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#I know there's 7 million other things that NEED TO DIE but honestly why am I still seeing that in 2024
thenonbinarydetective · 4 months
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Things batfam stans need to leave behind in 2023:
Jason's Lazarus pit rage
Thinking Tim's parents were horribly abusive and hated him
Only caring about Stephanie in terms of her relationship to another person (ex: Tim's bestie/ex/gf or Cass' gf/bestie)
Treating Jason or Stephanie like they're stupid
Feral Demon Child Damian
Permanent sunshine boy Dick Grayson
Any "[blank] was the real violent Robin" discourse
Really just any reducing or sectioning of certain traits to certain batfam members and not allowing other characters to exhibit those same traits (ex: see sunshine Dick Grayson)
But also stealing traits from other characters and projecting them onto someone else (ex: Jason getting Dick's personality in fics. He is not the same type of big brother Dick is canonically)
Purposefully mischaracterizing characters for angst (ex: Dick sent Tim to Arkham, my beloathed. also again see Tim's parents)
Trying really hard to nuclearize the family. They are an unconventional family for many reasons, and that's why they're interesting.
"Alfred solos the batfam"
Making Duke "the normal one" and completely forgetting to give him an actual personality.
Cass using sign language because she can read body language (note: does not apply to YJ Cass who has damaged vocal chords)
Cass being used as a prop for her brothers
Tim being weak, woobified baby
Feel free to add on ~~
Don't send hate over these things because idgaf, they are harmful mischaracterizations, and many are built on total ignorance and often racism, classism, ableism, and sexism.
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boltgunkiller-archive · 4 months
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santana for the chara thing OBVIIIIII
thank you memster 👁️
favorite thing about them?
everything. i can’t choose. she is my favorite idk. Okay but actually once again i enjoy her depth a lot LOL i’ve spoke about it a million times but it will remain true 4ever. i love analyzing her behavior ohhh omg i just love her growth in general from s2 -> s5… she initially used to recoil at even the idea of romance, especially with a GIRL, but in s5 she could tell biff to his face that she’s a lesbian and that’s just so. Like she came so far ☹️
least favorite thing about them?
the random biphobia in 5x2 or whatever ep it was. like her saying she was glad she didn’t have to worry about her girlfriend “straying for dick” hmmm. i really really disliked that and also how OOC it was?? like wtaf. but that’s more of a writer issue again i think. still i’d say that’s my least favorite thing, because while she has a lot of negative traits, i wouldn’t necessarily say any of those are my least favorite. mostly because it requires much more nuance than just “i don’t like that she’s mean” like yeah i don’t like it when people are mean but idk. it requires much more thought than just saying that + she does realize it. she slowly grows from it, i mean we don’t see a lot of spelled out growth but there definitely is and we also know she does have a heart of gold deep down. and she’s a good friend. it sucks that she’s bad at expressing that but that’s not a least favorite trait that’s actually part of why i like her so much?! like her struggle w that kind of stuff and deflecting by just saying rude things. soooo yeah my least favorite thing is just the random biphobia i guess lol
favorite line?
“i’m saving up to buy a noose to hang my self with” or “sophomore year i used to sit in this back row and secretly watch you. i counted the number of times that you’d smile at me and i’d die on days that you didn’t” if we’re going with a serious one ❤️
she has a lot of good lines tho. both funny and serious. i also like the scene where she’s tearing up at s4 regionals(?) and gives kurt her tissue because he’s crying too. it’s so cute to me
brotp?
SANCEDES.!!!!! I FUCKING LOVE SANCEDES. they’re so awesome and supportive of each other and mercedes never gives up on santana even though santana thinks it might be best for her to… but mercedes is just really kind and KNOWS santana’s a good person and you shouldn’t give up on others and santana needs someone like that and in turn tries to uplift mercedes as best she can like auuuugh. perfection.
i Also like santina. but that’s more like a nonromantic romantic situationship. it’s a very weird. thing.
and i like quinntana. i have less impactful reasoning behind that i just really like quinntana 💓💘💗💝💞 they slap each other and they love each other what’s not to like
otp?
this is the brittana blog. it’s brittana. without them i am a husk of a human
notp?
omg. i don’t know if i can say it actually. 😭
random headcanon?
knows a lot about cars 🫵 specifically vintage cars like 70s type. she doesn’t know about fixing them or anything she just knows the models because she hyperfixated on cars when she was like 7 and it stuck zhdhfbfh. also i think she would read a comic book every now and then
unpopular opinion?
i honestly don’t see very many santana opinions. for someone who likes santana the most out of like Everything (aside from aubrey omori ❤️) i don’t really. follow any santana posters or see that usually. so i guess my opinions are popular by default then…?
i mean. i think she’s a good person & most people misunderstand her/like her for the wrong reason? is that a controversial take. i’m unsure
song you associate with them?
BLACKBOARD BY THE F16s!!! it’s kind of just vibes but i also think a lot of the lyrics fit her a lot. mostly s2ish but i think it’d still fit throughout her life you know
favorite picture of them?
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i have a lot it was so hard to decide on 3 but 🫵
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captain-astors · 1 year
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7, 10, 16, 22, 26 for tokyo ghoul asks bc i like your thoughts
And I like yours! Thank you kindly, I enjoy the selection you’ve picked out. Lots of text under the cut.
7. Which character(s) do you dislike?
Torso, Tsuneyoshi, Kanou… I don’t really dislike anyone that isn’t a fairly standard “no thanks” for the fandom except for who I’ll include in the other 7 I recieved. 
10. Which character deserved more? Or was it more unfair? 
I’ve received two of these which is good because I have a few. I’m going to start with SHIKORAE GOOD GOD MY BOY WHY. I am a firm believer that he did nothing wrong. It's not his fault Kijima did this to him. He deserved another chance you hear me. He deserved to be loved. Healthily. No hate to the clowns, they're spectacular but their idea of affection is that it straight up isn’t real at best, and that it’s unattainable and only achievable in the form of violence and consumption at worst. I just want him somewhere he can live in relative peace alright. Also Kanae didn’t need to be treated quite that way, Eto didn’t need to die and be brought back just to die again, Tsukiyama didn’t deserve to never move past his unhealthy obsession and treated like a joke, and Touka didn’t need to be reduced to Cardboard Wife. 
16. Out of the millions of Kaneki personalities, which one is your favorite?
Haise! Sweet boy, single father making his way through the world and honestly not being half bad at it. Situation isn’t perfect but I like how he deals with things, genuinely looking for solutions without being afraid to speak up. I kind of wish he was his own character and the protagonist of the entirety of :re but you know people would’ve been furious. Also I love the texture and look of his hair. 240 is a favorite as well.
22. What's your opinion about the final? 
Of the first? A fun ride! It was a little difficult to follow but otherwise I enjoyed it. Of :Re? Who’s the :re finale? I don't know her.  Kidding mostly. It’s just such a rushed feeling thing, you’d think the clash between the main character and one of the strongest characters on the opposing side, (if not the strongest now that Arima’s dead and we have no way to really judge how strong Furuta is since Kaneki’s abilities get cranked up to a 1000) would have some gravity to it but no, it just flashes and whoops Kaneki lost. For once. Then he gets turned into a giant kakuja beast and kills hundreds of kids as well as countless civilians but of course we’re not going to have him suffer any repercussions, internal or external, or even address that because he wasn’t himself, he just wants to see Touka again. :(  Then he gets pulled out by the power of love, his aging problems are magically cured, he has suffered no physical disfigurement other than little eye marks, and inexplicably gains cross-shaped Kagune to smack Nimura into the afterlife. And after all that he’s a totally stable person who definitely isn’t going to be a bad spouse or parent despite the massive amounts of trauma he has! Because that makes sense! Regardless of how much you like Kaneki it just feels a little idealistic for him and overly uncaring for the other characters. That's why I like "The finale past the death of Nimu/Rize's destruction depending on what you like is Kaneki's fantasy of what could've been" theory.
26. If you could sacrifice any character to bring another back, who would it be?
I love Mirumo so much, but his existence is barely acknowledged past the extermination arc so he can go in exchange for
A. the death of the Tsukiyamas and the devastating effect it SHOULD have had on Shuu being acknowledged in such a way he perhaps even learns to start growing away from that sad blind devotion to Kaneki, B. Kanae. I just want them back. I don’t think it would necessarily improve anything I just miss them. Also if Seidou isn’t going to get any resolution ANYWAYS (I’m so mad about that and I don’t want him to die but I am a creature of efficiency) he could sacrifice himself in the finale in some grand gesture that actually gets him acknowledged, in exchange for Tatara and Houji getting more screentime and further development.
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chaoslynx · 3 years
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hey, I'd like your input on a certain question I have pertaining to a hypothetical alternate ending of banana fish (the one where ash survives his stab wound). if you're not sure how to answer, that's completely fine, but I've seen so many people in the fandom claim so many different things about what would have happened if he survived, and I'm searching for a solid opinion.
I think the majority of the fandom can collectively agree that ash didn't need to die in order to heal from his trauma. I've see a lot of idiots say that even if ash lived, he would never heal or escape his past trauma, and so dying was the best outcome for his circumstances, which I'm sure the majority of us with more than 1 active braincell knows that's utter dog shit, and that survivors can heal no matter how big of a wound they may need treated.
however, I've seen people say that dying was his best option, NOT because he wouldn't have healed from his trauma, but because he wouldn't have the chance to heal considering the fact that he'd always be hunted down by his enemies. I've also seen people claim that even if he moved countries, he'd always be in constant danger because people would never stop looking for him. that he, as well as eiji, would have to live in fear and would never find peace due to the enemies ash has made during his lifetime.
I'm not sure what to think of this. I believe he'd be able to fake his death, borrow a new identity, and fake a passport to get on that damn plane headed to Japan. some have said that he wouldn't be able to due to his criminal record and so he'd never be allowed on a plane, which I also believe is dog shit. if that blond can scam millions of dollars out of and buy a condo right across from his #1 enemy without being caught, he can fucking travel. it's absurd how part of the fandom STILL underestimates his abilities, considering that he's shown time and time again of how capable and intelligent he truly is.
If you're able to answer, I'd like your opinion. we've established that survivors are able to heal no matter how big the baggage, but do you think he'd get the chance to heal, or would he always be on the run? would he forever be preoccupied with running from his enemies, or do you think his enemies would die trying to find him? I personally think that since his #1 enemy, D*no, is charred to a crisp, that he'd be somewhat safe from the rest. I don't think they'd even find him in an entirely different country in an entirely different continent.
but what do I know, honestly? maybe Yoshida confirmed that even if he did survive, he'd still be on the run until he died. I know she's said that murderers didn't deserve happy endings (bullshit, considering the circumstances that ash was in), but I'm not sure if she's clarified whether he would be on the run if he did hypothetically live. what do you think? no pressure :)
First of all, I'm a big fan of ignoring things Yoshida said.
I'm glad we agree that trauma survivors can heal! Also a big fan of that. Not gonna discuss that more here since we're already on the same page 💖
Before I get into whether or not Ash could ever escape from his enemies, I'd like to establish something about myself and my beliefs. I, personally, think that living is always going to be the better option. I am not going to be taking this question as a "could Ash have escaped his enemies, or is it good that he died?" That's not the problem here. The question I'll respond to below is "could Ash have escaped his enemies, or would he have always been on the run?"
This is an important distinction, because the first question implies that some lives just aren't worth living. I think your intentions here were good, so please don't take this as an attack on you in any way! But I'm not a fan of "living in fear [or living any other way] is worse than death" for a number of reasons. For one thing, dying is permanent. Once you die, there's never a chance of it getting better. It's literally a permanent solution to what often has the potential to be a temporary problem.
Also, any sort of "death is better" logic is a very slippery slope to be walking. If death is better than living in fear, is it also better than living with a permanent disability? With a chronic illness? At what point is it bad but still worth living through? Will Ash, on some level, always be living in fear due to what's likely post-traumatic stress disorder? Healing is obviously possible, but healing means learning how to cope better with a history of trauma, not getting rid of it.
So we're essentially asking the same question that we've already established the answer to: Is it better to live than to die? And, uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.
So anyway, moving onto the question I believe you were intending to ask: Would Ash have been able to escape his enemies?
Yeah. He would have.
For one thing, most of the people who actually gave a shit were already dead. Sure, the Corsican Foundation still existed, but most of them probably didn't think much of Ash besides him being Dino's favorite. There were those who saw Ash's mind in action during that month he spent with Dino during canon, but without Dino there, they have no reason to want Ash dead. Same with the ones who wanted Ash dead before the National Health Institute arc, if they weren't already dead themselves by the end of canon (like Kippard).
If Ash weren't going after them, I don't see why any of them would go after Ash.
Yut-Lung arguably had more enemies than Ash did by the end of canon, which was even Blanca's excuse for agreeing to work for him, but I don't see anyone arguing that Yue should have died. (I believe that he was canonically killed by one of his enemies at some point after Garden of Light, but does that mean that those 7+ years of freedom that he lived were pointless just because they came to an end?)
As far as traveling, yeah, Ash absolutely would have been able to fake an identity if he needed to. Like you said, he's done worse, and it's not like he doesn't have the connections for it. Although ...
I don't know if I've ever fully explained it in a fic or on here, but here's how I usually write post-canon.
Ash and Eiji stay in NYC. We know that moving back to the States and staying there is possible for Eiji, because ... it's what he does in canon after Ash's death. It's mentioned in GoL that Eiji moved back before he even healed completely from his gunshot wound, and that he got his Permanent Resident Card five years later.
As far as Ash, as much as a fucking pain in the ass it would be for him, I usually write him as actually testifying in court against ... fucking everyone. He gets help with this from Max, of course, and also from Jessica (who leaked Max's investigation, including the evidence they obtained from Frog, to the media in episode 23). In return for his testimony, he's granted total witness immunity for his crimes. ((Keep in mind that I know nothing about legal processes and how this would actually work in real life, but for fanfiction purposes that's how I choose to write it.))
So basically: Fuck Yoshida. Fuck death. Live your best life. YOLO.
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chocolateslatte · 4 years
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🚨The Rise of Skywalker Detailed Review and Spoilers Ahead🚨
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George Lucas: “If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office”
The “fairytale” we got: A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a curse of pain and death in a family that just went on and on.  They were never able to break it and they all die, the end. 
Well, you did it JJ, you little punk...you ruined 40 years of cinema. Kids are coming out of theatres crying, they can’t understand. I guess this was the “fun and hopeful ending” you were speaking of during the press tours.  Are you on crack or something, or just sadistic....why would you promote it like that!? Did you forget Star Wars at its core is a story of hope, light, a fairytale in space for children? They did it...they united Reylo’s and Fanboys through hate. 
JJ you do realize tragical romances are only tragically romantic if there was romantic buildup? Romeo and Juliet married in secret, Anidala did as well and flirted in the fields. How was this supposed to be satisfying? A five-second beginning, middle, and end. How this went through multiple execs is beyond me.... I would have understood if Reylo was Rian’s creation. BUT JJ LITERALLY was the one who told Rian to go forth with it...he created Reylo so you can’t say the last Jedi derailed things on that front. JJ wasn’t brave enough for his own vision. This movie was like “the crimes of Grindlewald”, a lot of stuff happening that made me feel nothing. 
Okay, first things first. The OG trilogy was necessary, the prequels were necessary to set up that Vader did not start off bad. What was necessary about the sequels? They just dismantled everything the Skywalker family worked for. Why did we have to see ALL of our favorite characters die? Was the aim that a villain can only be redeemed through death? How original. I’m convinced what they were planning for since force awakens was a journey from villain to hero...but instead we got this a 10min redemption resulting in death a la Vader. Why call Adam Driver’s character a “Disney Prince”?When did Happy endings become so controversial? We go to the movies to feel hope, to escape reality...George Lucas understood that. JJ’s trilogy is uninspired, bland and contributes nothing to the saga. JJ went as far as to recon his own “The Force Awakens”.It had the chance to define generations but no. Literal and utter garbage. Rian made some odd choices but he was bold, unafraid and had the vision. HE knew emotion was at the heart of Star Wars.
WHERE DID THE SKYWALKERS RISE? MORE LIKE RISE OF PALPATINE,  HE BLOODY WON
BUT my problem is not with the ending, it’s the bloody entire movie. This movie made me realize that it's not Reylo that I am a fan of, it was Ben, Leia, Han, Ani, Padme, and all those other characters. I’m upset because this movie is not my Star Wars: of family, love and above all else hope. This is just a 2.5-hour video game with no emotions. This trilogy was all angst with NO payoff.
Okay, you will never ever convince me Palpatine was planned the whole time. This whole movie was retcon for the Last Jedi that pissed off the fanboys. Lucas films did not have an outline for the three films and Rian derailed whatever they wanted to do....except they didn’t even tell him what they wanted! This should be a cautionary tale of why you need to plan. Kylo ain’t bad, Snoke is gone....well pull out Palpatine I guess. This whole film is JJ’s mad scrambling.  Alright, I will humor you, tell me how Palpatine came back when he fell down a shaft and exploded....not *boom boom because of force*. The force in this movie is not canon George Lucas force, it’s just an easy out whenever JJ wants one. 
1. Opening Crawl: As soon as I saw this I knew all the leaks were true, I wanted to bolt from the theatre. When I saw them in August I laughed cause it was so ridiculous it couldn’t be true. How could Disney let a whole movie leak? The plot seemed like a bad fan-fiction. Actually, fanfics are way more true to lore. Anyway, so Palpatine “announces” that he’s back. Is this the shrewd Chancellor Palpatine we know? Certainly, not...why in the world would he announce it rather than keep on the DL and just attack. Yo Palps ain’t this dumb why would you let them (the resistance) prepare?? Because of plot...well okay. 
2. Did Last Jedi even happen:  this film is the sequel to the force awakens, like TLJ never happened...except it’s acting like there was some movie in between that JJ made. Okay, so why is Kylo trying to run Rey over with his tie fighter...he doesn’t really want to kill her. It’s just meaningless action shots.  And don’t get me started on exposition, the dialogue: “hey look its the Knights of Ren”. Except they do nothing. Cool cool.  Kylo’s character goes back to Force awakens era like no development had occurred...except he’s not even there he’s just messing around not even being a real villain.  JJ’s specialty is set-up and he does this beautifully....but he can not wrap up and follow through. 
3. Rose Tico: yup last Jedi never happened, she has nothing to do. She and Finn are irrelevant. Finn has reverted to being obsessed with Rey. Cool Cool.  I honestly feel so bad for the lovely Kelly Marie Tran. How did you relegate a relatively big character into the sidelines?? Why introduce two new characters this late. Rose could have filmed in for them...but alas we must snub Rian at every turn because that’s just how petty JJ Abrams is. ( don’t get me wrong Jannah was cool)
4. The Rise Of Poe Dameron: Finn has been relegated to a side character who does nothing and just yells “REY!”. It was a great setup, a stormtrooper who was force sensitive but doesn’t want his life to be fighting for nothing. You could have explored trauma, the discovery of the light but nope nada. Tell me the point of his character journey. So flat and static. And with Jannah and the ex stormtroopers they could have gone with the arc of these lost, sad kids coming together to find family. 
5. Leia:  Okay you’re telling me our Princess would give up on her son before he was born, just throw away her lightsaber and accept Ben’s fate? Cool alright. And she knew about Rey Palpatine and didn’t say anything...my princess would never.
6. Mary Sue Rey: Ahh Rey this girl feels no emotion in this movie...just like the audience. Sure she’s trained but she can just do stuff with the “force” that even Jedi masters can’t. Stopping a whole starship, something even Yoda could barely do...yup she can do it. Beat Kylo all the time except one, yup she can. Manipulate the force in mind-boggling ways, heal people...sure Luke couldn’t but Rey certainly can.  Cause she is the chosen one...hell even Ani wasn’t this talented and he had years of training. Poe and Finn have a genuine connection, Rey just seems disjointed (totally understandable why)...but if so the ending is even worse. She doesn’t even find peace with her friends. She’s not realistic and human like Luke and Leia were. 
 Force sensitivity in the galaxy:  What a perfect setup, the boy with the broom at the end of TLJ that was force sensitive. The message is that the power to use the force was spreading through the galaxy. No longer confined to the elite. People were hearing of Luke’s battle of Crate and rising.
7. Kylo/Ben: I still maintain that he, other than Ani was the most nuanced character in the whole saga. His arc from Force Awakens to Last Jedi had progressed. How great that even someone from the legendary line of skywalker and solo could fall to the dark again. He wasn’t flat, he was a tortured boy that was conflicted since the first movie. How great would it have been to see him as a conflicted supreme leader, which was set up in TLJ. But *gasps* a plot of his very own, no can do, this is the nature of JJ’s crush on Rey and Daisy. 
Disney released comics that made us sympathize with him, to see that all along he was manipulated by Snoke, and Palpatine the voices in his head. Neglected by those who were supposed to love him. Adam Driver was cast perfectly, he had almost no lines that weren’t related to Rey’s charcater arc. If he were a woman I’m sure everyone would be offended. That single line’s delivery “Dad-”
Come on Poe had more lines than him, and Driver according to JJ was half of the protagonist. He was pitched an arc opposite that of Darth Vader that’s why he signed. Man JJ really did do everyone dirty. 
8. Ben had no lines while redeemed other than “ow”...I am so sorry ADAM that this nasty ass JJ did this to you...this part was 100% improv by Adam, I am willing to bet my life on it. You know why “ow” was brilliant? Cause it meant he felt pain and emotion, he was no longer hiding behind the hardness of Kylo REN. Adam’s performance as Ben left me speechless, he was convincing as Kylo, intimidating...but as BEN he shines in the way only Solo’s can. The way his eyes become determined once he accepts he must give his life, and he does so happily for the love of his life. His soulmate. Star Wars and JJ never deserved the talent that is Adam Driver.
9. They are supposed to be equals in the force yet they missed the opportunity to fight Snoke together. Tell me how they are equals. He existed only to further Rey’s plotline. 
Oh and the other Jedi including Anakin whisper and help Rey...when his own grandson has been asking for help in distress for like 30years. Nice real nice.
10. Finally Reylo:  it felt unearned cause there was no buildup, JJ just threw it in for kicks forgetting all the P&P parallels he was shooting for. An afterthought. Driver and Ridley’s acting saved the day, they had no lines.  Adam Driver is truly one of the finest actors. You could see the difference between Ben and Kylo in his subtle gestures...the sass was pure Han Solo.  
11. And then the death: I wouldn’t even say we won, but at what cost. We won in no way. Had he died fighting I would have understood, but this death was so unnecessary and put in just for the fanboys. Let me say again I would have been okay with death had it been justified.  How is this any different than Vader x Luke. JJ can only copy not create. How crazy that you can just bring people back from the dead...Anakin is here like, am I joke to you? I could have brought Padme back say what???? What was the point of his whole fall to the dark. The force is infinite, that’s the whole point...once you know how to use it you can’t run out of it like juice. Oh, and Ben did not become one with Rey but rather the Force according to the Disney website. So why pray tell did he not appear as a force ghost? I’m convinced JJ was on crack.  
