#Literally everything I learn about him delights me further. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

madaboutmunson · 2 years

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The Eddie Munson Tape Dates - Metallica - Kill 'em all

Warnings: air rifles, anxiety, fluff

Ever since Trent had come back home, Eddie had been extra protective. However, whilst he knew you could handle the situation yourself, it didn't mean he wanted you to deal with it alone.

From what Eddie had talked to you at length about in the past, you were reasonably sure this wasn't a jealous or insecure thing. But just in case it was, you'd kept true to your word and continued to do little things for Eddie every day to make sure he knew how very important he was.

You'd found a book in the library and started leaving him little notes folded up into different things, but once you'd learned how to fold a dragon, it's all you wanted to make. So you left them on his locker, the handle of his van door, and his bedroom window so he'd see it when he woke up. Unfortunately, as Eddie patrol became more frequent, it was harder to hide them as a surprise.

It wasn't even like it was that much of a change. You saw one another every day in some capacity, but when he appeared to be running himself ragged to walk you, in-between classes, you had to put a stop to it.

"Hi", he bent down with his hands on his knees out of breath, blinking as if dizzy, "Phew, I don't think I've run that far or fast in years" he takes out his water and takes a few glugs, at the same time extending his hand to you.

"Babe, you can't keep doing this." You say quietly, pointing further down the corridor, "My next class is literally there. Where is yours?" You didn't want to embarrass Eddie or want him to feel bad. You just wanted to let him know everything was fine and for him to not wear himself out.

"Er....kinda near where I came from..." He says tentatively.

"So you are gonna potentially be late now because of me? No, honey. This has to stop. You're doing so well this year, right? " You say, intertwining your fingers with his, taking his hand, and walking him back towards his class.

"Eddie, he'll be gone soon enough. He's not gonna hang around here for long. Right now, he's enjoying all the hero worship he's getting from being the college guy with his high school friends. Which just says to me he's not thriving at college at all. Which is sad for him, but you know, a delicious sort of instant karma from my perspective" you can't resist a little evil giggle.

Your Mom always said not to wish bad things on people, and you hadn't wished it, but you weren't going to pretend it didn't feel good to see him struggle after what he did.

"That laugh, I don't think I've ever heard before." Eddie says, nearly spitting out his water, "That was nearly looney toons Witch Hazel levels of maniacal."

"And this is exactly why you don't have to do this, ok? Because if anyone comes at me, I will just, you know, turn them into a bug, or do some of our cult chanting at them," you offer and raise your non-occupied hand in the air wiggling your fingers and making spooky noises and faces at Eddie.

"Keep it in the circus, Freaks!" A yell comes down the corridor. You both stop dead in your tracks, turn slowly, and stare unflinchingly at the noise source. You both stare, with deadpan expressions, until the letterman jacket wearer gets nervous and runs away.

You continue to walk a little further down the corridor and excitedly grab Eddie's shoulders, "Did you hear that??? Did you hear what he said to me??" A gigantic toothy smile spread across your face, "I'm a freak! God, I can't wait to tell Mama. She's gonna be so excited!"

Eddie lets himself be jostled around by your excitement, and he simultaneously looks confused and delighted. He takes your hand back into his, "You. Are. Crazy. And I..." He flourishes his hand to the side and lands it on the centre of his chest "...love you for it."

"Oh, you think that was crazy? You don't even know what would have happened if we hadn't been surrounded by our peers at the time."

"Oh really?" He says in a low voice, raising an eyebrow at you.

"Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter, babe...Well, about what I said, I mean...I love you...gutter mind and all." You laugh and let out a little squeal as Eddie pulls your body to his, in the middle of the corridor, and entraps your eyes into his.

"Let their eyes look upon this feast of devotion. Let their envy be so great it turns their very flesh green with jealousy." He says, dramatically dipping you over backwards for a kiss.

As he lifts you back up, he says quietly, "I mean, I wanted to do that anyway, but right now Eddie Munson is winning at high school, at life, and I want each and every one of these pretentious fuckers to know about it." His eyes move from yours to around the corridor, "All of them."

"Except for hellfire, though, right?" You add with a laugh.

"Look, that is different. There has to be a line of PDA around those little sheep. They need to respect me, and if I show them how easily manipulated I can be by my lady. They would use you as a weapon." He says, looking over you slowly.

His gaze eventually lands in yours as you say, "And you think I wouldn't betray those little sheep, hell, the whole world for you, my love? A million times over!"

"How do you make villainy so endearing? Must be that witchcraft" he tries to pull you in for another kiss.

"Talking of witches, where is your class again?" You say, smiling.

Eddie rolls his eyes, "Ok, I'm going alright. I'll see you at lunch", he says, grabbing your face for a hard peck of a kiss on the lips before heading his way to class, and you turn around, heading back to yours.

You arrive a few minutes late back to class and notice the girl from the drama department that Trent had been hanging out with, Laura. Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, and a handkerchief clutched in her hand. She notices you look at her; if looks could kill, you would have been obliterated where you stood.

You make your way to your seat quickly, and for the remainder of class, just avoid looking at her completely.

You had your suspicions from the look on her face, Trent had done this, caused her to be upset like this, but it's not like you could ask, right? Console her, tell her that there are guys out there that are so fantastic she'll question what she had been doing with Trent at all.

Though for all you knew, it could be something completely unrelated. You decide to focus on class, but your mind is so distracted. This whole Trent business was someone else's problem, now. He'd basically stopped communicating with you once he got to college, and that was that. You had no love, not even like, for the guy, and now he was back, and you couldn't wait for him to fuck off back to his campus again.

Something hits your leg, and you look down to find a crumpled-up piece of paper. You snatch it up and open it discretely in your lap. "Good luck with your mission to get Trent back, slut!"

Your face contorts with confusion. You pocket the note and look around to be greeted by a dirty look from Laura.

The pieces were coming together. Trent had messed something up with her, so he had somehow convinced her you were the reason for it. You shake your head, same old cowardly tricks. Shame you didn't figure that out until it was too late.

You just try to focus on the lesson until the lunch bell rings, and you can get out of here and see Eddie. You've got no interest in being dragged down into some high school drama bullshit.

Entering the cafeteria, you spy your friend Dawn and her boyfriend Joe, but no sign of Trent or Laura with them, as you would have suspected.

You look over to the Hellfire table. Most of them were there, but there was a prominent absence of Eddie.

You feel a tug on your arm, you turn slowly, and your eyes meet Carla's, the only female member of hellfire club this year. Her sweet, cherub-like face looks up at you kindly, but there is a slight hint of concern on her brow.

"Um...Eddie might be a bit late for lunch. He said to let you know, but he won't be long." She says hurriedly.

Her eyes dart towards the cafeteria window for a second, and you follow their momentary path and peer outside. Eddie was standing confidently but defensively. His arms were not tucked around his chest but folded in front of it. His expression was unsympathetic and almost bored, but the stance of his lower body gave him away. He was just waiting for an excuse to rush the guy opposite him.

That guy being Trent.

Trent unnecessarily slightly hunched over, his arms and hands animated. His expression was condescending and one of provocation as he paced up and down in front of Eddie.

It's almost like he senses you, and Eddie's eyes turn to look at the window, and you dive down out of sight. Carla tugs your sleeve again, "Maybe you could just come and eat lunch with us until Eddie gets here?"

"Are you crazy? You know he's out there with my ex, who, pardon my french Carla, is an absolute bitch. Eddie's been doing so well this year. He doesn't need a mark against him," you complain at her, walking towards the cafeteria door.

"He said you would say something like that. But, he said to tell you to let him deal with it himself. If you believe in him, that is," Carla says, slowly recalling it from memory.

Eddie, you absolute swine! You think to yourself and let out a grunt of frustration.

"Carla, do you have a compact mirror by any chance?" You're thinking of fashioning a makeshift periscope so you can at least keep an eye on Eddie and ensure he's safe.

Carla looks at you in disbelief, "He said you'd ask me for it, so he took it from me. He said you'd get it out of me if he didn't."

You put your hands on your hips, "Well, if he's so smart, how does he know I just won't ask someone else for one?"

"Oh, because he said..." Carla begins

"By the time you've got to that point. I'll be all done" you hear Eddie's voice beside you, "Thanks, CC." Eddie says as Carla does a little courtesy and hurries back to Gareth.

Eddie shrugs gently. Your face is not impressed, "I'm unharmed. Physically Trent is also unharmed. I just wanted to hear what he had to say for himself, that's all."

"Physically, only?" You ask, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, like mentally, possibly emotionally, devastated, but physically didn't touch him. Didn't have to" Eddie smirks and reaches for your hand, and you hand him the note from your pocket.

"He's got a bee in his bonnet about us, babe. He'll just keep doing stuff like this." You say a worriedness in your tone.

"Then let him. Let him try and shake us a thousand times, and each time I look at him, he'll remember what I told him out there, and he will retreat so fast, babe." Eddie says, almost laughing, not worried in the slightest

"What happened out there?" you say, your voice edges with concern. Worried that Eddie had made some threats, you knew that Trent and his cronies didn't take kindly to that sort of thing.

"Well, a bunch of things got said, and I'll fill you in on all that privately later, but honestly, it all boiled down to this. He told me I wasn't enough, I wouldn't amount to anything blah, blah, blah. So I stepped up to him and looked him dead in the eyes, babe, and I said 'Y/N is happy, she's in love, with me, and she is satisfied.' and oh," Eddie claps his hands together with glee, "boy, he didn't like that. Then he was all like, 'no, you've known her five minutes, compared to 3 years,' and he was droning on, so I stopped him and asked him, "Did she call you? Like at all?" And his face just fell, and I knew I had him," Eddie pinches his fingers together like he's squashing a tiny bug, "and I repeated, 'She's a satisfied woman. I'm sure you haven't met many of those, so for your benefit, and because I pity you, here is what you need to do. Cut your losses, keep your dignity, and crawl back where you came from, K? Buh-bye."

Your eyes are wide with surprise. Surprised that Eddie hadn't threatened Trent. Eddie hadn't warned Trent off his girl. He hadn't used violence. He'd just told him the truth and sure belittled him a bit, but in such a way that Trent wouldn't be able to regale his cronies with tales of a big bad Eddie Munson who needed to be taught a lesson.

The most crucial part was Eddie wasn't afraid, and as you stood there with him, his confidence wrapped around you like a safety blanket. You didn't have to worry about Trent anymore. He couldn't ruin this for you. Eddie's buttons had been pushed, his insecurities thrown in his face, and he stood his ground because he believed in you because he believed in this.

Your eyes move around his face, and you sigh a shaky breath that renders you speechless. You want to jump into Eddie's arms right now, squeeze him tightly and plant a thousand kisses on him. But, instead, you blink slowly at him as your heart booms in its rib cage prison. Your pupils must be like saucers or some other tell because Eddie tilts his head at you quizzically.

He reads your expression, and his face changes from one of "I just kicked this guy's ass with words, babe, you'd be so proud" to "Fucking hell, I'm the greatest man who ever lived". He looks pleased with himself, but not in a smug way, genuine pride in himself.

When he offers you his arm with a big beautiful smile on his face, it's difficult not to look around at the rest of the cafeteria with your own very smug grin and give them a royal wave. Instead, you gratefully take his arm, say very little for the remainder of lunch, and just stare at him.

Watching how his face and body move when he talks, adding the odd confirmation of listing if required "uh-huh", and you were desperately trying to listen to what he was saying, but your brain was scrambling everything. This was it. This was the guy, and he'd been here the whole time.

Thankfully his conversations seemed to be for the whole table, so it was easy enough to take pointers from their own nods or head shakes about what you should be doing if his eyes fell on you.

The bell jump scares you back into real life, "Jesus!" You say with your hand to your chest.

Eddie looks over at you, laughing, "Alright there, babe? "

He eyes the rest of the table as they stand to leave and keeps you behind with him, "So about what I said...are you in?" He says, looking at you biting his lip.

"Er...yeah...of course", you agree to who knows what and venture a smile.

Eddie bursts out laughing. "You haven't listened to me the whole time we've been sitting at this table, have you?"

You squint your eyes and wrinkle your nose, "I mean...."

"Shit! I knew it. Don't even try to lie! I know those eyes. I mean, I didn't mind, but wow." he says, brushing down his denim vest.

"I was really trying to listen, babe. I swear," you say sort of apologetically, but also laughing at your own ridiculousness.

"Well, I'm glad you finally caught up with me," he says, grasping your face with one hand, squeezing it.

"Huh?" You say quizzically.

"When you're cooking, when you're getting ready, fresh out of the shower, when you're reading your book," he says, his cheeks flush a little.

You wriggle out of his grasp, "So, all those times I thought you asked me about something again, you weren't genuinely interested in it. You just hadn't listened the first time?"

Eddie is cackling, leaning back on his seat, and sighs to take a breath. "I'm sorry, babe, I thought you knew. It was mostly interesting for the record, but I didn't catch them the first time around."

"Well, I can't say anything about it now, can I? I'd be a hypocrite." You laugh and grasp his hand, "I'm glad I finally caught up, you know. It's much nicer here" That was spoken right from the heart. You looked around inside yourself for those old insecurities, and, for the moment at least, they had vanished.

You wish you were brave enough to ask what his brain was thinking about instead of listening in those moments. If he felt the same as you.

"No, you can't!" He teases playfully, moving his head side to side as his face closes in on your for a soft kiss, which you didn't think even possible felt more electric than all the ones before it. "See you after class, babe." he lifts you out of your seat and turns your face to his. He walks backwards away from you, raising his hands in the air. "Your gift for the afternoon....you get to watch me walk away" he shoots you a wink and walks out of the cafeteria doors.

Later at yours, homework completed. Eddie shakes the box of tapes at you. You immediately select the Metallica album with the hammer on the cover, "Remember on our first date that I didn't know was a date, and I had to be armed? This is what could have happened." You say, pointing at the cover.

Eddie's face lights up, "Yes, yes, I heard your little joke, but honestly, honey. I have been dying for you to pick this one for weeks."

He grabs the cassette tightly and rushes to the stairs. There is no thundering sound as he descends, so you can only assume he's used the bannister rail as a slide.

You hear some muttering between Eddie and your folks as you pack away your books and Eddie's.

"Moonbeam?" Your Mom pokes her head around the door, "I think your gonna need a warm coat for this one, so I got you this one. Also, Eddie said if you have any old things you don't mind getting destroyed, to bring them too. He's so funny, that boy."

You rush and give your Mom a tight hug, "Oh Mama, I know he is, but I think...maybe..."

Your Mom pushes your back gently from the hug to take a good look at you, "Go on, Moonbeam. It's safe" her eyes are wide and sparkling.

"I thought Trent being back here would mess things up between Eddie and me, but today Mama... Today! What a day! It was something so trivial, but it made me think...I dunno...maybe..." You tighten your grip on her arms and see her eyes well up a little as she nods encouragingly.

"Babe, what's the hold-up? Everything ok?" Eddie's voice rings from the bottom of the stairs. Your thought process breaks.

"Everything's ok. I'm just getting my stuff," you yell back.

"Sorry, Mama, I promise I'll take to you about this later. You know how he gets when he's excited about something" you shrug and put on the coat she offered you.

"Indeed, I know how he gets when he's excited about a project. He was only bending our ears the other day about..." You Mom starts

"I am so sorry, Mama, but I really have to get going," you say quickly, pulling on some outdoor knee-high boots.

Your Mom smiles, walks into your closet, and re-emerges with a cardboard box with a big T written on it, "I think you'll find the stuff in here, you won't mind getting damaged".

You grab the box from her, kiss her on the cheek, and run down the stairs, nearly tumbling down them but catching yourself at the last moment.

"Ready!" You say. Eddie is smiling from ear to ear and grabs the box under one arm and grabs your hand with the other, almost running out the door with you.

"Bye!!" You both shout back.

Once in the van, on your way and the album blasting loudly, you ask, "So where are we going that you are so excited about?"

"Oh, we're going to mine, well, nearly mine, anyway" he's still grinning wildly.

"Are you always this excited to go home? We could spend more time at yours if you want, you know?" You ask, a little puzzled.

"No, we're going to meet up with my Uncle." He says, still smiling, his whole body tense with excitement.

"Oh, Eddie. Why didn't you say Wayne was gonna be there?" You whine, pull down the mirror, check your face, and grumble, "I would have put on something else, redone my makeup, or..."

"He likes you just fine, babe. You worry too much. He's just protective, is all." Eddie reaches over and squeezes your knee.

"Yeah, but I want him to like me, like my parents like you. You know? I guess I can't have everything, though, right?" You say a little forlornly.

"Do you know how many people I've seen him kiss on the forehead, Y/N? Two, and both of them are sitting in this van right now. He's very loving, really. He just doesn't express it like the rest of us."

"I have no doubts about that at all. Just I want him to love me and know I'm not...you know...like he thought I was."

Eddie squeezes your knee again and sighs, "Look, it's not your fault all those things happened to me before we even knew one another. He knows how happy I am, and he knows, deep down, how much you care about me. He was out there that day the same as me. He saw what happened to your arm, trying to keep a hold on me and then wrenching me back up there. But, unfortunately, he also saw how sad I was when I thought I'd lost you. Sure, you dress like a norm, but to my Uncle, you're the most dangerous thing that's ever walked in his trailer." Eddie lets out a soft laugh, but you can hear the slight sadness in his voice.

"Hey, you know what. I've killed the mood in here. I will win him over one day. But for now," you reach over to the stereo and turn it up really loud, and mimic the head banging and hand signals you usually see Eddie do in the passenger seat when you're driving.

It takes a few minutes, but he's back in full excitable mode just in time to pull up at a wooded area near the trailer park.

Eddie grabs the box under his arm, holds your hand, and. runs with you further into the woods until you see a clearer area with a few tree stumps. You sit down and open the box as Eddie paces around.

"Oh, no. No, no. This is bad. This is bad" you start to panic.

Eddie rushes over, "What's wrong, babe? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not, but...Jesus. You said you wanted some stuff we could destroy, so my Mom gave me this box. Which I thought was like T for toys, but it's not, is it...of course fucking, of course, it isn't...your Uncle is gonna be here any minute, and I have a box full of ex-boyfriend stuff" You put your hands to your head like this is unbelievable.

Eddie is smiling.

"I know what I'll do, right? I'll just..." You grab the box, find some undergrowth, and start covering the box. Kicking it out of sight. A million expletives muttered under your breath.

