#either way i hope its a joke. i hope they're just leading people on

[99probalos]

well. how are we feeling about the nukie tease

#at least. i think thats what that was? #either way i hope its a joke. i hope they're just leading people on #ive only been an rlm fan for a year or so but goddamnit if they ruin their longest running joke... #theres just something comforting about the constant presence of nukie in their videos and knowing that they'll never ever ever ever ever #ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER do a video on it #but maybe.. maybe its time to let some jokes die #oh well. anyways #GOOD VIDEO except for when they talked about how the developer was right #it was much more jolly than last years christmas botw. which i liked #twas fun... just a bunch of guys watching fun films for christmas #anyways #bigfoot took the wheel #rlm

[stariikis]

𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 | 𝐤𝐬𝐧

synopsis ; you're definitely sunoo's number one photographer, said so even by himself. usually you're the first to be pointed out by him, but today he doesn't even spare you a glance before walking in his concert venue.

pairing ; guitarist!sunoo x femphotographer!reader genre ; hurt/comfort, fluff, established rs, oneshot disclaimer ; this is NOT an smau, i just included these two texts for context ^^ enjoy reading!

(click to expand pictures)

Hurriedly fishing your digital camera out of its pouch, you alight the bus and rush towards where hundreds, nearly thousands of people are congregating. There's a good mix of male and female fans, but they all have one thing in common - they're here to see your boyfriend perform.

Two teenage girls whisper behind hands to each other, barely concealing their excitement. You can feel their gazes burning your back alive as they try to subtly point at you, but it's no use for them. Before they can scurry off, you turn and wave at them.

As much as you would like to have your own meet and greet with Sunoo's fans, you slip past the blinding camera flashes, huge tripod set-ups and the bustling groups of fans to reach the front of the crowd. Hoping to catch a glimpse of your boyfriend before he makes it into the venue.

After apologising to several mildly annoyed fans, you finally stumble out of the crowd. And there, a little ways away, Sunoo turns to face you. Everyone around you starts to scream, when the artist begins to tug his guitar case from the back of the van.

While everyone marvels at the sight of Kim Sunoo right before their eyes, all you are looking at is the sticker you pasted on the back of his case. The signature he asked you to put, hidden next to the zipper. You wonder if everybody else sees it, too, or if it's a secret for you to keep.

Girlfriend privileges, you joke to yourself.

When Sunoo successfully heaves the case over his shoulder, a surprisingly loose grip on the sling, he turns back around to greet his fans.

Usually, his gaze scans the crowd to search for you. His eyes will visibly sparkle with an eagerness that can't be explained when they land on you. He'll grin to himself, do a tiny little wave of glee and continue walking to his destination.

However, this time, he seems either oddly sure that you're not around, or is plain ignoring your presence. Dramatically, like a scene in a movie or tv show, time seems to slow. Sunoo's eyes skip past you, moving with the crowd. And as the crowd moves with Sunoo and his bodyguards, the only barrier a few mere cones, you stand still.

You're fortunate that the strap connected to your camera is looped around your wrist when you drop the whole thing abruptly.

No. This can't be. You're not only Sunoo's girlfriend. You're his tip-top personal photographer. The highest HD qualities of him come from your digital Canon camera, and your camera only. You're not going to go home with an empty camera roll.

Relying on the hope that the security guards recognise you, you enter the area marked by the cones and dart after Sunoo.

"Yah!" You yell out, to nobody in particular as you enter the restricted zone in the stadium. It's a huge recreational area, off boundaries just for today's concert. Breaking through the crowd for the second time definitely stalled you for too long, because Sunoo is nowhere to be found in the empty room.

Across the dark, foot-ball field sized room, there's a staircase, leading to the backstage. You assume that's where Sunoo is, since he needs to rehearse with the two others in the band in about... you check your watch. About ten minutes.

You can hear Jungwon's voice trailing from the floor above, and that's what helps you make the decision to take the stairs up.

Why you decided to run, slip and fall at the first three steps of the staircase, however, you're not very sure. An agonising pain shoots up your ankle while your camera skids across the ground.

Letting out a hiss, you bring your hands to grab the base of your leg, willing the sharp pain away. Your head's a little dazed, but you can recognise Riki as he rushes down the stairs upon hearing the loud crash.

"Y/n!" He exclaims, doing a 360 to see if Sunoo's nearby. "What did you do? Are you okay?"

"No, not really," you wince a little sarcastically, trying not to break face in front of Sunoo's bandmate, who has assigned you as his punching bag of teasing remarks. Riki rolls his eyes and straightens up to call your boyfriend over.

"Sunoo! Your girlfriend's injured!"

Your eyes squeezed shut to block out the pain, you don't notice when Sunoo flies down the stairs and materialises right next to you after a few minutes pass.

"Hey, y/n, what did you do to yourself?" He presses an ice pack against your right ankle in lieu of your hands gripping it desperately.

"It's okay, I think it's just sprained," Riki sighs and continues unhelpfully, "you're such a bad boyfriend. I was the first one down here."

"Yah!" Sunoo glares his way. "You took one look at her and didn't know what to do and called me!"

"I'm joking, hyung," Riki raises his hands in a surrendering motion, the laid-back grin on his face never dissipating. With that, he spins on his heel and walks back up the stairs, leaving you and Sunoo in silence.

When you can't take the chilling quietness anymore, you blurt, "what did I do?"

You're prone to overthinking, yes, but there must be a reason warranting why Sunoo refused to acknowledge you there outside the venue.

"What did you do?" Sunoo echoes in confusion, tilting his head and adjusting the ice pack on your ankle. "What do you mean?"

"Did you not see me earlier?" you hiccup, and it hasn't even occurred to you that you're crying. The ice is doing little to numb the pain, and with Sunoo acting so off, you're not sure how to feel okay. "You didn't greet me, didn't wave. You just walked away."

"Y/n," Sunoo laughs, "I really, truly, didn't know you were there." He whips his phone out of his pocket and opens your chat, continuing to chuckle quietly to himself. "I'm so sorry I didn't see your texts. I had already reached the venue and had no idea you were there too. I assumed you were going to be late."

Your voice cracks embarrassingly when you say, "you could have at least tried," before shoving his shoulder gently.

"I'm sorry, baby," he murmurs, half-amused. He does not sound sorry at all. But then he leans back, pouts, and then kisses the top of your head. "I'll let you get even better resolution pictures, okay?"

Although Sunoo's interpretation of what an apology is... may be a little warped, he's still your boyfriend, and the show must go on. As promised, when you take your front row seats next to both Jungwon's and Riki's respective plus ones, you take the best, most satisfactory pictures you've ever taken.

you're just the best at photography aren't you 🥰

thank you for reading!! feedback is always appreciated.

more of my works >

#stariikis #enhypen #enhypen x reader #kim sunoo x reader #sunoo x reader #enhypen sunoo #enhypen imagines #enhypen au #enha sunoo #kim sunoo #sunoo #enhypen kim sunoo #nishimura riki #ni-ki #niki #riki #yang jungwon #jungwon #sunoo x you #sunoo x yn #sunoo au #sunoo fluff

[pinkandpurple360]

As much as I love Fizz, his character has been inconsistent. And until recently, hadn't thought about the negative aspects of his relationship with Asmodeus. I play devil's advocate with myself all the time and it's torture so sorry if this ramble goes on for too long; I'll do three main points (though it's stuff other people already point out so feel free not to answer if this is repetitive)

-At first it seems like their communication is actually pretty good, but in any relationship, ofc someone is gonna just wanna keep some stuff private. In Fizz's case, he has issues with perfectionism and rejection sensitivity (probably)- that apparently leads him to isolate an be a work-a-holic. While I appreciate Ozzie's way of voicing his concerns and comforting Fizz, it does suck knowing he was either forced to male the Fizz bots (or was making them before he met Fizz). Time line is a bit weird in my head but I assume Ozzie actually met Fizz maybe a couple years after Fizz started working for Mam? Unsure. Regardless, I understand Ozzie's protective nature, but it's overbearing and not the way you should be treating an adult.

-Fizz's insecurity and vulnerability is understandable. Maybe the confidence is a facade, but after ten years? I understand he may feel like a fraud or whatever but I do wish he had more confidence rather than constantly being Infantilized. There are other ways to show off Fizzarolli's more playful/childish side rather than just making him helpless. I mean hey, we see that childish nature come up with RoboFizz, except that version is the more malicious aspect. Just like with Millie, we could see fascination with "childish" things like amusement parks or whatever.

-His relationship with Blitzø. Tbh I think they could be platonic, romantic, or even a QPR (the hype is real), but goddamn it's just another issue of the narrative providing us with angst, which would be great if it were handled a bit more maturely. Personally, I think the shots of "who tops" and "could we make out" are kinda funny? But they're also unnecessary, and I can totally get why people wouldn't dig those jokes.

Looking into the dynamic more just makes me realize Fizz x Ozzie isn't "Stolitz but healthy," it's just another relationship with it's own problems and pitfalls (which is great for nuance) and there's still the unexplored (and unacknowledged) issue of the nuance of power dynamics in relationships

I may just be hopeful, but I really, really hope that the series explores more of the mature stuff as they get into the rest of season two, and begin season 3.

Sorry for this wall of text, holy cow

Everyone plays devils advocate at first don’t worry, its ok to not want to explore possible uncomfortable aspects of things we like and enjoy. For this ship it was hard for me too. But like you said, it’s about complex nuances and possible issues rather than just jumping to ‘toxic’ but the biggest thing for me? It was “I don’t like designing sex toys with your likeness for him-pretty sure you feel the same” Cmon Oz. You still did that. You still designed and built and shipped out these things, knowing Fizz is possibly uncomfortable, how did Mammon force you? Why are they conscious btw Oz…And if it is later written canonically that mammon forced him to do it, that’s a bit lazy. Every character makes mistakes after all.

Fizz hasn’t been too inconsistent up until this latest episode imo. Maybe we just didn’t know his full story. His cute side was hinted at back in Ozzies with that nuzzling. He was most definitely defanged in S2E7 though.

Miscommunication Issues…power dynamics..

“Well today I learned I hate going outside!”

“You won’t have to again.”

Look at that reaction…that’s not what he wanted to hear. :( that smile was put on. And now that Fizz quit his job, he really doesn’t have to go outside again except for Ozzies nightclub. I don’t know what’s next for him other than becoming Ozzies temporary spouse. The mortality/immortality dilemma is like the biggest elephant in the room right now for these two.

Fizz says that Oz is “someone who understands me”and many times he does, many times they communicate through eye contact alone, but a lot of times especially recently…he actually doesn’t understand Fizz. I love Asmodeus don’t get me wrong but let’s put the spotlight on him for a little bit. Nothing bad about examining some things.

And you’re completely right I mean…he calls him babe, baby, froggy, cutest little thing…and it feels like Fizz has to be very cute and submissive all the time saying ‘pwease’ for Oz to listen to him. This is likely Ozzies first real relationship and it being with someone so low on the hierarchy is making it a bit of a rough challenge for him.

Ozzies smiles are so cute they hurt 😔 Kronk energy sometimes with this guy.

There is some choices made to not communicate about stuff. Not because Ozzie is abusive, he is actually not, but because there are things they don’t talk about when they really should. And secrets between them. Even if they’re badly kept.

wice now it seemed like Ozzie side stepped Fizz’s worry and anxiety over the status of their relationship being exposed. And he says “I don’t care both times” it’s always “I” and this implies he used to care yknow? We’re just kinda lucky Fizz turned out to be ok with both of these decisions. Imagine if the crowd got angry at Fizz instead and accused him of being a gold digger (which was written in the magazine from Oops)

Fizz and Blitzos relationship is something Ozzie definitely doesn’t get. And to be fair it is the most complicated one in the show. Blitzø isn’t just ‘that guy fizz hates’ and he knows it. His former bestie lifelong enemy then recent hero sortve rekindled friend blitz is a mystery.

Idk if it (blitzfizz history, power dynamics of class) will be explored without Ozzie and Stolas’ feelings being shoved in there some way. Or striker saying stuff then just getting punched out of the way for asking too many questions. I wish they could have a break from them. And like you said, comparing relationships never really works cause everyone is different. I’m not sure where they’re going with this but I can’t help but hope the pairings don’t stay rigidly stagnant. Right now they feel forced and set in stone.