12. No Mourning BEN no acknowledgment:  5 seconds! And then she moves on from losing her soulmate, half of her soul. She loses it over Chewie but nothing, no emotion not even a second over her other half. Seriously? No one ever knows Ben came back...nada. JJ set up Reylo, time and time again he has said that he crafted the story around the romance. He was left scrambling after Last Jedi and this was a last-ditch shock ending. No Reylo theme song, no across the stars
13. Last Jedi told us you don’t have to come from a powerful family to be important. THE WHOLE thing was that you could be force-sensitive and be a nobody. Nobodies can become somebody. A Hero is not born but made. The force lives in all beings, not just powerful families. It inspired me, what a great message to young guys and gals. Kylo’s line, “you come from nothing, you are nothing...you have no place in this story” finally turns out true. You have to come from something to have a part in the Star Wars story. And Rey had darkness inside her cause she was human. Because none of us are pure, we are shades of grey. But no, it’s cause darkness only runs in families. In the Last Jedi when she wants to see her family all she sees is herself and a shadow (Ben) who joins with her. Please do explain this JJ. And if this granddaughter thing was set up I would have had no problem...but they pulled it from their asses. You can have nothing but mean something. But no pander to the fanboys. In the end, a Palpatine lived and all the skywalkers ended....and we are supposed to have hope. Palpatine really did win. 
14. Rey’s biggest fear was ending up in the desert alone, we were told “the belonging she seeks is ahead not behind” and “there’s someone who could still come back”. They mentioned she felt just as alone with the resistance. Only the other half of her soul understood her. This is truly tragic and sad...I am so heartbroken for her. And don’t tell me she isn’t there to stay...the soundtrack is called “a new home”. Enjoy the rest of your days being exactly where you started Rey....but hey at least you got a droid boo. I’m convinced this is not the balance JJ envisioned in the first movie. At one point in TFA Rey looks up sees an old woman alone, scavenging in the desert. This rattles her to the core and it starts her journey of wanting a better, different life. I am so sorry Rey. Okay so you may say she has the resistance and her friends...but let’s consult the last Jedi. In the end when everyone is on the ship...Rey is surrounded by friends yet looks more alone than ever. No one but Ben, maybe Luke, Leia, and Han understood her pull to the dark.
How sad that these two hopeless souls who had never known a moment of belonging and true love, found it for all but a few seconds.
I will quote: “preventing female characters with strong, compelling narratives from experiencing love, intimacy, and affection is just as regressive as reducing them down to sexual accessories. Assumes that women must choose between a romantic interest and depth of character”
Men really can not write good female characters, can they? A woman really can’t be a badass and end up with the love of her life
15. The Skywalker’s and Redemption: How truly truly sad that Han and Leia gave their life for their son who also died at a young age. ALL the Skywalkers and Solo’s have a tragic end. This is not what George Lucas wanted. What a tragic way to end this saga...they weren't able to break the curse. AND to all those troubled kids out there that lashed out and made terrible mistakes in their youth....doesn’t matter what you do dying is the only way out. You could have exiled him, made him pay in other ways. Nothing can be done to make up for your sins but death, no amount of good means that you can come home. To the young boys that get wrapped up in terror organizations, sorry the only way you can be redeemed is death...don’t bother changing and coming back. They could have exiled him, had him start an academy with Rey for Jedi kids. He could have spent the rest of his days redeeming himself. Why tell us he was literally preyed upon, haunted, and manipulated as a child. Even in a fantasy world, a victim of mental illness and abuse can not catch a break. Ben as a child could not fall asleep due to the demon-like voices in his mind. Everyone abandoned him in his time of need. Ben never desired power like Anakin, he went over to the dark because “the voice” of his grandfather promised belonging. I am shocked that this is the message Disney sends us. Oh and yeah you can totally take on the Skywalker name for kicks...the disrespect I swear
16. The worst bit is that I am 90% sure there was another ending that was scrapped.  There was a promo shot of Jannah in a field, soft lighting, lush planet. It was exactly like P&P. Daisy Ridley said the lasts scene was known to only Her, Jannah on that panel (Driver was away). Convinced Jannah was looking at Rey and Ben starting a new life away from the desert which she and Luke hate so much. Hence the production of “A New Home” soundtrack. Hence why the “Farewell” song played behind Reylo kiss was hopeful. Why Luke’s soundtrack when he became part of the force was not triumphant. Why the death scene was sudden and cut weird and no sorrow from Rey. CAUSE THEY SCRAPPED THE ORIGINAL ENDING LAST MINUTE.  Everyone knows JJ was still editing one month before. The concept art which was supposed to be released this month has been pushed to March. Why you ask? They need to remove the pages with a happy ending. He just didn’t have the guts, pandered to everyone and yet no one. He was successful in creating a beautifully filmed action-filled movie with none of the heart of Star Wars.
And then she goes and buries Anakin’s saber on freaking TATOOINE. He HATES Sand and Luke wanted to get away from there as soon as possible. Of course, a Palpatine would torture them that way. But nostalgia is the cash cow so. JJ can only generate nostalgia, not create original stories. IF he had any creativity she would have buried it at Padme’s grave.
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The fanboys say “leave the romance for the romance movies”....have you seen the original trilogy or the prequels? Star Wars has always had hope and romance entwined with it. 
SO AFTER 40 YEARS...PALPATINE WINS...HIS BLOODLINE LIVES ON
...and people thought the prequels were bad 
JJ you also said that your goal was for people to come out of the movie feeling more hopeful and happy then they went in...yet here I am. My roommate literally had to console me and buy me ice cream. I am just so numb. I am sure the casual fan will enjoy this, as seen from the rotten tomatoes ratings. I think the critics were too generous with this one, 
Star Wars is very simple at its core, Good vs Bad and Dark vs Light. The kids are expected to understand that a Palpatine being the only one who lives is hopeful? That is the conclusion of three generations of Skywalker sacrifice...
This is how the Skywalkers are remembered...In Tragedy and Curse??
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pasteljeon · 4 years
Text
handcrafted | heartbeat 1
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When you put out a roommates ad for your newly purchased house, the only requirement you set out had been cleanliness.
The last thing you’d expected was for the 7 most eligible bachelors of your university to come calling.
Throw in school, crazy fan girls and the most sought for men suddenly chasing after you with heart eyes, comes a college experience of a lifetime.
Would it be so wrong to want them all?
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1: handcrafted
summary | they needed a place to stay. You needed money. You are so fucking screwed. They want you to screw them instead.
series index.
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“I’m sorry,” comes a high-pitched, exasperated whine for the umpteenth time.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you say, suitcase dropping unceremoniously onto the gravel floor with a sad thud. You stare up at the building with dread, a knot forming in your stomach. Now that you think of it, it does seem to loom overhead rather ominously. And you liked the design so much, too.
“You’re telling me that I just dropped half a million into a house and now I have no one to room with and no way to pay off my mortgage?”
“It was last minute,” Ahri tries to explain feebly, but you close your eyes.
“So let me get this straight,” you say slowly, sucking in a long breath, “All seven of you magically got offered the very same jobs you have right now … in the same city?”
“…Yes?” She coughs. “Same company, just a different branch. And, uh, just not this city.”
Silence.
You tap your foot impatiently.
“___?” You can already imagine the way your best friend is cringing, voice meek as she asks mildly, “Are you okay?”
“Just peachy,” you say through gritted teeth as you drag your luggage to the front.
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With the autumn leaves stirring in your wake, every step is heavy and dredged with defeat as you make your way to the coffee shop on campus.
“I’m sure there are still plenty of people looking for rent,” Ahri says sympathetically, rubbing your shoulder as you slump over the table.
“How am I going to find seven people to fill the spaces before the semester starts?” You wail, banging your head against the glass. “Classes start in a week and I need people now so I can pay the obnoxiously inflated mortgage.”
“Are you sure—” Jisoo starts, but you throw up a hand instantly. “Never gonna go down that alley. If I have to, I’ll sell the house and live on the streets. Since you’re all basically abandoning me anyway.”
“Not all of us,” Ryujin reminds you as she takes a seat, sliding your signature drink across.
“Yeah, just 90% of us,” Ahri supplies helpfully. You glare at her playfully as you sit up, taking a tentative sip from the cup. Letting out a sigh, you lean back into your seat.
“No, but in all seriousness. How am I going to find replacement roommates in time?” You trace the lid absently, propping your chin up with the other hand.
“We still have a week before we leave for our co-op terms. We can help you out until then. We’ll find people,” Jisoo promises. She’s already pulled out her phone, tapping away at the multitude of chats she’s in to put out word for you.
“I’ll ask a friend to make a mock up of an ad,” Ryujin offers. Ahri nods vigorously.
“Okay. Thanks guys, you’re the realest,” you say gratefully. Perhaps all hope is not yet lost, you conclude rather miserably.
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Despite the collective efforts of all your braincells, skills and networking circles pooled together, the week is drawing to a close. Every decline is for the same reason: it’s just too late.
Between your unpacking, shopping, arranging furniture and rearranging décor (with the help of Dara, the interior design major, of course), suddenly it’s Thursday and you’re looking pretty fucking doomed.
“How is it everything fell through so fast?”
“Mhmm. You tell me,” you say absentmindedly as you straighten a painting.
You can feel Dara’s amusement as she readjusts the frame you were fiddling with. “Stop touching. It’s fine.”
“It’s crooked,” you protest.
“You know, that reminds me,” she says thoughtfully as she steps back. “Jiyong’s been working on his new album, and there’s these new singers he’s scouted out. It might be a long shot since classes are about to start, but he’s talked about how much they complain about their residence. I can ask if they’re still up to moving.”
“Yes, please,” you nod. “It honestly doesn’t matter anymore. I just need money. I don’t even know why this was a good idea in the first place.”
“It was a good idea. When we were all going to be here,” Dara amends.
You exhale. “Fuck me in the ass.”
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“Uh … who are you?” You blink, cocking your head to the side curiously.
There’s a … person standing at your door, awkwardly gripping a suspiciously familiar flyer. He’s … someone you’ve never spoken to before. He’s grown his hair out this summer, brushing away the curls as they frame his big, doe eyes. The scar on his cheek is hidden by the makeshift ebony curtain. He’s clearly been busy, veins and muscles rippling under golden skin virtually straining to explode from that tight pair of black jeans he’s wearing.
You are not charmed. You are not charmed. You are not fucking charmed.
“Um … are you ___?”
You nod, waiting for an explanation. The bags in your hands are getting heavier with every passing second and you silently beg him to hurry it along before your arms snap clean off.
“M-my hyungs asked me to check you out,” he stutters.
A beat, and then –
“Ah! I-I mean check the place out, not you, that would be weird, why would I ever check you out,” he corrects quickly. You raise an eyebrow warily. The sheet crumples in his whitening fist.
“I-I mean I check you out all the time so that’s not really new, i-it’s just y-you have vacancy right,” he’s word-vomiting, cheeks ripening furiously and he looks like he’s about ready for the ground to swallow him up.
“We want to move in,” he practically screams. You recoil, the bags hitting your thigh painfully.
Huh.
This is … unexpected. Every time you’ve ever encountered him on campus, he’s never been so … clumsy. Is clumsy the right word to describe this?
“Oooookay,” you say. “Yeah, I can give you a tour and answer any questions you have, just let me unload first.”
“O-oh, I can take those for you,” he stumbles over to relieve you of your physical burden. He ducks his head, scores of pink still marring his expression as you unlock the door.
“Come in.”
“Sorry for the intrusion,” he says shyly, slipping off his sneakers and trailing behind you to set the groceries on the counter as you indicated.
You shrug off your jacket before rummaging in one of the bags to pull out a bottle of banana milk. His eyes light up instantly when you slide it over the counter to him.
“Thank you, noona!” He tears open the lid and gulps down the concoction eagerly.
Noona? You squint. Are you really older than him? You’ll have to check later.
“So will your … hyungs be joining us today, or would you guys like to book another time to come altogether?”
Just as he’s wiping his mouth with the back of his hand to reply, the doorbell rings.
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“Dara,” you hiss into the phone, cupping the microphone close to you as you huddle in one of the upper floor bathrooms. “You didn’t tell me there were seven of them.”
“Huh? But wasn’t seven the exact number you needed?” She answers innocently.
“You said some and singers! None of them are singers or new! They’re the fucking guys from the Calvin Klein underwear ads and that one Gucci perfume commercial!”
“Technically, they are singers. A couple of them are composers and they all have really good voices. According to Jiyong anyway, no one else has had the privilege of hearing them,” she states.
“I’m going to die,” you say flatly. You’re pacing, practically wearing the new carpet you just bought. “I am going to die a horrible, horrible death. Fangirls will hunt me down, I’m going to get death threats and I’ll have to live in the shadows for the rest of my life. There are a lot of rich people here, and they’re going to hire hitmen and I’ll –”
“– Die a horrible death, yes, I heard the first time,” Dara cuts you off dryly.
Your eyes widen. “You knew!” You accuse. “How could you do this to me?!”
“___,” she sighs suddenly, sounding disappointed. “This was the best I could do, okay? It was the perfect opportunity. Look, just go downstairs, gauge their characters and all that jazz, and if you still think it’s not a good fit, just tell them that and keep looking. You’re not locked in on this.”
You rest your head on the wall. “… Yeah. Okay. True. Thanks a lot, Dara.”
“Of course. I always got your back. Let me know how things go and what you decide,” she reassures you.
“I will.”
You stare at yourself in the mirror for a moment, phone gripped tightly in your hand, before groaning aloud. Splashing water on your face and smoothing out your disgruntled locks, you make your way back to the living room.
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It’s awkward. Oh fuck, it’s so awkward you think you’ll die of sheer awkwardness instead.
There are seven men smiling up at you, all crammed in the three sets of sofas you’d recently purchased. They have such long legs. One of them has really broad shoulders.
“I know you,” you say stupidly, pointing at the man with dimples. He waves.
“___,” he says pleasantly. “How has your summer been?”
“You were my TA,” you continue, finger quivering. You’re downright flabbergasted. “Isn’t there like a … like a rule or something against TAs moving in with previous students?”
“We never officially met,” he replies smoothly. Why the fuck is he still smiling?! This is so freaky. You can’t do this. Holy shit.
“In fact, the TAs for that course were never formally introduced. We only marked your exams in random groups, nothing more. I can’t say I’ve had the privilege of marking your work.”
Liar. You know he’s marked one of your essays. You can easily tell his thick strokes and thoughtful feedback scrawled in the margins apart from all the other cursive nonsense the others liked to write.
You move on. “You,” you say, examining the peculiar orange locks and disappearing eye smile. “You’re one of the dancers. You and … you,” the one next to him nods, his grin heart-shaped.
“You make music,” the one with mint hair and catlike eyes. What is with them and their rainbow styled colours? He shrugs noncommittally.
“Photos,” the one with a boxy beam. The camera looped around his neck was pretty self-explanatory, but you’ve seen him around.
“You … are old,” his plush lips instantly downturn.
“Excuse me?” He harrumphs. “Is that how you speak to your elders?” There’s no real bite to his tone, just a tinge of annoyance. The rest of the boys are hiding laughs.
“Didn’t you graduate a while ago?” You ask instead.
He uncrosses his arms, slumping. “… Yes,” he says guiltily. “I’m getting my Masters.”
“Hyung doesn’t like being called old,” the one still clutching the milk explains, mirth dancing in his eyes. “He’s old, but not obsolete. Not yet, anyway.”
“Shut it,” he snaps, pouting. He certainly doesn’t act old, you remark silently, stifling a giggle.
“We should do formal introductions,” the dimpled boy offers.
“My name is Kim Namjoon. I’m a Philosophy and History double major. I do TA for a couple courses.”
“Kim Taehyung! I like taking photos, so photography. Obviously. I’m thinking about picking up media arts or something on the side, though.”
“Jeon Jungkook. Graphic design and Photography.”
“Contemporary dance, Park Jimin.”
“Performing dance, Jung Hoseok! My stage name is J-Hope.”
“Music composition. Min Yoongi.”
“I’m Kim Seokjin, though you’ve probably already heard of me,” he smirks, puffing his chest out proudly. “Film and Acting.”
“Oh!” You say, nodding very seriously. “You were in that one fried chicken commercial, right?”
Seokjin stares, unimpressed even as the boys are falling into pieces beside him. “It was for the new Palisade.”
“Oh. They’re cool, too,” you agree. You don’t know much about cars.
“I’m ___. Do you guys want a tour?”
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“So? Spill the beans!”
“On what?” You quirk an eyebrow as you flick through the menu. Ahri looks like she’s almost bouncing from her seat in excitement.
“Were they as handsome as they say?”
“What do people say about them, now?” The menu hasn’t changed, this restaurant is just as overpriced and basic as it’s been the past two years. You don’t even know why you bothered opening the damn thing. With a sigh, you toss it to the side.
“I heard Jimin looks like an angel when he sleeps. Rumour has it, once you’ve kissed Jin once, you can never go back. Have you seen his lips? God, they’re to die for,” Ahri moans.
You give her a look. “You’re kidding. And you believe that crap? They look like regular people. Albeit yes, handsome, really good looking people.”
“Hi, are you ready to order?” A soft, timid voice interrupts your gossip session.
“Jungkook,” you say, surprised. “I didn’t know you worked here.”
Okay, fuck, you have to admit he looks so very delicious with that rumpled look of his, ruffled chestnut hair, the return of those killer black jeans, paired with a fitted black turtleneck. A red apron is tied around his unfairly thin waist.
“Ah,” he says, scratching his neck. Already reddening as he fiddles with the pad in his hand. “Um. I just started today, actually. I needed money … you know, for-for rent and stuff.”
“Oh no,” you say immediately, concern colouring your tone. “Was the rate too high? If it’s unaffordable for you, we can always figure something else out—”
“No, no!” Jungkook says hastily. “It’s not that. I was planning on getting another job anyway, regardless of where I ended up. I’d have to pay rent no matter where I lived.”
“Oh,” you nod. “In that case …”
Jungkook excuses himself as soon as your orders are scrawled down, still seemingly unable to meet your gaze for long.
“He’s just so cute,” Ahri swoons. You choke down the bile that threatens to hurl itself up from the mere sight of her exaggerated love struck expression. “Uh huh.”
“Okay, so what did you do? The tea, the tea,” she demands.
“There is no tea,” you throw your hands up. “I gave them the standard tour, copies of the lease to take home, but they said they wanted it so they signed them on the spot, paid the deposit and everything. It was super quick and they all just left right after. That’s it.”
“Wow, they must’ve been desperate,” she comments. “Though the house is really nice. It’s huge, totally worth the price you paid. I’m glad they came through, though. It would’ve been a death sentence to pay it all off yourself.”
“Yeah, especially since I don’t start my own co-op term till next year,” you grouch.
“Mhm. All that aside, it’s time you started living above that rock of yours,” Ahri says seriously. She pulls out her phone as the food arrives.
You push aside the trickle of disappointment that filters in when the waiter that delivers your respective meals isn’t Jungkook.
“Crash course on your hot new roommates,” she starts, passing the device to you. An unfamiliar YouTube page is opened to a video.
“Jung Hoseok and Park Jimin. Hoseok’s stage name is J-Hope, named after his sunny disposition. He has a YouTube series called Hope on the Street. Jimin runs it with him, and the two do all kinds of dance challenges and covers. They’re also the Co-Presidents of the school’s dance committee. They join the national competitions every year since they took over and have been winning ever since.”
You would think it would be a bit disconcerting seeing the two very diverse dance styles on two very different people on stage, but they don’t fight. They complement each other so brilliantly, it’s hard to tear your eyes away. You can’t decide who to watch, just sitting back to observe the entire frame.
“Jeon Jungkook and Kim Taehyung. They have a vlog series called House of Bangtan. Mostly just random shit with the other guys, but it’s super entertaining and hilarious. Like the kind of content you know is genuine and makes you willing to die just for a chance to be a part of it. That’s how you know the seven of them are really good friends despite the age gaps. They also do challenges and giveaways.”
You’re watching Jin lose a game of charades, and he looks like he’s about to blow a fuse. The camera shakes uncontrollably as Jungkook runs way from his hyung, who’s screaming bloody murder behind him, chasing with the rubber duck he used to cheat with. Sore loser, the youngest mouths to the camera with a grin.
“Jungkook also owns a personal channel called Golden Closet Films. Pretty self-explanatory, but he makes movie clips of stuff like Hoseok and Jimin practising for the showcase and the like. He used to be part of the varsity volleyball team, but had to give it up when he tore his Achilles’ heel. It was pretty devastating for the school, too, since he was one of the best players. Taehyung has an Instagram page full of pictures for his photography collection. They’re super aesthetic. He goes under Vante.”
You scroll through the page, and you can definitely see why he’s so sought for by students and so famous in the department. He has a wicked eye and thinks so vividly outside the box. You also vaguely remember Jungkook’s impromptu early retirement being a huge deal when it happened. You were never really caught up with the school’s news, more academic driven, but you had your share of intramural sports. You imagine ‘devastating’ is a rather underwhelming way of describing that kind of pain.
“Kim Seokjin, or Jin he likes to be called, is a Films major and he’s done a bunch of commercials and modelling gigs. He loves food though, and he has a cooking channel plus an Instagram page. He’s the campus Heartthrob. He’s had that title for over five years. I mean, who can blame him? Do you see the man? He’s fucking cut from the image of perfection!”
Yeah, okay. He does look fucking good. And his cooking looks amazing. You rub your mouth discreetly, making sure you’re not actually physically drooling. You have food right in front of you, for fuck’s sake!
“Min Yoongi, he’s actually the same age as Jin but started late. He used to be an underground rapper by the name of Gloss. Now he works at the studio here with Jiyong and Slow Rabbit. Rumour has it he has a composing deal lined up with BigHit when he graduates. He goes by Suga now. He has a Soundcloud for distributing his self-composed music. I heard he also raps, but no one knows his stage name for that.”
This man is talented. His lyricism is fucking beautiful. Your heart constricts a bit, even though it’s not his voice, it doesn’t soften the hurt. It’s real.
“Kim Namjoon, he was one of our TAs for Business History last semester. He’s really smart. I’m talking grade A book smart. Heard his IQ is somewhere between 140 to 160. He’s crazy intelligent. Okay, but get this – he also composes on the side. He works with Yoongi and they’ve produced some stuff together. Here, listen to this.”
Put two galaxies together, and what do you get? A fucking supercluster and that shit is no joke. Together, they are something else. Someone who sees the world beyond its manmade barriers, someone who criticises, someone who is unflinchingly honest in what lies in the heart. Someone that feels, empathizes. Dreamers.
“So basically, the next year is just going to be me feeling all useless and untalented in a house full of very attractive and single men,” you surmise flatly.
“Yep,” Ahri says cheerfully, stabbing at a lettuce leaf.
“Fucking awesome.”
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It’s the incessant knocking that wakes you. The doorbell follows soon after, buzzing loudly as you groan, rolling over.
“Who the f – oh.” You squint, the sunlight merrily blinding you as you open the door.
“___-noona, is now not a good time?” It’s Jimin that speaks, expression worried.
