#but two plot lines at the same time wasn’t fun to get through

[ateezscupid]

Hiiii I love your fics ! I wanted to know if you could do a fic with dom- minjoong and sub f. reader ?

𝗧𝗪𝗢'𝗦 𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗢𝗡𝗘 ★

𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗭 𝗠𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧 / 𝗥𝗘𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧

plot - you planned a calm night with mingi and hongjoong recording in the studio, but it ended way differently than you thought it would.

warn - smut and fluff, dom!mingi, dom!hongjoong, sub!reader, fingering, oral (m and f), praise and some degrading if u squint LOL, pet names (baby, princess, pretty girl, love), poly!au, big dick mingi, reader's shorter than joong and min, kind of size difference mentioned BUT there is a size kink if u squint, unprotected sex, joong and mingi are pussy drunk and absolutely love the reader

w/c -

𝗧𝗔𝗚S - @felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna @starillusion13 @mingitheskzstan @yeolistic @jeonride @ate-ez

A/N - this has been sitting in my drafts for MONTHS and i finished it. also, back from my break babes! ^^

Mingi and Hongjoong were like two peas in a pod. they did — quite literally — everything together. They went to concerts together, designed merchandise together, produced and wrote lyrics together; even going to the bathroom together seemed like something the two boys did a lot. you’ve always loved their friendship. It was so cute how Mingi would treat Hongjoong like a younger brother even though Joong was older, and he kind of just accepted it knowing he couldn’t get Mingi to stop.

When you introduced yourself to the two, you didn’t realize how easy it was for them to become attached to you. They acted like they had known you for years, and for you it felt like you had found your soulmates because of their welcoming aura. Out of all of your friends, Hongjoong and Mingi were your favorites.

Hongjoong was the friend who spent too much time at work trying to make sure whatever he was working on was perfect — and who also had a bit of a smoking problem. Hongjoong was high most of the time whenever you saw him.

Mingi was the friend who was — just like hongjoong — always high, except he didn’t spend a lot of time in the studio. He was always out at clubs or doing something stupid with the other members.

To say the least, the boys were like fully grown adult babies.

Since your schedule was always empty, you spent a lot of time with the Ateez members; specifically with Joong and Mingi. You were always hanging out at their music video sets, in their dressing rooms, or just in general in the KQ building doing god knows what. It was fun hanging out with the boys. They acted so normal around you and you loved it.

Now you were hanging out with Mingi and Hongjoong in the studio. They were song writing and producing a few songs while you sat on the couch scrolling through your phone. There was definitely silence in the studio, ignoring the music playing, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. You three were fine being in complete silence as long as it meant being in each others presence.

“Yo Hj, go over that one line again,” Mingi peeked above his computer. “Y/n, are you bored? Sorry if we’re not talking to you, we’re just really focused.”

“What?” you scoff playfully and sit up. “Don’t worry about me, I don’t really care about you guys talking to me or not, Im fine either way.”

“Cool, just makin’ sure.” Min smiled then looked back at his computer. You always found him adorable whenever he wore glasses. They fit him so well, and he didn’t seem to agree until you started complimented him. It wasn’t long after that he started wearing his glasses more often.

With or without the glasses, Mingi had a pretty face. It was the same for Hongjoong. You’ve always found the two men incredibly attractive; your eyes examining their features whenever they weren’t looking. You of course never acted upon your emotions, but there have been moments between you three that would confirm your feelings for them.

Like the time you were hanging out with the boys while they were filming Inception. As of now, you’re confused why you didn’t choose Seonghwa first. Everything about him in that music video had you drooling. As if his body being drenched in water wasn’t enough, his facial expressions and body made you horny desperate for him.

Hongjoong and Mingi both noticed how your body was reacting to Seonghwa’s movements during the dance and felt jealous. They didn’t remember you looking at them like that. You remember the boys bombarding you with questions after they made it back to their dorms.

“Do you like Seonghwa?” and “Do you have a crush on anybody?”

“Why were you looking at Seonghwa like that?”

“Do you have a crush on anybody?”

All these questions were new to you since they hadn’t bothered you like this before. You could only assume it was because of the way you looked at Seonghwa that made them jealous. But why were they jealous? They didn’t like you, at least, that’s what you thought. They never showed any signs that told you they were interested in you… Unless they did and you were too dumb to realize.

Just thinking about it now made you wonder if they actually liked you, and if they had like you this entire time, why didn’t they say anything? You thought they’d be fighting over you if they both liked you but they weren’t.

Clearly they didn’t have a problem with sharing.

You stare at your phone for a few minutes contemplating on whether or not you should ask them. Or better yet, just blurt out that you like them and see where that takes you. You glance over at Hongjoong, and to your surprise, he was already looking at you. He immediately looked away and stared at the sheet of lyrics in front of him, Mingi noticing the flushed look on his face and looking at you. They knew you knew.

“Can I ask you guys something?” you finally muster up the courage to say something. It looked as if the blood drained from their face when you said that.

“Uh, sure,” Mingi closes his laptop halfway and Hongjoong nods, taking his headphones off completely.

“Do you guys have a crush on anybody? We’ve been friends for long and we’ve talked about almost any and everything but crushes. How come you guys never told me about any crushes you guys have? Or had.”

Hongjoong looks at Mingi, mouth ajar as if he were going to speak but stayed quiet. Mingi was also quiet, fidgeting with his mouse and looking around the room. Clearly they were nervous to answer the question, and you didn’t mean to make them nervous.

“Sorry if I’m asking for too much, I just wanna know! I mean, you guys have told me your celebrity crushes but that’s not the same.”

“I mean,” Hongjoong leaned back in his chair, slightly lifting his hips. You noticed this and bit your lip, struggling to keep eye contact with him.

“We never told you because it’s complicated.”

“How is it complicated? If you don’t mind me asking,” You cris-cross your legs on the couch. “I mean, I’m pretty easy to talk to. You guys know this.”

“We know!” Mingi sighed. “If we told you, you’d freak out. And you’d probably think we were weird,”

“I won’t think you’re weird! Come on, it’s just us,” you walk over to the chair next to Mingi and sit down in it, placing a hand on his arm and tilting your head. Your small touch alone made Mingi shiver.

“Well, we…” he glances over at Hongjoong who nodded his head in approval. “we like you.”

That wasn’t what you were expecting at all. Well, you kinda did expect it but it was surprising. They said it so easily as if they weren’t scared to tell you earlier. Averting your gaze to Hongjoong, he nodded slowly as if saying what Mingi said was true. You knew the boys wouldn’t lie to you. You all made an agreement that you’d tell each other anything no matter what it was.

“Sorry if it’s so sudden,” Hongjoong sighs deeply. “I know I said I wasn’t really looking to date anyone and Mingi knew that too, but you kinda just…came into our life and changed it ever since.”

“Do you both like me? I already know the answer but I like it hearing it from you guys.” you smile and kick your feet.

“Oh my god,” Mingi chuckles. His deep voice was always so attractive. “First Joong liked you and I may or may not have teased him a bit for his stupid crush on you. But then I started understanding why he liked you and then I started liking you. We kinda had to come to an agreement since we didn’t know what to do if both of us liked you.”

“I’m not gonna say we argued, but we argued.” Hongjoong chuckles behind his desk. “We both sorta agreed to being okay with the other liking you, but we don’t know if you’re okay with…dating two people.”

“Joong, are you kidding? If it’s you two I don’t care. I’m actually kind of relieved that you guys don’t mind dating me. I thought I’d have to choose between you guys and I didn’t want to do that.”

“Well now you don’t have to since you know we both like you,” Mingi leaned back in his chair — manspreading. You thought you had better self control but you definitely didn’t. Just seeing him sit like that made you rub your legs together. You weren’t aware of the fact that the boys saw you doing this, nor were you aware of the looks they gave each other.

“So…I assume this means we’re — dating? All of us?”

“Would you like that Y/n?” Hongjoong averted his gaze, his eyes glazing over your body. He could never get over how good you looked in his and Mingi’s clothes. Being surprisingly shorter than Mingi and Hongjoong, their clothes were always baggy on your body, which made them so comfortable. He liked watching you rummage through their closets trying to find an outfit for the day since you had given up on wearing your own clothes.

“I would love that!” You say with a gummy smile, a bit too excited for your own good.

“I’m kinda surprised you didn’t say anything about us before. I mean, you said you knew we liked you,” Mingi said.

“Well I didn’t wanna say anything before because I wasn’t really sure. I only went by the things you guys were doing and you guys were doing a lot.”

“Like what?” Hongjoong tilts his head.

You didn’t think he’d ask. “Y’know, getting jealous whenever I looked or even talked to the other members, over complimenting me even when I looked bad, always staring at my body — Mingi, you liked looking at my tits. I always caught you look at them,”

“You looked at her tits?” Joong raised his eyebrow at Mingi.

“I-I did like once,” Mingi scratches the back of his head. “You’ve looked at her ass before so you can’t sit here and act like you didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You’ve looked at my ass before?” the question made them both flustered. You weren’t necessarily surprised by the behavior; more so happy they even admitted to doing it. At least they felt comfortable enough to tell you things like that.

“Well are there any more embarrassing things you guys wanna spill about each other or are you guys done?”

Hongjoong started giggling, covering his mouth with his hand and looking at Mingi. You could tell it was something stupid based off the way he sounded.

“Mingi didn’t know how to—”

“Shut up dickhead!” Mingi shouted defensively not even allowing Hongjoong to finish. Him interrupting only made Joong laugh louder. His laughing caused you to start laughing.

“Joong say it! What is it!” You lean closer, arms resting on the desk. Mingi tried covering your ears but you kept moving.

“He was scared to tell you he liked you because he thought you guys would kiss and he didn’t know how to kiss so he asked me to help him!” Hongjoong almost fell back in his chair laughing, his headphones falling off his neck and his legs kicking underneath the desk. Mingi was definitely embarrassed, though he seemed to be embarrassed because he couldn’t kiss, not because he kissed Hongjoong.

“You guys kissed? Like — on the lips? Or…” —

“On the lips, Y/n, I didn’t say he could go that far. But he did it to impress youuu! I already know how to kiss so I was fine teaching him what I knew.”

You nod and turn to Mingi. “So he taught you? You know how to kiss now?”

“I-I guess,” he cleared his throat nervously. “You want me to show you?”

“Are you guys really gonna makeout in front of me? If you’re gonna do it, let me watch.” he stands up from his seat and moves toward the couch you were just sitting on, taking a seat himself and positioning himself so he saw you two making out — if you were even going to do so.

Mingi’s eyes glazed over your features, seeming to be glued to your lips since he couldn’t take his eyes off of them. Leaning in slowly, his hand lifting and resting on your cheek while pulling your face closed, his and your eyes closing. Hongjoong sat watching in anticipation with his foot tapping on the ground, a wide smile on his face. He kept whispering the words ‘kiss her’ and ‘hurry up’ since you two were taking a bit long.

With his hand holding your cheek and your faces inching closer and closer, your lips finally attached. He captured your lips tenderly, your expression softening as you relaxed in his hood, leaning gently into the kiss to create more friction of some sort. He was enjoying it himself as well — having his arm wrapped around you pulling you deeper into the kiss and making sure you couldn’t back away. Not like you planning on it. It was crazy — a bit unbelievable how he didn’t protest when you asked him to kiss you, but you were happy he was doing it.

As the two of you kissed you felt someone behind you. The only other person in the room was Hongjoong, so you could only assume it was him. He watched closely as you two kissed, growing a bit impatient himself since he didn’t get the chance to kiss you yet.

“Mingi, hurry upp. I wanna kiss her too,” he whined behind you. Once Mingi’s lips separated from yours, Joong’s fingers curled around your neck and leaned down, attaching his own lips to yours and holding you still. Whatever you had gotten yourself into, you couldn’t possibly take yourself out. It wasn’t like you wanted to but you knew you were going to have a fun night.

In full honesty, it was a lot to take in. The both of them were kissing you, their hands all around your body overwhelming your senses. It’s not like you haven’t imagined the two in bed before but for it to happen now was so unexpected.

“She’s so pretty,” Mingi mumbles under his breath, hands gently caressing your thighs. “so gorgeous.”

Hongjoong pulls away from your lips, running a thumb across your cheek. “You think we should do it tonight? Of course, if she’s okay with it.

“Okay with what? W-What do you guys mean?”

“…” Joong looked at Mingi then back to you. “Y’know, a threesome.. If it’s too unexpected we don’t have to do it—”

“Y-Yes! Yeah, whatever you wanna do to me, do it. Please.”

They didn’t have to be told twice. As Mingi pulled you into his lap, Hongjoong stood behind you and held your hair out of your face, fingers still wrapped around your neck as Mingi pulled you into yet another kiss. Your tongues fought for dominance but Min won, making you feel like your body was going numb. They played with you as if you were putty. You began to grind your hips onto Mingi while holding onto his shoulders, moaning into his mouth because of the friction. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to get you wet. Just as you were doing so, you felt something big rubbing against your crotch.

You knew what it was.

“Aw she’s moving on harder on you,” Joong teased, his hands moving all across your body and even groping your breasts. “You got hard that quick?”

Mingi broke away from the kiss. “Well what would you do if a girl you liked was grinding on your dick? Would you not get hard?”

“I would but still, damn.” Mingi lets go of you and allows Hongjoong to pull you away from him. He brings you over to the couch and finally settles you into his lap, hands caressing your thighs like Mingi’s did earlier, giving your clothes heat access to his own bulge. You lazily drag yourself against his length. This alone had you soaked in your panties and you were about ready to rip them off of your heated body.

“My pretty girl grinding on me like this,” Hongjoong almost growls in your ear, hugging your waist and groaning softly in your ear. “you’re such a dirty girl,”

“Mm,” you whimper. “I… know,”

Not realizing Mingi had come over, his hands reach underneath your hips and grab the hem of the bottoms you were wearing, pulling them off and discarding them onto the floor next to him. Joong tilted your head at an almost uncomfortable angle to attach his mouth onto yours and you eagerly return the kiss, tongues clashing together.

Mingi watched you grind on each other, though he’s not sure he can handle watching you two do it any longer. He pulls your hips forward and pushes your underwear to the side, hands squishing your thighs and lips enveloping your clit. You jolt and moan into your kiss with Joong while holding onto his leg, gripping for your life at this point.

“So wet,” Mingi hums. “for me?” his fingers come to play with your folds. Your body was surging with such an electric feeling you felt lightheaded. With simple touches, you were already crumbling. It wasn’t like this with your past partners in bed.

His hand slides underneath your ass and attaches his mouth to your heat. Your core was twitching so much, already overstimulated by barely anything. Hongjoong took this as his opportunity to grope your breasts, now comforting you as Mingi ate you out. His tongue moves in and out of you, spending a few seconds looking for that one spongey spot inside of you. Your thighs close around his head, and your back arched off of Joong’s chest.

You couldn’t focus on his hands on your body while Mingi ate you out like this. It was impossible.

Once his fingers enter you everything goes blank, your legs closing immediately and you having to break away from Hongjoong’s kiss to catch your breath. You came so quick and easy it was almost embarrassing.

“She’s so cute!” Hongjoong cooed as he rubbed your waist. “Came so quick from barely anything.”

“Please…” you moan softly, arching your back and trying to grind your hips on Hongjoong again. “I-I… want—”

“We’ll give it to you, baby.” Mingi spoke as he stood to his feet. Joong lifted you from the underside of your legs and placed you on your back on the sofa, Mingi now replacing him and getting between your legs. He stripped himself of his sweatpants and pushed his boxers low enough to where his cock could spring out.

It would be an understatement to say he was just big.

“M-Min…, that’s not gonna fit,”

“Then I’ll make it fit.”

As you were ready to protest, a sharp pain seethed through your body. You hadn’t realized Hongjoong slid behind you and help you lay on top of his chest, your lower body feeling numb once Mingi went inside. You were too focused on the literal intrusion that your body was going through to realize Joong’s hand moving to your clit. He delivered a sharp slap to it, making you lurch forward and cry out loud.

“Aw, poor baby can’t handle it,” Joong murmurs as Mingi began thrusting.

Your walls were contracting against his cock with every movement, hips angled so he could hit your deepest parts. He was so big, stretching your walls and making it feel like you were being ripped apart. Mingi tried going slow so you could adjust to his enormous size, but good god, he was huge. Adjusting to his size was going to take a very long time. He kept glancing at you to check your facial expressions, stopping the movement of his hips if he felt like he was hurting you.

“It’s okay, princess,” Mingi said calmly while doing slow strokes. “I know it’s a lot, just breathe.” his deep voice helped you calm down much faster. He grabs ahold of your hips and speeds up the pace of his thrusts. There was slick already sliding down your thighs.

Immediately your hands flung to his body, hips grinding against him to feel some sort of friction. Your nails dug into his skin while you tried holding on for dear life. It was so much to handle at once.

Reaching your hand back, you were desperately searching for Hongjoong’s dick, anything to hold on your hands. You felt bad since you hadn’t done anything besides kiss him yet, so this was the last you could do. Of course, he attempted to stop you saying he didn’t need you to do anything, but you weren’t listening. You were being driven by sex.

“Y/n, you don’t have to—” your hand grasps onto his clothed dick. He did want you to touch him, so he allowed you to do whatever to him. Of course, the angle at which you were laying made it difficult for you to stroke him, but you tried your best, running your thumb over his slit and spreading his pre-cum all over.

“Joong why don’t you…fuck,” Mingi cursed, head spinning from how nice you felt around his cock. “f-fuck her face. Give her something to do with her filthy little mouth,”

“I-I don’t think she can even hear us—”

“Little whore already fucked out?” Min pants and deepens his thrusts.

Hongjoong slid from underneath your now limp body and grabbed a fistful of your hair, lifting it and wiping the drool off your cheek with his thumb. Mingi held your hips with his nails digging into your body, leaving crescent moon shapes embedded in your skin, while Hongjoong was preparing to face fuck you.

He pulls his pants down to his thighs, pulling your head closer to his hips by your hair and slapping his cock on your cheek. You couldn’t handle the scene unfolding in front of you.

“Open,” Hongjoong spoke, slapping his tip against your lips. You obeyed and lazily opened your mouth. It opened more as he pushed himself inside of you.

“So warm,” he groans. “so wet, all for us.”

Joong was much bigger than you imagined, and you weren’t ashamed to say you had thought about Hongjoong naked before. It was safe to say you’ve thought about all of the members naked. The only ones you’ve thought of the most were Mingi and Hongjoong, mainly Mingi. Even seeing only his collarbone sometimes would cause you to drool. Hongjoong had you drooling whenever you saw any part of his body.

His hips moved back and forth, pushing his cock in and out of your mouth, making sure to hit the back of your throat with each thrust while also making sure you were still breathing. Though you didn’t mind if he made it hard for you to breathe. Being used like a cum dump by these two has been a dream of yours for a while.

“Fuck, baby, your mouth feels good…” Hongjoong groaned as his pace accelerated. You gagged each time his tip hit the back of your throat, but you didn’t care.

A sharp thrust from Mingi’s hips caused your body to jerk and for a string of fire to shoot down to your core. Your moans were muffled due to Joong being in your mouth, but it only fueled Min to go faster inside of you, thinking about how you’d sound if your mouth wasn’t full right now. Joong placed his hand on the back of your head and began thrusting his hips faster, droll trickling down your bottom lip and down your chin from the stimulation.

Your thighs wouldn’t stop twitching. However, how could they stop? Mingi was plowing the last amount of life out of your hole, and Hongjoong used your mouth as if you were a glory hole for him and only him for his own personal use.

How could you possibly stay still during all this?

“I think—fuck, I think she’s close.” Mingi groans and plants his hands on the couch cushions, freeing your hips from his hold and allowing his own to angle differently so he can strike into you deeper.

Your head was spinning at this point. You had no control over the noises you made or your body anymore. Everything about you belonged to them now. Knowing you were close to your release, Hongjoong pulled his member out of your mouth and slapped it on your cheek gently, allowing you to rest your head on his lap while Mingi was wrecking your hole. Your eyes rolled back, your head fell, and garbled words spilled out of your mouth. All you can do is whine and cry out in pleasure while your head spins.

Mingi brings his hand down and presses his thumb against your aching clit, rubbing in fast circles to push you further over the edge until you tipped over, curses spilling out from your swollen lips alongside Mingi's name. At the same time, Mingi held onto your thighs and bottomed out inside of you finally dumping his load inside of you. Your head falls into Hongjoong's lap. He runs his fingers through your hair, easing you through your orgasm.

"You okay, tiny?" Hongjoong caresses your cheek. It took a moment to catch your breath after everything that happened. Jesus, that was a lot.

"I..." After catching your breath, you looked at Hongjoong with puppy eyes and a pout you knew he couldn't resist. "Joongie~" you whine while reaching for his hand. Mingi couldn't help but laugh at how desperate you were. How completely fucked out you looked too.

"What is it?"

"You haven't gotten a turn yet..." you mumbled while pulling on his shirt. Mingi moved out of the way without saying a word, gesturing for Hongjoong to come over. The two men switched places with Hongjoong near your hips and Mingi behind your head caressing your cheek.

Hongjoong wasn't as big as Mingi, but his length made up for it. You knew it would hit your sweet spot easily. Hongjoong positioned himself in front of you, tip lined up with your entrance and his unoccupied hand holding onto your hip. Slowly -- achingly slow, he pushes himself into you in one go, holding onto your hips tightly to not lose balance. Mingi, on the other hand, had his hand on your breast playing with your nipple. So much was happening at once it was hard to keep up.

"It's okay," Joong coos, beginning to thrust in and out of you gently. You were still so sensitive from your orgasm with Mingi. Hongjoong had just started, and it felt good. "Fuck, you're tight."

Out of nowhere, he picks up his pace. He didn't give you enough time to adjust to his length and started pounding into you, gliding his cock in and out of your warmth and watching your juices coat his member. When he heard a whimper escape your lips, he knew he was doing a good job.

"Babe," he says in between pants. "T-Touch yourself for me, yeah? Give Mingi a show while he watches,"

Embarrassed but ultimately turned on, you complied and slithered your hand down your stomach and toward your throbbing clit, rubbing rough and fast circles on it to bring yourself closer to orgasm. Hongjoong winced as you clenched around his cock from the sensation.

"Oh, fuck please," you cried out. "I-I'm gonna cum, slow down-!"

"Already?" Mingi chuckles. "What do you think, Joong? Should we let her?"

"Dammit, if she does, then I-I just might." he shudders, both hands holding onto your hips and slamming his cock in and out of your sopping hole. "I think, fuck, she's been good. Let go, baby."

You were so so close to cumming, the speed of your fingers speeding up as the circles you were rubbing in became sloppy. Occasionally you'd lose focus and wouldn't even move your fingers due to your brain turning to mush. Their voices sounded muffled in your ears. Everything they said went through one ear and out the other.

"Fuck fuck fuck-!" the volume of your moans gradually increased until you couldn't handle it anymore and came. You arched your back and curled your toes, holding onto Hongjoong's wrists. You clenched so tightly around his cock that it pushed him over the edge. He dumped his load inside of you, moaning your name and panting heavily.

"Wow.." Mingi whistles, looking at your fucked out face. "You're so pretty when you cum."

"Shut up," you replied, embarrassed with your hands over your face.

"That was fun," Hongjoong sighs deeply. "I'd do it again." he says while looking at Mingi. Mingi nods in agreement and the two look at you, waiting for your answer.

"I...wouldn't mind."

#icupids asks and submits ♡ #ateez #ateez smut #ateez fanfic #ateez x reader #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #dom ateez #dom!ateez #dom!hongjoong #dom hongjoong #dom!mingi #dom mingi #mingi smut #hongjoong smut

[janaispunk]

end game

series masterlist • this is part VII

pairing: Dave York x f!reader

word count: ~3.8k

summary: Heartbreak, an explanation and an epilogue.

warnings/tags: explicit smut (-> 18+ only!), angst, feelings, heartbreak, depression, mention of weight loss, fluff, able-bodied reader, reader has hair, dom!Dave, sub!reader, sir kink, degradation kink, fingering, unprotected p in v (it's never stated in the fic but i headcanon that reader is on birth control), basically free use kink, rough sex, dirty talk, spanking, spit kink, praise kink, Dave is a menace, praise kink, idiots in love, please let me know if i missed anything!

a/n: the biggest thank you to @joelscurls for letting me scream about this again and againnnnn, and reading over my drafts countless times, you’re the best, jess! <3

thank you to @daddy-dins-girl for talking plot holes with me and motivating me to write <3

thank you to everyone who has read and loved this series, i have received sooooo many kind words, feedback and just so much love. i started writing this as a pwp oneshot and the fact that it has turned into my first series ever and one that i had soooo much fun with is wild. i’m incredibly emotional about saying goodbye to my babies, maybe i’ll revisit them when i need to write some kinky shit out of my system haha. i hope that you like the ending that i’ve built for them.

a few words about the plot: i actually have zero clue how the hitman business works (shocker, i know), so some parts of this are purposefully vague in a way that i hope is believable and somewhat realistic. just roll with it, thanks :D

dividers as always by @saradika-graphics 🫶🏻

find my full masterlist here & follow @janaispunknotifs for fic updates.

The first week you don’t hear from Dave, you’re confused, but not necessarily worried yet. There have been weeks of silence in the past, though you’ll admit that you had thought that things might be… different now.

Your texts to him stay on delivered, never switching to read. Which has also happened before, especially when he was away on business, but still… The thought that he has gone back to his normal life without sparing as much as a glance back at your time together is nagging at you.