#helluva boss critical #Fizzarozzie critical #</3 that tag hurts #I’ll be the first to open this can of worms it seems

[softie-bat]

my take on sagau ... ♡

if you cant tell , my mental sillies make me a sucker for the obsessive cult aspect of sagau (burn me at the stake i guess) but idk the whole "imposter" thing feels weirdddddd i always prefer creator!reader to be like isekai'd into teyvat yk (can you tell i used to be obsessed with the kuroshitsuji time travel au .....) ?? anyways have this while i decide if i want this to be a full series or just a mini series

notes : gn!reader , creator!reader , r is not traveler , they them used , this - like most of my writing - is self indulgent hinted with some projection , bulleted list cause its 4am when im typing this and acrylic nails suck , i mainly refer to reader as either r or creator enjoy <3 i wrote this while listening to this playlist ♡

okay so i feel like the self awareness began longgggg before this takes place ok

starts out with traveler , then albedo , then kaeya , etc

it takes a while but albedo finally finds a way to bring r to teyvat

i imagine that the acolytes can hear r when they play (esp the traveler)

if you're like me and dote on all of the characters you have they eat that shit uppppp bro

anyways so now r is isekai'd into teyvat yayyyy

it takes them a whileeeee to get used to being an all-powerful being cause like .......... ??? social anxiety ?? inability to communicate with neurotypical people ? depressive and manic eps ?????? mood swings ?????

eventually they kinda fall in the swing of things

damn if i was stuck in teyvat id just deal with it. you got some other way out ???

i view the acolytes as being obsessive in nature once r is like ....... there with them ( with due respect , that is the "creator" n all .... )

immediately wanting you to find a suitor ( or multiple )

by like the second month of being in teyvat r is WORNNNNN OUTTTT

everyone basically walks on egg shells around them oHMY GODDDDD

r has to basically beg the acolytes to stop being WEIRDDDDDDDDD

they feel weird being treated like a god ( well ....... )

they do kinda like their dreamy palace tho <3 its nice n has really cozy beds to nap in

their acolytes are also more than eager to nap with them om gee

r is a big fan of hanging out with the twins ( i like to think they're reunited when the creator comes to teyvat <3 ) they've all been to so many diff worlds they have a lot to chat about ( and also the twins are really the only charas to be semi chill around r )

oh ok random but also

r is visiting mondstadt and plays minecraft songs on the lyre and everyone goes CRAZYYYY

"it's their divinity's holy songs!!!!" cue the inner giggling cause its literally just minecraft music you memorized in like middle school

r is lowkey a huge flirt too once they get comfortable in teyvat ( they most likely hope this is just a dream and when they return home if they return home ...... that it'll have no real consequence cause it's EMBARASSINGGGG )

this leads to

well

jealousy lol

the acolytes basically beg them to find a consort or suitor or whtvr ( or even multiple :thumbsup: )

r tries to be fair and choose like 3 from each nation but cmonnnn ,,,,, wom en fdjfheskrf.vja

genshin makes me [ cries in bisexuality ] i wanna make out with like half of the characters

anyways def lots of fights between the nations about where their aforementioned palace will go ( r decides to station in inazuma , preferably near kokomi's shrine place ) and since r can still use the teleport points , it's fine by them if they wanna visit venti for some dandelion wine or zhongli for tales and tea

overlooking the whole imposter or villain au's i like to think being isekai'd into teyvat would be pretty chill

oooo r def likes to hangout / help out in bakeries n stuff

they're also besties with hu tao ( they kiss sometimes probably )

r and cyno have so many inside jokes pls help

idk maybe i'll continue this later or add onto it but im sleepy night guys

#genshin impact #genshin #creator!reader #sagau #sagau fluff #self aware genshin #self aware genshin au #sagau x reader #i love angst n gore but im also a sucker for fluffy obsession #gods pls let this reach the right ppl #i want more ppl to talk ab sagau with

[moonjxsung]

STAR IM DEVASTATED so i have a priv twt acc right w some irls and this stay from stayville req-ed me a long time ago and i was soooo happy that i was mutuals w someone from stayville and i THOUGHT everything between us was cool? but today they unfollowed me and removed me as a follower and im devastated i dunno why they did that :((( i don't think they had a problem w me saying nsfw stuff cuz they previously tweeted things like "cancelling someone over saying smth nsfw abt an adult is stupid" and also ive seen them interact w nsfw minsung posts so i dunno if me tweeting smth like "i wanna suck flxs cock sooooo bad" couldve made them wanna break the mutual??? i dmed them too and i was like "heyy is there a reason you don't wanna be moots w me anymore </3" and not even minutes later they turned off their message perms and im devastated. its STUPID bcs they'd barely interact w me Sure but it felt nice to have a stay be my friend on my priv twt that's usually just for my irls and i </3 it's ironic that they did that too bcs just earlier today (before they broke the mutual) i noticed that my followers went down (i have a very low amt already. like. 25. not even joking) and i tweeted "yall dont wanan be friends w me anymore </3" bcs like. my followers are QUITE LITERALLY only my irls + a skz writer so i was (i think rightfully??) alarmed that the number went down!!!! man im just Sad about it and SIIIGH i know i shouldnt care so much bcs at the end of the day they're just a person online but the least they could've done was dm me back and explain why and GHFSDDSJHFKJADDSDSAAAAA you get me!?!! also im sorry i dropped this on you randomly feel free to ignore LMAAOOAOAO can i be 💫 anon? thank yew <3

(Adding 💫 to the anon list!!! Also fun fact that’s my favorite emoji of all time. Slay)

I feel like I’m the LAST person who should be giving advice abt this bc one of my mutuals and a very good friend of mine who I’d been talking to every day randomly blocked me on everything this week after me literally being there to console this person for every little thing and playing into this pretend homoerotic friendship we had even though she was clearly looking for another boyfriend and would get mad if I even called another girl pretty (???) I wish nothing but the absolute best for her but like…. The double standard is WILD. to not provide closure to a months-long friendship is just genuinely a very mean spirited thing to do imo.

(If she’s reading this, best of luck with everything and I hope you know I cared for you a lot more than you think I did. I distanced myself because you were clearly looking for someone to fill a void in your life that I could simply not fulfill, and I didn’t want to lead you on, nor be kept around like I wasn’t allowed to talk to other girls either. Regardless, I hope you know I used to sleep with my phone on full volume in case you called, and I deleted a page worth of poetry in my notes app for you I meant to deliver on your birthday. I also deleted your number so I have zero way of contacting you, but I will always be here if you need me. Take care and I love you always, I hope you still see me when you look up at the moon)

It’s not the first time I’ve lost an internet friend to the magical world of blocking, but fortunately the attitude I’ve developed towards it is that none of this is real!!! These are people on the internet miles away you’ve never met irl and they have no real impact in your life whether they remain following you or not. I’ve lost internet friends nearly a decade ago that I don’t even remember anymore. Better ones will come along!!! Especially stays! This fandom has so many beautiful remarkable people who are actually worth following and they wouldn’t cut you off like that. Sending so many positive vibes your way and I KNOW that the universe will send you some better mutuals. In the meanwhile I will be your internet bestie and I would never unfollow you for nsfw content or without some form of an explanation. And I also want to suck Felix’s dick. 🩷🫶

(I love you, don’t be so hard on yourself!!!! You’re wonderful, angel 🩷 anyone would be lucky to be moots with you)

#💫 anon #ask

[nitewrighter]

Hello (there is a prompt at the end of this I promise)

I had a dream about Gency and it reminded me of you bc I used to love love LOVE Gency (still do!) and your fics are so well written and I am so sad that Blizzard fucked up overwatch (and it’s lore kinda?) over the last couple years :(

Also the way they removed a bunch of Gency interactions and are kinda like..changing their relationship dynamic? And the line in the biography story mode thing about how mercy was genjis cyberneticist?? even though she previously was never mentioned to like… do that stuff and that kinda reframes how they interacted pre-fall and its a minor thing but it really just grinds my gears :(

(I pretend it is not canon because i know overwatch better that the current OW2 writers 👍)

And pushing more Pharah/Mercy stuff after literal YEARS of gradual Gency buildup in OW1?

and also the way some Gency artists literally don’t feel SAFE to post their ship art (of a ship that actually has a decent amount of support and is based in canon, mind you) on Twitter.. but that’s more a Twitter thing than anything

i wanted to be into this games lore so bad and i used to have such a good handle on it and now every so often i get this huge wave of nostalgia when i look back over fics from years ago and get sentimental and mad over what was and what could have been (just in general) if blizzard didn’t fuck it up :(

admittedly I haven’t examined what’s going on in the lore of the game too much over the last couple months, so if they revived it somehow or Mr. Developer looked us in the eye and said “Gency is real” then throw this whole thing out the window 😭

Anyways there was a really cool plot to the dream and i was gonna give you a prompt so you could write something akin to it if you ever wanted but I now forgot the plot ☹️ but I love your writing and i hope even in your creative, non-overwatch-related endeavors, all goes well

hmmm but here’s a prompt idea (I don’t know if this would actually be in line with the canon for your overwatch prompts now, it’s more of a what-if):

what if Genji and Mercy crossed paths after the fall of overwatch? Before they started sending each other letters, before the recall, by pure coincidence—maybe before or while Genji was under Zenyatta’s teaching—either way, he isn’t at peace with himself yet. Would Genji try to hide his identity? Would he feel like he isn’t good enough to face her? Or guilty after she goes, missing a one-in-a-million opportunity to connect with her again? Or maybe they do talk, but are obscured and don’t know who the other is until too late? Or maybe they fully know who the other is—what do they say? What do they do? I am super interested to read your take on this prompt if you ever want to write something akin to this!

I am going to. binge all your Gency fics now. Goodbye

First of all... WOW! Thank you for taking the time to write all this! And also thank you for reading my gency stuff. I still love them too, for all my disillusionment with Overwatch and its overall storytelling. I definitely share your sentiments with regards to the fact that the revolving door of writers has basically lead to Overwatch no longer giving a shit about continuity and actual storytelling and just defaulting to what they think will suck the dicks of fanon in the most satisfactory manner. And it's not just writing Gency out of existence either--it's about erasing the tragedy of Widowmaker and the complexity of Reinhardt. It's about reducing Gabriel to a shitty radicalized cop. It's about bringing in characters who make no sense chronologically and have fuck all to do with anything and honestly just heighten the truth of the "stereotype+fetish" joke of Overwatch character design (Yes, I'm talking about Kiriko and Illari). It's about bringing in Mauga 4 years late and acting like they're the cleverest damn people in the world for doing it. It's about expending an absurd amount of narrative and advertisement funding and energy on fucking ASHE of all members of the cast.

Okay--okay--I'm calming myself down.

With regards to your prompt, I'm just going to say, I played the general timeline out between Genji and Mercy the way it played out with very specific reasons. The truth was, as far as character development goes, for all of his love of Mercy (as far as my fic continuity goes) Genji simply wasn't in the mental or emotional space to have a healthy relationship with *anyone,* let alone Mercy. And that's also why I have him mentioning hooking up with Cassidy during his time in Blackwatch in the broad general fic continuity, because it's this very fucked up emotional period for both of them and they have this *very strong link* for a time but as they progress to healthier mindsets they both sort of outgrow each other. Genji moves on to Angela and Cassidy moves on to Hanzo and that's *good* because that indicates they've both grown into their own respective people past being in a really painful codependent state.

The *whole point* was Genji getting away from Overwatch, hallucinating Mercy at his lowest point, and realizing *he* needs to be the person to get himself out of his most fucked up mental corners, and then meeting Zenyatta so that he can develop the right mental tools for that. I'm realizing this is a very western interpretation of this, but then again Overwatch slotted in Robot Jesus with Aurora so fuck it, but if I had to break it down into a solid narrative, it's a Divine Comedy where Genji is Dante, Zenyatta is Virgil, and Mercy is Beatrice. You can have your idealized love and your most beloved mentor, but ultimately YOU have to claw YOUR OWN way out of hell.

If he met with Mercy or made contact with Mercy at any point before Zurich exploded in my fic continuity, that wouldn't give catharsis for ANYONE. The only position they would be in, would be for angst wank. And like, YEAH, I *can* write Gency angst wank that doesn't actually go anywhere and doesn't contribute anything to the characters beyond making them feel sad, but honestly I'd rather write my Anarky-Assassinated-President-Lex-Luthor fic. That's a nice fatty mutton bone I can chew on.

[mitchywitchythings]

Death Is Always Inevitable

Summary: Life is unfair. That’s what you’ve always known, so you fought back against it. Which leads you to where you are now, on a battlefield with people you’ve only known for a while. Will you be able to save everyone or will it all end in a massacre?

Warnings: Blood, Violence, Language, Gore, Angst, Death, and Timeline is messed up

Paring: Todoroki Shoto X Fem! Reader

Word Count: 10,898 Words

Chapter 2 : | Series Masterlist

How many years has it been since then? Since I've signed away my life and dedicated it to protecting humanity and fighting against the titans. It's a bit of a blurry memory, signing up for the cadets at only 12 years old because of the breach of Wall Maria. I had nowhere to go and I was all alone. I had no family and friends, they had all died either from debris thrown at them when the wall was kicked down or either eaten by the titans.

I remember the gruesome training that I received, but I did make some good friends there and for a while, I was truly happy, but of course, that was all before they were all slaughtered and eaten in front of me by the titans. The titans… I hate them, it's only natural as everyone else does. They took our homes, families, friends, and pride. I joined the survey corps to fight against the titans in hopes of taking revenge against them.

It was pointless of me to think of that. I realized that no matter what I sacrifice or how hard I work, they’ll just keep coming back to take more and more innocent lives. I could only watch as my friends kept on dying in front of my eyes in every fight against them, whilst I could only stare and fight other titans because I was also trying to save myself.

We were fighting to survive and to live another day. Day by day we began to lose our will and sanity. But when we finally discovered that there was a world beyond the walls, that there were other people outside, that we weren’t alone. I was happy… There was hope.