Once satisfied it was expertly squished and hidden, you turn back to Eddie, who is looking back at you in comical alarm.

"You know, for a second there, I thought you wanted to keep that stuff. Which I wouldn't have any issue with, by the way, memories are memories, good or bad, right?"

"Are you crazy? I didn't even know that box was in there. They tied all that stuff away for me one day, and I thought they'd put it in the trash."

You brush yourself down, "Is my hair ok?" You say, trying to smooth it down.

Eddie reaches over and runs his hands over it and then moves his hands to your face, "It's perfect." Then, he leans down and kisses you on the tip of your nose.

"Now that's quite enough of that for the Evenin' I'll be requirin' your full attention. These are not toys".

Eddie's eyes are twinkling, and he's grinning widely. You turn around to see Wayne Munson holding two air rifles.

"This one heres a springer, this one a PCP. I'll show you how to use both. Though if you're ever in a situation like that pit again, I suggest you opt for something more in the auto-style."

You wave a hand in front of you, allowing Eddie to choose first. He picks the PCP, leaving you the springer.

"First of all. If I see either of yous pointing the gun at anything other than the clear ground or your target, this is over. Is that clear to ya both? Not at one another, not at me, not at something passing by, and not at your own self. Even if ya think it's funny...I hope you're listnin' Edward!"

You both nod solemnly.

"You e'er shot a rifle before missy?" Wayne says, approaching you.

As you look up at him, you feel the anxiousness start to creep over you, "No, sir."

"Well, not to worry, I'll show ya how. Let me set up Eddie here 'fore he erupts with impatience."

You observe as Wayne crouches down next to and instructs Eddie how to hold the rifle, reload it, aim, squeeze the trigger and most importantly, where the safety is.

Eddie shoots a couple of pellets, leaps up from his leaning positions and runs to retrieve his target sheet. You know it before you see it. He's an excellent shot. You smile proudly at him, and Wayne grabs him in a side hug, ruffling his hair, "Thas, my boy!!"

Your happy, proud moment is short-lived as Wayne turns, and it's suddenly your turn next. You swallow hard. Your mouth is an arid desert, frozen to the spot, and your brain just repeating to you, 'Don't fuck this up. Do not fuck this up.'

Wayne walks over and gives you a half smile. You glance to Eddie for support, but he's too focused on his target.

Your eyes return to Wayne, who holds out the rifle and starts detailing the parts to you, where the safety is, the trigger, and finally, the process for you, "This here is a break barrel." He puts the butt of the rifle to his hip and hits his hand on the gun barrel, and it's like it splits in two. "You grab the very end of the barrel and point it down to the ground. Always at the ground away from ya 'n everyone else, k? And never put your hand near the trigger at this point, right? Then getcha pellet in there, and..." He pushes the barrel back into position with one loud snap, which makes you jump.

Wayne smiles at you, "Ya don't gotta do this if you don't wanna. He won't think no less o' ya"

"Oh...erm...no...I wanna try. It's important to learn. I'm just nervous, is all," you say, twiddling your fingers together.

Something changes in Wayne's expression at that moment. He looks at your hands and then at the ground before handing over the rifle to you.

"Here you try." He gives you that half smile again. This time his tone is gentle and encouraging.

You talk yourself through the process out loud and look to Wayne for confirmation you were doing the right thing. You repeat that a few times until Wayne nods and approaches you again.

"Ok, so this one's got a spring in her. You gotta be ready for that recoil, k? If you sit her jus right, it don't hurt too much." He says kindly

Wayne motions you to the stump, and you crouch down like Eddie is leaning on it to support the rifle. Wayne helps you position the gun and your hands, and crouches next to you. His face is next to yours as his hands wrap around your own on the weapon.

"Ok, imma help ya this time, but then you're on your own, k?" You nod silently but are so nervous right now, "Don't be so tense, loosen up. You got this, kid," Wayne adds gently.

Wayne helps you aim and take your first shot, the rifle butt juts into your body, but it doesn't hurt too much at all.

The exhilaration is overwhelming, and you smile hugely at him, and to your surprise, he smiles back warmly.

"Uncle Wayne, I hope to Christ you aren't making moves on my girl right now". You hear Eddie shout over, you look round, and Eddie gives you a wink.

"Boy, you gotta lotta nerve accusing me 'o all sortsa nothing." Wayne says, releasing you and standing up, hands on his hips, just like Eddie.

"Get me a new target, old timer. I've blasted through this one," Eddie laughs.

You get up and talk yourself through the reloading again. Lost in the process, you forget that Wayne is still nearby.

"Atta girl," he says, ruffling your hair, and leaves you to it for a while.

Eddie gets through his pellet magazine reasonably quickly. You, however, have to manually reload each time have lots left, not that it would matter because your aim, let's say, leaves a lot to be desired.

Wayne replaces your target with a fresh one and goes back to Eddie for a chat. You can make out the odd thing.

"Yeah, he turned up a school, but he ain't nothing to worry about. Usual rich kid bullshit, not even imaginative. I'm not good enough. It won't last. I'm a phase. You know?"

You glance over as you reload, Wayne has his hand on Eddie's shoulder, and you feel anger rise in you.

'Who the fuck did Trent think he was?', Bang. Reload

'Eddie is a phase who describes another human being that way', Bang. Reload

'It won't last? What the hell would he know about anything lasting?' Bang. Reload

'Not good enough? What a joke. If anything, you weren't good enough for Eddie, and Trent certainly wasn't good enough for you' Bang. Reload

'Imagine if you'd married that guy. You would never have known any different' Bang. Reload

'You would have ended up miserable just like some of the nuclear families on your block' Bang. Reload

'I fucking hate Trent. Loathe him entirely. How did I not see it' Bang. Reload

"Baaaaabe", comes a careful call out, "You doing ok over there?" Eddie's voice snaps you out of it, and your scowl turns to a smile.

"Yeah, sorry, just got in a rhythm, is all" you grin back, put down the rifle for a minute and take a break against your stump.

Wayne runs over to your target from the stump and looks at you with a surprised expression before taking it over to Eddie for consultation.

"Did she now?" You hear Wayne chuckle as Eddie regales him with some tale or another.

"Hey, babe, you wanna swap?" Eddie yells over.

"I don't mind, I'm kinda used to this one now, but if you wanna try it out, I can bring it over." You yell back, and Eddie beckons you over with a hand gesture. You make sure to hold the rifle safely and head over towards them.

Eddie takes the rifle from you and sets it down carefully. He and Wayne smile at one another and then smile back at you.

Suddenly Eddie has his arms around you in a bear hug whilst his Uncle runs over to the shrub hiding your box of Trent memorabilia. You initially struggle to get free, but it's too late. Wayne already has the box.

You slump your head against Eddie and mumble into his chest, "I thought I was doing so well today, too."

"What were you thinking about over there? You looked like you were gonna rage," Eddie asks, resting his chin on your head.

"Just you know what Trent said to you earlier. It made me so angry, Eddie. Like the audacity of that idiot. Your a million times the guy he'll ever be. I just hate him for even speaking to you like that. He had no right." The frown returning to your face.

"Well, if it's any consolation. Hate appears to improve your aim... massively." Eddie waves the target card in front of your face. A small grouping of pellet marks can be seen in the centre of it.

"Ya sure, ya don't want any of this stuff?" Wayne asks, walking over with the box.

"No, thank you", you say, still leaning on Eddie's chest, but you turn your head to reply to Wayne.

"Let's shoot the shit outta it then", Wayne smirks at you.

You break out of Eddie's hold, root through the box with Wayne holding it, and start setting up the stumps. A photo stuck on your stump, some impersonal stuffed toys lined up on top of some cinema tickets, and generic greeting cards with nothing other than the To and From added to them.

You get handed the pneumatic rifle this time, and shooting is a breeze, your aim is generally off again, but it's still fun, except for the photo of Trent, which you manage to annihilate the face of.

Eddie is slowly but surely shooting his way through the limbs of a small stuffed valentine's bear.

"Alright, kids, times up. I gotta head on out to work. Next time maybe we'll upgrade you to something with a bit more kick, huh? Maybe take a visit to warzone?"

Eddie runs around and jumps on Wayne's back and kisses the bald spot on his head, "Fuck yeah!!" Eddie shouts.

Wayne laughs heartily at Eddie's excitement, "Gerr off, boy. I got places to be"

You smile at them both. They were just a perfect family. There was nothing but unconditional love here, which was beautiful because that's what they both were inside and out.

You leave them to their wrestling and tidy up all the trash in the box. You feel a hand on your shoulder, "Not too shabby out there today. I'm sure glad we did this, you know. I see it now. " He says a little awkwardly and then quickly grabs you into a hug but lets you go just as fast.

"Take care of my boy, darlin'," he says quietly to you as he nods and turns towards his car.

You are entirely dumbfounded, frozen in pose and thought for the second time today. You must stay that way for a few seconds and finally make your way over to Eddie and the van.

Eddie waves off his Uncle and looks back at you with a satisfied smile, "Well? How did you find it?"

"Which bit?" You laugh.

"Come 'ere," he says, inviting you into his arms. You gladly rush up, thud into him, and rest your head against his chest. Then, wrapping your arms around his waist, your hands pressed against his back underneath his jacket.

Eddie's arms envelop you and squeeze you to him, "You know earlier, Trent even tried to insinuate that if I were in his position, I would have done the same", Eddie muses.

"Oh honey, let's not talk about that idiot anymore", you complain, snuggling into Eddie's t-shirt.

"Last time today, I promise," he says earnestly, "He said that going to college was like he'd been living in a tiny room his whole life, and then it was like a world of possibilities was in front of him." Eddie adjusts his hold on you, so his hands are clasped together behind you.

Eddie continues, "I told him he was a dumbass. Then he said something about at least he went to college, and I said that's not why you're a dumbass. I said you're a fool because I get to hold my world in my arms every day".

You melt into his embrace, "You know, Eddie. I don't think my aim improved because I hate Trent. It improved because I was thinking about protecting the person I love."

You feel Eddie's chest expand, and his heart pounds like the most enchanting music to your ears.

#eddie munson #stranger things #eddiemunson #eddie stranger things #eddie the freak munson #stranger things fanfiction #fanfiction #eddie munson fanfic #eddie x reader #romance #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson / reader #theeddiemunsontapedates #fire_au

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gaychocolatehomicide · 10 months

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tell me about your messy inky i’m curious 👀 (if you want, idk if you haven’t talked about your ocs out of shyness or if it’s a Decision™️ but if it’s the former. I Am Giving You Permission)

HI OKAY SO sorry about the wait I had a really busy week (or three) at work but I wasn't ignoring you I prommy

So I have a ton of Inquisitors but specifically the one I was thinking of is Tristan Trevelyan, my terrible terrible boy from the Wrong Answers Only playthrough. The general concept for that worldstate is "what if I just make the objectively wrongest choice in every instance" and I will almost certainly never actually play it (can't bring myself to do some of the choices x.x) but it's a delightful thought experiment, particularly in the "what kind of person would you have to be to act like that in this situation" department. Just to give you an idea: the Warden in that run DOESN'T rescue the dog from Ostagar. It's that bad.

So Tristan! A nobleborn artificer rogue (really he should be a Champion if we were allowed to cross-class spec, but of the rogue options artificer makes the most sense. He's a tricksy bastard and besides, tempest is too messy and assassin is a little too denial-of-the-self-y.), Tristan is at the conclave because his mage cousin was going with the delegation from Ostwick and he wanted to travel. He learned most of his rogue skills sneaking out of the family home to go get into trouble in town, and he is primarily concerned with his own personal comfort and advancement. Mostly, at least before the conclave, he's content to wait. His father is a pretty powerful noble and he's the oldest son so as long as he doesn't do anything TOO heinous, he'll inherit and then he can do whatever he wants. He's twenty six and unmarried, though he's been kinda lazily courting one of the daughters of a noble out of Starkhaven. He's starting to think his father is taking too long to die/retire and should maybe hurry up, and maybe he needs some help... But only if there's no way for it to trace back to Tristan, obviously.

Then he gets caught up in the explosion and survives, and suddenly everyone's calling him the Herald of Andraste, and he really doesn't need his father's estate if he's in charge of the greatest military force on the continent, now does he? Basically the Inquisition offers him power beyond his wildest dreams and he 100% leans into that shit. He is the gaslight gatekeep girlboss king, and he makes every choice directly dependent on growing the Inquisition's power and thus, his own. He goes "yes actually I WAS sent by the Maker in your time of greatest need, I'm here to rescue you from everything. All you have to do is exactly what I say~"

The issue with him is that he's way too smart for his own good, so he always pushes just far enough to get what he wants and no farther. He's incredibly deft at keeping himself out of trouble by not being held accountable for the shit he absolutely did. Did the envy demon at Therinfall get him? No, he's just like that, actually the demon was a little freaked out by his ambition and ruthlessness. Also, he's unfairly attractive. Appearance-wise I like to think of him as one of those ethereally beautiful people that can sometimes happen when one parent is Chinese and the other one is from like central Africa? I'm thinking specifically of a guy I knew in college who could literally knock me out by smiling in my direction. Anyways.

He's a hanging judge except for when the person in question could maybe help him, in which case he takes their stuff and/or throws them in prison. He loves the skyhold prison, it's huge. The only people in that whole place he gets along with are Varric (zero morals but very loyal, exactly Tristan's kind of guy), Leliana (further hardened), Cassandra (cop), and Vivienne (pro-establishment free marcher who sees a lot of herself in Tristan). Solas and Sera both hate his guts, Iron Bull doesn't trust him as far as he can see him (not as far as he can throw him because he could probably yeet Tristan quite a ways, and his suspicions turn out to be confirmed uhhhh rip the Chargers), and Blackwall clocks him as the type of guy that Ranier used to be (but turned up to 11) in about 30 seconds flat. Cole really doesn't understand him at all, and after a few botched attempts to get in his head (Tristan reacts REALLY badly to that kind of thing after the demon at Therinfall, and Cole was there for that so really all the sweet baby is doing is giving Tristan flashbacks while he tries to help) he just decides to drift around helping other people. Dorian... Ok he definitely sleeps with Dorian but he also says homophobic slurs. Which is not ideal for anyone. Bull tries to kinda protect Dorian from that nonsense at the beginning but after the Chargers, well... It's not good. Josephine is briefly delighted by having someone else competent at crowd control, then she gets to know him and treats him much like people treat the Du Launcets in DA2. Cullen isn't really in a place to have much of an opinion, Tristan is way too much like a smoother version of the worst commanders Cullen has had in the past for him to do a lot other than paperwork and panic attack.

So I feel like @the-chantry-sucks-ass's boy Aeryn would meet Tristan one time and be like "ah yes this is a Prophet of God" and Tristan would clock that in an instant, and especially since Aeryn's best skill seems to be killing the shit out of whatever happens to be in front of him. Tristan would take one look at an incredibly dedicated, very capable, very stabby man and go "perfect, mine now." (And from what I understand Aeryn would be pretty into that...)

Images of the terrible boy are forthcoming, I need to make him in the CC and get some screenshots. For posterity.

#Tristan Trevelyan #dragon age #dai #my ocs #my terrible horrible no good very bad son #look chantry-sucks-ass my fellow nerd I saw Aeryn and IMMEDIATELY thought of Tristan and since Tristan's whole thing is “wouldnt that #be fucked up“ my first thought was ofc ”wouldn't it be fucked up if they were in the same world“ because oh boy...#anyways I saw your tags 😍 love u too bestie #also satanic-fruitcake you are also bestie status for giving me an excuse to ramble about this shitty boy #shitty men are my favorite and this one takes the cake in terms of sheer terribleness and I NEVER get to talk about him

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2af-afterdark · 4 months

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JUST READ YOU POST AND. SHOULD I BE CONCERNED ABOUT GARU AND KARU? MY BOYS??? THAT WAS HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER WASN'T IT

The fact that there are so many things that can go wrong with them... I don't even know which of the many possible scenarios would devastate me more, lol. I remember staring at the screen for like solid ten seconds after seeing "horror" right after the "mature themes and violence" disclaimer. WHAT DO YOU MEAN "HORROR" HUH!!! All I wanted was to try out some silly horny game because I like looking at pretty boys and so that I could translate it for my friend that's interested in the plot but doesn't know English as well as I do...

What have I gotten myself into.

Ah well, I don't regret anything. Love the characters (Edmond, Olivine and Blade especially are so cute, I want to squeeze them like stress balls), the artstyle and the music. Can't wait to get traumatized once I get strong enough to advance in the plot, lol. Should probably not go looking through character tags for now, though... I usually don't mind spoilers at all, but you've piqued my curiosity.

Also, thank you for the heads-up about 10x draw rates! There's still a lot I need to learn about the game mechanics... And to decide whether I should give in to the temptation of buying that 2024 pack... My student ass can't afford to whale so I usually just stick to being fully f2p, but Eiden. Fucking. Eiden. This man has such a hold on me and I've had him for less than five days. What the fuck. I literally blush like a schoolgirl with a crush whenever he says something horny or teasing. I am so pathetic for him, damn it.

— 💛

The short answer is that everything happens all the time. Events and story alike both delight and destroy. I cannot wait for you to get further into the plot and discover all the juicy secrets. And all the event revivals you have to play! Because events are actually meaningful in Nu:C! They give lore and character moments that may be referenced down the line! And, since they often only focus on a few characters at a time, they feel so well paced and meaningful. Fuck! Nu:C has some of the best events. Period.

I will say that, unless they plan to add more horror down the line, that warning may be referring to one event in particular (it's the only event I actively chose to skip altogether so I cannot say much, but I hear it involved cults and sacrifice).

And, yeah.... 10x will sometimes net you absolutely nothing. I have had 10x where I don't even get an SR card, let alone an SSR. In all my time playing (literally since launch day), I have also only ever pulled 2 SSR in one 10x once. The draw rates in Nu:C can be brutal. I advise picking your favorites and only drawing when they are in the banner if you want to stand a chance. Like, I have 110 contracts saved up for Eiden's new card because I restrain myself to only pull for Kuya, Rei, and Blade (and Eiden, Aster, and Morvay, but they are rarely in the banner so those three are special circumstances). If you try to pull every banner, especially f2p, you are going to have a hard time getting any SSR.

Some quick tips:

Make sure you are doing your intimacy rooms since maxing those out actually makes cards stronger.