You can still feel his hands on your skin, can still hear him whisper in your ear how beautiful you look, how perfect you are for him. It’s hard to come to terms with the thought that it wasn’t real, that his words and actions didn’t hold the same weight for him that they did for you. Reality has finally caught up to you and it hurts.

When two weeks blend into three weeks and you’ve still heard nothing, you start getting worried. He had said his line of work was dangerous, after all.

Your conversation, still so close and yet a lifetime ago, echoes in your mind. 'Nothing's gonna happen,’ you had said. ‘Not to the girls, not to me. And not to you.’ And not to you. ‘You don’t know that, sweetheart,’ his voice rings through your head. Sweetheart. The word tastes bitter on your tongue and wraps itself around your chest until you feel like you’re choking with it, like you can’t draw breath into your lungs anymore.

Sweetheart.

You don’t know that.

Sweetheart.

You start looking him up online, to find anything that might at least tell you that he’s okay. You don’t want to believe that he would be cruel enough to ghost you, but you barely dare to consider the alternative. You find nothing, no mention of his name, like he doesn’t even exist.

Your calls stay unanswered, your messages stay unread. You find yourself subconsciously checking your texts and your emails countless times a day, catch yourself staring out of your window in the blind hope that he might appear outside. He wouldn’t just leave you like this, would he? Would he?

Days blur into weeks and eventually into months. You’re painfully aware that it’s not healthy, this kind of heartbreak, especially not over a relationship that never even meant anything. If only your heart would understand that.

It was never serious enough that you told any of your friends about it, never wanted to be labeled as the girl that sleeps with married men, never wanted to admit your feelings to someone else when you could barely admit them to yourself. Regardless, even without knowing what exactly was going on, your friends had tried to be there for you, to convince you to go out with them, to cheer you up, but you had turned them down often enough that on this Friday night, your phone stays silent.

It’s better this way. All you want to do is rot away on your couch, staring at the TV with unseeing eyes until it’s an acceptable time to go to bed. Maybe it won’t take you hours of lying in the dark to fall asleep tonight. Maybe it won’t remind you of a different kind of darkness in a different room, a room where the sound of waves against the shore and the deep breaths beside you lulled you to sleep.

You need to get yourself together, your inner voice whispers. Next week, you think. Or the one after that.

A knock on your door shakes you out of your thoughts and you pad over, expecting to be met with the Chinese takeout that you had ordered in hopes of fueling your appetite at least a bit with the prospect of comfort food. Absentmindedly, you note the surprisingly short delivery time. You barely look up as you swing the door open, busy fiddling with your purse to extract a few dollar bills.

After finally managing to pull them out, you face the doorway. A greeting dies in your throat.

Familiar deep brown eyes burn into yours, framed by the face that you wish you’d forget but can’t. The short brown hair, the clean shaven jawline that you can still feel underneath your fingertips, the memory all too fresh in your mind. He looks tired, you think, and instantly scold yourself for knowing him well enough to even notice.

The seconds tick by as you motionlessly stare at him, blinking slowly, your mind running a mile a minute. Why is he here? He can’t be here. Are you making this up? If so, things are far worse than you had thought.

He clears his throat, shifting his weight uncomfortably. It’s probably the least sure of himself that you’ve ever seen him.

“Hey,” he murmurs, his hand twitching like he almost reached out to you but changed his mind. “Can I- can I come in?”

You regard him for a moment longer. The sound of his voice makes him appear more real, and the fog in your head slowly clears. He’s alive. He’s here. In front of your door. Alive and well. Your emotions boil up inside of you.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! You think you can just show up here after months and ask if you can come in? I thought you were… I thought…”

Your voice betrays you, breaking at the sharp sting of pain in your chest that you’ve fruitlessly tried to suppress and the feeling of your throat closing up. Tears spill over and you furiously wipe at your cheeks, determined to keep some semblance of dignity.

“I know,” Dave breathes, defeatedly. “I’m so sorry. Please let me explain.” His hand reaches towards you again. You shy away from his touch and an expression of hurt ripples across his face. “Please, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Your voice only trembles a little as you snap at him. After another look at his face, you eventually step aside and jerk your head towards your living area. You briefly think about how messy the place is, for how many weeks you didn’t have it in yourself to clean up. You can’t bring yourself to care. Seeing him walk through your flat again after being so painfully aware of his absence leaves you almost dizzy. You take the opposite ends of your couch, both of your bodies stiff, careful not to touch one another.

“Okay,” you sigh. “Explain.”

So he explains. How he received a call, barely thirty minutes after he stepped into his house, with a mission that was too perfect of an opportunity to pass it up. There had been no time to let you know, the risk too high to use his personal phone once he started working.

He goes back to the persona that took up half of his life for so long, the identity that is no more, the man that fell down a watchtower and was washed away by the sea. Body never found. At least that’s what everyone who knew this man thinks. Everyone who knew him, but not Dave York.

He’s been thorough with it, with the most important mission he’s ever done. There are no loose ends, no one who could trace things back to the real him.

It took longer than he had anticipated and he kept laying low afterwards, until he could be absolutely sure that no one would be looking for him anymore.

He doesn’t think that he’ll ever get rid of the worry, ever stop looking over his shoulder, but rationally, he knows that he did it. He got out.

Then he had talked to Carol, let her know that he wants a divorce. It had been- easy, almost. She didn’t cry, didn’t scream at him, just nodded like she had known this day would come for a long time. He thinks that she almost seemed relieved, in a way.

Your eyes had been glued to his face since he started speaking. Tears are silently running down your cheeks.

“I know that I should have found a way to contact you. I didn’t-” He sighs, running a hand over his face. “I didn’t know what to do. I was so worried that someone would find out about you. I never wanted to hurt you, you have to believe that.” He knows that he looks a mess, that his desperation to make you understand is written all over his features.

Every day that he didn’t call you, he knew that he was hurting you. He tried justifying it with himself, that having you think he left you was better than risking somebody coming after you. It never gave him much comfort.

It’s even worse, now that he sees the damage he had done. You have lost weight, deep circles have formed under your eyes and you move like you’re barely holding yourself together. He saw the panic on your face when he tried reaching for you at the door. No matter what he had done to you in the past, you always sought out the safety of his touch afterwards. Until now.

“Please believe me,” he whispers.

You study his face for what feels like a lifetime. Tears are glistening on your lashes. You look so tired, so defeated that it makes his heart ache.

“You’ve done it?” you finally ask. Your voice is a quiet thing, barely bridging the distance between the two of you. A flicker of hope rings with it. “You’re safe now?”

He nods silently, fighting the urge to gather you in his arms, to promise you that he’ll always be there from now on. A small smile curves your lips upward as you mirror his nod, like you’re trying to let this new reality sink in.

“That’s good,” you murmur.

You lean forward, your fingers tentatively closing around his fist that’s clenched tightly against his thigh.

Hope flickers inside his chest. He can taste the three words that he’s been wanting to say to you for far too long on the tip of his tongue. He’s not going to, not right now, not today. But someday soon, he thinks that he might.

Two years later

“Bye girls, say hi to your mom and Matt from me,” you smile, embracing each of them in a tight hug before they dash out of the door, a jumble of giggles and excited chatter. Dave trails behind them with a grin on his face, pecking your lips and calling out for them to slow down.

Your heart is full, overflowing with love for this family that, against all odds, has become yours. You watch Dave usher his daughters into the car and push the doors closed behind them, the smile still on your lips. As you walk back into the house, your eyes linger on the thin silver band adorning your ring finger.

It’s still new, still an unexpected sight when you catch it on the edge of your periphery. It’s the tangible proof of you being the happiest you’ve ever been.

Things had been rough at first, after Dave came back to you. You understood why he handled the situation the way he did, but it took you a long time to trust that he wouldn’t disappear again. To believe that he left his old life behind, that he chose you. But he did.

You busy yourself with cleaning up the inevitable chaos that having the girls over for Dave’s days with them always creates. It’s not the life that you would have expected yourself to have a few years ago, but right now, it feels like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

A few minutes later, your phone pings with a message from Dave.

Be back in 15. I expect you naked and on your knees waiting by the door.

You bite your lip, heat building inside you with rapid speed. Your phone pings again.

Don’t disappoint me.

Fuck. Wetness is already gathering between your legs as you jump into action.

The car door slamming shut has never sounded so good before. You’re listening intently, catching Dave’s heavy footsteps on the stairs and the jingle of his keys before the door opens beside where you’re kneeling.

You look up at him from your place on the floor, watching the mix of smugness and adoration on his face as he takes in your position. A shudder runs through you and your nipples harden under his demanding gaze. He steps closer, caressing your cheek.

“Such a good girl… my obedient little wife, aren’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” you whimper, the coherent thoughts slowly draining from your brain and craving more of his touch, more of him.

He smiles down at you, his eyes glinting predatorily. You’ve come to know this shift into the darkness since you first met, but it’s more playful these days, not laced with the urgency that possessed him back then. Still, he gets intense, especially after having the girls over forces you to keep things rather tame during those days.

“Show me your ass, face on the ground, come on,” he demands coldly.

You obey without question, turning around and bending forward, pressing your upper body down to the floor and presenting your backside to him. He lands a couple of slaps on your cheeks and you flinch, moaning out softly. Your pussy already feels slick with arousal.

“What do you say?” he asks, rubbing his hand over the heated skin.

“Thank you, sir,” you whisper.

Another slap hits you. “Do you know what you did to deserve this?”

You wrack your brain for a few moments, but come up blank.

“I- no, sir.” Your voice is small and breathy, your body bracing for the impact of his hand again.

He chuckles. “Nothing. I just felt like it.” Another slap. “And you’re mine to do as I please, isn’t that right?” Your thighs are trembling. You’re so wet that it feels like you’re dripping onto the floor.

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“You know what’s the most fucked up about this?” He crouches down beside your face and strokes your cheek softly, smiling down at you. “How much you whore like it.”

He straightens up and heads for the stairs. “Bedroom, come on.”

You don’t even try standing up, knowing that he won’t let you, and crawl behind him, which earns you another chuckle and a “good girl”.

The image of your naked form on your knees behind Dave who hasn’t removed a stitch of clothing sends another bolt of arousal through you. You’re desperate for him to touch you.

He roughly lifts you up and manhandles you onto the bed until you’re spread out underneath him.

“So…” He grabs your wrists and holds them over your head, pressing them into the mattress. “These stay right here, you hear me? Don’t move, or do I have to restrain you?”

You pout at the prospect of not being allowed to put your hands on him, but obediently hold them in place when he eases his grip on you. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

He grins down at you. “I know you will. Got my girl well trained, haven’t I?”

His words make your pussy clench around nothing and your “yes, sir” comes out in a whimper.

He leans in closer, spreading your thighs wider with his body and you force yourself not to buck your hips up against him. The craving for any part of him to touch you, for any kind of friction, is overwhelming.

“Please, sir,” you whisper. Your pleading eyes hold his cold gaze as he’s leaning over you.

“Patience,” he growls. “Open your mouth.” A disapproving click of his tongue. “Wider.”

You part your lips as widely as you can, sticking your tongue out and trying not to squirm against the sheets. He remains motionless for a few seconds, taking in your desperate state with a cruel smirk on his face.

“Fuck,” he murmurs, more to himself than to you. Then he tips his head forward and spits into your waiting mouth. The filthy feeling of his saliva coating your tongue and filling your mouth almost drives you insane with want and you groan, shifting against his thick thighs between yours, but to no avail. You wait for his next command, your mouth still wide open, not daring to swallow before he tells you to.

But no command comes. Instead, he reaches up to press two fingers down on your tongue, dipping into your mouth and smearing your combined spit over your face. The silver band on his ring finger is cool against your skin and you shudder, loving the reminder that he’s really, entirely yours.

Your body feels like it’s burning up, your hands are twitching and you’re desperate to move them, to touch him, to do something, but you hold yourself still until he finally tells you to, “swallow, baby.”

He smiles and finds your lips for a surprisingly soft kiss, cupping your face in his hands. “You’re being so good,” he tells you gently. “Are you having fun?”

“Yes,” you smile, chasing his lips when he pulls back, but he tuts at you and you fall back against the bed, huffing out a breath. “Just… please.”

“Patience,” he reminds you, the softness gone as quick as it came. “Don’t make me tell you again.”

You bite your lip, but stay put while he stands up to finally start removing his clothes. He’s agonizingly slow with it, holding your hungry gaze while he unbuttons his shirt in unhurried movements that make you want to tear the clothes off his body yourself.

You drink him in, first the sight of his broad chest and his strong shoulders, then his muscular legs, and finally, making your mouth water and your pussy burn with desire, his cock.

As much as he keeps taunting you, you know him well enough by now to be able to tell that he’s just as desperate for you as you are for him, even when he’s trying to conceal it. He returns to you, sitting back on his haunches and drinking you in, until after what feels like hours, he finally reaches out and swirls his fingers through the wetness between your legs. It’s a barely there touch, but you’re so painfully turned on and sensitive that you let out a gasp.

“So fucking wet,” he marvels and applies the slightest bit of pressure to your clit. It’s enough to make you see stars and you’re sure that he could make you come just from this. But, of course he won’t. He laughs at your reaction and retracts his hand to lean forward instead until he’s on top of you again, your legs spread wide to accommodate him and his cock slides through your folds.

He lowers his head to nip and suck at the skin under your jaw, one hand toying with your breasts and your hardened nipples. Your whole body is buzzing, he’s so close and it’s so much, but it’s not enough, not enough, not enough.

“What do you want, baby?” he asks, peppering your skin with kisses and rocking his hips in small movements that make his cock nudge at your clit over and over.

“F-fuck me, please, I’ll do anything,” you beg, your body still obediently stretched out underneath him with your arms above your head. He nods wordlessly and reaches down to position himself at your soaking entrance.

“Be as loud as you want,” he growls against your neck. “I missed making you scream.”

He bites at your skin at the same time as his thrust into you punches the air from your lungs. You scream, just like he asked, as he hammers into you, his lips still attached to your neck, sucking and biting at the delicate skin. The sensation of finally being filled by him, of feeling the stinging stretch of the way he forcefully pounds into you is like heaven. You think that you’re talking, crying out a mix of his name and sir and please over and over.

You’re flying towards your climax and judging from his groans, he can already feel you tighten around him.

“Go ahead,” he groans, before you’ve even strung the words to ask for permission together in your mind. “Come for me, sweetheart.”

He pinches your nipple just once and the additional sensation is enough to send you flying, your pussy clenching around his cock and drenching him in your arousal as you scream out his name. It’s pure bliss, and you never want to come down.

“That’s it,” he growls, not slowing his movements, fucking you through the aftershocks until you’re a whining mess beneath him, “that’s my perfect girl, fuck-”

You force your eyes open to smile up at him, taking in the wrecked expression on his face, relishing in the knowledge that you’re the one to make him look like this. You just really wish you could touch him.

“P-please, can I-” you’re breathless, barely able to speak, and jerk your head towards your hands above you.

“Yeah,” he rasps, his thrusts somehow growing even more forceful, “do whatever you want, baby.”

Your hands fly towards his body, touching every inch of his skin that you can reach, nails digging into his back and fingers grasping at his hair, pulling him closer, closer, until he’s everywhere, all you can see, all you can taste, all you can feel.

“Fuck!” he swears, grabbing your shoulders and holding you in place as he’s pounding into you, “give me another one, touch yourself, come on-”

His thrusts are becoming erratic and you know that he’s close to his own climax. It only takes a few swipes of your fingers over your clit until you’re coming again, soaring through the heights of your pleasure, your whole body trembling with your release. Dave’s hips stutter and he comes with a shout, pulsing inside of your fluttering pussy until finally, you both still.

He drops his sweat-slicked forehead against your chest, peppering your skin with kisses and engulfing you in the warmth of his arms. After cleaning you up, he moves your bodies until you’re tucked against his side, one arm thrown across his chest while he holds you close.

You’ll never get tired of the feeling of his naked body against yours, of the way he feels like he was made for you. By now, you can admit that he had always felt like this.

“I love you,” he says, lips moving against your hair.

You press your face deeper into his neck. “I love you.”

It’s easy, now. Words that you say every day.

…and i love YOU, thank you for reading! 🤍 if you liked this, a reblog or a comment would absolutely make my day.

#janas fics #the dress series #dave york #pedro pascal #pedro pascal fandom #pedrostories #pedro pascal fanfiction #dave york fanfiction #dave york smut #dave york x reader #dave york x you #dave york x female reader #dave york x f!reader

[ladykailitha]

Icarus Part 8

Hey, guys! The plot is plotting and coming along. I've just had a rough week last week and really didn't get too far on any of my works but the omegaverse sequel. So I'm chomping through my backlog (which is a good thing, I promise, that's what it's for).

In this Steve has to deal with the not fun side of the music business, but Eddie is there to soothe the way.

Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3 Pt 4 Pt 5 Pt 6 Pt 7

****

Steve chewed on his nail as he looked over the contract for the tour they were going to be headlining for Corroded Coffin. It came with their usual anonymity clause.

The part Steve wasn’t sure about was the part where the guys and his roles on the tour to hide that they were part of the band.

Spence being a medic made sense. He was medically trained as an EMT and kept up on his certification even after they made it big.

Simon’s made sense too. Eddie had seen him as a roadie that night, so him continuing that was fine.

It was Shane and Steve’s that concerned him. He didn’t want to PA for The Fallen because then Dustin and his friends would want things like backstage passes and VIP tickets.

Things Steve didn’t want to do because that would get them too close to the action and he worried they would notice that they wouldn’t see Abbadon and him in the same place and put two and two together.

Shane’s role was that of an advance person. Someone that rode into town first to make sure everything was as it supposed to be according to their rider.

Steve loved Shane with all his heart, but he couldn’t think of a worse “job” for him.

Plus it wouldn’t make sense because he wouldn’t be on the same bus as the rest of the band.

He called up Robin.

“Hello!” she chirped her greeting. “What’s up?”

“I’m looking over the contract and they want me to PA and Shane to advance.”

There was silence on the line for a moment or two before Robin said, “I’m on it. I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks, Celeste,” Steve teased.

He was not surprised when she just hung up on him. He chuckled.

His best friend was working on getting Shane and him in the right roles. On their last tour, Shane and Simon had been roadies and Steve had been an assistant like Robin.

Steve looked back at the contract with a sigh. He set it aside and pulled out his notebook. He couldn’t write lyrics or music, but he could write down his thoughts and feelings.

He wrote about the fear of being discovered, of showing his true self. What people would think of him and his friends. Everyone said that metal fans were among the most welcoming in the industry.

Unless you looked like someone they didn’t approve of. Steve couldn’t remember which 1980s rocker it was, but the dude was papped outside a store waiting for his wife in cargo shorts and Birkenstocks and the internet had a fucking field day.

Like how dare he go to the store not dressed all in black and leather and chains everywhere.

It was no doubt the biggest reason no one had cottoned on to him and his friends being The Fallen. Because why would four preppy guys be the members of the hottest rising metal band right now?

He flipped to a different page and began writing about finding love where you left it. Eddie had always had Steve’s heart, ever since they were thrown together when a freak earthquake that was caused by nearby fracking destroyed almost half the town they grew up in.

Eddie ran the local DND club which Dustin and his friends had been a part of.

Steve had managed to keep all of them safe and Eddie, who had been unsure of the former jock had warmed up to him by the time they had come through at the end of the week long ordeal.

Steve had fallen in love with Eddie’s sense of humor, his dimpled smile, and doe brown eyes.

So he wrote about that too.

By the time Robin had called back he had written so much his hand was cramping.

“Hello, hello!” he greeted warmly.

“Hey,” Robin said. “So I talked it over with their lawyers and ours and I think we’ve go the solution.”

“Hit me with it,” Steve said.

“Right so we have Shane assisting with me,” she said. “He doesn’t have anyone really close to him who would ask for favors and shit, or at least not ones he wouldn’t gleefully tell to fuck off.”

Steve sighed in relief. “That’s good.”

“You were a little trickier,” Robin admitted. “But then I remembered you picked up a couple of CPR certifications in the past and got them to make you medic too. You just have to take the refresher courses while we’re in the studio.”

Steve chewed on his thumb. He had wanted to be an EMT before he met Spence and saw how much it took out of him.

“Wouldn’t it look bad if two medics suddenly vanished for two hours every night?”

Robin chuckled. “You’re assigned especially to the band. So you can’t be called during a performance. I do think of these things you know.”

Steve sighed with relief. “I know you do, I just worry.”

“Worry wart,” she teased. “It’ll be fine. You just have to keep it in your pants while on tour because an EMT dating a rockstar is going to be suspicious as hell.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “You mean like every other tour we’ve been on?”

“Only this time,” she said, voice dangerously low, “you’ve got temptation in the form of one Eddie Munson, the man you’ve been pining over for literal years.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve groused. “Am I at least allowed to be seen with Eddie you know, considering we are friends?”

Robin sighed dramatically. “I guess. Just try to keep the PDA to a minimum please.”

“I promise.”

This was going to a very long three month tour.

****

Jim Hopper was a former Marine and he looked it. He was built like a tank with a grizzled appearance and cigar tucked between his teeth. Simon thought that he thought Hopper scared the enemy off just glaring at them and Steve privately agreed.

He was there for two reasons. To deprogram their stage persona and to brush Steve up on his emergency medical training.

Actually they all were learning because it was it interesting. Simon and Shane didn’t need to pay attention for certification, but they did anyway.

“How long do you guys plan to be in the studio this week?” Hopper asked. “I need to know if I need to have someone else pick up my daughter from the airport.”

“They want us to have at least eight hours in the studio a day,” Shane explained. “They want us to get as much done as we can before Corroded Coffin goes on tour so they can at least release a single or two.”

Hopper nodded. “Then I should be fine. She’s a fashion designer in New York and the fashion house she works at is sending her out here to intern at their LA branch.”

“That’s awesome!” Shane said. “Maybe while she’s here we can fan her design our costumes for the new tour.”

Hopper shook his head. “As long as it paid. This internship sure ain’t.”

Robin threw her arms in the air. “Fine! I’ll see what the budget is for that and get back to you.”

Hopper chuckled.

“They have you wrapped around their fingers, girly.”

Robin smirked. “Don’t I know it.”

****

That night Steve called Eddie up.

“Hey, baby,” he cooed.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Eddie greeted back. “How did today go? It was first day with the deprogramer, right?”

Steve curled up on the sofa and tucked his feet under him. “It was okay. He’s a bit scary, but apparently he has a daughter Dustin’s age.”

“The butthead will be pissed he missed that,” Eddie chuckled.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed warmly. “She’s really pretty, too.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Suzie’s a great girl. But we all know here parents aren’t going to let her marry someone ‘outside the faith’ as it were.”

Steve chewed on his thumbnail. “Yeah. I was hoping with them both going home for the whole summer would break them up.”

Eddie scoffed. “It’s good thing talk and text is included in mobile plans these days unlike in early days of yore when mobile plans made you pay for every text message and long distance calling, otherwise their cell phone bills would be through the fucking roof.”

“Tell me about,” Steve huffed. “And he’s going to spending the last week of vacation in Utah with her.”

“Eeee,” Eddie said with a grimace, “is it bad of me that I hope her parents scare him off?”

“Maybe a little,” Steve admitted. “But I just want him to be happy, you know?”

Eddie let out a long drawn out sigh. “Yeah. So you guys got the contract all figured out?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Steve muttered. “It’s going to be hard being in the studio and taking EMT course to pretend to be medical personnel. Well not really pretending. Both me and one of the other band members have training. Me with being a lifeguard for awhile there and them with being an EMT. But it feels wrong somehow.”

“Is there something else, some other role you can fill?” Eddie asked after a moment or two of silence.

“Not according to Robin,” Steve groused. “She says it’ll be fine and no one will figure it out. And I trust her. Her plans have gotten us through two tours already, one even being overseas...”

“But you’re still worried because I’ll be on the road with you?” Eddie asked gently.

Steve threw his head back and groaned. “God that sounds so horrible of me.”

“Hey, hey,” Eddie admonished. “It’s not. It’s an extra variable you didn’t have to factor in before. But we will make it work.”

“I think the biggest part is that Eddie and Steve have to remain friends until after the tour so everyone doesn’t connect Steve with Abbadon,” he said. “God that sounded pretentious. Talking in third person like some Chad.”

Eddie giggled. “Maybe a little, but I got what you mean.”

“Don’t laugh!” Steve whined. “My dick is going to fall off from the sheer amount of blue balling that’s going to be happening on this fucking tour. Well not fucking actually. I’m going to be in hell!”

“And people tell me I’m dramatic,” Eddie said laughing out loud. “What do you normally do on tour?”

Steve sat up and stretched his feet out in front of him on the sofa. “It’s complicated.”

Eddie snorted. “I don’t doubt that, sweetheart. Are we talking NDAs or fucking with the masks on?”

Steve laughed. “It’s more like no phones, dark room, no staying the night. That sort of thing.”

“I’m betting there aren’t many that agree to that.”

“More than you’d think,” Steve snorted. “Groupies gotta fuck.”

“We’ll figure something out. I won’t let those pretty balls go blue,” Eddie said with a snicker.

“Help me, Eddie-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” Steve cried in a sharp falsetto.

Eddie laughed. “You’re a menace, Steve Harrington.”

“And you love it.”

Warmth just flooded Eddie’s tone when he replied, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Eds.”

