

“It is gonna take more than that to get rid of me. Your vanishing act, however, was not helping. Besides what really happened to your wrists? And don't give me that boxing bullshit. Because there are no punching backs in our gym here.” I said, getting a little worked up again. This was fueled more in worry than anger though.

“It doesn’t matter.” He said and I got a little angry too now.

“Bullshit it doesn't matter. Did you beat up someone because of me? Because I was leaving or because we kissed?”

“Yes, it was because of you. I needed to get something off my chest.” He said and I furrowed my eyebrows. That was not the kind of person I thought he was.

“So you beat up someone because we kissed? What was so bad about that?” I yelled and he sighed.

“Look I didn't beat someone up, I beat up a tree.” He yelled, which calmed me down a little, to know that he had not hurt anyone, because of me.

“And I did that, because of this, cant ever happen again. It was stupid the first time. And I hate myself for doing it.” He said frustrated.

That stung. I could feel myself getting a little upset. Was I that bad? Was it his way of making me stay. Making the rich kid squirm, as he had put it earlier.

“Well, the trees are safe now. I wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over something as stupid as a kiss with me. You're lucky I am only staying because I still hate my sister and mom, more than I hate you right now.” I said upset, but not wanting to show it too much.

Without giving him time to say another word, I walked away from him. I felt betrayed and played, who the hell kisses someone, then ignore them, then tell them how big a mistake it was? Who the hell play with someone else's feelings like that?

10 notes · View notes

robronotics · 6 years

Text

Post Ep Ponderings Weekly Round-Up February 19-23

What a week! Think I’ll start with Ross.

Well, Ross clearly isn’t dealing with what happened, not that that’s a surprise. You all know I was hoping for months that Robert would have a breakdown (which now seems unnecessary, but I still think could’ve been fun), but apparently it’s Ross that’s going to lose it. I wonder if they’re going to make him lose it in an Emma sort of way. They’re already making him out like he’s the Phantom of the Opera and having him hide away from the pizza guy, why not have him go full crazy? Looks like right now the only person that could possibly help him is Pete, though I don’t know if he’s up to the job. I get that dealing with Ross how he is right now would be beyond difficult, but Pete seems to have no patience. Ross has been out of the hospital a couple of days and Pete’s already all ‘get over it, I’m off to Rhona’s.’ I mean, seriously, that’s barely trying. It’s only going to get worse too because we all know that he’s going to find out that Debbie was behind it, even if the result wasn’t what she intended at all. He’s going to lose his mind when he finds out though.

So, I’m a little confused as to what Joe’s plan is. He seems to be testing Jimmy, though for what I’m not completely sure. Part of it at least I would assume was loyalty, but it seems, I don’t know, less than planned? I don’t know, I really don’t understand this part at all right now, unless Joe knows that Jimmy betrayed him by helping the Dingles rebuild. Jimmy is so going to end up having a heart attack though, brought on by stress on top of his life style. After that small showdown between Joe and Rob over Jimmy’s work though, I kind of want Joe and Rob to butt heads. They could be very interesting foes.

Belle and Lachlan starting a microbrewery... I don’t even know what to say about this except, I kind of hope it works?

What a week for poor Tracy! What a horrible way for your horrible past to come back and bite you in the ass. We all knew Phil was a creeper, but wow, that was excessively creepy. I feel like this isn’t done either. I’m a little worried that Tracy might end up getting charged with prostitution. Is that something that can happen if you’re not doing it anymore and it’s been years if you admit to it? I honestly have no idea how that works in real life, but I can see it being the next bit of drama for them. That or Phil gets off and then tries to get off again. I have to say though, I fucking loved Tracy’s plan to trap Phil. I get why it worried David afterwards because yeah, dude’s nuts and anything could’ve happened, but Tracy really held her own. I cheered quite loudly when she kneed him as well. Mostly I find the story lines written for David and Tracy are pretty boring, but Tracy has been BADASS this week and I loved it. They have to do more stuff like that with her and less David’s still a cheater crap. Even still, I am glad David doesn’t think less of her because what he’s done is far worse in my book.