But then again we’d have to fight for it just like everything, we weren’t only fighting monsters now, we were turning into ones. Titans were also once human, but since they've turned and no way to reverse it unless you eat a titan shifter of course. I feel bad for the person trapped inside the titan of course. Knowing the truth about titans, knowing that they don’t understand what they’re doing, knowing that they're trapped in a nightmare.

Yet I still can't find it in my heart to forgive them. The hatred that grows in my heart towards them only keeps on growing with every human they mercilessly slaughter. But they're not the only ones who kill humans, we too do that as well, but of course, they were our enemies, and day by day, I was slowly beginning to lose the hope that I newly obtained.

That was all before, now everything's changed. I was given a mission by Commander Hange to infiltrate a high school. I was entrusted with this mission because only I could fulfill the spot. They needed a 15-year-old and being the only 15-year-old and youngest among the scouts, the job was already mine from the start. It’s a mission for a maniac if I’m being honest.

But I took it anyway as it's my duty. What's interesting about this mission was that the school I would infiltrate wasn't any regular school. No, it was a school for heroes. Children from the age of 15 who are gifted with great power called quirks enter here and for 3 years they train to become heroes. Heroes… I see them as a joke, there is no such thing as a hero. Not anymore at least.

"Ackerman! Don't fall behind." A man named Aizawa yelled at me from the front of the class.

Snapping out of my thoughts I quickly caught up with the group, "Yes sensei, I apologize!"

The class I was put in was class 1-A. I entered the school around 6 months after its opening. It was after the fall of their supposed number 1 hero, All Might. And because of that, it made everyone suspicious of me being a villain. I can tell that everyone doesn't fully trust me, especially Todoroki Shoto. I needed to earn all of their trust because that's the main point of my mission.

I'm currently wearing my old uniform minus the cape. We're walking towards this big hero agency that's located on the topmost floor of this tall building. The class around me conversed excitedly around me. I tried to join in with them, some politely let me while others looked at me with disgust as though I was a villain. In the end, I ended up having a one-sided conversation with the boy who distrust me the most, Todoroki. He looked at me with suspicious eyes as I conversed with him regarding the place we were going to.

"Isn't it exciting? I can't wait till we arrive at the agency." I smiled and talked excitedly

"Yeah…" He replied practically annoyed with my voice

He practically deemed I was a villain without any sort of proof. His eyes silently glared at me as I talked. I wanted to yell at him that I'm truly not a villain, but that would make a scene, which would lead to me becoming more suspicious of being a villain and the U.A. traitor. So I fucking suck it up and let him continue to silently glare and look at me in disgust.

He kept on making rude glances my way and I so wanted to slap him in the face for it. But then again if you were in his shoes then you’d understand why he was doing that. Almost everyone in school firmly believes that I’m a villain and that I deserve to be expelled. However, despite how everyone treated me, I needed to ignore those comments and rumors because the mission required it. That’s why when this mission is finally over I will smack everyone who comments on me, hard in the face without holding back or having any hesitation.

~~~

We hid in an abandoned warehouse for about 2 weeks since we first arrived here in Japan after getting information out from Yelena. She told us about how every nation that knew about titans and such were all afraid of the nations who had quirks.

They called those nations, Oddity, because of their quirks. All of the other nations hid from the Oddities because of how advanced their technology was compared to everyone and also if we were to attack them, the Oddities would have an advantage because a lot of their people have quirks and they could use those quirks to their advantage to defeat the titans.

But word reached Yelena that within a few months the Marleyans would begin their attacks on the Oddities because based on a recent experiment they did, quirks no longer have effects on titans and if they were it didn't have that great of an effect. There was no proof to back this up of course since it was a rumor. But at the moment all we had going for us was that rumor.

We had no hopes of defeating the Marleys who were already determined to defeat us. So we came up with a plan, we had no other choice but to somehow manage to form an alliance with the Oddities so that we could find a way to defeat the Marleys. This is where I come in, I was offered a big mission.

I was to gain the trust of the Oddities by enrolling in their topmost school and getting connections with the heroes there. And when the time comes, that the Marleys would attack the Oddities, starting with Japan, we would help Japan survive and defeat the titans. After that, we would form an alliance.

"Ackerman, do you fully understand your mission? Do you accept it? " Commander Hange asked me in our private meeting.

"I accept."

"Good. You'll be enrolled in U.A. High within a week. Leave the rest to us, for now, train with Levi to pass the entrance exam. I want you to get to the top. I know that's hard since you don't have a quirk but I'm sure you can use your Ackerman skills to help you." She said seriously as put both hands on the desk.

"Yes, Commander." I replied just as seriously as she was.

"Hey brat, your training begins now." I turned around only to see Captain Levi leaning on the door frame, his hands tucked in front of his chest.

"Levi! Right on time! Don't be too harsh on (Y/n) here." Hange quickly joined in as her old self.

I remembered how Captain put me on endless training to improve my combat skills, we also focused on mastering different sorts of weapons. I was somewhat glad that I could improve on my skills outside of killing titans but now I wasn't allowed to use the ODM gear anymore since I wouldn't be using it in U.A. which sucks a lot. I loved using the ODM because of the thrill it gives me every time I use it and now to have it taken away really does suck.

~~~

We now entered the building and headed towards the elevator, we would go up by batches and meet the pro hero who would teach us new lessons for hero stuff. I was included in the last batch of students. When we arrived at the top floor, I was amazed by the view I was met with. It overlooked the city and the weather was just perfect, the sunlight hit the city perfectly too. I ignored what the hero who was showing us around his agency had said and instead enjoyed the sight in front of me.

We were to spend the rest of the day learning the way a hero should run their agency, but I don't care about learning that. I wasn't Midoriya who would take notes of everything that could help you become a great hero. I'm me.

A while had passed and it was a miracle that the League of Villains hadn't popped out yet to terrorize us. I've met them a few times during my short stay here in class 1-A and believe me when I say this. It gets annoying how many times they try to attack us and then proceed to fall back because they lost.

It was now around 3:30 PM, 30 more minutes and we could go home. Well more like going back to the abandoned warehouse. We were now heading to the stairs that lead to the rooftop. The pro hero of this agency said that we could use the rest of the 30 minutes to watch the view of the city from the rooftop. I was in front of everyone and I was excited to see the view more than anyone else, who knew? Maybe this will be the last time I get to see a city like this. Little did I know, that was the truth.

I was mesmerized as I pushed the door open excitedly and a soft cold wind blew through me. Walking towards the edge of the building, I gripped tightly to the rails as I leaned forward to get a better view of the city. I could hear the bustling that went down on the streets below us as I felt the slight shiver of goosebumps run through my arms and the hair at my nape stood on its ends.

"Ackerman! Please don't lean on the railings you might fall!" Iida yelled at me, which I ignored.

"I know you're excited, Ackerman. But listen to your class representative." Aizawa-sensei came up from behind Iida.

"Alright, fine." I pouted and I let go of the railings and walked back towards the group gathered at the center.

We spent around 15 minutes conversing and enjoying the calm breeze blowing in the air. When Aizawa-sensei thought that since there was nothing for us to do, he could let us go home around 15 minutes earlier. So he made his way to the front of the class and began to make the announcement.

"Alright, class. Since there's nothing left for us to do. I-" Aizawa-sensei was cut off by the sudden sound of grappling hooks unsheathing themselves and wrapping themselves around the steel railings behind him. The loud 'clanking' and 'screeches' it left made everyone's ears cringe and hurt, but I was used to it so I guess it didn't bother me much. Immediately Aizawa-sensei turned around only to be stunned by the sight of more grappling hooks wrapping themselves around the railing.

"Prepare, they could be villains!" Aizawa-sensei yelled out to the whole class.

The only thing that ran through the class' mind except for (Y/n), was 'Is this another attack by the LOV?!'. Instead of thinking the same thing as everyone else is, I instead thought about what and why they are here. Everyone immediately prepared themselves for a fight that they thought was about to occur and before (Y/n) could say that those weren't villains. People with green cloaks and a strange device wrapped around their hips flew in the air only to land on the rooftop with the class. Aizawa-sensei was about to wrap his weird scarf around the one right in front of him, but then the supposed villain asked a question that shocked everyone.

"Is (Y/n) Ackerman here?" A woman with a black eye patch around her eye and was wearing glasses over it asked very calmly as though what she just did was an everyday thing for her, which was true.

All the while this was happening, (Y/n) who was at the back of the class started to panic and run towards the front, ending up shoving a lot of people off in her way the front. 'Shit! This is it, isn't it?!' I practically screamed in my mind in panic as my heart began to beat even faster than before as adrenaline was beginning to pump through my blood

"Commander! I'm here!" I yelled out as I shoved through everyone, not caring at the moment that I was being rude.

"Oi, bitch! Don't shove me or I'll shove your ass off of this building!" A very angry Bakugo was yelling at me as I shoved him, but I didn't care.

Saluting in respect for Commander Hange in front of everyone, "(Y/n) Ackerman, reporting!" I yelled as I finished saluting and put my hands on my back.

Everyone stared at me with confusion written on their faces. Hundreds of questions ran through their minds

"(Y/n), please give me a report of the class." Commander said seriously, which made me more nervous than before.

“Ackerman, I'm warning you! Step away from the villains now!" Aizawa-sensei yelled at me, his suspicions of me being a villain growing even further.

"As of now, nobody in class 1-A, or any class in U.A. High for that matter, including teachers, don't trust me enough. They all believe I am a villain sent by the League of Villains to infiltrate them from within."

"Ackerman! You're the U.A. traitor, aren't you?!" Aizawa-sensei's suspicions were rising through the roofs, he really didn't want to have a student who was a villain. No one would.

Aizawa-sensei was heard by them but ignored, which made him annoyed and so he took a fighting stance at his student. Prepared if he must use his quirk to stop Ackerman if she finally decides to reveal what quirk she has. He's rationalizing his thoughts and preparing multiple strategies in his head, but he can't pull out any moves until they move first. So he decides to motion to his students to just watch, listen, and prepare for a fight.

~~~

"Shit! We need to contact the pro hero running this agency for backup!" Todoroki whisper-yell to Midoriya who was right beside him.

"I know, but the villains are blocking the exit! They must have planned this in advance!" Midoriya replied to the dual-haired male.

"Deku-kun! My phone has no signal, I can't contact anyone!" Uraraka showed her phone to him

"It's probably because of how high we are, the signal can't reach us!" Midoriya replied to her

"What do we do now?!" Kaminari said out loud in exasperation, "C'mon! These villains really don't give us a break!"

"I'll make a radio to contact the heroes downstairs!" Yaoyorozou whispered

Everyone quickly huddled around her to cover up her using her quirk to contact the heroes below. But unbeknownst to them, the scouts had already surrounded the whole building and were busy having a battle. The scouts weren't trying to create a fight with the heroes, in fact, they were trying to warn them of the fact that enemies are heading their way here. But of course, they didn't believe them, because why would they?

They had nothing credible to back them up. All that the heroes could see were crazy maniac people, who claimed that creatures called titans were going to devour this city. However, things took a quick change when the heroes finally noticed that under their cloaks were in fact swords and missiles. The scouts below were winning the fight, only because they were moving more quickly and efficiently than the heroes with the help of their ODM gear.

Yaoyorozou, who had just finished making the radio, quickly tried to contact the heroes below them. Everyone surrounding her was creating distractions in order for her to contact the heroes by asking questions to the apparent villains.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" She called out

"Cr-Creati?! Is that-that… You?" A voice yelled out from the radio and in the background, they could hear a lot of yelling

"Yes, we're in desperate need of backup! Villains are surrounding us!" She yelled back to the radio that keeps on cutting

"You…! Own-! Fi-Fighting! Ca-n't help-p!" The voice yelled back before it finally became too distorted and no one could understand them until it fully stopped and static was the only thing that could be heard.

"We're on our own. We can't rely on the pros to help us out this time." She looked nervously at Jirou who was beside her.

"Don't worry, we'll get through this. We always do." Jirou whispered reassuringly to the girl beside her and kissed her on the lips.

~~~

"I see, (Y/n). Do you think that you could still convince them to evacuate the city?" Commander asked me

"I can." I replied a bit nervously

"Evacuate the city?! What is going on Ackerman?!" Aizawa-sensei was now really on edge.

"Is this it?" I questioned calmly but inside I was panicking.

"Unfortunately yes, we intercepted Reiner from the radio, saying that they are already heading here." Hange said

"How much time do we have left?" I asked

"We’re not sure, but we'd give an hour at most." Captain intervened

"I'll do my best then." I replied

"What the hell is going on?!" Bakugo being the attention seeker he was, yelled out

"Ackerman, are you a villain?!" Kirishima-kun looked at me in hopes that I'd say no.

"You're the U.A. traitor aren't you, Ackerman?!" Aizawa-sensei yelled out, making everyone's head turn at me.

'U.A. traitor?!' Everyone stared in disbelief at me. Although they had already predicted that I was. Ignoring everyone behind me and tuning all of their questions, I began to ask the commander for orders.