****

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#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #rockstar steve harrington #rockstar eddie munson #rockstar au

[abelle25125]

a comprehensive list of all things sus about Adrian Graye

ok so i have been slightly obsessed with the illusion coven head since his introduction in hunting palisman, but now that we’ve had an episode with him as an actual character there are some things about him that feel super suspicious and i’m going to try my best to explain them here

1:Despite being the head of the illusion coven, We never actually see him cast any illusions. 

When we’re first introduced to him when he tries to trick the school into joining coven he mentions that the illusion of him was cast by a different coven scout

“Tom, that Adrian illusion was lacking a certain, hmm? You get me?”

and given his need to yell for the illusion to end rather than just stopping it himself, we can assume that he wasn’t in control of the illusion in that scene.

 We can probably apply this logic to his later scene with the fake willow and Belos  - as we’ve seen in the past that illusions need a constant focus when cast by a witch, and he seemed a bit too concentrated on bullying his actors and kicking hunter in the back of the head to be casting anything.

Him snapping his fingers and the Belos illusion vanishing could either be read as him dispelling the illusion or calling of the two Guards behind it, but given the lack of evidence towards the spell belonging to him, im choosing to believe the latter. 

this leads us onto the next few points:

2: He casts spells without drawing a circle and 

3: the only two times he draws a spell circle, he does so while holding/using his magical amplifier  

in his first scene after Gus calls out the fake Adrian, we see him hand off his coffee cup and then in a poof of smoke - appears next to and grabs Gus. you cant touch illusions, so neither of those were fake, which means that, without drawing a spell circle he’s teleported across the room. 

We only see him draw a spell circle twice in the entire episode, the first time he literally uses the magical amplifier to draw it, and the second time he’s holding it. 

now these first three points could just be explained by saying “oh he’s the coven head he’s super powerful at illusions he probably doesn't need to concentrate or draw circles or whatever” but then even ignoring all that there’s -

4: this man is waaay to focused on the looking glass ruins 

Graye was sent to Hexside by Belos to brand the children, but the moment the illusion stuff kicks off and he sees the looking glass ruins he abandons that plan to hunt down gus and figure out where the graveyard is. His reasoning is that the galderstones would be good gifts for belos, but are they worth abandoning his mission for? 

the reasoning could just be that he’s figured that the branding mission was a bust and hes in the panic of ‘i need to please my boss so he doesn’t kill me for failing so bad’ and wants to make it up for him, but then why does he seem to be happier when he sees that the galderstones are intangible 

either way - this is not the face of a super confident person who has everything under control

The looking glass ruins have come up a few times now in relation to the EC, and based on how good TOH is at setting up plot lines - it feels like they’re building it up to be more important than it seems. 

then of course theres the one that a bunch of people are talking about 

4: He got his ass handed to him by Gus’ memory bubble

that shit fully incapacitated him, like he was still knocked out , fully catatonic later on, like - not even hunter got knocked down by this and he’s gone through some shit  - and Graye’s comments about bad memories feel way to prominent to just be a passing comment.   

Theres been a fun trend of all the coven heads being ironic in some way , a bard with stage fright, a plant head who loves killing ect; so having an illusionist who’s been lying about something to get where he is today could be really fun 

so whats up with this guy? lets figure it out- yeah he’s a basilisk 

- similar fangs, tail and :3 face

- similar hair styles

- same blue teleportation magic 

- including the inspector from the first day we’ve only seen 4 of the 5 basilisks

- Basilisk number 4 even has the same hair squiggle as Graye

theres kinda just a weird amount of evidence supporting this theory, it’s probably not true, and if it is, probably wont have a lot of plot relevance, but i cant help but think theres something else going on with this guy. He’s the only coven head who’s showed up by himself in an episode so far, and there’s just a lot of details and potentially foreshadowing stuff happening around him. 

this ended up being way longer than i planned so kudos on reading all the way through

#THIS WAS SO MUCH LONGER THAN I PLANNED OH NO #hi im slightly obsessed with this guy #literally the moment my arm healed i started drawing him (and then i injured my arm again but dont worry about that) #and then i stopped mid drawing to make this whoops #adrian graye #adrian graye vernworth #the owl house #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers #toh theory #basilisk theory #man i dont really make original posts that much this felt weird #long post

[subastian-swallows]

HLC ROMANCE — WHAT WE DESERVED

Ominis Gaunt — Head Empty, Thoughts

This has been requested by the lovely @tinaexe and obviously NEEDED! Like the Sebastian one, I feel like as a fellow BioWare fanatic — romance is my forte, in games! Ominis is a little harder as most will be based on what if’s, as unlike Seb, we don’t fully get a developed relationship with him in the game. (We kind of are friends at the end?) So because of this, we only truly see him expanded through Seb’s quest line.

So, let us begin at the beginning:

If you decide to be in Slytherin, you meet Ominis in the Common Room. I actually really love this interaction! I think it’s a nice way to set him up as a character, but would have loved more dialogue options — a big thing the game failed on. I understand it wasn’t their aim, but more dialogue, more choice, would make relationships develop more and make your own character feel more real. I think the only bad thing about this interaction, is that he is too sweet straight away (HERE ME OUT LOL) Ominis comes off as someone who is very picky with his friends, I would have loved to have him more indifferent here — just for a lovely enemies to lovers type thing. Think Morrigan from DAO but more tame…way more tame lmao. (This is just me, tbh it fits his character that he’s kind. I also like the idea that he’s extra kind because of how he grew up — but easily snaps if upset) If you aren’t meeting him here, it would also be DADA! I like the idea that he would make fun of Sebastian losing here, perfect opportunity for romance points — the curiosity of you beating Sebastian would win points with him for sure. Flirty-ish dialogue could be added here!

Now, I’ll do gifts first this time — mainly because we don’t really spend any time with Ominis lmao, so from here, apart from some quests like the scriptorium etc will be my interpretation! With gifts for Ominis! I like the idea of him being a sweet tooth, so the idea of being able to buy sweets from Honeydukes would have been so neat for this. (This would the small relationship point add on.) for bigger gifts, I like the idea of him being into more refined artefacts! Like interesting things you find on your journeys. Think:

Sculptures/art type stuff: x20 romance points

Flowers: x10 romance points

just for fun lmao — dark magic artefacts: -30x romance points

Unlike Seb, Ominis should be harder to romance! I stand by the idea, that he is hesitant and feels more complicated when it comes to love. Considering his upbringing, bringing down the walls is the first step! This is where more dialogue plays into part, remembering things that are brought up later — a big bonus to romance points!

Now interesting idea, re-meeting Ominis in Hogsmeade! I think with an Ominis romance for it to work alongside the plot — it would be mostly through Sebastian. (Drama for all those that love both — me everyday battling my inner demon of wishing to romance anyone else, but Alistair in DAO!) I like the idea of him interrupting your visit with Sebastian and perhaps helping alongside you and Sebastian with the troll! Would have been really neat to see more action from him. Flirty dialogue could be added, but it would be met with a flustered/confused Ominis.

This is where we linger from the quest line a bit, because well let’s be honest, Sebastian would never let Ominis know he’s taking you to the restricted section. So, this is where I kind of make it up. I think a small quest would work here with Ominis OR simply another one on one conversation. This could be where you learn a little more about him, if you picked the right dialogue OR you could upset him. I think a big part of this game would have benefited with a main character that had more choice. Even in Mass Effect you get two options, sometimes three — same with Dragon Age Inquisition, but the main character still feels more real, simply because of the choices! A quest for Ominis here, could be anything really, maybe he’s in the library and needs help with something or you find him in the DADA tower needing help etc.

Undercroft, baby! Here is the thing, I love the idea of Sebastian still taking you here — but like Sebastian’s one, Ominis should have caught you in the act! I would have loved to have him pissed off and you have to work your way out, but actually getting the chance, rather than him automatically not believing you or giving a shit. This would be the first instance of where romance points matter, if you have enough he apologises and takes it out on Sebastian, if you don’t, he takes it out on the both of you and is grumpy.

Scriptorium. This is the quest. I would feel like this is the major quest to determine whether you are locked into a romance arc with Ominis and I could even agree that this would be where you’d lock in either of the boys! I’d like to think that this quest should have had more chances to side with either boy, depending on who you wanted and what you believed. It needed more banter, comforting dialogue where you could commend Ominis for helping you both and it would have been perfect for flirty dialogue — making him all flushed and shy. This would also be where he starts to see you as something more, if you pick the right dialogue. Perfect opportunity for Ominis to take care of you when Sebastian crucio’s your ass.

Relic moment. OKAY! Here would have been so perfect to show that your romance points mattered. Imagine that depending on how you’ve interacted so far, it would determine if he would trust you or not. He was too trusting at this point, TBH. He knows how Sebastian is, not you and so this felt a little strange to me. So the idea, that at this point your romance points mattered, to determine if you had to curse him would be HUGE. Because if you had to curse him, I’d love to see it be a huge factor that he can’t be end goal. By this point, I think you also have to be completely against dark magic and Sebastian using it. This would be big points for Ominis’ romance.

Conversation about Sebastian it’s Ominis! Worried! You express what is going on, the mine situation etc. This would be where Ominis is more shy and clear with his feelings without actually telling you, if your romance points are high enough. A gift from him? A ROSE?

Solomon quest, rip. Ominis would need you to be fully on his side here. You would need to have the opportunity to support him in this and with dialogue omg I hate it. Still agree with being able to stop Sebastian, having enough romance points with Sebastian, to the point of stopping him before he does anything — would tie into if you could complete Ominis’ romance. I like the idea that they tie in together here and you had to have thought about both throughout. Ominis and Sebastian are practically brothers, so it makes sense.

THE ENDING: You could only get a good ending IF you save Sebastian, I just think it’s very fitting. If you can stop Sebastian, I feel like Ominis can really open up. If you don’t I think he would be toooo heartbroken for a romance. If you succeed, you get the kiss and hug scene and he shows his appreciation for you — thanking you for being there for him RIPP

Bonus: Winter Ball like Sebastian — only agreeing to go with you if romance points are high enough. ALSO, I like the idea of a moment to stick up for him or he sticks up for you. BECAUSE CUTE.

I might have missed stuff and more definitely could be added, but this is the basic romance plot line — that could have worked. We just needed more dialogue, more options and more quests for him!

#hogwarts legacy #ominis gaunt #hogwarts #ominis x reader #ominis gaunt x y/n #ominis x you #ominis x mc #ominis hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy ominis #ominis imagine #ominis #hogwarts legacy mc #ominis gaunt x you #ominis gaunt x mc #ominis gaunt headcanon #ominis gaunt x reader

[musubi-sama]

“Classmates” Chapter 2

New town, new grad school, new friends, and your first time with a woman. A prequel to the previous chapter.

AN: I initially planned on a one shot, then just two chapters (this one and one more set the day before Ch 1), and now I have like an entire “plot” or at least a series of events over a few years of this couple’s life. It won’t be too deep or angsty, just fun and fluff.

Previous chapter | Next chapter

WC: 4.5k

Grad school was always a dream of yours. Getting in felt like a breeze. You found an adviser easily, the connections you had made in undergrad proved key. Same for the preparations to your initial proposal and interviews. You applied for several schools and programs, but you made it to your top choice.

That’s not to say you didn’t work hard; college wasn’t easy. But you thanked your lucky stars that one of your professors took you under their wing and offered to walk you through the process and be your key reference.

Today is orientation for your new lab. Meeting your adviser for the first time since spring of undergrad Senior year. You were joined by two new members and five returning students. You were the second to arrive, your other first-year lab mate immediately walking over to you, shaking your hand, and introducing themselves. You carry on friendly banter until you see another person walk in the door.

Shoko was wearing a simple blue cotton blouse, green tapered slacks, and classic black pumps. She carried a simple black leather tote on her shoulder. Her chestnut brown hair reached just past her shoulders, bangs swept across her forehead. She had simple makeup highlighting her face and a small freckle below her right eye.

But none of that really registered with you as the first thing you noticed was how her eyes looked directly into you, with a soft smile, and your heart skipped a beat while your stomach did somersaults. “Hey, calm down” you urge your brain.

She steps across the room to greet you. Because while normally you would at least try to take a few steps forward to meet a person halfway, your legs seem to have turned to jell o and your feet to concrete. You raise your arm in what feels like slow-motion as you extend a weak hand to Shoko and cough out a very weak “H-hi. It’s nice to me-eet you.”

“Aren’t you cute. Shoko Ieri. You must be new to town, haven’t seen you around before. At least, not in undergrad.”

“Oh, uh, no. I just arrived two days ago, I’m from the other side of the country, originally.”

And at that moment another few people entered them along with your adviser leaving your conversation clipped.

You spent the rest of the mixer mingling with your colleagues and getting to know them. By the end, you joined the lab’s Line chat group (which gives you access to Shoko’s contact. Not that you were going to send her any messages, you’re too paralyzed on what to say.)

As people started to leave, one of the PhD candidates invited everyone to a bar nearby for a post-gathering gathering. You manage to snag a seat next to Shoko who gives you a soft touch on your arm as you sit down. Goosebumps follow the touch and again your brain short circuits.

You spend the next two hours drinking cheap beer and easing out of your shell. Conversation flows particularly easily between the two of you as you share where you’re from and why you chose this university.

As people start to leave, you excuse yourself to use the restroom. When you return, you notice Shoko is missing and you feel a pang in your gut. You gather your bag to leave, giving those remaining a polite wave as you tell them you are looking forward to working with them starting next week.

As you exit, you see Shoko standing off to the side of the entrance smoking a cigarette, “Hi. Again.”

“Hi. Are you on your way out?” she pulls the cigarette away from her soft lips, blowing the smoke up and away from you.

“Yeah. Still not used to the time zone yet. See you on Monday!” you give a quick wave as you start walking down the street. You decide to walk the 30 minute trip home to clear your head.

--

After your first month of classes, you installed a few dating apps. When deciding on what types of potential partners you’d like to see, your finger hovers over the “gender” selections. You hesitate and wonder if you really are into women as a potential partner or are you just curious about what it’d be like in bed? You chicken out and choose “Male/AMAB”, sighing at your lack of confidence.

Once you’ve set up your profile, the app’s algorithm starts churning and you’re presented with options. You spend an hour swiping left on most profiles, although you find a few interesting potentials. You make a few matches, start chatting with one person you’re particularly interested in, and ultimately set up a coffee date.

During all of this, you’ve become friends with Shoko and she offers to sit across the coffee shop and keep an eye on things, to rescue you if it goes poorly. Fortunately it goes well, or at least, well enough that you agree to see him the following weekend for dinner. You give a quick wave as you leave, missing the small frown on her face.

--

It’s been six months and you’ve settled into a routine of research, classes, studying, seeing your boyfriend (typically just dinner at home and staying the night) a few days a week, and squeezing in coffee and dinner/TV/movies at Shoko’s. It’s a busy schedule, but you’ve managed to make things work.

As you’re approaching Spring Break, your adviser reminds you that there is no work expected to be done or deadlines immediately upon returning to classes. It’s a small gift for the first-year researchers. So to celebrate, one of your lab mates suggests a trip to the local bar to kick off a week of no academic responsibilities.

You send a text off to your boyfriend with the details. Agreeing to meet you at the bar since you were coming from two different directions, you lucked out and both arrived at the same time.

“Um, so, can we talk?” your boyfriend says as he approaches. You gulp at the uncomfortable and familiar line.

“Heyyyyy you made it!” one of your lab mates shouts as you enter the izakaya and approach the table. About two thirds of the lab is present, including Shoko. You light up seeing her as she takes a sip from her beer. You walk around the table and sit down with her. Shoko lifts an eyebrow and gives you a soft smile, “Glad you could make it, dear.”

The small pet name made your heart skip a beat. You were feeling a bit down because your boyfriend chose just before entering the izakaya today as the “perfect” moment to break up with you. The feelings were mutual, you weren’t a well-matched pair, but he was fine enough in bed, unoffensive, and was in the early stages of a good career. A smart, conservative choice for your future. But he was right, it just wasn’t going to work out.

“I realllllly need a giant beer.” you lean your head on Shoko’s shoulder and then quickly sit up. “Excuse me!” you shout as you try to flag down a waiter to take your order, placing your head back on her shoulder. Once the drink arrives, you lift your head off Shoko’s shoulder and take an impressively large swig.

“Let me guess…” Shoko trails off as she waits to see if you confirm her unspoken suspicions.

“I mean, the feelings are slightly mutual at least?” you take another large sip.

“If that’s what you need to tell yourself.”

“You’re right. But I don’t like this feeling.” Gulp.

“I’m not going to tell you there’s some perfect husband-material guy that is sitting at this table, or will walk in the door here right now. But I will tell you that I am here for you as your friend. A shoulder to cry on, to vent at, and/or let out your frustrations and anger on. Plus I can ply you with beer.”— Shoko winks— “Anyways, the tab is being covered by Mei Mei tonight.” Shoko knocks her glass with yours and you both take a sip. She keeps looking down, finally eeking out a small smile from you.

You start to perk up on your second drink, and are feeling confident and invulnerable halfway into your third beer.

Making easy conversation with your colleagues through the evening, you kept stealing glances and soft touches on your arm and your back from Shoko. Each time your stomach did somersaults and your brain floated through the clouds. No, that had to be the beer.

You excuse yourself to the bathroom, walking with a unique interpretation of steadiness. Upon returning, you sat down with all the grace of toddler.

“Let’s head out, yeah?” Shoko rests her hand on top of yours, giving your shoulder a nudge.

“Mmmm yeah. I want to just take a hot bath and collapse into bed.”

You start to drag yourself up and gather your belongings. Once outside, Shoko links her arm with yours as you both start walking in the direction of both apartments. The cool air helping you sober up. After a few blocks of comfortable silence…

“Why don’t you stay at my place tonight? I’ve got wine.” Shoko reaches her free arm around to fully embrace your arm linked with hers.

“Oh. Are…you sure?” You lift your head up off her shoulder and give her a inquisitive look. Crashing on her couch isn’t unusual; but as a result of your inebriation, you miss a subtle nudge and squeeze of your arm when you perked up.

Shoko just gives you a smile and she leads you down a side street and you make it to her apartment. You knock your shoes off and fall onto the couch as Shoko heads off to the kitchen. She rustles through the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, a pair of wine glasses, and a wine key.

“Becoming one with the couch, I like it” Shoko joins you on the couch, sitting the items on the table, beginning to open the bottle.

“Mmmmm my favorite.” You motion towards the bottle as Shoko pulls the cork out with a satisfying ‘pop.’

“Always for you, my dear.” she starts to pour a heavy pour for both of you. You take the offered glass and clink with a polite cheers. Taking a sip, you savor the taste while your eyes linger on Shoko’s neck as she leans back and takes a slow sip and swallow.

Shoko reaches for her phone to turn on some music. Lyrics you’ve never heard start playing, but you start to nod your head to the beats.

“So, tell me what happened tonight.” Shoko turns to look at you directly, one leg hanging off the couch, the other folded neatly under her. She puts a hand on your knee, and you turn to mirror her body.

“I don’t know why he picked now? I thought things were going so well. I mean, he wasn’t like amazing, but it was comfortable,” you take another sip. “Whatever. Honestly, it was too hard juggling everything.” you take another sip and finish off your glass.

Feeling lightheaded from the wine, you lean back against the arm of the couch. Shoko leans over and takes your glass and sets it on the table with hers. Returning to the couch, she places her hands on either side of your shoulders, leaning against the couch arm, knees next to your thighs, caging you in. You look up at her, spit catching in your throat as your stomach turns flips and releases a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

Your brain short circuits when a pair of soft lips ghost against your own. They come back around, this time making full contact as they press against yours. You release a small moan as you drink in the aroma of the tannins on her lips. The softness yet gentle pressure of Shoko’s lips on yours sends a shock through your spine.

“May I?” she pulls away, looking at you with a hooded gaze. You just nod slowly as you bring your arms up to her waist, Shoko leaning in for a second kiss. This time with more urgency, sliding her tongue along your lips, a silent request for entry to your mouth. You open slightly and she presses her tongue in through the gap.

Gripping her waist more, you pull Shoko into you as you give yourself into the embrace. Shifting her weight, Shoko sits on your thighs and her hands slide to cup your chin as she pulls your face closer, tongue still mapping your mouth.

“What-“ you break away from the kiss momentarily. “I don’t-um…” you trail off.

Shoko slides one hand from your chin and laces with your hand at her side.

“Do you trust me?” Shoko says while squeezing your hand. Her eyes flicker between your eyes, your lips, and further down. You nod your head. Your brain is swimming in lingering beer, some wine, and the heavy lust clouds hovering around the two of you, “Then please just relax and lay back.”

You hum in acknowledgment as Shoko leans in and her free hand slides down your neck and cups your breast. At the same time, her lips begin to kiss down the column of your neck, sending shocks of pleasure down your spine. You arch your back at the sensations. Starting to feel tension in your cunt building from the tension.

Shoko kneads your breast for a moment before reaching down to the hem of your shirt and pulling it over your head. She also makes quick work of your bra.

Leaning back down, she takes one of your nipples into her mouth, sucking lightly as her hand cups your breast at the base. She repeats with your other nipple, softly kissing a line between them as she moves over. A soft moan escapes your lips as you acquiesce to the touch.

You slide your hands up from Shoko’s waist along her sides and gingerly caress her covered tits, giving them a light squeeze. You feel a vibration at one of your nipples as Shoko releases a light chuckle and then moans into you. This jolt of pleasure joins the others zipping right down your spine into your core. Feeling your arousal continue to leak out, creating a pool in your panties.

You grind your hips to try and get some semblance of relief, but to no avail. Noticing your squirming, Shoko sits up, releasing your nipple with a light ‘pop’ and starts to loosen your pants.

“Is this okay?” she whispers as she works the button open and lowers the zipper.

“Please…” you whine.

Squeezing your thighs together in another attempt to relieve the building pressure. The fog is only building around you, threatening to suffocate your brain. You feel woozy, but in a wholly thrilling way. This is new, this is exciting, this is uncharted territory. You’ve wanted this, but you could never put the thoughts together to fully realize it.

Shoko lifts off of you to fully remove your pants and panties, leaving you fully exposed. “Come here” Shoko stands up and extends her arm to you. You grab it and stand up. She pulls you into her, wrapping her arms around you as your lips crash together, drinking in the lust. Shoko leads you to her bedroom in the back of her apartment. Not a molecule in your body wasn’t pushing you forward, craving more. More touch, more kissing, more unknown.

You fall backwards onto the plush duvet. The head of the bed covered in myriad pillows, both practical and decorative, you slide back so you are sinking into the soft pillows, somewhat propped up.

“Don’t blink,” Shoko bites her lip as she reaches for the hem of her shirt, rucking it up from her waist letting it pop over the swell of her chest, tossing it to the side.

Then her pants, slowly unbuttoning them and shaking her hips back and forth as she pushes them down and steps out.

Next, she turns around so you can see her plump ass split and wrapped by a simple blue lacy thong. She looks over her shoulder as she unclasps her bra and slides the straps off her shoulders. She uses one hand to grasp the side of the bra and drops the other arm to her side as she tosses it to the foot of the bed near you.

And finally, she slips her thumbs into the sides of her thong and bends over, giving you a stunning display of her ass as she pulls off her thong. The middle of it sticking momentarily in her cunt as her own arousal created a sticky mess. She tosses it right next to your head, draped over the headboard.

Watching the show unfold in front of you, you can’t help but let a hand drift between your legs, dipping into your trimmed pussy, circling your aching clit. You let out a moan when Shoko presents her ass to you and gasp when the final article of clothing lands next to you. Looking up, you see Shoko kneeling on the bed at your feet, slowly climbing up your legs.

Shoko grabs hold of your wrist and removes it from your core, holding your wet fingers up to her mouth. Sticking out her tongue, she languishes over your fingers, cleaning off every bit of your arousal.

“Mmmm, sweet,” she places your wet hand on her breast as she drags a finger along your folds. You reactively squeeze, moving your hand to roll her nipple in your grasp.

With a smirk, Shoko slowly inserts her middle finger into your sopping wet cunt. At the same time, she uses her thumb to rub your clit gently. Not wanting to overwhelm you in what is clearly your first time with a woman, Shoko gently slides her finger in and out while circling your aching bud.

Your hand having abandoned it’s duties to falling beside you, you gasp at the pleasure. The knowing sensation of someone who is treating your body with measured precision. Reflecting the same pleasure she’d used her entire adult life on herself. You let yourself be consumed by the feelings, brain stopping all other functions. Giving in to the lust, drowning in the touch.

“Shoooookooooo oh god please,” you rattle off nonsensical exclamations as the speed picks up. Shoko lays down next to you on her side. She drapes one leg across yours, lightly grinding her cunt against your thigh. Shoko adds a second finger to the pistoning.

Pressing needy kisses into the side of your neck, you turn your head to the side to capture her lips on yours. The kiss is rough, it’s full of tongue and movement. You continue to grind against Shoko’s hand as you near your high. Whimpering into the continued embrace, your free hand shoots up to your hair.

“Ah! Fuck, please! I can’t—“ You throw your head back as you orgasm hard into Shoko’s hand. Letting out a whimper that sounds more like a shout, you ride your high with clouded vision. Your hand flies from your hair to Shoko’s hand, clasping it tight as you jut your hips erratically.

Breathing heavily, you finally turn your head to the side and Shoko kisses the corner of your mouth, and then kisses away the tears leaking from your eyes. Slowly removing her hand from your sensitive core, Shoko brings her hand up to lick off your orgasm.