“What time is it?” You murmur, rubbing your temples. Fuck, you definitely drank too much last night. Dara dragged you to some frat party to celebrate your new roommates, who are, ironically enough, now all looking at you with palpable concern.
“It’s twelve,” Namjoon says, eyebrows furrowing. “But we can always come back later if it’s inconvenient for you.”
Oh, shit. Your gaze trails down to the multiple bags and suitcases they’re holding.
“No, no, of course not,” you croak. “Come in. Sorry. I had a long night.” Clearly.
You step to the side, allowing them to file in one by one, before locking the door behind them.
“Cute PJs,” Jin winks as he passes. You look down, horrified. Your pug print pajama pants and flimsy tee are on full display.
You slap your forehead, thoroughly embarrassed. You probably have awful bed head, too.
Running your fingers through the tangled locks, you follow them as they crowd around the living room. Grabbing a box you had the insight to leave on the counter much earlier this week, they tell you what room they’ve picked and you hand them their respective keys.
“Feel free to settle in and do whatever,” you call as you head back to your own room to get ready. “My only rule is that you clean after yourselves. This house is big enough as it is, so cleaning is a hassle. I don’t want to add personal trash into that.”
They make noises of agreement and you shut the door quickly, making your way to the bathroom to take a shower and to scream into a towel for five minutes.
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The semester returns with a full swing. You’re nearly knocked over on the first punch, when the syllabus for each class is dropped and you realize you have six assignments due on the same day two weeks from now.
You’ve managed to avoid any further embarrassing interactions with your new roommates, having been bouncing around the city with your soon-to-be-AWOL friends before the term began.
From what you can tell, though, they’re fairly polite and greet you whenever there’s an opportunity. Some try for small talk, like Namjoon, Jimin and Hoseok. Jungkook is still skittish and practically flies out the room if you’re in it for too long. Yoongi tends to disappear to his room for long periods of time, but Hoseok had told you it was because he was stacking up on sleep. You guessed his work would soon require much out of him, though how the hibernation storage thing worked was beyond you.
Jin was often out; Namjoon had informed you it was because he had a few other contracts to lock down for modelling and whatnot. Taehyung’s schedule was a bit flaky, since he liked taking impromptu trips around campus and the city whenever inspiration struck.
You said farewells to some of your friends, all boxed and hugged, they promised to call often and FaceTime, to which you knew they would hold their end of the bargain to. You weren’t worried, and wished them well.
Your real point of anxiety was how you were going to survive this year. Word had apparently spread like wildfire that the most eligible bachelors of your university had moved in … together … with you.
You’ve already gotten several rather disturbing messages from unknown numbers. You’re unsurprised but still annoyed. The content gets more disconcerting every time, and at this rate, you’re going to end up having to switch numbers. You’re broke, damn it! Broke. Why can’t people just focus on their own lives for once and chill the fuck out? Your wallet wails.
“Good morning, noona.” His smile is so warm for someone who’s just woken up. How does he look so good doing it, too? He’s got a pair of loose sweats and an oversized shirt on, hair mussed and eyes silted adorably as he yawns. It’s 8:30 in the fucking morning and you already want to run yourself over with a school bus.
“Jimin, hello,” you say distractedly, stuffing your laptop into your bag and snatching your keys from the bowl. “Can’t talk, got class.”
“Wait!” He says, rushing up to meet you. He’s holding a piece of buttered toast in his hand. “Eat something while you go. It’s bad to sit in lecture without a breakfast. You won’t be able to focus.”
“Oh,” you blink. “Thank you.” Your smile softens. Jimin scuffs his bare feet shyly in response. “You’re welcome, noona. Stay safe.”
You never eat breakfast. You either never wake up in time to make anything, or you’re too lazy. This is kind of nice, you admit. Have someone take care of you, or think of you. It’s sweet.
You could get used to this, you decide. But you don’t want to get too comfortable. You’ll only end up missing it when they’re gone.
The toast is oddly delicious.
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“There’s a showcase coming up.”
“Yes, and?” You say, phone squished to your cheek as you check the course code of the wrapped textbook you’re holding.
“So you’re going, right?” Ahri demands. You can hear her heels clicking against the concrete as she makes her way to her car.
You stand, huffing as you survey the neat stacks of books you’ve spent the last hour organizing. “You’re joking, right? What reason do I have to be at that showcase? I’ve never gone before and there’s no way I’m going this year,” you answer matter-of-factly as you dust yourself off.
“___, we need you at the front,” your manager calls, poking her head in to flash you an apologetic smile.
You give her a thumbs up before returning to the call. “Look, just because Hoseok and Jimin now share a living accommodation with me and we talk casually does not mean I’m suddenly their best friend. Have fun at work!”
You cut off her protests as you pocket your device decisively.
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Of course.
“___!” He beams. “Hi! I didn’t know you worked here.”
“That���s because I usually work the tech section. What can I do for you today, Hoseok-sunbae?” Speak of the devil, you crack a polite smile.
“Just Hoseok, please. I was wondering if you guys sell the code for a digital copy of behavioural economics?” Why are his eyes practically sparkling? How can he be so cheerful?
“Hoseok, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why are you taking a senior economics course as a dance major?” You ask bluntly.
Hoseok splutters, rubbing his neck. “Um. Namjoon said it would be good for me?” He tries.
You look at him strangely, but shrug. It’s not your business anyway. His loss. Though you’re certain he doesn’t care much about his GPA, considering he’s pretty much got a bunch of prestigious studios vying for him already.
“Anything else I can help you with today?” You say as you scan the code.
“Actually … I was wondering if you were coming to the showcase,” Hoseok says, sounding almost shy.
You eye him suspiciously. “Do you want me there to support you or something? I thought this was only the preliminaries or something.”
“I … We’d really like it if you could make it. Jimin and I … we haven’t had much inspiration lately, to be honest,” he admits. His head hangs, like he’s on the verge of defeat. It doesn’t suit him, and you find yourself frowning.
“The last thing we want is to repeat stuff we’ve done before, but I’ve been stumped all summer. Usually I’d be done choreographing everything, but this year … I dunno,” he trails off.
“I understand that, but why would me being there help?” You tap your fingers against the counter. The campus bookstore is fairly empty today, given that you’re closing in half an hour.
“I just … I thought maybe you could be an unbiased third party, that’s all,” Hoseok says awkwardly. “If you don’t, I totally understand! It was just a suggestion, I guess.”
You sigh, pushing the terminal to him as he fumbles for his wallet. “What time is your practice?”
Hoseok’s grin is blinding and you can’t decide if you’re going to greatly regret or thank yourself for this later on.
“Thank you! Friday, at four in AR Studios. You know where the music department is, right? The practise rooms are on the hallway to the left.”
You manage a weak smile. “I’ll be there.”
.
.
.
It’s a Tuesday, and Taehyung’s fallen asleep on the couch.
You’re exhausted, running yourself a bit thin with the amount of work you’ve been putting in already. You perch on the edge, the soft material sinking slightly under your weight, but the angel doesn’t stir.
And you concede he might as well be one, given how ethereal he appears. He hugs a pillow to his chest, expression serene and limbs lax as he slumbers on. His dark-coloured curls obscure his forehead, pink lips parted lightly as he exhales slowly.
Before you can quench the urge, you reach over and brush his fringe from his eyes.
You’re tired. That’s the only explanation you can offer for what happens next.
Taehyung’s hand shoots up to grab your wrist tightly.
And you find yourself falling as he tugs you on top of him. A quiet oomph escapes you as you bracket his body, arms trembling faintly at the sheer proximity.
His expression, half-lidded and hazy, tells you he’s still flitting in and out of consciousness. Suspended, like he’s replaying his dream in real life.
His smile is lopsided as he cups your cheek, thumbing your cheekbones tenderly. His touch is feverish, so warm it startles you when he guides your palm to his chest, two buttons undone already.
“Heart,” he whispers, and you inhale sharply. His voice breaks, tone anguished and defeated. It both shocks and scares you.
“Taehyung,” you say shakily, ignoring the fluttering beat of his heart and the blood rushing in your ears to press your forehead against his. “Taehyung, you’re burning up.”
“I finally found you,” he sighs, and it alarms you to see he’s fading fast, eyes flickering as he sinks into the couch. “Where did you go, heart? You promised …”
“Promised? Promised what? Tae, what are you talking about?” You say frantically, shaking him lightly. His head rolls and he manages a weak chuckle. “You finally called me Tae again …”
Your eyebrows knit. “What …?” Before you manage anything more, Taehyung collapses.
.
.
.
“He’ll be alright. He’s got a pretty high fever, but it should break by tonight.” Seokjin sounds so self-assured and calm that you find yourself relaxing.
You’ve been fretting, pacing restlessly as you waited for the eldest to return. You contacted him the moment Taehyung knocked out, anxious and unsure of what to do next. The room filled with his laboured breathing, and you tried to alleviate some of the heat by resting a cool towel on his forehead.
The house was typically empty for the day, everyone off to their respective classes and work. The boys usually congregated at night, for dinner and the movies or games that followed. They’ve invited you several times, but you declined each time. You’ve been … busy.
You hesitated on doing more, considering how little you truly knew of Taehyung. You weren’t sure he’d appreciate you accidentally poisoning him with the wrong dose of medication. That, and invading his personal space.
Seokjin opted to buy some medication on his way back instead, and the photography major seems to sleep a bit easier now.
The eldest gives the patient one last once-over before rising to his feet.
“I might as well make dinner, then. Want to come along?” He asks lightly. You follow him to kitchen, shaking your head guiltily. “I’m sorry for making you come back so early. I just didn’t know what else to do. Everyone else was so busy, and—”
“—And I’m the only real adult, I know,” Seokjin says, chuckling. “I’m glad you called. I was about done with my shoot anyway.”
You linger at the island counter awkwardly as you watch him tie an apron to his waist and comb through the fridge for ingredients.
“Sunbae …,” you falter, but he beckons you forward with an encouraging smile. You’re relieved to see he doesn’t seem upset the slightest, though you honestly can’t say you know him enough to determine whether it was sincere or merely a practised mask.
“Jin, please. I’m not that much older, truth be told,” he tells you as you wash the rice.
“Then, Jin … Is Taehyung … with someone right now?” You keep your gaze trained to your task, draining the murky water so carefully you miss the way Seokjin tenses.
“Why? Do you have your sights set on our baby?” Seokjin says lightly, but his voice hints of strain, and he glances at you from the corner of his eye.
You snort unintentionally, coughing quickly to cover it up. “Hardly. I was just wondering.”
“Did he do something weird? Taehyung can act pretty strange when he’s out of it like that. He’ll say or do pretty weird things when he’s drunk or has a really high fever,” Seokjin explains as he pours the vegetables he’s cut into the pot on the stove.
“Oh,” you say as you plug the machine in. “I see.” The rice maker beeps, and you excuse yourself politely.
.
.
.
Thursday is a disaster. You’d hoped he’d keep his distance, given you’d been quite clear the last time you spoke. But of course - 
“You’re avoiding me.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Don’t lie to me. I know you’ve been dodging me since we moved in. Why?”
“Don’t you dare turn this on me. You’re the only person that’s been lying since we met. You made your point very clear that day, and you moving in? It doesn’t change a damn thing. Now tell me what you want or get out. I’m done with your shit.”
“You can’t mean that. You know I didn’t have a choice!”
“You did have a choice. Me, or that damn reputation of yours. You told me to go to hell. What more do you want?”
“You know that’s not what I meant. I didn’t know—”
“Didn’t know what? That it would mean I would lose everything? I didn’t mean shit to you. I don’t know why I ever thought I could trust you.”
“If I had known, I would’ve—”
“Would have what? Tried harder? Bull. Shit. You don’t care about anything but yourself and your career. You can tell yourself different, but you and I both know if I hadn’t trusted you, I wouldn’t be in this position. You did this to me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your weakass excuse for an apology. I said I was done with you and I am. This is the last time I’m going to sit here and listen to you pretend you’re the victim. For the sake of peace, I will play niceties with you in front of your friends, but make no mistake: You can’t turn back time. You cannot change what happened, you cannot fix it, you cannot make it better. So go away. Don’t talk to me. Don’t seek me out. We’re not friends. We’ll never be anything ever again. I hope, in time, I can forget you ever existed at all.”
“I’m going to make this right, I swear. I love you more than anything, and I’ll spend the rest of my life if I have to proving it to you.”
“Please just go.”
You stare out the window, the city lights blinding in the night skyline. The glass reflects the emptiness in your eyes, and there’s only deafening silence that’s shattered in the next beat by the slamming of your door.
Hugging your arms to your chest, you refuse to acknowledge the sharp sting in your eye.
You wish you’d never met him.
.
.
.
“Just … be careful,” Yoongi says quietly. It’s the first time you’ve spoken to him outside of their initial tour. “Housing wasn’t the only reason some of us are here.”
You stifle a sigh. All you wanted was some water, not another 2 am detox on everything wrong in your life.
“Why are you telling me this?” You ask carefully. His hand pauses on the doorknob.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” is all he says.
You’re left to ponder his warning as he disappears into his room. Your phone lights up in your hand.
[01:25] Unknown: I need to see you. Can we talk?
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squishneedsahero · 3 years
Text
The Crash
Trust and Emotions 
Part 1 of 2
Word Count: 3487
I'm on both a starwars and marvel kick so like.... Peter Parker x Reader
So... things weren't going very well. There were many reasons for this but the largest was probably the fact that you were in a malfunctioning escape pod, hurtling across space at close to light speed. How you were going so fast, you had not a single clue though.
Lower on your list of problems, but not much lower, was the fact that you had kind of sort of just run away from the clones. They were your friends, hell you'd practically grown up with them. The war was won and the next moment you and your master were being shot at by the clones you had thought to be friends.
The final of the big three problems on your list was the one that was causing you the most grief. Your master, the one person in the galaxy you were closest too, the closest thing you had to a parent was now dead. They had sacrificed themselves to shove you into this escape pod and make sure you got out alive.
Okay, maybe those weren't your biggest problems, though they were all related. Your biggest problem was that you had no idea how many rotations you'd been stuck in this pod with very little food and water, but even more limited air. It had to have been at least 7 rotations at this point, you'd spend a ton of time trying to fix the pod. More time sleeping and even more crying over your lost master.
You were probably going to die stuck here in this pod, which was an alright way to go you supposed but honestly it's probably more painful than being shot in the face by your friends. At this point most of the air was gone, leaving you fading in and out of sleep as you struggled to survive. Hopefully you'd be asleep when the air finally ran out but with your luck probably not. This was your plan, to die in your sleep as peacefully as possible, but as a Jedi since when did things go to plan?
The pod around you shuddered, a sensation you'd felt a million times, you were entering an atmosphere. The pod slowed significantly from how fast it had been traveling, causing you to slide off the seat and across the floor, into the opposite wall. You struggled to keep yourself awake, but ended up passing out again before you could hit the planet's surface. It was probably good that you did, so you wouldn't have to face your death as you crashed into the ground at terminal velocity.
Once again things don't go as planned. You wake up in what has to be a med bay, attached to machines beeping and making a million other various sounds. You're familiar with med bays, you had ended up in one many a time, you aren't worried until you try to sit up and find yourself strapped to the bed.
The restraints cause instant panic to swell up inside you. Where were you and why did they need to keep you there- In your panic you struggle to free yourself, trying to get a hand free to be able to get out without alerting anyone or anything thing.
"Ma'am," your thoughts are interrupted, not by a medical droid as you had thought but by a person, a tall man with an eyepatch. "I'm afraid you're going to have to stay there until you explain yourself and how you crashed on our planet."
You can only stare at him in shock. What did he mean explain yourself- you couldn't do that, you'd just be killed if they knew you were a Jedi- SHIT- your lightsaber where was it, in your panic you feel for your hip- nothing.
The man notices, "I assume you're looking for this," he holds up your lightsaber, "don't worry we'll give it back to you- we just need to know you aren't a threat first."
He was holding your lightsaber and had no idea what it was or who you are. This calmed your nerves some, but you still couldn't bring yourself to tell him everything, so you start with a name, "my name is y/n l/n. What's yours?" You ask, possibly using the force to get him to answer easier.
"Nicholas Fury, you can just call me Fury." He pauses before continuing, "so, y/n why are you here?"
You pause, staring at him confused, how dense was this guy- "I crashed here, wherever here is," you answer shortly, trying to keep your patience with his questioning. You needed to know where you were before you tried to get out of here.
"This is earth, in the case you really do not know. How is it you crashed here?"
"I..." you pause deciding how much of the truth to tell.
"I suggest you tell the truth. Things will go much smoother for all of us that way."
"I was in a malfunctioning escape pod. Couldn't control it. In fact I was about to die from lack of air when I entered earth's atmosphere." The man stares at you, judging what you had shared, then he just- leaves the room the door closing behind him and he doesn't even say goodbye.
Once again you felt anger racing through you and you forced yourself to relax. Strong emotions were not the way of the Jedi. You let your head flop back onto the pillow and you close your eyes. You didn't need to rush, you'd figure out how to get out eventually, you weren't in any immediate danger.
You must have fallen asleep yet again as you lay there because you jump awake at the sound of your door opening and people entering. "She says her name is y/n l/n, female, human and about 17 years old. As far as we can tell she is not a threat but feel it would be best if you all kept an eye on her while she finished recovering from her injuries received in the crash."
You sit your head up and look to the voices. It was that Fury man once again, but this time he had three other people with him, two men and one woman. That's when he turns back to face you, "ah, you're awake very good. This is Steve, Tony and Natasha, they will be keeping an eye on you while you recover along with some others."
You wanted to protest you were fine, but somehow you thought that would be fruitless so you just nod and look at the three. They were strong, probably hard to escape from, but you'd escaped worse. Granted those were all with the aid of your master, this time you were on your own. That was fine, you'd take your time with it unless there was any sign of real danger from them.
"Do I have to stay restrained on this bed or can I be let go?" At their suspicious looks you come up with an excuse, "I was nearly dead when I crashed, that was before the impact. I have no idea how long I've been here, but I'd like to stretch my legs before they disappear."
Fury looks at the three and they seem to shrug, though Steve nods, "she hasn't done anything for you to be suspicious of has she? I mean besides being an unknown who crashed on earth."
"Not yet," Fury says begrudgingly before moving over to loosen the restraints an let you up.
You ignore the hand offered in help, sliding off the bed and carefully steadying yourself. Your legs were weak, but you could manage to hold yourself up. You look once again at the adults, feeling as though you were surrounded by the Jedi council. "So, what were you talking about? With them watching me while I recover?"
"They have a large secure place you can stay as you finish recovering. You have yet to do anything to prove that you need to be kept in a cell, but you also have yet to prove you aren't a danger so you'll be watched," Fury explains.
You nod, you could live with that. "One thing- could I have," you pause, unsure what to call it, "the thing you showed me the last time you came in that you took from me?"
Fury nods, but hands your lightsaber over to Tony, "we've yet to figure out what this is but it's obviously important to her. You take a look at it, and you decide when she gets it back."
Later that rotation you arrive on the landing platform of a tall building. "This is Avengers tower," the one named Tony says, "you'll be staying in here with us until Fury decides otherwise."
"Alright," you purse your lips and shrug your shoulders. This was fine, the place was similar to many places in Coruscant, though this also seemed to be the high tech place on this planet. That was fine, it was similar enough to the temple that you were comfortable in the room that you were shown too.
"We will have dinner in an hour and you can meet the others then," you can only nod as the door closes behind you. How long an hour is and what dinner was eluded you but you would try and be there on time.
It seemed you finally had a moment to yourself so you found a comfortable spot on the floor to meditate. You get settled and begin to get in the zone when there is a knock on your door. "Come in," you call as you stand and go to open the door for the visitor.
To your surprise it's a young man close to your own age, "uh- hi," he offers a smile, "I'm Peter, Mr.Stark said you'd be staying here and that you were close to my age... so he thought I could help you adjust a bit since I'm his intern and am here a lot."
You look at him, quietly and using the force to poke and prod, figuring out that he had no ill intentions even if he had some sort of secret. "Very well," you say and move aside so he can enter your room.
He comes in and hesitates before taking a seat on the edge of your bed. "So, where are you from? All they told me was they you were from out of town."
You go and take a seat on the bed near him, deciding it would be harmless to answer his questions even if he's reporting back to Fury. You tell him the name of the planet you were born on and he tries to figure out where that is until you finally just have to explain that it's another planet all together.
"Wait- so you're an alien?! That's awesome! How's you get here? Are you like the Asgardians where you look human but have super strength and magical powers?"
You're bombarded with questions and you only answer some of them, "I suppose you could call me an alien." "What is an Asgardian?" And so forth.
Despite him asking most of the questions you're able to learn quite a bit from him. And even though you don't really trust anyone here you feel that Peter is the most trustworthy, freely offering you information in exchange for information. Your conversation is interrupted sooner than you'd like with a knock on the door and Steve sticking his head in to let you both know it's time for dinner.
Your brow furrowed in confusion for the millionth time but you get up and follow Steve and Peter to whatever this dinner was. It was food. And good food at that, not the normal military rations you'd get stuck with on missions or the simple food they served at the temple.
You take the seat next to Peter's and look at the other adults you hadn't met yet. They were all wary of you but that was fine. They introduce themselves, Thor, Clint, Bruce, Wanda and Vision. Six men, and three women including yourself.
This was everyone, Clint, Natasha, Steve and Thor posed the most obvious threat to you. Wanda seemed to just be a normal civilian who was here for some reason, as did Tony and Bruce. But Tony had to be a threat of some sort considering he was one of the three sent to get you. Bruce on the other hand if anything seemed scared of you and that was alright.
"Hey Mr.Stark, is y/n going to school while she stays with you guys?" Peter speaks up.
"No kid, y/n will just be staying here. I'm assuming that you've figured out that we don't know who she is or where she's from considering that Steve found you in her room just now," Tony says.
Peter's face reddens and he stutters for a response, "you're the- the one who told me to go talk to her!"
Clint joins in, "wow, Pete, you're already sneaking into her room? Tsk tsk I expected more of you."
Whatever the hell they're on about eludes you so you continue eating as they banter. "So- y/n," Natasha interrupts, "seeing as you don't have any clothes with you, Wanda, Vision and I will be taking you shopping tomorrow to get you something to wear other than that ill fitting SHIELD uniform they gave you."
You looked down realizing for the first time what it was you were wearing. All black just a long sleeve shirt and pants, it wasn't bad but it wasn't what you liked. "Okay," you respond, it would be nice to get a better look around this place called earth.
The next day goes smoothly, the three help you find clothes that will allow you to blend in, jeans and tshirts and shorts. They were all brightly colored, hardly any greys and nothing brown, and just a few black items. When you had spotted a robe in one of the stores and grabbed it they let you, saying something about Tony paying for it and if it'll help them get on your good side.
That light grey robe becomes your constant companion. They are surprised when you wear it absolutely everywhere and over any of your outfits, you had a strange sense of style but it was fine it wasn't like you left the tower.