Ensure you do potential for the cards you plan to use a lot as this gives bonus benefits and stats. An R or SR card can be stronger than SSR card depending on potential, abilities, and how many * that card has (example: My SR Aster is still really strong because he's 5*).

Not all cards are built the same, even when they are the same class. The wording of the abilities matters. Example: SSR Dante (base card) will give every ally a shield to help protect them whereas SR Morvay will attack and guard for his normal attack and he will pull aggro for his ultimate. Different cards. Different uses in battle.

#❖ 💛 anon #love letters ❤️#nu carnival

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terrimood · 2 years

Text

The last soul keeper book 6

#The last soul keeper book 6 full

#The last soul keeper book 6 series

This is a BIG novel, so there’s only so much I can get into without getting too spoilery. I honestly was getting some Erik Killmonger vibes in places…where it’s like, yeah, ok…this guy is a fucking sociopathic killer…but he does make some good points here and there. Janus is…a really interesting villain, to say the least. An absolutely deranged killer named Janus is unleashed on the city, and it’s gonna fall to Devin & his friends (Devin is kind of like a magnet for people in need) to lead the fight for humanity. The dynamic between Devin and Jac over the course of this story was my absolute favorite! Devin is also paired up with a woman named Jacaranda, known as a Soulless…these are people who show and feel no emotion, they only follow orders in a very literal sense. The story then shifts to the city of Londheim, where we meet so many new characters, including Adria, Devin’s sister, a Mindkeeper for the church (we also learn quite a bit about the roles of the different Keepers.Soulkeepers, Mindkeepers, and Faithkeepers). There’s some really cool bits of storytelling magic involved in the changing POVs, one in particular that fucking delighted me completely (no spoilers here!!) But then everything changes (for the better), and Dalglish brings in multiple POVs at around the 100 page mark. I had resigned myself to Devin being the only POV character, which would’ve been fine. This first section of the book is very fast-paced & fun to read. A mysterious black fog/water sweeps over the village, and shit gets all kinds of Living Dead.

#The last soul keeper book 6 full

Summoned to a village called Dunwerth under the pretense of helping the people cope with a plague (and performing the very important funeral rites when needed), Devin soon finds himself in a world full of magical creatures, and a long-dormant evil. The need fully arises almost straight away. Devin has many responsibilities as a Soulkeeper…he’s a bit like a wandering healer/priest, but also he carries a sword & a gun with him, and will fuck up some evil when the need arises. The first large chunk of this large book (all 650 pages of it) is spent primarily with Devin Eveson, a Soulkeeper with the Keeping Church, worshippers of the Three Sisters (goddesses). But Dalglish put this story together in such a way that I went through many different levels of enjoying it! Which is not to say I wasn’t digging it from the start, because it starts strong, and I was hooked right away. This is one of those books that kept growing on me the further I got into it. So yeah, Soulkeeper is the first book in David Dalglish’s new series, The Keepers. *adds David Dalglish to that list of authors*

#The last soul keeper book 6 series

That said, there’s something incredibly exciting about starting a brand new series when the first book has just come out, and I’ll always leap at that opportunity if possible. There’s always that temptation to start at the beginning of any particular author’s bibliography and work forward chronologically. I’ve done this recently with Robert Jackson Bennett, Myke Cole, Miles Cameron, Devin Madson, and soon I’ll be adding Sam Sykes to that list. There’s this thing I seem to do quite a bit: Start an author’s brand new series, when said author has one (or more) completed series under their belt. Devin must set aside his words of peace and accept his new role: slayer of monsters and protector of the human race. And not all the creatures that have re-awakened remember humanity fondly.Īs the land grows more dangerous and more chaotic, Soulkeepers are turning up dead, their bodies transformed into macabre works of art. But when a mysterious black water washes over the world, the veil is torn, flooding the land with ancient magic and forgotten races: fire that dances as if alive, corpses that walk, and creatures that can manipulate time itself. In addition to being an author, Ker is an annoying wife and a mother of three children + one dog (who thinks he's human.) She has a passion for reading and binge-watching crime documentaries.įind her on social media, where she loves interacting with her readers.Devin Eveson is a Soulkeeper, traveling through remote villages as a preacher and healer. Her titles have held multiple #1 bestseller banners and have had rights sold to numerous countries. Ker, is an international bestselling author, with over thirty titles published. Ker Dukey is an International bestselling author based in the United Kingdom.ĭark Romance, Psychological Thriller, New Adult Romance, Romantic Suspense, and Erotic Romance.

#The last soul keeper book 6

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babyboibucky · 3 years

Text

The Match - Part 8

Pairing: CEO!Bucky x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2.7k

Summary: You get a preview of what it’s like to be working with Mackenzie.

Warnings: I apologize as there is no smut in here lmfao but there is a stubborn Bucky lols

A/N: The jitters just never go away whenever I post a new part for this ajkcnjasncakjcnakj I find this part boring tbh but uhh things will start picking up again in the next part I promise

The Match Masterlist || MAIN MASTERLIST

Bucky decided to push through with his partnership with Wilson Enterprises. It was a big one, so it definitely required the entire team's effort and perseverance. Apparently, this is the company's biggest, most major project yet so this was going to look really good in your resume. It would also provide you with more credibility to further excel in your career.

Except that Bucky actually hired a marketing consultant to take over the entire project as his revenge.

"Any questions? About the project or about Kenzie?" Bucky asked, standing in front of the conference room, next to Mackenzie.

You confidently raised your hand when no one else did. Bucky tilted his head, a tiny smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. He knew you were affected, of fucking course you were!

"Yes?" he called out.

You stood up and sighed softly, "I mean this in the most respectful way, Mister Barnes." you said, emphasizing his name. "But as the head of marketing, what exactly is my role here? Given that Mackenzie was hired to spearhead the marketing aspect of this project." you said, giving Mackenzie a passive aggressive smile.

"I don't want to overstep on some boundaries here, that's why I'm asking. I just want clarity, that's all." you said.

Bucky was about to respond when Mackenzie stopped him, grabbing his arm and squeezing it before taking over the floor. You narrowed your eyes at how her slender fingers were wrapped around Bucky's arm.

"Honey..." Mackenzie started. "There's nothing to worry about, this is a collaborative work between you and I. So think of yourself as my assistant, someone to help me out with the project." she responded.

Bitch.

"I'm not an assistant, Mackenzie." you said, smiling at her.

Mackenzie laughed, "I'm sorry, my bad. I shouldn't have used that term. Oops." she said. "Although, I believe I have more experience in this area so maybe consider me a mentor?" she suggested.

Bitch!

Bucky cleared his throat, "If you have certain ideas, you can discuss it with her. She is a consultant after all. Given her impressive experience in the field, I'm sure you'll learn a thing or two from her."

The meeting was wrapped up by noon and you simply couldn't wait to get yourself out of the conference room. You didn't feel like talking to Bucky anymore in all honesty, not after what he was doing. You knew this was just to spite you, get you to cave in first and give in to him.

All the more that you wouldn't, especially not when he actually used your job against you.

Everyone started rushing out of the conference room, ready to head out for lunch. As soon as you reached the doorway, you overheard the short conversation between Bucky and Mackenzie.

"Hey Bucky, we still up for lunch?"

The bathroom was empty when you stepped inside and thank god for that because you couldn't hold back your emotions any further. Tears gathered in the corner of your eyes, not because you were hurt. Fuck no, you were angry and frustrated. So fucking angry at yourself for getting into this mess, at Bucky for being such an entitled prick, at the entire world for plotting against you.

You groaned in irritation as you wiped away your tears, sniffing as you looked at yourself in the mirror.

You worked your ass off for this job, for your position. You risked your dignity when you let Bucky fuck you. You weren't going to let someone take that away from you.

You quickly fixed yourself when the door opened, followed by the loud clacking of someone's heels.

"Omg, are you crying?" Beverly gasped, rushing over to you.

You snickered, "No." you lied, "My eyes are itchy." you huffed out before noticing that Beverly was holding a sandwich in her hand.

"Why did you bring your sandwich here?" you curiously asked.

Beverly shrugged, "The pantry's full and the other girls don't exactly seem to like me...so..."

You shook your head and sighed, "Come with me, let's have lunch out. I need to get out of this fucking place anyway."

"Yay, omg! I knew you were nice! You're like, the only girl who actually talked to me nicely." Beverly said, tagging behind you as you exited the bathroom.

"Oh, there you are!" Mark called out. "I was looking for you. Wanna grab lunch? Oh...who's this?" he asked, noticing the blonde girl trailing behind you.

"I'm Beverly! I'm Sir James' new secretary." she introduced excitedly.

You sighed, "Don't ask me why." you said when Mark turned to you with a confused look, still not sure what happened to Bucky's previous secretary.

"So, lunch out? With Bev?" you asked.

You were completely zoning out during lunch despite the ongoing conversation between Mark and Bev, something about yoga? You honestly couldn't care less, not when you were feeling so conflicted about your current situation.

Would Bucky actually go that far just to get you back? Or does he actually hate you for saying no to him and is basically using his authority to make your life a living hell?

"So I heard about the new girl." Mark said, that snapped you out of your trance.

"Huh?" you asked.

"I find it weird for Mister Barnes to hire someone when you're here." Mark pointed out. "I mean, are you okay with that or..."

You snorted, "Fuck no. Look, I'm not gonna be the bigger person here. I was offended as fuck." you admitted.

"Yeah, it's super weird because she was hired through Tinder or something. Is that even legal?" Beverly pointed out as she scrolled through her phone.

You and Mark turned to her abruptly, "Tinder? Wait, what?" you asked.

Beverly chuckled, "I heard them talking this morning and Kenzie was like, 'It's so funny that we matched on Tinder and ended up doing business there you know' and I'm like omg Sir James has Tinder and I have one too but I never saw him there, bummer."

"Motherfucker." you hissed out.

Mark made a face, "Are you okay?" he carefully asked. "You've been really tensed since last week."

Apparently, Bucky never deleted his Tinder and have been swiping right on women. And that's how he met Mackenzie who just happened to be a marketing consultant. Now you were just furious, was he fucking her too? Has he been fucking other women this entire time?

"Hey, Bev..." you said, a plan hatching inside your mind. "Can I ask you a favor?" you asked nicely.

Beverly nodded, "Um duh, you're basically my office BFF now."

"If you ever hear Mister Barnes and Mackenzie talk about hmm, I don't know...something interesting. Maybe about the project...me 'cause you know, I'm the head of marketing and Mackenzie’s in the same field...let me know, will ya?" you asked.

Mark chuckled nervously, "I don't know what's going on but isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

"She's not going to eavesdrop, Mark. She'll just...listen closely." you explained.

"Bev might get in trouble if Mister Barnes finds out." Mark warned.

You waved a hand, "She'll be fine, Mark. She's his secretary, she has to know everything. Besides, I'm not going to let her get in trouble, if she does then I'll take care of it."

Beverly squealed in delight, "Omg, you are not my office BFF. You're like my office mom! You and Mark are literally my office parents." she said, lifting her phone up in the air.

"Selfie! This one goes to the 'gram." she said, taking a quick photo of the three of you.

She then proceeded to edit the photo while you and Mark continued eating lunch.

"Bev, you should really put your phone away and eat first. We have less than half an hour left for lunch break." Mark called out.

Beverly groaned and rolled her eyes, "Way to get into the role, Mark. You're such a dad."

You snorted, "Yeah. Loosen up, daddy." you teased.

"Playing family after just one date, huh."

Bucky's presence in the same restaurant should've really intimidated you, most especially that he just witnessed you tease Mark like that. But you were too mad at him to even care, what was the point even? He didn't believe you even when you told him the truth that Mark was just a friend.

Why even try now?

"Hi Sir James." Beverly greeted happily.

"Mister Barnes." Mark acknowledged.

Bucky ignored them and kept his eyes on you. You didn't falter under his gaze and simply stared back at him with blank eyes. It's as if a staring competition took place when the both of you merely looked at each other, neither of you looking away nor attempting to do so.

"How was that date last Friday, Jim?" Bucky asked, his eyes still trained on yours.

Mark made a funny face at the name that Bucky called him but shrugged anyway. Before he could even respond, you decided to answer on his behalf. If Bucky wanted to spite you, you'd give him a taste of his own medicine.

"It was actually great. We might go on another one this Friday." you said.

"We are?" Mark asked in a whisper.

Bucky's hand landed on Mark's shoulder, "Don't count on it, Andrew. She's going to be doing a lot of work on Friday due to the project." he said through gritted teeth.

You shrugged, "Oh, but I thought Mackenzie's doing all my work?"

"I'm ready to head back, Buck."

Speak of the devil herself. Mackenzie weaved through the tables and approached Bucky, her face brightening up when she saw you, Mark and Beverly.

"Oh, hey you." she greeted you. "Look, I think we may have started off on the wrong foot earlier. I'm not here to take your job, just here to spice things up a bit. Improve your ideas, give Bucky some assistance." she chuckled, holding onto Bucky's arm yet again.

You fought back the urge to grab your glass of water and throw it at her face. As the saying goes, kill them with kindness. So you merely shrugged and extended an arm for a handshake.

"Of course. I would love to improve your ideas as well, you know. Just a healthy discourse between two marketing professionals. We good?" you said.

Mackenzie forced out a chuckle and reached for your hand, "We’re good. I look forward to working with you." she said before turning back to Bucky who was still gazing at you.

"Let's go?" she asked sweetly.

Bucky smirked at you before wrapping an arm around Mackenzie's waist, guiding her out of the restaurant the same way he did to you. You were too focused on Bucky's body language around Mackenzie that you failed to notice that Mark was watching you closely, your expressions and how you reacted towards Bucky.

"I think I know what's happening."

"You what?!"

"Shhh!" you hushed Mark and peeked out of the empty pantry to make sure the coast was clear.

Mark noticed the tension between you and Bucky and he came to a conclusion that the both of you dated at one point. He wasn't really wrong but he wasn't right either. So you decided to tell him everything, from the moment you matched with Bucky on Tinder until your last conversation with him last Saturday.

"I honestly thought you were dating, I didn't know there was sex involved. No wonder he had been calling me weird names." he said incredulously. "Was that you and Mister Barnes that Janet reported to the HR?" he asked, stifling his laughter.

You groaned, "Yes. Ugh, gave me a panic attack when I found out about that incident report." you said.

"Hey..." Mark called out. "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me this. Your secret is safe with me." he reassured.

You nodded, "I think it was about time that I told someone about us anyway. This whole situation is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do next. And I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess, I shouldn't have said that we were going out again. I don't want you or your job getting compromised because of our petty fight." you exhaled.

You had to admit, you felt so much better now after confiding with Mark. It somewhat alleviated the weight on your shoulders, knowing that there was someone aware of what you were going through. Who would've thought that this person would end up being Mark? You did have friends outside of work of course, but you felt like they all wouldn't really understand the situation.

Half would hate you for rejecting Bucky and the other half would hate you for even swiping right on him.

"Do you mind an unsolicited advice?" Mark asked.

"Not at all." you said.

"Ignore him. Don't let him or Mackenzie get to you. Do what you do best, you're great at your job and you'll be fine. That might get him to realize that you're not a prize to be won. And if he still doesn't see that, then that's his loss. You're more than just that hot marketing girl at work." Mark said.

You laughed at his last statement, "Hot marketing girl at work?" you asked, shaking your head.

"It's true. So if in any case you decide to ditch the CEO and move on, you know where to find me." he joked, throwing a wink your way.

You wanted to finish all your reports so you could focus on the huge project so you decided to work until around nine in the evening. The floor was already empty by the time you were done. Bucky seemed to be working too, given that he was still replying to e-mails at this hour. Wanting to get all the reports over with, you decided to submit it to him before going home.

During the elevator ride to Bucky’s floor, you couldn’t help but wonder whether he was alone in the office. Would Mackenzie be there with him? Even at this hour? Your grip on the folder tightened at the thought of catching them in the act.

But did you have any right to feel this way though?

Brushing off the thoughts, you exhaled loudly and prepared yourself for whatever it was you were to witness. Upon reaching the door to Bucky’s office, you slightly turned your head to listen to anything. It was quiet. No hushed whispers nor strained grunts-- they weren’t fucking, thank goodness for that.

You decided not to knock and just walk inside like you used to, reminding yourself of Mark’s advice.

Don’t let Bucky get to you.

When you saw Bucky hunched over his desk, typing away on his e-mails instead of bending a certain brunette somewhere in his office, you had to admit that you were relieved. He looked up and his eyes looked dead tired, you almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

“You should really learn how to knock.” Bucky called out, slamming his laptop shut.

“Look, Bucky. I was just rushing to submit these reports so I can go home.” you explained and placed the folder on top of his desk.

Bucky frowned, “I said to call me Mister Barnes.”

You huffed out, “I honestly don’t care, Bucky. I’m not playing your damn games anymore.” you said and turned around.

A hand on your arm pulled you back, harshly turning you around to face Bucky. He was fuming, as usual. At this point, you were no longer fazed.

“You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?” he asked.

You clenched your jaw and pulled your arm back, “I’m not doing anything. You bring in Beverly or Mackenzie or whoever it is that you have up your sleeve. I don’t fucking care. I just want to focus on work.” you said and stepped away.

“And you should too, Bucky.” you added.

“I don’t believe you.” he said.

You sighed, your shoulders dropping from exhaustion at this whole shenanigan. “I’m done, Bucky.”

And with that you turned around to exit his office, leaving Bucky unsure whether you truly meant what you said. A victorious smirk graced your lips as you walked back to the elevator.

You were far from done.

The Match Special Tags:

@marvelslag @weird-mumbling @propertyofpoeandbucky @lostinthoughtsandfeelings @mostly-marvel-musings @squishybabies @megzdoodle @suchababie @annathesillyfriend @xhollycowx @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog @5-seconds-of-mendes @gogolucky13 @countonthesun @iloveshawnieboi @learisa @borikenlove @scarlet-natasha89

Everything Bucky Tag List:

@ddowii @jessou893 @stealapizzamyheart @bagelofthelord @mxnt @dontputyourfckingdrinkonmytable @jeeperky @ohladymacbeth @wildflowergubler @supraveng @twinerd14 @buckysmar @bakugouswh0r3 @sweetcoldharmony @wintersfilm @charminivy @amelia-song-pond @iamvalentinaconstanza @mcubqrnes @im-squished @tcc-gizmachine @sipsteacasually @prettyintopeerpressure @weloveyasmin @est19xxshit @bloodhon3yx @dressed-in-prada @lizette50 @thatfangirl42 @sunflowerbunny2 @unmagically @okiegirl24 @sugarpunch-princess @enlyume @vvipgotbb @slimeyderp @lyoongx @just-deka @nobody-will @jaziona92 @elisebuitron @dpaccione @suvikamahes98blr @buckybarneshairpullingkink @earthtonav @x-judyjude-x @nani-kenobi @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @belladonnabarnes @iloveangstposts @weenersoldierr @asemistablehundredyearoldman @reidbuck @lizzarooni @girlfriday007 @bonkywobble @lost-in-the-stars03 @its-yasbxtch @whoth3hellisbucky

#bbb writes #the match #bucky barnes #bucky #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky barnes smut #bucky smut #fem!reader #sebastian stan

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helnjk · 3 years

Text

A Change of Scenery - C.W.