Coming down from your high, you push Shoko’s leg off of you and roll her onto her back. Moving yourself to between her legs, you tentatively reach your hand down to cup her bare folds. You gasp at the wholly familiar, yet new feeling on your hand.

Going back for a second touch, Shoko leans up on her elbows, “Baby, please don’t be shy.”

You pause for a moment and then refocus your attention on Shoko’s clit, gently rolling it between your fingers. Shoko arches her back at the sensation, pussy glistening and leaking.

You are encouraged by her reaction, so you take your other hand and spread her pussy open and inserting a finger gingerly. Sliding in, you feel a tingle down your spine with another sense of familiarity. You add in a second finger and Shoko begins to roll her hips against your ministrations.

Feeling more confident, you start to slide your fingers in and out of Shoko’s tight pussy. Trying to mimic the motions you’ve used on yourself and reading her face to draw out the best reactions, you adjust the speed and angle of your fingers until just right.

The room is filled with heavy panting, whimpers, needy whines, and the thick scent of arousal. You’re no longer feeling the influence of alcohol on your brain, but instead getting drunk on lust. You lean down to press a messy kiss on Shoko’s neck as she arches her back and releases a loud shout while you feel her orgasm pulse around your fingers and leak around you.

After a few heady moments, you pull your hand out, spreading your fingers and see the wet strings of her sticky arousal coating your fingers and dripping into your palm. Taking your turn to clean up your hands, you savor the sweet and tangy essence, letting out a moan as you swallow.

Shoko reaches up to you, cupping the nape of your neck, pulling you into her in a warm, tight embrace.

“First time, eh?”

Your words lost in your throat, you just nod.

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment since the day I met you.”

You lift yourself up and look straight into her eyes, your own expression in disbelief, “Really?”

“Mmm.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t really know what to do, but I really did love it. I-I think I want—” You pause to bury your head in your hands. Shoko gently grabs your hands so she can see you. You sit back on your heels and she sits up and gently wraps her legs around you.

“Don’t, no, don’t apologize. There isn’t an instruction manual attached to everyone’s genitalia, and,” she pauses to kiss your neck, “we don’t need to figure out what we are or what this was or anything in this moment. Let’s go take a bath, yeah?”

“Oka-y. Okay. Yeah. That’ll be nice,” you start to get off the bed but you wobble a little as you stand up.

“My little Bambi…” Shoko stands up and links her arm with yours as she leads you to the bathroom.

She starts the water in the over-sized tub and then starts rustling through the cabinets for towels, soap, and bubbles. You sit down on the lid of the toilet, bringing your feet and knees up.

“Bubbles?” she asks you.

“Bubbles,” you giggle back at her as she adds a bubble bar to the bath. You watch it start to cover the top of the water making it more opaque as the tub fills up.

Shoko disappears out the door and returns with a tray she fits across the tub, the wine bottle, and two wine glasses refilled.

“Hmm I think that’s enough water,” Shoko turns off the tap and she motions for you to take her hand. She steps in ahead of you and holds your hand for balance as you dip in, giving a soft moan to the searing warmth of the water.

Siting at opposite ends facing each other, you take a soapy hand to reach out for a glass and again share a gentle clink and take a sip. You both settle into a comfortable silence, still coming down from your respective highs. Your brain still in an unfocused fog, you’re just enjoying the moment to relax. Legs twisted around each other as you face Shoko in the peaks and valleys of bubbles.

Enjoying the view, seeing the swell of her breasts hovering in the edge of the bubbles and water. Shoko catches your gaze and returns the look, taking in your exposed skin.

“Can we do this again?” you ask suddenly, breaking the silence.

“A bath?”

“No. I mean, before that,” you start to blush, hoping it’s just from the wine and the hot water.

“Oh.” Shoko smirks, “I thought you’d be too tired tonight, but, sure.”

“I just meant like tomorrow or the next day or…” you trail off, blush deepening and spreading down to your exposed décolletage.

“You’re fun to mess with. I’d like to do it again, I’m sure we can find more time in the future.”

You hum in agreement and take a sip of your wine. You feel an overwhelming sense of relief that you felt were mutual. Back in undergrad, you were never sure if it was just a garden-variety crush on a celebrity (doesn’t everyone find them attractive?) or that your brain actually had an attraction to women and men.

You’ve never come out to your family or admitted any of this to them, never really receiving the emotional support you’ve wanted. But maybe Shoko could answer your questions once your brain solidified again.

But, you knew one thing. You were addicted. Your lust-drunk brain focused on the sensations from tonight and etched them into your memory. Maybe next time you’ll get that sweet nectar on your tongue right at the source. Maybe next time you’ll get smothered by her sitting on your face. Maybe next time you’d wrap your hands in her hair and—

You snap out of your daydream when you hear the tap of glass as Shoko pours more wine into her glass.

“Um, what are your plans for spring break?” you try to convincingly ask so as to divert your brain off it’s horny line of thoughts.

“Didn’t have any. Probably just watch trashy movies, drink wine, and pray my friends are charged up,” she knocks her leg into yours on the last statement.

“Huh?” you are caught off-guard at the insinuation of the likelihood of toys to play with. Maybe next time…?

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t have any plans, didn’t want to go anywhere this year. Besides, I need to start prepping my med school applications. What about you? Going home?” Shoko continues sipping her wine.

“No, no plans. Going home is too much of a hassle and there isn’t much for me there anyways. I planned to just sleep and become one with my couch.”

“Stay here, with me. I’ve got a big couch, and I think it’s missing an impression of you sunken into it.”

You choke on your wine, but Shoko just chuckles and finishes her glass. She offers to refill as she empties the bottle. You continue to soak and enjoy each others’ company until the bubbles have all popped and the wine is all gone.

Getting out, you towel off and dig through Shoko’s skin care shelf to apply a few layers of product. She offers you a spare (new) toothbrush and you put on a borrowed over-sized t shirt.

Climbing into bed, you feel uncomfortable and unsure with just laying there until Shoko wraps an arm around you and nuzzles her head into your neck with a nip from her teeth. You have a feeling you won’t be going to sleep just yet.

#jen の stories #jjk smut #shoko x reader #shoko ieri #shoko smut #bisexual #“classmates”

[xxbrightshadowxx]

How the hell did I learn about the 9th Amulet book through two brothers arguing in the backseat behind on a two hour plane trip from Arizona? I thought they were joking at first till I searched it up and it’s real and it’s coming out very soon. So after I learned that I decided to re-read the Amulet series up till 8 and decided to tell whoever is willing to read this my thoughts!

Clarification beforehand though, I do enjoy Amulet. It was one of my favorite pieces of media for a few years and even inspired me to create my own story similar to it. While I may come off a bit hatful and aggressive, I do like this series but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my fair share of problems with it

Books 1

So I’m going off the same rating scale that I use for movies so go check out my Trolls Band Together review to know what each rating means and just replace movie/film to with book. Anyways I give this book, 6/10. I enjoyed this book. This was the first graphic novels series I read and I was excited to know what happened next. I also loved how the robots and the robot house looked. I don’t have any problems with the first book. Primarily because it’s way too early to have any problems.

The reason why I rate it low though, is because while I enjoy it, it’s not my favorite. It didn’t do much to really impress me nor draw my attention. It did just enough to make me wanna see what happens next.

Book 2

With the second book I give it a 6.8/10 right between 6.5 and 7. Why? Well for starters I enjoyed the Elf plot line. To me, when I first read the series was much more interesting then the main one for some reason. This is the book where we meet Leon. Leon, for the most part was an interesting character. Not to mention we get some world building through him about the elf king and being a stone keeper.

Navin’s plotline, while useful to some degree, wasn’t my favorite. Of course it’s important but I was less invested than I should’ve. That might just have been a personal problem I have with Navin later in the series but we’ll get to that later.

My only problem with this is Luger. Now, Luger is a good villain and I found him intimidating when I first read the second book. I think my problem really stems from the fact that this is the only book where Luger gets to be a villain. This should be a book 3 problem but book 2 is where he is defeated.

Book 3

Book 3 was my favorite when I was younger and it still holds the place as one of my favorite amulet books in the series to this day. I give it a good 7.5/10. This book does a lot of things right in my opinion. I like the action sequences and the new information about Trellis backstory proving again that he is the most interesting character. I also found Rico and Enzo funny believe it or not. They are a fun addition to the party.

However, my problem was the robots. Miskit and Cogsly were just there most of the time. They didn’t really guide Emily like they were set up to be. I didn’t feel anything when they got captured. Which is not something you want your readers to feel when something bad happens. I also found Luger’s personality change strange. I expected him to be a bit more hostile and condescending after being defeated. Granted, you could argue it was the stone but still, it was odd.

Book 4

I have mixed feelings about this book. This is where certain problems that I have with Kazu start to show. First of all, I give this one a 7.5/10 as well. I was never sure if I should trust Max until the very end. I never understood Max. He was suspicious and I thought he had bad intentions some times and other times I thought for a moment maybe he did have good intentions for Emily.

I also like Alyson mostly because she felt much more real. She was fun and I liked her character. Leon, Rico, and Enzo have their moment, the prison break which I enjoyed reading. I also like the Elf racism while Trellis and Luger are at the prison. Granted, it’s brief but it’s to be expected and it does give some insight on what other people think about Elves. I also liked Vigo. I was glad to see another stone keeper on the good and he also came with more world building which I’m always glad to see.

However, Miskit and Cloglsy were both weak parts and I was confused about how everyone was dead and stone and Max’s agenda for a while. I had to re-read certain parts to fully grasp what was happening.

Book 5

Book 5 was a 7/10. I don’t have many thoughts. For one I am mad they split up the original party. Karen, Miskit, Cloglsy, and Leon felt like they were meant for more before they got shoved in the brook closet. Sure, Cloglsy is here with Navin but it isn’t much. I do enjoy seeing Navin and Alyson hanging out, that’s fun. Max’s backstory is sad..he tried helping his friend and her family from prison. Only for it to backfire horribly in his face and be thrown into prison for trying to be a good person. His hatred and need to revenge for his dead friend is such an interesting concept for a villain and he poses such a genuine threat and I love it.

Then there is the about the voice. I am not gonna lie, not a big fan of it. The reveal that the voice is the elf king felt odd and sort of out of place. I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about it.

Book 6

Max. Max, max, max. All I got to say is f-ck you, Kazu Kibuishi for screwing over such an interesting character. This book gets a 5.1/10. The utter and total whiplash I got when Max wanted to work with Trellis, Emily, and Vigo gave me migraines. There was no build up and it was so random. And his death, are the FUCKING kidding me. This just felt like a lazy way to write out a character. Max knew that Layra wouldn’t approve of his actions and that’s why he asked for forgiveness. Then he tried to justify with her and it’s such horse crap! No to mention, it was so fricking anticlimactic and just lazy!

I also wasn’t a big fan of Navin’s side plot. Also something reoccurring is that Emily is just there. She doesn’t push the narrative because she has no goals. She just does heroic stuff because she feels she has to. Not because she wants to. It makes her feel flat. Which is disappointing since she had potential to be great.

The reason why I don’t put this as a three is because the scene where they save the elves and Trellis announces himself to be the real king, is cool. Not to mention I liked Riva. She’s a character that had great potential. However this is not enough to save this book.

Book 7

Oh, firelight. You are the embarrassing sibling in the Amulet series. I give you 3/10. First off, one good thing I’ll say is I am glad we are continuing the theme of lost. Even if it feels weird, pacing wise. That’s it. That’s the only thing I really enjoy about this book.

First off I didn’t like Pil, Alyson, and Navin’s storyline. It was just there and it took up too much page time. Second, Gabilan. Oh, Gabilan. He was also just there. We get his backstory, he does some stuff and then he dies. He’s a plot device and while if you really think about it, everyone is a plot device, Kazu didn’t try to hide the fact that he is a plot device. Also the ending. TRELLIS. YOU ARE TELLING YOU DID EVERYTHING TO TRY AND STOP HER FROM BECOMING A BIRD! WHAT THE F—

Book 8

Where do I begin. First off, this book was a 0/10.

And now my problems. First off the si fi outer space plot like win Navin was so boring. Oh my god. I felt nothing. But that. That part was least of my concerns. My concerns was everything else. First of all, Trellis and Vigo got nerfed so easily that it annoys me. They stop the army and that’s fine, though they did it without trying. And that’s it for them. In the entire book. I have several issues with them shoving Riva, Trellis, and Vigo in the closet.

But my biggest issue is Emily and the void. First of all how the hell did she get out so easily. Was this even an issue if she just left without any problems any help. WHY DID SHE NEED NO HELP! If it was that easy to leave the void, why did it take people years to get out. What the fuck. Also what the fuck is with the future Emily bullshit?! TIME PARADOX ARE A THING KAZU. THERE IS A REASON NOT MANY PEOPLE DESL WITH TIME TRAVEL. Also who the hell is Moze’s dad?! Why does he have to her son?! Kazu, why?! You missed the mark by a landslide.

Also the elf king. WHAT. THE. FUCK. IT WAS SO FRICKING EASY TO DEFEAT HIM. JUST HAD TO TAKE OFF HIS DAMN MASK. TELL ME THIS. IF THE ELF KING WAS THAT EASY TO DEFEAT, WAS HE EVER A REAL THREAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?! NO! WE HAVE BEEN BUILDING UP TO THE ELF KING AS THR BIG BOSS SINCE BOOK 2 AND WE DEFEAT HIM IN THE MOST ANTICLIMACTIC WAS POSSIBLE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! NOW THE MAIN THREAT IS A BUNCH OF SHADOWS?! WHY?! WHY! AND IF YOU TELL ME THAT THAT ISNT WHAT BOOK 9 IS ABOUT IT STATES IN THE AMZON DESCRIPTION: “Emily finally understands the stone's power and what she must do to defend Alledia from the shadows.”

ALSO THE FACT THAT EMILY IS ALIVE SEEMS LIKE A NO BIG DEAL TO VIGO AND TRELLIS ALSO THEY JUDT LER HER LEAVE TO GO KILL A BUNCH OF SHADOWS ALONE?! ALSO OLD EMILY WAS THERE TO GIVE EMILY HER STAFF AT THE END. AGAIN, TIME PARADOXS ARE A THING KAZU.

Overall thoughts:

It’s obvious that Kazu Kibuishi wrote this story without a proper outline. What does that mean? It means Kazu didn’t know how he was going to end the story or the middle. He knew the beginning and instead of trying to figure out and plan the entire story, he wrote what he thought of right on the spot. When waverider comes out I will buy it and read it. I will also most likely rate it and write down my thoughts. Till next time though, if you actually took the time read this post and indulge in my thought process and ideas.

#amulet books #amulet #kazu kibuishi #emily hayes #Navin Hayes #prince trellis #Vigo Light #book review #this is a long post #when I’m passionate about something I talk a lot about it #max #ikol #waverider #ranty rant

[thunderboltfire]

Sera could be an example of how to make a terrible disservice to a character

An essay, by me.

I tend to be really cautious when the general public doesn’t like a video game character. Sometimes it’s just a specific aspect of them that tends to make people hate them - sometimes it’s even an unfortunate line, or a character doesn’t truly fit the setting, and even if they have very interesting, hidden side not many people get to see it. And sometimes just people jump on a bandwagon and hate for its own sake. I generally try to give characters a fair chance to get to know them.

That being said, I don’t really like Sera. I went through the full friendship route and throughout the majority of it, I felt that something’s off. It probably wasn’t the fact that her dialect wasn’t always well translated - she always seemed to stand out from the background, but not in the best way. I wondered what’s wrong exactly - she has some endearing qualities, she likes to have fun, she can pack a punch when needed. It bugged me for a long time, but finally, after thinking it through, I think I’ve got it.

The problem is twofold: one, her characterisation is inconsequential - and two, she doesn’t seem to fit the tone and overarching themes of DA:I.

Why do I think Sera was written in a way that doesn’t make her fit well into DA:I?

Well, what do we know about Sera?

She’s a great archer, she is skilled at guerilla warfare (especially urban guerilla warfare, if the Red Jennies’ general area of operation suggests anything), she’s an agent of a powerful (albeit decentralised) organisation, she’s a Robin Hood-esqe rogue and she’s all about having fun. That’s unfortunately where the problem in her characterisation begins. Sera sees the injustice and opposes it in many instances, but what she expresses as her main motive to joining the Inquistion is for the life to get back to what it was before the crisis, which may seem selfish on her part. She is usually acting rather consistently as a rebel to the established power dynamics, but she seems to know that she - or the Inquisitor, for the matter - doesn’t have the power to overthrow the current state of things. She craves change, but on her own terms. Her apparent conservatism (wanting for everything to be back to normal) is in fact the fear of the unknown more than the actual fear of change, but the execution of her character makes it look like she’s a walking contradiction. Her very personal sense of right and wrong, imbalanced by the unusual situation she’s found herself in, makes it pretty hard to predict her reactions. Her quick judgement, which undoubtedly was an asset for a Red Jenny put her at a disadvantage in a situation she doesn’t understand, and make her look completely unpredictable.

DA:I was often described as a game about politics, and the political themes seem to be more prevalent than in DA2, or even DA:O. Very often we hear that we have to secure the influence in a certain region, we have to negotiate, politically we have to be everyone’s best friend and hold everyone at a knifepoint - often in the same time. We have to get involved in the Game, whether we like it or not. Sera fits into it very weirdly, or rather, doesn’t fit in at all - put into a situation where you and the members of your inner circle have to maintain cold blood and consider the consequences, she’ll act in accordance to her own principles - that is, overthrow the board, or outright refuse to play by the rules. She’s got a heart in the right place, but logically speaking, she’d work way better as an agent, than as a member of an Inner Circle, where almost everyone knows and respects the stakes. Wherever You’d need to sow chaos and undermine the existing authority, You’d send Sera in and she’d do what she does best; instead, if You take her with You on any quest important for the main plot, she’ll be understandably dissatisfied, because while the Inquisition’s goals align with her own, its methods don’t.

That’s especially frustrating, because her rebellious attitude isn’t in itself a flaw. You could just put her in Kirkwall and she’d do great - in a cast of intense characters who drive the story and are for the better or worse trapped in a terrible city, a street smart archer who's pulling the strings behind the scenes to help the poor would be an instant favourite. Hawke’s crew is a walking trouble with law and authority already, they already have a pirate queen and an important figure in the local *cough cough* Merchant Guild onboard, and I’d love to see Sera’s point of view on the situation. I feel that practically any installment of Dragon Age would be a better playground for a character like her except DA:I. I would even argue that if her and Sebastian switched places, both characters would benefit from it. In Kirkwall, place with rampant social stratification, Sera would definitely have a lot to do - her personal history and her difficult relationship with her identity as an elf could be explored in a more complex way. Instead in the Inquisition, Sebastian’s arc would allow the Inquisitor to get deeper into the meanders of Freemarcher politics. That’s also not to say that there ISN’T a way to fit a rebellious rogue into a politics-heavy, high-stakes narration. Thronebreaker does it amazingly well, making Gascon a fan favourite and a left hand of main character who does the job brilliantly. The difference is that despite being a comic relief at times, his personality traits align with what could make him a respected leader of a bandit group in the first place. He is always prepared, he always has a backup plan, he knows how to negotiate and threaten. He can be selfish, ruthless and cruel - but at the same time, he knows how to gain and maintain common people’s support and he will react if he thinks the main character is going against their interest. He will always do things his way, he can be an exhausting opponent or a formidable ally.

What could Sera’s intended role in the Inquisition be, either plot-wise or narration-wise?

Speaking from the plot point of view, she’s a high ranking agent of a widespread secret organisation - it’s implied she has access to a lot of intelligence and she has quite a bit of favours to call, if she needs to. This makes her a perfectly reasonable asset for an Inquisition. However, there’s two problems here: one, her characterisation as an impulsive, trigger happy chaotic neutral rogue doesn’t fit someone who would work at the high levels of a secret organisation. And second, her being a Red Jenny seems terribly underutilised. Outside of a personal quest and a few errands at the War Table she doesn’t feel like someone with actual influence in the world - for sure not more than Varric, and he plays his influence down on purpose.

Narration-wise the important angle of Sera’s presence in the Inquisition could be being a voice of a common person, a representation of common folk’s pent-up anger over suffered injustice. She might be a character reminding the Inquisitor who they are really fighting for. Except that her treatment in-game makes this sort of narration ridicoulous, because young and inexperienced, she’s constantly dismissed and her claims seem to be more of a personal angle than an actual representation of wider norms.

The majority of people in-game also isn’t shown as valuing her input - the Inquisitor can dismiss her anytime, she’s considered a questionable ally at best by the advisors, she’s repeatedly described as an unpredictable wildcard in-and out-of game. Her supposed influence as a Red Jenny is almost never discussed or agknowledged. She seems out of her depth, and she isn’t easily persuaded. She seems to be a paragon of self-determination, but she makes no effort to understand those different from her (e.g. the Dalish inquisitor, the mages, or Cole). Her judgement is rarely the Okham’s razor you’d expect it to be if her role was to provide a sort of an “outsider’s perspective” to the issues You face.

It’s not to say that her characterisation doesn’t make sense - she seems like a believable portrayal of what does it mean to be a young person in a world full of injustice, where crisis never ends. But in context, she both seems like a person who’s notably difficult to cooperate with, and a character which is weirdly static in comparison to the others. Her arc is supposed to be about overcoming the consequences of lies she’s been told when she was young, but at the end of it her worldview, particularly her approach to elves - those from alienage or Dalish - doesn’t change at all. It seems to me that she has a lot of unresolved issues and for sure there is a lot of opportunity for character development in there, but it. isn’t. utilised. It isn’t only limited to Sera - in the Inquisition there’s more characters who don’t really change in the course of the game, but she’s maybe the most glaring example because her relatively young age and new experiences should make for a pretty dynamic character. In this way, the writers not only made disservice to her by the choosing to include her in a heavily political plot, but also did her a disservice because she seems disengaged from the player’s influence - she can applaud our choices or be upset with them, and she’s an occasional comic relief, but the interaction with the player doesn’t influence her otherwise.

#DA:I #Dragon Age: Inquisition #Sera #Sera critical #BioWare critical #(don't interpret it as a hate towards the character - I'm far from it) #But I criticise her characterisation and the way she is inserted into the story so beware #I have many beefs with DA:I and the more I dissect it the more issues I find #long post

[devilfic]

❝where two are joined, relentlessly❞

IX. from now on.

parts: previously. plot: endings give way to beginnings. pairing: battinson!bruce wayne x gn!reader. cw: romance, emotional hurt/comfort, angst, grief, the author only understands so much about medical protocol I’m sorry, minor character death, grief. words: 5.5k.

a/n: well, this is the last chapter. thank you all for keeping up with this series! I’ve had a wonderful time exploring this little world with my bruce and I’m happy to have gotten to share this series with all of you. your enthusiasm and kindness has meant a lot to me. hope y’all enjoy~

You had a memory—shortly before the death of the Waynes—of seeing Wayne Manor for the first time. Of course, by that point, the sprawling mansion was being called Gotham Orphanage and Thomas, Martha, and Bruce Wayne were christening its rebirth on live TV. 

You weren’t any different than every other kid in your class for daydreaming about the place. How lucky little Bruce Wayne must have been to have all that to himself! It was a far-off dream for someone like you, but you’d wanted to visit. Just once. Then it burned down on the news and that dream went up in smoke with it. 

Now, as you wade through weeds and broken beer bottles that decorate the front yard, careful that you don’t trip in the dark, you realize that childish dream of yours never really died. Bruce is waiting for you in the foyer when you finally get through the door, “I get that you’re a bat and all, but some of us can’t see very well at night.” Before you can clock his reaction, Bruce shines his flashlight directly into your eyes.

“Neither can bats. They use echolocation.” The sound of his voice and his approaching footsteps cut through the blinding light until he’s standing right before you.

“What are we doing here, anyway?”

Bruce follows your line of sight to the broken chandelier overhead casting reflections of light against moldy, torn wallpaper. Shining his flashlight directly on it makes diamonds dance in his eyes, “Research.”

Without further discussion, Bruce turns abruptly and leaves the hallway without you.

You’re quick to catch up, only stumbling on wet, loose debris every few feet. Bruce is always quick to grab hold of you when you lose your footing. “Not that I’m not having fun, but this kinda seems like a job for you and your pal Gordon. I can’t imagine I’ll be much help here.”

“You’ll be plenty,” and then Bruce pushes his flashlight into your hands once you reach the staircase, every other step fractured or chipped off, “point the light up?” You do as told, light landing on a large hole going through the floor of the second story. 

“What’re you researching?”

“The manor.”

“Pretty sure this place has a Wikipedia page.”

Bruce cuts his eyes to you and smiles, “I need a closer look.”

When Bruce starts moving to the next room, you obediently follow at a much slower pace. There isn’t much to look at given the history of the manor. Smoke clings to the walls and the architecture is falling apart at the seams, but it fills you with enchantment all the same. You try to imagine what you’d seen in pictures before, and though you know your imagination will never live up to the real thing, you still try. 

The next room ends up being a much bigger space. The chandeliers in here are more intact thanks to how high the ceilings reach. If you looked hard enough, you could even make out the detailed cornice all along the ceiling. As for what you can clearly see, chairs are lined up in broken rows; it’s the shell of a movie theater or a common room for the children. But long before that, it was something else, “Was this the ballroom?”