When what they call a month passes you realize that you had only gotten closer to Peter, not any closer to escaping this place. But overall it wasn't bad, no clones had shown up to hunt you down and the others living there seemed to be the protectors of this planet, similar to the Jedi over the galaxy. So you were actually kind of content, despite being restless after exploring every inch of the tower with Peter.
Sure they had tons of books and other scripts to read, but you were used to always going never stopping. Now you were stuck, not even able to train thanks to Tony still holding your lightsaber hostage somewhere.
Other than that it was fine though, Peter had asked if you wanted to watch a movie with him, some form of entertainment. Seeing as you had nothing better to do you accepted. As he showed you how to make popcorn and got to the television room he was blabbering on and on about what was apparently his favorite movie series. It was something called Starwars and he was so excited to show it to you sure that you would love it.
A New Hope is the first that you start with and it held your attention from the moment it started. Peter doesn't think anything of your fixated silence, thinking you to just be enjoying the movie. At least until you stand up when something familiar comes on screen. "What is this?!" You demand almost angrily.
"What's what?" Peter asks, nearly terrified as you glowered at him.
"That!" You point once again at the screen, more specifically the lightsaber.
"It's a lightsaber-"
A million things rush through your mind and you grasp the sides of your head, "how do you know about lightsabers?! We are no where near Coruscant and only the Jedi can have them! How do you have record of them here- here on earth?"
Peter is flabbergasted by your outburst, normally quiet, almost stoic, here you were shouting at him over a movie. A movie you claimed to have never seen before and yet here you were knowing stuff about the prequels when he'd started you on Episode 4.
"I- I- I don't know what you're talking about y/n it's just a movie! I thought you hadn't seen them before?!"
It's at this long you relax enough to realize how scared he truly is and you calm yourself down. You look at him and he truly is clueless as to what you're on about. You take a breath and calm yourself before taking his hand, "we need to talk, somewhere private-"
He grabs onto that, you calming down and just talking it out with him, "follow me," he says taking you along by the hand to a closet, one of the few spaces in the tower without a camera. Once the two of you are in there you're standing nearly nose to nose and Peter's face reddens yet again at being close to you, why he did that you didn't know and right now you didn't care. "What are you talking about y/n?"
You take a breath, "those movies- how do you have them? All that information about the Jedi and the Sith- Tatooine and R2 droids-"
You could keep going but he cuts you off, "it's all made up y/n, a guy named George Lucas, he made up those stories they aren't real. He went and made some movies for fun, that's all those are, stories, made up stories."
You throw your hands up in the air, you'd gone backwards in your progress of not showing emotion since being here, "Peter- no, you don't understand- those things, they aren't made up." You pause and grab his shoulders, looking in his eyes, "I'm a Jedi- I'm a padawan. That's why I haven't told any of you anything about me. The clones killed my master while they saved me. They shoved me into an escape pod and launched it- it malfunctioned and I crashed here then I've been here ever sense. But somehow you know about the Jedi and lightsabers and think it's all made up-"
You finally let go of him and let yourself fall to the floor, grasping your head. This was madness. What in all the known systems is a movie and how is there one having all the secrets of the Jedi on a planet that doesn't know you even truly exist.
You're snapped out of it when Peter kneels in front of you and takes your hands so you stop pulling at your hair. "Okay, okay- we can figure this out y/n, we'll go and talk to Tony, figure out why you think all of this is real."
As soon as he mentions Tony you're crawling away from him, muttering, "no no no no no no no no," as you struggle to get the door open.
"Y/n, it's okay I promise, trust me- no one here wants to hurt you, let's figure this out together-" he tries to stop you in your panic. But nothing he says helps, it's only when he does something, something that shocks you out of it that you stop to listen to him.
His hands cup your cheeks and his lips crash against yours. You don't respond for a moment, until you pull away and look at him in shock. What was that? You think but no, you can't get distracted by strange earth customs.
You relax and close your eyes, when Peter tries to remove his hands from your cheeks you hold them there with your own. It's a minute before you open your eyes and look at Peter again, "okay... we can figure this out..." you say gently, "I just- not the others- not yet. I'm still not sure I can trust them... but you- I feel safe with you," you admit.
Peter's face reddens again but he nods, slowly removing his hands from your cheeks to wrap you in a hug. You can't help but lean into it, putting your arms around him in return, "we'll figure it out. Just us, no Tony, no one else, promise."
For as long as you don't let go of him he doesn't let go of you. But eventually you do move, you don't know what it is but there's something different about Peter, something different from any other life form you had met. The two of you move together, getting up from the floor of the storage closet, then go back to your room.
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everyone on the carte blanche for the ask meme
everyone? oh boy this is gonna get long ajfhdsf
JUNO
First impression: i, like a lot of people who get into the podcast without knowing a great deal about it, was expecting at most an ambiguously bisexual angst machine with a closely-guarded heart of gold. juno being an explicitly bisexual genderqueer angst machine is perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my life. the angst machine heart of gold characters were kind of my type at the time, so i loved him right away
Impression now: every time i think about juno’s arc from depressed mess held together by bad coping mechanisms, safety pins, and a few good strong puns into someone who can talk about his feelings, feel comfortable about being happy, and recognise when he needs to change, i want to cry about it a little bit. the depth of my love for juno steel has only grown along with him
Favourite moment: juno has a lot of great one-liners and i’m still a big fan of the “on the other hand i wasn’t wearing a watch” bit and who can forget such classics as juno finally deciding to stop moping over nureyev and move on only for him to open the door to his apartment and find nureyev sitting in the dark dramatically, but honestly nothing will ever hit me harder than his sudden, pissed-off declaration of “i can’t die yet, i still have shit to do!” in promised land. god.
Idea for a story: oh i have so many and i want to write most of them so no spoilers, but juno accidentally kidnaps a baby during a carte blanche heist and shenanigans ensue
Unpopular opinion: obviously we all know he’s dummy thicc but i feel like a lot of people forget he’s an actual genius, like the stuff he notices and how he strings it together is sometimes so obscure and he’s almost always right. oh, also juno is not skinny and i will not be taking criticism on that
Favourite relationship: this is so tough because every dynamic is so good, but i think it has to be juno and rita. those two are so good! the best best friends in the world!! i’m really a sucker for any dynamic that’s ridiculously in-sync so i loved these two as soon as juno saw rita’s notes in prince of mars and went “makes perfect sense to me” (which it probably didn’t, because rita, but he trusted that she knew what she was doing which is the important part)
Favourite headcanon: this isn’t really a headcanon but i still think about how juno is (was?) deathly afraid of heights but when he heard rex glass coming he still attempted to climb out of the window. either his aversion to working with dark matters/other people in general was so strong is overrided his fear, or his office was actually on the ground floor. not sure which of these is funnier.
NUREYEV
First impression: we’ve all seen the memes about nureyev knowing juno steel for one (1) day and deciding to Risk It All by leaving him with his name, look at this Hopeless Romantic, this utter DISASTER of a homosexual. the fact the very next time we hear from nureyev (at least directly) he’s patiently waiting in juno’s dark apartment to surprise him with a heist definitely supports this image.
Impression now: even after literally being inside peter’s head, i feel like we didn’t get a real sense of who he is until man in glass, where we find out he aggressively compartmentalises everything that causes him stress. he’s also distinctly someone who’s had his heart broken before, i think, which makes those first appearances of his very strange. but it does remind me of what juno says about diamond, and how he decided to provide the trust first and wait for the trustworthiness to grow in (only to get severely hurt), and i think that’s exactly what nureyev did. i am also... very uneasy with how suspicious he’s behaving this season because obviously i want to believe he’ll sort it all out and not betray the crew but... oof
Favourite moment: the beginning of what lies beyond pt1 where he’s affectionately bullying juno into taking care of himself? cleared my crops watered my skin etc etc etc
Idea for a story: i’d love to hear more about his past as a young thief idolising buddy and vespa (i can’t actually remember if that’s canon or fanon but anyway i wanna read it!)
Unpopular opinion: i think people often cling to an image of him that more resembles his first impressions in season 1 instead of seeing the depth that we’ve been given about his character in season 3
Favourite relationship: him and juno but honestly it’s a close call between them and his budding friendship with rita. even though she learned it by accident, his name is still a point of intimacy and it’s one less secret to keep around her which has to be a weight off his shoulders, at least a little? they seem like they could be really good friends once ultrabots is out of the way. juno steel love (and also bullying) zone activates whenever they’re together
Favourite headcanon: i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again - nureyev has never done a household chore in his goddamn life. he doesn’t know the water needs to be hot when you wash dishes.
RITA
First impression: honestly i’m not sure? i don’t remember having a big awareness of her in murderous mask but i remember loving her “note-taking” in prince of mars, i thought she sounded really fun and cute
Impression now: rita is really fun and cute, she’s also an extremely hardworking and dedicated woman who had the guts to throw in with a detective fired from the force and then invest all of her time and money into helping him help people.
Favourite moment: Rita Gets A Knife. enough said
Idea for a story: i don’t know honestly! i really struggle to write rita because her thought processes are so wild and i don’t think any story i could come up with would match mega ultrabots of cyberjustice.
Unpopular opinion: this shouldn’t be unpopular because juno steel himself shares this opinion but all future-jupeter headcanons are incomplete without rita also being a huge part of their lives
Favourite relationship: rita + franny 4ever obviously.. jk it’s juno & rita have you heard rita minute 3 they’re too adorable for this world. im still Soft over their conversation at the end of soul of the people when he said he couldn’t stay in hyperion anymore but he wouldn’t leave with the carte blanche if rita wasn’t coming because he was done leaving her behind, and she threw out all her hesitations on the spot and said call the big guy. speaking of, rita & jet are a close second. instant best friends i love them.
Favourite headcanon: i think this is basically canon now but rita being literally half the height of jet is so good
JET
First impression: “haha lorge funny man puts juno in the trash”
Impression now: jet sikuliaq is one of the dearest characters to me out of anything ever. he is a huge, menacing, polite, kind, sincere man who i would very much like to give me a hug. he’s the best aro ace in outer space and while being generally very levelheaded and straightforward, also takes every opportunity to fuck with juno because it’s very easy and very hilarious to him personally. he is everything my autistic acearo ass needed and i’m so glad to have him
Favourite moment: all of them every single one. him putting juno in the trash is of course a classic and every moment jet chooses to be funny makes my heart happy, but also every piece of genuine advice he gives. i’m a particular fan though of buddy recounting her years in the lighthouse and him saying he became concerned when she didn’t come downstairs at the usual time. “you took the door off its hinges.” “i was deeply concerned.” king of understatement
Idea for a story: again no spoilers for you but..... tools of rust time loop au
Unpopular opinion: this isn’t “unpopular” as much as it is unknown but jet is buddy’s queerplatonic partner and i will keep saying it until everyone believes it
Favourite relationship: jet and buddy,,, just everything about them. the way he suspects when she’s lying, the way she makes tea for him when she expects him to drop by. the fact he comes to check on her when she is 41 seconds late to the family meeting because it’s unlike her to be late and the last time she was late for something her brain was turning to radiation soup. but most especially the way she snaps at him to stay out of her business and he said he could not because he made her promise eight years ago to never stay out of the business of her health, no matter how many times she asked. they r literally in a qpr
Favourite headcanon: i don’t think this is true but i still think it would be funny if the ruby-7 used to be painted red but when jet got it he had it painted green because he Just Really Likes Green (as evidenced by his hovercycle). it’s very funny to me.
BUDDY
First impression: it’s been a minute since i relistened to time gone by but i’m pretty sure the first thing she ever says in the podcast is sliding up to depressed accidental whiskey thief juno and say “that’ll be ten million creds,” scaring the shit out of him, so needless to say i was in love instantly.
Impression now: my love for buddy aurinko has only grown and if it sounds like i already said that in this post it’s because i did about juno and it’s appropriate because the parallels are astounding. the heart of it all gave us such depth to buddy’s internal monologue and why she always sounds like she knows exactly what to say and what that’s like and honestly will i ever be over the heart of it all as an episode? unlikely. i think i’m gonna have a little piece of it in MY heart forever.
Favourite moment: everything she’s ever said is iconic as hell i especially like “in an impressive fit of hubris i’ve decided not to prepare my words for this vow” which made me laugh out loud but once again i must give it up for her iconic “I WANT TO LIVE” moment. honourable mentions to her taking rita out for ice cream and giving juno shooting lessons while she’s in her actual wedding gown. i love her
Idea for a story: buddy and vespa as sun/moon dieties.... that’s all
Unpopular opinion: stop drawing her with a fancy high-tech eye like the theia!! it canonically looks like garbage and it’s described in detail, please, i’m dying, also don’t minimise her scars you bastards
Favourite relationship: buddy and vespa invented romantic love and the entire carte blanche crew’s relationship to her is great but you know by now i’m a slut for buddy & jet out-of-this-world queerplatonic partners. the way she checks in on him during tools of rust to make sure he’s not relapsing and he comes to find her when she is 41 seconds late in the heart of it all to make sure she’s not having a heart problem!! it’s the trust,, the devotion,, the mortifying ordeal of being known
Favourite headcanon: she can sing. absolutely tears it up at karaoke. i’m right
VESPA
First impression: knife lesbian goes STAB. she will heal your wounds but she will be threatening to give you more the whole time
Impression now: she is extremely strong, heart-rendingly tender, and despite being in the older half of the carte blanche crew somehow has unmistakable little sister energy which makes her downright hilarious. i’m so glad she got to marry buddy and they’re official space wives now they’re so good for each other
Favourite moment: both from shadows in the ship, either “GUN!!” “KNIFE?!” (iconic) or when she clocks the dark matters drone pretending to be juno because it called her crazy and juno wouldn’t call her crazy. i’m always a sucker for “shapeshifter fails to fool mark because they Know Each Other Too Well” and it was just *chefs kiss* so good
Idea for a story: i really want to write something about when she was first staying at the lighthouse with buddy post-reunion, and getting to know jet and stuff. i think it would be cute
Unpopular opinion: i know vespa doesn’t canonically have lots of scarring but people who don’t draw her with scarring? cowards.
Favourite relationship: once again, although buddy and vespa invented romantic love, i just love the dynamic between vespa and juno so much. they’ve come so far with each other and their weird sibling dynamic gives me life. at the end of what lies beyond when juno says “we’re not gonna kill her, vespa” and instead of sounding full of Rage and Suspicion she’s like “whyyy notttt?” and he’s like “because i said so!” and that’s just good enough for her even if she’s a bit grumpy about it. i love it.
this took.. a hot minute to do! jshkfjsdgsa thank you dyl ily <3
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ealeczander · 4 years
Text
A list of Hufflepuffs my Slytherin heart will die for
In order of number of brain cells
#1 Jason Mendoza
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Do I need to say more? He is the sweetest kindest person. I don’t even know why he was in the bad place. He was a best friend to everybody, ha actually gave good advice regarding friends and relationships, he didn’t hold grudges or hated people, he didn’t have a bad bone in his body, he was just really dumb, which makes me love him even more!
#2 Thor Odinson (Marvel)
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Don’t you even say he’s not a Hufflepuff, I will fight you! Him still teaming up with Loki after being betrayed like a million times is the only proof you need. He doesn’t want to be king, he just wants to save his people. He is a 220 pound puppy and I love him!
#3 Emmet Cullen (Twilight)
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Him and Thor both have dumb-jock energy that is typical for Gryffindor but they’re both too good to be there. They’re literally walking and talking hugs. Emmet is such a lovable puppy. He fights bears for fun, for God sake. He accepted Bella before even Edward did. He has zero beef with anybody. The only reason he has more brain cells than Thor is because he somehow managed to snatch a serious Bad Bitch™ like Rosalie. But as we all know Slytherins are weak for Hufflepuffs.
#4 Beast Boy (Titans)
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A lonely boy with a heart of gold that can also turn himself on into any fluffy anymal on the planet? Sign me the fuck UP! He was the only one Rachel’s father didn’t try to corrupt because of course he couldn’t. He was the only one that didn’t turn against Jason when Deathstroke was playing tricks on them. He was the only one that didn’t abandon Dick when he confessed his secret. He is loyal to everybody because he sees the good in them, not their demons. Seriously, I can’t express with words how in love with him I am! My heart can’t take it!
#5 Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)
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His character may have started as an asshole Gryffindor or even a Slytherin but by the end of season 1 and onward Mom Steve has been the best thing this show has to offer! He cares about his friends, he has a giant heart, he never runs from a fight and he will protect everybody. A true hero and an adorable cutie!
#6 Ben Hargreeves (The Umbrella Academy)
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Honestly the cutest, most amazing, supportive brother any of the others can ask for, especially Klaus. He is quiet and doesn’t want to get involved in fights but he will do it for the greater good. He is constantly supporting Klaus and encouraging him to fight his addiction when he could’ve left years ago. He was basically the best friend of all the siblings. He loves fun and at the same time is extremely grounded and smart. I just love him!
#7 Peter Parker (Marvel)
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This boy will kill me with his cuteness. He just wants to help people and that’s the most adorable excuse to be a superhero. I’ve put him before as a Gryffindor but Tom Holland’s Spiderman is just too sweet not to be a Hufflepuff. Him wanting to save the world while trying to be a good person and a good friend just warms my heart!
#8 Newt Scamander 
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I had to put a real Hufflepuff in the list somewhere. Like, who wouldn’t die for this precious wizard. He is so innocent, he just wants to take care of his animals. He characteristically has a Slytherin ex that still loves him because that’s what us Slytherins do. He is just so perfect! I love him!
#9 Park Sae Ro Yi (Itaewon Class)
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If you’re new to kdramas and consider them to be soap operas, STOP everything you’re doing and go watch Itaewon Class NOW (it’s on Netflix). It’s a revenge story of a Hufflepuff! Which is never seen, ever, Hufflepuffs usually don’t do that. it’s so unique in it’s perspective of power, friendship, respect and pride all because of Sae Ro Yi, the main character, being a Hufflepuff. He is good and extremely kind and has a strong moral code. His squad consists of a Slytherin that is in love with him (of course), a trans woman that he supports with all his heart, an ex convict that he inspired to change his life, a black guy that wants to find his family, the son of the bad guy that he treats like family and his long time crush that now works for the bad guy but he doesn’t resent her or hate her, he just wants to help her. Sawe Ro Yi is just the best!
#10 Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks)
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Who isn’t in love with this coffee addict? He has to investigate the most gruesome crimes and he is still cheerful and positive. He searches for the good things in life and in people. He makes friends easily and everybody likes him, especially the Slytherin rich high school girl. He will sacrifice himself to stop evil from spreading. He is the biggest sweetheart!
The list is ongoing and open to suggestions... My love for Hufflepuffs will never end...
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angstysebfan · 4 years
Text
If You Love Me, Why Did You Hurt Me 7/10
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader Other Avengers Mentioned: none this chapter  Warnings: none
Summary: You dated Bucky for 5 wonderful years! You thought he was the one! Then, without reason, he ends your relationship, and gets a new girlfriend 2 days later! While you are both Avengers, you still have to see him, and his girlfriend.
Series Masterlist
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You lay on your bed, staring up at the ceiling thinking about the conversation you had only 30 minutes ago with Aaron.
“Will you move in with me, Y/N?” He looked hopefully at you. You just stared at him, trying to think of what to say, but your mind was blank. 
“I... I.... I need time to think about this.” Even your response shocked you. You have only known him for a few weeks. You are not even sure if you have romantic feelings toward him. But you didn’t say anything else. 
Aaron have you a small smile and nodded his head. You both got into the car and drove back to the compound in an awkward silence. When he pulled up, you went to get out of the car, when Aaron finally spoke.
“Y/N? I know you are trying to figure out your feelings for me. I know you are still recovering from your last relationship, and that you are still in love with him. But, I figured you might have a better chance of healing, if you had some separation from him. You can have your own room, if you feel weird about sharing mine. I... I just really want to see you continue to improve.”
You gave Aaron a small smile, and kissed his cheek. “I’ll think about it, and I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?” Aaron nodded, and you left the car.
What are you going to do? Aaron does have a point. You are still madly in love with Bucky, and knowing he is right across the hall does kill you in some way. Will moving out of the compound help you heal? You will still be an Avenger. You will still see him when you come to train and on missions. But maybe being apart will help you get over him. 
You knew you couldn’t make a final decision right now. You needed to sleep on it, and maybe talk to someone else. Just as you were about to go into the bathroom to brush your teeth before heading to bed, you hear a soft knock on your door.
You slowly open it and see Bucky standing there.
“Hey. I know it’s kinda late, but can we talk.... please?” You stare at him wondering if you should let him in, or tell him to go away. He continues to stare at you with those beautiful blue eyes, you love so much. You see the hope in them.
“It’s kinda late. Is it important?�� You say softly. You see his shoulders lower with your dejection. 
“Please. I promise I’ll be quick, but I really want to talk to you. I’ve wanted to all day. Please?”
You sigh and walk away from the door, leaving ajar as a sign he can enter the room. You go and sit on your bed and motion for him to sit on the love seat across from you. You wait for him to begin, but it feels like forever. You get more annoyed the longer it takes for him to open his mouth.
“I thought you said you needed to talk” you snap at him, after a few minutes of silence. You see him wince at your tone and see his adam’s apple move up and down. He finally takes a deep breath.
“I... I just wanted to again express to you how sorry I am for how I ended things. You are such a good person, and you were the best thing to ever happen to me and I ruined it. I know I told you I didn’t love you, but it was a lie. Everything I said that day was a lie. I still love you, and I will love you for the rest of my life.”
He takes a pause and puts his hand in his hoodie pocket. “I need to tell you everything that happened that led to the breakup. I know it may not change how you feel towards me, but you have a right to know.”
He takes a deep breath again. “The night we had that argument, a week before we broke up, I left and went to the bar. I was so upset that the night was ruined, because I was going to propose to you that night. I--”
“Hold on.. what?!” You yelled. “You were going to propose? But you broke my heart instead?”
You see the panic in Bucky’s eyes. “No.. no, please let me just tell you what happened... please.” You nod and crossed your arms across you chest.
Bucky nods, “Okay, so I was at the bar, thinking about how I can fix this, so we can get engaged. While I was there, Brittney came up to me and started flirting. Now I know I shouldn’t have, but I flirted back. I liked the attention she was giving me. But I planned on leaving the bar and never seeing her again.”
You can’t look at him as he talks. You keep your eyes to the floor, your heart is racing. You are trying to keep it cool. Bucky can sense your distress and wonders if he should continue. He gives you a minute and when he sees your breathing calm down he quietly continues.
“When I was leaving I dropped my cell phone on the ground. She got it before me and quickly called herself from my phone so she could have my number. We spent the whole week texting each other. Most of it was just flirting back and forth. But I swear it didn’t mean anything to me.”
Tears started to form in your eyes as you thought about the week prior to your break up. Now that you remember, he was on his cell phone texting a lot. Always had a smirk on his face. You didn’t think anything of it at the time. Now you wish you questioned it. 
“She asked me to meet up with her at the bar again. I decided that I was going to end whatever this was that day. I bought her a drink to let her down easy, but then we kept talking and drinking. When I went to finally tell her I couldn’t speak to her again, she kissed me.”