Well, what a birthday Chas is having! I’m about the same age as her (I think) and if I accidentally got pregnant just before a planned month long trip to Mexico, I would be seriously angry with myself. I do have one question though. How does a 40 year old woman not know more about birth control? If she was 20 years younger, I’d still be a bit suspicious, at least of what kind of sex ed is taught in British schools, but she’s not new to sex or relationships so the accidental pregnancy just feels weird to me. I was in a similar position a few years ago. I hadn’t been able to get my birth control renewed and I had just started dating my boyfriend so we used condoms. Hell, even now that I’m on pills we still use condoms. I’m probably being too harsh, but I just feel like other explanations would’ve been better. Like the condom broke. That’s something that can happen to anyone. Or she didn’t realize she was over due maybe? I don’t know, it just bothered me a bit because Chas usually seems so up on these things to me. Anyway, I kind of hope they have a kid together despite all this.

Poor Liv. I do not blame her in anyway for not forgiving Gabby. Not sure I could. Maybe after years of apologies I would get over it, but I can also hold a pretty good grudge and I suspect Liv is the same way, especially with how bad what Gabby did actually was. I think, even after Liv is over what Gabby did, she will still have a problem trying to be friends again because how could you trust someone who would react that way? Gabby has some serious issues she needs to deal with, that’s for sure. I mean, who semi-permanently writes skank on their best friend’s back and outs them to everyone they know because she got a valentines card from a boy the friend likes. Seriously? I mean, I understand Gabby being upset because of what she thought had happened, but she really went overboard.

On the other hand, Liv apparently can be forgiving because ROBLIVION IS BACK BABY! Once again, another great conversation for Liv and Rob to try and at least start to work things out. I love that Liv was upfront about how much Rob had hurt her too. I’m thinking she really needed to get that off her chest. I also wonder if she has been especially missing him since everything went down with Gabby and how she’s starting wondering why she isn’t attracted to anyone. Rob has talked her through a number of scary situations before and I have to think she’s relieved that she might have him to lean on again. I hope so anyway because I think having two people she trusts that also had serious issues with coming out in different ways and with different experiences will help her greatly.

Finally, Aaron is in for some big trouble with Rob and Liv if their way of pranking him over their relationship is anything to go by.

#emmerdale #are you pondering what I'm pondering?#ross barton #pete barton #jimmy king #joe tate #robert sugden #belle dingle #lachlan white #tracy metcalfe #david metcalfe #chas dingle #paddy kirk #gabby thomas #liv flaherty #aaron dingle #roblivion