“It was,” his voice is tinged with melancholy, examining the room, “it was much more impressive when I was younger.”

“I bet. Would’ve killed to come to a ball here. Did you guys ever have a chocolate fountain?”

“No, though it wasn’t for lack of requesting.”

You giggle, a younger, more petulant Bruce Wayne appearing in your mind. “Can I ask what you’re researching in here?”

Behind the cowl, you make out a nervous twitch at his brow. “I’ve been seeing your mother.”

You blanch, “I’m sorry?”

Bruce recoils at the sharpness in your voice, realizing his mistake, and he scrambles to fix it, “I’ve been visiting her. In the hospital.”

“Oh... really? She hasn’t mentioned you at all.”

“I asked her to keep it a secret.” At your scandalized reaction, Bruce smiles in what you think is an attempt to be reassuring, “It’s nothing bad.”

“Is it something I’m not going to like?”

“The opposite, actually.”

“That just makes me nervous.” You found it difficult to believe your mother had much to offer someone like Bruce, even more so when Alfred was there. Unless Alfred was in on it too... You couldn’t be the only one out of the loop, could you? Now you were sufficiently unsettled. “Can I know what it is, at least?”

“At least.”

“Bruce.”

“I promise,” and he keeps the humor out of his voice to convince you, sincere, “I can’t leave you in the dark if you’re a part of it.”

“Part of what?” Ideas begin to swim in your head, each more incredible than the last.

Bruce captures the hand that’s closest to him, holding it between both of his own, saying nothing for a moment. You’re glad he isn’t actually a bat; if he could hear your frantic heartbeat, he’d probably have you rooming with your mother in Gotham General until it calmed down... or maybe he’d finally just tell you. You scoot up to his shoulder to see which possibility might win.

“Mayor Reál once told me that I could be doing more for the city, and I’ve been thinking about what Selina said to you. About me doing nothing for Gotham. It didn’t really... hit me, that my name could be anything other than a burden. Your mother gave me some advice on what to do with that name recently. I’ve been working on an idea, and if you’d like, I want you to be part of it.” You notice the slight shake of his hands clasped around your own, though you don’t detect any fear. Nerves, actually. Excitement. He was excited.

You watch, in awe, as he turns his head to meet your eyes, “I’m going to the mayor’s office next week with a proposal: offer rehabilitation to the dropheads seeking shelter in the orphanage, and then tear it all down. And rebuild,” Bruce’s voice trembles, “rebuild everything. Give a new generation of children in Gotham a chance. This time, there will be no mistake. I’ll make sure of it myself.”

“Bruce.”

“And I want you to... do it with me. I’ve been wanting to do some rearranging of Wayne Enterprises anyway, give Alfred a break and put someone permanent in charge. And you can stay as you are, or, if you’d like, I’d like to put you in charge of the finances for the new orphanage. I don’t want that money going to anyone other than those kids. There’s no one I trust more than you for this.”

Well, out of all your incredible ideas, you’d expected nothing close to this.

The orphanage had been a chilling reminder of Gotham’s failure long before it burned down. It’s why it was a graveyard now, a shell of the home it was and was meant to be. At least it being in ruins had been more favorable to the hell it had been before.

But there were people willing to take a chance on Gotham. It might’ve started with a vigilante, but it was trickling down. Mayors, police commissioners, normal people like you. You hadn’t felt this much hope since the dawn of those horrible floods. Not since you realized while watching that soon to be unmasked vigilante- no, hero, standing on that arena rooftop and pulling people to safety, that there could be something more.

“I, uh... Jesus Christ,” your disbelieving laugh draws a nervous one out of Bruce, “you’ve really thought this through. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could’ve helped.”

“I wanted to do it alone. I wanted to be ready.”

It was a large step up from being a CEO’s butler’s personal assistant, and the responsibility of being in charge of something so dear to Bruce and so important to the city was a heavy one. It wasn’t a choice for you to make lightly. 

But could you really imagine doing anything else?

“Well... we’ll definitely have to talk more details, of course. I’ll help you proofread everything, and then we’re going to have to meet with the accountants at least once to smooth out the logistics but... yes, I would love to. I would really love to.”

Bruce exhales in relief, swirling the early summer air between your faces, and you don’t think you’ve ever seen him smile so big in his life. It’s gone in an instant but his joy still vibrates through his touch. He resembles a younger Bruce in that moment, a Bruce you never got to know before news of the Waynes rocked the nation all those years ago. You can’t help but take his face into your hands and burn it into your memory. You don’t ever want to forget it. “Now, can we continue this research in the light of day, maybe?”

When the mayor’s receptionist instructs you both to take a seat, you run your eyes over the proposal in your hands until each word is printed into your mind, and then you do it a few more times for good measure. “She’s not going to bite, you know.” Bruce points out.

You roll your eyes, “Cut me some slack. I’m meeting the mayor.”

“I didn’t have you pegged as a fan.”

“I’m not,” though, your cheeks go a little hot anyway, “I just think she’s... cool.”

Bruce snorts low in his throat, not even gathering the attention of the receptionist mere feet away, but it’s enough to make your ears burn. “Would you like to pitch the proposal, then?”

“God, no! I’m too nervous to make any sense.” Bruce reaches over and pats the back of your hand, discreet. It’s more than enough to help calm your nerves that little bit. You take a deep breath and try not to leave sweaty fingerprints in the paper you’re holding. “I’ve got to keep my phone on, anyway. The hospital could call.”

“We can reschedule.”

You look at Bruce with wild eyes, “Reschedule with the mayor? You’re crazy.”

“I don’t want to add more stress to your plate,” Bruce answer simply, “and for what it’s worth, I’m sure it went well.”

The surgery had been penciled into your calendar for weeks at this point. With your mother’s illness growing more arduous on her body, she’d been advised to get as much of the malign growth removed before her quality of life plummeted even further. It would be a routine surgery, you were assured over and over, but it hadn’t made you any less nervous. You’d been jittery ever since leaving her behind.

“Yeah,” you murmur, “you’re probably right.”

A solid voice cuts through the moment, just as powerful in a small room as it was on stage in front of thousands. Bella Reál stands in the doorway to her office and gives you both a smile, “Mr. Wayne. I’m glad you could make it.”

Bruce is more than capable of doing all the talking. He’s rehearsed enough on his own, replaying his pitch to you at breakfast and over the phone and in your bed (or his) late at night. He’d repeated it so much that you’d remembered it all word for word, mouthing each sentence as he spoke. He’s nervous and keeps his hands clasped in his lap in lieu of reaching for you, but he does it. By the end of the pitch, Bella is sold.

Somewhere in between discussion of when to break ground and sharing specific costs, you feel your pocket begin to vibrate. Bruce only needs one look from you before you’re excusing yourself into the lobby.

“How’d it go?” You breath out before the nurse on the other line can even get a word in.

It’s Annie, you realize, but only halfway through her sentence when what she’s saying starts hitting you. You can hear her voice quiver as she relays back the standard protocol, “The surgery was successful, but your mother’s condition has worsened. She woke up in an abnormal amount of discomfort, and after some testing, it seems to be due to internal bleeding.”

“Bleeding? Has it stopped?” The receptionist’s eyes cut to you as you stammer.

“We’ve been trying to get her stabilized, and we don’t think the bleeding is severe enough to warrant another operation just yet, but we’ve given her a transfusion and we’ve got her on more fluids to help the process. It would be best if you came by as soon as possible, she wants to see you.”

There are several different thoughts going through your head. The assurance that the situation isn’t as severe as it could be is only comforting to an extent, but the invisible war your mother’s body was fighting left a pit in your stomach. There was nothing you could do to help her but be by her side. There was nothing you could do but hope that she would be fine.

She would. She would make it through. You couldn’t afford to think otherwise.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Thanks, Annie.”

You exchange your goodbyes and barely have the soundness of mind to leave the receptionist with a message for Bruce. She seems frazzled by the suddenness but assures you she’ll pass it on once the meeting adjourns, and that’s all you really have time for before your brain shuts out everything else. You just need to be with her. There would be time for everything else later.

It’s half an hour later when Bruce gets the news.

Life buzzes on about the hospital floor, but it feels lonely standing here, as if room 614 had been carved out of time and space and existed in a separate world to Bruce’s own. Annie doesn’t even spare him a smile, unlike herself, “Hey, Bruce. You can go on in.” His thanks is simple, certain that the nurse is in no shape for conversation, but before he can get the door open, Annie intervenes one last time, “Eline’s peaceful, but... it can be difficult. For family members.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

She gets out of his way then.

Your chair is pulled up to the hospital bed. One of your hands is clasped in Eline’s while she watches the news on its lowest volume, your other tucked against your waist as if you might be sick. Your face, however, is the most lifeless he’s ever seen it. If you felt sick, you didn’t look like you had the heart to care.

You register he’s there when your eyes flit to him, but you don’t make a move to say hello. Eline does, however, smiling, “Took you long enough.”

Instead of bringing his chair to her bedside, Bruce rounds the foot of the bed and hovers behind you, “I considered calling an ambulance for a ride, but I didn’t want to steal the spotlight.” He’s thankful for the comforting sound of Eline’s laugh, “How are you feeling?”

Despite her jovial tone, she’s sickly with exhaustion written deep into the bones of her face. He wasn’t familiar with the slow toll your body failing on you could have; he’d experienced seeing the life sapped out of others in an instant, faces often still full of life even as they went cold. Your mother, on the other hand, looked as if she needed a long, long sleep. “I could be better. How’d the meeting go? Kid told me the mayor loved it.”

At the moment, you didn’t look capable of talking about anything. You continued to stare at your hand intertwined with your mother’s. You move only to breathe. Bruce feels strange sharing good news, “We can break ground starting late June. Maybe sooner.”

You twitch just a little. Your head moves like you intend to look up at him but you don’t complete the action. You continue to stare ahead.

Eline reaches her free hand out to him and Bruce is quick to take it, noting how cold it was. Back when he’d first held it, it had kept his own hands warm. Her touch is no less motherly, but it feels... wrong. All of it feels wrong, “Knew you could do it. I’m telling you, it’s only going to look up from here. First, the orphanage, next... well, who knows?”

“I’d love for you to come see it when it’s all fixed up.” His voice drops low, and those who can hear it are aware of its hopeful undercurrent.

“That’d be nice, huh, kid? You always wanted a look inside that place.” Her prompting doesn’t elicit any response from you. You’re catatonic while Eline looks on, heart visibly breaking a little more with every silent second that passes. Her eyes slowly shift back to Bruce. “It can happen sometimes. Complications in surgery. Doctor said they’ll keep an eye on it, but I just get a feeling. You know?” Bruce can’t say he does, but he nods, “But I think I did pretty good.”

“You did. A star patient, I heard.”

“Not that. I mean... I think I did pretty good for myself. To go out like this.”

Your mother had been dancing around it this whole time, and only now were the words out in the open, the force you needed to break apart completely. Bruce reaches forward and grasps your shoulders as you lurch toward her, body shaking all over, “Don’t say that.”

A stranger could mistake Eline’s expression for one of indifference, but in the few weeks that Bruce had gotten to know your mother, he’d learned of all the layers that lied beneath. It was taking all there was in her not to react to you the way he was sure she wanted to. “It’s not going to get better,” her tone is cruel, forcing reality on you, “I’m weak and it keeps spreading and... how many surgeries can I really afford to have?”

“As many as you need. I would make sure of that.” Bruce insists.

“It’s a waste,” you flinch at your mother’s assertion, “no, no it is. I’m tired. This isn’t going away. The fact I’ve made it this long is a miracle, and I’m happy I made it this long. I’m happy I got to have a wonderful kid. And I’m happy I got to see you grow up. And I’m happy that you’ll be loved even when I’m gone.”

Your head shakes back and forth, muttering to yourself. Bruce has never seen you this way. He doesn’t want to see you this way ever again.

It is just so slow.

When Thomas and Martha Wayne’s lives were taken in front of him, Bruce had skyrocketed through so many emotions. The terror from being cornered, the shock at seeing the gaping wounds, the panic upon realizing he was utterly helpless, and an overwhelming agony as he cried, alone, until he’d screamed himself numb. 

Seconds. He’d lost them in seconds. So quickly had his parents been taken from him that details blurred if he didn’t think about them hard enough. What came first? The tears or the rage?

But Eline goes slowly.

It’s between you and Bruce to hold onto hope that she doesn’t have. She murmurs a thought every once in a while, pointing out something on the TV, and hums a broken tune. Bruce watches the TV to give her privacy, his heart racing each time he looks over to see if it’ll be the last time. You alternate between crying and humming along too.

When her vitals plummet, they find what Eline had already suspected. It doesn’t take them long to wheel her away for emergency surgery. The nurses assure you both that it’ll be quick. They know what’s wrong, they know how to stop it. They just need a little more time.

She doesn’t come back.

Comforting in this gentle way doesn’t come easy to him, but it’s almost second nature the way Bruce takes you into his arms and holds you. 

It’s the worst feeling in the world. It’s excruciating. He’d always thought it’d be different for you, when it ever came time to grieve, because you’d have time that he never had. You’d had years to say goodbye, as callous as it was to think, so maybe it wouldn’t tear you up so much. 

In reality, you cried just like he did, voice cracking after the strain became too much. Bruce remembered how raw his throat had been the next day, barely able to speak, and resists the urge to smooth a hand over your own throat.

You deserve to cry, and you’re allowed to let it hurt.

Bruce Wayne isn’t there for the funeral.

Someone is, but it’s not Bruce Wayne. Throughout the service, you see him at the edge of the crowd, dressed unrecognizably to the untrained eye, flanked by (more recognizably) Alfred and Dory. The few people that inquire of the sinewy stranger can never get close enough to look at him. You don’t blame the little family and friends that waver in the pews, sneaking glances. 

He’s the first person there and the last one to leave. Alfred and Dory come to pay their respects together. Dory is a chatterbox complaining about how hectic the traffic was to get here, and Alfred smooths his hands over your sleeves and promises to leave the lights on for you. The only one who doesn’t approach you is Bruce.

Though there’s a feast of a reception going on for a good hour or two after the funeral, he waits outside in the rain until you come around with a slice of cake one of your aunts had made. It was your mother’s favorite. “You sure you’re not hungry? There’s some food left in there.” You ask, peeking under the bill of his Gotham Knights’ baseball cap.

Bruce leans closer in some vain attempt to guard you from the weather, though it’s difficult with his hands deep in the pockets of his jacket. Inside, there are still some people lingering around the reception hall laughing over memories they shared of your mother. You notice Bruce’s discomfort and nudge him with your arm, “You’re gonna catch a cold.”

“I just wanted to see you.”

He’d seen you plenty. The first few days—sure—you holed up in your room and left only when necessary. The others shuffled around you, leaving you a breadth of room to be alone. What waking moments that weren’t spent in sorrow were for getting preparations together, and you’d only forced yourself to function recently, but he was always still there: food put away on its own, clothes picked off the floor, things put back in their places when you were sure they hadn’t been before. You’d assumed the lapse in memory was why everything was always just... taken care of.

And then there was the Bat.

You didn’t leave the tower often, but when you did (because you didn’t want to talk, because you needed more time), you’d take solitary walks in the city. You kept your head down the way you’d been taught and stuck to the crowded parts of the city, walking at a speed that kept others from approaching you. Sometimes you did look up though, just because you would get a prickling at the back of your neck that something in the air had shifted.

After all, every rooftop in Gotham is his perch. Your eyes had started to naturally scan where the city ended and the sky began to find him, and it usually only took a glimpse for him to leave. You’d still be registering his cowl against the backdrop of the full moon and he’d already be gone, smoke in the night. In his own way, he took care of you.

Despite his wet jacket, Bruce’s body heat burns through, and you’re quickly reminded of how much you missed touching another body like this. “How are things?”

“Alfred and Dory miss you,” you smile at that, “Mayor Reál sends her condolences.”

“And you?”

You don’t even have to see Bruce’s face to know he’s pink in the cheeks now. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

Bruce mulls over your words for a few minutes. Twilight lingers on the horizon, and soon you’d be seeing Bruce off for his nightly duties as the Bat, but you’re thankful he’s in no hurry. “I didn’t want anyone around when it happened to me. Not Alfred, not anyone. Still, he... was always there. Even if I couldn’t see him. Even when I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to do the same. I wanted to wait until you were ready.”

“I... figured.” Bruce shifts lightly, not enough to disturb your head on his shoulder. “I don’t know if I’m ready. But I do miss seeing you. Out of the shadows, I mean.”

Bruce brings one hand out of his pocket and brings you a little closer. Unsure if you’re comfortable with more. You’d think you’d been starved of touch since birth with the way you react to it. “Maybe I’ll... wait in the corner of your room at night until you wake up.”

The very image makes you shiver and laugh. “I’d prefer you just sit with me. Or let me sit with you. I’ll even let you tinker with my car a little more.”

Bruce doesn’t answer in time. People start pouring out of the reception hall as the rain lets up and the sun goes down, exchanging well wishes as Bruce hides his face under the cover of night. By the time everyone is cleared out, twilight has turned into the cloudy, black night characteristic of Gotham. It won’t be long now. 

“Bruce, can I ask you for a favor?”

Bruce catches your eyes, breath going still. You don’t know what he thinks you’re going to ask for, but he looks braced for the worst. “Anything.”

“Will you take me for a ride?”

His shoulder relaxes beneath your head. The bike is just across the lot and you walk hand in hand until Bruce situates his helmet on you. You’d insisted once that he be the one to wear the helmet when riding together, though that was shut down with such intensity that you dared never to suggest it again. It did help that he bought you your own helmet days later, though.

You climb on once Bruce settles down, arms finding their familiar place around his torso. You hope he doesn’t mind that you’re holding him much tighter than usual. 

With the cheek of your helmet pressed in the spot between his shoulder blades, Gotham flies by in a flurry of lights and sounds. At every stoplight, citizens of the city rush about: some to work the evening shift at a diner, some finally on their way from work, and others just like you—wandering. At every stoplight, Bruce reaches a hand back to your knee. Each time, you snuggle that much closer into him.

You go on for what feels like hours. Perhaps it is. All you know is that Bruce doesn’t take you home until your grip starts to go slack.

You think he might leave.

Instead, once Bruce has settled you under your covers, he crawls into the other side—his side—and waits until you reach for him to hold you.

“Don’t you have patrol tonight?” You whisper.

“Yes.” He replies, hesitant.

Perhaps he knows. There’s no way he hadn’t heard you waking up with night terrors, heard you crying and mumbling in your sleep before your dreams released you. He probably knew already, but it didn’t hurt to ask, “Then... can you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep.”

You can’t see his face with your own concealed against his chest. You can only hear his very steady heartbeat thumping in a peaceful tune, one single breath his answer, “Okay.”

The night terrors make it hard to fall asleep on your own, but you’re out within minutes and hope that at least you won’t wake to him pulling away. You don’t think you can handle tonight alone.

But morning comes, and there are no night terrors, and Bruce is still holding you in the same position you’d fallen asleep in. The certainty that this was no mistake on his part is enough to lull you back to bed. Sleep is the most peaceful it’s been all week.

2 months later.

“Careful, whole place is a mess right now. You’ll need one of these.”

A hardhat is passed into your hands seconds before the construction worker abandons you to help tear down a nearby wall, though you don’t struggle to find where you’re going in the daylight. The last time you’d been here, you might as well have been trekking through the set of a horror movie.

It’s not much prettier than before, but it’s definitely a start.

You’re careful not to get in anyone’s way, what with wooden planks being marched through hallways and sawdust flying in every direction. Most rooms are flush with busybodies tearing away at the diseased parts of the house, and others are storage rooms of material you’re not qualified to touch, but none of them seem to have what you’re looking for. If you tried calling out for him, your voice would barely carry over the bustle.

You really shouldn’t be surprised about where you do find him. 

Alfred stands at his side, hands politely tucked behind his back as they examine the ceiling of the ballroom. You hear the butler muttering something that makes Bruce look eager to shut him up. Luckily for him, he spots you then. A smile that had become more commonplace on Bruce’s face is what greets you first, “Well? What do you think?”

You cross the large hall and kick up dust as you go, “Very industrial. What with all the uh... construction.”

Bruce rolls his eyes, “Besides that.”

“It’s got a lot of potential. I can’t imagine what it’ll look like in a few months. Hell, I can’t imagine what it’ll look like when kids are running around in here.”

Alfred smiles, “I can, though a distant memory.”

A lightbulb goes off behind your eyes. “Oh yeah, Dory told me Bruce was a very... active child in here.” At the same time, the light goes out of Bruce’s eyes.

Before Alfred can get any ideas of adding in his two cents, Bruce very unsubtly guides you by the small of your back to another part of the ballroom.

Despite the joy in his features, you couldn’t ignore how tired he’d been looking recently. With his nightly duties and getting the orphanage up and running, you’d found Bruce to be more of a weighted blanket in bed than a partner. You didn’t blame him; you did worry, though.

Your hand naturally finds the curve of his jaw, fingertips brushing where his hair had grown back out again. With Alfred busy training his successor, he hadn’t had the time to trim it out of Bruce’s eyes, but you couldn’t say you were in a hurry for him to get it under control. Sentimental, you were. “It’s amazing, Bruce.”

Your assurance doesn’t penetrate as deeply as you’d hoped. “Wish I’d done it sooner.”

“You needed time to get to a place where you could do it right. Could you imagine trying to get something like this done under Mitchell? Absolutely not.” Bruce looks past you, still not entirely convinced, but you gently guide his gaze back to you, “And you’re not the same Bruce you were before. Everyday, you’re getting better. You’re learning. You can’t rush that.”

A vulnerable look crosses his face. His warm, stubble-ridden cheek leans into your palm searching for more comfort and you gladly give it. 

You still can’t quite wrap your head around where the two of you have ended up. Watching Gotham shift alongside the man responsible for so much of its metamorphosis often felt more like fiction than fact. More than that, though: it felt hopeful. While you didn’t imagine Gotham would ever be “perfect”, its baby steps were a welcome change. “You’re doing a good job, Mr. Wayne. Your parents would be very proud of you.”

Bruce shuts his eyes, “Thanks.”

“I’m very proud of you.”

Bruce’s eyes reopen just a smidge, hooded eyelids revealing only blue half-moons, and he turns his cheek just far enough to press a tender kiss to your palm. Another way of saying thank you. 

“By the way, what was Alfred saying to you before I came in? You looked kinda peeved.”

Bruce groans, pulling you closer by the hand until your elbow rested on his shoulder, “He kept insisting we invest in a ballroom for the tower.”

“Whatever for?”

“Something about... how I should’ve kept up with my dance lessons as a kid. He’s convinced I could’ve been a dancer in another life.”

A silly grin breaks out on your face. “You’re still a good dancer. I recall us dancing on my kitchen counter, on the kitchen floor, in my childhood bedroom-”

Bruce pulls you all of the way into him to shut you up with a kiss, indignant as he was, though Alfred was too far away to have even heard any of that. Out of curiosity, you peek open an eye to look in the old man’s direction.

You’re met with his usual, knowing smile. Perhaps it’s best you don’t ask.

#bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne scenarios #bruce wayne imagine #bruce wayne #batman x reader #batman scenarios #batman imagine #the batman #battinson x reader #mjwrites #this is also absolutely named after the song that plays during edward and bella's honeymoon in breaking dawn

[mostremote]

Now that tSS is finished (Congratulations again!)

allow me to ask a million few questions..

When you started it did you know it's going to be this long?

Was this the ending you've always intended or you considered others?

Toughest chapter to write?

Most fun chapter to write?

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this?

When you started it did you know it's going to be this long?

Noooooo lmao. I expected 50-75k and I just got very carried away. I’m much chiller abt my eversnow fixation now but in the depths of my mania I was writing 5k words every day.

Was this the ending you've always intended or you considered others?

This is pretty much the ending I always intended. When this fic was in its very, very early days of planning, it was going to portray a much nastier dynamic between the two. I then had something else in mind, ending with Snow plotting her murder and Katniss getting pregnant to save her own life because Snow wanted a child. But that was very, very early on and the characterisation shook out very differently.

By the time I actually started posting the story I knew I wanted it to end with Katniss and Snow, hand in hand, addressing the nation with Katniss as the new President. Earlier in the writing process I expected it to end with Katniss deciding firmly that she would eventually kill Snow, whereas things ended up much softer and more codependent between them. (Ah, romance.)

Toughest chapter to write? Most fun chapter to write?

The answer to both of these is the same, and it’s also my favourite chapter: “Family”. This went through a lot of rewrites, including starting over almost entirely from scratch. There were all sorts of different versions of this, including versions where Haymitch showed up. It was always going to be the “visit to D12” chapter, but the final version is much more intense than the earlier drafts. I eventually decided to try to ratchet up the tension as much as possible and see just how much this dynamic could take, and so we ended up with Snow putting on Katniss’ shoes (and discovering his cute foot fetish that temporarily ruled me), Snow cradling her face and licking her tears, and Katniss’ final tearful confession. Originally they just had tea with her mum, lol. (There is also a deleted scene I really liked where Katniss annoys/flirts with Snow by trying to get Sulla to zip up her dress. But it was too lighthearted in the wake of Gale’s death.)

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this?

For a general answer, there is the weird mental health thing I went through before Christmas where I was writing this compulsively and giving myself anxiety attacks, and obviously I was processing things through this fic that I wasn’t even fully aware of. (I’m better now.)