"We'll need you to contact the mayor of this city and convince him to evacuate it." Hange spoke

"Alright, I understand commander." I replied professionally

"One more thing, (Y/n). I need you to look out for this class and help then evacuate the civilians. There are ships at the pier, we'll use those to bring them back." Captain Levi said

"What?! With all due respect captain, but I could be more of use if I was in the field helping everyone fight instead of babysitting." I rationalized

"What the fuck do you mean by babysitting, you shitty idiot?! I don't need anybody looking out for me!" Bakugo screamed to which Kirishima had to hold him back to avoid Bakugo from starting a fight.

"It needs to be you. You're the one who's their classmate. They trust you the most so we need you to protect them and help them evacuate as many people as possible." Armin cut in

"Fine, I'll do it." I complied in a somewhat understanding but annoyed tone.

"Alright, then that's it. We just now need to convince the mayor to evacuate the civilians." Hange said as she looked behind me to look at my teacher.

Walking over to Aizawa, Hange smiled and offered a handshake to him, "You're Aizawa Shouta, right? Our (Y/n)'s adviser?"

He took a fighting stance in front of her and ignored her offering, "What do you want, villain?! Why do you want to evacuate this city?!"

"An enemy of ours is heading this way to destroy Japan, starting with this city. We're offering you a proposition, we'd like to help you escape and defeat the titans. In return, we form an alliance."

"Escape? Back then when you talked to Ackerman, you mentioned evacuating the civilians to the pier. We can evacuate the civilians to our evacuation centers all over this city. But I don't understand why you would want us to go to the pier to evacuate unless you want us to leave this city for good. And I'm saying this as though, we trust you, villain. We don't! So give it up and tell us what's going on!"

~~~

All the while when Hange was talking to Aizawa-sensei to try and explain to them the situation, Levi motioned me to go over to them. 'Shit, I don't have my gear with me. How would I fight without it? Maybe that's what the captain wants to talk to me about?' I thought.

"Captain, is this regarding my ODM gear?" I questioned

"Yeah, 4 eyes assigned Sasha and Connie to grab them back at the base since they forgot to grab it when we headed here." The captain spoke in a somewhat dead voice, but at the same time annoyed.

I nodded in reply, "Speak of the devil-" I began as both Sasha and Connie, who just arrived, were carrying a large suitcase.

Immediately dropping the suitcase on the hard concrete, it made a rather loud sound. "Sasha! Next time we're not taking a break to buy fries at Macdonald's!" Connie yelled at Sasha as he tried to grab a piece of fries from her to which she almost bit off his fingers in retaliation.

"Don't touch my fries!" She screamed at him as she began to shove more fries into her mouth.

Letting out a disappointed sigh, Connie began to speak, "Anyways (Y/n), here's your equipment." He groaned in annoyance as he stared at Sasha as she ate away her fries in peace after he gave up trying to grab a piece from her.

"Tch…" Levi started as he looked at them in both annoyance and disappointment, but now soon after he looked at me in expectation, "Hey brat, we don't have time. Put on your equipment right here and now." Captain said

I quickly replied with a hum and moved my way toward my equipment. Not wasting any more seconds, opening the chest and examining my ODM gear for any defects. Luckily there seemed to be none, so with a huge blush adorning my face. I took off my crop jacket, skirt, and boots. Putting on all of the leather straps around my body wasn't easy, especially when you needed it on right away. You needed to make sure it was put on properly and such because if not then you'll have a malfunction in the midst of battle and die.

It'd be such a pathetic way to die honestly and I'd rather die the most gruesome and horrible death than that. Putting it on in front of all my classmates was extremely embarrassing, but I didn't have time to be embarrassed. We needed to go now and help evacuate the civilians. After putting on the straps I quickly put on my skirt, jacket, and boots. Finally, I attached the ODM gear to it and on both of my arms I put on the thunder spears. Then Armin, who brought my wings of freedom cape, handed it to me. I stared at it for a second before smiling and reaching to take it from his hand.

"Thanks…" I mumbled out quietly enough for him to hear.

"Isn't that part of Ackerman's hero costume? Didn't she always wear it before Bakubro almost burnt it?" Kirishima said in curiosity

"Hah!" Bakubitch shouted in amusement at Kirishima, "How can you say it's a costume for a hero when she is so clearly a villain!" He smirks

"I've had enough of everyone's bullshit!" I yelled, making everyone pause and look at me in surprise, "You think of me as nothing but a villain!" Pausing for a moment, I turned my body to face them properly, "First off, I'm not your classmate!" Looking at my adviser, I continued, "I'm not your student." And finishing, "I'm not a villain either, nor am I a hero." Placing my right clenched fist on the left side of my chest with my other hand behind my back, giving them a salute, "I'm a soldier, a scout… and I dedicate my heart and I'll fight until the end."

"Soldier? What do you mean by that?! You're only 15. Well, unless you lied about your age." Todoroki stepped forward

"I didn't lie about my age, I started to train when I was 10, I graduated when I was 13 and since then, I have been a part of the scouts. We're here to save humanity and slay the titans."

"Save humanity?! What kind of bullshit is this?" Bakugo rudely cut in

"Titan are giant humanoid creatures that eat humans for sport." I responded

"What kind of idiot do you think we are?! Giant humanoid creatures, that eat humans for fun? Eat shit you, lying villain! I don't care if we were classmates, you're still a villain!" Bakugo yelled out

"God, you're giving me a headache with all those screaming." I said rubbing the temples on my forehead.

"I didn't even think you had a head, to begin with!" He smirked as he let out little sparks of explosions on both of his palms.

Rolling my eyes at him, I turned around and exposed my ODM gear to everyone. Everyone stared at me in amazement at the weapon I was holding 4 thunder spears on each arm. Taking out both of my swords on each arm just to get a feel.

"Are those swords, villain?!" Iida yelled at me in shock.

"Not giving into the thought that I'm not a villain, I see." I eyed him teasingly

Rolling my eyes, I walked toward my teacher. Their breaths hitched in their throats as they saw the expression I was making, I was dead serious. We need to move fast or the lives of thousands we'll be lost in less than a few hours.

Standing beside Commander Hange and in front of the pro hero, Eraserhead, I began to speak, "Look, we don't have much time. It may be hard to believe but, I need you to contact the mayor or hell! Even the commission! We just need to evacuate the civilians right now. We can't stay here! If you go hide in the evacuation centers here, it'll still be destroyed by the titans. No one is safe from them! The only chance of survival we have is to kill them! And we, the scouts, are the only ones most capable enough to kill them!" I yelled seriously in his face

"And how do we know that you're not the enemy! That you're not the ones who have these things you call, titans!" To my surprise, it wasn't sensei who replied, but instead the dual-haired boy.

"I have a simple answer for that!" He eyes me suspiciously, "I wouldn't even be here! I'd be attacking you right now with not a single hesitation! Why would I waste my time making things complicated and trying to gain your trust when I could just wipe out almost your entire population in a few hours. I’d surprise you! We could just attack you and be done with it!" Everyone who’s a part of U.A. was taken back by my words and any form of retaliation from before disappeared as they stayed silent, trying their best to decide whether or not they should trust us, "Give it up. We're not villains. We're just trying to help you."

Surprisingly enough it was Todoroki who stepped forward and spoke up first, "How do we know we can trust you?"

"You don't. I have no proof, whatsoever, to back up my words. I can only ask for your blind trust. But then again, do you have anything to lose?" A smirk suddenly formed on my face, silently telling everyone that I had a devious plan cooked up in my mind, "How about we form some sort of deal?"

"What kind of deal?" Aizawa questioned as he pushed Todoroki back into the crowd behind him.

Captain Levi glared at me and began to protest about making a deal with the Oddities, "Oi brat, don't go making deals without us discuss-"

Getting annoyed at his voice, I immediately cut him off rudely, "If we're wrong and our enemies are not headed here, you can arrest us! Or even execute us and we'll also provide you with whatever information you want."

Aizawa-sensei nodded in understanding, "But if our enemies are here. You'll form an alliance with us and we’ll help you evacuate and defeat the titans." I spoke bluntly with a hint of interest in my tone.

He paused and looked at his students for a moment before turning back to us, "Alright, we have a deal."

I looked at Captain Levi and gave him a proud smirk to which he just rolled his eyes and scoffed as he walked towards Commander Hange to discuss something which I assume to be regarding our small change in plans. I look back at Aizawa who’s having trouble contacting their mayor/commission because of the signal problem. I can see him yelling into the phone in exasperation. Walking over to Todoroki, who seems to be the only one who has come to his senses and somewhat put a little trust in me.

“Thank you for trusting me. Don’t worry I won’t betray you guys.” I started first

He gave me a sharp look making me bite my tongue in regret of telling him thanks, “Don’t think that I trust you for a second, Ackerman. I still don’t trust you, but I’ll follow along with whatever’s going on.”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes at him and looked behind him to the crowd that had their eyes looking at me intensely, “I suggest that you try to contact your family to prepare for the evacuation. We can’t save everyone. But of course, we’ll do our best as the survey scouts.”

“Are you still on that survey scouts stuff?” Sasha spoke out

“That’s what we are, aren’t we?” I questioned

“Yeah, it’s just a bit weird.” She said

“Ackerman, where will our families meet us up here?!” He yelled out as he held the phone away from his mouth so as for it not to pick up on what he was yelling.

“Can they move fast to meet us at the pier? We are going to have our hands full battling the titans and evacuating the citizens.”

“Alright, thank you!” He did a little bow which made me let out a little giggle.

‘A second ago you were calling me a villain and now you're telling me thank you. You guys are really weird.’ I thought

In less than a few seconds, loud chatters can be heard coming from the class. Everyone is trying to contact their loved ones in order to warn and evacuate them from the incoming attacks.

“Ackerman, alright other pro heroes are beginning the evacuation protocol. Now, what do you need?” Aizawa asked

“We need to leave and help with the evacuation immediately.” I said to which he nodded in understanding.

“Got it, then let’s move quickly.” He said, making his way to the stairs.

‘It’s weird he’s agreeing to this without much of a fight. He’s a bit ahead of himself though, it’s like he’s trying his best to get us out of this building as soon as possible.’ I thought to myself curiously, “No that’s not it. He’s a hero, he just probably wants us to move and act as efficiently as we can.’

“Wait!” I said to make everyone stop and I walked over to Mikasa to get the signal flares from her, also receiving the bag full of the different colored ammos. “Thanks, Mikasa.” She nodded in my direction, “Alright so I need to explain the use of the flares before we go.” I looked at the Commander for permission to explain to them.

“Go ahead, (Y/n)!” She said

“(Y/n), fire the signal.” Captain Levi said to me to which I nodded.

Loading the signal flare with the green flare ammo and putting my left hand over my left ear as I raised my right hand, holding the signal flare and pointing it straight to the air. Pressing my right ear to my arm in order to protect it. Everyone got the message to do the same, quickly following behind me in order to protect their eardrums from damage.

Scanning over my fellow classmates in order to make sure they were covering their ears, I rolled my eyes at them. Firing the signal flare, a green gas that was somewhat like a cloud of smoke was left behind as it shot into the air. Signaling that the mission of convincing the Oddities to evacuate the citizens was a success and the evacuation plans that we had set up beforehand were a go, that we were to proceed to the next missions.

I dropped both of my hands down and I heard a slight ringing in my ear. I looked at the signal flare in my right hand, a bit of green smoke that was left from the fire was still evident on it as it was still steaming out from the device. Raising the device to let my apparent classmates and teacher, to let them look at it in curiosity.

“We use these signal flares to signal and communicate to others. We use color codings to make it easier.”

“Yeah! And what the hell are the colors?” Bakugo yelled at me.

“Well, how are you gonna know if you won’t let me explain?!” I yelled out angrily

“Then please explain it, Ackerman.” Midoriya started trying to defuse the situation

“Red is used for when you spot a titan. Black is for abnormal titans. Purple is an emergency of some kind. (Someone is grabbed, etc.) Blue is used in order to retreat. Green is for mission success and change direction of the formation: Fired by the commander in one direction to indicate a change in the direction, and then repeated by the relay soldiers. And lastly, yellow lets everyone know that the mission has been terminated, be it successfully or failed.” I explained quickly

“Damn that’s too much information to process in one setting.” Kaminari-kun said in exasperation.

“Not really, only for your brain cuz, you fry it too much!” Jirou, who stood next to him with Yozyorozou’s hand wrapped around hers, snickered.

“I expect you all to memorize it. Not only will your lives depend on it, but others as well. So memorize it by heart.” I said seriously

“Alright, with that being said then we’ll get going, (Y/n).” Armin, who I didn’t know was standing beside me, suddenly appeared, which startled me a bit, “Sorry, didn’t mean it.” He put his hand on my shoulder in order to calm me down, it worked and I gave him a genuine smile.

“Thanks, and it’s alright.” I continued smiling

“If you say so, well then we’ll be leaving now then.” He said and immediately shot out the grappling hook from his ODM gear, into the building in front of us to quickly follow behind the others who left him and were ahead of him.

“We’ll follow behind them, we need to evacuate the citizens now. There’s no time.”

Not caring to listen to anyone’s complaints or protest about jumping off the building. I quickly ran. I stood upon the railings and turned to face everyone before I leaned most of my body weight towards my back. I lost my footing and began to fall. The thrill of falling and the cold air that ran through me were exhilarating.

Everyone ran to the edge of the building, leaning on the railing, they eagerly and curiously looked at me falling. So as I looked at the building where class 1-A and their teacher stood, I let the grappling hooks at both of my sides unsheath themselves to shoot out and stick themselves into another building close by.

Doing a single backflip in the air before landing safely with this sort of cool position. I might have been showing off I'll admit but I wanted my class not to look down on me. Since they look down on me because I haven't shown my quirk. It’s not like I did have a quirk. Using my hands to motion for them to follow my lead and come down the building they stared at me with wide eyes. Nevertheless, they followed through.

Using their quirks to safely go down the building, I watch them in amazement. ‘Quirks seriously are really unique and cool…’ I thought to myself in astonishment. Since I’m now down, I looked at the building where I was just in. Looks like the plan to convince the pro heroes in this agency was a complete fail.

The building’s windows were broken and the lights inside were flickering on and off. I could smell the disgusting scent of metallic, there was a lot of blood splattered. A fight broke out, no one was there anymore. But there doesn’t seem to be anyone dead though at least. They might have escaped and brought the heroes with them. We’ll no matter what happens the plan must continue.

If anything happens we’ll just have to find a way to solve it somehow, no matter the sacrifice. ‘Shit! Why did I just realize it now?! There are no people in the street! It’s just fucking empty! There’s no sign of life and there are no blood trails! Which only either means one thing, they betrayed us!’ My eyes widened in realization. Unsheathing both of my swords, I took a fighting stance. Class 1-A along with their teacher came down from the building and surrounded me. Like a pack of hungry wolves circling their helpless prey.

“You're backing up on our deal aren’t you?! This is a trap isn’t it!” I screamed angrily at Aizawa

“Yes, did you really think we’d trust you?! now you're going to rot in prison!” Aizawa yelled at me

Suddenly police and pro heroes came out, pointing their guns and activating their quirks at me. ‘Shit! What am I going to do?! I can’t escape with this many people surrounding me! And even if I do escape, what’s next? The plan failed!’ I screamed in my head and gritted my teeth in anger. Then a rationalized thought ran through my head.

Glaring at all of them, I began to scream, “No matter what happens, the plan will continue! No matter what we have to sacrifice or what we have to do!” I screamed at them, charging at them with both swords in my hands.

Running to the first person in front of me to charge stupidly at them, which just so happens to be Todoroki. I jumped high in the air and pointed my swords at them. Perhaps I could use him as a hostage? His father’s the number 1 hero, isn’t he? It meant he has a high value.

Perhaps I could use that to my advantage. I could see that ice was beginning to form under the dual-haired boy’s right foot. I could also see that the other students were also charging at me using their quirks, but the fastest to move among those students were Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Iida.

It was like they were next to me in less than a second. I could see the guns from the police around me being loaded, but before we could hear the triggers being pulled and the ammos being released a deafening roar was heard. A titan’s roar to be specific. It was the beast titan’s roar I recognized, it was Zeke.

All of a sudden all the police surrounding us and pro heroes as well were glowing. It was like everything was in slow motion, I lifted my head to get a glimpse of what was going on. Everyone’s eyes followed as well. We stopped charging at each other and they looked in horror at what was going on. While I moved quickly to kill them before they fully turned.