Your eyes looked up to his. Now the tears were falling down your cheeks. You didn’t know if you wanted to hear anything else. Bucky stood up and walked to your bed. He sat down next to you, pain in his eyes. 
“I never felt so guilty in my entire life. Everything I did as the Winter Soldier was nothing compared the the guilt I had when she kissed me. But I promise you, I didn’t reciprocate, but I didn’t stop her either.” Bucky said this last part in a whisper, but you heard it. Betrayed. That was the word that popped into your brain. 
Bucky gulped. “The next morning while we made love, I told you that you were my everything. I meant that. You are my everything. I want a marriage and kids, but only if it is with you. I went to meet Brittney at the cafe later that morning to tell her I was done. That I have a girl that I loved and I wasn’t doing this anymore. When she came in, she looked at me like you do. She walked up to me and she kissed me again.”
Bucky started to cry. “I thought my heart shattered into a million pieces. I was too much of a coward to tell her the truth. I thought if I told you what happened you were going to leave me, and I didn’t think I could take that. I knew that if we were going to end, I had to be the one to do it. I hurt you, and you didn’t even know it yet. I am so sorry baby. I am so.... so sorry.”
Bucky was sobbing at this point. You looked at him while tears were still going down your cheeks. You grabbed Bucky’s shoulder and hugged him tightly. He continued to sob into your shoulder while whispering “I’m sorry” over and over. You just caressed his hair, while taking in the information. 
After a few minutes, Bucky calmed down. You both released each other. He looked at you and wiped the tears that were still coming down from your eyes. You didn’t know what to say, or what to think. You looked down at your fingers.
“Bucky...” You take a deep breath and looked into his sorrowful eyes. “I... I appreciate you telling me the truth. At least I know now, but that doesn’t excuse you breaking my heart.”
Bucky looked down, you could see the regret on his face. “I know you didn’t mean for things to go as far as they did with Brittney, but you didn’t stop it. If you truly loved me, you would have stopped it. Maybe a part of you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”
Bucky looked at you, panic on his face. “No... no I love you with every fiber of my being. I will never love anyone else like I love you. You are it. It’s you... it’s always been and always will be you.”
You let out a sob. “Then why did you let it continue? Why did you break up with me? Why did you start dating her 2 days later?!” Anger started to fuel your words. Bucky doesn’t know what to do or say. 
“If you love me, like you say you do, why did you have no problem parading her around the compound for weeks! Having very loud sex with her, when you knew I was across the hall!? How could you do that to me?! You broke me! I was ready to die, because of how terrible I felt!”
Bucky starts sobbing again. “I... I know. I honestly can’t tell you why I did those things, but I regret every decision I have made since I went to that bar that night. But I want to make it up to you. I want to earn your trust again, and I want to be with you.”
“I love you! I hate that I love you! I hate that I am trying to talk myself out of a relationship with a guy who cares about me, because of how much I love you! And he was right! Being this close to you will be my downfall. My recovery will go backwards and I will end up right where I started!”
You realized what you were saying. You wanted to stop yourself, but the words just came out, “I’m moving out of the compound, and I am moving in with Aaron.”
Bucky’s face falls with devastation. “No, Y/N, please. Give me a chance to make it up to you. I can make you happy again. Please don’t leave me. I can’t... I can’t live without you. Please.” 
“Please leave.” Bucky looks at you, begging you to reconsider. You stare at him with a blank expression, but the tears continue to fall from your eyes. “I need to give my relationship with Aaron a chance. I can’t do that if I am here living near you. I am sorry, but I don’t want to give you another chance to break my heart.”
Bucky is crushed. He slowly nods. He slowly gets up and heads toward your door. Before he opens it, he turns to you. “I hope he makes you happy. You deserve all the h-happiness in the world. But if you need anything, please know that I am here for you.”
Before you can even answer, he leaves, closing the door softly behind him. You stare at the door the love of your life just left through. The urge to run through that door and hold him is so large you physically have to stop yourself. 
You allow yourself to sob, hard. Eventually you cry yourself to sleep. But all you could dream about is Bucky and 2 nameless children who have your hair color and their father’s eyes.
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Chapter 6     Chapter 8
Holy crap! I just need to know. How many of you are pro Aaron and how many of you are pro Bucky? 
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purplesurveys · 3 years
Text
1197
survey by ohsh1t2wksl8
Layers
Layer 1: The Basics
Name: Since there’ve been several people who’ve followed me recently anyway, HI I’m Robyn.
Age: 23.
Birthday: April 21st.
Gender: Female.
Zodiac Sign: Taurus.
Layer 2: Your Family
Do you have any brothers or sisters? Yes, I have one of each.
Do you have any pets? Yup, two dogs.
Do you still live with your parents? I do. I’m not in a rush.
Do you have any stepparents? Nope.
How many cousins do you have? 11 first cousins. Throwing my second cousins into the mix would dramatically increase the number and I don’t feel like counting rn.
Layer 3: Your Friends
Who is your best friend? Angela and Andi.
Who have you been friends with the longest? Angela and I have been friends for 16 years and it’s stronger as ever these days because of our mutual love for BTS hehe.
What do you like to do with your friends? It really depends! There’s no one thing I like doing most with any of them; as long as I’m with them I’d consider it time well spent.
Do you have more friends online or in real life? Real life. It’s hard to form friendships online once nearly everyone starts becoming younger than you.
What is a good way to make friends with others? One thing I learned is that you have to be okay to initiate, and that’s not really something I like doing all the time.
Layer 4: Your Home
Do you live in a home, apartment, duplex, trailer, etc? I live in a house.
How many rooms are there in your house? There are 4 bedrooms and 5 other kinds of rooms – that’s 2 bathrooms, the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
Is your home large or small? I’d say it’s medium-sized. It’s not small that I feel cramped or inadequate, but it’s also nowhere near a mansion. It’s very comfortable for a family of 5.
What is your favorite room in your house, and why? Rooftop. My family barely goes there (and what a shame they don’t), so it’s a nice place to go to when I want to be alone but can’t get out of the house. Not to mention that it’s open-air and windy there, so whenever I feel as if I’m getting cooked inside I can always depend on the rooftop.
Do you prefer having people over to your house, or would you rather go to theirs? I’d rather go to theirs. Our house is really deep into the village and is a challenge to get to, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the general area.
Layer 5: Can You
Can you fold your tongue into the taco shape? Yes, but that’s the furthest it can go. I can’t really bend or twist it into shapes more complex than that.
Can you touch your toes without bending your knees? Nah, I lost that ability years ago. I didn’t make the most out of my flexibility back when I still had it.
Can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue? I never tried.
Can you hold up your end of a physical fight? I bet I can’t.
Can you do any yo-yo tricks? No, I was always terrible at the yo-yo.
Layer 6: Who
Who inspires you the most, and why? I don’t have any ~inspirations. I do like looking up to whoever my current obsession is – be it Rhett and Link, Paramore, BTS, etc. – to help me be happy and have something to smile at, but I try not to let any of them govern every single aspect of my life.
Who helps you maintain your sanity? My best friends. And these days, surprise surprise! – BTS.
Who do you go to most often for advice? Depends on the topic; I always run to either of my best friends. If I need a collective opinion, I go to my college friend group’s group chat.
Who knows you better than you know yourself? At one point it had been Gabie, but *shrug* Nowadays, the person who knows me best would probably be Andi.
Who is someone that you would die or put your life on the line for, no questions asked? Any of my friends.
Layer 7: Do you
Do you still eat sandwiches without the crusts? Nah - I’ve grown to be a fan of the crusts. I used to make my grandma slice them off as a kid or else I wouldn’t even think of touching the sandwich; then something changed as I got older and now I absolutely have to have the crust. At home, I even call dibs on the first and last pieces of bread (the ones that are all crust) whenever we get a new pack of sliced bread.
Do you typically finish your meal at a restaurant, or need to take a container home? I usually ask for it to be packed up for takeout.
Do you pull an Oreo apart in order to eat it? No, I just bite into it.
Do you read a lot of gossip magazines? As a kid/teenager. I’m over that now.
Do you make friends easily? I’m not the biggest social butterfly, but I’m also not super closed off. I’ll be happy to talk to anyone who approaches me.
Layer 8: How Many?
How many people live in your house with you? Four.
How many pets have you had in your lifetime? In my lifetime...I guess a good rough estimate would be somewhere around 10? I’ll never know exactly how many we’ve had since I never kept track of how many goldfish we kept.
How many tries does it take you to become successful at something? Depends. I never learned how to ride a bike even if I’ve pushed myself to practice ever since I was 5, but there are other things I’m able to pick up easily.
How many meals do you eat a day? One, dinner.
How many people can you honestly tolerate? This isn’t really an issue to me haha, I like being around people and my patience around them is usually long.
Layer 9: How
How do you typically get to school or work? I work from home at the moment and probably would for a little while longer; but if things were different, I would be driving myself.
How do you deal with a breakup? When I was going through mine, I was stupidly stubborn at first and refused any form of help. I deactivated all my social media and shut both my best friends out; it even got to a point where mutual friends were beginning to ask Andi where I’ve been as I’ve “disappeared off the face of the Earth” (an actual quote they relayed to me). I cried day in and day out, cried during my shifts, stayed holed up in my room; and I skipped hundreds of meals, sometimes not eating all day. It wasn’t a good place to be in.
But I knew I was on the right path to recovering the moment I reached out to friends again and acknowledged that I needed help. I started to help myself, too; I cut the person off slowly, and I started to look for new things to get into, new hobbies to invest in. I let my friends give me tough love and show me the reality of my situation, and I listened this time around. I don’t know what drove me to make a sudden change in my life but I’m really glad I came around to the decision, because I’m happier than ever these days.
How do you like to help others? All sorts of ways. I always want to make others’ lives a little easier.
How do you know when you’ve found “the one”? I don’t trust that instinct anymore.
How do you sleep in bed? On my side, clutching a pillow. No pillow to hug, no sleep.
Layer 10: What
What do you think happens when we die? That I just fall asleep for a very long time.
What do you do if there’s no toilet paper left on the roll and you’re already peeing? Turn around and hope there is at least a bidet in the stall.
What do you eat most often? Rice.
What toys did you enjoy most as a child? Anything with a lot of buttons or features to play around with, like detailed dollhouses.
What do you do if you witness someone being awful to someone else? Intervene, for the most part.
Layer 11: Where
Where is your favorite place to eat out? BGC has great ambience and restaurant choices, but it’s been a while since I’ve been there. I also still feel weird about the place since Gabie and I had dates there pretty often, sooooo I really ought to make new memories there with new people once I can.
Where is the place that has the best ice cream in your area? We don’t really have places known for ice cream...most people just buy pints or tubs of them at the grocery lol.
Where did you meet your current or last significant other? School.
Where can you be found at 7 PM. typically? Wrapping up work in my room.
Where can you find the best French fries? Potato Corner.
Layer 12: When
When did you find out the truth about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy? Never believed in the first two. Tooth Fairy I lost hope in when I placed a tooth under my pillow when I was around 6 or 7 and woke up to nothing.
When do you typically fall asleep? Early hours of the morning tbh. I’d sleep anywhere between 1-4 AM these days.
When was the last time that someone paid you a compliment? Kata and I often make sure to compliment one another for our hard work by the end of particularly grueling shifts.
When do you feel most comfortable? Friday nights when I’m sure I can finally close my work group chats for the next two days.
When did you last go to the bathroom? Around an hour or so ago.
Layer 13: Why
Why do you enjoy taking surveys so much? It’s a stress reliever that has never failed me, and it lets me answers quirky random questions no one would ever have to ask me.
Why do people gossip so much? For one, probably the thrill of knowing something that's meant to be a thing.
Why can’t humans fly? It wouldn’t have been a necessity, I’m guessing.
Why aren’t you doing something else right now? Because I just spent the last 24 hours streaming Butter on Spotify and YouTube to raise views and plays for the boys, and taking this survey is actually the first thing I’ve done all day after taking a quick nap this afternoon to recover from all the streaming I did hahaha.
Why is the sky blue? I don’t know.
Layer 14: If…
If you had a million dollars, what would you spend it on? Buy chocolate chips because I’m craving them rn; get all BTS merch in one go; give a chunk to my parents; keep the rest.
If you found out someone was cheating on you, would you ever take them back? I don’t really have consistency when it comes to this situation. I know I definitely would’ve been stupid enough to stay with Gab if she hypothetically cheated on me while we were still together; I’m not sure if I’d stay when it comes to another person entirely.
If you found a wallet with cash in the street, including identification, would you turn it in? Why or why not? Yeah, I’d look for the owner. I’m not that desperate for money, personally.
If you could have any food right now, what would you like?   SUSHI.
If you found out that the world was going to end tomorrow, how would you spend your last day? Go to the mall and get some much-needed air, then probably drop off some japchae and tteokbokki at Angela’s place.
Layer 15: Firsts
When did you lose your first tooth? I was in Prep and it actually fell out while I was in school. We were having storytime and I had to interrupt the session to tell my teacher it was starting to feel loose, so she got me some tissues to help me get it out.
Who was your first teacher that you ever had? Her name was Kathy. I don’t really have any substantial memories of her because I was 4 lmao, but I know she was nice.
When did you first learn how to ride a bike? ...Still learning...
When was the first time you had sex? Like a day or two after turning 18.
Did your first birthday have a theme to it? Not necessarily but my parents threw me a party at Jollibee, so it kinda had to be Jollibee-themed lol.
Layer 16: Lasts
Last person you texted: I don’t feel like checking because it was most definitely a work-related text and I don’t want to be reminded of work on a Sunday, but it was a media person. 
Last drink you sipped: The last of my coffee.
Last time you rode a bike: Like, March last year when the pandemic had still been fresh and I thought I could use all the free time to finally learn how to ride a bike. Absolute clownery.
Last time you swam in a pool: August 2019.
Last person you hugged: Not sure. Angela, I think.
Layer 17: Favorites
Favorite Color: I think pastel pink is still taking the lead for me.
Favorite Season: We don’t have the usual four seasons, but I do have a liking for winter. It just seems very cozy for me.
Favorite Shape: I don’t have one.
Favorite Letter: Mmmmm, don’t really have one of these either.
Favorite Number: 4 or 7.
Layer 18: This or That
Pepsi or Coke? I don’t drink softdrinks.
Movies or Television? Movies, but I haven’t really been watching much of either recently.
Phone or Tablet? Phone. Haven’t used a tablet in yearrrrrsssssss.
Fruits or Vegetables? Veggies. Hate fruits.
Animals or Humans? I think I like both an equal amount.
Layer 19: Which
Which Poke’mon is your favorite? Chikorita.
Which day of the week is your favorite? Friday, because of course.
Which birthday celebration was the most memorable for you? My 18th, even though out of all the friends I celebrated my birthday with I only have one of them left in my life. I know I was happy during that time so I wouldn’t invalidate that experience for myself.
Which holiday is your favorite? Christmas, only for the sheer amount of food I get to have.
Which shoe do you put on first? I always switch it up, I’m pretty sure. I don’t have a particular habit.
Layer 20: Love Life/Relationships
What is the name of your first love? Gabie.
How many times can you honestly say you’ve been in love? Once.
Have you ever been in a relationship before that was abusive in any way? After being able to take a step back and analyzing it deeper, yes.
Have you ever been engaged or married before? Nope.
Do you have any children? I don’t.
Layer 21: Jobs, Dreams, & Goals
What did you want to be when you grew up (as a little kid)? I couldn’t decide among being an astronaut, firefighter, or veterinarian.
What do you aspire to be now? What interests you? I realized I wanted to be in the field of media and public relations, and that’s where I am now. I like being able to use my writing skills for something I find fun and fulfilling, instead of rotting away in a newsroom writing news I’m usually too sensitive for.
What is the most recent goal you’ve achieved? I got regularized! :)
What is a goal you are still striving to reach? A salary increase would be nice, and then a promotion down the road would also be awesome.
Have you ever won any sort of awards before? If so, for what? Sure. I was consistently on the honor roll in college and graduated with Latin honors, if those count as awards.
Layer 22: Opinions & Beliefs
Pro-life or pro-choice? Pro-choice.
Were you raised with any sort of religious background? If so, then what? Yesss, I was and am raised in a Catholic household. Weirdly enough my parents have grown more laidback in the last few years and my mom no longer berates us for not doing the sign of the cross when we pray before eating (my siblings have taken after me and refuse to do it as well). No idea what sparked that change but I’m just glad I never have to do gestures like that one anymore.
Democrat, Republican, or Independent? We don’t have the same parties here.
For or against the death penalty? This is a very complicated web and for reasons largely relevant to my country and the issues we have, I am mostly against it.
Thoughts on assisted suicide? I am ok with it as long as there is consent involved. 
Layer 23: Currently/Today/Present
What day is it? It’s Sunday again, blegh.
What’s the weather like outside? Sunny.
What have you eaten? Just a Fudgee Bar so far but I’m having breakfast with my family in an hour or so.
Did you run any errands? Well it’s only 8:37 AM so not yet, but one or two might come up throughout the day.
What time is it? 8:38 now.
Layer 24: Yesterday
Did you have a work shift? No, I don’t work Saturdays.
Did you eat out anywhere? No :( I’ve wanted to for a while, though. Maybe I might today, actually – they’ve loosened up quarantine protocols so restaurants have opened up again. Let’s see if I’ll feel like driving today.
Was it snowing? It doesn’t snow here.
Who did you last say goodnight to? Cooper.
Did anything unusual happen? It rained and there was cold breeze during the evening.
Layer 25: Tomorrow
Do you have to go to school/class? No, but I do have to go to work.
Does this day have any sort of significance to you? May 24...I don’t think so. Nothing comes to mind.
What is a chore that needs to get done? My veeeeeeery long list of to-do tasks that I’m trying not to think about rn.
Will you hang out with friends? No chance of that happening.
What time will you be expected to be awake by? 9 AM.
Layer 26: Have You Ever
Performed a magic trick successfully? I don’t think so.
Sat or laid on a rooftop and looked at the stars? I’m at the rooftop all the time but I only occasionally lie down to look at the stars.
Walked around with your underwear on inside out or backwards all day without realizing it? Nope.
Touched a snake? Yep. I’ve had one wrapped around me before, too.
Been bitten by an animal? If so, what animal? Just by ants and mosquitoes.
Layer 27: School Life
Are preschool and kindergarten mandatory where you live? Not sure about mandatory but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of people who went straight to first grade as kids, either because of advanced intelligence or financial limitations.
Were you or anyone you knew homeschooled? I have one set of cousins who are all homeschooled; and I also used to have classmates who eventually transferred out of my school to be homeschooled instead.
Did you attend public or private school? Private.
Were you bullied in school, popular, or somewhere in-between? I was a loner for the most part, but after befriending the popular groups in high school I kind of got dragged into that scene as well.
What is the highest level of education that you completed? Undergraduate degree.
Layer 28: Your Appearance
Eye Color: Dark brown/black.
Hair Color: Black.
Height: 5′1″.
Weight: A little under 100 lbs.
Do you have freckles, moles, beauty marks, or birthmarks - and where? I have moles on my right arm, under my jaw, near my left knee, and under my left boob. I have a birthmark behind my left shoulder.
Layer 29: Electronics, Internet, & Social Media
How much time do you spend on the internet per day? Hahahah yeesh, way to put me on the spot. I wanna say anywhere between 16-18 hours? I’m online the second I wake up until the moment I turn in for bed.
Which social media platforms do you belong to? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr.
When’s the last time you replaced the batteries in your television remote? 4975493875495743 years ago.
Are you more likely to stream movies and shows on your laptop, or cast them to your television? Laptop.
Do you have an e-reader, or do you prefer actual books? I don’t read regularly anymore, but I’ve never liked reading from a screen. I prefer a physical book as much as possible.
Layer 30: Are You
Are you still in school? No. I’m not opposed to grad school either, but it has to be a REALLY REALLY REALLY fucking great opportunity for me to sink my teeth into it. We’re talking getting accepted to grad school in like Spain or NYU; otherwise I wouldn’t take it.
Are you a member of the LGBTQ+ community? Yes.
Are you looking forward to anything coming soon? Festa month!
Are you dreading anything coming soon? Work tomorrow.
Are you gullible or naive? I can be both.
Layer 31: Does
Does your workplace make you feel like you can never take a day off without feeling guilty about it? Not at all. I’m really grateful they take vacation leaves seriously; we even have a Mental Health Break Day scheduled two Fridays from now. Purely a company thing.
Does someone currently hold the key to your heart? Kim Taehyung... :/
Does anyone out there hate you? Idk and I couldn’t give less of a shit if anyone does.
Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? No.
Does crying make you feel less strong? Nope. It took me a while to realize it, but acknowledging feelings and processing them is actually one of the strongest things you can do for yourself. 
Layer 32: Would You
Do the Polar Bear Plunge? Idk what that is.
Ever try to walk across a room blindfolded? I’ve done it before, so sure.
Swim with sharks? As long as I’m surrounded with experts, yes.
Go into outer space, given the chance? In a heartbeat.
Go out in public, looking how you do right now? Nope.
Layer 33: Pets/Animals
Do you have any pets? If so, what type, and their names… Yesss. There’s Kimi who’s an aspin, and Cooper the beagle.
If not, what type of pet have you always wanted?
What is your favorite animal? Dogs and elephants :)
Do you think it is cruel to have circus animals? Yes, or having animals do tricks for show, in general. I always discourage my parents from booking tickets to animal theme parks when we plan vacations.
How often do you walk your dog, if you have one? How often do you scoop the litterbox, if you have a cat? Every week.
Layer 34: Food
What is your favorite breakfast item? Fried rice.
What is your favorite kind of dessert? Macarons and cheescake.
Do you eat all three meals everyday? Nah. I have one meal on weekdays, and two meals on some weekends.
What’s the longest you’ve gone without food? Around 24 hours.
What do you like to eat when you are feeling sick? Greasy things haha. If I’m feeling like death, might as well be having good food.
Layer 35: Past
Does your past ever come back to haunt you at times? Not really.
What is one of your favorite memories of the past? Spending my college years with the right people.
What is something that you used to do in the past, but no longer do? Harm myself.
If you could have a meal with someone from the past, who would it be, and what would you ask them? Audrey Hepburn, but I don’t really have a question for her. It would just be nice to get to spend a few minutes with her.
Which historical time period would you like to go back to and check out? Precolonial Philippines.
Layer 36: Future
Do you think you will ever get married one day? It’s definitely a lovely scenario to have but I’m really unsure about it at the moment just because there’s no one I have in mind and I have no plans to start dating around again soon.
Do you plan on ever getting a different job in the future, or are you happy with the one you’ve got? I’m happy with the one I have and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
What age do you plan to retire at? Or do you plan on working til you’re dead? Probably the latter haha.
What is something on your bucket list worth mentioning? Going to Wrestlemania.
If given the opportunity to see how your future plays out, would you take it, or no? Yes.
Layer 37: Hygiene
How often do you shower? Once daily. Twice if it’s stupidly hot during the day.