More specifically, I think walking the line between the eroticism and horror, the romantic and the abusive, was something I often had in mind. I try not to worry too much about readers misinterpreting the work (not that there’s a “wrong” way to interpret literature but, well, interpretations that ignore significant parts of the text), but there are certain subtexts I articulated more explicitly than I otherwise would. Obviously, I think this is an extremely unhealthy, abusive relationship and it’s objectively bad for both of them, but there are definitely readers who took a rosier view of things. But you can’t hold yourself responsible for reader interpretations that ignore the text in favour of fitting the characters into archetypes.

#smh at ppl who thought these two having a child would legitimately improve the situation #can you IMAGINE #thank you for asking these questions!!!

[n7punk]

"the long way down" Fic Notes

TLWD is done now so I get to be a little insane about it. I’ve had meta about Outside of the War fics before, but this one… is certainly something Else, so I’ve enough to say to need the structure of a fic notes post.

Chapter 1:

⦁ Off the bat, the Mara thing: again, I’ve said this a couple times, but I don’t think her surviving in the portal is canon. I’m not sure what the timeline of the Heart going off and Mara moving Etheria was, much less what was up with the first version of the portal (something happened from what Razz said, but who knows it if it was the exact same thing), so it’s hard to say if she even would have gotten suspended like that in the first place. It was fun to write that fic, but I didn’t want to carry that continuity into this one. I wanted this idea to stand on its own and Mara being alive would have complicated the hell out of this. She would have known stuff, and either wanted or really not wanted to see the ruins of Eternia, and it just… would have been so many complications, especially if she didn’t go with them on that journey, because then they would have had to debate going back for her or not and…. Yeah it’s just Too Much.

⦁ The little italic preview (something I use so sparingly I think this might be my first time ever) at the beginning of the fic is obviously from the scene in chapter three, but cut down to size because again, sparing. It’s contextless here and half-context wouldn’t have served it.

⦁ It has come up a lot in my fics, but Adora being into cartography is something Aimee (her VA) mentioned at a con as like, a headcanon, and my brain immediately accepted that and went right that’s canon now lol. It just fits really well so it’s come up in my post-canon fics a lot as a hobby, but this is the first time it has been plot-important.

⦁ Catra getting jealous of paper is from a previous OotW fic, return from civility.

⦁ George and Lance literally have a 3D-projection star chart in their library that they show off in the season 2 finale, but the star charts Adora pulls out are very different from that because it’s a 2D inscription of flight paths between systems rather than a chart of constellations, so it wasn’t blatantly obvious what it was until they could start translating things with Adora’s help.

⦁ Let’s talk about the chapter art because you cannot imagine how much work that took! Like it’s stupid! I wanted essentially an “arrow” made from First Ones numbers pointing in the direction of Eternia. I went through a lot of rough drafts before I decided, for simplicity’s sake (my sanity) instead of it literally saying “One thousand four hundred and sixteen” it would say “1416” because god is that a lot to cram into a small space and stay readable, much less connected. I’m like 95% sure what I produced is correct by the guidelines of the language, but it’s a lot of lines to track, so if it’s wrong… I don’t want to hear it. Some details, though. The shadowy background compass has an “indent” in the center of it — that’s actually the letter E, standing for “Eternia,” in the First Ones’ script. Each of the numbers/words gets progressively smaller as it goes on, which isn’t in the rules, but in my opinion it makes it easier to read because you can intuit that you’re supposed to start at least one of the ends, and Clare approved, so I’m keeping it. (Yeah, if you know what post I’m talking about, I’ve been sitting on this fic idea that long. I wrote half the fic then and got distracted by shiny new things lmao). It was really hard picking colors for the image that would show up well on various site backgrounds, but in the end I decided it was impossible to accommodate for most skins, so I should focus on the two most-used ones instead and ended up with the blue and gray that show up decently on both the white and dark mode site skins. It’s not perfect on either, but it’s pretty good on both, and that’s the best I could ask for. I purposefully picked numbers that were one syllable so I didn’t have to deal with multiple syllable branches since making this image do what I want was already so much work lmao. I tried to figure out the words by myself first but I always double-check my First Ones script work with the translator on itch.io so thank you to whoever made that you have been a life-saver multiple times for me <3

⦁ I went back and forth on whether they’d be wives by the time of this one, and then I remembered it’s somewhere around two years post-canon and they’re lesbians. I think they probably got married shortly before leaving. I also stand by the idea of Glimbow getting engaged first but married way later (royal wedding nonsense, it came up in either "to make a home," or "her heart on her sleeve." Maybe both) and since they were getting married right after this trip, that would mean Catra and Adora are married.

⦁ Trolla is a planet in the MOTU. It’s where Orko is from… which means nothing to you if you haven’t watched the original He-man, but google an image of him, because somehow that exact character design pops up in so much shit. I’m pretty sure there’s a character like that in Kingdom Hearts, which means there’s also a character like that in Final Fantasy, but don’t quote me on that. I feel like he and Loo-Kee were pretty equivalent to me when I was a kid and Loo-Kee was at the end of every damn She-ra episode with his little “today’s moral” shtick.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Honestly, part of the reason Catra is wielding a staff in the cult scene is because I did all the research for the dolls and her accessory in that line was a staff. Which… okay sure, but she does use them in canon. Like twice. But it felt right here with the potential flashback stuff.

⦁ I made sure to include mention of the two moons originally shown around Eternia in my Children of the Crystal series. Just a little bit of consistency.

⦁ I thought about the… manufactured planet thing from Mass Effect Andromeda (listen, I haven’t played the game since it came out, I don’t really remember) while describing Eternia, and it got me thinking about how in sci-fi and stuff, structures like this are always in grayscale. They’re gray, or maybe white, but never like… yellow, and certainly not rainbow. The First Ones ruins we’ve seen have all been very colorful, so I thought a vibrant, rainbow planet, indicating life and art and culture, but still from this destructive society, would really be interesting.

⦁ The “ruins incident” is the impotence for a fic I’ve never written and probably never will but damn has that not stopped me thinking it through every few months. The timeline doesn’t even work out because that’s supposed to happen like five years after this but it’s mostly a reference for myself lmao.

⦁ I know Catra and Adora have “memes” personal to them dating back to their time in the Horde and still forming to this day, but I imagine Catra and Melog have their own jokes too that no one else has even the faintest idea about because it all happens in their heads.

⦁ Originally I explained it in the fic before I decided the Gatekeeper wouldn’t know it, but the reason there were only signs of evacuation deep inside was because part of Protocol Zero’s mandatory evacuation was evacuation tiers. It’s the highest threat level possible and that means everybody needs to leave and could clog the skies, making it impossible for anyone to really escape. There’s also bullshit prioritization of “well, these people deserve to get out more than others” so it's stratified to ensure some people (the most important) get out first. First in line was royalty and the highest ranks of the military (to coordinate rebuilding efforts once escaped), then the highest ranks of state-sponsored scientists and nobility, followed by the mid ranks of state-sponsors scientists and high rank state-sponsored artists, and then concurrently mid-level military, more scientists, and high-rank citizens. Finally, the rest of the artists and citizens (aka free-for-all tier).

⦁ The Citadel is a reference to Mass Effect.

⦁ A whole decade ago I saw a post on Tumblr claiming a “moment” used to be an actual measurement of time (roughly 90 seconds) that I never forgot and it turns out that was actually true (this was the era of Alexandria’s Genesis so you know… easily could have been bullshit I never bothered to google) so I threw it in in this fic as a fun fact about medieval sundial measurement.

⦁ Almost nothing works on the planet because it all ran on wireless power, and the transmission towers for that were completely destroyed by the Horde’s invasion. The Horde them pulverized everything else it could find, tracing down every last electrical signal or sign of life and snuffing it out. The only thing that survived were bugs that were hibernating underground or in the rare piece of plant life that wasn’t destroyed. Seeds in the earth also sprouted later, leaving those as the only survivors of the massacre. The Horde occupied Eternia for a while making sure nothing else would pop up, but eventually Prime was satisfied and got the fuck out of there, afraid of their integration of tech and magic and tired of losing clones to lingering mechanical boobytraps.

⦁ Okay the meta for Mara’s painting is that one of the quickest paths to state sponsorship was art depicting the planet. The Eternians really did view it as the ultimate art piece. Mara did something groundbreaking for her time and portrayed it as it originally was before all the terraforming. The establishment didn’t like that. Even worse, she used an ephemeral medium involving a mix of materials that would break down over time, and while it was good and above average, she was far from the most impressive artist that year alone. Mara really did think the transformation of Eternia was awe-inspiring at the time, but doubt set in after she was assigned to the brand-new (not even begun, really) colony on Etheria and started falling in love with its vibrant nature. Eternia still had plenty of it, but it was carefully cultivated through landscaping and terraforming. Ironically, it has become a lot closer to Etheria’s untamed state by the time of the fic, thanks to the lack of direct intervention and partially-damaged terraformers. (Side note: the terraforming system ran on its own network with a million safeties in place because, you know, if they ever shut off the path of the planet around the sun could permanently be altered from its irregular shape. It was Very Important they survive anything, and Horde Prime didn't try to destroy them while occupying it because he also needed it to not be flung into the sun)

⦁ Being a state-sponsored artist basically means you get a salary instead of living commission-to-commission, access to grant programs to create big pieces of art, essentially advertising and general public approval, and access to exclusive display locations, especially in architecture or high-traffic areas (think the mosaics they found). Mara wanted to try, so she applied to the symposium basically fresh out of high school with the plan that if it didn’t work out she would follow in her parent’s footsteps (military family) and join a colony exploration program. If she got approval or even just a grant she would go to art school, but, well, she didn’t. So she ended up training in military academy, bouncing around a few colonies, and then making her way to Commander rank and Etheria.

Chapter 3:

⦁ The “three workshops that they know about” thing is because Catra is sure Entrapta is hiding more questionable experiments from them in the walls. And she’s right.

⦁ The data crystal art says “Final log” on its front and “Distress” (as in, distress signal) in the background. I never really translate that in the fic but it was also going in the final chapter when the fic notes were about to be posted so I wasn’t too worried about it.

⦁ My idea for the crystal was that it would be really hard to find any logs of what happened because, well, everybody who would have made or kept those logs was dead and the Horde destroyed a lot of what they found. This was a transmission that was intercepted at long-range on this smaller mining planet and was basically a portent of their imminent doom to them, the Horde arriving shortly after they received it, leaving this as one of the few logs the Eternians managed to preserve.

⦁ I didn’t actually reference a data crystal from the show for my drawing, I just ran off my memory of what it looked like, so it’s probably a little off, but I thought that would actually fit with the “artistic representation” thing like the planet had. The downward slanting of the words (and especially the descending of the sounds in the word “Distress”) are a visual representation of the signal dropping off and the “long way down” metaphor.

⦁ I didn’t actually intend to have an illustration per chapter for this fic initially. It was just supposed to be the first one. I drew that all the way back in January/February when I first started working on this fic, but as I was describing Eternia, I was like… this would actually be fun to draw. And then it seemed weird to have a drawing for 2 out of 3 chapters, so I added the data crystal, and I like how that worked out since I got to do the “subtle” stuff (so subtle it needs to be explained lmao) with the distress signal in the background.

⦁ Yeah so what’s up with that metaphor, right? I don’t know. Like, okay, I kind of do, but basically that song latched onto this fic and then they fed off each other and I have NO idea why. Like, it fits, but it’s also like… why this. For the people who don’t listen to songs when fics link them (I’ll be honest, I rarely do, even though I discovered my favorite band in the world that way), “Long Way Down” is a song about going to hell. I think the specific story is supposed to reflect preachers and religious folk who espouse how everyone else is full of sin and going to hell, but really they’re just going to end up down there too (“I’ve been fucking around while you’ve been saving the world... from nothing”). It’s not a direct fit in that way, but in the hubris, where you think you’re giants but you’re actually going to fall like all the others? Yeah, seemed fitting for the First Ones.

⦁ Tellus is earth in Latin. Being that the originals are 80s cartoons, Earth is of course canon and there was a Christmas special set there. As I remember it, Earth was some #Isekai shit (okay not really but) where it was just the normal modern world and then He-man and She-ra showed up to take teens on adventures so Americans could teach them the true meaning of Christmas or something. I haven’t watched it since I was a very small child so I could be wrong. I got sidetracked. Yes Earth went kaput in this universe. Yes that had consequences. Yes he was saying “Commander Adam, signing off.”

⦁ Having just come off of CotC where I finally really went into my time travel headcanon… Yeah a lot of people knew this wasn’t going to end well. Honestly, when I initially planned this fic, I had this idea that Adora would touch the console and it would greet her as the lost princess — or even that she would find a recording from her lost twin brother — but either way she would find out that she probably came from the past. The problem was… that also doesn’t match my headcanon? (Refresher/If you didn’t read CotC: my headcanon is that since dimensional portals were cut off in Despondos, only time portals worked, so Light Hope pulled Adora through after spending a long time building one and trying to figure out where to open it to get her. This is why she popped out in the middle of a field: that’s just where she was physically located in the past.) My headcanon is that Adora was a regular child to settlers on Etheria when the Horde attacked and Light Hope eventually made the time portal and snatched her away before she could die. The system back home on Eternia probably wouldn’t recognize her as a random baby in the colonies, so it just didn’t track (especially the princess thing. That was something I thought about when I was first forming the headcanon in 2020, but it didn’t stick. Adora being “normal” is what made sense to me). I did consider having it be some thing where like, well maybe she was still born on Eternia or some major colony where she would be registered in the system, but honestly, that was all too definitive, and I liked the idea of it recognizing She-ra and them learning a little more about Mara.

⦁ Honestly, I don’t think Adora and Adam are even twins in this verse for me. I think cousins makes the most sense here (especially since he was like 20-30 in the recording and Adora would have been Very Small). If he were her sibling, that would make him some random twin she doesn’t know and never learns much about, but this way he’s still important to present Adora because his recording is the one that really made her accept what happened, and isn’t that the kind of thing that older siblings are supposed to do? Take care of their siblings, loving them and telling them the hard truths, through losing their family/home/way of life, etc? Idk, this somehow felt closer to the spirit of the OG canon than giving her a random twin that she didn’t know much about. Her finding a living twin who lives somewhere out in space didn’t feel like the spirit of this SPOP either (especially since they were expressly forbidden to even consider Adam/He-man), so we ended up here.

⦁ This is gonna sound weird but — canonically — I don’t think Adora has parents unless they make a movie. Like the time travel theory still makes sense to me, and if they ever made a movie I feel like finding her parents out in space would be an obvious plot point to get a bit more of a “happy ending” and tie up loose ends from the show, but like… I don’t think the show — in isolation — intends for them to be out there, and I think her not finding them is more tragic if they’re alive somewhere than the time travel thing where they’ve been gone for a thousand years so there’s no chance of recovery.

⦁ After some discussion with a Science Person I determined that it was possible for the DNA changes to be passed down in people who constantly produce sperm, and for people with eggs too if the process also affected the eggs inside of them (since they're only produced once). Also, magic bullshit is floating around helps and all of this is all theoretical anyway so I’m doing what I want lol.

⦁ Edit: Somehow I forgot to talk about this but. The First Ones. Yeah so, in this... I mean they are basically human. Their terraforming (and general tech) processes changed them into something distinguishable, but not all that different. After a thousand years, any First Ones that did survive the original genocide would have to have intermixed with humans to survive. The changes from terraforming would long be diluted and mutated away until humans really are all that's left. Catra's speculation about resettling an old colony planet is the best chance for them still existing, and like she said, they wouldn't even know that they're secretly picking up the genetic signatures of Eternians. I've never been sure if the First Ones are actually different from humans, or just a nationality, or perhaps an ancestor/divergent race from them (I think that question is purposefully left open-ended), so I did... this, which is kind of a combination. IDK, I just thought it was a cool possibility that would explain their humanness while still making them distinct in a (fairly) plausible way. The materials our modern world is made of are causing changes to our bodies (from lettuce insecticide in our blood to earlier hormone development) so something as extensive as terraforming would produce changes that could diverge them enough to be detectable. This leads to things like Adora's puberty being a bit different (unnaturally fast) and her alcohol tolerance being wild (I mean, that's something that varies between people already without a genetic splinter) but leaves her still - essentially - human. First Ones and humans started from the same place but splintered eventually. This isn't like some other things where it's my firm headcanon, but I do think it's a cool idea, so it was fun to do here and it both acts as another hint to the time travel possibility while also explaining how Adora could have parents and there could be "surviving First Ones" in the present. It wasn't part of the original plan for the fic, but I'm really glad it developed as I wrote because it's really interesting to me.

⦁ Catra is right about the cycle wearing on Adora, but it’s a little more than that: Adora could only convince herself to leave Eternia by turning her attention back to their mission, and the moment there was a real pause in it she realized that she didn’t want to keep doing this after all.

⦁ Adora will have questions for a while, and wonder about it occasionally, but she has kind of accepted that what really makes her happy is Etheria. She wishes she knew the answers, but not enough to abandon where she's actually happy and search for them. She doesn't want to fly for a year to some location in far space for answers, she wants her true family, and that's Catra and her friends.

Meta:

Compass art (1416)

Eternia art

Data crystal art

Upcoming:

Uhhhh I really don’t know right now? Could be a lot of things. My brain can’t settle on anything long enough to choose right now so it’ll probably be a week before I’m even sure enough to tell y’all. Check back here I guess lol

#tlwd #ficmeta #fic notes #share post will be up later today since i already posted a bunch of stuff informing yall it was done XD #spread the news ou lol

[franckyfox2468]

Francky's top 5 games released in 2023

So with 2023 ending soon I decided to make a little list and a top 5 of the games that I enjoyed and played that came out this year

Though i will be limiting myself to games/remakes released this year so while i greatly enjoyed Sonic Frontiers and AI the Somnium files this year, they wont make the lsit sorry.

I will start with the honorable mention of games that i still enjoyed but didn’t make it to the top 5.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Like a Dragon: Ishin

Ishin is the last Yakuza game I've played that was made by its longtime director, Toshihiro Nagoshi. And after playing Like a Dragon Gaiden, it helped me realize how much of a difference a new direction can make and how much I have taken the quality of the series for granted. Ishin wasn’t the worst nor the best Yakuza game I've played imo. Which makes sense given it was made right in between one of my least favorite games in the series (yakuza 5) and one of my most favorites (yakuza 0). Its story is perhaps not something you would be used to compared to the rest of the series but it is based on a tale that is as old as time itself that is still quite enjoyable for what it is and while it has some annoying bits (like substories always getting in your way during important event or gun fights), Ishin is still a quite enjoyable game with some fun stories, fun combat and fun minigames. And honestly the funniest version of Baka Mitai somehow.

BombRush Cyberfunk

I decided to check out bombrush cyberfunk after it was absolutely snubbed over in the same award show that decided to promote a JetSetRadio game and I figured I would finally get around checking what it was about before the year ended. I haven’t finished the game yet. I haven’t played JSR so I can't exactly make a full comparison but through some of its rather painful and counterproductive input mapping/options and some frustrating platforming here and there, BRCF is still a game with a very charming, silly and engaging presentation with its story, art and music.

Robocop: Rogue City

Rogue City is not a perfect game, and a quite short one at that. But it is a really good and enjoyable game for what it is. It's not something I would recommend to someone who hasn’t seen the two first movies as they would absolutely get lost in just what the hell is going on and potentially get spoilers from both movies. While the final battle was a bit underwhelming in contrast to what the plot was potentially leading up to with it and some fights could get absolutely tedious, the game to me is in line with the telltale back to the future game or the atari ghostbusters where it can easily serve as a new chapter for the mainline film franchise but through a really good game.

TOP 5:

#5: Baldur's Gate 3

Don’t get me wrong, Baldur’s gate is an excellent game and a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone who likes RPGs of any sorts with ease. But part of the reasons it is so low on my list are, 1, i did not finish it unlike every other game on that list, 2, all of the fun and your will to plan a future character and playthrough is absolutely drained out by the time you reach act 3. I played explorer mode as I am not exactly a tactical rpg person myself and wanted to put more focus on the story, which is absolutely great. Every party member is fantastically written and voiced characters, each with their own tastes, goals and views upon the world and situation around you that makes them very likable and fun to have. Honestly some of the more fun companions i've seen in an rpg. The game really does a great job at emulating the sense of playing through a real DnD campaign with a ton of hilarious optional dialogues and where your actions and picked skills will matter in the end, as well as how you synergize them with the rest of your party (without the dogshit power hungry dm or the potential constant in-fighting of other players), the way you are introduced to most of the main party members so early into the story really helps to that feeling of your DM making a scene to make sure all of the players are quickly gathered together and introducing each others’ characters.

For most of the game creativity with your spells, tools at hand and strategy are absolutely rewarded and if you bring in some friends for co-op it can get hella chaotic for better or worse. But by the time you reach the third arc, the story and paths you can take in combat are really narrowing down and not exactly for the better as each fight and situations you start being put through really ties your ends and forces you to be quite careful and specific with what you do even on the easier modes. It's gotten to a point where I kinda haven’t played the game in a long time because doing literally anything done by that part of the game feels like a goddamn chore. But BG3 is still a fantastic game that I do intend to get around to finishing someday as I still think quite positively of it for the most part.

#4: Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-fi rush is simply a fantastic game. A game that involves platforming and combat while mixing rhythm game mechanics could have easily been a blunder but this game manages to succeed at every aspect it does on top of its fantastic artistic presentation. The art, the animation, the music, the writing… It's all fantastic. The only thing that really left to be desired is the ending kinda falling flat on its message and just going back to the situation the world was in despite the systematic issues still being there but the good guys are on top of it now so that makes it okay i guess? But with that aside, I would say the game might not be for everyone as some of the rhythmic elements can be quite tight and unforgiving in some aspects and fights but overall it was one of the more enjoyable and absolutely hilarious games i’ve played in awhile.

#3: Trepang2

On the surface, Trepang looks like a dull military shooter game with some horror elements that are inspired by FEAR. But the problem is that going into detail about why it is so much more would spoil a fantastic experience that absolutely caught me off guard with how good it was. As someone who has never played FEAR, the combat, if anything, was a lot more reminiscent of Titanfall 2. Sure you don’t have cool giant robots but trust me it makes up for simply how absolutely bonkers and high octane it can get. It just feels absolutely amazing from start to end. This is one of the best single player fps games i have played in a long while and i am absolutely looking forward to the story dlc they have announced coming in 2024. 

#2: Street Fighter 6

I have a love hate relationship with this game. I hate it because this game has caused some severe damage to my hands and at times I had to take a month long break from it because of how much it was starting to hurt. On the other hand, this is one of the most fun, enjoyable and accessible fighting games that I have ever played and definitely my favorite to this day. And i don’t simply mean because of its different control scheme. SF6 does an excellent job at giving all of the information the players need to better understand the game from within the game as well as official reading material like frame data and such provided by the devs themselves. And even if you aren't into fighting games or multiplayer games, I would absolutely still recommend SF6 for its world tour alone. While it does not have the most phenomenal story imaginable, it is a really goofy and enjoyable experience that perfectly blends rpg and fighting game mechanics for all to enjoy. And the best part is that every dlc release comes with free content and the ability to learn techniques from dlc characters you do not even own. Which honestly despite some of its issues with the monetizations is a huge W on the part of the devs regarding this game. Honestly despite some of its issues SF6 is the real first fighting game i started to feel like i was able to take seriously with how much resources and content you get, and it helped me get even closer to some friends as well as meeting some quite friendly people. I love SF6. But what could possibly beat it then?

#1: Pizza Tower

S rank is for Street fighter, which is pretty good. P rank is for Pizza Tower, which is perfection to me. I’ll admit I nearly gave up on this game because of some initial frustrations but pizza tower is a game you can ALWAYS get better at, even if you managed to finish the whole game. The best way to describe it is… it's the best Nintendo game not made by nintendo. Not because it tries to do something fans always wanted or replicated an aesthetic. But it's through just how polished and tightly designed the game is but it does so in a way that doesn’t punish experimentation with all of its crazy movement mechanics and it doesn't try to streamline anything for you except perhaps how player damage is handled, which feels like quite the opposite of what Nintendo does with a lot of its game nowadays. Everything feels so samey, streamlined, slowed down but the dated tired shit like extra lives and such are here to stay and you have to deal with it, while the new fancy stuff rarely brings benefits and usually are more so gimmicky annoyances (at least this is my feeling towards a lot of more recent Kirby games). While the game definitely has some of its downside and it's a quite hard game, it is honestly one of the best 2d platformers I've played and I'd easily put it aside to a game I would deem legendary like DKC2 or Super Mario World. Every level is well defined, well designed, you always get something new and fun at each of them. And that is not even mentioning its absolutely wonderful and hysterical art, animation and this absolute banger of a soundtrack.

I am ultra excited for the upcoming character dlc as it will give me a reason to replay the whole game with some new mechanics to add some spice to it all. Pizza tower is excellent.

#2023 #goty #goty2023 #pizza tower #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #trepang2 #hi fi rush #sf6 #street fighter 6 #robocop #yakuza #ishin #BRCF #bomb rush cyberfunk

[ilooklikeaburntchickenugget]

Cruel Summer

A/N: This is very clearly based off a similar plot line to The Summer I Turned Pretty, but I felt like the title (based off the Taylor Swift song, obviously) fit it way better. I hope y’all enjoy! :) Pairing: Gerard Way x F!Reader Word count: 5,294 words Warnings: Angst, mentions of alcoholism and drug use, swearing, age gap (slight, it’s not that bad TBH)

There were many things you loved about the Ways.