Charlie Weasley x fem!reader

Requested: yes!

omg hi! I just saw the fanart of the oldest Weasley brothers(🥵🥵🥵) and was hoping you could do a Charlie x reader thing? Maybe the reader is a healer at the sanctuary and Charlie doesn't mind getting hurt because he gets to see her but she literally has no idea he adores her till he spells it out. With promt 42 of your list maybe? Totally cool if you want to leave it out 😁 love you and your work! -🍄

“what the hell were you thinking?”

Word count: 3.1k

Summary: moving to romania for your absolute dream job, you did not expect to meet a cheeky, flirty redhead along the way.

Warnings: mentions of injuries, food, & drinks. charlie is a dragon tamer, reader is a healer, of course he’s going to end up with a few cuts and bruises.

A/N: god i love charlie weasley with all of my heart. that is all.

prompt is in bold

Being connected to and living somewhere very in tune with the earth had always been a dream of yours. It just so happened that your new job had you transferred to the perfect place: Romania.

Sure, it was quite far from England and had quite a different culture, but the beauty of the mountains and the picturesque scenery made up for it. The fact that you were also working in one of the best medical wings in the country, on a dragon reserve on top of that, was basically your dream come true.

“Alright, and this right here is your station,” announced the head healer, who insisted you call him Gerry, gesturing to a decently sized office space. “You can decorate it anyway you like, as long as it’s appropriate. Most of the folks around here aren’t locals either, so we’ve got loads of photos up and lots of owls coming in and out everyday.”

“It’s perfect,” you grinned.

Gerry left you alone to get settled, and you didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but the first thing you did once he was out of earshot was to squeal excitedly and do a little happy dance.

It was just all too exciting, really. Dream job, dream location, dream view even. After your burst of excitement, you spent a bit of time just staring out of the window, taking in everything. In the distance, you could even see the silhouette of a dragon peeking over the canopy of trees. The fact that this was going to be a regular occurrence just spurred even more delight in your heart.

Later in the day, after most of the introductions were made and tours were finished, you could be found familiarizing yourself with the medical wing of the sanctuary.

“C’mon Gerry, I’m completely fine!” you heard a gruff voice complain. It was coming from the hallway outside, but the accompanying footsteps sounded as if they were on the way to the wing.

“You know it’s protocol, Weasley,” a very amused Gerry replied as they rounded the corner.

Beside your boss was one of the most gorgeous men you had ever laid eyes on. With wind ruffled hair the color of sunsets and lightly tanned skin, you almost didn’t notice the small, almost inconspicuous limp he was sporting. It also took you a few seconds to realize that he was probably one of the dragon tamers of the reserve, the first one you were going to meet and treat, it seemed.

“Ah, Healer L/N, perfect!” Gerry called out to you, “This is Charlie Weasley, one of our on-site dragon tamers.”

“Nice to meet you,” he smiled, holding out his hand for you to shake.

“You too,” you said in reply, trying not to think about how warm and calloused his hand was in yours.

“His leg got swiped by the tail of a Chinese Fireball,” Gerry explained as he motioned to the leg that Charlie wasn’t putting much of his weight on.

You could see the redhead roll his eyes, “Honestly, I’ll be fine! This has happened more times than you know.”

Despite his best efforts, both you and Gerry managed to get Charlie to take a seat on one of the beds that lined the wall. With a sigh, he rolled up his trousers just enough for you to see the area of the wound.

“Lucky for you, treating this doesn’t take much time,” you smiled. Swiftly, you took your wand out and muttered the correct incantation, “There. Good as new!”

“If I get to be under the care of Ms. L/N here, I wouldn’t mind getting injured more often,” he flirted, sending you a cheeky wink.

Gerry just guffawed a loud belly laugh, patting Charlie on the shoulder fondly, “Don’t you go running off with one of my best healers now, Weasley. We just got her!”

“Don’t worry, Gerry,” you smiled, “I think this one’s too injury-prone to run anywhere.”

–

As the last work day of your first week at the reserve was coming to an end, you were surprised to see Charlie Weasley knocking on the open door to your office.

“Hey,” you said, sending him a small smile.

“Hey,” he parroted, stepping inside.

“Anything I can help you with?” you asked over your shoulder while putting away the last of your files and slipping out of your healer robes, “You’re not injured again are you?”

Behind you, Charlie gulped as he saw the little sundress you wore underneath. His head spun at the sight of your exposed legs and he nearly forgot what he was about to say.

“Nah I’ve got a better track record than that, thankfully,” he chuckled. Doing his best to keep the calm facade he had going on, he leant against the doorframe as he asked, “Got any plans tonight? I was wondering if you’d fancy getting a bite to eat.”

You were caught off guard by how nonchalant and straightforward his invitation was.

“Is this your way of asking me on a date?” you asked, finally turning around to face him once again.

He raised an eyebrow, “Do you want it to be? Because I just wanted to be a nice person and show you around Romania, but if you’re looking for a date…”

“Oh shut it, Weasley,” you groaned, “The tab is on you tonight, then.”

Charlie sent you a grin as you strode out of your office. Despite your faux-annoyance, you were happy to have someone show you around. Being a healer was your dream job, but it did have some setbacks. Obviously, you were needed at the medical wing of the reserve for the majority of the week and that didn’t give you much time to familiarize yourself with the town and the people.

Because of how remote the reserve was, most staff and employees lived on site. There was a designated area for the many different cabins and living quarters. To give you more of a tour of the little Romanian town nearest the reserve, Charlie offered to side-along apparate you.

You could feel heat creep up your neck and spread along your cheeks as you gripped firmly on to his muscular arm.

The sun was just about to set and cast gorgeous hues of orange and pink across the sky as the two of you landed just outside the town. Charlie led you along, showing you where the most important areas were; you saw the town square, the little street bazaars, and the most popular eating places.

By the time the pair of you got to one of his favorite restaurants, a quaint little place in one of the sidestreets, your cheeks were sore from laughing too much. After the initial awkwardness as you tried to navigate topics that interested the both of you, you found yourselves chatting away animatedly.

“Yeah, Fred and George were an absolute nightmare when they were little,” he chuckled, fondly recalling the many times he and his older brother Bill were left to babysit their younger siblings, “But they’re great. They’ve got a shop in Diagon Alley now, selling prank products of all things. It’s wild.”

“Your family sounds absolutely lovely,” you said. It warmed your heart seeing how his eyes lit up talking about them. “It must be so hard being so far away from everyone.”

He nodded slightly before taking a sip of his drink, “Definitely. My first year here was such a big transition. I’m lucky I get to go home every so often.”

There was a lull in the conversation as you dug into your food, but it was far from the awkward silence you were expecting.

Maybe working in Romania wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

–

“Why is it that when you get hurt, I’m always the healer on call?” you sighed playfully as Charlie walked through the door of the medical wing.

It was the fourth week in a row he had to come and get something patched up. They weren’t major injuries, thankfully, but you had come to learn that the dragon tamers were required to know how to perform the basic healing spells. The things Charlie would come in for were almost always resolved with a quick episkey.

“You know me,” he joked, taking a seat on one of the empty beds, “Always so accident prone.”

“Sure.” You rolled your eyes.

Still, with your wand in hand, you gestured for him to show you where the injury was.

“I’ve got two things today,” he began. You raised your eyebrows in response. “This is the first.”

Charlie quickly rolled the sleeve of his top, his toned arm flexing at the movement. In all the time you had worked at the reserve, which wasn’t that long at all, you still hadn’t gotten used to how fit he was. A quick intake of breath had you re-centering and focusing on the task at hand. There was a small burn on his forearm, not enough to cause too much concern.

You cast the charm quickly so as not to be distracted further, “There, all done.”

“There’s still one more place that’s hurt Y/N.”

By the way Charlie spoke, you knew he was up to something. Inwardly you sighed, “Alright, let’s get to it then.”

Your heart seemed to stop as he began to unbutton the first few buttons of his top.

“What’re you doing, Weasley?” you asked, trying your hardest to keep your composure as you got a peek of his very toned chest.

With a dramatic sigh, Charlie leant back and pointed to an area above his chest, “My heart hurts, Y/N.”

For a moment you just stared at him, looking absolutely ridiculous in the position he chose to don, eyes blinking owlishly. Truthfully, you didn’t know whether to laugh or to send the strongest stinging hex in his direction.

“Charlie Weasley, you thank Merlin and Morgana right now that I’m not hexing your balls off,” you said, rolling your eyes.

“I’m being serious, Y/N!” he continued, “I don’t know if I’ll survive this!”

“Pity, does that mean I’m losing my ticket to free weekly meals?” she joked, already turning on her heel to get back to what she had been doing before he entered the wing.

There were sounds of shuffling as if Charlie had gotten back up on his feet again and then, “Definitely not! I’m banking on those meals, one of these days you’re going to be begging me for an actual date. You’ll see.”

“Keep dreaming, Weasley.”

You sent the redheaded dragon tamer a sarcastic smile, but he just sent you a flirty wink in reply.

–

“Code white. Need extra hands in the medical wing ASAP.”

The shimmering white bloodhound soon dissolved into nothing as it delivered its message to you, early one morning. You had just gotten to work, not even in your healer's robes yet, when Gerry’s patronus appeared.

As you rushed to the medical wing, another patronus made an appearance and rattled off what had happened and who was hurt. Your heart dropped the moment you heard who you were going to be treating.

“Oh Merlin,” you whispered to yourself the moment you saw the state Charlie was in, “What did you get yourself into?”

In all the time you had been working at the reserve and as a healer in general, it was not unusual for you to treat severe injuries. In fact, you liked to think that when you were faced with someone’s life or quality of life in your hands, you worked even harder and smarter. However, seeing Charlie more battered and bruised than you had ever seen him made your heart pound loudly in your chest.

“Healer L/N, you’re right on time,” Gerry spoke to you clearly, rapidly explaining the situation and what you needed to do.

In a flash, you had your wand out and were muttering all the healing spells that came to mind alongside your head healer. You didn’t notice how you were holding your breath and clenching your wandless hand until you let out a sigh of relief when Charlie began to stir.

“He’s stable,” Gerry announced and released a breath.

You felt a soft pat on your shoulder as he left you to deal with the patient, deeming it alright for him to step out and get back to his other responsibilities. Carefully, you walked towards the redhead whose eyes were fluttering open.

“What the hell were you thinking, Weasley?” you murmured softly, your wand sweeping over him one last time to check is vitals. A soft hand reached out to push the stray strands of hair that had fallen in front of his face and you felt him lean into your touch.

“Y/N?” Charlie mumbled, his eyes still half-closed.

“I’m right here,” you said in reply.

“What happened?” he asked, trying to prop himself up but groaning in pain.

“What happened,” you began, going to help him get to the seated position he wanted to be in. He smiled up at you and you could barely remember what you were trying to say. With a small shake of your head and clearing of your throat you continued, “What happened was that you were being an absolute idiot who absolutely did not call for backup when a nesting mother was going on a rampage.”

Despite his obvious discomfort, Charlie had the audacity to chuckle slightly, “Sounds about right.”

“Don’t you dare do that to me again, Weasley,” you admonished, pulling back and shooting him the dirtiest stare you could muster. “You nearly gave me a heart attack. When I got Gerry’s patronus, all I could think about was–”

As if an electric jolt shocked you, you cut yourself off before anything else escaped your lips.

“Was what, Y/N?” he asked softly.

His eyes were shining with something you couldn’t quite name, but the sincerity in his face gave you pause.

You shook your head, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Instead of continuing to reprimand him for his foolishness, you busied yourself making sure he was comfortable and that everything was alright. The potions he needed to take later in the day and the different salves to be applied to his skin were placed on the bedside table. Pillows were summoned, fluffed, and placed behind him.

As you shuffled around the room, purposely ignoring the redhead, his eyes were trained on you.

The moment his eyes opened and he felt your hand brush gently across his face, he thought he had to have been dreaming. If it weren’t for the ache in his muscles and the sting of his burns, he would’ve believed that he was in some alternate reality wherein he woke up next to you every morning.

He was tired of waiting for his fantasies to come true, he decided.

“Y/N.”

The way he said your name sent shivers down your spine. Your whole body froze for a microsecond before you turned to face him.

“Yeah, Charlie?”

“Look at me please,” he begged.

With a deep breath, your eyes locked with his and you were almost blown away with the look on his face.

Sincerity pooled in his eyes as they scanned your face, trying to see if your own expression gave anything away. You felt like a deer caught in the headlights, unable to move or look away from him.

“Tell me what you were thinking,” he whispered gently.

It was now or never.

“All I could think about was how,” you gulped, taking a steadying breath, “How you could’ve died or gotten so hurt, when I hadn’t even had the chance to tell you how I felt about you.”

You could hear Charlie’s sharp intake of breath and you had to look away, unable to face the rejection you were ultimately going to hear.

“Y/N–”

“And, and I know that you don’t feel the same–”

“Y/N–”

“But, just seeing you lying there–”

“Y/N!”

Charlie’s voice rang through the whole wing, a sharp contrast to the otherwise silent space. You sucked in a deep breath, surprised.

“Y/N you have to know I’m absolutely mad for you,” he said clearly.

You blinked furiously at him.

“You-I, what?”

Charlie tried to reposition himself so that he could face you properly, but you could see that he was still in a bit of pain. Instead of letting him maneuver himself uncomfortably, you placed a soft hand on his shoulder before taking a seat by his legs.

Immediately, he went to take your hand in his. “I think you’re absolutely breathtaking, and talented, and passionate. I just haven’t had the balls to ask you out on a real date.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Weasley?” You offered him a small smile, glancing back down at your intertwined hands.

The smile he sent you left you breathless.

–

“You ready to go?” Charlie asked, leaning against the doorframe with his legs crossed just like when he had visited your office that first week.

A small grin inched its way on to your face at the sight of your boyfriend. His hair was just a tad bit windswept, adding to the rugged look he insisted he could pull off (and he definitely did, you just didn’t like feeding his ego too much).

“Just about,” you smiled. “Let me get out of these stuffy robes first.”

And, just like the first time he had knocked on the door to your office, you turned to shrug off your uniform and hang it up in one of the hooks beside your desk. Instead of keeping his thoughts to himself, Charlie grinned widely and whistled at the sight of you in your dress.

Just as you were about to chide him for being inappropriate, strong arms wrapped around your waist and pulled you backwards. A small ‘oof’ escaped your lips as your back made contact with Charlie’s strong chest.

“Charlie!” you slapped his arm lightly, “C’mon, I’m still at work!”

“What so I can’t show my girlfriend some appreciation for being absolutely drop dead gorgeous?” he mumbled, pressing soft kisses on the joint where your neck met your shoulders.

You rolled your eyes, “You know I love a good compliment. I would just rather you do it outside my place of work.”

With a chuckle, Charlie released his grip on your waist. “Alright, alright.”

“Just for that, the tab’s on you tonight, Weasley.”

“Ah so the usual, love?”

“Of course.”

Charlie held his hand out for you to take, and unlike the first time he took you out, you allowed yourself to blush, take his calloused hand in yours, and press a soft kiss on his lips.

–

General taglist: @expectoevans @george-fabian-weasley @gxthsanrio @slytherinscribbles @harpyloon @nuttytani @mesmerisedangel @amourtentiaa @sarcasticallywitty15 @lumos-barnes @cruciostyles @writingsomewrongs

Charlie taglist: @pinkypurplemagic @lifeofkaze @oldschoolkiddo

#charlie weasley #charlie weasley fanfiction #charlie weasley imagines #charlie weasley imagine #charlie weasley fics #charlie weasley fic #charlie weasley x reader #charlie weasley x y/n #tw injury #tw food #tw meal mention

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tobi-smp · 3 years

Text

No one asked for it, but since I'm doing fic recs here's a list of my favorite tommy-centric fics just, Ever.

- Orange Light (Painted by Morning Sun) by HoneyDew_Tea (On-going) 73,706 words

A vampire au set entirely outside of the dream smp universe, but no less rich on history or lore for it. More importantly, it's an adoption au steeped in horror and atmosphere.

In this world, newly turned vampires are loved like family, held close and protected like children (which is exactly what they are). We open with tommy, an orphan turned vampire hunter, dragging a newly turned tubbo down the street into a ratty hotel. They're scrambling for any and every way to get out of the country without being stopped by either a pissed off coven missing their baby or the hunter organization that'd have tubbo killed at best.

an addition to their problem: Wilbur, techno, and phil (one of the older and more prestigious covens) have been friendly with tommy for years now, and they realize very quickly that they're going to have to act soon.

SBI adoption and dadschlatt au with absolutely Beautifully paced writing, characterization, and world building. The atmosphere is lovely and the character dynamics are a delight. This fic updating is literally an Event

- ashen knuckles, burning eyes by soul_speed (Finished) 8,735

A possibly pre-canon fic centering on tommy as a child raised in the nether (a human raised with piglins, who speaks their language and lives by their customs) being found by philza and techno (a piglin raised by a human, who only barely remembers piglin customs but nevertheless exists as a figure of legend to them).

The world building is Amazing, and I wish for nothing more than to explore this world and this dynamic further.

- Hush Now (You Were Lost but Now You’re Found) by CorpseArt (On-going) 81,149 words

A hero-villain au and a damn fun one at that. Tommy is a disgraced hero both trying to live a normal life and get back the life that he had in the aftermath of the end. Raised by dream (the number one hero in the city) he went into hiding after standing between him and "siren" (a renowned villain), holding dream at gunpoint when dream had gone in to kill despite that going against everything they'd stood for.