~~~

“Captain? What if they turn the citizens into titans? We’ll have a hard time controlling the situation if that happens.” My breath hitched as I barely missed the knife that almost cut my throat.

“We’ll just have to hope that doesn’t happen. If it does happen then we’ll just have to do our best to kill them. We’ll also use the signal flares to alarm the others from where the titans are already. We’ll need to know how deep the enemies have already penetrated the city. And also, if the civilians are as good as dead, we won't help them anymore. Got it? We can’t be carrying around dead weight this time.” He managed to pin me to the floor with the knife pressing onto my neck, making crimson red drip down from it and stain my white shirt.

And with a huff, I kicked his balls and used his moment in pain to grab the knife from him, “I get it.”

“We can’t save them all, so we’ll just salvage what we can.” Commander Hange said from the sidelines

“How many lives are we expecting to save and lose?” I questioned nervously

None of them replied.

Getting pissed and anxious because they didn’t reply I angrily managed to pin down Captain Levi for the first time after weeks of constant combating with him, “I said how many?!”

“Our best would be 5,000 but we doubt that, we think we’d only be able to evacuate 1,000 and that doesn’t guarantee that they're not injured or in a near-death situation.” Hange said uncomfortably

Getting off Captain quickly, I looked at them in shock. Musutafu’s population is nearly 2 million people. And yet we can only guarantee that we can only have around 1,000 people?! Shit… I knew there’d be a lot of deaths, but I didn’t expect a fucking massacre. It’s going to be the same as back then. Damnit! I’ve trained so hard to fight back for humanity, but this is the best I can do!

“I’ll continue training on my own for today, Captain. If that’s alright with you, of course?” He replied with an irritated nod, “We’ll continue this tomorrow.” I finished, giving him a very dejected look.

“Go and train hard, brat. I also want you to clean the kitchen before you continue training. Sasha snuck in there last night and made a big mess.” He casually took a sip of tea which Hange carefully handed to him.

Staring at him in disbelief, “What?! No way am I cleaning that! Sasha should clean it herself!”

“It's part of your training.” He took another sip

“Fine.” I grumbled out annoyingly as I headed towards the kitchen with a broom in one hand and a mop in the other.