7 notes · View notes

baby-n-boo · 4 years

Text

Hehe The Order (Netflix) agere bullet fic, just cuz i cqn

Hamish, Lilith and Randall force Jack into getting claimed by Silverback like in canon, but turns out that being new to the claim... Is like being a new wolf pup in a pack. Jack smells just like a pup, instead of the powerful, age old wolf he's been claimed by Because Silverback has been in hibernation for years, he sort of takes a while to settle into his new champion too, so Jack does start acting a bit like the new cub too. So, accidentally, pack instinct kicks in slowly, and they all start protecting him a little more AU where Lilith always knew she knew magic but never talked about it, cause the wolves looked down on it, and she couldn't afford to get kicked out again (and where her, vera and Alyssa are all fine, Gabby doesn't become midnight and Kyle is still alive) It gets to the point where Randall is lending out his clothes to Jack, not just so he's not nude, but so he has some element of control Obviously stress means he slips at points that aren't helpful, so he's usually accompanied everywhere by at least one of the pack, who have things in their bag for just an event. Hamish is most common, cause he makes everyone around him look sloppy anyway so people are less likely to notice Jacks behaviour... Also cause he loves his little one. Remember that part where they're feeding jack the potion so he doesn't die cause silverback ks tryna yeet outta there, and they're all like "sippy time" and "yum yum" and that stuff? Yeah. He slipped further than ever before cause of all the drama and he can't get back up again, so they have to look after him. The potion was a bottle of formula, and he was putting up a token resistance though all he wanted was to be held and fussed over. Jack never got a room in the house, cause he had a dorm room. But in this version, he has a nursery, decked out to his every need and/or whim (thanks to that sigil thing that Lilith uses to get the stuff for him though Hamish disapproves) None of the others know what's going on or why, but they presume its something to do with the fact Jacks mind wasn't open to the idea cause he didn't get the choice to be claimed. They make sure to give him a decision in everything now, even when he's little, because it's so important Hamish does have to move his bar to the baby gated kitchen though, and eventually to an empty office/study, cause uncle Randall kept conveniently forgetting that babies can't have alcohol in their sippies Shocker, Randall can cook. Hamish cant, though they assume that's cause he drinks the cooking wine and gets distracted. Even more of a shocker, Lilith can cook. She doesn't let her little bro eat mac n cheese or dino nuggets all the time, though she did once make them from scratch, which prompted a two day tantrum when Jack was told no more. (Alyssa's timeout sure put an end to that) They may be sfw caregivers, but Hamish and Alyssa aren't ashamed or afraid to give their little pup a swift spanking if he's earned it, especially toward the end of the season. They know his limits, he has a safe word, and they've never hurt him yet, but they cant afford to be bleeding hearts. Randall falls for the puppy dog eyes everytime without fail. Jack wears pullups to start with, because nobody can argue, he's getting a bit incontinent with all his passing out. Eventually he graduates fulltime to diapers, and its always a short straw as to who has to clean up. Lilith always vouches that Alyssa, as the only one of them without a heightened sense of smell, should do it, but it's amazing how many times Lilith seems to miraculously draw the short straw after that. One would almost say its magic . Baby jack does not like real magic. A bit cause the sound hurts his head, but mostly cause its icky, and too much thinking. Give him a good old fashioned card trick anyday, he'll be giggling and playing with rogue cards in no time. Wolves are strong, and Alyssa has a sneaky enhanced strength charm, so anyone and everyone in that house can lift Jack, for diaper checks, or surprise hugs, or to stop him trying to crawl down the stairs after climbing out of his crib again. Everytime it makes him blush, even when big There's one surefire way to keep Jack smol (or get him there), and that is to be picked up and cradled. Doesn't matter where it is, or what else is going on. You pick him up, and cradle him to your chest, especially absentmindedly, or whilst rocking from foot to foot, you'll have a tiny baby Jack on your hands in no time Hamish is the best at that kind of regression for Jack. He likes to get involved in Serious Conversations With Important People About Important Things (mostly with Alyssa about real magic, cause he knows Jack won't listen), and then just suddenly smile, picking Jack up from where he's come near, cradling him, and pushing a pacifier into his mouth whilst nodding seriously. Bonus points if he whispers "Hi there little one/baby/my little wolf pup" in that accent of his. Nap time is a strange calm affair. One can just turn to him, usually the more parental types, and say "Awe, does my puppy need some sleepies/nappy time?" And he'll melt into that crib, happy to do as you ask. The sibling types have a harder time but not by much, they'll usually slip and be like "come on, wolf-dad said nap time. Ill tuck you in." And that's that Hamish loves and hates being called wolf-dad. It was Randall's fault first When the temple magus came around, they all tried to hide it, but she quickly found one of jack's deco-pacis and threatened to give everyone one until they owned up as to whos it was. Lilith and Randall challenged her on that and tried to call her bluff. They were quickly silenced and sentenced to sit on their miraculously padded, exposed butts in timeout for that. Hamish, however, saw sense, and asked Jack if it was okay to share the secret, to which, the already stressed boy simply broke down into tears, falling into headspace immediately. For the rest of that afternoon, they had two fussy babies, and a very quiet, reserved toddler to deal with. Hamish asked Vera about the spell, and she waved him off like "It's only a temporary regressive effect. They're still fully awake jn there, just...without their usual bodily control." And laughs, watching happily as Lilith tries to stand to fight the spell and ends up falling onto her padded butt again, in a cloud of pink lace from her socks and dress, paired with squeaks from her maryjanes Randall was luckier cause he didn't cuss her out when calling her bluff, so he got snappy overalls and a puppy print shirt, though still about as much control as Lilith. Jack refuses to come back out of his regressive state for about a week after that, not even crying for attention through the baby monitors, just waiting for someone to come get him, until one day they find him whispering a story line to himself whilst wheeling some cars back and forth on the floor of the front room. The older siblings rue the afternoon they spent in baby jack's shoes, and try their hardest to be there for him, anticipating his every need They also admonish Hamish for being so patronising to them whilst they were like that, since he took particular joy in offering them bottles of formula, and giving them "age appropriate" toys to play with, but he shrugs it off, going to get another drink Randall finds a onesie that'll fit their little pup, that says "Daddy's drinking buddy" and gets it edited to say "Everyone's drinking buddy", and Hamish instantly loves it Sometimes they sit Jack on the bar when they're drinking, and he'll raise his sippy in toast like everyone else, not quite getting it Turns out, after about a year or so, he actually lost the new cub thing a while back, having learned to control silverback and everything, but he just enjoyed being looked after so much that he let it carry on Lilith and Alyssa are betrayed for a while, but eventually come to their senses, realizing all Jack wanted was a family, as ragtag and weird as it is, and they come back with even more resolve to care for their little wolf pup than before Hamish is quite grandfatherly, he even says he's geriatric, but we cant have Pops as his nickname cause of pete, so...lets say hes..... PawPaw (which matches the wolf thing) or "Mishy" (tundra) Lilith, being the only were-woman, should fall into the motherly role but she's...really not the type. Instead, she's a big sister type. So she's "Sissy" or "Lee" (timber) Randall, however. Maddox exists, so jacks gunna have issues with the brother thing, naturally. So, it's sorta good he's good with being the cool, almost too young uncle. We cant gloss over the gay with Hamish, though ik it's season two..... Its great. We're having it. Nicknames like "Unca 'ndie" or just "Randy" (which is dirty in a way lil jack doesn't get)- (greybeard) Alyssa, on the other hand, is absolutely Mommy. She finds she much prefers Jack when he's playing with his toys on the floor, and babbling behind a pacifier, to when he's trying to be smooth, and its a natural progression from there to her being Mommy (mostly due to some nightmares at nap time and some stern timeouts). Other nicknames include "Liss" or "Ally" if he's trying to hide it in public. It helps him process the loss of Chloe a lot more, and, when they beat Edward, it's a lot easier to turn to Alyssa and regress that way, made even better when his PawPaw can hold him close and make him feel small again. Clay...exists. And knows. He is actually quite cool with it, though he does seem to think Jack's more than a little high. He actually volunteers to babysit when Alyssa's on order business and the rest of them are on Patrol, but Hamish politely turns him down. Clay calls Jack "lil dude" a lot, and also "squirt", which Randall loves cause woo finding Nemo. Vera is a grandmotherly type, the type to just drink all day but loves her baby grandson. She also thinks she has a thing going on with Hamish but Randall is much more important to him, so its never any further than a beard/heteronormativity...plus she has money so can get all of Jack's stuff legit. Lots of incredibles references with JackJack Baby Jack calls the wolves the Paw Patrol, and nobody wants to stop him cause he's so cute about it. Canon divergent at the end. Alyssa takes him to his grandfather's grave, after he dies peacefully in his sleep, and they have a good wholesome conversation, where he ends up slipping at the end, leaving her to hold his hand and help him out of the public area.