The web of characters and dynamics in this story is absolutely a Delight, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a hero or villain name and instantly recognizing the person it belongs to, waiting anxiously until you get to see them in action. and more than that is the web of civilian identities tangling heroes and villains together without them realizing.

The main focus is tommy being pulled in the sbi's orbit (who are, of course, villains) and his relationship with wilbur especially, but this is a massive lived-in world that tommy is trying to pull his way through while searching for a sense of purpose after he's lost everything he'd been alive for.

- take a step back by willthrowhands (On-going) 26,052 words

This fic ruined me. The concept is this: In the heat of doomsday tubbo went down and he never got up again. Tommy buried him next to the bench, quiet and alone, and he left. With nothing left to live for, but feeling as though tubbo's sacrifice would be a waste if he just gave up and died, he moved into the depths of pogtopia to build Some kind of life in the dark.

It's only as time passed that he realized that no one else knew what happened, that not even dream knew tubbo was gone.

It's some of the most beautiful prose I've read in my life, full of mourning and loss, with Very poignant imagery to boot. reading this will hurt you and you'll thank the author for the privilege after.

- A Sky Underground by fishstixx (On-going) 58,143 words

It goes like this: tommyinnit is a mutt. A hybrid mix of unknown origin (with fangs and lightning and an affinity for digging) shoved into fighting rings as a pup and rescued by dream. he was raised in an enclosure underground (with a fake sky and filtered air, with dirt to dig and plants to run through) not as a child but as a pet. still, he loved dream. one day though, dream tells him that he has to fight for him, and what other choice does he have?

He's let out into more of the building for the first time in his life, meeting sapnap, whose here to train him.

slowly but surely, sapnap and him grow closer (with sapnap learning to see tommy's humanity and tommy struggling to process that against his sureness of his inhumanity), tommy sees more of the bunker, and eventually the outside world. and across the other side of the battlefield there's phil, techno, and wilbur, whose lives are going to cross over with a mutt they've never seen before.

I wasn't expecting to care so much about sap and tommy's relationship here but I Do, I Do So Much Oh My God.

#dream smp #tommyinnit #tubbo #wilbur soot #philza #techno #jschlatt #dreamwastaken #awesamdude #jack manifold #sapnap #fic #fic rec #dream smp fic #only tagging people with bigger roles in the stories

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elysianslove · 3 years

Note

Hello! I know this may not be your thing but I decided to give it a shot, if not no biggy!

I was wondering if you would be interested in writing Gojo and/or Sakuna with an asexual lover? (One that doesnt feel sexual attraction but doesnt mind kissing and cuddling etc and loves physical affection but nothing beyond that?) And like, how a relationship with that kind of person would come to be?

Because Sakuna and Gojo both give off *he totally fucks* vibes.

So how they ended up with an asexual lover would be interesting, maybe the MC rejects their advances because fear of being hated for being Ase? Because they know that the other person definitely fucks.

How would their relationship work? How would the guy react/comfort the MC.

(Maybe it ends with a epilogue with no sex(as in penetration and blowjobs to be exact but mc later in a relationship would be willing to do things like handjobs and other hands on/Using toys to pleasure their partner because they cant in that way) but lots of passionate makeout sessions/kissing/sucking and worshiping the mc's body? Especially the collar bone)

If you arent into it that's cool! I totally get it!

This is pretty self indulgent after all ahahaha it's hard being an asexual in fandoms lmao.

hi my love!! okay to start off, i’m really honored you sent in this request to me. idk just the fact that you’re trusting me with it is really sweet hehe. i’m fairly knowledgable about sexuality but i don’t like to write about things i’m not 100% sure about because i don’t wanna risk doing anything wrong or accidentally offending you! but!! thank you for going into detail with the request, and i hope this is what you were looking for, and that i didn’t do any mistakes <3

i wrote headcanons so i can go into detail and write for both!!

some nsfw under the cut, my loves! <3

ryomen sukuna

i’d say, to begin with, it would take a small while for sukuna to even be accepting of his own feelings towards you. nothing having to do with your sexuality, just you in general, specifically that you’re human and so different from him. i don’t think sex ever crosses his mind, at least at the start, because he’s too busy being really angry over the way he can’t seem to control his reactions to every little thing you do. so he himself won’t actively work at starting a relationship with you.

but he will realize, over time, that you’re not doing anything either, even though he’s been noticing that you’re not pushing him or his advances away. like any act of protectiveness that involves him physically touching you intimately, you don’t reject, and you’re always ready to retort at any quip he had. he could tell that these feelings he had for you were mutual, he was just so confused as to why you weren’t doing anything about it.

sukuna’s a thousand year old cursed spirit. he does not know shit about sexuality. i think the way he’d look at it is fuck who you want and fuck who you like. i feel like nicki minaj’s said that before, has she? he doesn’t like thinking too much about it, you know?

his confession would probably be a kiss because words? he doesn’t know them. when he feels you return the kiss he’s, deep down, elated, really, and this is simply because of his naturally sexual personality, he starts hinting at more, until you stop him. he’s really confused because you just kissed him back? you’ve been kissing him for so long why do you want to stop now? he can see the fear steadily growing in your eyes and he’s even more confused now he’s just. humans are so weird.

when you cautiously tell him, “i don’t want to go further than this. is that okay?” you look like you’re waiting for the world to erupt in your face. he just frowns and shrugs like, “yeah but that’s not the point. do you not want me?”

it takes about an hour and a half for sukuna to properly process what you’re saying. at first he’s so thrown off by it, not by you! he just can’t process the fact that someone doesn’t feel any sexual attraction towards someone or doesn’t crave sex at all. it’s not that he’s rude about it, it’s just a really foreign concept to him, you know? when you add that it’s just sex, and you’re okay with a lot of other things, the gears in his brain finally start working again and he just goes.

*shrugs* ok.

literally lmao. like i said earlier, sukuna doesn’t give a shit like whatever do what you want.

because of the rush of emotions he’s feeling towards you, and the fact that this in itself, a relationship, and a relationship with a human too, he doesn’t really focus on the fact that he might want more from you. he’s easily satisfied with a lengthy make out session, and he admits it to you every time he sees you get a little anxious or unsure of yourself.

however, his needs do grow with your relationship. it’s kind of clumsy, your transition into a proper long term relationship, especially with sukuna, but you two make it work.

you agree to try different ways to pleasure him, even if he kinda rushes through them because he’s generally just excited to have your hands on him. at first he’s content with anything you’re offering, but it makes him feel kinda useless when you won’t let him touch you and you have to remind him that your needs are different than his and that you’re sated differently.

i see sukuna as a curious and experimental guy, so he would definitely let you use toys on him. nothing too extreme, because he still needs that sense of control, but you do use some toys like a fleshlight or a vibrator to rile him up. he likes using your hand too, because it’s always so soft against him and it feels a hundred times better than any toy. he learns not to overstep any boundaries though, and not to do anything that might make you uncomfortable even if it takes him a little longer. like i said, the whole idea is just different to him, so it takes him a while to understand, and he’s still learning as he goes!

he loves your make out sessions, especially after you establish your boundaries and your limits and what you’re willing to do for him. he absolutely adores leaving your skin a sky of blue, pink and purple it sends chills down his spine marking you like that. he’s always touching you all over, and just loves to grab and knead at your skin.

in the proper long term, he doesn’t mind it at all tbh. the two of you develop a system, and he’s okay with it. the same way you would never cross his boundaries and force him to do anything he doesn’t want, he’d do for you too! it really never truly mattered, and it truly never will.

gojō satoru

different from sukuna, i think gojō would definitely be knowledgable about things like this. idk he just seems like the kind of guy that’s innately so aware of everything around him, and can read people exceptionally well.

he probably picked up on the fact that you weren’t comfortable with sex, or just didn’t experince sexual attraction, on his own, but never really brought it up because it was never his place. but the same way he picks up on that, he picks up on your obvious crush on him. he pays both details no specific attention until he starts to realize his own feelings for you, and begins on his subtle advances.

he tried to make his advances as sfw as possible, you know? just in case his suspicions were confirmed to be true. he was just extra flirty, sometimes touchy but never in an inappropriate way. very subtilely like always having your shoulders or knees touching or dusting of your jacket or feeding you a piece of his food. cute little things like that.

he gets super worried when he notices you start to distance yourself from him, because he can’t imagine what he might’ve did to push you away. he overthinks a little, worried that he overstepped his boundaries or made you uncomfortable in any way, but he isn’t afraid to approach you about it, to make sure he doesn’t repeat his mistakes, especially with someone like you, who he’s slowly growing more and more infatuated by.

when you admit to him you’re asexual, he realizes he was right, but then he’s like, “and? did i do something?” and now it’s your turn to be confused because here you were worried about rejection but here he was worried about you?

this specific incident is what makes you let loose and finally just freely admit your feelings for him. he’s ecstatic about it, seriously! all that’s on his mind is that he gets to go on a date with someone he really likes. sex is the last thing on his mind, and yeah, you’ll eventually have to talk about it, but not for now. it’s for later, when things get a little more serious.

they do get serious, to both your delights, but the dreaded moment is approaching you. gojō definitely sits you down and says, “we’re only having this talk so i know never to do anything outside of your limits. everything about this relationship is 50/50, and i want to know ways to make you feel good, too.”

please sir your hand in marriage.

i definitely believe gojō’s a kinky guy, and is more than willing to try out literally any sex toy you pull at him. genuinely, he’ll try anything you wanna try. if you ever offer a handjob, he’ll ask a million times over if you’re sure. usually, he likes to just do it himself, but have you there next to him. he won’t touch you, but your hands will be in his hair, and you’ll be kissing his neck, or just murmuring how much you love him in his ear, just spurring him on. he knows the last thing on your mind is anything sexual, but there’s just something about being under your watchful, almost bored gaze as he fucks himself.

anyways before i get too into it lmfao, he loves kissing you. loves loves loves it. not even full blown make out sessions, just gentle, serene kissing. he can kiss you for hours.

he is also incredible at body worship and praise. paints your pretty collarbone pink and purple, whispers about how you’re perfect for him, describes all your features to you like poetry. he’s an incredible lover, really. nothing can make him fall out of love with you, absolutely nothing.

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen headcanon #sukuna #jjk sukuna #sukuna x reader #sukuna headcanons #saturo gojo x reader #gojo x reader #satoru x reader #gojo headcanons #saturo gojo headcanons #gojou x reader

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kuiperblog · 3 years

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Deathloop sure is a video game

Every October, there's pop-up entertainment venues like "haunted houses" (or other haunted attractions) that attempt to artificially recreate the motifs common in horror movies, complete with live actors who are dressed as vampires or zombies or serial killers or whatever who leap out and scare the guests who squeal in delight, if only because it gives them an excuse to tightly cling to their partner. It's more exciting than going to a horror movie, because it's a more tactile experience, so you're mostly just there to experience the various horror motifs without being concerned about a plot.

The thing is, there are actual horror movies that are set in haunted attractions. And while this does make for some fun early reveals (like when the teenagers laugh at the knife-wielding man who they assume is an actor and part of the attraction, only to realize that he's actually a homicidal madman), the very idea of a horror movie set in a haunted house kind of feels like cheating. Haunted attractions are, in a way, a simulacrum of a horror movie, which I suppose is an odd thing to say considering that haunted attractions are real and the events in horror movies are not, but I think that is the main level on which most haunted attractions are designed: a haunted attraction is a "horror movie IRL," so to then make that the setting of your horror movie “horror movie IRL but in a movie” is like a simulacrum of a simulacrum. It’s shortcutting past the part where you would ordinarily come up with some kind of lore-based explanation for why the teenagers are hanging out in a creepy house and why there’s a demented killer or vampires or whatever who are trying to kill them.

I sort of feel this way about one of the first levels I played in Deathloop, which is a video game both in medium and form. It's a bit like Dishonored (one of Arkane's earlier titles) in the sense that the core objectives boil down to identifying an assassination target, and hunting them down in their mansion or laboratory or whatever. The first target I assassinated was a fellow by the name of Charlie Montague, who is obsessed with games, and has populated a section of the world where you can speed-run an obstacle course to be rewarded with a gun, because this is a first-person shooter video game that is set on murder island, where everyone's favorite hobby is killing each other because they’re in a timeloop where everyone will revive the next day. However, when I found Charlie Montague, he was in the middle of a LARP session. This is literally how the game describes it: Charlie is hosting a game where he invites guests to participate in a game somewhat akin to a murder mystery, or maybe more like Among Us. When I arrived, Charlie announced over the loudspeaker to all of his guests that the killer monster (me) had arrived, and the objective was now for them to hunt me down. (I, for my part, did my best to avoid the guests, but I had to gun down the entire party before finally getting to Charlie at the top floor.)

So, this is a video game level that felt very much like a video game level. Which I don't really mean as a knock against it -- it was a fun environment, I had fun hunting down the game designer Charlie Montague and murdering his LARPing buddies, and the environment was set up in a way that made the confrontation with Charlie himself interesting, since Charlie possesses the blink power that lets him teleport across gaps and between floors. But it kind of feels like cheating to have a video game level where the setting premise is, as explained by the game's fiction, literally a game created by a game designer (as opposed to trying to sell you on the idea that the level you're traipsing through is just some rich dude's mansion, or a military base, or whatever). It is the video game equivalent of setting your horror movie in a haunted house attraction.

As an Arkane Studios fan (who started with 2006's Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and counts Dishonored among my personal top 10 games of all time), I quite enjoyed Deathloop. But it is by far the most video game video game that they've ever released.

Games like Dishonored and Prey (2017) exist in what is sometimes described as the "immersive sim" genre, where there's a big emphasis on player choice and giving the players a bunch of tools to approach objectives without giving them a prescribed route through the game. Dishonored pushes you in the direction of being stealthy and quiet (with a "chaos" system that causes the world to become more desolate if you kill too many enemies in each level), but there are many routes through the levels -- and sometimes, you'll find your way to an objective through what feels like it isn't a prescribed "route" at all. The objectives are often quite simple -- "infiltrate, kill a dude, exfiltrate" -- but a level that could be completed in just a few minutes might take an hour to complete the first time you play it as you spend time scoping out the target, gradually getting a feel for the environment and learning which parts of the level have lots of enemies and which parts are safe and easy to stealth your way through.

The immersive sim's emphasis on carving your own way through levels leads to a phenomenon where a lot of the progression that you make is "meta" progression that exists entirely outside of your avatar -- you might spend an hour prowling around a level, and your character hasn't gotten any stronger (apart from maybe finding a few optional collectibles), but you as a player have "leveled up" to the point that you now know the level like the back of your hand, which is how you have people who spend hours exploring a level in Hitman so that they can do a perfect 5-minute speedrun of that level.

Sometimes, this sense of "meta-progression" is further emphasized by making some of the collectibles information that you as a player can store. I remember a part in Dishonored where I found a locked safe, and I had to root around the game environment and find the code to the safe before I could come back and get the goodie inside. But if I wanted to, I could write that number down so that on any subsequent playthrough, I could just go right to the safe and open it right away -- which feels a bit like cheating, but it's no less cheating than sprinting through a specific route through a level because I know from previous playthroughs that the path I'm taking has no guards.

Deathloop isn't quite like that: the game is filled with combinations and whatnot (in one "puzzle" I had to insert specifically-labeled tapes into a machine in a specific order), but all of these are generated randomly: you can't take that information with you across playthroughs, and you can't look the number up in a walkthrough like some older immersive sims would let you do. But Deathloop takes this meta progression and makes it actual progression: it's a time-loop story, and your character (Colt) remembers everything that he encounters across playthrough, so when you find the combination to a door, Colt will make a mental note of it (no need to bust out your pen and paper), and the next time you come to a locked door that requires that combination, you don't even have to punch in the numbers: just hold the triangle button on your Playstation controller and Colt will automatically punch in the numbers that he learned during an earlier loop.

Deathloop is full of little things like this that, on first glance, almost just feel like QoL improvements. But there's something that feels very different about how things are done in Deathloop: in gameplay terms, it basically boils down to, "Go to this place and press square to read the password, then go to this other place and unlock the door," which is really not that different from "go to this place and press square to pick up the key, then go to this other place to unlock the door." The "passwords" that exist throughout this game are basically just keys that Colt can store in his brain and take with him whenever you advance to the next loop.

And to be clear, that's not necessarily a *bad* thing. In fact, immersive sims are kind of a niche genre that don't have a very big audience, so anything that helps streamline and make it more like, well, what you'd expect from a "video game," is probably going to make the game accessible to a lot more people. And they streamline a *lot* in this game. The game is all about planning the "perfect loop" where you manage to kill the 8 big baddies in a single day, and everything before that point is just preparing for that final loop. Even though that seems like an abstract thing that might require you to hold a bunch of disparate information in your head, the game is actually *really* good at making it so that Colt is already mentally mapping out the game plan as you go, to the point where you can just go into the quest book, select a thread, and then just follow the waypoints. Colt is planning for the "perfect loop" and collecting all the information he needs (including passwords, and memorizing information about how to get certain bosses to go to certain areas where they'll be vulnerable), and Colt is so good at remembering these things that the player never has to: you can play the entire game from start to finish just by traveling from waypoint to waypoint and stealthing or shooting your way past anything that stands in your way.

That is, of course, incredibly reductive. The process of getting from point A to point B in Deathloop is fun for the same reason that getting from point A to point B is fun in any other game. The guns feel good to shoot, the levels are interesting to navigate, and the game lets you earn the ability to take certain pieces of gear with you between loops so it always feels like there's forward progression. But I think that there's a critical thing that's missing:

Immersive sims aren't just about getting from point A to point B. Before you can get to point B, you have to discover where point B is. *Where* in this mansion is the assassination target? Better spend some time skulking around and listening to his staff gossip about his daily habits so you know which parts of the mansion he's likely to appear in. Oh wait, I don't want to just get in the same room with this guy, I want to get myself in the same room with him *when he's not surrounded by his guards*. How do I do that? Better do some more snooping. And in a sense, Deathloop *sort* of does this. Before you can follow the waypoint objective marker to your target, you have to find out where they are. But the "find out where they are" is often, "follow this *other* waypoint objective marker to find the slip of paper that tells you where they're going to be, at which point you can follow the waypoint objective marker to their exact location!"