“Oh and tomorrow, I’m doubling your training.” He gave me an amused smile, to which I wanted to punch his face for

~~~

Not giving anyone a chance to stop me, I sprinted as quickly as I could and with the help of the ODM gear, I managed to slice off one person's head before they could turn. Their eyes widened as they let out an agonized scream at the pain, their head flew behind me, towards Todoroki, fortunately for him, he dodged it, but the person behind him didn’t.

The unlucky person was Uraraka and she fell on her butt as she held the head in both of her hands, she let out a traumatizing scream at the sight, and she stared at it in both horror and disbelief. Lots of blood that was spilling from the head stained her hero costume, it was almost everywhere on her, including her face. There was a splatter of blood on her once innocent face, now covered in a dirty shade of crimson red blood.

Uraraka wasn’t the only one who was covered in blood, Todoroki also happened to have some blood spilled on him from when I sliced the police officer's head off. And of course, I as well had blood splattered on my face, nevertheless, I didn’t care. We had more important things to care about right now than a bit of blood, besides it wasn’t like I wasn’t used to it.

Todoroki stared at the head with wide eyes as his breath hitched. He had never seen someone getting killed right in front of him, and he was disgusted by the sight of it. By the sight of you, a villain who killed an innocent police officer. Moving faster than everyone, it even shocked Iida about how fast he moved. He almost managed to grab your wrist and pin you down before you could kill another innocent life.

However, the tables turned when suddenly, a blinding bright light appeared from where the police officer and some of the pro heroes stood. A hard wind flew so suddenly and so harshly that you flew back, the same goes for Todoroki as well. Your back hits Todoroki’s chest as you both fly back and you let out a groan at the collision.

Todoroki, being smart, moved quickly to wrap both of his arms around you and used his ice to make a barrier behind him to stop the both of you from flying. He quickly pinned you to the ice behind him and immediately encased both your arms and legs using his unforgivable ice. He glared at me.

I whimpered in pain from the merciless ice, it was even harsher than the one I saw on YouTube, the one where he was fighting with Sero at the U.A. festival. Your breath hitched in fear, ‘I’ve seen Todoroki look at me in disgust and anger but never have I seen him look at me like this! God, it’s scary!’ I try to cower away from him, ‘I’ve seen scarier shit but why is the way he’s looking at me so terrifying!’ I let out a shocked gasp as I felt both the cold and temperature rise from Todoroki. A wisp of fire and mist of ice escaped from him.

“Y-You don’t u-unders-stand!” My teeth chatter at the ice. “The- ti-titans! He-Here! Right n-now!”

“Shut the hell up villain, you just killed an innocent man and yet you still follow through with your lies!” He screamed angrily at me, making me whimper and cower even more.

Booming roars and screeches coming from multiple titans came from behind us, followed by the ugly screams of fear coming from class 1-A. Todoroki stared at the titan in both fear and shock. So you weren’t lying. Those were definitely giant humanoid creatures that looked like they could eat you up. You didn’t mention that it was naked though and had no genitals. Although people would find it funny usually, nobody, however, found it funny in this situation. It looked like something that came out of a horror movie. It looked so terrifying that everyone stopped in their tracks and froze.

“To-Todoroki! Please unfreeze me! They're all going to die i-if you don’t!” You forced your voice to scream it out loud without stuttering too much from the cold.

He gave you no response as he was frozen still just like the others. You were a bit far from the others and the titans since it was only you and Todoroki who was too close to the transformation that you guys flew back farther from everyone else. Means you guys were less of a target for the titans. Meaning that the rest of class 1-A that was surrounded by the center by all the titans would become titan food. They would be slaughtered without any mercy. Bakugo was the first to move before anyone else, he flew using his quirk to charge at the titans. Aizawa-sensei, Midoriya, Kirishima, and Iida screamed at him in protest of what he was doing.

“Kacchan! Don’t hurt them too much it might affect their original bodies once the quirk wears off!” Hero Deku yelled at the explosive boy.

“Bakugo! Don’t do anything yet without Aizawa-sensei’s permission!” Iida tried to pull Bakugo back but ultimately failed

“Bakugo, get back with the others! We can’t make the first move!” Aizawa screamed at his student in both an irritated and angry tone.

“Bakubro! Wait for me!” Kirishima tried to follow after Bakugo but was unsuccessful because his teacher pulled him back using his combat scarf.

But of course, Bakugo being Bakugo didn’t listen to them and instead, stupidly charged at the titan head-on and fired one of his biggest explosions at the titan in front of him causing a large black smoke to veil in front of him. Bakugo gave a large smirk at the sight, believing that he defeated the monster. To everyone’s shock except for mine, a giant hand stuck out of the smoke not a moment later and attempted to grab him, luckily he managed to maneuver around it. The titan stepped out of the smoke with almost no damage, the only proof that Bakugo had blasted a bomb at the monster was a few scratches and dirt that decorated the monster’s skin. But their supposed scratches suddenly disappeared in less than a second in front of their eyes.

“Are you guys part of the LOV?! Is this a new version of Nomu’s?!” Bakugo screamed at me in frustration and if you listened closely, in fear as well.

“Of co-course not!” I yelled back as hard as I could so that my voice could reach them, “Hero Shoto! Fuck- fucking unfreeze me now!” I quickly glared back at Shoto, trying to hide my fear.

He never answered me but instead was about to run to the others to help them. But he stopped as he watched the others activate their quirks to protect themselves. He contemplated leaving me to help the others, he was mostly concerned about what would happen if I managed to escape his ice. So he stayed by my side and even from this far, he used both of his quirks to help the fight.

They stared in frustration at the titans, none of their quirks were working against them except for Yaoyozorou. Soon blood will be spilled and I can’t do anything about it because I’m being frozen and even if I did manage to escape I’d have to deal with Todoroki. ‘This isn’t a good position! I need to escape right now or someone will die!’ I began to keep on struggling, a bit of blood dripped down from my wrist and more scratches began to appear. To my horror, I was too late, one of the titans that Yaoyozorou didn’t manage to hit with her cannon, grabbed Mineta.

“Oh, it’s just Mineta. We can let him die. His death wouldn’t have any meaning, especially after he acts in perverted ways around me.” I said out loud to myself in a bored manner, effectively stopping my struggling, Todoroki noticed my words and gave a harsh glare because of it to which replied with a sick smirk.

As though in slow motion everyone's jaw dropped at the sight of Mineta being grabbed by the titans. He wailed and pleaded for someone to do something to help him, save him. Everyone used their quirks to charge at the particular titan, but it had no effects. Their quirks don’t do shit to defeat the titan. They failed in trying to rescue the pervert which costs more complications. As they focused their quirks on that particular titan. It gave the other titans an open spot to grab the other students. Now everything was in complete chaos.

Todoroki gritted his teeth harshly as he watched the situation unfold. He realized that the only shot of defeating these so-called ‘titans’ was to let you go and have you defeat them.

“Damn it! Fine! I’ll let you go, but you need to defeat them!” He screamed at me as he unfreezes the ice around my wrist and legs.

‘Shit, it’s freezing, but thank God that Todoroki is literally hot! I can feel the coldness already melting from my body.’ I let out a little sigh of happiness at the warmth. I can feel a bit of blood trickling down from my wrist but the pain was numbed because of the ice. And right now I can feel adrenaline beginning to pump through my veins, twisting both of the swords in my hand to get a better grip. I charged at the titans with only one thought running through my head. And that was to save everyone I can save.

Even Mineta, even if he was a big pervert, even deserved to live. But of course, I’m only saying this because of the adrenaline. If it wasn’t for that, then I would have left Mineta to die happily. I shook my head, ‘There’s no time to think! I just need to move fast to kill the titans before they kill everyone!’ I screamed in my head to try and snap myself out of my thoughts.

As I ran towards the titan I activated my ODM gear in order to hurry my actions. But I was too late… The titan had put the damn pervert in its mouth, his head facing the titan's throat while his legs were sticking out of its mouth, pathetically wriggling and squirming. Not a second later I had almost reached the titan. It had already bit into him.

The titan threw its head back to finally finish its meal. I could hear everyone screaming and fighting for their lives as they stared helplessly at their dead classmate. I stared at it in disgust. ‘I’m too late…’ I was so disappointed in myself. I should have moved faster to kill the titans.

“Fuck!” I screamed in frustration

Burning anger and adrenaline pumped even harsher through my veins and it was beginning to hurt. My heart clenched in pain and for a second I had to resist the urge to clench my fist over my heart as though it would relieve the pain. I flew using my ODM gear and stabbed the titan in both of its eyes. I managed to avoid the blood that splatters, but not my fellow classmates. They stared in horror at what I had just done. Everyone realized what I was going to do. I am going to kill the titans with no mercy nor remorse.

“Ackerman! Don’t you dare kill them! We need to find a way to reverse the effects of the quirk!” Aizawa screamed at me, running at me in an attempt to stop me

“I said defeat! Not kill!” Todoroki who follow close behind me using his ice screamed

“This is not the work of a quirk! I have to kill them! There’s no other way or else they’ll kill others! Once they’ve become a titan you can’t turn them back! We can’t do anything else but this!”

I dodged all 3 of the attackers trying to grab me. My wrist almost got caught by Todoroki if it wasn’t for the titan that intervened at the last minute. Forced Todoroki to back off and dodge the titan's attempt at grabbing him. The titan was twisting and turning around in an attempt to try and grab us. Making it almost impossible to get a clean cut at its nape. More screams reached my ear and I turned my head towards the loud noise.

“Someone help me!” Ashido cried as she was held upside down by the titan, just right above its mouth that was wide open.

It was ready to devour her in one drop. I need to kill that titan first or we’ll suffer more losses.

“Shit! Shoto!” I used his hero name to get his attention which worked, “Distract this titan! I need to kill the others first! And don’t die on me!” He turned his head to Ashido and he got what I was doing, he muttered a curse under my breath and did as I told him, he knew that I was completely serious so he also turned even more serious than before if that was even possible?

“Hurry!” He screamed at me, using his ice to freeze the titan entirely, which didn’t last long because almost in an instant, it broke out as though the ice was nothing.

Using the ODM gear, I released more gas than I should have to go even faster. A trick up my sleeve that I learned from Mikasa not that long ago. I still wasn’t that used to the amazing speed that I blazed through me. Making my flying unstable, but despite that, I forced myself to get used to it quickly. People's lives were at stake, I needed to push myself or they’ll die. Flying up to the titan, I quickly cut off the hand that was holding Ashido and pushed her off the side. She screamed and groaned when her body hit the ground harshly. I didn’t look back to check up on her, the others could do it for me. I continue to fly and maneuver expertly in the air, doing a backflip over it in the air, and using both of the grappling hooks on either side of my waist.

I directed it to shoot out and stick on either side of the titan's nape. And using Levi’s signature kill move. My grip on both swords tightened and I drew them behind my back. And spinning in the air at such a very fast pace that anyone looking at me would also feel dizzy. I effectively and efficiently killed the titan in 1 single, powerful slash at its nape. Everyone saw my kill and stopped fighting the titan, noticing how Shoto was distracting the titan instead of killing it. They followed after his lead, while I instead used my skills to kill more of them as efficiently as I could.

Flying to the next titan who had managed to grab a fried brain Kaminari, and put him in its mouth. If I make one wrong, slow move then Chargebolt will die. He threw thumbs up in the air as his body was already halfway in the titan's mouth, it closed its teeth around him and before the titan could make its next move, I quickly intervened and sliced open both sides of its jaws.

Forced the titan to let Kaminari-kun slide out of his mouth and drop to the ground. Iida, using his quirk, immediately ran to Kaminari’s side and pulled him out of harm's way, dragging him to the center where everyone was huddled at. Taking care of the titan who tried to eat our cheap version of Pikachu as quickly as I could, I moved on to the next who grabbed another one of my classmates, Koda.

He had screamed in pure terror and used his quirk to call the birds in the distance to help him. Not all of the birds that he had summoned were there on time, the birds tried to peck out the titan’s eyes, but it was no use. With a few sway of the titan’s hand that was holding Koda, the birds flew away in fear.

Unfortunately, just like how the birds weren’t fast enough, I too wasn't fast enough to save Koda as an abnormal titan suddenly jumped in my face and I almost wasn’t fast enough to react. I had only barely managed to dodge in time. Doing a backflip, I quickly jumped behind it and killed the abnormal titan first, before killing the titan that was holding Koda, which unbeknownst to me, the boy was already dead at that moment. I had maneuvered behind the titan and even with no special technique, I had still managed to kill the titan. When I turned around to face the titan, it was already trying to pick up Uraraka, who Midoriya was trying to protect.

“Get away from her!” He screamed out in anger.

They both tried to use their quirks on the titan but nothing seemed to work. I could tell that Deku was getting more frustrated and tired of trying to defeat the titan, only to keep on failing. It was stupid for them to try and defeat the titans using their quirks. They’ve surely realized that by now.

I wondered if they noticed that the only person besides me that the titans are taking damage from is Yaoyorozou. And so I decided to speak up, maybe this was a terrible idea, but maybe, it could also lessen my work and create distractions from the titans.

“Creati!” I screamed at her

“What do you want, villain?! Can’t you see I’m a little busy!” She screamed back at me as she fired her cannon at the titan.

“Create as many guns as you can! Then pass them around! Aim for their eyes!” I screamed as I finished killing another titan.

“You're kidding me right?! I’m not making any guns! Someone could get hurt!” She screamed with wide eyes.

“If you won’t do it then the blood of our classmates is on your hands! I’m giving you a choice to help save them! Fucking take it now! It’s not like a cannon you made is any deadlier than a gun!” I said the last part in a very sarcastic voice as I finished killing another titan by first going for the heels in its legs, forcing it to fall to its knees, and seeing a perfect opening to kill the titan, I took it without hesitation.

The blood from the titans I had killed was dripping from my uniform, its stench was repulsive and I wanted nothing more than to wash myself and be ridden from the horrid stench. But alas, I couldn’t do that, there were still more people I had to save. Although I was quite used to this doesn’t mean I don’t hate it. Looking back at everything that happened, that led up to this moment. I’m not even sure if what I was doing was right at this point. The only thing I know I’m doing right is by killing the titans and letting the innocent souls trapped in them be free. Ending their suffering and nightmare.

“Shit! Create the damn guns already, Creati!” I screamed at Yaoyorozou as I saw Todoroki being grabbed by a 20-meter titan.

He stared in horror as he neared the titan's mouth. It didn’t matter if he activated his ice or fire to force the titan to release him. It didn’t matter because it didn’t affect the titan. Aizawa-sensei was trying his best to free one of his top students from the titan's clutches.

“Sensei! What should I do?!” Creati screamed in tears, watching as her classmates were being slaughtered in front of her, still shooting cannonballs at the titans in hopes it would stop the nightmare from playing in front of her.

“In the name of Eraserhead! I give you the permission to create guns and use them against the titans!” Truth be told sensei also had no idea what to do anymore, all he knew was that Ackerman was the only one who knew the titans better than anyone else so he decided that it’d be best to kill the titans first before they kill anyone else, thinking that he could deal with his consequences after this battle.

Not thinking twice, I quickly launched my hooks next to Yaoyorozou, she gasped in shock as I grabbed the gun that was coming out of her stomach, forcing her to finish it making it more quickly as there was no more time left.

Todoroki neared the titan's mouth, struggling desperately in its grasp, it was like everything was in slow motion, “I won’t let you die like the others!” I screamed, throwing one of my blades into the titan’s eyes.

Bullseye! I hit its right eye! It cried out in pain, releasing one hand on Todoroki, but still not letting go of him. No time to waste, I lifted the shotgun to my shoulder, hoping that it had some ammo in it already. Aiming at the beast’s eye, I took a deep breath and hoped for the best.

Bang!