Most of your childhood memories were composed of the two of them, their faces flashing through your mind like an old film reel movie. Mikey and you playfully fighting and splashing in the water, Gerard coming to rescue you. You and Mikey baking, Gerard making sure you didn’t burn down the house. Mikey and you racing on your bikes to see who could get to the pier first.

And while the consistent theme of every summer belonged to you and Mikey being the more child-like ones, due to you being the same age and also 4 years younger than Gerard, Gerard also happened to be fun sometimes. Usually when Mikey wasn’t around.

Like one morning when you and Gerard walked down to the local, and only, bakery in the small vacation town you called your second home for the summer while your moms and Mikey were still sleeping, and gleefully ran back home in the pouring rain, the only disruption to the pattering of the heavy raindrops on the pavement being your laughter with each other.

Or when you found Gerard smoking on the dock at night when you couldn’t sleep, and you two decided to walk on the beach together until you found a comfortable spot to look up and stare at the stars, picking out different constellations and making shapes out of the rare cloud that passed through the night sky.

Or the one night when you made the mistake at 15 of sneaking out at night to go to a beach party where typically the 17 and older crowd were at midnight, only to find yourself too close to a guy who was far your senior, Gerard finally looking over and noticing you, nearly starting a fight with a guy then walking you home and scolding you as harshly as he could until you cried.

That night was the night you had fallen in love with Gerard Way. You had always had a crush on him. It was fun being 12 and having a crush on the 16 year old bad-boy type guy who happened to be your mom’s best friends son. But that night, there was no crush. It was only love.

Gerard looked deeply into your eyes once he heard a small sob, stopping completely in the sand your bare feet walked on together and pulled you in to hold you as tight as he could. “I’m, so, so sorry Y/N.” He sighed, mumbling the words into your hair as you cried into his shirt. “I just- I thought he was gonna do something to you and I- it wasn’t you’re fault. I’m sorry I got mad at you.”

Flash forward to now, sitting on the beach and reading next to Mikey. Being 17 and all meant you had to be mature, no more playing rough games and splashing in the water, or building sand castles, or chasing each other down the beach. You were basically an adult, and you had to begin to do adult things.

You really liked reading on the beach, actually. The sun heating up your skin just right, the water swashing in the background. Nothing was more calming than that.

The only thing that made it better was seeing a shirtless Gerard emerge from the water, his hair all wet as he moved it out of his face and over his head, the light muscles shadowing over his abdomen and up his arms showing. You were thankful to have sunglasses on, so you could discreetly stare right at him for as long as you wanted.

A part of you wanted to go up and say hi, see if he wanted to go in the water again with you. But he had been... off, this summer.

He wasn’t very interactive with everyone, seemed gloomy all the time. You wanted to ask him what was wrong, maybe have him open up, but you only tried that once and it ended with him getting aggressive and defensive towards you. And unlike that one night on the beach, there was not a moment of remorse or consoling nature in what he had said.

Meanwhile, Mikey Way had always had a crush on you. It was painfully obvious on mornings like these where he always made and handed you coffee in your favorite mug with a almost laughable smile on his face. You gave a light ‘thank you’ and began sipping on it, looking over at Gerard who seemed to be intrigued by this interaction, then immediately going back to filling his own mug for what you imagined to be the second or third time today.

You loved them both dearly, just in different ways. It would be nearly impossible for you to see Mikey anything more than a best friend, a brother. He never occupied your mind at night the same way Gerard did, wrapping your arms around yourself to fall asleep and pretending they were his.

“So, what are your plans today, kiddos?” Your mom came in and asked, sitting down at the table next to Donna despite you being at the kitchen island next to Mikey, and Gerard still standing by the coffee machine. You all shrugged with no apparent answer in sight. “Oh c’mon, there’s gotta be something you wanna do.”

“Not really,” Mikey responded nonchalantly, “I’ve got a tournament later tonight with Frank and Ray and-” “Not your video games again.” Donna sighed, “Mikey, it’s summer! The one time a year when there’s no excuse to be cooped up all inside.” “But this is important, Ma!” He complained and she sighed, knowing it was not worth fighting this battle.

“I heard they reopened the seaside overlook.” Your mom mentioned. “Damn, how long has it been closed now? Like, five years?” Donna nodded.

“Had to fix all the roads up there, takes a while.” She replied.

“That might be fun to see.” You said, taking another sip of your coffee. “Great, idea. Gerard, why don’t you two go up there later?” “Hm?” Gerard responded, coming back from whatever far away land he was in placed deep within in his mind.

“I said, why don’t you and Y/N go to the reopened overlook?” “Why can’t she go by herself? I don’t wanna see it-” “Gerard!” She snapped, “You have the car, you take her. Besides, I would feel more comfortable with a more experience driver driving up those hills. No offense, dear.” She looked over to you and you shrugged, a small signal of understanding.

He scoffed and continued back to his coffee.

Once everyone else had departed, Gerard figured it would be easiest to get the dishes out of the way while he was alone. He leant over the kitchen sink and began scrubbing away at the mugs and small plates, letting some of the internal build up out and scrubbing so hard his finger tips grew red with the friction from the sponge. He sighed a bit.

“Gerard,” He heard his mother lightly say, turning around to see her standing in the doorway. “Will you please take Y/N up there? I think it’ll be a good bonding activity for you two and-” “Mom, I don’t need a bonding activity with her.” He sighed, returning back to harshly scrubbing the dishes, “I’ve spent all of my summers with her the last 17 years. I think I know her.” “But she doesn’t know you.” Donna replied, and Gerard turned around again to give her a confused and confronting look. “You’ve changed, Gerard, and not for the better.” “Not this conversation again I-” “You need to get off the alcohol. Stop drinking. It’s bad for you and you know it. Physically, mentally. It’s tearing you away from who you are.”

“Don’t lecture me about who I am.” He spat out like venom, “I have changed. Whether you or anyone else likes it, and I don’t need your permission to be this version of myself. I’ve got my own.”

He wasn’t sure why, but Gerard had given in.

That’s how he was here. Staring at you from the driver’s seat of his car, your back to him as you overlooked the glowing sunset or orange and pink, the blue water help playing as a contrast and compliment to the backdrop of the sky.

He had always admired your innocence. He doubted you had your first kiss yet. He tugged a bit with his teeth on his bottom lip as he contemplated you. Your hair flowing lightly in the wind as you just sat there, so still and serene like nothing else mattered in the world but that given moment.

He didn’t like being distant from you this summer. But it was better to keep you further away, with the old version of him still in your mind, instead of letting you see the new one. That was maybe what terrified him most, ruining you.

It was the same reason he had always been more protective over you. Whenever you and Mikey fought, he always came to your defense. Whenever you got yourself into danger, he would be the first in line to take the fall before you. It was the same reason he held you the way he did two years ago at the beach under the dulling stars, because he knew you needed someone to hold you in the way he could.

He took a deep breath, unbuckling his seat belt and deciding to join you. He had almost hoped you wouldn’t say anything, maybe just sit there in each other’s presence, but of course you didn’t. You couldn’t read the mind of a man you didn’t know.

“Hey,” You softly said, not looking away from the view as he sat next to you.

“Hey.” He replied simply, staring into the picturesque view you had been enjoying.

“I forgot how pretty it was out here.” You said and he nodded.

“It is pretty great.” He stated, placing his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. There were a few seconds of silence that lingered between the two of you.

“Can you be honest with me?” You asked and he hummed, looking over to see you chipping at your nail polish, a nervous tick you had since you were a kid.

“Yeah, sure.” He replied as genuinely as possible, which he realized didn’t sound very genuine at all.

“Did I do anything to make this whole thing different?” You asked and he hummed again more in confusion. “Did I do anything to change us?” “No,” He stated promptly, “It has nothing to do with you.” It has everything to do with you.

You nodded, still unconvinced. “Can you please tell me what’s going on then?” You pleaded and he stayed silent a few more seconds.

“Adult stuff.” He replied and you nearly snorted.

“Ya know I’m gonna be an adult in less than a year, right?” “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean all adult stuff naturally comes to you. You don’t just know about it all right then and there.”

“Hm.” You twisted your mouth a bit. “When will I get to hear about all this adult stuff then?” “When you’re old enough.” “And when will that be?” “When you stop asking stupid questions like that.” You grumbled at him.

“I’m just trying to understand what’s so wrong this summer!” You cried out, “I mean, what suddenly changed everything? Huh? What made this all so fucking different?” He smiled a bit, “It’s not funny, Gerard!” “You saying ‘fucking’ is really cute.” “Oh my God!” You scoffed, getting up from where you sat, “I can’t stand you right now! I just want to know what’s happening! It’s not a hard request to make, it’s not a hard answer either.” You paced around a bit and he didn’t respond.

“Not everything’s easy, Y/N. You will learn that.” “Oh don’t baby bullshit me!” You spat, “You were only me four years ago and now you’re acting like you know how the fucking world works. How does it, Gerard, tell me, hm? Why the fuck does the universe exist and how the fuck did we get here and where do we go when we die-” “Would you stop!” He finally yelled out, looking up at you with a sharp face and standing up, slowly walking to you as you began to back away slowly. His much bigger body seemed far more intimidating and threatening than the comforting one you had always dreamed of calling yours. “I don’t have the answer to how the world fucking works, and I don’t give a shit. What I do know, though, is that my life is fucking miserable right now and you interrogating me about it is making it a hell of a lot worse. So just leave me alone before you learn the adult answers on your own, because sweetheart, it won’t be pretty.”

He didn’t mean a single damn word of it.

He sat at the kitchen counter tops, head in his hands as he thought about his blow on you. You were absolutely pushing him to his limit, but it didn’t give him any right to scare you the way he did. It didn’t give him an excuse to cause you so much pain that you were hiding in your room right now, as you had been the past two days.

Of course he had to fuck up and deflect all of his misery onto the person who deserved it least.

“How’s it goin’?” He heard your mom, out of all people, come into the kitchen and empty some dirty glasses into the sink.

“How does it look like it’s going?” He snarked right back and she gave him a warning look, “Okay, look, I’m sorry. I fucked up and hurt her and for no good reason.” “It’s a self-destructive habit you’ve had for a while.” She lightly laughed, “I’ve know you for years, Gerard, and trust me when I say this isn’t you.” “It’s a version of me.” “But it’s not Gerard. Never has been, never will be.” She sighed, “You hurt Y/N a lot, she feels awful about pushing everything on you.” He grumbled, “You need to tell her, Gerard. Come clean and get clean, that’s how it works.” “You want me to tell your daughter I’m a raging alcoholic struggling with depression and on pills?” “Mhm,” She said with lips tied tightly together, “The sooner the better. She’s the last person on the list who doesn’t know. And well all know why.��

You heard a soft knock on your door, and groaned as you rolled over from under the covers. “Who is it?” You grumbled, holding onto a pillow.

The door opened revealing none other than Gerard, with a tight smile on his face as he slowly closed it again. His eyes danced around your slightly shocked face, but his heart broke just a bit when he saw your swelled, red face that he had caused.

“Hey,” He said.

“Hey.” You replied.

“I um- I wanna talk about the other night but-” He was interuppted by you choosing to speak instead.

“I’m so sorry Gerard I didn’t know why I ever reacted that way and I don’t know what you’re going through and I was a bitch please forgive me?” You let out in what sounded like one single word as he lightly laughed, the first genuine smile of summer growing on his face.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” He replied, sitting on the foot of your bed, “You did everything right. I- I needed to hear reality,” He sighed, “Now, I came here to tell you what’s really happening, but I need you to promise you won’t judge. Please?” You nodded in a silent agreement of ultimate trust.

He dove in. Headfirst. Everything spilling out in a vomit of words and descriptions of where he was. A very dark place, you had found out. The guilt in your gut continued to grow as you understood more all that was wrong, everything that was going so poorly in his life. You should’ve never pushed anything.

“Gerard, I’m so so sorry I-” You buffered a bit, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” “I wanted to keep you away from it all,” He tried to explain, “See me as the old me, not the new one.” “But you know I wouldn’t care, right?” You asked with no response in sight, “Right?” “Y/N, I care about you. That’s why I didn’t want you to know. And I care about what you think of me too.”

“But I would never judge you, Gee.” You whole heartedly said as he looked away a bit, ashamed as if he had failed you in some sort of way. “Just- I’m not gonna ask you to completely stop, because it’s not my place and you can make your own decisions for yourself, but at least try to like- hang out with me, maybe? Or else this would have been a wasted opportunity.” “Hm?” He asked, confused by the last portion of the sentence.

“I um- Mom gave me the option to stay home this summer. She would come down here and I would stay home with my friends.” She tried to explain and Gerard gave her a shocked look.

“Why did you come here?” His face contorted in confusion, “This is one of your last summers, why didn’t you spend it at home with your friends?” “Because I didn’t want to be with them,” She slightly smiled, “I wanted to be with you.”

All day Gerard was thinking about that conversation.

His leg was bouncing up and down under the kitchen table where he sat at. He had yet to have a drink, trying not to because despite you having not shared your opinion on him quitting, he knew he needed to.

And yet he still found himself, again, at that beaten old bar a bit out of town where he hoped no one would notice him. He took another puff of his cigarette and stared down to the auburn colored cheap glass of beer he had in front of him, taking a swig of that too.

He was angry and mad and disappointed. Not in anyone else, but in himself.

He had known about your crush for years. It was hard to ignore after a little while, and even though you kept it pretty discreet unlike Mikey, he knew. He knew when he noticed you staring for a few seconds longer than normal, the way you began staring up at him like he was some sort of protector, some sort of immoral being. He had noticed when, for a moment there, a couple of summers ago, you had become more distant with him and no one else for no apparent reason.

He also knew that you were 17 and he was 21. That he was a man with raging problems and you were an innocent teenager with a bright future that he couldn’t fuck up. He could never forgive himself for hurting you in any way. That’s why he stayed away.

Despite being long gone in the trance of his thoughts, somewhere he frequently found himself now, he heard some commotion behind him and turned around as this entire bar did. There was a small blond girl, not much older than you, who was being corned by a guy much bigger, much older, than she.

There was a clear waft of uncomfortability in the air surrounding the two of them as she looked up at him with nothing but fear in her eyes. Gerard was not one to get involved in things he didn’t know much about, especially relationships of strangers, but as soon as he saw the guys arm raise in a fit of fury he was quick off his feet.

He marched over with no clear end game in mind, and grabbed the guys hand from mid air as he turned around to face a much younger Gerard.

“What the fuck are you doing?” The guy asked, a clear scum bag who didn’t have much muscle and clearly not many brain cells either.

“Stopping you from being a dick and hitting this girl.” He replied, “Not sure if your mother ever taught you right, but men don’t hit women.” Gerard spat with pride and anger. The guy scoffed, now turning around to face Gerard eye to eye, within inches of his face.

“Don’t get yourself involved in shit that’s not yours.” “Not like I wanted to,” Gerard was quick to reply, “But basic fucking human decency is something that involves everyone. So leave her the fuck alone.” The guy took a first swing and knocked Gerard dead in the face as everyone around them gasped.

Despite tumbling back a bit, he caught himself mid air and felt nothing but rage. He looked behind the guy’s shoulder at this absolutely petrified girl, and saw you in just a bit of her. That could be Y/N, he easily though as he swung right back at the guy, hitting him dead in the jaw.

Soon enough, a full on brawl had broken out, Gerard and the stranger going back and forth between who was on top of who beating down on the other one. It wasn’t that he wanted to be in this situation, he was never one to start or get into fights, but damn if he wasn’t going to protect some innocent naive girl from a disrespectful mother fucker who happened to be under him right now as Gerard threw vicious punches until he was pulled off by two other guys.

“You need to go.” One of them told him, “The owner called the cops, leave.” He repeated again and Gerard hesitated, “Now dude!” Gerard was quick to rush out the back door and to his car, hoping in and turning on the ignition, thankfully turning off a side street as he heard sirens arriving to the front end of the building.

He slowly crept into the house, hoping no one else was up. He would figure out how to clean himself up, get up in the morning, lie and say he went for a drive down to a hiking trail and ended up falling somewhere and severely hurting himself.

He slowly creaked the front door open, shutting it just as carefully as he swiftly stepped around the house a bit, hoping to make it to the downstairs bathroom where the first aid kit was before he woke anyone up.

Yet he stopped dead in his tracks when he looked towards the four seasons room at the back of the house that faced the ocean. There was a single, small light on and there you were, laid out on the couch and reading your book. It was well past midnight, but he also knew you were a night owl who could be up until 2 or 3 in the morning wanting to do something.

Some days he caught you stargazing outside, others going for midnight swims, and some you were just reading or journaling up at night. You had yet to catch him and it still shocked him that you couldn’t see how intent his staring at you had become, sometimes just admiring you for minutes at a time like an intriguing movie or TV show.

But tonight, that lucky streak would end.

You looked up from your book right at him, your face furrowing in confusion as you slowly got up. Despite at least a 10 foot difference in where you each stood, the two of you just stared at each other for a few seconds before you jogged over to him, “Gee?” You asked and delicately touched his face, examining it as his breath seized with the uncomfortable contact. “W- what happened?” “I um- nothing, just went on a hike and fell onto a log. Face first.” “Bullshit.” You replied confidently, going to the bathroom instead of him and rummaging through the cabinet under the sink until you found the small first aid kit. You placed it on the kitchen island next to you, hopping up on the cool marble to be eye to eye with him, going to grab some tools from inside the kit. “What actually happened?” You asked next and he sighed in defeat.

“I got into a fight.” He stated.

“A fight?” You asked, trying to keep your voice down yet still whisper yelling. “How- who, what- I mean where-” “It was at a bar not far from town, off the interstate. With a dick bag who was about to hit a girl. How, I don’t know, just kinda happened.”

“Gerard-” You sighed, getting out a small cloth and beginning to dab off his face where it bled as he hissed, “I know, hon, I know.” You said.

Hon, he thought, cute.

It took nearly 45 minutes to get him fixed up and into relatively proper shape. You weren’t sure if it was the incredibly dim lighting, or your continual fear of hurting him, but you needed to be as precise as possible.

“I- um, thanks.” He said nervously as you began putting some of the supplies away, still sitting on the countertop.

“No problem,” You replied simply.

For a couple of seconds he just stared at you. Your hands were meticulous with your work, he loved how caring they were. Your eyes still glimmered in the light being provided only by the stars and the moon from the windows around you, something he could even see as you were partially turned away. You were a gorgeous young woman, it scared him sometimes how stunning you were and being completely natural too.

He wasn’t sure what surged in him, but as soon as you looked back up he cupped your face with his rough hands and kissed you. Just leaned in, and kissed you tenderly. You froze in place, your eyes still open during the whole thing as your lips didn’t move one bit. He pulled away a few seconds later, examining your shock and disbelief.

“That was my first kiss.” You finally replied.

“Sorry if I took it away-” “No- I um, wouldn’t want it with anyone else.” You sheepishly said, trying to avert your eyes anywhere else and not making the awkwardness worse.

“Can I kiss you again?” He asked, this time placing a hand on your thigh as you gulped deeply towards the affection, “Sorry I didn’t warn you.” “Yes, please.” You replied, as both of you leaned in and kissed again, this time more cohesive and smooth with one another. His hand fell on your waist as yours went to his cheek, until you both finally parted ways. “Don’t break my heart, please.” Was the first thing you said, your eyes meeting with his in desperation and need for an answer, a real one.

“I could never.”

“How you feelin’ about this, Gee?” Mikey walked up to his older brother. He wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the suit or the fact he was getting married, but Gerard felt like he was sweating enough to supply all of the world’s water.

“Nervous, Mikey.” He admitted, “Really fuckin’ nervous.” “Oh c’mon,” Mikey smiled, “You guys have been dating for 7 years, almost high school sweethearts, well, in Y/N’s case at least.” Mikey sighed when he noticed that did almost nothing to calm his brother down, “Listen man, you and Y/N were meant to be. We all know that, we all see that. You two just fit together like some fucking puzzle pieces it’s so perfect. Trust me, don’t overthink anything. She is the best fucking woman in the world, you’re lucky to have her.” “I know, Mikes.” He said, “I think I’m gonna take a small walk, I just- need to breathe a bit. I’m so fucking nervous. What if I fuck it up? What if she doesn’t love me? What if-” “What if you go take that walk now and start thinking logically again, hm?” Mikey encouraged Gerard, pushing him a bit away from where the wedding was arranged was on the beach, that same place you had always called your second home right behind the set up.

It wasn’t like he had a single regret. Of course he didn’t, the last 7 years with you had been the best of his life. After you went off to college and crushed it, as you did everything, you found a job by where he lived, moved in together, started your own little life in a dinky little apartment in the middle of the city. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He loved you more than life itself. He woke up everyday knowing he was meant to be with you, knowing you were meant to be with him.

But part of him worried, you had never been with anyone else. He was your first everything. First kiss, first date, first romantic handholding with someone else, first serious relationship, first time you gave yourself fully to someone else. Wouldn’t it have been more fair if you had seen other people? Been with other people? Loved other people?

He had been pondering this question recently, and as much as everyone had told him how magical it was how everything worked out between the two of you, life was not a fucking fairytale and wasn’t always supposed to be.

“Hey there,” He heard a familiar voice, looking over to see your mom walk over to him. She looked pretty in her blue dress, a lot like you. “How ya feeling?” “Nervous,” He lightly smiled at her.

He had always found comfort in her, something he couldn’t always find in his mom. Your own mom always has to be harsher and stricter on you, that’s just their job. But aunts of other close people didn’t have to be, they could be brutally honest, but in a way that benefited you over them.

“Y/N is too,” She nodded, starring into the sea that Gerard was admiring as well. “I’m glad you guys chose to do it here.” “How could we not?” He lightly smiled, “It’s where it all started.” “It’s very poetic,” She mentioned, “But it matches your relationship perfectly.” He nodded at her thoughts, a subtle agreement. There were a few seconds of silence lingering between the two.

“I always knew Y/N would marry one of you two,” She remarked and Gerard’s head shot over to her, her eyes still fixated on the blue water with an ombre sunset background. “From the moment all three of you were in the same room together, I just knew my little girl’s heart would be handed to one of you two.” She continued, “It wasn’t until you were seven and she was three, then I knew it was you.” “How did you know?” He asked, curious and confused.

“The three of you were drawing at the kitchen table together. You’ve always had a natural talent and draw towards art. Y/N was struggling a bit, trying to draw a dog but failing time and time again. You noticed her little pout and frustration, walked over and helped her.” She smiled warmly, “I’ll never forget your little arms moving hers as you drew her a dog. It was innocent, of course. But it meant something more to her. She made the biggest smile I may have ever seen. I hadn’t seen her smile like that again until the morning after you two kissed for the first time.”

Gerard wasn’t sure what to say, he just stood there taking in all that she had said. “Just do me a little favor, Gee, okay?” She asked and he nodded.

“Anything.”

“Make her smile like that everyday.”

#gerard way x reader #gerard way x you #gerard way x y/n #gerard way x f!reader #gerard way #mcr gerard #gerard way fanfiction #my chemical gerard #my chemical romance #My Chem #my chemical gee #my chemical romance x reader #mcr #mcr fanfiction

[thetonethetollandthethunder]

Scythe chapter 16-20!!

Ayy we’re backk!! Let’s just get started shall we?

Chapter 16!!

-oh god the elegy—

-“Could you imagine me as a teenager?” OH YES I CAN OHOHO

-This also shows how much power scythes and especially Goddard has

-And also shows how bad of a scythe Goddard is as well

-Scythe Curie makes a good point that also relates to the toll, in which it doesn’t matter if they kill Goddard or anyone like him because another with the same ideology will always come along without fail

-this chapter didn’t have much but it IS good so ykyk

Chapter 17!!

-OHHH ITS THE MOMENT THAT EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MINDS OVER!! SCYTHE FARADAY IS D-D-DEAD or is he? :) :)

-Rowan instinctively trying to protect Citra!!!

-it makes sense for most disabilities to be nonexistent but that doesn’t mean I have to like it :/ like idk why the way it’s done is just :// especially as a disabled person myself

-The way the describe Faraday’d death is already suspicious if you already know he isn’t dead but when you’re first reading it, it does make sense!

-OH AND THE SEPARATE TRAININGS BEGINS!!!

-“If I ever take on an apprentice it will be for a different reason entirely.” OHOHO I KNOW I KNOWWWW

-Again not much to say BUT still rlly good!!

Chapter 18!!!

-Part 3 begins!!

-SCYTHE CURIE!!

-Again I always forget the names of these places, falling water is a very pretty name!!

-Citra being angry about Faraday’s death OUGH, she’s rlly going through 5 stages of grieve style

-Could you imagine ppl in the future calling our decor and shit old fashioned? Bizarre

-I love how they make Curie instantly charming and likable with only a few scenes, good writing man!!

-What hobbies would other scythes have? I wonder…

-Fun fact, i cannot drive, tried to learn and crashed the car, oh how I wish driving wasn’t necessary like in scythe

-Giving us little notes about the comfort scythes can give

-We hear a lot about being stagnant in the Scythe universe, and like, yeah, if you were in this utopia wouldn’t you grow stagnant even quicker than most? You have nothing to do literally

-You can really feel how observant Curie is, she noticed the small details

-Jesus even Curie’s yelling scared ME and I already knew what was gonna happen! She’s rlly intimidating—

-Gotta uphold your image!!

-“Another Scythe might have exacted a punishment far worse.” *COUGH COUGH GODDARD*

-Again shit names!! Barton Breen??? What??