And to be fair to Deathloop, it's not *all* like that. There are some times where the game sort of just points you in the right direction and leaves you to figure it out, like one dude who has hosted a masquerade party where he and his guests are all wearing the same masks, and so you have to figure out a way to ferret him out. (Or you can just murder everyone at the party to figure it out by process of elimination -- which is actually much easier said than done, because this is murder island and everybody is packing heat, and this is an exclusive party so his guests are the type of people who carry around heavy weapons.)

Another way that Deathloop takes the "meta progression" inherent to immersive sims and makes it explicit in-game progression is by having a time loop where you can encounter and kill the same targets over and over again. That's the kind of thing that tends to happen in immersive sims across multiple playthroughs -- Hitman doesn't *require* you to play each level multiple times, but you generally want to, because each level is filled with tons of different routes to explore and different ways to deal with each of the targets. But that's all on the player: it's not as if in the fiction of the Hitman universe, Agent 47 is repeatedly murdering a bunch of people who magically revive so that he can kill them again, whereas in Deathloop, that is very explicitly what is happening.

The thing is, because Deathloop is kind of designed with the assumption that you'll kill each target multiple times, the first time you encounter them and blow their head off, it doesn't feel like the grand emotional climax. In fact, in a way, it feels like the *start* of a relationship. "Goodbye, Charlie Montague. I hardly knew ye. But I'm sure I'll know you better by the third time I'm leaving your LARPing session with that slab upgrade you're carrying." I feel like that robs the kills of some of their impact, and maybe that's just inherent to what kind of game this is: in Dishonored, you feel as though over the course of a level, you get to know your target as you snoop through their quarters, overhear what their staff have to say about them, read the journals of their rivals while looking for possible weaknesses, and so on. Because it's a stealth game, it makes sense to hide in the background and learn about their life. Stalking a character through a level while waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike can actually feel incredibly intimate, because as the eponymous Visible Man in Chuck Klosterman’s novel says, to truly know who someone is, you have to see them when they’re alone at home; their behavior anywhere else is just a performance.

But when I'm chasing down Charlie Montague with an SMG in one hand and a pistol in the other, the only thing I really know about him is what he's announcing over the loudspeaker. (I don't really remember exactly what he said, but the subtext is that he's mentally unstable, and he's obsessed with games.) And even though Charlie Montague was shouting at me what kind of person he said, I feel like I never really got to *know* him like I got to know some targets in Dishonored. In fact, the moments when I got to know Charlie best weren't when he was yelling at my over the loudspeaker as I ran through his level as Shooty McFPS guy, but the moments when I got to read his notes or chat correspondence (which is *entirely optional*, because even if I don't learn the relevant facts from Charlie Montague's notes, Cole will -- and he'll verbally narrate the cliffsnotes version of them as I'm headed to the next objective)

Despite feeling like a clear descendant of Arkane’s earlier titles, Deathloop feels neither "immersive" nor "sim." It's constantly doing things that remind me that I'm playing a video game -- which, to be clear, is not a bad thing! It’s fun to be Shooty McFPS guy without worrying about hiding guards bodies or making noise. More than any other Arkane Studios game, it does everything it can to minimize player frustration, whether that means feeling lost, or feeling like you're not making forward progress, or feeling like your progress is being gated by a huge spike in difficulty.

Dishonored is a game that rewards patience. This is one of my favorite things about it, but the fact that it rewards patience so generously means that it also *asks* patience of the player in order to get its best moments, which means that some players will never experience them. Deathloop asks very little from the player. Deathloop is a very "even" and "smooth" experience, but that's both for better and for worse. The lows aren't as low, but the highs aren't nearly as high. Deathloop is a good game. And it will probably be a "good game" to a greater number of people than Arkane's previous titles, but it didn’t have nearly the same impact on me.

Anyway, more than anything, my time with Deathloop has convinced that I should go back and play Prey (2017).

#deathloop #arkane studios #I apologize for such a long letter #dishonored #prey 2017 #immersive sim #video games

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ageofevermore · 4 years

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can you write a luke patterson x reader fluff where luke teaches y/n how to play guitar

───── ･｡ﾟ☆ﾟ: *. ☽ .* : ☆ﾟ. ─────

Sweet dripped from his brow, dancing angelically down the side of his face and curving around his chiseled jawline. She grinned up at him from the pit, light eyes catching the colored LEDs and turning purple for his viewing pleasure. He grinned at her, sending a wink in her direction before the band jumped back to Julie’s, further alluding to the efforts of the Molina’s hologram band.

Pushing through the crowd, heart still hammering with adrenaline, limbs extended and pulled closer with a sweaty embrace. Julie laughed into her shoulder, happy to have someone physical to hug in victory. Flynn came over to the duo in seconds, having worked unfocused fingers on the projector to encourage the belief that everything when technical -- not that Julie was playing with a band of three ghosts. The girls giggled in celebration before abandoning the small town club and making their way back to Julie’s for a round of pizza.

Her heart was warm with admiration for the three boys who never got the chance to bask in the celebration yet weren’t deterred by their circumstantial visibility.

“I want to learn.” She broke the silence Luke was working in, startling the ghost whose attention was solely devoted to the enchanted six string. She recognized the melody he was playing, a little tune by The Beatles, and the beautiful acoustics serenading the space spurred that same flicker of jealousy she felt the other night after embracing a sweaty and boasting Julie.

The blank expression in Luke’s wide eyes had deterred her initial readiness to be vulnerable with learning a new skill, but the smile of excitement that broke his features stilled the pit of uncertainty beginning to open in her stomach. “Come on!” He encouraged gleefully, eyeing her as she grabbed Julie’s abandoned acoustic and moved to his left.

Her hands fell unto the neck easily, surprising Luke with how at home she seemed to be with the instrument. A while back when playing wasn’t so second nature to him, he struggled finding a comfortable hold on the neck and body simultaneously. She didn’t look to be sharing any of those beginner level struggles.

“This is good, right?” She second-guessed, looking up at look with crescent moons in her eyes. She wanted to impress him, not demean the craft he had quite literally died for. If she wasn’t any good at playing yet, she figured technique was at least a few points in her corner.

“Perfect.” Luke smiled, blue eyes glistening with what might have been ghost charm, but it made her heart hammer harder in her ribcage and a kaleidoscope of monarchs were released in her stomach. “This is E.” Luke said softly, not wanting to break the soft focus she held. He motioned to the neck of his own guitar, smiling widely when she mimicked his actions and strummed the same note.

From their on he did everything he could to see the same joyful smile on her lips in between stretches of thought and concentration. Seeing her tongue poke out from between her strawberry lemonade lips when she focused and the crinkle of her nose every time she smiled up at him in delight made his ghostly heart jump.

They had started working on the melody of a sweet music classic, yet every time they came around to the middle of a chord, her focus shifted to hyperdrive and she pulled back in uncertainty. Luke frowned when she froze for the fourth time, hating the negative pull of her lips as she pouted.

“What happened?” He asked her softly, stopping his own playing to encourage her eyes to drift towards him. He should have known that was an unwavering factor to her stubborn factor, but he had faltered for a minute and forgot that this wasn’t Julie he was with. “Look at me, Mia.” He begged, lifting a hand from the neck of his guitar and raising it to the soft curve of her cherry cheeks.

His breath hitched when remembrance struck him of the half-wordly state he possessed, and his hand fell through her cheek despite his efforts. She raised her eyes to look upon him like the stars had fallen at her feet, and it was only then that beside the crescent moons in her eyes he could see the tears.

“I want to feel you.” She admitted softly into the occupied air beside herself, sniffling back the sobs she wanted to unleash. “I want to hold your hand, and give you a hug after a show. I want to braid your hair so maybe it wouldn’t always be in your eyes--” Luke chortles gently, though his own eyes glisten at her painful revelation. “I want you to grab my hands and show me the right chords, and pull me into your lap when you mess around on Alex’s drums when you know he’s with Willie. But, we can’t have that.”

Blood had filled Luke’s mouth from the tight clasp his teeth held on the skin of his cheek. His eyes were wet with understandable distaste for their situation. He had felt the same way as her for weeks, getting impatient with himself every time the tips of his fingers tingled with desire when she drew close. He wanted to hold her hand, wipe away her tears, take her bottom lip between his teeth, warm her cheeks with his hands when she looked away from him in embarrassment. He wanted everything a ghost could never acquire.

His eyes trailed down to his six string, fingertips plucking the strings until a vibration of gentle sound traveled to her ears. She looked him over gently, taking in everything his pale expression had to offer. She wished she could manage a smile when she noticed the glistening in his endless eyes, but she was still riddled with reality.

“What’s the first song you learned to play?” She asked him, not wanting to face a conversation about what they could never be. She would postpone that unpostponable date for as long as Luke allowed her to run.

“This one.” He smiled softly at her innocent stare, wishing he could just meet the tip of her nose with his. Her features melted at his statement, and a wobbly grin ate at the corners of her lemonade lips.

“This is the first song you learned?” She wasn’t sure why it touched her heart so closely to know that he had chosen a song that meant so much to him to be her first, but it did, and she couldn’t fight the grin that twisted her lips up entirely. “Play it for me.” She decided sweetly, watching as Luke’s fingers found their place on the neck and he picked up from the beginning of the sweet tune.

When Luke smiled up at her, she smiled back before beginning, “Here comes the sun…”

#julie and the phantoms #julie molina #julie and the phantoms luke #netflix julie and the phantoms #jatp luke #luke jatp #luke patterson #luke patterson blurb #luke patterson x reader #julie and the phantoms imagine #julie and the phantoms fluff #luke patterson fluff

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egg-emperor · 3 years

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I literally love watching you talk about eggman so what's your favorite headcanon for him? :)

Thank you so much! I always have so much fun talking about him here and I'm really happy that you like to see it! :'D

It's difficult to pick just one when I have an endless amount involving every aspect of himself and his life! It's easier to decide on a favorite theme, such as the way I enjoy making hcs about his personal life and what he gets up to behind the scenes. I really wish we got to see more in official media so I'm constantly coming up with ideas.

But I suppose I could take this opportunity to discuss one of my many favorites!

I love to imagine that Eggman is always delighted to talk about his interests. He's most enthusiastic about engaging in conversations about him and/or his interests lol. Tons of true love and enthusiasm show through the way he expresses his deepest passions, the most notable being robots and theme parks as his biggest interests. They go way back to when he was a child but he never got the chance to talk about them nearly as much as he'd like to.

His father never had the time, just like he never had much time for him in general. He at least got to do something he was interested in alongside him when he'd help out with his mechanic side work and learn from him as a teenager, but his father would say he needed to focus instead of talking. And he never had the time to listen to him talk about his favorite interests in robots and theme parks but Ivo knew it was because he didn't care. He could never find anyone else willing to listen either.

He's always been an attention seeker from the moment he discovered how admirable and important his grandfather was and wanted to be like him, so his father isn't solely to blame for why he demands all the attention, importance, and spotlight. But it certainly further influenced his already existing desire to get the attention he craves and also intensified his great urge to talk about his interests and accomplishments. So he jumps at every small chance he gets now, whether people actually ask or not.

With his 300 IQ, he can be a fast learner on any subject, even when it comes to things he doesn't really care for. But it seems there's a part of his brain that's seriously dedicated to storing all the knowledge of his favorite subjects and he goes out of his way to learn absolutely everything about them. His knowledge in robots and theme parks especially are endless and always growing, and he loves to talk about his very own creations on top of that. He never runs out of information to share!

This was also one of the things that initially made him interested in getting a teaching degree. It was more about showing off his knowledge, rather than caring trying to help others learn. Also because he loves telling people what to do, of course. XD

He enjoys sharing his knowledge and correcting people when they're wrong. He'll often butt into conversations about subjects he's interested in (well even ones that he isn't but especially when he is) to share thoughts and facts. Some find it rude but it's a case where he doesn't realize because he just wants the right information to be acknowledged and to correct misconceptions. He also likes to bring his related experiences and creations into the conversation so they know his sources, and because he wants to show off and make them jealous and impressed!

Some get annoyed while others find it impressive or even helpful. But the negative reactions don't matter to him because he's delighted when someone will listen to his endless rambling and let him boast, giving him full attention and no complaints. It's even better if they're enthusiastic, supportive, and praise him for his knowledge! If someone encourages him to keep going, he'll actually appreciate it but definitely won't know how to say it. Still, they can tell by the way he lights up and explains it with a big beautiful smile on his face that he can't hide!

Basically, I like to imagine that he's just as passionate when talking about his brilliance and the things he loves as I am when I'm talking about him! He still has that same child-like wonder when learning new information about the things he's interested in and excitement when he shares facts and stories and shows off his discoveries, creations, and accomplishments. They're the feelings he didn't really get to express freely as a child and it feels great to finally get to do something that he wanted all along.

I love men that are really passionate and unashamed to be, especially when it shows through the way they're extremely knowledgeable about their favorite subjects and eager to talk about it. One of the many things that make Eggman so attractive to me is how bold, passionate, and unapologetically himself he is! It's really admirable and inspiring too. And I'd be sure to let him know that and encourage him to express his love for his passions and support him in following his dreams related to them.

I could listen to all he has to say and observe all he has to show off for hours! Then I'd ask questions to give him the opportunity to talk and show off even more as he answers and elaborates even further. Once he gets going, he just can't stop talking until he wears himself out and needs a nap. XD I'm genuinely interested as we have fascinations in common and it's even better when I'm learning from him. There's no better, more handsome source of interesting and valuable information heheh!

But the best part is getting to see how happy he is as he lights up, jumps for joy, and shakes his fists in excitement. He shares his plans with great confidence and presents his creations with pride. The excitement can be heard in his voice and there's a bright wide smile on his gorgeous face all the while. I would watch with total adoration as it warms my heart! I wish he could feel that kind of happiness much more often. I'd always make sure he feels deeply loved, cared for, and listened to. :') 💜

While it is canon that he's a deeply passionate person as there's evidently a lot of hard work and care put into his plans/creations and determination put into his goals, this is how I headcanon him feeling about expressing it outside of what we see in the games.

I imagine that he'd love to passionately monologue to someone that isn't just programmed to care like his robots. He can ramble to Orbot and Cubot about his upcoming plans but they always talk back and he knows they're often judging, so it pleases him when he knows someone's interest is genuine.

And his urge to talk about what he's excited and proud of is probably part of why he often says too much and reveals important details of his plans to his enemies! It might happen less often if he has someone to lend an ear, so he can tell them all about it beforehand. I'd love to be the one there for him! :D 💜💕💘💖💗💜💓💗

#asks #dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #self ship #headcanons #my post

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! or Days of Summer

Hello all you happy scottaholics! Welcome back to those of you who’ve read the rest of this retrospective and welcome to those of you just joining us. This is the Scottrospective, my look at all 6 volumes of Scott Pilgrim, the game and the movie. It’s all the video game refrenes, slice of life story telling and boob punches you can handle!

It’s been three months since I left off with “The Infinite Sadness” , and while I intended to cover this one for Valentine’s Day, my schedule got away from me and with March being full up, this ended taking till April

I”m not too put off by it though as the hiatus between these two reviews is fitting for this one both in story and out. In story there’s a couple month time skip between books, while out.. this book got delayed a few times.

This is notable to me at least because this was the first volume of the series I bought when it came out. As i’ve brought up before I came into the series via the Free Comic Book Day Issue and the second and third volumes, picking one up later. I still have my original copies despite no longer really needing them thanks to having the color editions in general. Always will provided something dosne’t happen to them. So this was my first instalment that I got to read fresh and got to wait for and be hyped about and i’d saved enough money that I was able to pre-order it. So the experince of waiting and waiting for the book only to keep seeing it slide back is vivid in my mind as is the frustration I felt having the one thing I COULD NOT WAIT FOR, keep going further and further back.

So with this long wait and the fact I bought this one when it came out, as I would for the next two which didn’t get delayed thank god, this volume naturally means a lot for me. When I wrote Scott Pilgrim fanfiction, this volume’s status quo is what I based it on. It was the coolest to me and the one I loved to reread the most. It has the most contained story, the most character growth at the time, and the best art due to Bryan’s style having finally hit it’s stride. Not that the art for volumes 1-3 is bad mind you, but it’s very clear his style was changing and shaping into what it is now with each one and while it’d change a bit more, this volume is where the style and quality everyone thinks of when they think of this series and the kind you see on various art done from it comes from.

So as you can tell i’m excited for this one. Before we get started there WERE two shorter comics released between this one both for Free Comic Book day, the first of which, Free Scott Pilgrim, is the reason I got into the series and the second, the Wonderful World of Kim Pine .. was both delightful and sets up Kim moving in with Hollie for this volume. Originally I intended to cover these in this review.. but I realized they wouldn’t of helped the pacing and this review is going to be way longer than my standard as is.

So instead I came up with the compromise. I did review them.. but as bonus reviews on my patreon. For just one buck a month you can read them and help me reach my stretch goals which now include reviews of Lost at Sea, Seconds and SnotGirl, aka Bryan’s OTHER comics. You can find my patreon THROUGH THIS LINK HERE if your intrested in the exclusives or helping me reach my reviews. I also intend to do an exclusive of Monica Beetle, a short comic Bryan did starring Scott’s dad in the 70s at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as the three strips he did of Style, the comic that gave us the prototypes for Lisa and Kim.

I will talk about their connections and setups for this volume briefly: FSP sets up the next ex as a ninja, with Roxy having a bunch of posters come to live and pummel our boy, while Wonderful World has Hollie tell Kim she can move in with her. It’s not much, hence why i made these exclusives but they are good stories, so check them out. And with that JOIN ME UNDER THE CUT, as we enter Scott’s world once more as he grapples with the past, employment, and saying the L-Word... which might be Lesbians. I don’t know. Find out bellow!

So we open Two Months after Volume 3 with a beach birthday party! Complete with Kim in a swim suit!

But it’s for Julie who lobs a volley ball at Scott’s head when he and Ramona try to make out.

I also dont’ know if “Manfiesting out of all the world’s collectives sorrows” counts as a “birth” necessarily but whatever. I love a good beach story. It’s just a fun setitng for swimming, romance and battling a giant crab with the help of the bird what lives in your backpack.

So after the beach our heroes get dinner and Ramona sweetly calls Scott the nicest guy she’s ever dated. He responds with “That’s sad”. Blunt, but entirely accruate. Julie calls it pathetic and tries to counter Ramona RIGHTFULLY saying “who the hell asked you?” something that really should come after EVERYTHING Julie said with “Back off bitch i’ts my birthday”

So later that night Sex Bomb-Omb has a beach sing along, and I can’t help but notice Neil’s hairy legs.