How often do you brush your teeth? Once or twice a day.
Do you actually iron any of your clothes? Mm, not really. But if I was planning on wear something that gets easily crumpled, I iron that in advance.
How often do you do laundry? I’m not in charge of laundry.
How long do you use a bath towel before switching it out? Around 1–2 weeks.
Layer 38: Clothing, Makeup, & Style
Do you wear nail polish? If so, how often do you paint your nails? Nah.
How would your describe your sense of style? I like sticking with trends as long as I feel comfortable in them.
Are there any popular trends that you do not find appealing? Just makeup in general.
Where do you typically buy your clothing from? Local small businesses or H&M. 
What sorts of accessories do you wear/use? I don’t really invest in them, but I wanna start buying more headbands, bucket hats, and earrings.
Layer 39: Hobbies
Do you still color, even as an adult? Occasionally.
Do you/would you like to crochet, knit, cross-stitch, etc? Yeaaah I do embroidery but I’ve stopped for a while since finding other interests and hobbies to dabble in. I have no plans to ditch it completely though; I’ll come back to it when the time is right.
What’s the last thing you crafted all by yourself? Not sure.
Do you use Pinterest at all? Nope.
What’s the last thing that you cooked or baked? Lol.
Layer 40: Dislikes
List some of your pet peeves here. Driving slowly on lanes intended for overtaking; taking too much of my food; being subtle about asking for favors.
What are some things that annoy you about yourself? Easily punishing myself for mistakes, no matter how small; I also find that putting others first before myself 100% of the time can sometimes end up being an inconvenience for myself.
Is there anyone out there who you actually hate? Who? Nope.
What is a feeling that you dislike? “I should have done/said this.” Not sure what feeling this falls under (maybe helplessness?), but having these thoughts irritate me to no end especially if I can’t do anything about the situation.
Do you get some ugly road rage while driving? Yep.
Layer 41: Random
Have you ever successfully pogo’ed on a pogo stick? Nah, I’ve never even seen one in real life. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been dying to try getting on one lol. 
Have you ever mastered the jump rope? I wouldn’t say I’m a master, but I can do the basic jumps and last a long time doing them.
Do you know what it feels like to be truly happy? I don’t know if I’ve determined this already; I have a lot of years ahead of me and lots of experiences I’ve yet to go through.
Is it winter in your part of the world right now? No.
What’s your favorite type of survey, and why? Random ones or ones with categories, like this one.
Layer 42: Music
What are some of your favorite genres of music? Alternative, folk indie, punk rock, R&B...and BTS.
What are some music genres that you can’t stand? Country, screamo, techno.
If you had a blank pair of concert tickets, who would you hope to be going to see? Any one of my holy trinity: Paramore, Beyoncé, or BTS.
Do you still listen to music on the radio from time to time? Not anymore, come to think of it. I’m completely unaware of the Top 40 space right now, and have been for a while.
iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, or YouTube? Spotify.
Layer 43: Books
What were some of your favorite books as a child? The Septimus Heap series and the Percy Jackson series.
What genre of books do you typically read most often? Memoirs.
What are some of your favorite books as an adult? I don’t read anymore.
What is a book that you were required to read for school that you actually enjoyed? Hands down, Without Seeing the Dawn. I remember fairly enjoying Charlotte’s Web and Number the Stars as well.
Do you read any newspapers or magazines anymore? No.
Layer 43: Around the World
Where’s the best place you’ve taken a vacation and/or day trip to? Jeju, South Korea; Bali, Indonesia; Palawan; Batanes; and Boracay.
Where is somewhere that you’d like to go someday, assuming you have the funds to do so? Seoul, South Korea.
Where do your family members originate from? Just Philippines.
What is your favorite type of ethnic cuisine? All Asian cuisines. Each of them is so unique and always has something new to discover.
What is something that is typically representative of your own culture? Jollibee? Hahaha.
Layer 44: Would you Rather…
Drink apple juice or grape juice? Apple.
Wear pants or shorts? Shorts, as much as possible.
Be taller or shorter? Taller.
Go to a zoo or an aquarium? Neither if possible.
Visit an art gallery or a museum? Museum.
Layer 45: Movies
Do you remember what the first movie was that you saw in theaters? Stuart Little 2 when I was 4.
What are some of your favorite movies you’ve seen? Two for the Road, Gone with the Wind, Roman Holiday, Revolutionary Road, Toy Story, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Room.
What genre of movie do you typically enjoy? Drama.
What is a movie you’ve seen that you weren’t expecting to like, but were pleasantly surprised? Requiem For A Dream, but maybe remove ‘pleasantly.’ Anomalisa is also a good answer for this.
How many movies do you own? Are they all DVD’s, or do you still have some VHS ones left? I just watch them on Netflix, haha.
Layer 46: Personality
Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert? I’m really more of an ambivert than anything else. I can deal with alone time and more social days equally well.
Are you more easygoing and laid back, or anal? Again, I can be both depending on the situation.
Are you kind to everyone who shows that they deserve kindness? Yes.
Describe your sense of humor. I can laugh over anything from dad jokes to crackhead memes.
Do you tend to over-share? Not really. I tend to have a good sense of how much I should share depending on the person/group I’m with.
Layer 47: Celebrities
Which celebrity has given their child the most unique name, in your opinion? I mean, Elon Musk and Grimes have to be up there, right? The Kardashians have also given their kids unique names, but I actually am a fan of them all.
Are there any celebrities that you keep tabs on/read articles about often? Nah, I’m past that part of my life lol. As obsessed as I am with BTS and as unavoidable rumors about their personal life are, I literally don’t care and just want them to have happy private lives. That’s one of the reasons why I know I’m truly in my 20s now hahaha.
Who is/are your celebrity crush(es)? Kim Taehyung, Hayley Williams, Kristen Stewart.
Have you ever personally met someone famous before? If so, then who? A lot of local celebrities and personalities since it came with the nature of my course.
Who is a celebrity that you’re getting tired of hearing about all the time? Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.
Layer 48: Emotions
When was the last time you cried? Earlier, but they were happy tears.
What are some things that you’re afraid of? Big change, injections, drowning, sharp objects.
What is something small that makes you happy? Cold weather.
Who is the last person that you were angry with, and about what? My mom wrongfully blaming me for something I had very little to do with. Both my siblings are very sensitive and are never scolded, so I usually take the heat even for things I’m barely involved in. Such is the life of the eldest daughter in an Asian household, lmao.
Are you typically a shy or outgoing person? I’m always shy at first, but end up being perky and outgoing once warmed up.
Layer 49: Digging Deeper
What is your favorite alcoholic beverage? Mixed drinks.
How old were you when you got drunk for the first time? 18.
Do you smoke? Very rarely. I don’t want to make it a habit.
Have you ever taken and sent naked pictures of yourself? I have.
Have you ever done any drugs other than marijuana? If so, which ones? No.
Layer 50: Games
What are some of your favorite video games? Mario Kart, Resident Evil, and Legend of Zelda are some of my favorite series.
Do you have any computer games that you play regularly? I don’t play computer games.
What was your favorite board game, growing up? Scrabble.
How about your favorite card game? I also don’t play card games.
How good are you at solving puzzles? (such as a Rubik’s cube, word puzzles, or putting together a jigsaw puzzle) I don’t like puzzles.
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nalgenewhore · 4 years
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A rogue storm had her presumed dead and stranded on the red planet. Left on her own, astronaut Aelin Galathynius has four years to make it to the next drop-site, some two thousand miles. Armed with her smarts and dwindling supplies, Aelin attempts to survive on an inhospitable planet, when the nearest help is only millions of miles away.
masterlist - ao3 - last chapter - next chapter 
+*+*+*+*+*+*
The young man – boy, really – was sleeping on the love seat in his office, snoring ever so slightly.
Vaughan Kuāutli popped his head in the open door and rapped his knuckles against the doorframe, “Luca?” The sleeping boy simply snored and smacked his lips together. Vaughan sighed and said louder, “Luca, wake up. RPL needs the probe courses.”
Luca sprang up, his mop of unruly hair facing every which way. “Oh, hey, Vaughan.” He stumbled to his feet, yawning as he made his way to his desk and computer, where graphics of the course projection were spinning around. He grabbed an opened can of some energy drink and chugged the rest, crushing the can in his hand and tossing it into the wastebasket. He missed.
Vaughan didn’t blink an eye, knowing this was normal behaviour for the son of Malakai Scéalaí. Despite the fact that he was TNSB legacy, Luca had worked harder than anyone he knew to get here, where he held the position of astrodynamicist. The boy was near genius status. “I know we’re coming at this from the wrong way, but we can’t commit to launch dates with these many unknowns.”
Luca waved his hand as he sat down in his wheeled chair, nearly missing it. Why did I let him get a wheeled chair, Vaughan thought. There’s so many things that could go wrong. “It’s fine. All twenty-three models will take four-hundred and four days to reach Farnor. They only slightly vary in thrust duration and fuel requirement is almost identical.”
His boss entered the messy room. Messy might have been an understatement. Vaughan thought that ‘biohazard’ was fitting for Luca’s office/bedroom - he ended up spending the night here more often than not. “Four-hundred and four days. Not a good launch window, huh?” His eyes roved over the calculations.
Luca snorted, “It’s terrible. Like, it’d almost be easier to…” his chestnut-brown eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up behind his floppy fringe.
“Almost easier to what?”
Luca got to his feet slowly, looking as though he’d seen a ghost, “I need more RedBull. And coffee.” Honestly, it was a miracle Luca hadn’t dropped dead from cardiac arrest yet.
“Almost easier to what?” Luca was too lost in his head and scrambled for the door, pushing Vaughan out of the way. Vaughan stared after him, “You do remember that I’m your boss, right?”
The only indication Luca gave that he heard him was a thumbs-up over his head and then he disappeared around the corner.
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“Am I reading this right, five-hundred million?”
Sartaq nodded, looking like he was about to drop dead right on the carpeted floor of his office. “Yes, sir, that’s correct.”
Weylan’s brows rose, the only indication of his shock and he turned his gaze from the screen to the table in front of him, Manon and Asterin somber on the other side. “And now for the expensive question, where’s your team at?”
“…we’re behind.” Sartaq said, sounded defeated. “If I had fifteen more days, I could get it done.”
“All right. Say I can get you fifteen days, then… what? It’s thirteen to mount the probe?”
The RPL director tilted his head to the side a few times, “It actually only takes three days to mount the probe. I can get that down to two and the other ten are for inspections.”
Weylan drummed his fingers on his briefing folder, contemplating something. “How often do those tests present a problem?”
Everyone froze and Manon asked, her voice almost aghast, “Are you saying we don’t do the inspections?”
“Right now, I’m asking how often they present a problem. Sartaq?”
The exhausted man looked nervous and almost as if he resented saying, “One in twenty, but that’s still grounds for countdown halt. Weylan, we can’t take that chance.”
“If you have a safer way, by all means, tell me. Anybody?” Nobody answered him and he nodded, “Right then. Manon, tell Dr. Towers to stretch Aelin’s rations four more days. She won’t like it, but it’ll get us to fifteen. Cancel the inspections.”
“Sir-“
“It’s on me, Gavriel. Sartaq, you have your two weeks. Get it done.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Aelin was standing by the microwave, watching her plate of food spin around and around until the machine beeped and she hastily grabbed the plate, hissing at the heat as she put it down on the counter. Meatloaf and potatoes. Again.
Grabbing her knife and fork, Aelin cut up the meatloaf, “So. I have to hold out here until the probe arrives with more food. This is what minimal calorie count looks like,” pointing to the meager plate, “standard issue ration.”
She snorted a laugh, “Usually, it’s three of these every day and now… one every three days.” The meatloaf was cut into thirds and she transported two of the pieces onto a separate plate. “This is today’s allotment. Which I get to supplement with potatoes. Which I am beginning to abhor, happy, TNSB? I watched my language. Anyways, I am beginning to loathe these things with the passion of seven billion million burning suns. I’ve been told to do this,” she cut her potato in half and put one of them on the plate with the meatloaf. “You know, I used to like Yrene Towers. Point is, ‘stretch the rations four more days’ is a real tit punch.”
She walked over to the desk, where there lay two white pills. Aelin sat down and crushed the pills with her knife. She looked to the computer camera, her eyes conveying just how done she was, “I ran out of ketchup three days ago.” Moving the crushed powder into a neat circle, she said, “So I’m dipping my potato in Vicodin and no one can stop me.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
The energy in Mission Control was electric as they all waited for Manon’s signal. She slipped on her headset, “Mission Control, this is Flight Director Blackbeak. Begin launch status check.” This is where Manon was in her element and it was obvious to everyone around her.
“Roger that, Flight Director,” the Launch Control director answered. “Launch Control test is complete and we are ready.”
“This is Flight. We are a go for launch.”
The timer controller started its countdown, the robotic voice booming through Mission Control. “T-minus 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…”
Asterin paced behind Manon’s seat, praying as liftoff was announced and the rocket was launched from the holding hull.
The flight was clean and when Manon let go of a held-in breath, the room relaxed, all smiles and happy faces as the rocket flew high. But something changed.
“Flight, this is Guidance Control, we’re getting large shimmy in the tail.”
“No…” she whispered, shaking her head as the rocket began losing guidance and telemetry, absolutely powerless as it exploded right before their eyes.
The probe was gone and Weylan Darrow had just signed Aelin’s death certificate. 
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Kashin and Hasar Dalavtchai were in her office in Antica, watching the head of TNSB do an interview. The woman spat to her brother, “They forced our brother to skip inspections and now their astronaut is going to die.”
“Perhaps,” Kashin replied, sliding a document her way, “The Rukhin’s booster. We ran the numbers and it has enough fuel for a Farnor injection orbit.”
Hasar, the director of the Southern Continent National Space Administration, looked over the document thoughtfully, flipping through the pages, “And they haven’t approached us, why?”
“They don’t know. Father kept the booster technology classified.” It was one of the reasons Sartaq had left. He believed that all of their knowledge should be public access.
“Hm.” Hasar narrowed her eyes and stood up, walking to her office’s large floor-to-ceiling windows. “If we do nothing… the world will never know we could have helped.”
“Yes.” Kashin hid his satisfied grin. He knew what Hasar was thinking and agreed with her wholeheartedly. “If we give them the booster, we will be effectively cancelling The Rukhin.”
Hasar turned to him, her mind already made up. She was tired of her father’s secrecy. “We keep it between SCNSA and TNSB. An exchange between scientists…”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“Yes, we understand.” Manon watched Weylan where he was pacing on the phone, with whom she didn’t know. “Yes. Yes… thank you.”
He hung up the phone, relief flooding his face. Manon sat up from where she had been slouching in his office chair. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“Ok, Luca, you need to listen to me,” Vaughan said, serious as he rested his hands on the boy’s shoulders, trying to make him stop shaking. Mala save him, how much caffeine had he ingested? “These people run TNSB, do you understand? You need to be professional. They will not be as easy on you as I am, they don’t understand your thought pattern. And if they ask you to explain, do not, do not, let them know you think they’re stupid, alright?”
Luca nodded, trying to contain his bouncing. “I know, I know. I had some coffee, so I think I’m good to speak to the normies, boss man.” 
Vaughan just shook his head and whispered a prayer of protection as he herded the boy into the conference room, where Weylan Darrow, Asterin and Manon Blackbeak, and Gavriel Aryeh were.
Luca tripped over the threshold, sending his papers flying. Vaughan just hung his head and sat down beside Gavriel, “I’d like to introduce Luca Scéalaí, astrodynamicist.”
To his credit, Luca didn’t piss himself as Manon and Asterin helped him gather his papers, their sharp sharp nails shining. Gavriel rose a brow, “Scéalaí?”
“Um, yeah, my dad’s Malakai? He did some rover thing a while ago.” Luca shrugged, as if it was no big deal of one his fathers had built the first craft ever to reach Farnor. With a deep breath, he put a thick folder on the table. “This is it.”
“And what would that be, Luca?” Asterin questioned him, exchanging an amused glance with Manon. To Vaughan, it looked like two predators who found their next meal to be adorable.
“Oh, yeah, duh,” Luca slapped his forehead. “I can get The Lani back to Farnor by day five-sixty-one.”
That had everyone in the room choking and shooting up. “What,” Manon breathed, eyes wide. “How?”
Luca looked around the room, spying a half-empty mug of coffee which happened to be Gavriel’s. He snatched it up and chugged the contents, to the half-horrified audience. “Ok, let’s pretend that this is The Lani and you…” he pointed at Weylan, moving his finger to indicate the man to his feet, “sorry, what’s your name?”
“Weylan. I’m the director of TNSB.”
“Oh, deadass? That’s sick, man, but anyways, you’re Farnor and you,” he pointed at Asterin who eagerly stood, relishing the chaotic way that the meeting was going, “you’re Earth. So, right now The Lani is beginning the month-long de-acceleration to enter into Earth’s orbit, yeah?” He walked the mug towards Asterin, who was shaking with her attempts to control her laughter as he made a rocket noise with his mouth and slowed with every step. Vaughan closed his eyes and groaned quietly. “But what I’m proposing…,” Luca walked faster to Asterin. He froze, looking around for something. Without a care, Luca jogged back to Weylan and plucked a pen out of his breast pocket, hurrying back to Asterin. “This is The Rukhin, alright?”
He bopped the pen off her head, causing Manon to cackle, and dumped it in the mug, “We grab whatever provisions we need and now we’re speeding up, like, nyoom, and we fly around Earth and kinda, I guess, slingshot back to Farnor.” He puttered back to Weylan, making more rocket noises.
Luca hovered the mug over Weylan’s head, “But now we’re going too fast to slow down so we do a flyby.”
“How?”
Vaughan spoke up, “By using The Crone’s FAV.”
Luca snapped his fingers and pointed at his boss, “Yes, that. I did the math. It checks out.”
“Luca?”
“Yeah?” He turned to face Weylan.
“Get out.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea, I need some coffee anyway,” Luca mumbled, leaving his things scattered about the room. “Deuces, dudes and dudettes.” 
Weylan turned to Gavriel and Vaughan. “So is he right?”
“Yes, he is,” Vaughan replied. “His math is correct; the boy is a genius. Crazy, space-cadet, can barely take care of himself, but a genius.”
“And we need to use The Rukhin?”
“Yes, sir.”
Asterin frowned, “Am I missing something?”
Manon nodded, “There’s only one booster. And both plans require it.”
“What about The Lani crew? Luca’s proposal adds…” she did the math in her head, “five-hundred and thirty-three days to their mission.”
“They wouldn’t hesitate,” Manon said, standing up and seething, because she knew what Weylan was leaning towards. “Not for a second. That’s why you made this meeting a secret, isn’t it?” she accused him, meeting his eyes until he looked away. “You want us to decide.”
Weylan nodded.
“You gods-damned coward. It should be Commander Salvaterre’s decision and you know it.”
“It’s a matter of life and death, Manon.”
“He’s the Mission Leader, life and death matters are his decisions.”
Gavriel interrupted the fight before it could escalate, “Can The Lani even do that?”
“Yes,” Vaughan said, “it was built to do all the Three-Faced Goddess missions, so it’s not even two-thirds through it’s lifespan.”
“But if something went wrong, we’d lose the crew.” Asterin furrowed her brow, fighting between siding with Manon, who she agreed with, or with Weylan, who’s option was safer. “So… what? We either have a high chance of killing one person or a low chance of killing six? How do we make that decision?”
“We don’t. Weylan does.”
All eyes turned to him and they waited for what seemed like an eternity before, “We still have the chance to bring home five astronauts. Safe and sound.”
“Let them make that decision,” spat Manon, murder in her eyes. Weylan was grateful for the table separating them, not that it would be a hindrance to her if she tried anything.
“Manon. We’re going with option one.”
She made a disgusted sound and looked around the room. No one dared to meet her eye, not even Asterin. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Aelin trudged up the hill to the solar panels, getting ready to scrub them clean. Again.
As she crested the small incline, she paused. No. She couldn’t do it anymore. 
Without another thought, she sat down, staring at the crimson sun.
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Nox was sitting before his computer, tracking Aelin’s course. Gavriel was next to him and wondered aloud, “Where is she going?” She would walk for three-hundred metres in one way, pause for ten minutes and repeat the process in another direction. “RPL didn’t ask her to do this, what is it?”
“I don’t know, oh… she’s at the rover, incoming data dump… what is this, Chem analysis, batch 1A-17A?”
Realization dawned on Gavriel and admiration coursed through him. “She’s finishing the mission.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“We evac’d on day eighteen of thirty-one, which means we still have thirteen days of labs to do.” Aelin crushed up a rock sample, “Commander Salvaterre, your work’s in good hands. Whitethorn… um… I really have no understanding of chemolithotrophic detection. Did I say that right? Anyway, I’m doing my best. Faliq, I know you hate it when I touch the ChemCam but guess what? You left me on a desolate planet, you’re not allowed to get mad at me. Lochan,” she carefully tapped the fine powder into a container and screwed the lid on tightly, labeling it with a black marker, “I got a new cataloguing system that you’ll really like. As for Marama’s jobs… there are none. Really, I don’t know why we even brought you along.”
Aelin sighed through her nose, “I know keeping everything organized and ordered isn’t my strong suit but I want it to all make sense for later. Maybe you can teach it in a class, the Galathynius syllabus. ‘How to make water out of rocket fuel’ or ‘how to grow plants on a planet with no living organisms’, I don’t know, but be creative with it, please. I refuse to have my name attached to some boring class.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Elide was sitting in her bunk, muttering curses at her computer when it wouldn’t let her load the attachment’s from Lysandra’s email. Eventually, she gave up and called Nesryn over the radio, “Nessie darling, can I bother you?”
“Yep, what is it?”
“There’s this email from Lys, subject line: Your Bachelorette Party. I can’t open the attachments, it’s all this code.”
“Ok, well, bring it to me and I’ll see what I can do. I’m in the rec room.”
“Copy that, on my way.”
It only took a few minutes for Elide to float her way to Nesryn. She may have been distracted by her fiancé and his lips for a short while, but that was a moot point as she slid down the ladder and walked to where Nesryn was stretching on the floor. “Hey.”
Nesryn reached out for the laptop, looking like a young child on Yulemas morning, “Gimme gimme.” She lived to solve computer problems. Elide chuckled and sat down on the floor next to her friend as she worked. “Huh. These aren’t JPGs. It looks like plain TSCII files. Math equations, does this make any sense to you?” She angled the computer screen to Elide.
“’Luca Scéalaí Maneuver.’ Yeah, it’s a course maneuver for The Lani…” As the navigator for the mission, Elide tried to make sense of the equations, one phrase sticking out to her. “Day five-sixty-one. Oh, my gods. Nes, bless you, I could kiss you right now!” 
Without another word, Elide jumped up and hurried to the radio, her voice blasted through every speaker on the ship, “This is Lochan, emergency meeting in the rec room, ASAP.”
Nesryn stood up, bewildered, “E, what is it?”
“Just wait, I’ll explain everything.”
Soon after, the boys had made their way to the worktable and Elide told them everything.
They sat in shock. Fenrys was the first to speak, “Would this really work?”