#todoroki shoto #bnha #mha #mha fanfic #bnha fanfic #mitchywitchythings #attack on titans au #attack on titan #todoroki shoto x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #shoto todoroki x reader #bnha shoto todoroki #shoto todoroki x you #todoroki shoto x you

[sinceileftyoublog]

Calva Louise Interview: Closer to Free

Jess Allanic of Calva Louise

BY JORDAN MAINZER

At the last festival they played before Riot Fest, UK-based rock band Calva Louise were met with a bit of confusion and perhaps a little skepticism. "We're British," they purportedly joked to the crowd, following with a half-hearted, "Innit?" Lead vocalist and guitarist Jess Allanic is from Venezuela, bassist Alizon Taho from France, and drummer Ben Parker from New Zealand, so the seaside town of Blackpool, England, on the Irish Sea coast, is the band's adopted home after "squatting" around London when they formed seven years ago. At the festival, whose lineup skewed folkier, they received more rapturous applause from the metalhead crew than the crowd themselves. "We felt like Marty McFly in the 50s," Allanic told me over a Zoom call earlier this month. "'I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet...but your kids are gonna love it.'" At Riot Fest, on the other hand, the crowd, showing up at the Roots Stage at 12:15 PM, was both ready for and loved the band's hook-laden pop-metal.

Ben Parker of Calva Louise

Calva Louise have gone through a few shifts before arriving where they are now. I first heard them on their pop rock, clean vocal-laden debut, 2019's Rhinoceros, released on Modern Sky UK. The album didn't do as well as the label had hoped, so the band was dropped. 300 Entertainment picked them up next for their sophomore record Euphoric, which featured the more aggressive sound with screamed vocals the band is known for today on songs like "Belicoso". But that label didn't work out either. Calva Louise views their struggles as a blessing in disguise. Now, they self-release, free to take their burgeoning aesthetic in any way they please, learning music and video programs themselves to fulfill their ambitious artistic visions. This year, the band has released four singles, the sneakily thumping "Third Class Citizen", melodic but industrial "Feast Is Over", tempo-hopping "Oportunista", and earlier this month, the dramatic "Square One", each with its own visual-universe-building video. (The songs will appear on an upcoming mixtape, now set for release in December.) Even their live shows are, for lack of a better term, DIY. For instance, when Allanic started recording more intricate piano parts in songs but didn't want to rely on such an inflexible instrument live, Taho bought wood and metal and built her a sliding keyboard so she doesn't have to move from her microphone stand. "I'm not very coordinated when I walk in general," she joked, "So running from one place to another to play a part, I'm gonna fall."

Allanic next to the sliding keyboard Alizon Taho built

At Riot Fest, the band certainly showcased their coordination--at least on their own instruments. Allanic's vocal control, from whisper to scream, on "Third Class Citizen" perfectly meshed with the song's rhythmic barrage and chiming keys. Her fast-picking and Parker's trapdoor stop-starts on "Oportunista" recalled the best of one of the day's later bands, Code Orange. Though they still needed to rely on pre-recorded backing vocals to play songs like "Square One", the band is surely but slowly finding ways to become more efficient with the resources they do have, all the while building in momentum to hopefully allow them some future financial flexibility. "We don't do things for show," Allanic said. "We try to do things that will help us put [out] a clearer image of what we want to express. We don't know how to communicate it yet, because we're just three people and the money is an issue." Calva Louise recently received a grant, which will help and on which they recognize they'll increasingly need to rely as an independent band. And they're even open to being signed again to a label--that is, as long as they're finally given the creative control that every artist deserves.

Read my conversation with the band below, edited for length and clarity.

Alizon Taho of Calva Louise

Since I Left You: Have you been using your live shows to road test the songs you've been writing?

Jess Allanic: When we finish the song, I go through all the possibilities on Logic. Alizon and Ben go over their parts until we figure out the best it can be. We have to rehearse every day to be able to play it physically. If we had more resources and didn't have to work, we'd just be rehearsing 10 hours a day until the song is ready. The gigs really help. 6 months ago, we started playing these songs, and now, we have to think about things like, "Where do I take the mic on stage?" or "When do I breathe?" It's like we have to have a musical director. Gigs are like the experiment, playing the songs constantly and figuring out what we have to change. [For instance,] we'll even change some drum parts [as a result of playing live] and rerecord them. The first time we ever played "Third Class Citizen" live, we knew it was good, but I wore a corset on stage and realized I couldn't breathe the whole song. [laughs] Someone recorded it and put it on YouTube, and it's just me out of breath.

Alizon Taho: There are definitely things playing live teaches you that nothing else can.

SILY: You've been releasing videos alongside the new songs. How important is your visual identity, especially live?

AT: The project is not just music. It's a whole multi-disciplinary project from comic book to the videos Jess makes. It's a big story. The visuals, it's super important they convey that story and make everything link together.

JA: It's hard with the means we have--the availability of gear and computers and knowledge of programs--to get to a level where you make people understand what's happening. We spend a lot of time learning how to do things. Alizon has spent so many hours learning how to program a live rig he built himself. We're really lucky we live in a day and age where technology is available to people like us and we don't have to go through university to study programs that cost a lot. You can get so much out of an online course for $100.

AT: We're still experimenting, too.

JA: How can we DIY something that could cost so much money? How can we trick the system?

AT: The live shows, especially headlining sets, we want it to be more than three people on stage playing music. An actual full visual experience. Every time we've gone on tour, we've tried new things, with projected videos Jess made, DIY lights. I think we're getting better.

SILY: You recently got a grant from The FAC, too.

AT: That will be even more helpful for the videos. You have to make every little detail yourself, otherwise. Now, we can buy some assets.

JA: There was a grant we were applying for for years but never got it. When we did the first video for "Third Class Citizen", we were at the limit. I was really hoping to get some grants because we weren't going to be able to do any more videos. It's such a relief. [Now,] we're hiring a studio.

AT: Usually, it's a green screen in a spare room somewhere. The grant will allow us to step up the production.

JA: And the narrative, because we can work with actors and a scriptwriter. The story is very complex. We're working with a guy in Spain who is a film YouTuber. He's helping us write the script. For the next video, we want to go as far as we can. I love how fast technology is going for videos. I don't know about the rest of [technology], but for art and cinema, the next step will be more studios with LED screens. You'll just need to have the idea and it won't be impossible to accomplish something really good with a small studio. I'm really excited where that's going.

SILY: Is your mixtape coming out this month as planned?

JA: It will be out in December now.

AT: When we started releasing these songs, we got management, which we never had. We got an agent in the US. Plans started changing a little bit with the team growing and more people helping us. We were talking to some labels and things like that, and the mixtape got postponed a little bit because of logistics. The special edition vinyl from the UK is still coming out next week. Good for [those people,] they bought it first. Digitally, it will be December 1st with the videos we are working hard on at the moment. When you're an independent band, things happen like this.

SILY: You have a half hour set early in the day at Riot Fest. How do you go about curating a setlist for people who might not have heard you before? How do you present yourselves in that short timespan?

AT: Just smash the bangers. [laughs] It's probably coming down to what we want to show, the songs we feel are the most representative.

JA: All the new songs, the songs from the mixtape. There's an intro, interludes with bits of the story of the music videos. It's really dense, but in a good way. We're trying to play who we are now. We are kind of eclectic. When we started, we played a different sort of genre of music. That was us, but we were signed [to a label] and had to obey certain rules. We couldn't be 100% free. This set, what we're planning to do for Riot Fest, we've been rehearsing religiously every day. We want to play the heaviest music we have. We want to try to show every little facet of what we do. Kind of like when you have tasters of beers. Hopefully it works.

AT: We have to be really disciplined during the set itself since it's 30 minutes. We have to be as condensed as possible.

JA: We had to time tuning our guitars. We do a mockup every day we practice. We try to time it, and I memorize exactly what I'm going to say. We try to make a good impression. Maybe people will want more. Hopefully, people will like it.

SILY: Can you talk about your most recent song, "Square One"?

JA: The mixtape is extremely DIY. It was the most DIY and cheap thing you can think of. We recorded the instruments in the kitchen. Our friend mixed and mastered it almost for nothing. For us, this is what we can do with no resources. "Square One", most of the vocals are gang vocals because there's not much time to rerecord them. It's one reason we wanted the mixtape to be self-released, to make it the purest form of DIY. I don't think it can get more DIY. It gets clearer and clearer through the process. The next song will be four videos in one, to make a short movie. We're calling it a mixtape and not an album to express that there are no resources put into these songs. That's the best we can do with just us, an interface and getting the stems to our friend. We're really lucky. We have the chance for songs to get into playlists. They're there with bands who have the best production, where you can hear how good it sounds. I feel proud that it's there in those playlists. It's been good.

SILY: Your first two full-length albums were on labels, but the mixtape is being self-released. Why did you go independent?

JA: We started the band in 2016. We're foreigners and didn't know anybody in England. Alizon had to learn English. It was pretty hard. We were squatting in London. When we got an offer to sign, we had to go through the terms. I think we did well in getting the opportunities, because they wouldn't have come otherwise, but because we [initially] obeyed a bit too much, [we didn't end up working] the way labels expected us to be working. We were signed to an English label [Modern Sky], and they were expecting much more reception than we got. We got dropped, which was great for us, and then we got signed by another label [300 Entertainment], but it was the same thing: We couldn't do what they wanted. If people don't understand you, it won't work. It didn't work with the second label. But then we had the freedom to do exactly what we wanted. To us, that was the best thing that could have happened, to have 100% freedom to make our own decisions and strategy, even marketing strategy like Instagram and TikTok. We don't have PR or radio people, but we did what we could and saw what happened. Nothing against labels--and we still want to sign to one--but this wasn't a decision and was just what we had to deal with. We got an offer for a label ages ago, but it was to do exactly what they say, which hadn't worked in the past. We got dropped, owed so much money, and were broke, unable to record or release new music. So we're self-releasing this and will be able to profit a bit from it. We own our publishing, the songs' masters. We can buy food, and that's good!

#interviews #live music #calva louise #riot fest #alizon taho #featured artists coalition #rhinoceros #jess allanic #marty mcfly #modern sky uk #300 entertainment #euphoric #code orange #the fac #ben parker

[starseungs]

Hi! Okay so I was supposed to send this after reading the "Written on Paper" but I finished reading the fic @ 3AM and I was so sleepy 😭 Anyways, I just want to say that I love the fic so much. This is one of the most unique and interesting fics I've ever read. This fic has been sitting on my bookmarks and I regret not reading it ASAP. Actually, this fic reminded me of that another fic where the characters were also sons and daughters of fairytale characters. Guess who's the main lead!? It's also Minho!!! He was a son of another antagonist - Ursula.

Moving on.. Here are my thoughts: (1) I literally gasped when it was revealed that Y/N had a massive crush on Minho. I mean, I would be disappointed if she didn't. Cmon! It's MINHO. He may not be my bias but everyone and their grandma knows that the man is literally a husband material even in real life♥️ By the way, who fell in love first? Y/N or Minho? (2) I like that you made Chan as Big Bad Wolf given his representative animal is wolf (and sometimes kangaroo) 😁 (3) I was surprised when I found out that Minho and Y/N are sleeping in the same bedroom. I taught they have their own rooms but turns out they're just sleeping in separate beds? 🤔 How the hell Y/N managed to survive 😭 If I'm living with Minho, I would've - okay. I'll stop here (4) Just want to say that Hyunjin has a bad taste in women. When Y/N cursed at her and he was like, "And you ask me why I don't want to marry you." Him being surprised that Y/N can curse when he's literally dating someone with a bad attitude and he's completely aware of it 😭 It's probably a joke but you know lol (5) Out of all the people I suspected to have stolen the book, I didn't imagine it would be Jisung. I thought it was either Mina and Minho 😂 (6) Now that everything was exposed, I wonder what happened to Minho's mom. Is she still locked up in mirror prison or …? (7) Lastly, are you planning on making an epilogue or special drabbles? ☺️ Like their dorm life before and after they started dating or a drabble but in Minho's POV 🤔

Once again, I really loveeee this fic and I'm looking forward to your future works ♥️ Thank you for sharing your stories with us! Hope you have a lovely day 🤗

P.S. I also read your Hyunjin fic. I actually don't want to read it because I'm avoiding angst fics. My heart just can't handle them but I gave it shot and thank God it's not too angsty 😭

oh my gosh this ask 😭💗 THANK YOU SO MUCH!! this means a lot to me that you took time out of your day just to send me this,,, i really appreciate it!

anyways i relate with the 3am reading so much, the amount of times ive done that >< really happy you think that the fic is unique and interesting! its not exactly an original concept, since its inspired by ever after high, but i guess still there arent a lot of these kinds of aus (as in son of fairytales/characters plus a magic school) so i get what you mean// this was also one of the reasons why i decided to write it in the first place 😋

and oh? the son of ursula minho fic, i would love to read it! if you see this anon, or any of you know the fic please do tell me the title 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ thank you loves

now for the reactions because i love responding to those: (1) you could say that minho was exactly y/n's type 😆 growing up as a royal she accepted that she would be conditioned to believing certain things to uphold her status, but deep inside she always questioned these and felt that they werent the right thing to do. as for who fell first, it was definitely minho! he liked her ever since 1st grade actually,,, its super cute

(2) it would be a crime for me not to make chan the next big bad wolf, i mean the chance was RIGHT THERE and i took it 😼 (3) yes they have shared dorm rooms~ i just followed the eah dorm system where theres this big dorm room with two sides for the students to completely customize their part of the room, but they do share one door (different personal bathrooms too, i have to point that out) // y/n and minho are pretty proper lol both are kinda those goodytwoshoes students with minho having a rebellious streak at times, but still want to become a model student so not much problems happened even with the shared room

(4) okay i think ive said this before, but i see hyunjin and mina as simply products of what they were conditioned to act and think like since they were children... the fact that theyre both willing to repent is already enough to say that they arent evil people, just VERY immature and shallow (at that point of time). y/n also had the same principles as them once upon a time, but unlike them, she had minho as a close friend since she was 11 which means she had more time to understand the rebels' point of view. still though, it doesnt mean that we shouldnt hold people accountable for what they do, even with or without justification, which is why i chose that ending for hyunjin and mina

(5) suprise suprise, its jisung! it may not make too much sense to you readers who only have this fic to base on, but i was actually going to make this as a jisung fic (in his perspective) before switching it to minho and y/n's story // that means that i had a pre existing background story and events prepared for jisung that connect with him stealing the book. i actually want to release it too as a beside-story for this fic but its still not finished yet (he has a love interest too hehe)

(6) yes, the evil queen is still locked up. i had plans for her, but it didnt push through lmao... maybe in the other members' stories? 👀 (7) yes i do have plans for more fics in the same universe, but for all the other members! i havent fully planned it yet but i do have draft ideas already ✍️ i'll make a series masterlist for this when i establish that i really want to commit sjsjsj

thank you for reading my hyunjin fic as well! its quite emotional (well, to me) and that fic is something i hold dear to my heart hehe glad you enjoyed it as well! ps: its funny to me how you cant really handle angst that well, because same i dont read angst often as well, but most of my available fics are angst because theyre fun to write for some reason 🤧💘