I mean yes it does make since for a 19 year old to have leg hair, but of all the characters besides Stephen, the ONLY other character we’ve seen it with to give it to, why the character you specifically single out as “Young” it’s just a weird choice I never noticed before.

But anyways Julie has to whine about it because she’s Julie, she can’t stand other people being happy and complains the song...

One of my faviorite moments of the series. Knives puts a nicer spin on it, she’s here too and not over with Neil because, as we’ll find out later they broke up, but she just asks if Knives should be drinking. She shouldn’t but for fucks sake lady she was just trying to talk. I also do like that despite Julie trying to control Ramona’s love life, you know the thing the VILLIANS are doing, Ramona cannot stand her now.. and honestly probably never did.

But Julie, SOMEHOW turns out to be right for once as Kim and Knives have disappeared later that night, and Scott elects to go look for them. Also Ramona says she wants to marry kim while drunk after Julie asks if she does. The throuple is strong with these three... serioulsy that’s my one true pairing for all three now. I mean it ballances out their collective flaws, it’s cute and Ramona is just as into her boyfriends ex as she is her actual boyfriend even when she’s not hamered. Why the fuck not?

Scott instead finds the two making out. I will confess I shipped these two when I was younger.. but I don’t. Not because their gay or anything or because I found another ship for them but because the age gap is still just as wide as it was for Scott. The game did not get this memo and made them a couple which is... ehhhhhhhhh. I mean I wouldn’t mind either being bi, but it just brings up the same problems even if their both hammered. I also question why this scene exists. No really outside of one face punchingly dickish comment from Scott later, this never comes up again and it doesn’t effect Kim’s or Knives character any. Why have this? it’s clearly not fanservice, it’s just a thing that happened. And while Scott Pilgrim as a series does have some of those, as does life and that’s fine.. this is a bit too major, i.e. Kim and Knives, two of the main cast, making out, drunkenly or not, to just.. gloss over you know? I feel Kim would feel majorly guilty for this, as she has the most active moral compass of the main group, and Knives would be massively confused but it’s just.. forgotten because I dunno. In a story that’s otherwise pretty stellar this stands out as an utter waste of potential. I’m not saying have them hook up, gay or not it’s still not better than what Scott did, but have them at least talk about it and have both grow or something from it. Sheesh.

So we cut to.. another day. Maybe the next day I dunno but it’s August. Point is Scott and Wallace are grocery shopping and Wallace notes they can’t get fancy mayo as their barely in budget. I would’ve glossed over this scene... but @panur pointed out back around the Infinite Sadness review that this scene reveals something very intrestng: Scott.. is kind of a fincial burdern to Wallace. Before this while Scott mooched off him it wasn’t all that clear that Wallace was struggling.

But here we notice that outside of some Havarti, it’s just the simplest stuff imaginable: turkey, bread, boxed mac and cheese ramen noodles... it’s nto BAD stuff, I have all of that in my house and it’s good stuff... but it’s not the kind of thing that you need to carefully budget for. Now granted part of this probably is Wallace as he likely spends a LOT on drinks, condoms and two 2 liters of diet soda a day.. but while he really needs to adress his alcohol issues, the rest is fair. He should be allowed to have as much sex and diet coke as he wants it’s his money. Same with the havarti. He earned it if he wants some really delcious cheese with herbs, seriously Havarati is the best, then that’s his bidness. But the rest of the time he’s barely managing to get a basketfull of cheap food.. because he has to provide for Scott. It’s clearly something Scott dosen’t get and something I can relate to not getting. It took me a while to get how hard it is to budget for a full family, let alone two people on one income like Wallace has to. But Wallace is working on a nice job... but still a call center or something. He can’t pay for everything and the finccial stress is about to give as their landlord wants to meet with them. And as we’re about to learn things were even worse than we thought.

Our heroes head home where we get a truly iconic conversation when, over margeritas (again proving my point that while Scott certainly isn’t HELPIGN wallace’s finacials, it’s not all on him)

This will be imporant later.. both the Lesbians part and Scott’s struggle saying it. he tried earlier on the beach but couldn’t get it out and Ramona clearly didn’t want to hear it as she kapt sshhhhing him.. playfully of course but still.

So some time later it’s moving day! Kim is moving into Hollie and Josephs, and Scott, Stephen and Jason are helping. You might be wondeirng who the hell Jason is. He’s Kim’s boyfriend. I do not likes him. Not because he’s kim’s boyfriend, getting upset because a fictional character you fancy is dating is just patently stupid. I’ts like getting upset a celebrity crush is in a relationship: you had no chance anyway why. I wasn’t even bothered as a kid. I don’t really like him.. because he has no real personaliy and no real baring on the plot and I struggle to think why Bryan included him other than for a really annoying plot twist next time, which does not help my liking him knowing what’s coming.

But while our heroes help our heroine move in, and Scott is suprised Hollie is there despite Kim having told him a minute ago she was moving in with her, something I can relate to sadly, we get something vitally plot important; Stephen passes Joseph’s room.. and notices he has a small recording setup in his room. Stephen quickly begs him to record the band’s album and Joseph agrees if only because he finds Stephen hot. Eh i’ve seen better relationships start on less, fair enough. And yes I said relationship more on that in a bit.

So after a brief scene of Scott and Ramona having lunch where Scott fails to know her age and when Ramona says he could just ask.. hea sks and she dosen’t tell, not a bad scene character wise just not very plot important and probably should’ve bene swapped in order with the previous scene, we get to the next day. There’s a heat wave so Wallace orders Scott to go to the mall maybe find a job. He emphasises that.

Instead Scott just sorta bums around thirst but nto having any money.. until an old face shows up.

For those who forgot like Scott has, it’s Lisa Miller from the Volume 2 flashback, the girl who had a crush on Scott and was close friends with him and Kim. After a tackle hug and some panic Scott eventually remembers.... if in a curiously unique and self serving way

At the time this was just hilarous. Now it’s very clear foreshadowing for the big twist in Volume 6. The two catch up while Scott is very clearly attracted to her but very clearly dosen’t want to be, with Lisa wondering where kim is, finding about Ramona, etc, before offering Scott lunch as the two catch up and Scott is very conflicted about how he feels. It’s nice visual stuff as he’s blushing, something more clear in the color version and trying to desperatley sort things out. As for why Lisa’s here she’s moving to the states soon, but is staying with her sister for now.

So after an incdental scene with Wallace we catch up with Knives, who has broken up with Neil. And after some talk about Clash at the Demonhead, Tamra notes Knives apparently put a big x on her shrine of Scott... which baffles Knifves as she sure as hell didn’t do it and is still, sadly, obessed with Scott as ever. Granted Tamra isn’t at all helpful here claiming she did it even when she says she didn’t, is clearly confused and while yes we don’t know who else would care Tams, that just makes it all the more creepy. Stop gaslighting your bestie, she’s already got enoguh issues. She dosen’t need thinking she might have a split personality on top of the stalking, obession over a guy who has no intrest in loving her back, and attempted stabbings. Knives dosesn’t get a ton of focus in this one sadly. She kind of takes a back seat, and while sh’es not GONE from the volumle and someone close to her does impact it, she dosen’t really have any personal progression, negative or positive, like she does in every other volume, a shame since her personal jouney is one of the most intresting of the main cast.

Anyways that night Scott hangs out with Lisa, having not gotten around to telling Ramona she exists yet and plays a game of find the Kim Pine. She goes to Neil’ and Stephen’s place for practice, but finds no one there and Neil being a dick... get used to that it’s going to get about 80 times worse soon enough. Though we do get this classic panel i’ve gotten some use out of

He goes to Kim’s place, but she , Hollie and Satan’s Misterss have all left to Sneaky Dee’s, the local mexican place, for something to eat and Stephen is either high or doing.. something with Joseph.

Yeah i’m not hiding that Stephen turns out to be gay in the final volume or cheating on Bitch and a Half with Joseph. And even if I hate Julie with the power of a frozen sun, I still dont’ think cheating on her is kosher. He could’ve just broken up with her and while part of it was likely confusion, and he could also be bi and not decided which one he wanted to be with, it’s still a dick move.. and later makes him a hypocrite but that’s a rant for next volume.

So our heroes FINALLY find Kim, along with Hollie and Mouthface. And a nice thing I like is that Kim and Lisa are just.. increidbly close, happily catching up and making plans to hang before Lisa leaves, that despite Lisa having feelings for Scott the two ended up as close and She and Scott did and i’ts sweet to see. it’s also just.. rare to see Kim GENUINELY happy. I mean look at her

It’s not like she HASN’T smiled across the series but normally she’s just so miserable, likely because her best friends are a grumbly asshole who forces them to hang out with a raging typhoon of bitchiness, and an insenitive asshat who she never got closure with. This is the first decent human being whose not Ramona or Hollie, and that last one’s not going to last, in a while. It’s genuinely sweet to just see her.. enjoy the moment for once, honestly engaged with someone. Ramona shows up and finally meets Lisa, who apparently was on Degrassi.. I mean she says candaian show no one ever watched, and I watched that plenty but i’d like to think she was on there for a season or two. I liked Degrassi.. I honeslty miss it and think it could use some form of revivial and think porting it to netflix was a smart decision.. what wasn’t so smart was not having the other seasons leading into it on there. Need to watch more of it.

So the next day Ramona stumbles into Scott’s dreams and both are annoyed, with Ramona suggesting he get a job. This finally gets him to try. He asks about Wallace’s work but understandably, he dosen’t really want scott there and asks if he even knows. So Scott sets out to ask his other friends for jobs, while Knives shows up saying she’s “totally not stalking him” but someone is following HER, a mysterious spiky haired dude in a black leather jacket, shades and with a sword on his back. Whu-oh.

He tries Second Cup, with Julie annoyed that Stephen’s recording.. it’s hard to tell if she’s annoyed because she’s a bitch or because Stephen is both gneuinely annoying right now and clearly screwing around behind her back. My take?

But Scott realizes maybe getting a job at his Sister’s place of work who also works with his arch enemy might be stupid and backs out. He next tries Kim’s, but backs out of that too, admitting to kim it’d be stupid and Kim lists off all the reasons (His lack of resume, the fact them working together would be stresful and his ountain of late fees) why that’d be stupid, but in a jovial way. For once i’ts clear that while she’s still taking the piss out of them she isn’t mad at Scott.

In fact she genuinely helps him get a job, taking him to Stephen’s work since hers is dead right now anyway, a vegan place. While Scott naturally compares things to a job system as he’d start as dishwasher while Stephen taught him prep, Scott agrees to genuinely take this seriously and Stephen’s boss decides “eh why not” when he asks her to employ him. Scott is gainfully employed baby! God I miss that. Seriously i’m not pimping my patreon for shits and giggles.

But as he celebrates and Kim wishes she could punch his life in the face, they run into some trouble on the way home: Katana man who slices a motherfucking bus in half and chases them, with Scott reluctnat to fight because he has a sword and Scott does not, which is valid. He does escape though using subspace. He and Kim part awkardly and he returns home to Wallace throwing a party with two intresting charcters, a woman and a man of color, one of the few in the entire work, who are never seen again.

The next night is practice.. or rather recording, and we start to see Neil get edged out, with him unable to come due to exams and clearly not happy about it, and Stephen just kind of ignoring anything he cares about like the dickhead he is. It dosen’t get any better as “recording” ends up just being Scott, Ramona, and Ratfaced Knacker watching bored with Joseph and Stephen work. Eventaully Scott and Ramona decide to get out of there as things are getting tensed between thing one and thing bitch, and leave.. and take Julie with them for some reason.

So the three have dinner with Lisa, Kim, and Jason before The Mummies Curse thankfully leaves. Jason thought they were friends.

We also get this exchange.

I mean.. she is the better option. She his THE option. But before we can get the obvious answer of

Stephen comes in with Knives. He smuggled her in. This leads to problems when Scott returns from the bathroom to find Queen Bitch throwing a bitch fit about him having brought her and screechs at her when she dares to talk to him “How do you even know my name?” Well Ted Cruz, you see when someone is an actually thoughtful and likes other people, they keep track of things about them and don’t constnatly tear them down or assume their partneer is automatically bonking a 17 year old instead of you know, actually forming something of a friendship and not shutting her out sensing she needs this friend group. Some people are not vacous piles of vitriol who care about nothing but themself and seem to go off at the slightest thing.

Scott takes Ramona home but finds a drunken barely awake wallace so no sexy times. Not that he could anyway as the next day is the meeting with Peter their landlord.

Peter reveals they’ll have to clear out by the 27th as their lease was for one year and their paid up.. as in only the first and last month. The two part melacholy knowing this sucks and isn’t a great situation. Then it’s time for Scott to work work, angelica, work work, eliza and peggy. After grueling day, can relate, he runs into a wisp on teh wend and steels himself for a fight.. okay he bitches about it being too hot but it’s Scott. so it’s expected. He does get a hit in on his mysterious persuer.. and that’s when we meet Roxy.

Via boob punch, something Scott’s not proud of but in his defense, as Roxy keeps complaning about it, he was blindly struggling for a hit and din’t know the next Ex, or any of them, were female.. not that Ramona didn’t suggest it loudly enough by empahsising “exes” but scott’s a bit of a fuckwit. She mentions “everyone allways remmebers you”.. which is kind of ominus and tells me she tried to hook back up with ramona despite her having a boyfriend and she rejected her. Still on good terms though. But this confusing encounter ends with Roxy vowing she’ll get him next time gadget, next time.

So we get some assorted slice of life scenes with the band, lisa and what have you as Scott tries to get in touch with Ramona but she keeps avoiding him. THat’s not worrysome at all. And Lisa brings up high school while drunk and clearly hits on Scott. He sidesteps it with her drunkness.. but this clearly isn’t over or going to stop being a problem.

Speaking of problems Wallace makes Scott confront the truth: He either needs to find a new place to live or commit to staying, though Wallace is trying to nudge him toward asking Ramona to move into her place. Scott starts thinking it over, it being very hard especially since, as Stephen points out this was his very first place of his own.. but Stephen also points out these things are temoporary.. right before Scott ducks from katana guy.

At work Scott wonders who it could be, though it turns out Stephen’s met him before, as he’s brought his family in here. So he’s PROBABLY not one of the exes.. but it leaves the question why he wants to cut Scott in half like Dewey Cox’s brother. But it turns out he’s nto the only enemy Scott’s casually running into as Roxy is there too.. with Ramona.

The two talk, clearly about Scott and Lisa with Roxy trying to convince her he’s cheating and Ramona rightfully trusting Scott: while he IS attracted to her, he’s been fighting it every step of the way. Scott storms over to find out what’s going on and while Ramona is more distracted by his new job, she eventually realizes Roxy did attack him and he simply dscribed her poorly when he mentioned the incident over the phone. Scott is confused as he dosen’t get it. Is she with one of the exes what? After some hiinting from both parties, and Roxy rightfully mocking him for not getting the obvious... he finallyg ets it in the grandest way possible.

So Roxy gets ready to fight and Scott can’t because sword, and gets fired in the background as he hides in Ramona’s bag and Ramona prepares to step in. Roxy screams at her for trusting him and defending him when Ramona.. just dosen’t her boyfriend to be bisected by her ex. A fight insues and a damn cool one at that. I honestly wish the movie had taken more from this, but simply didn’t have time leading it to instead be more like the envy fight with a bit of the Winfried Hailey fight from Free Scott Pilgrim.

Roxy chases her and Ramona rightly points out Scott can’t run forever but takes him into Subspace.. where Roxy heads them off, having “taught you everything you know bitch” leading to a cool fight in the wintery version of subspace. Again why THIS wasn’t used instead I have no real idea. We also find out she’s a half ninja but she eventually leaves afer Ramona presses that button.. but Rammy is actually apologetic about it and Roxy’s “I hope you and your 24 children are happy together comment” is telling.

Upon this readthrough of the volume.. I realized Roxy is the most layered and intresting of the exes next to Gideon himself. None of them are out and out terrible, but most of them have pretty simple motives: to kill Scott, ???, profit. Or in Todd’s case to kill scott, bang around and be a dick. But Roxy.. genuinely wants Ramona back. She’s the ONLY one who does: Gideon kinda does, but only in the sense that he wants her for his collection. But Roxy geninely still loves her, admitting so during this fight. And it’s not like she has no chance: out of the 7 exes she’s the ONLY one who parted with Ramona on anything resembling good terms. While intrestingly we don’t find out WHY they broke up, Ramona didn’t cheat on her like she did everyone else she was with. The two have coffee and hang out and Ramona geninely dosen’t even consider until Roxy tries to attack Scott that she’d really try killing him and tries her best to talk her out of it. But what holds Roxy back is her anger: She’s so bitter about the fact Ramona is bi or pan, so dedicated to viewing Ramona’s very orintation as a betryal (though Ramona calling it a phase dosen’t help and the movie RIGHTLY has Roxie comment on it and fly into a rage over it), and so driven to make sure the woman she loves dosen’t get hurt again that it blinds her to the fact Ramona dosen’t love her the same way anymore, and that while Scott is objectively a dick, and a cheater, and a greasy buttcrack pooflap, he is not a terrible person. A meh one sure, but he’s got good to him. She’s so biophobic she simply can’t see he’s a harmless moron.. well harmless to Ramona even with the cheating. He’s killed two people at this point and will kill again. Also she apparently has issues with only being a half ninja but this is never adressed. Point is Roxy’s really grown on me and is now probably my faviorite ex.

Scott and Ramona talk it over on their way to Sneaky Dees and Scott finally asks to move in and gets a yes. His response is downright adorable.

So at Sneaky Dee’s Young Neil is just a bit absolutely irate with Scott.. which isn’t fair as them not playing things is entirely on the blocky face asshole. Yell at him.. which he does, pointing out that they haven’t played shows in forever, and that the lady who owns Sneaky Dees not only runs shows, in the upstairs space, but has been asking them to play. Kim is rightly curious about this and to both Stephen just keeps saying “We’re recording right now.” And some of you may of wondered why I hate him. Well while he’s not exctly stellar in the first half in the second Stephen becomes goddman insufferable, slowly destroying the band for his affair and not giving one iota of a shit what anyone else wants. He’s a selfish, egomanical cheating prick. And yes I get it their recording an album.. but doing live shows would give them extra practice, MONEY, even if likely not a lot and exposure for said album. I get professoinal bands stop touring for a bit to do an album but you are not a professional band, and said bands still often iron out the album on the road. God you suck.