Elide nodded, “Yeah, I ran the numbers. It checks out.” Respect flooded her eyes, an excited gleam that Lorcan hadn’t seen in months. “It’s a brilliant course.”
“So why all the cloak and dagger,” Rowan asked, the ink on his face scrunching as he wrinkled his brow.
“TNSB rejected the idea. They want to put a big risk on Ae as opposed to a small risk on us,” Lorcan spat, indignation in his tone, “whoever snuck it into E’s email obviously disagrees.”
“So, we’re talking about going against TNSB’s orders?”
“Uh-huh. If we do the maneuver, they’ll have to send a provisional probe. We’d be forcing their hand.”
“Are we gonna do it?” Nesryn asked, a determined tilt to her chin.
Lorcan sighed and spread his hands, “Look, if it were up to me, we’d already be on our way.”
Fenrys’ eyes narrowed in confusion, “I’m confused. You’re Mission Leader, isn’t it your decision?”
“Not this time,” Elide answered for Lorcan. “TNSB expressly rejected the plan.”
“We’re talking about mutiny,” Lorcan said and that was not a word any of them used lightly. “We either all do this together, or not at all. Before you answer,” he leaned forward, looking everyone in the eye, “think of the consequences. If we mess up the supply, we die. If we mess up the gravity assist, we die. Even if we do everything perfectly, we still had five hundred and thirty-three days to our mission. Five hundred and thirty-three days without seeing our families. Five hundred and thirty-three days of unplanned space travel.”
“Sign me up.”
Everyone let loose a dry chuckle and Lorcan turned to Fenrys, “Slow down there, pup. You and me? We’re military. Chances are, we get down there and they’ll court marshal us.” Fenrys made a face. “As for the rest of you, I can guarantee, they’ll never let you back up here again.”
Now Rowan spoke up, “Say we say yes. How does this work?”
Everyone turned to Elide and she shrugged, “It’s really not that hard. I plot the course and execute it. No biggie.” A sly grin grew on her round lips. “Nes?”
“Remote override. But Mission Control can remotely pilot the ship.”
“You can’t disable it?”
“No, I can. I’d have to disable remote override on each control, which is tricky – I’d have to jump over a lot of code-“
“Just so everyone knows, Faliq’s hacker handle was ‘Mrs. Robot’ all through high school,” Elide cut in, cackling as Nesryn shot her a dirty look and then continued, daring anyone else to laugh.
“Lochan is a liar. And should keep our conversations private.” She paused. “I can do it.”
“This has to be unanimous. If anyone says no, we go home as planned.” Lorcan tapped the table, emphasizing his point, “But I vote yes.”
“I vote yes,” Fenrys said, drumming his fingers on the table.
Elide mused aloud, her face growing sad, “If we do this, it will be over nine hundred days of space travel. That’s enough space to last a lifetime.” She smiled at Lorcan as he rested his hand on her thigh and traced soothing circles with his thumb, not looking at anyone else as she said, “Yes.”
“Let’s go get our girl,” said Rowan, a glimmer of a smile on his lips.
And then there was one.
“Faliq?”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“Flight, CAPCOM.”
“Go CAPCOM.”
“Unscheduled status update from The Lani.”
“Roger. Read it out,” the night shift was much quieter than the day. Usually.
“It’s… just a single sentence, sir.”
“What? What’s it say?”
“Um… it says: ‘Perranth, be advised: Luca Scéalaí is one steely-eyed missile man.”
“Who is Luca Scéalaí?”
Alarms rang out around Mission Control. “Uh… Flight, Guidance.”
“Go Guidance.”
“The Lani is off course.”
That had him sitting up straighter in his chair and he leaned forward, “CAPCOM, tell Lani they’re drifting. Guidance, get a correction ready-“
“Negative Flight. They’ve adjusted course. Deliberate rotation.”
“What the hell? CAPCOM, ask Lani ‘what the hell’.”
“Roger Flight.”
“Guidance, calculate how long they can stay their course before it’s irreversible and someone figure out who in Hellas’ realm is Luca Scéalaí!”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
Manon entered Weylan’s office and he made her wait as he stayed staring out the window.
“Asterin will go to the media and tell them of TNSB’s decision to reroute The Lani to Farnor.”
“Seems like a smart move,” she said mildly, picking at her nails. “Is there a reason you called me in here?”
“You may have killed the whole crew.”
“Whoever sent that to them only passed along information that was their right in the first place. The crew decided to switch course.”
Weylan turned to her, his face red with fury as he hissed, “We are fighting the same war, Manon! Every time something goes wrong, the world forgets why we fly. I am trying to keep us airborne, this whole program, the reason everyone here gets up and goes to work every day is bigger than one girl!”
“She is not a girl. She is a grown woman; how dare you belittle her right now? Aelin Galathynius is braver than anyone on any planet. No one in this agency is not better or bigger than her,” Manon answered, her voice dripping with cool condescension for her boss. “Especially not you.”
He straightened. “Once this is over, I expect your resignation.”
She just laughed coldly, “Yeah, we’ll see about that, won’t we, Weylan?”
“Get out of my sight.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
 +*+*+*+*+*+*
“Five hundred and thirty-three days extra? And you said yes to this?”
Fenrys was attempting to placate his wife’s rage through the computer, but he remained unapologetic, “I did. She would’ve done the same for me, Mia, you know that.”
Nehemia scowled at him and traced a hand over her swollen stomach, “You really think I am going to forgive you for this and knocking me up with your demon spawn before you left for a year and a half?” 
Fenrys grinned at her, “I do. Look at this face, no one can stay mad at me for long.” His grin was blinding and Nehemia sighed, pressing her lips together to suppress her grin. The smile won and Fenrys’ only grew wider, “There she is.” He didn’t think he liked anything more than seeing Nehemia smile like that at him. 
Nehemia lifted her hand to the screen and he mirrored her. “Bring her home.”
+*+*+*+*+*+*
an: i told y’all it would all be ok! comment to be added/removed from the tag list! 
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Text
The Fall 2
Harry Potter AU
Pairings: Sirius Black x Reader 
Link to Chapter 1 
Rating: M 
Song at the beginning: Try
_______
Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame. Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned but just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die. You gotta get up and try…
Harry waited until he heard the door close before going back into the room. Sirius stood shaking his head obviously still angry.
“Did you hear that?”
Sirius asked. Harry nodded, wincing.
“The whole house heard.”
Sirius muttered “damn it” under his breath. The last thing that he wanted was for Harry to hear any of that conversation. The kid had enough on his plate without worrying about his godparent’s issues.
“I’m sorry about that. I really didn’t want you to hear any of that. This house brings out the worst in people. I suppose that it still does that to me even now. I never liked to raise my voice at Y/n. I spent too much time shouting when I was here...she didn’t need it.”
Harry didn’t have to ask Sirius if he still loved you. It was painfully obvious that he was. The same could be said for you too.
“She still loves you. Y/n has never gone out with anyone else.”
Harry said simply. Sirius looked at his godson like he had lost his ever loving mind. If you still loved him, that conversation was strange!
“Yeah, fat chance”
Ms. Weasly stepped in before Harry could make a response.
“Lunch is ready.”
Sirius was lost in his own thoughts as he walked into the dining room. He felt a little selfish for being thrilled with the fact that you hadn’t gone out with anyone else. It would have been soul crushing if you came in with another man! Sirius would have been happy to just send himself back to Azkaban and this time go crazy!
Meanwhile,
You sat on the edge of the bed still feeling on edge after the argument with Sirius. That argument was way out of character! Neither of you were really “screamers” when it came to arguments. You smiled at how your friends half the time didn’t know when you both were arguing. Everyone assumed that Sirius and yourself was the perfect couple who saw eye to eye on everything. Maybe in some ways you were too. You never liked arguing and Sirius did enough of it at home.
“We really do need to sit down and talk.”
You said, flopping backward on the bed. Maybe you had been a bit too harsh and let your emotions show? Part of you said yes and part of you said no. You had spent years wanting to have him back in your life and now you had the chance...but what if you were hurt again?
Over the years, you had put up so many barriers and walls to keep yourself safe. You had to give the poor man some credit, Sirius tried to talk to you. The problem was you were just not receptive of what he had to say. He pretty much stated that he wanted to fix things and do what he was supposed to. Sirius wanted to swoop in and be your knight in shining armor...like always.
“Yn, lunch.”
You slowly got up and walked down the hall. Stopping outside of Sirius' room, you sighed. You would have to face him and it was going to be painful!
Slowly, you pushed the door open and looked inside. Your heart broke. Nothing had changed since the last time you were in this room. You had half expected Walburga Black to destroy the room after Sirius ran away. Destroy was probably putting it lightly. If she had burned the room and rebuilt it to get any sign of Sirius from the house wouldn’t be surprising!
Stepping inside, you were comforted by the scent of the cologne that Sirius always wore. The scent alone brought back all of the fond memories of closeness the two of you once shared. Had it really been 14 years since he had held you? 14 long freaking years!
Looking down at the bedside table, your eyes stopped on the photo. It was the day that Sirius surprised you with the new house…
“Keep your eyes closed, love.”
Sirius said, happily. His hands were placed over your eyes as he guided you down the sidewalk.
“I can’t see with your hands over my eyes, silly”
You giggled. You could hear James chuckling in the background.
“Oh my god, if you two are playing some weird prank on me!”
Sirius laughed.
“No jokes, love. I promise. Now open your eyes when I move my hands.”
When Sirius’ hands moved, your eyes snapped open. You stood in front of a house that you had never seen before.
“What is this?”
Sirius wrapped his arms around your waist.
“It's ours.”
Your mouth dropped. You were not expecting anything like this!
“What?”
You spun around and threw your arms over his shoulders.
“Really?” - Sirius twirled you around ignoring James who was shaking his head with a smile. Since Sirius had moved in with your family, James had a 24/7 ringside seat to the snog fest of the century. There had been many nights that James sat watching the two of you wondering how much chapstick the two of you went through.
“Yes, love. It's all ours. Not our parents...ours. We can walk around naked all we want to,”
Sirius said the last bit loud enough for James to hear. He chuckled hearing his friend gag.
“I’ll be sure to knock before I come in.”
“That was one of my favorite days.”
You snapped out of the memory before turning to see Sirius standing at the doorway. His eyes were focused on the photo in your hands. You sat it down before turning to your lover.
“Seems like a million years ago.”
Sirius closed the door before rubbing the back of his head.
“Y/n, about earlier. I shouldn't have yelled at you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
You said, softly as you looked down at Sirius’ feet. His feet were about the only thing that you could look at. If you look at his face you would see the man that you loved...the man that you still wanted.
Sirius stood watching you with a frown on his face.
“What do you mean that it doesn’t matter.”
You looked up and took a breath.
“It isn’t like we can return to that anymore.”
You said softly before turning and walking toward the door. Sirius reached out and grabbed your hand.
“You think I did it, didn't you? You honestly thought that I would betray my best friend and wreck every damned thing that we had...your crazy! Everything we had was so good!”
You bit your lip.
“Yes, it was! That is the problem!”
“How is it a problem? Are you afraid that we are going to have it good or something? Afraid that I am going to make you happy or something?”
The two of you stared at each other coldly. Sirius was giving you that haughty “Black family scowl.” You wanted to keep calm but your temper was flaring again!
"Yeah, we’ll have it real good! You’re an escaped convict and I am some emotional nutjob. The perfect pairing for happy endings!”
The expression on Sirius’ face was unreadable for a second.
“Can we please just stop this? I can’t handle this. We are trapped in this fucking house that we both hate and are at each other’s throats.”
Sirius gently sat you down on the bed before kneeling in front of you. There it was! Those big dark eyes staring right into yours.
“Y/n, I swear to you...I would have never sold James and Lily to Voldermort. I would have rather died. When we catch Peter, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll even be willing to hold him down while you beat the shit out of him.”
Sirius was relieved when you smiled.
“Sirius, please. I’m an Auror. I am perfectly capable of kicking people’s asses. You’ve seen me throw Peter Pettigrew before...for academic purposes of course.”
Sirius smiled but quickly returned to looking depressed. He had taken one of your hands in his and was looking at the scars from various fights that littered your skin.
“I didn’t want you to be an Auror. Before you say it, it isn’t because of wanting you to be an ordinary housewife or whatever. It was to keep you safe. I couldn't...can’t stand the thought of you being harmed.”
You internally swooned at the sight of his hands rubbing over yours. God, everything even felt the same! Sirius stroked over your palm with his thumb.
“I had to take care of our godson and I’m smart enough to do the job. I’m also very good.”
Sirius rolled his eyes.
“Of course, you’re smart enough. Y/n, you don’t have to raise him on your own now. I have all of my family’s money now...it will be my pleasure to spend it.”
“You seem way too happy about that.”
You said with a small smile. Sirius was pretty proud of himself. He was actually able to touch you and made you smile.
“Well, it would really disappoint my mother. If I can make her and my father roll over in their graves...I would be extra happy.
Sirius gave you that cocky smile that typically got him anything that he wanted from you. He didn’t move for a moment; just sat staring at your face. After a moment, he slowly rose up enough to press a soft kiss to your lips. You couldn’t move for a moment. The kiss was soft and delicate...everything that you could have wanted it to be.
After a moment of quiet kissing, you pushed Sirius away. He looked totally confused as you moved to the door.
“Y/n…”
You shook your head quickly. No matter how wonderful the kiss was nor how much your heart was screaming to go back to him you couldn’t.
“I’m sorry, Sirius but I can’t do this.”
Sirius quickly stood.
“Why not? We clearly still have that spark.”
You felt like a pathetic school girl again (the same way you did when Sirius kissed you the first time) as you stood looking up at him.
“It's not that I don’t find you sparkly...I just can’t do this!”
Sirius sighed and pushed his now messy hair out of his face. He was beginning to feel on edge again.
“What do I have to do? I’m not going to hurt you! I have never put my hands on you in any kind of unloving…”
You held your hands up.
“Sirius, stop! I haven’t been totally honest with you either.”
Sirius froze before stepping back. What the fuck did tha mean?
“What are you talking about? There is someone else, isn’t there? Is it Lupin?”
Your mouth dropped in shock! That was the last thing that you expected to come out of Sirius’ mouth! You had never looked at Remus in a manner other than friendship since the two of you were children!
“Sirius, that’s idiotic! You know that Remus is only a friend...our friend. What I meant was...when you were hauled off to Azkaban...I was pregnant.”
Sirius’ mouth dropped. That was the last thing that he had expected to hear. The two of you weren’t even trying to have a baby at that point. Playing with Harry was enough for the two of you.
“What happened?”
He managed to choke out. You wrapped your arms around your body defensively.
“Stress happened...put the rest together yourself.”
Sirius had gone pale as his eyes clenched shut before opening in rage
“You weren’t going to tell me, were you?”
“I…”
Sirius held up his hand before turning his back to you.
“Just get away from me.”
You stood a moment longer before turning and silently leaving the room. Sirius, meanwhile, stood feeling like he had been kicked in the stomach. This was the news that he did not expect! This made it the most painful news ever! It made the realization that the past 14 years had totally ruined everything for the two of you.
“Y/n...wait…”
When he turned, you were already gone...
_______
@lilulo-12
@brokencasbutt67-writer
@authoressskr
@fandom-trash-worth-it
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abused-sides · 4 years
Text
Well-Behaved [Whumptober 2020]
Note: I’m doing whumptober as a series. Check out the tag #whumptober 2020 v on my blog to read in order. Also on ao3.
Prompt: No. 18: Panic! at the Disco [Paranoia] 
Synopsis: Janus tries to be good to protect the others. 
Trigger warnings: Cults, gaslighting/manipulation, restraints, kidnapped, non-con, humiliation, treating people like property, blood, knives, violence/beatings, a person in a cage, guns, body horror/gore, reference to murder/hate crimes/child death/minor character death, vomiting, non-consensual drugging, burn scar mentions and brief descriptions, off-screen dumpster diving, major characters talking about potentially dying (but I don’t write major character death so no worries there), branding/burning, nonconsensual body-modification, murder threat, some gross bodily fluids, blackmail, vomit eating threat, domestic and child abuse mention/implication, toxic masculinity mentioned and preyed on, let me know if I missed anything 
Word count: 1996  
October 17th. 7:04 pm. 
The rest of the day was terrible. 
Virgil handled himself well, but Janus was a mess. If he was scared of making a mistake before, he was now petrified. It got to the point where Bates put Janus in a leash of his own so it was easier to move him when Janus froze up. 
“You’ve got to calm down,” Virgil mumbled during lunch. 
They sat side by side in the cafeteria, Bates and Styx across from them and talking over a stack of papers. Virgil and Janus’ leashes were locked around the table legs, as if they’d try to escape in the middle of the school, the cafeteria filled with cult members. 
“He’s right.” Bates looked up and smiled. “Everything is okay, love.” 
Janus nodded shakily. “Yes, sir.” 
He chuckled. “Look at me like that and I might think you don’t want to be here.”
Janus’ eyes widened, heart rate picking up. “No, sir! I do want to be here! I’m very happy to be here, I am.” 
Bates pointed a pen at Janus’ untouched plate. “Then prove it. Eat.” 
He swallowed. “My hands…”
Bates looked at Janus’ bound hands in disinterest. His eyes slipped back up to Janus’. “Yes? Is there a problem?”
He shook his head. Embarrassment crawled up his spine. He kind of wanted to die as he leaned over and lapped at the thick soup with his tongue. 
Amusement crept into their smiles. Bates hid his impressively, but Janus knew him. He was eating it up. 
Styx looked to Virgil. “And you? You haven’t eaten either, pet.” 
“One, I won’t eat like a fucking dog,” he snapped. “If we’re ‘free-roam’ now, we at least deserve that. And two, I’ve told you a million goddamn times that I’m allergic to milk. You expect me to believe this doesn’t have any? I know what food looks like when it has dairy in it, I’ve been doing this for fucking twenty years.” 
Styx leaned over and propped his chin up. He smiled. “You’ll eat how and when and what I tell you to.” 
Virgil smiled back bitterly. “You’ll be cleaning up my vomit.” 
“You’ll eat it up,” he shot back. 
“I’ll choke on it and you can bury me,” Virgil snapped. 
“Enough!” Bates glared between the two. “Styx, if I thought a pet would turn you into a child, I wouldn’t have given you one. Virgil, this is your last chance. Janus? Come here, love.” 
Bates circled around the table to pull a hyperventilating Janus into his arms, tucking Janus’ head into his neck. Janus buried his face in Bates’ soft skin as he cried quietly, his body alive with fear. 
“It’s okay,” Bates promised, stroking down his back. “But you need to stop crying, or it won’t be. You’re making a scene.”
Janus didn’t know how to make himself stop. He held his breath and pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes. His sobs burst through and he cried harder, hiccuping and sucking in painful, dry breaths. 
“Will you get away from him?!” Virgil tugged Janus back and hugged him tightly, the best he could with his hands tied. “How is he supposed to calm down with you threatening him?!” 
Bates sighed. “So much for a nice lunch. Styx, I trust you can finish your day without me?” 
He nodded with a smirk. “I can.” 
“Take Virgil and go. I’ve had his crate moved to your room, so at the end of the day, you can go right ahead.” Bates looked between Janus and Virgil. “I think you two will learn better separated. You’ll see each other again when I see you’ve made progress.”
As hard as he tried, Janus couldn’t stop himself from hyperventilating. Bates dragged him out of the cafeteria but his eyes remained on Virgil. 
Will I ever see him again? 
He couldn’t do this without Virgil. He wouldn’t survive. 
“Janus,” Bates warned. People stared as they walked through the halls. “You’ll be earning yourself a punishment soon.” 
“I’m sorry,” he whined, wiping his face sloppily. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, sir.” 
Bates wrapped an arm around his waist and hid a smile. “It’s okay, dear. But if you don’t stop soon, I’ll make you.” 
Bates led him into a classroom, most of the desks lining the walls but a few clustered together. Most of them were filled with cult members. They all stood as Bates entered, a few taking a knee, the rest bowing. 
He grinned. “Everyone, sit. I brought a little toy with me today, you all remember Janus. He won’t interrupt.” Bates pointed to one of the desks against the wall. “Go kneel there, Janus. Stay out of our way.” 
Janus hurried to obey. Bates locked his leash to the handle of a cabinet. Janus yelped as Bates smacked his ass. 
“Posture.” 
Janus flinched but straightened up. “I’m sorry, sir.”
“Good boy. Stay silent while I have my meeting.” He sat at the head of the desks. “Tell me what progress you’ve all made.” 
Janus shut his brain off as they talked. He tried everything he could to disassociate, and though he couldn’t manage it, he floated pretty far away. He didn’t notice his breaths speeding up as he stared out the window into the mangled woods. 
If he behaved long enough, could he somehow get a message to the others letting them know they’ve been found? Remus should be able to help with that. 
“Janus,” Bates said in frustration. 
Janus sucked in a breath. How the fuck does he know-
“Your breathing. Didn’t I say to stay silent?”
“I’m sorry, sir.” His eyes flicked over all the other members staring at him, all chuckling or grinning. His face flushed hot and he cowered in on himself. “I’m sorry, I’ll quiet down.”
Bates stood and stormed over to him. Janus flinched. “Didn’t I say not to make a scene?” He hissed. “Posture. Shut your mouth. One more slip-up and I’ll bend you over for your punishment in front of everyone here and have it recorded as a welcome home tape for the others.”
Tears welled up in Janus’ eyes and fell silently down his cheeks. He held his breath and nodded. 
Bates smacked the side of his face gently. “Good boy. We’re almost done, then we can have a break, okay?”
Bates finished his meeting, but afterwards, he called Janus forward. He pulled Janus into his lap and wrapped his arms around his waist. 
“See?” He said to the others with a grin. “He can be well-behaved.” 
“Honestly, Bates,” one of the girls said, “you’re impressive. And you have such a way with boys specifically. Got any tips for me shaping up my boyfriend?” 
“Public humiliation is a good bet for anyone, especially cis men. It’s so easy to make them feel worthless with just a few insults. Isn’t that right, J?” 
Janus nodded slowly. Bates squeezed his waist, and he stuttered out, “Yes, sir.” 
“And leverage, of course. I have no illusions about why Janus is being so good today. Find out what matters to him, Olivia. Janus here would give his life for his friends— So he does.” 
“What about kids?” A man asked. Janus vaguely recognized him, his name started with an ‘L.’ “My daughter’s been a real bitch lately, I want to get her back in line.” 
“Well, that depends on age, but I like to think of Janus here as a son of my own.” Bates tucked Janus’ hair behind his ear. He shuddered. “Just remind her how much you love her and that you’re doing this to help her. Janus, baby, you know how important it is that you stay well-behaved, right? Can you tell me why?” 
“People like me better this way,” he mumbled. “I’ll have a better life being behaved.”
Bates kissed his cheek. “Such a good boy. Any more questions about my beautifully behaved boy?”
The cultists poked and rubbed at him, hands tugging at his clothes, rubbing through his hair, stroking the insides of his thighs and any exposed skin, running over his lips. Bates sat proudly as they praised the two, cooing over Janus’ behavior. Janus eventually had to check out again, sweating in embarrassment. 