0 notes

gadgetgirl71 · 4 years

Photo

Top Ten Tuesday 6 October 2020

Welcome to this weeks Top Ten Tuesday. Originally created by The Broke & The Bookish, which is now hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week it features a book or literary themed category. This weeks prompt is:

Book Covers with Autumn Colours/Vibes

Bitter Falls (Stillhouse Lake #4) by Rachel Caine

Synopsis: She’s investigating a cold case no one else could—by going places no else would dare.

In spite of a harrowing past still haunting her, Gwen Proctor is trying to move forward. Until a new assignment gives her purpose: the cold-case disappearance of a young man in Tennessee. Three years missing, no clues. Just Ruth Landry, a tortured mother in limbo. Gwen understands what it’s like to worry about your children.

Gwen’s investigation unearths new suspects…and victims. As she follows each sinister lead, the implications of the mystery grow more disturbing. Because the closer Gwen gets, the closer she is to a threat that looms back home.

In a town that’s closed its ranks against Gwen; her partner, Sam; and her kids, there’s no bolder enemy than the Belldene family—paramilitary, criminal, powerful, and vengeful. As personal vendettas collide with Gwen’s investigation, she’s prepared to fight both battles. But is she prepared for the toll it could take on everyone she loves?

The Collection by G Edward Smith

Synopsis: Flash Fiction and Short Stories that will confound, terrify, and leave you wondering what just happened. With twists and turns ready at every page to keep you guessing.

Reflect (Reclaim Trilogy #1) Jesse Booth & Joanna Reeder

Synopsis: Their romance only lasted a short few months… but that was more than 100 years ago.