-20 kids,, Jesus,,

-You can Curie’s own version of compassion, it’s different from Faradays yet still wonderful

-She did find her own way of gleaning!!

-Again FUCK Goddard!!

-I do wonder what would happen if Citra was trained by Goddard instead of Rowan…

-“Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.” GOD THAT LINEE

-Amazing chapter!! Told a LOT abt Curie!!!

CHAPTER 19!!!!

-Oo!! I thought this moment happened in Thunderhead but I misremembered!!

-Tho I THINK something similar happens??? Idk maybe my memory is fuckin with me ushejdj

-ALSO DAMN CITRA!! Pushin girls in front of TRUCKS holy fuck!!!

-Hate the eating descriptions!!

-TELL THE MOTHER YOU TWO!!! LIKE CMON??

-Cindy lmaoo, whenever someone whitewashes Citra im gonna call it Cindy instead <3 spite

-“err on the side of respect.” LMAO love that line

-RONDA ROADKILL IM DYINGGGGGG and so did she! (Temporarily but yk)

-“Can i throw you under a truck some other time?” She’s a busy person! I’d totally throw Citra under a truck! Would be fun!

-Morals change when theres little consequences, Citra would never even CONSIDER pushing Ronda in the mortal age, but since people can just come back it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing, it also shows how the concept of empathy and morality has changed in this society

-“the cloud” like icloud! Guess apple won in this world!

-“The machine had a purer soul than any human” NO IT DOESNT IVE SEEN AI ART YOU CANT FOOL ME!!!

-FUCK YOU SCYTHE GODDARD!!!

-OO TIME FOR CITRA TO INVESTIGATE!! I remember LOVING this plot so!!!!

Chapter 20!!

-Rowan finally!!! I missed you!!!!!

-He doesn’t wanna kill Citra!!! The beginning of his devotion to her UGHHH

-god hes only 17, I think we forgot how young these characters are, they really are just kids being pushed into this horrible situation god,,,

-“His was a life without substance, and now it would end.” God and here we see Rowan’s iconic self deprecating “emo” moments, people make fun of these scenes a lot but I fucking love em, it really contrasts Rowan and Citra. Citra has people who love and care about her, Rowan doesn’t, he knows that (in this moment) if he died no one would really care or remember him, so when he finds Citra, someone who does care about him and would care if he died, he clings to it. I mean when you’re that neglected and want SOMEONE to care even a little about you, wouldn’t you do the same thing?

-He already wants to change things!! And he will!! He will change a lot, though not as much as his girlfriend!!

-VOLTA!!

-“So is there a reason why you choose your robes to be the color of piss?” HA one of my favorite lines!!

-“the Change” god their ideology—, the fact they’re all thinking that they’re changing things for the better really shows how convincing of a man Goddard is, GOD i hate him!!!

-Ans here we have Goddard’s MANY parties

-my sensory issues would hate this

-I accidentally spelled Goddard’s name as Goodard which…Isn’t that so Ironic?

-“Bimbotech” Neal I’m BEGGING you to stop

-“Rowan wondered if the man had a diamond-studded bathing suit in his waredrobe as well.” He would because he’s a vain prick!!

-HES UNDERAGE STOP GIVING HIM ALCOHOL!! *Looking at you RAND especially ya creep—*

-“He was lucky if they even remembered to get him a gift” rowans parents man,,, He was really fucking neglected man it’s so awful, and the fact he still cares about them despite that GODDD

-See how goddard bend the rules? See how he twists them to make them fit what HE wants? Yeah, he’s gonna do that a lot; again, fuck you Goddard

-ESME!!! Shes backk!! And he’s right! She’ll be important!!

-GOD this is a good chapter, rowan my beloved!!

And that’s it!!! Next time will be chapters 21-25!! We’re going so fast aren’t we?

#the tone speaks #arc of a scythe #long post #this will make things a bit out of order apologies

[rion-writes]

Ohhh magnar?? For wip game

This fic is the one I am the most upset I haven't completed yet.

Fall 2014 where we still through Winds of Winter would come out within the decade. My best friend 5eva and I took a roadtrip through the Pacific Northwest and hashed out the entire plot points for this story. I bounced all my ideas off them and worked down to the nitty gritty about making everything canon compliant.

Things that happened in my life that pretty much wrecked me from any sort of fun fandom experience for 4-5 years made any staggered updates on this fic nil to poor. I also found that due to both source materials I could only work on this during fall/winter lmfao.

By the weirdest sort of coincidence that same BFF 5 eva finally picked up rewatching GOT and the terrible, awful, no good, very bad fanfic seasons and conclusion. We're talking about it again.

and it's fall/winter.

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Magnar is a Hannibal fanfiction set in ASOIAF. By set I mean pretty much every event that is happening in canon is happening in the background of this story, without actually seeing any of the 'main' ASOIAF characters. Most little folk and knights don't after all, but a few tertiary and secondary characters get a line or two to move the plots along.

Ser Jack Crawford, under the banner of King Stannis Baratheon, is sent to Skagos with his men including Bravosi sellsword Beverly Katz and houndsman Will Graham. Besides establishing King Stannis' presence on the island and the North itself they're escorting Maester Price and his Acolyte Zeller to work for the 'civilized' North at the request of the Citadel.

Namely, the portion of the island controlled by the Vergers and gifted to them for their service to the Targaryen throne. They claim to have roots in Old Valeria.

What concerns Ser Jack Crawford more than the legitimacy of the Vergers is the whispers going around the taverns and trading stalls-

That the Ripper of the Narrow Sea had made berth from Skagos.

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Magnar (9437 words) by Rionarch Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Hannibal (TV), A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter, Alana Bloom/Margot Verger Characters: Will Graham, Hannibal Lecter, Abigail Hobbs, Jack Crawford, Beverly Katz, Alana Bloom, Margot Verger, Baratheons (ASoIaF) Additional Tags: War of the Five Kings, Wargs & Warging (A Song of Ice and Fire), Greenseers & Greensight (A Song of Ice and Fire), Cannibalism Summary: As King Stannis Baratheon makes his play to protect the realm and solidify Northern support at the Wall, he sends his landed knight Ser Jack Crawford to treat with the lest vestiges of a Valyrian House, the Vergers, on Skagos. Magnar Hannibal Lector has other ideas he'd rather entertain.

I have a few chapters already up. Have a snippet of the next one.

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“Oh, do beg my pardon. I didn’t mean to startle any of you. I simply thought that if a caravan as well armed as yourselves was going to the castle it might be just the right time to go myself.” Flame red hair and sharp cheek bones might have done something to hide her if the verdant purple shawl hadn’t been the mainstay of the whorehouses in King’s Landing.  Lady Margot scoffed but Beverly wasn’t as sure. 

“I’ve seen you outside of Muskrat Holdfast. What’s your business with the Magnar?” Ser Jack cut her off and looked less amused by the minute.

“What does a whore have to do with the following of King Baratheon’s men?” Her smile was more stoic. 

“Well I’d certainly done enough in his late Majesty’s Baratheon service. I’m just a woman who looks out for other little deers and their interests. If you must know there’s a certain someone at the castle who I have to look after.”

#Magnar

[seance]

What are your thoughts about season 3 of TUA?

Let’s start with saying I’m now comfortable with admitting I liked it more than s2. Until episode 4 I was seriously worrying about the pace of the plot, it felt very all over the place but once the various storylines started to unravel, I was definitely curious about the direction they were pulling us towards. So there’s that, even though nothing can ever top S1 in my heart and that’s cause s3 suffer from the very same thing that made s2 so difficult to digest for me the first time around: tone inconsistency.

I want to make a huge disclaimer before I continue and that is: this is obviously an opinion I formed thinking about the show with a critical approach like I do with everything I enjoy, I like to think and talk about it “seriously” and then putting those thoughts into perspective if the context of said piece of media requires it. So don’t think I don’t know why the writers have chosen to give the show a lighter feel, a more nonsensical vibe etc. I’m not trying to over dramatize anything here, this is just something I really care about and I find it engaging and entertaining to talk about it with other people more in depth. ♡ At the end of the day, it is just a show about wacky interdimensional stuff.

THE CONS

With that out of the way I can surely tell you the one thing I disliked completely was Luther’s treatment and writing which I have already addressed in this ask but to reiterate I personally find the way they jumped from one characterization to the other incredibly jarring. This is not to say he can’t be the fun, affectionate one, I love that about him, love how it can be read as a deconstruction of the persona Reginald forced him to be to keep him complacent (stern, hyper responsible, detached) BUT it’s all taken to an extreme with him. Like they didn’t know what to do with his character after S1 so they decided to dumb him down, give him all the comedy gimmick, never again explain his train of thoughts and just leave it at that.

To add salt to the injury they immediately threw him in one of my most hated trope: romance at first sight. This is totally a me problem, I want everyone to know I acknowledge this but it’s a huge mood killer for me. I can uphold my suspension of disbelief for eldritch tentacles and time travelling teenagers but I draw the line at ‘I was moping and whining about my sister having married another man two hours ago but now everything I do or say will be for the sake of this random alternative dimension woman I just met in my old living room’. I’m sorry but no, it immediately antagonizes the characters for me, you do this and I can assure I’ll have to work twice as hard to even try to care about them in the slightest and it honestly sucks because I don’t think him and Sloane aren’t cute or don’t work in general. I just wish we could have seen at least SOME build up to it? One shred of her personality that didn’t involve her very sudden immortal love for Luther? It shined through in glimpses here and there but it still felt forced. That fact that he suddenly discards his family and even says her name as he dies, I mean c’mon. You have to SHOW me changes in your characters, you can’t just TELL me it’s there, this is the kind of writing that gets on my nerve. Especially because it wouldn’t have taken a genius to write it a little bit more consistently and still making it work. They had to finally separate Luther and Allison, which is more than fine (even tho I wish it wouldn’t translate in ‘they never interact normally again’), Luther needed to gain a new purpose, a sense of independence after being let down by his dad for one last time in s2 and having come to terms with his disillusionment and isolation. I’m really not a fan of implying he finds all this in a romance instead of building the characters separately and then maybe having the romantic relationship has a bonus, it would have felt 10x more natural and there wasn’t any reason to sacrifice their sense of self. The show made a point (S1) in characterizing the Hargreeves as people who have super powers but incredibly real, overwhelming, gritty and relatable problems. This entire storyline felt so disconnected from that kind of vision, I simply couldn’t get behind it.

A similar thing, in a less messy form, happened to Diego. Don’t get me wrong, I know they take care to insert bits and pieces of siblings interactions here and there but I’m starting to notice how they really struggle in actually managing their dynamics in a consistent, diversified way. Diego was basically isolated from his family all season. Not narratively speaking, it’s just that they always had him spend all his time with Lila and Stanley. Y’all, Lila gets to spend time on her own with Five and Diego don’t. He is just suddenly in dad mode and that’s it. He doesn’t have one single 1vs1 meaningful interaction with anyone else (brawl scene with Allison notwithstanding, that one I liked very much). Where with meaningful I mean somehow serious and/or relevant to the plot. This is the same character that gave us an incredible insight about him AND the others through his dialogues with Klaus (I have the sneaky suspicion they completely separated them in s2 cause of all the shipping but I’m still mourning them), Luther, Five and even Viktor. If you really think about it, we understand what life in the Academy was like at first through Diego’s eyes. I was honestly sad to see him kinda estranged now, they exacerbated his ‘slice now, ask questions later’ side and called it a day. Again, I know I’m generalizing on some things, he had some cute exchanges but in the grand scheme of things they just fell short to my eyes. Yeah, he had tears in his eyes when Klaus died but still they decided to write the scene like a gag and make it about him and Stan. As usual the new characters can only be developed at the expenses of the ones we already love and that’s why I find it so hard to grow attached. Anyway, my feelings about this are also totally biased and I know this, I never could grow fond of his relationship with Lila (I have an incredible resistance against putting female characters in all these little boxes right away: girlfriend, wife, mother, you have to fall in love immediately or we don’t know what to do with you, oh here you go then be plagued with thoughts and anguishes about your value as a woman once you get pregnant etc.) plus the ‘style’ of their dynamic is really not my cup of tea (constant teasing, manipulations and such) and that’s just about different taste in media tropes so yeah. I’m indifferent about them now, I like both as single characters and I guess I’m just feeling stressed about their story possibly being only about parenthood from now on. Again, totally makes sense for Diego, with all his internalized daddy issues, his sense of insecurity and his overcompensation, I’m glad they feel secure in their relationship and everything but god I wish the writing was different and didn’t hyperfocus on a single dynamic leaving out everything else. Also why did we see him grow into his powers, deviating bullets and such in S2 and this time around he barely touches his knives?

I’m gonna try and speed up from here about the other things that left me kinda eh: there are several plot holes I think? That break up the immersion for me. Like, this is a genuine question if anyone else want to pitch in but isn’t Reginald’s plan basically a retcon to S1? If he always knew about Obsidian and the sigil (and it’s implied that he did since he very conveniently adopted seven children for seven stars/bells in every timeline) and he specifically sent Luther to the moon to guard Abigail (personally preferred the version where it was ACTUALLY meaningless, ‘cause it was such a pivotal point for Luther’s development ugh), why the hell did he kill himself in S1? So the siblings could get together and save the world, that’s what we are told. But if they really had succeeded then what? He was dead, how did he think to put everything in motion then? He says something to Klaus about him expecting his son to summon his spirit and then we’re told in the same breath he purposefully raised them to fear their powers so how did he expect that to work? It could have been his plan all along, you say, the timelines, the dimensions… how? How could have he known that Five would be back? That Klaus would throw the journal into the trash? That Leonard existed and would have found it, that his plan to manipulate Viktor would work, that reconciliation among the siblings would be shaky at best, that they would end up in the 60s, in the same city where he lived years before they were born etc. they are just too many variables. Maybe he was not really dead? No! Klaus finds him in the afterlife so???? I have many questions about that, I hope they’re gonna go over it in s4 at this point.

I’m incredibly sorry to say, I still don’t care about the Sparrows. (picture me saying this like the “You know what I'm about to say it I don't care that you broke your elbow” kid) It was inevitable, there were just TOO many characters and the writers have proven times and times again that they struggle with balancing too many characterizations at once, something had to give. As a concept, they were incredibly interesting but the first three episodes, where it seemed like the main point of focus would have been their conflict felt so weird simply because it was based on something too silly like trespassing (as they put it, they didn’t manage to convey the real reasons very well). Zero depth there about their real motivations, the relationships they shared etc. We vaguely understand they weren’t really close from what Sloane tells Ben but then again, they talk about avenging their siblings in a scene and don’t care in the next, I don’t know everything about them felt strange, like they really were just some placeholder npcs that were never intended to take up much space. So I honestly felt nothing when Jayme and Alphonso died, don’t honestly understand why they wouldn’t tell us ANYTHING about Christopher, was he supposed to be some kind of comedy relief? If so I’m completely off that target audience. Fei and Ben were the only ones that kept me going in those few initial episodes, their dynamic was interesting and kept the tone of the series a little more serious which was what I personally needed. I’m disappointed they took Marcus out in less than an episode, those crumbs we got about his personality and the possible interactions with Viktor and the others were interesting. Also it’s totally not my place to say, but it didn’t really feel right to yeeet another black character this way.

With Sloane, as I was saying it was really just about wasted potential. I look forward to know her better (I know they aren’t gonna get rid of her so easily) but damn if I wish it wasn’t framed by the romance arc. Her powers are super cool? She’s obviously incredibly smart as we gathered from that 3 lines exchange she has with Five as they try to trap the Blitz. She’s very sweet, I liked how she was so open to know every Umbrella better if given the chance and Genesis’ performance was really good! So fingers crossed.

Ben’s everything felt like a huge scam ngl. I had the distinct impression they had cut a lot of content about him, like the Jennifer storyline. Everything about his character was, once again, told to us instead of shown. Kinda like a grocery list, you know? So yeah, he’s jealous, he’s resentful, he was once number one than he wasn’t anymore, anything else? He had his moments for sure and I understand the direction they wanted to take with him, I just think it would have benefitted from more careful writing. As a rule of thumb, I always prefer to see less stuff happening if that means it’s going to be written better instead of a thousand shallow plotlines.

Still not over the fact that they didn’t truly take their time to explore what it meant for everyone and especially Klaus to see him again. Luther, Diego, Allison and Viktor mourned him when they were sixteen. Five didn’t see him for forty-five years just to be told he died without being offered a real explanation. Klaus mourned him twice without having said goodbye and he was the sibling who knew him better than everyone else. Did you notice how everyone described Ben this season? He was the best of us, so sweet, so soft, so timid, so good. That’s what they remember from their childhood. Klaus tells Sparrow!Ben his brother was a dark cloud, he was annoying, he was relentless, he was a scold but he was THEIRS and they all loved him, Klaus loved him for it. Their bond was tried times and times again by the life they both had to lead from childhood to adulthood and it was strained in the end but it was also real and very deep. Episode 8 does a good job at making us see what really is going on inside their heads and how Sparrow!Ben is actually feeling the weight of the comparison. It was worth expanding imo, with Klaus especially being allowed to grieve.

The last real con I want to address is of course the elephant in the room which I kept for last cause in my opinion it’s exactly the monster child of this whole inconsistent writing: Allison and Luther’s scene. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by reiterating the fact that the act itself was horrible and not something anyone should ever condone but I think the real problem here is what they decided to do after. That scene was meant to show us viewers how desperate and how low Allison had fallen into her grief. It feels incredibly wrong to say but narratively speaking it could have made sense, it was indeed a very shocking, very intense scene. Emmy and Tom both did great in conveying how terribly wrong everything felt in that moment, how the actions of the characters were being portrait in a negative light which is obviously the intent here. I do not agree with never showing bad things on any media because these are things that happen every day and they tell a story. Allison’s struggle has always been about her relationship with her powers and validation, this is not all there is about her but it’s part of her identity as a character. While I am glad they framed the situation as wrong and that she stops shortly after in realization, what I do not agree with is how after that the writers basically never address it again. What’s the point of showing such a scene if you aren’t ready to write the aftermath with the same dedication and careful attention? If they knew it had to be that way then it would have been better not to put it in the show at all. Cause it wasn’t vital to Allison’s breakdown but could have had an important connotation for both her and Luther (how often do we see men portraited as the victims?). All they left us with instead is a half-assed message of ‘it wasn’t a big deal, you see?’ and that’s wrong cause it's a huge disservice especially to Allison’s character which is actually one of my favorite and represents something even more important for many of the viewers.

THE PROS

Whew, that was heavy. I’m sure I didn’t even touch all the points I wanted to address but honestly, we all need a little more positivity right now so onto what I liked instead! I’m at 2777 words, I’m gonna try to summarize for real this time oh my god.

Compared to S2 the siblings spent more time together actually talking and communicating. Not enough to avoid the usual trope of ‘sibling x disappears and not one notices’ and/or ‘I’m not actually gonna pay attention to anything you said’ that’s getting on my nerves lately ngl. But at least we had some more quality time among them and a good understanding of how closer they all got in the last few weeks.

Viktor’s coming out was handled in a very sweet, tender way. From what I read trans viewers appreciated it too and I think that’s really important. Absolutely loved the easy affection and immediate understanding from everyone else, it didn’t feel forced or anything, just personal enough to make it very soft and believable. On that note, it was a joy to see how Elliot’s and by proxy Viktor’s confidence skyrocketed after he was finally able to act in a body that felt more like his. His smiles were so contagious and I loved to see him so assertive and involved this season. His relationship with Allison is one of the most complex of the entire show and it made sense they focused on that to tell part of S3’s story but I look forward to see him interact with his brothers more in the future.

With the exception of what we have already addressed, Allison’s path was the most engaging to watch. Emmy was outstanding this season, I’m so glad she got her moment to shine because she’s a terrific actress and what happened to her character this season was something worth telling. Allison’s rage was a long time coming so it didn’t surprise me they chose that route, in this case even tho we don’t really know much about Claire and Ray (who’s still my fave extra character from s2, the only one I grew attached to) her motivations don’t feel forced or out of place because what’s matter is what we saw through her eyes. We just need to know how important they are, especially Claire, for her and that’s something that’s been consistent since S1. I related to her anger this season, grief is not all about sadness and withdrawal, it’s even more often about fury. And considering how she’s right about the others trying to minimize her anguish because it’s been 30 years and they’re still learning how to really exit survival mode where all it matters it’s your own well-being, her downward spiral makes total sense. Anger is a protective emotion but it swallows everything else more often than not, in her case it took away her inhibitions regarding her powers and the moral courtesies she usually extended to others and now felt weren’t really reciprocated. It was sad and intense to see her grow apart from everyone else but I’m curious to see what the reckoning is going to be.

Klaus and Five were part of why I liked this season way more than S2. I’m biased since they’re both my faves but I was just so glad to see them interact more in a less snippy way. This season addressed Five’s conundrum from a different perspective: he has lived all his life with the weight of something massive like the end of the world on his shoulders and he never had time to fill his head or his heart with anything else except this impeding sense of doom and responsibility. But he is tired and just like Luther, he is disillusioned because the universe seems intent in proving him wrong, in ending just the same no matter what he sacrifices to prevent it. It was very telling to see how this knowledge (that there wasn’t anything else he could do) liberated him instead of putting him down. He was finally able to soften his cutting edges, get to know those siblings he fought so hard to save better, let himself be known, indulge in the little things. To Five, trust is everything and he never trusted anyone, we are repeatedly shown this. Now he finally let himself lean on the people who know him and care for him and didn’t find them lacking. Confiding in Klaus, talking honestly with Viktor, being open to work with Lila, genuinely caring about what Luther wanted to do before dying, sharing an easy camaraderie with Diego, noticing what was wrong with Allison. He was so attuned to the human aspect of it all and that’s what, in the end made him choose to jump on the star against every instinct he had had up until that moment. Reginald keeps insisting on their similarities and it’s true, they’re similar in intellect, motives, methods but there are lines Five will never cross time and time again cause he’s willing to learn and part of him won’t lose that hope that kept him alive all those years in the apocalypse. His biggest vulnerability transforms into his biggest strength every single time and that’s something Reggie can’t take from him. Ps: loved his scenes with Lila, they’re really fun together and it’s interesting to see how their past in the Commission gives them this very peculiar vibe that only they share, their own rhythm. That said I would have loved to see him interact more with Ben and maybe it would have made more sense that at least part of Klaus’ storyline with Reginald would have been Five’s instead.

Last but not least, Klaus. You all know I could talk forever about him but that also means I probably already said everything I wanted to say in my various gifsets. I was afraid they would use him to completely redeem Reginald to our eyes and that didn’t really happen so I’m glad. I have to say, I kinda gaslight myself into finding a plausible reason why Reginald chose him to infiltrate the family since the show didn’t really bother with telling us. First of all, there’s the empathic aspect to consider. Klaus is one of the most, if not the most empathic sibling among the seven of them. It all gets mixed up with is erratic behavior but we are shown time and time again how much he cares. And that’s usually also his downfall because people tend to either abuse or distrust this part of his personality. What he lived through as a child and the instability that kept characterizing his years on the streets and his addiction made him maybe more fragile to emotional manipulation because he never really had anything to himself that wasn’t taken away violently afterwards. The number of interpersonal relationships he manages to maintain in the present are all dependent on his input for now because people don’t really seek him out. So for him, the possibility of rewriting part of his past with his dad, the most traumatizing figure in his life, was incredibly tempting and I get that. I don’t actually think he would have just stood there and got himself killed in that horrible way time and time again but I guess it was for plot and comedy (sigh) reasons. I appreciated seeing him grow into his powers, him remembering what really happened in that mausoleum but I have to say it was maybe more Robert and Colm’s performances that brought that intensity to life because like with everything else about Klaus, the writers have this habit of letting heavy important shit just slide, with every other character always underreacting or not caring at all. It was also all very short lived since everyone lost their powers now, hopefully not permanently because what the fuck. I’m just ? about why Reggie decided to leave him to die if he knew he needed the kids to activate the sigil (without Klaus he would have sacrificed Allison instead and that’s ic but the more the better, in theory?) maybe he was just afraid Luther’s ghost would manifest and tell him what really happened? I don’t know, it was heartbreaking to see (yet another betrayal from someone Klaus had grown to trust) but also a little bit thrown out there. The realization he comes to aka him not belonging to the living world, not deserving to live even because of his mistakes and the life he led was absolutely crushing, they immediately had to ruin it yet again with the funny lines but one day I will have my revenge and I hope he can have a real heart to heart with his siblings where they ALL listen to each other.

Okay I’m surely forgetting something (Reginald is an incredible character and even tho they keep tweaking him like they do everyone else, Colm manages to keeps a consistency to him that makes him absolutely compelling, just like Aidan does with Five. Very appreciated) but this is already impossibly long and impossibly messy probably.

To summarize, it is clear that S1 will never be topped, it was the perfect balance of serious topics treated seriously and light intervals of fun. But they had years to write it properly, now with Netflix it’s all about speed and the general public. To me, this will forever feel like a loss but I can only hope we’ll still get to enjoy the show overall like I did with this season in the end and maybe take it a little less seriously that I do.

#replies #the umbrella academy #anonymous #long post / #tua negativity / #but also positivity i swear! #i want everyone to know that if no one ends up reading this #that's so valid and understandable honestly #i've written fanfic shorter than this #i can't even proof read it cause i have to run #but i really hope i was able to convey at least some part of my thoughts <3 #tua meta