“Unfortunately, I’m running late for the next thing on my schedule,” Bates finally said. “I’ll see all you at dinner, though. Behave yourselves.” 
Bates carried him through the day like that, poking and prodding him into small breakdowns. Janus watched his every step, every breath, tried harder to behave than he ever had, but Bates and his friends always had something to say. 
During dinner, Bates caught Janus’ stare, looking for Virgil and Styx. “They brought their meals to Styx’s room. They’ll be there for the rest of the night since Styx got his work done early. Honestly, Virgil is an incredible motivator, I’m ashamed to not have thought of this earlier.” 
Bates gave himself a longer workday than anyone else. After hours of meeting with cultists and discussing plans and progress, he locked the two of them in the abandoned principal's office with a laptop and a VPN. He stayed there until Janus’ eyelids sank and he struggled to keep posture. His knees ached and creaked from the constant pressure, sharp pains occasionally shooting up Janus’ back. 
When Bates finally ordered Janus to his feet, his back popped loud enough to fill the room. Bates laughed as he picked up his leash and led him into the halls. 
He stopped at one of the classrooms and knocked a few times. The door opened to reveal Remus with his bedhead and sleepy eyes. 
Janus’ eyes widened. 
“Did I wake you?” Bates asked as Remus stepped aside to let them in. 
The classroom was left mostly untouched aside from a few of the desks pushed together to form an alcove, filled with a dirty mattress and several thin blankets. A dirt-caked Percy Jackson book laid open. 
“No, I was waiting.” 
Bates handed over Janus’ leash and patted Remus’ cheek. “Good boy. You know the rules?” 
“Don’t let him out of my sight.” 
“Good. I’ll collect him in the morning. Until then, he’s yours.” 
Remus locked the door after Bates left. 
He stepped over and rested his hands on the back of Janus’ head, then pulled him in for a soft kiss, careful of his still-healing burns. Janus cried as he kissed Remus back, one of Remus’ hands inching forward to unclip his leash and unlock his collar. The chains clattered against the ground and the two stumbled onto the mattress. 
After ages of kissing, Remus’ fingers running over every uninjured part Janus had, they laid with their heads inches apart, Remus’ book forgotten on the stained tiles. 
“We can leave,” he whispered, barely audible at all. “Go out the window. I’ve been watching every night, I know the guards’ routes. Bates trusts me.”
It took all of Janus’ strength to shake his head. “Not without Virgil. We wouldn’t be able to sneak him from Styx, would we?”
Remus bit his lip and shook his head. “No. We’d have to leave him.”
“We’re not doing that.”
“I know.” 
Janus carefully rested his head on Remus’ shoulder and hugged him tightly. He was sick of crying, but his eyes watered anyway. “What about your plan?” 
“I’m just waiting for the right timing. Everything else is set up. You don’t need to worry, okay?”
“And you’re coming with us, right?” 
Remus hesitated. 
Janus squeezed him tight. “Remus.” 
“If I can,” he promised. “If I can, I’ll come with you. But I’m not worried about me. Fuck, you’ve seen it, my life is fine here. It’s you two that need to get out.” Remus ran his fingers through Janus’ hair, carefully working through the knots to leave the strands smooth, albeit greasy. “And you need to get some sleep.”
“I don’t know if I can.” 
“Try?” 
Janus’ eyes fluttered shut. “I’ll try.” 
“I love you, Janus.”
“I love you, too.”
Kofi and commissions, 1 coffee = 300 words of your prompt
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rchtzr · 4 years
Text
reddie fic rec
I started this list a while ago, but here’s something to help us while we self isolate
COMPLETED FICS
Winterbreak (Push and Pull) by @thegloryof Summary: Oh baby, I think we both know this is a love we won't get right. Still, if you said that you wanted, I know I'll always have one more try. (Five times Richie and Eddie get it wrong and the one time they just might get it right.) My thoughts: This is it, my FAVORITE Reddie fic. I’m currently on my fourth re-read. Why I love it: 1) the Stozier friendship that is depicted here is *chef’s kiss*. It’s Richie centric and his friendship with each loser is presented really well, but this is the Stan & Richie content I’ve needed in my life. 2) The angst is perfect. If you’ve ever had a close friendship deteriorate this will probably hit you where it hurts but like, in a good way? I can’t recommend this story enough I love it.
Skin&Earth series by @hanscom Summary: A love song to both the Losers' Club and Lights' Skin & Earth album. My thoughts: This was the first Reddie fic I ever read. I hadn’t read fic in y e a r s, but I was still devastated after recently viewing It ch 2 and was like, eh. why not. I have been hooked since.
the edification of eddie kaspbrak by @kaspbrak Summary:ed·i·fi·ca·tion (n.) /ˌedəfəˈkāSH(ə)/ the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually.
Eddie thinks that sometimes, the saddest stuff life is made of isn’t the permanence of death, but the tragedy of losing something you can still have.or, Eddie Kaspbrak falls and learns how not to hit the ground. My thoughts: I feel like it’s a fandom classic? But if you haven’t read it you need to. This fic spans years of Eddie’s life and his relationship with Richie. I’m just saying that maybe film canon could’ve taken a few notes from this final battle with IT
Satan Is My Username by @toziesque Summary: The delicacy of a man made numb by a life long effort to keep it all out, and the archaic entrance of a trigger in the form of an anti-Trashmouth Twitter activist.
@doctor_k: Richie Tozier's comedy is duller than the ache in my left testicle. #trashmouth
"It consumes us from the inside until we don't have a choice anymore."
(A slight AU in which the phone calls don't come, but Richie and Eddie find each other, anyway) My thoughts: There is a playlist that goes with one of the chapters and it is... incredible. I ugly cried to this fic in the best way. I downloaded a few of the songs from the playlist and whenever they come on shuffle I become that Kermit meme where he’s looking out a window into the rain. You know the one. Read this asap let me name the stars for you by @rchtoziers Summary: “So. To summarize. I’m stranded on Mars, entirely alone. I have absolutely no way to communicate with my crew or with earth, since our communications antennae turned me into a human shish-kabob. If the oxygenator becomes compromised, I’ll suffocate. If the water reclaimer stops working, I’ll dehydrate. Breach in the Hab means I’ll go poof. And if, for some god-forsaken reason none of those things kill me first, I’m gonna run out of food and starve to death. Oh, and we can’t forget that everyone I know thinks I’m dead. So… yup. Totally fucked.” * On Sol 6, an unexpected windstorm cuts the Ares III Mission short and six astronauts retreat back to Earth.On Sol 7, the astronaut they left behind wakes up gasping for air.(Or, The Martian au) My thoughts: This part is completed but it’s part of an on-going series. When I tell you I cried. I saw the movie The Martian years ago because a friend wanted to see it and I enjoyed it. BUT I LOVED THIS. The love Eddie and Richie have for each other is PALPABLE. And while it focuses mainly on Richie, every character feels substantial and real and like their personalities work. You simply have to read it. In Fact, Everything's Got That Big Reverb Sound by @dystopiary Summary: Richie Tozier deals with dry socket, the prodigal sister, shifting dynamics in his friendships, babysitting, and the maddening unavailability of Eddie Kaspbrak. My thoughts: I am a Richie Tozier lover first, and a human second, and I really loved this Richie and thought this story was refreshing and different and really well written. I Would Have by @blissymbolics Summary: “I would’ve let you. You didn't even need to ask. I would’ve let you.” My thoughts: Anything that deals with Eddie and Richie regretting time lost with each other really hurts me deeply and this is written really well. I also really like their other one shots!
WIPS
ribs by mikeshanlon  Summary: // you're the only friend I need sharing beds like little kids laughing 'til our ribs get tough but that will never be enough // --- Almost every time the lights turn off and they cram in the shitty twin bed, Richie seems to become a different person. Maybe not different, per say, but the stupid jokes and teasing die down, the guard of nonchalance dropping. Eddie feels lucky to see this side of Richie, soft and caring-- vulnerable. It’s not like he hates the other side of Richie, he secretly enjoys their constant banter and his dumb jokes. No, it’s that this side is rare, and it’s something beautiful. Here, safe in the soft flannel sheets, it feels like they are the only two souls for miles, and they can be themselves, and that is terrifying and reassuring all at once.“I’m gonna miss this. When we go off to college,” Richie admits, the weight behind his words telling Eddie he felt the same about their shared nights.“Yeah,” Eddie agrees softly, “Me too.” My thoughts: I... I love this fic so, SO much. I read each update as soon as I can. I feel completely immersed in each scene. The yearning... I feel like I’m drastically underselling how great I think this is. Just read it. pls.
& That’s For All Time by @tossertozier Summary: It's the summer before college, and Richie Tozier is prepared for approximately nothing to change. The club works at a Renaissance Faire, and somehow in between the turkey legs, marathons of Super Smash brothers and cheap beer, some of them have time to fall in love. My thoughts: This is more Losers Club focused than straight Reddie, and each loser is really well rounded. The tags “you think you’ve read slow burns, you wait, you just wait” are the most accurate tags. I never thought I was into playlist fics until ch 25. (I think it’s 25? idk when you get there you’ll know and it is AMAZING) Honestly the fic could never be updated again and I’d be completely satisfied with where it’s at currently so if you’re wary of wips it’s worth it. there's an angel and he's shaped like you by @89tozier Summary: "Guess I owe you one, huh?" Richie chuckles.Across the table, the boy blinks at him with those dark eyes, slow and calculated like a cat. For a moment Richie is struck with the terrible fear that he's going to end up in shreds and spatters of gore, too, but then the boy simply shrugs his narrow shoulders, digging his spoon back into the bowl and helping himself to another mouthful of Froot Loops. In the yellow kitchen light Richie catches the remnants of blood on his chin."I'll take that as a yes." Or: Richie, on the cusp of fifteen, knows he should be worrying about kissing girls and sneaking out and keeping his grades up just enough to warrant fewer trips to the principal’s office. ‘Harboring a runaway half-vampire in my bedroom in exchange for saving my life’ was never supposed on that list. Richie still isn’t sure it should be. My thoughts: @owlpip’s art for this fic is what initially inspired me to read it. I looooved this story. Very angsty and sweet at the same time. I want to say a lot but I feel like you just need to read it. Angels in Outfields by @reddie-for-anything Summary: He slams his locker shut just in time to see Stan walking over, smug look on his face and something clutched in his left hand.“I think I might have found the perfect thing for you,” he says. His voice is smooth and easy and his eyes read trouble. He raises his hand and holds a flyer in front of Richie’s faceDerry High School Baseball Tryouts Week of February 25th Please come with running clothes, a baseball mitt, running shoes, and cleats.“Oh, fuck no,” Richie says. He doesn’t even need to read the whole thing to know that this isn’t his jam. Nothing about this has is name on it and no. Fuck no. This isn’t happening.Except it is.Richie takes solace in his inability to play any kind of physical sport ever. He knows he’ll hate this, but he also knows he won’t make the team. Not in a million years. My thoughts: Do I know anything about baseball? No. Do you need to know anything about baseball to enjoy this fic? Also no. If you enjoy Stan/Bev/Richie being good friends, blonde!Eddie, jock!Eddie, angst, slow burn.... You’ll love this.
ONESHOTS
I Would Not Wish Any Companion In The World But You by @queen-sock Summary: 9th January 2003 // 06:24amThere are fifty four seats on the subway. Fifty four seats split across two carriages. Eddie knows this because he’s counted them. He’s counted them, over and over again, when he boards at seventy-eighth street, and takes the blue line south into the city every day at 06:24am. The air whips around his head cruelly, a mocking tempest that whispers in his ear, the rest of the world slumbers, the rest of the world sleeps like the dead. The subway station is buried deep in the underbelly of the street, five flights of stairs below the surface. Eddie descends every day, Persephone to her kingdom beneath the earth, a daily pilgrimage that he’d rather not take.The air whips around his head, a bizarre faux-breeze created by the whooshing of the subway trains, and Eddie seethes silently. [OR: Eddie gets the 06:24 train into the city, Richie joins the train at 06:45. Somehow, they always seem to be on the same carriage] My thoughts: This and De Profundis are really beautiful fics and they’re unlike any other stories I’ve read in this fandom. Highly recommend! De Profundis by @queen-sock Summary: Considering it was the first time in just under a month that they had spent more than brief moments in the hallways together, small waves and tiny smiles at each other over the raging sea of other students, before one of them got swept up in the tide and was pulled away before greetings could be exchanged.“I’m going to take a lit elective,” Richie said, as easily as if he’d just told Eddie that it was going to snow the next day. “Oh, and it’s supposed to snow tomorrow”“Pardon?”“Yeah, the weather dude said we were supposed to get a few inches over-night, but I’ve got a few inches I can give him overnight if you catch my drift,” Richie said, grabbing at his crotch gratuitously.‘What? No -- gross. I’m not -- No. I meant the lit elective, you’re taking a lit class?”“Yup,” Richie said, popping the ‘p’ like it was bubblegum, “I got it all sorted a few weeks ago, actually. I’m taking the ‘poetry and experiment’ class” [Or, Ben starts a new literary journal for the University of Maine, and, unbeknownst to each other, Eddie and Richie start submitting poems under psuedonyms] little pieces of the nothing that fall by @spunknbite Summary: Eddie shook his head, lips quirking upwards in a confused half-smile that Richie was immediately drawn to. “You seem stupid familiar,” he said with a laugh.“I don’t think we know each other,” Richie replied, then added, like the moron he was, “I’d remember you.”This guy wasn’t the sort you forgot.*Or, the one where it's 1998 and Richie sits down at the bar next to an asshole with a Palm Pilot. My thoughts: You HAVE. TO. READ. THIS. You just. Have to. Slow down, you crazy child by @anderbum Summary: Richie looks down at his own body and like the bed and the bedroom before it, he doesn’t recognize what he sees.A broken sound escapes his lips and he slaps his hand to his mouth. Then he pulls his hand away, looks at it again, and slaps it back in place before his mouth gets any smart ideas.“What the fuck,” he says against his not-hand. (A 13 Going on 30 AU, sort of.) My thoughts: Such a good idea and so well executed. Boyfriend by Anonymous Summary: Based on this post by tumblr user chenetic: Imagine Eddie being harrassed by someone at a party who can’t take a hint until Richie comes over and wraps an arm around his waist and says “sorry babe, they don’t have the drink you like here, who’s this?” and Eddie plays along until the person leaves and Eddie thanks him and asks for his name but Richie just says playfully, “you don’t know your boyfriend’s name?” and all through the night Richie follows him around as if they didn’t literally just meet.(In which Richie and Eddie don't remember that they know each other, when they meet at a college party) My thoughts: A meet cute but they’re both human disasters. In the best way. Okay I’ve had to save this draft a few times and the formatting of the post has become a nightmare so I’m going to stop here for now. If anyone has any fics they want to rec me, pls do!
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silver-wield · 4 years
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I wanna hear your thoughts on the scene where Cloud, Tifa and Barret just finished fighting that big machine when the were scaling the wall to go save Aerith. (Sorry I totally forgot the name of the boss) Where the platform they’re on totally gives way and they all start falling.
Just finished the fight, or pre and post fight? Imma do the latter anyway cause I love being validated when I saw something and had people tell me I was seeing things.
Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be reasonably long.
Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.
You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.
Other analyses if anyone’s interested.
Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 
Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 
Tifa character analysis 
Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I’ve had other ideas since then) 
Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 
Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 
Cloti reunion analysis 
The Promise Analysis 
Andrea’s approval (Cloti ask response) 
Leslie analysis (not mine, but a good read) 
Cloti action touching 
Aerti friendship analysis 
Cloti body language chapter 3 
Cloti healthy disagreement 
Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.
Recap time! So our trio have made it almost to the top of the collapsed plate in Sector 7 and they stop to take in the view. After that there's some banter and a boss fight and more action touching. I just wanna say before I start that a lot of this is at a distance, so it's not gonna be much of an analysis since there's so few close ups and all the body language is geared towards protective/rescue type movements, which is pretty obvious.
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Gonna start with the pre battle image here of Cloud smiling after making a joke because certain people like to get it in their heads that he's being serious here because it’s a callback to the whole “merc/money” thing. The fact both Tifa and Barret chuckle and Cloud literally smiles – DO YOU SEE HIM SMILING HERE?! – has a pretty simple meaning that he's grown close to them. He's no longer that cold af mercenary who only goes on about money in a serious way. This is his version of camaraderie which suits his dry af sense of humour.
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Ok, so our heroes are triumphant and pretty pleased about it. Just throwing this one in for context since what comes next is pretty fast paced.
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While Barrett's crowing, Cloud's already noticed something's wrong. That's just how quick his reflexes are. Frowning, looking at the mech. He can tell something's about to go sideways.
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KABOOM! Platform starts collapsing, taking Tifa with it. Cloud's speed off the mark here is almost too quick to capture. He goes after her before she even realises she's falling. He wasn't even facing her when she slipped. She made a noise and he turned. That's how attentive he is towards her. Like, fucking hell, man, I'm blown away more and more with every in-depth look at their interactions.
We know Cloud's graceful af from watching him fight (not to mention that dance scene), but honestly, this looks next level even for him! I think this is the only time he goes this far with his body language. He's got his arms wide for balance, legs bent, I mean, he is literally using the tilting platform to increase his speed. This takes so much skill I'm super impressed! And he did this without even stopping to consider what he needed to do. He just did it.
Tifa's reaching for the ground, not Cloud, btw. I don't think she's noticed him yet – he's not quite in her field of vision – so she's attempting to save herself because she's not some damsel.
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And if you think this screen was easy to get, you're wrong. I've literally never seen this bit of this scene before, it happens that quick! Cloud leaps without even being able to see if he's lined up with Tifa. This looks like an instinctive action from him. This isn't something he's been taught, this is all him wanting to protect Tifa and going above and beyond to do it.
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To further reiterate the last screen, he's just leapt at her and hoped for the best. I mean, he could've knocked into her and sent her flying, but he got his arm around her, swung them both around and then shot a grappling hook all in one smooth action. This is definitely SOLDIER!Cloud in the driver's seat if anyone was wondering. There's no way our poor flawed real!Cloud could do this without second guessing himself. That's why he's got the false persona, so it'll give him confidence in situations like this to protect the woman he loves.
Cloud's totally focused in the moment and relying on Tifa to hang onto him now he's got her. For her part, I think she's a bit “wtaf where am I?” because everything happened so quickly. She's got her eyes squeezed shut, so she was clearly scared she was about to die.
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Well, I was trying to grab a different shot that proved my point Tifa had her eyes closed and opened them when she heard the grappling gun fire, but this one's better. Yet another part of this fast paced scene that I didn't quite catch because it all goes by so quickly.
Cloud's got his arm around her waist, while she's clinging to his shoulder. To be fair, this isn't a very secure hold by either of them, but highlights the urgency of the moment. He's not been able to get her in a secure hold so he needs to get her to safety quickly.
Tifa's not even gripping him, which validates how quickly everything happened and how she's not caught up to what's going on. Not surprising, really. This all went by in milliseconds.
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I honestly wasn't going to screen this either. It's the part where Barrett's line breaks, but I caught sight of Cloud and Tifa in the corner and thought why not? You'll see the hold still isn't that secure and Tifa's legs are all over the place. I will say it looks like she's got a tighter grip on his shoulder from this angle, so that's something. And...is Cloud’s hand splayed on her butt? I don’t wanna say yes, but the angle of his arm is suspicious.
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And this is why Cloud's so damn good at what he does! Barrett's line snapped and he saw him falling from his peripheral vision! How on the ball is this guy?!?! Damn, with everything he does throughout Midgar and – we can assume -- beyond I honestly don't know how he can think he's not a hero. He is definitely a hero. Not a perfect one, but damn, he absolutely brings 110% to everything he does!
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Omg Tifa's hold is worse than I thought! She's got her hand flat against his chest. I mean, at least grab hold of his shirt or something! She's barely holding onto him, so this is all him with his arm around her waist making sure she doesn't slip. I've gotta forgive her, I mean, it was quick action and I sure af wouldn't move anything in case I fell whatever the distance is between them and the ground lol
Even though Tifa's position is precarious af, Cloud's still relying on her to be his partner in this situation. He can't save Barrett, so she has to.
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This is just a nice shot of how graceful they both are. Reminds me of when they're in the drum separately and Tifa and Aerith fall off the pipe – Tifa lands on her feet, Aerith lands on her face – and then Barrett and Cloud fall off a platform and Cloud lands on his feet and Barrett lands on his ass lol
It's telling that these two have similar balance and grace in a fight – probably why they combo so well.
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And if I said the above screens were hard to get it's nothing on this one! This happened between one second and the next! I replayed it a million times to get that shot of Cloud going to put his hand on Tifa's back because I knew that's where he had one of them, but damn, if that wasn't boss level rewinding to get!
Okay, obviously the focus is saving Barrett here, and with that in mind the second Cloud's feet hit the ground he tosses the grappling gun to one side and goes to help Tifa haul him up. He puts one hand on her back and grabs her forearm with the other, lending her his strength and support.
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And there's the proof in case anyone doubted my eye. That is Cloud's hand on Tifa's lower back. His other hand is gripping her forearm out of frame. I mean, does he need to have his hand there? Is that supportive in the context of the situation? Wouldn't it make more sense that he has his arm fully round her to stop her slipping? I know some of yall would be like “yes, that's better” from a ship pov, but from an action pov it does make more sense that he's got her in a firmer grip. It's almost like part of him doesn't want to make that closer contact because it's too intimate and he's trying to be professional. It's SOLDIER!Cloud basically. Mr “I keep my distance”. The guy who got them through that whole mess. Which does go to show that Cloud relies on that SOLDIER persona to save everyone's asses, but it also makes him more detatched. However, when there's no danger, he's more himself again.
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I'd like to point out that if he'd actually had a better hold on Tifa, like I pointed out, she wouldn't have fallen over because Cloud would've been bracing her more. As it is she's on her ass and after checking Barrett's in one piece – quick look – Cloud's offering his hand to Tifa. We can't see his face in this moment, but we could guess there's an element of oops about him since it was kinda his fault she fell over.
Some quick banter and it's onto the Shinra building.
Conclusion:
Ofc this is an amazing action sequence! Everything happens so quickly that you definitely have to back and watch it again, pause it and examine everyone's faces and body language to really break down the sequence of events and motivations – besides rescue.
Cloud is definitely living up to the SOLDIER hype, even though he's never been one. I wonder how he got so skilled. Is this CC stuff? Or is he just going for broke and getting lucky? It says a lot that he'll just dive into whatever danger is around when Tifa's life is on the line. But, he also trusts her to come through in a pinch too. He just had to say her name and she got his meaning. That's some beautiful synchronisation from them. They're showing how much of a unit they are. Battle couples are one of my favourite tropes and that whole mind reader part of it is just perfection to me.
Even though this is a scene of SOLDIER!Cloud at his best, that side of him also knows he can trust Tifa to support him, and even while he's being all business there's part of him that still yearns to be close to Tifa and has to resist.
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