Ever since his fiancé, Gemma MacLugh, was killed at the hands of a dragon shifter, vampire Leif Villers has mourned his loss. Still, a part of him never gave up on her. He could hear her voice, feel her love even through the grave, relive her memories over and over until they were stripped from him.

Now Leif has discovered the final piece to bring her back from death’s clutches. He carried her brooch, never knowing it held the key to resurrecting his love.

Too bad it’s now in the hands of the formidable kraken shifter who nearly destroyed the Shifter Academy in the recent vampire/shifter war and then slithered away, never to be seen again.

Across time, powerful selkie Gemma MacLugh–a magic user who can shape-shift into a seal–should have a wonderful, comfortable existence at her home in New York in 1897. But jealous sisters target her with their cruelty, making life miserable. If not for her Grandmother and her best friend and fellow selkie, Frederick, things might have been truly unbearable.

But when a mermaid seer foretells her upcoming death and opportunity arises to leave her home and travel across the country to a boarding house in Washington, she takes it.

To get away from her cruel sisters.

To escape her destiny.

But is it luck or fate’s final joke when she meets a tall, dark and handsome man by the name of Leif Villers?

Their love will challenge time and death itself, but can Leif get Gemma back? Can Gemma truly escape her fate?

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

Synopsis: Everyone has secrets, but some can change your life forever…

In the midst of the Second World War, Eva receives the devastating news that her husband is missing and presumed dead. Neither wife nor widow, she lives in a numb state of limbo until, in the heat of an English summer, she meets Bill, a black American GI. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, neither can deny the love that overcomes them in the frantic weeks that follow, when every day could be their last.

After Eva discovers she’s pregnant, Bill is shipped off to join the D-day fight, leaving her alone in a bigoted world. As her mixed-race daughter, Louisa, grows up, how far will Eva go to keep her safe and bury the past? And how far will Louisa go to uncover the truth?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Synopsis: The present novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is the author’s second novel that was published in 2007. It is primarily the story of two women, Mariam and Laila. Mariam happens to be an illegitimate child. She has to suffer from the stigma that surrounded her birth. Not only this, she has to endure abuse throughout her marriage. Laila, the other major character, is born a generation later. She has a privileged youth. Eventually, when their lives intersect, Laila’s fate also changes and she is compelled to accept a marriage proposal given by Mariam’s husband, Rasheed. It is a tale of displacement, attacks, beatings, torture, social injustice, and pitiable condition of women in the contemporary Afghan society.

River of Destiny by Barbara Erskine

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of Time’s Legacy and Lady of Hay comes a thrilling new novel, River of Destiny, an epic story that spans Anglo Saxon Britain, Victorian Suffolk and the present day.

Perfect for fans of Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth.

An Anglo Saxon burial ground that must not be disturbed. A Victorian tragedy of forbidden love. And an ancient curse whose power grows ever stronger…

On the banks of the River Deben lies a set of barns dating back to the Anglo Saxons, and within their walls secrets have laid buried for centuries.

Zoe and Ken have just moved into one of the barns, ready to start a new life away from the hustle and bustle of the city. To the outside world they seem like an ordinary couple, but underneath they are growing ever more distant by the day. And the strange presence Zoe feels within their home, and the shapes she sees through the cloying mists on the river are getting harder to ignore.

Whilst farmers are ploughing the land surrounding them, human bones are found and when the police arrive it becomes clear that the remains are much older than first suspected… Are they linked to a Victorian tragedy the locals whisper about? And what should they make of the grassy mound which has remained untouched across many centuries, but has now been disturbed with seemingly devastating consequences?

The Conjuror’s Bird by Martin Davies

It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it’s his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated — and dangerous — than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved — a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting. A mixture of detection, romance and history.

The Lure of the Wolf (Shadowmen Series #1) by Jennifer St Giles

Mighty warriors sworn to protect humanity, the shape-shifters known as The Shadowmen move between two worlds. Now their dark leader has exiled himself from the spirit world, opening the door to the forces of chaos…and to the power of love.

Half wolf, half man, Aragon has abandoned his brethren to repay a debt of honor; he is sworn to kill a rogue Blood Hunter, though exacting revenge will doom him to a ghostly existence trapped between two worlds. But when a mortal woman unexpectedly calls him to her side, the heat of her soft flesh arouses a hunger in him that threatens to complicate his mission.