But while Scott sidesteps this argument he walks into another where Ramona confronts him about lisa about liking her.. and he rightly says if there was anything, which there was not it’s in the past. And while yes he is a cheater, she does not know this yet. This plot honestly would’ve worked better if she learned about the knives thing sooner, but instead she just comes off as paranoid for listening to Roxy about something that isn’t happening. Yes Scott’s been shown to be attracted to her.. but he’s been ashamed of it, fighting it and in denial about it, and is clealry all in with Ramona. Being attracted to someone else on a phsyical level does NOT mean your relationship is doomed.

Things get worse as he goes home to ruminate.. and instead sees a man’s Penis. And Wallace..is at his second most unsymapthetic, not letting Scott get a shirt or a bus pass or something like a decent human being for no goddamn reason. Usually when Wallace is a dick to Scott, Scott’s earned it and badly needs a slap in the face. Here he’s just being a prick because.. the plot needs him to? I dunno it dosen’t work for me. It’s in character, I just don’t have to like it.

So with no other options.. Scott ends up at Lisa’s. And so we get the last temptation of Scott. Lisa admits, embarassed that she’s been wearing sexy dresses and what not specifically to attract him, with Scott also mentioning how things are rough, Lisa tries to fight it herself pointing out he’s with ramona.. and when Scott points out they didn’t do anything in the past Lisa points out they should’ve.. and maybe they should now.

We fade to black as Scott ends up in a dream and finds Roxy, who naturally has the same skill and tries to Freddy Kruger him before he wakes. He finds Lisa but they didn’t do anything: Scott pushed her away and babbled about how much he loved Ramona instead. As i’ve said.... his heart was never with LIsa... and even when he was so close to giving in he couldn’t. It’s a tangible sign of growth: He screwed around on Knives with Ramona, and given how bad things were getting with Ramona, it would be oh so easy to once again ditch a relationship the minute he found something else and oh so understandable. But... he dosen’t. He loves Ramona even if he hasn’t said it, he wants to make this work, and he’s changed. She’s changed him. He’s not quite a good man yet.. bu he’s getting to be good enough. Love turned him from a skeezy dumbass into a far more loveable dumbass. Ramona’s gotten him to stop dating a teenager (even if again he cheated), face his past with envy to finally move on and now get a job. He’s realized just hwo much she means to his life and world and so he goes to tell her.

Riggghtttt after going to get his job back and works a shift, with steven wanting to punch his life in the balls. Stephen shut the fuck up. Just because Scott is lucky and your stuck dating satan’s scrotum does not mean you get to punch his life int he balls. Kim does, because he’s put her through more shit but not you.

He goes to second cup to talk to Stacey.. only to end up at the wrong one where Knives also now has a job... and we finally get an answer to who the mystery katana guy is...

Yup turns out wielding giant weapons in vengance runs in the family. As for how he knows about Scott her aunt mentioned her boyfriend, everyone freaked out and obviously while her mom was mentioned as knowing in volume 1, they did not tell her dad whose brain turned into an engine of vengance and defaced the shrine. While part of it is apparnetly racisim for Scott being white the fact is he clearly saw Scott’s photograph. The guy is 5 years older. I get him being protective. Still dosen’t justify cutting off his head. His balls maybe but not his head.

And then Scott ran, once agian finding a subspace entracne.. and this time we see inside ramona’s head and well...

Yeah.. that’s.. kind of fucked, and Ramona isn’t happy scott saw that, though she backs down once Scott explains..a nd then gets upset over him staying at Lisa’s but before SCott can tell her he loves her it turns out Roxy stayed over. So yeah, Ramona might of cheated, she tells him to alk it off and he runs around in a psycadelic haze of emtoinal confusion. And meets.. someone new...

Scott snaps out of his funk and ignores his doppleganger heading back for Ramona... whose fighting Mr. Chau. Scott left the door to Ramona’s head open and he followed him through Subspace. Scott lures him into the house and away from her only to run into Roxy. This leads to both of his attackers fighting and her wondering if Gideons ent him “Why does no one ever belivie in me?!”

She soon realize no i’ts just unrelated and calls Scotto ut on hiding behind not having a sword and behind her being a woman, caling it a flimsy excuse. I mean she’s tring to kil lhim. It’s okay to hit an enemy combatant. Scott realizes he has to stop running... and get real with ramona leading to a truly epic, romantic and heartfelt speech and given how far he’s come and just how heartfelt it is it’s a real sign of how deep he feels. Sure we’ve seen genuine chemstiry between the two.. but htis moment is a shit.. from a simple relationship.. into true love.

I may of only had a few but Relationships are not easy, They take work, they take time, they take patience and theyt ake love.. but if your willing to work with someone, look past some flaws and help them with the rest.. then it’s worth it. And Scott has finally realized it and for the first time in a while is running TOWARDS something difficult, actually working on this relationship and talking with his partner instead of running finding someone else or wallowing. He’s truly grown up. While he still has miles to go.. he’s taken about 50 steps forward with this. And as such given the kind of unvierse we’re in, as Ramona is genuinely touched by it he levels up a glowing sword with a heart shaped hilt coming out of his chest.. and realizing what’s happening he pulls it out....

So Scott faces off with roxy and in an awesomly short battle, their sords clash.. and he bisects her.

Scott then honestly talks down Mr Chau who leaves after a nod, and Ramona tells Scott she loves him two. The two make out and all is well.

One make out fades into another, as we cut to Scott moving in with Kim and Blockhead’s help. Well kinda they only had one box but they owed him one. He and wallace comiserate over the end of their time as roomies. They’ll always be friend but it’s truly the end of an era. Also Wallace gets off another bit of dickery as he’’s very glad it all worked out for scott...

Now there’s the Wallace I know and love. Dickish but just the right loveable kind of douchebag with that swagger.

Back at Knives house she’s apparenlty into somebody though who I have no idea, Mr Chau give sher his blessing and she.. apparenlty doesen’t know chinese. I dunno. As I said her subplot this go round was her weakest overall.

And so we end with the whole gang gathered to see Lisa off. It’s a REALLY nice shot, and one of the only times Wallace is seen with the Sex Bomb omb side of the group. Oh sure he goes to their shows and what not, but generally their never in the same vincinity so while there’s no interaction I still find this neat. Seriously the whole main cast is there, it’s a really lovely shot

Also Jason and Hollie.. who are getting awfully chummy. Whu Oh. And of course Craphole and Mouth Face are as likeable as ever.

So we jsut get a genuinely nice sene. Except Stephen and Julie reconciling. Fuck that. Please move on. And as everyone fondly wishes Lisa adeu and wish she stuck arond the res tof the series we end on Scott and Ramona snuggling, Scott asking her her birthday and finding out she’s 24, and they both will be come september. Scott wishes this moment could last.

They probperly snuggle as the volume ends on a high.

Final Thoughts:

Yeah.. Gets it Together is, on rexamination, DEFINTELY my faviorite of the 6. Besides personal value i’ts hte best contained story, contaning lots of character development, great character moments, jokes, and EASILY the best art so far, with goregouness and creativty abounding.

There is a problem here or there: Stephen and Julie’s subplot feels underbaked, and not just because I hates them, and there are several scenes that don’t further plot or character stuff. Ther’es also stuff that could’ve been expanded on.. but given this is still a pretty meaty graphic novel, it’s understandable why it wasn’t.. though it is why I’d love a streaming series since while the movie is excellent, a full series could expand on stuff from the books more Brian simply didn’t have time for. Knives also didn’t get a lot to do.

But their drowned out by tons of great decisions: Lisa was a wonderful additoin to the cast and I genuinely wish she’d stuck around, adding in some energy, blending well with the Sex Bomb Omb crowd, and having great dynamics with everyone and her arc with Scott is heartbreaking,knowing she can’t have him but wanting him anyway having never gottne proper closure on the man she’s always wanted. She’s a heartbreaking character and its nice to see her end in a decent place and on good terms with Scott, having let him go for both thier sakes.

And while Lisa is a highlight everyone is on their a game here for the most part apart from knives, girl hitler, and captain dumbass: Scott grows signfigantly but is funny as hell, Wallace has an intresting arc trying to nudge Scott out without being overt about it, scared to really confront him, Kim is in a happy and serene place for once and it shows. The villians are also intresting: While Mr Chau is a tad underbaked, he’s sitll a cool imposing presence. I do think he shoudl’ve had more to do with the plot.. but is still just so freaking cool it papers over that and him just.. disappearing after this like poor Lisa.

Roxy is far more intresting, having clearly more going on than we see and while I wish we’d got her backstory, she’s easily the most engaging of the exes, being the only one to actively compete with Scott (All her and ramona end up doing is making out a little it turned out), and have bigger stakes than just “The glasses wearing douche asked me to beat up my exes boyfriend and I was like alright.

All in all Gets it Together is really magical, the series high point, and just damn fun and it was a pleasure to go through

Next Month on Scott Pilgrim: It all falls down as we take a look into what once was my least faviorite Album, vs the unvierse. Two perfect assholes try and murder scott with Robutts, his relationship and band crumble and things get sad so very very sad.

Next on this blog: More LIlo and Stitch! The Proud Family come to Kauai and get into a fight with our heroes. Also wizard kelly... who if nothing else is now far more tolerable now i’ve had to spend another volume with the wicked bitch of the west. Touche universe touche. See you at the next rainbow.

#scott pilgrim #ramona flowers #wallace wells #roxanne richter #knives chau #stephen stills #julie power #mr chau #stacey pilgrim #neil nordgraf #young neil #comics #oni press #scotrospective #lisa miller #kim pine #jospeh

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sergeantsporks · 3 years

Text

Can You Die of a Broken Heart?

Teen

Gen

When Nari said "the order will rip your soul to pieces," Douxie thought she meant literally. Turns out, they can do it figuratively AND literally.

Ao3

Series: I Can Make RotT So Much Worse

Based on this post by @spellcasterdouxie

“Why don’t we try to get a little information out of him, first?”

Douxie’s head jerked up. He couldn’t betray his friends—but if they were interrogating him, it meant they wouldn’t have Nari for just that much longer.

Bellroc rolled their eyes. “What information could he possibly have?”

Skrael shrugged. “A secret weapon? An idea left behind by Merlin? I think we should take a look around inside of that stupid, stupid head of his. Since he’s around, anyway.” His hands glowed with magic. “You made a mistake, wizard. You put your soul in the body of another. That makes it… vulnerable. Exposed.”

Magic pulsed out of Skrael’s hand, striking Douxie’s head. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened. Then hundreds and hundreds of glowing strands erupted from his head, stretching out.

Bellroc’s eyes seemed to light with a cruel glow. “Memories…” they hissed, reaching out.

When their hand touched a glowing strand, it erupted into a scene Douxie knew well—a lecture from Merlin. Over something he’d broken, of course.

“Useless,” Bellroc growled. They seized the glowing thread, and with a flick of their wrist, it snapped off.

Douxie felt a tug in his gut, and an overwhelming feeling of something being… missing. He’d just seen the memory—and he knew there was something that he’d remembered before, but it was gone, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t find it.

The order tore through memories like a wildfire, pulling up and discarding them. Planning the subway trap with the other guardians of arcadia—gone. Krel’s designs for the amulet—Bellroc and Skrael watched for a bit, then ripped those away, too. The empty pit in Douxie’s stomach grew wider and wider, and the missing memories left him with a spinning head. It didn’t hurt, per se, it was just… disorienting. He knew he should feel upset—but it was hard to feel upset over losing something you didn’t remember having.

“Remember when I told you magic is mastery over life?”

Douxie lifted his head. “N-no,” he gasped, trying to pull back, “That’s—that’s—don’t—please—”

“My, Hisirdoux, what a life you’ve lived.”

Bellroc grabbed one of his horns and yanked him up. “What a pathetic life you’ve lived.”

“What a wizard you’ve become.”

“P-please—”

Skrael seemed to take special delight in ripping that one away.

“N—” Douxie’s heart hurt, but he didn’t know why, he just knew that he’d lost something, something important to him.

“A wizard does not make mistakes. He makes unexpected—”

Douxie screamed as the Order ripped through memories, until he wasn’t sure why they were important anymore.

A gentle purr—nothing but stone.

Smiles and laughs—a circular room

Moments with his student—train tracks and darkness.

A being made of ice tilted his head up, sharp claws tracing his face but not breaking skin. “Have you ever heard the Egyptian’s theory on the soul? They believed it was made of several parts. One was the ren—the name. But it was more than the name—it was memories.”

His head was spinning, and spinning, and he couldn’t remember anything but this room of stone and darkness. He managed a guttural moan—he wanted someone, needed someone so badly it hurt, but he couldn’t remember who—

The ice being jerked on one of his horns. “Your memories are an important part of you, wizard.”

Wizard? What…?

“Experience makes you who you are—without your memories, you’re just a sad, sad husk.”

A fire being spat. “Enough. We have spent long enough on this creature. Return it to its body. Without its memories, it would not even know to attack us.”

“I’d rather not take the risk.” The ice being leaned back. “When you see its soul…”

“We’ll get Nari back. But he… he will not go home.”

What… he was too tired, too sick, too lonely to figure out what they were talking about.

And then the two beings started chanting, and the world dissolved into pain, soul-crushing pain.

At least, he’d thought it was soul-crushing. Until he felt himself tearing out of his body, and the ice and fire being grabbed hold of his soul and pulled.

Turned out, there was a feeling worse than soul-crushing.

Soul ripping.

They tore at his being, and even though he was out of a body, he somehow still felt it, in every fiber of his being, that horrible, horrible tearing sensation, like taffy that had been pulled just a little too far.

Some instinct, some nagging voice in the back of his head screamed at him to end it! End the spell now, before they destroy you!

And he didn’t know what that meant, he didn’t know what spell, but maybe the little voice in the back of his head took over because he was waking up in a completely new place, in a body that was different, but felt… more familiar.

“Wha—huh—I—”

“Douxie!” A cat barreled into him, and he instinctively hugged it. It just felt… right, but he didn’t know why.

Some kid with scars on his face stared him meaningfully in the eye. “Douxie, do you know where they are?! Where’s the order, where do they have Nari?”

That sure was a lot of words that probably meant something. He shook his head. “I—I’m sorry—I really am—but—who’s Douxie?”

Xxx

“I can lock onto Nari. We’ll get her.”

Jim glanced back at the vacant Douxie, who was patting Archie, apparently with no clue of who he was. “We might need his magic.”

“We can’t take him along like this! It would be murder!” Claire twisted around to look at him, shaking his head. “Besides, I… I don’t know if he remembers how to do magic. Jim, what if we lost him?!”

Jim brushed her cheek with one hand. “Hey… look at me. Look at me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Douxie, it’s that he always finds a way to come back. He died, remember? And he still came back to us. He’ll get better.”

“He doesn’t remember who he is, who we are! What if he can’t come back?!”

“Then we’ll find a way to bring him back. We’ll find a spell, or Krel will be able to invent something—we won’t leave him like this. I promise.”

Xxx

Douxie—apparently that was his name. That’s what they kept telling him. He didn’t know. All he knew was the last hour of his life—the last horrible, painful hour of his life.

He hadn’t known it was so bad—not until he came here, where there was light, and everything was soft and kind, instead of harsh and painful.

And there was Archie, the cat.

Jim and Claire approached. “We’re heading out,” Jim said quietly to Archie.

Archie jumped up with a hiss. “Douxie’s not going. He needs to recover.”

“We weren’t planning on it,” Claire soothed, “No taking Douxie into dangerous situations right now. Promise.”

Archie leapt into Douxie’s lap. “I’m staying with him.”

“But what if we need—”

“Douxie needs me more. Go.”

Claire and Jim exchanged a glance, then left without a word. Archie snuggled down further in Douxie’s lap. Douxie absentmindedly stroked the cat. “Who’s your owner?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then… who takes care of you?”

Archie gave him a look that was just so deeply sad it made Douxie want to cry, although he wasn’t sure why. “I… have a friend. My familiar.”

Douxie settled back, petting him. “What happened to him? Why isn’t he here?”

Archie started to shake a little bit. “He… didn’t come back from a fight.”

Douxie gave the cat a little squeeze. “I’m sorry.” They sat in silence, then, “Tell me about him?”

And Archie did.

He told Douxie about a wizard. About all of the adventures they’d shared. All of the hardships they’d endured—but all of the good times they’d had, too. He told him about a strict master who’d eventually given his own life for his apprentice. About how his familiar had taught Claire magic. How he’d saved the world, at the cost of his own life—then had come back from the dead.

He told him about how strong the wizard was. How brave. How kind. How clever, even if sometimes his “cleverness” backfired in his face.

Douxie’s heart ached for the cat and his familiar. It was obvious how much Archie had loved his wizard—and he’d lost him. Would have to live without him. “I’m sorry,” he said again, “He sounded…”

Archie buried himself in Douxie’s jacket. “Yes. I have to believe…”

“Believe what?”

“I have to believe that he’ll come back.” Archie twisted out, his eyes desperately searching Douxie’s. “That you’ll come back.”

An eerie sense of familiarity swept over him, the worst déjà vu.

Those stories.

They were… his stories?

He was the wizard?

What had the order done to him?!

Tears for his lost life sprang up in his eyes, and he hugged Archie, mind whirling in a thousand directions at once. It was like the Order was shredding his soul all over again—he’d had a whole life, 900 years of it, and it had been taken away. He didn’t know who he was—the only thing he had was stories of who he’d used to be, echoes of friendships he used to have. And now? What was he supposed to do?

“Douxie?” Archie asked quietly.

“I want to be him. I want to be him again, I want to be your familiar, I want to be Douxie again.” He scrubbed at his eyes. “There has to be some way to get back the memories they took, please—I… I don’t want to lose you.”

Archie purred. “Memories or not, you will always be my familiar. Nothing will change that. You won’t lose me.” He tilted his head at Douxie. “I know the world might be ending soon and all, but… how would you feel about going on a different adventure?”

“What?”

“I don’t know if we can get your memories back, Douxie. But we can certainly make new ones.”

#honestly this is a concept i want to explore more in-depth-- plus y'know fun torture and whump #but right now my brain is spitballing angsty ideas at lightning speed and i'm just spitting them out on paper #so maybe later #when i finish shattered timelines (ignore my loud laughter)#rott #rott spoilers #toa #tales of arcadia #toa fanfic #my writing #douxie

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