Dr. Annette Batista, a dedicated healer, is determined to find her missing sister. With the amulet found at the site of her sister’s disappearance, she unwittingly summons a shadowy warrior. She wonders if she can trust this powerful male named Aragon, who claims he can vanquish her sister’s captor — the very monster he’s vowed to destroy. Or is Annette blinded by her shocking passion for the most alluring, mysterious man she’s ever seen?

Divine by Blood by P C Cast

Synopsis: Morrigan Christine Parker finds that turning 18 carries a heavy weight when you’re the only daughter of Rhiannon MacCallan, disgraced high priestess to the goddess Epona, in Cast’s down-home follow-up to 2006’s Divine by Choice. After Rhiannon betrayed Epona, the goddess bestowed her favor on Rhiannon’s look-alike, Shannon Parker. Rhiannon promised her allegiance to the evil god Pryderi, but recanted after Morrigan’s birth, giving the child over to Epona’s protection and the care of Shannon’s parents. Now Morrigan comes of age and learns more about her heritage from her adoptive grandparents and the wind-borne whispers of Pryderi and Epona. While visiting the Alabaster Caverns State Park and exploring her power over rocks and crystals, Morrigan is unexpectedly transported to the mystical realm of Partholon, where she must find Shannon and fulfill her destiny.

Forest Fire (The Legends of Regia #2) by Tenaya Jayne

Synopsis: *Book 2 in The Legends of Regia series. Sequel to Forbidden Forest.* Banished to Earth. Hunted by the queen’s assassins. Forest must fight to find a way back to Regia. Lonely and brokenhearted, she waits for Syrus to break through her banishment. Syrus lives his days in anguish, trapped in a portal that goes nowhere. Separated by galaxies, Forest and Syrus’ spiritual connection strains to the breaking point.

As Regia’s civil war ravages the land and the balance of power tips, the world will learn it’s the Rune-dy pulling the strings. Forest must face the horrifying truth of her father’s identity and how her very existence is rooted in one of the Rune-dy’s darkest secrets.

Fighting to find her place in Regia’s new world order, Forest is desperate to keep her past hidden, while Leith threatens to taint her name forever. Forest must attain her freedom through retribution and wage war inside her very soul. Will she be able to accept the gift Syrus offers, or will one mistake separate them forever?

Until next Tuesday

#JustForFun, #Top Ten Tuesday, #TopTenTuesday, #TTT

0 notes

stitching-in-time · 6 years

Text

Post-Olympic Figure Skating thoughts: (really long post, full of feels and also some Fandom Mom stuff.)

Honestly my biggest takeaway is just how much I love skating. I always have and I always will, and honestly, though the casual viewer may scratch their head and have no idea what I mean, the medals are not the most important thing. Of course that’s the goal that everyone is working toward, of course you want your faves to win, but the skating itself is what matters. When you get to see someone you’ve watched grow, improve, struggle, endure setbacks, and then finally skate to their full potential and create something beautiful, especially at the biggest event of them all, that’s the Olympic moment that I’m in it for. Obviously, to top that off with a gold medal is the ideal situation- Aliona & Bruno’s amazing freeskate & moment when they found out they won is hands down my favorite memory from these Olympics. It was such a long time coming, it was their last chance, and there was no question they deserved it.

Of course there will always be times when you feel like the judges were wrong, but I’ve been watching so long that I’m able to be philosophical and take it in stride at this point. Even though my faves didn’t win in the Mens, Dance, or Ladies, I still know perfectly well that talented skaters won the gold in each case, and that sometimes when you’re deciding between skaters of equal technical ability, it comes down to what style the judges prefer. It is somewhat arbitrary in a lot of cases, but that’s the nature of a sport that’s also an art. The artistic side of skating is what makes it different and better than any other sport- so that’s the compromise we have to live with as skating fans. Looking at the long game helps tremendously in dealing with that- I was a lot less worried going into the Ice Dance knowing that if my faves came away with silver, it might actually be better for me as a fan, because then they’d definitely stick around till the next Olympics and I’ll get to see them skate for another four years, whereas they might have just retired after winning every title a skater can aspire to. It’s a difficult life and there’s been plenty of instances of even teenagers retiring after one whirlwind winning season. (I seriously wonder what Zagitova will do now- teenage phenoms often don’t last beyond their first big season, so I’ll be interested to see if she continues to develop her skills or takes her medal and runs.)

Also, for long time fans, an Olympic year is more than just the Olympics themselves, it’s a changing of the guard. Many careers were just made or broken, many skaters were only sticking around for one last Olympics, and the skating landscape is going to change dramatically. For the most part I have no idea who’s going to be at the World Championships in a few weeks- a post-Olympic Worlds is always a weirdly desolate landscape with so many prominent skaters sitting out, either for the year or forever. I know Carolina Kostner will go because it’s in Milan, and she said she wants to end her career in her home country. I’m going to miss her so much. I feel like we grew up together- we’re about the same age and I’ve been watching her skate for more than ten years. And her skating has only become better with age and experience. Carolina may not be a superstar, but she’s the kind of skater I watch skating for. So is Patrick Chan.

It only really hit me that this is the last time I’ll see Patrick compete during his freeskate in the Men’s individual, and it hit hard. I felt kind of sad through the rest of the night, even though it was a great competition and a good podium. But I love Patrick and I’m sorry to see him go, especially when he didn’t get that last great skate. He's been my favorite for years, because regardless of ups and downs, the quality of his skating is so pure. I’d rather watch him skate on a not-so-great day than watch most other skaters at their best. I just hope that that quality- those deep secure edges, that flow across the ice, that fluidity of movement, the sensitivity to music and choreography, all the things he does so well- are qualities that we won’t lose in mens’ figure skating when he goes. I hope those things are still fostered in young skaters in this era when a fall on a quad is worth more points than a perfectly executed triple, because without those things figure skating loses it’s soul. Jumping ability will always be rewarded, and it should be, but not more than every other skill that well-rounded skating requires. And for the most part this Olympics was fairly even-handed, so I don’t have more cause to complain than usual. (You’re not really a skating fan if you don’t have something to complain about at every competition lol.)

One thing that was very different about this Olympic experience for me personally was that it was the first time I’d engaged with any kind of online skating fandom- it was a real shock to see how nasty and petty some fans are. I mean, sure, we all want to support our faves and want them to win, but trash-talking their competitors is childish and doesn’t make your fave any better. It also betrays a lot of ignorance about skating- it’s actually an insult to your fave skaters abilities to say that they can only beat the other skater because the other skater is awful and can’t skate at all. (Also, common sense for Tumblrites: keep hate out of the tags! Boy did it suck to go looking for celebratory pics and gifs of my fave dance team only to see a bunch of hate posts- if you love Tessa and Scott, you should celebrate their gold instead of dragging Gabby and Guillaume.)

And people giving up on skaters when they have a disappointing program have absolutely no right to even call themselves fans. Skaters are human beings who have good and bad days, and no one can be perfect every competition. If you've been there watching them season after season, you know that sometimes people even have entire seasons that suck, but they work hard and they come back, and they get better. Skating, like life, isn’t always a straight upward trajectory. Hang in there. Watch as much as you can. After enough time you’ll educate your eye about what good skating looks like, and you’ll discover the real joy of being a skating fan. Fandom should be about supporting and celebrating what we love, not hating on people.

I felt weirdly disappointed after the competitions were over- only one out of four champions being who I wanted felt kind of lackluster after being spoiled for so many years with a better average than that, but when I think back on the actual skating, there was so much good stuff, like wow. So many older skaters proving that they’ve still got it, and so many fresh new faces establishing themselves as ones to watch. And when I watched the Champions Gala, it turned my feelings all the way back to excited and happy again. Seeing everyone skating together and celebrating their achievements together- no more countries, no more competitors, just a bunch of friends having fun doing what they love- that’s the real spirit of figure skating. That’s what the Olympics are about. I’m proud of them all and thankful to be able to experience the wild ride with them. The skating season ain’t over yet, and I hope this crazy Olympic hoopla has given more people a taste for this beautiful sport. I hope we now have new fans who will come along with us for the next four years and beyond. :)

#i always have lots of feelings about figure skating and the olympics amplify them like crazy #olympics2018

1 note · View note

Last Seen Blogs

xmiyuv

xMiyuV

joliseed

Joliseed

siphomabona

MABONAORIGAMI

thenerdynighthawk

Nighthawk

peacocknaboo

Peacocknaboo