#cielle-chats 💬 #cielle-mail 📬 #starseungs-feedbacks 🥂 #fr: 🌹 anon

[finelinevogue]

Hello! For the continued part of the blurb in which Harry and YN get casted together; this is the reminder :))

Also here’s a thought about it:

Maybe since like Harry met Olivia on DWD, when Tangled started they're like broken up and so so to make it more realistic (It was more of a suggestion but just do you, your readers would love it either way) :))

Have a great day!!!

yes we will definitely continue this!! okay let’s go;

First day nerves were always the worst.

Whether it was first day of school, first day of a new job, first day at university or, in your case, first day on set, you always got a really bad case of the nervous butterflies. It was just unnerving having to meet new people and try and fit into the way everything worked around here. You were a very social person when you came out of your shell, but you could be a hard one to crack if you weren’t with the right people. Luckily for you this set definitely had the right people. After briefly meeting him on the red carpet for Don’t Worry Darling and then having him text you afterwards, you have to say that now working with Harry Styles seemed like a dream. His music and his charisma shaped him into someone you really liked and really wanted to know more about. He was your all time crush and unfortunately, for you, he’d probably gathered that by now - what with your blushing interview over him.

The weather was beautiful and the buzz on set was amazing. Everyone was rushing around and trying to busy themselves until filming started at 8am. You had just been in hair and makeup and were on your way to set now. The movie wasn’t being filmed in its’ complete order, so the first scene that you were filming was where Flynn climbs up the tower and meets Rapunzel for the first time. Where Harry meets you.

You couldn’t quite believe you were actually here. You were a Disney princess, and your favourite one at that. The purple dress was everything you’d imagined and you felt like a dreamy cloud in it. Your flip flops and robe covered most of your outfit though, to keep you warm until you were needed on set. Instead of going straight inside the filming building, you sat outside on a nearby bench hoping to calm your nerves.

To keep your mind preoccupied you went over and over your lines in your head, cursing yourself when you messed up over something so small. Your fingers picked away at each other, damaging the nail-art that had only recently been put on.

“You’re going to cost the makeup department a fortune if you keep doing that.” You didn’t need to look up to know that it was Harry who was approaching you, but you did anyways. He looked beautiful. His hair was styled the same way as Flynn Ryders and you could see the outlines of his costume underneath the coat he was wearing.

“Oh, sorry.” You laughed nervously, putting your head back down to stop him from catching your blush.

“Hey no need for apologises. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He spoke honestly and you felt the warmth of his words spread over your body, like butter on toast.

“Just really nervous.” You admitted shyly.

“Can I…” He pointed towards the bench space next to you.

“‘Course, yes.” You patted the space encouragingly and watched him pull the trousers up from his thighs to sit more comfortably. God, those thighs. You cleared your throat to detach the dirty thoughts from the back of your mind.

It was quiet until he spoke again. “What’s your favourite Disney movie?”

“What?” You asked confused and Harry repeated the question as calmly as he did last time. You expected him to start giving you words of advice, not asking you your favourite Disney movie. “Oh, um, Tangled of course.”

“You know you don’t just have to say that because you’re the lead actress in the movie.” He nudged you with his shoulder, making you laugh as you swayed away and then back to him.

“Yeah I know.”

“Pity.”

“Why?”

“Just would’ve taken you for more of an avid Lion King fan.” He joked, his dimpled smile boasting its’ way onto his cheeky face.

“I am, actually. I just, there’s something about Rapunzel that draws me to her. I don’t know whether it’s her childhood was similar to mine—”

“Wait you were abducted by a weirdly attractive evil woman who claims to be your— wait! So you’re a princess?” Before you can answer he knelt down before you, capturing your hands in his - neither of your missing the tingles of passion when your skin touched skin - and holding them tightly, whilst he began speaking again, “M’lady, forgive me for being so simple.”

“Harry! What are you doing, y’fool?” You laughed at him, trying to get him to sit back next to you as you’d drawn the attention from a few crew members.

“I’m grovelling at the feet of my future Queen.” He said so matter-of-factly you almost, nearly, truly believed him. Chuffing actor.

“Get up you oaf!” And he did with a little more persuasion. “What I meant was that my childhood was quite isolated and lonely - I didn’t have many friends at all.” You spoke from the heart, not expecting Harry’s eyebrows to furrow with confusion or for him to look so sad.

“I’m sorry.” You knew he meant it.

“At least I have Flo, though, now.” You smiled at the thought of your amazing best friend, whom also happened to be Harry’s most recent co-star. Their performances in Don’t Worry Darling were second to none and you were so proud of Flo for delivering such an awe inspiring delivery to her character Alice.

“And me. Don’t forget me.”

“I could never.” You turned to look at him, unprepared to find him staring back at you with hearts in his eyes. You blushed and had to look away, but you rested the side of your head on his shoulder out of natural instinct. It felt right and it felt comforting. “Thank you, though Harry.”

“Always.” He rested his head back against yours, both of you just watching the busy people prepare for your first scene. The nerves had gone though, now, and you were feeling more at peace with yourself - and with him. “Oh and Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“I think that you’re drawn to Rapunzel, because she embodies your courage, kindness, beauty and compassion.” Your heart swelled at his words. You never thought someone could think of you this way, let alone Harry. You pushed your head tighter against his shoulder, wanting him to wordlessly know that you were really grateful for him.

“Smooth, Harry!” He laughed with you, “How long have you been rehearsing that?”

“Too many other lines to remember to be learning them ones too. That, Y/N, was all ad-lib.” And your heart swooned a little more again. He was just so perfect and he made you feel safe. There wasn’t a good enough phrase or word in the English dictionary to justify how good of a person he was or how much he meant to you.

“You’re too good.”

“Too good to maybe ask you out for a drink after today?” You brought your head away from his shoulder in shock from what he just asked. Harry, the Harry Styles, was asking you, Y/N L/N, out for a drink. What?

“No, I think i’ll let you take me out for a drink.” You smiled at him, admiration sitting heavily in your eyes that there was no way he could miss it.

“Yeah?” His eyes glinted back at yours.

“Only if you stop with the compliments, i’m so bad for accepting them.”

“Hmm, no can do.” You rolled your eyes and reached over to take his hand in yours and he instantly linked his fingers with yours. It felt right. Warm. Safe.

“Fine, but don’t be alarmed if I just jump you for being too nice to me or something.” Your words came out faster than your brain could process and your eyes widened once you realised what you’d just said to him. You’d just threatened to jump Harry Styles. Fuck sake. And now he wad laughing, at you or with you you didn’t know.

“Alright, but you don’t be alarmed if I do nothing to stop you.”

Now you understood why he didn’t need to ask what was wrong or if you were okay, his presence was comforting enough to make your nerves dissipate and focus on the only thing that now mattered; him.

#harry styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles fanfic #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fanfiction #finelinevogue #finelinevogue harry styles #harry blurb #harry oneshot #harry styles concept #ask finelinevogue #ask harry styles #anon response #finelinevogue masterlist #finelinevogue harry masterlist #harry styles fluff #harry writing #harry styles rapunzel #harry styles flynn ryder #tangled #harry styles tangled #harry styles dont worry darling #dwd

[rywritten]

Ooh, for a request, either Herd/Flock/Group dynamic, or Giving each other little gifts, whatever floats your boat (pairing doesn't matter, could be all three <3)

im all for sap and techno spoiling dream with little gifts that mean a lot 😔❤️💚🤍

Techno:

It was just a flower, it didn't mean anything and it shouldn't mean anything.

but dream had insisted to keep it, and the smile on his lips when he asked techno if he looked pretty with the flower on his hair was something techno was sure he'll never forget.

so he ends up buying him more, a lot more.

lilacs, to symbolize first love.

red roses, for a deep romantic love.

spider lilies, because he was told once that the flowers were meant for the heavens; and to techno, dream had always been otherworldly, celestial even.

and then the marigolds, to symbolize passion, a sacred offering to the gods.

and as techno contemplated the meaning behind such a fragile looking flower, he couldn't help but marvel at the irony.

here he was, the god of blood and violence, giving a moral his offerings. a flower's ephemeral beauty should mean nothing to him and yet he's found himself drowning in their meaning, in his emotions, in his unrelenting love for dream.

it should scare him, how much he's willing to sacrifice for this man.

but he sees it in the way dream's eyes gets softer, in the way his hands would hold each flower as if they were something worth cherishing and for a moment techno is struck with the idea that he would give up anything just to make sure the smile on dream's lips would always stay as beautiful and as genuine.

Sapnap:

the ring is light, almost feather like in his hands as sapnap rolled it around his fingers absentmindedly.

it looked pretty when he spotted it on his way home from the market and the seller had been insistent that he kept it, saying something about a tale of lost love and how the ring chooses its owner.

and who was sapnap to decline such an offer?

dream doesn't really care for accessories all that much, and he isn't really the type to enjoy extravagant gifts, so a free little ring from the market sounded just about right for him.

at least, that's what sapnap was hoping for.

they're sitting near the lake now, with their feet dangling dangerously by the docks and dreams laughing about something bad had said earlier but sapnap's too distracted by the ring to really pay attention to what the joke was about.

"you still with me?" dream touched his shoulder lightly to try and get his attention and sapnap answers him immediately.

"always."

"then what's got you zoning out on me today?" dream snorts, but there's a glint in his eyes like he knows something's up and he's just waiting for sapnap to burst and say what's on his mind.

so he does.

"ever wonder if it's possible to enchant a ring?"

"what do you mean?"

"i dont mean the kind for invisibility or strength, just..." sapnap closes his eyes and pushes through "they say that it's possible for two people to be bound together to the point where their souls are linked, connected in a way that when they pass, their souls would always try to find each other."

"so, there's this ring." sapnap pulls it out of his pockets and shows it to dream. "and look it may sound pretty stupid, but the seller told me this ring wanted to be with me and its got the same shade of green as your eyes and for some fucking reason, i believe it."

"believe what?" dream asked, voice soft and fragile like he's not quite sure what to make of sapnap's messy confession.

"that this ring was enchanted somehow, that it was looking for me because it knows ill be able to lead it back to you." sapnap takes dream's hands carefully and gently places the ring on his finger.

"a perfect fit." dream whispers, awestruck and ever so beautiful.

"yeah." sapnap couldn't help but agree as he link their hands together, enjoying the way their fingers slotted together perfectly and kissing the back of dream's hand all the while.

"a perfect fit." he repeats.

#ry.quests #sunshine-in-a-bottle #dreamnoblade #dnb #dreamnap #i loose it at the implications of dreamnap past lives #also flower language is a thing i enjoy exploring so using it for techno was a blast

[amoristt]

Just a Dare | Nathan Prescott x Reader

@trueloveknifefight asked, Also can I request Nathan asking you out?

here u are! i love writing convos w nathan UGH i adore his character.

as always, replies and reblogs are greatly appreciated1 i check all tags and comments <3

wanna support me for just $3? here's my ko-fi!

The lights were bright, vivid. Almost blinding. They dance LED accents into the reflection of your drink- a dull plastic cup filled to the brim with one part whiskey, zero parts mixer. The taste could bring a tear to your eye but you would be damned to water down such fine alcohol, provided by none other than Nathan Prescott himself.

Music reverberated along the pool rooms walls, laughter and hollers distantly rising with the tempos. Your foot absently tapped to the beat- you were never one for dancing. Never one for parties, either, actually, favoring drinking in the solitude of a small friend group.

If not for Nathan you wouldn't be here at all. Some would say it's a privilege to slip past those heavy doors, entering the dully lit world of the Vortex Club. You mostly just felt like it was all for show. Somehow securing a place among Nathan's friend group, and a good friend at that, it was almost duty to show up. He insisted on it.

So, here you were. Leaning against a wall in a suffocatingly warm, cramped pool room surrounded by a sea of faces you hardly recognized.

That was, until you saw Nathan's face peer through the small break in shifting bodies. You knew him all too well.

Strikingly handsome, equally strikingly pompous. Funny, crude, an absent minded party goer just as much as he was a fireball with racing, incoherent thoughts. A drinker, a druggie. Takes the edge off, he says, but you think he does it to take away his thoughts completely. You felt like his entire life was all edges, never sacred ground.

The poor bastard.

He lures your attention in as he saunters over with squared shoulders, narrowly avoiding spilling his drink when a random student cuts it a little too close. Normally Nathan would make a bigger deal, give him what for, but this time he just shoots the poor kid a menacing glare and grumbles, 'fucking watch it'. He's walking with purpose and intent, you can see it on his face. You must have a target on your forehead as he darts straight over.

When he comes to your side, his own alcohol dripping down the sides of his cup onto his wiry fingers, you raise a brow.

"Something wrong?" You ask, as he takes a spot leaning against the hard wall right next to you.

"Just wondering why you're being so fucking lame over here," He shouts over the music, taking a sip of his drink, grimacing at the taste. "We're all having a good time over at the lounge and you're over here acting like all the other wallflower nobodies."

You roll your eyes with upturning lips. "Maybe I like being a wallflower. I like people watching. I see things no one else does."

"Yeah, okay, fucking weirdo."

"I mean it," You push off the wall and grin. "Look-" You point to a student obviously wasted, drink held high over head while he lets the music take him away. "That guy is clearly trashed- he's having the time of his life. He's gotta be seeing double."

Nathan whistles at his state, taking in the guys goofy smile, half lidded eyes. "I'll bet it's the triplets. I could breathe on him too hard and he'd fall over."

"You should go try it." You tease. He shakes his head and takes another drink.

"Nah, he'll get it himself. Guarantee we'll be dragging him out by his feet by the end of the night." He shrugs. "Or, at least someone will. I sure as fuck ain't staying that long."

You snicker. "What, got a hot date?" Nathan glares at you. "Oh don't tell me," you cup your hands to whisper, a secretive gesture, "homework?"

"Fuck no," He scoffs, and you can just barely see that he's a little more than tipsy now. His pale cheeks dusted with red, the tip of his nose ruby under the harsh lighting. It's also then that you realize he's a little more tense than usual, even despite the drinking. He's standing straight upright, his right hand gripping his cup like a crutch and his left now shoved hastily into his pocket.

He hasn't looked at you dead in the eyes yet.

"So what is it then?" You ask curiously. He shrugs and stares into his cup. You frown. "Bro, are you like, good right now? Do you wanna leave?"

For the first time since he'd wandered over, Nathan looks up at you. His eyes are unreadable, but his composure seems stressed. He shrugs again. Before you can even open your mouth to ask him about his state, he sighs and downs an entire mouthful of burning whiskey. It makes you cringe just watching him.

"Fuck it," He huffs. "Look I got some stupid ass dare to come over here and put the moves on you, okay." He sounds almost annoyed, like it's a hassle for him, or maybe embarrassing. You cross your arms. "I was dared to come over here and try to get you like, to fucking, you know, leave with me, but now that I'm over here I'm starting to think maybe that was a dumbass idea."

"Leave with you?" You say incredulously, a brow already lifting. "You were dared to come over here and try to sleep with me? By our friends?"

"No, no, fuck," Nathan seems agitated now, rushing. "Like a date sorta bullshit. Ask you out." He manages to get it out in almost the worst delivery possible, meanwhile you're just trying to pick out who would put him up to this. Hayden? Victoria?

A laugh forces its way out of you. "Aren't we a little too old for that game?"

Nathan shrugs. "That's what I said but they insisted. Fucking babies. At least make the dare a little more fun than just asking some bitch out. That's like elementary level shit."

Your eyes widen, you scoff. "Excuse me?"

Nathan sputters. "You're not some bitch, I didn't mean to-... Fucks sake, I'm clearly a little drunk right now okay, if you could cut me some fucking slack that'd be awesome."

"Hey man I didn't ask to be a victim of bullying," You tease, and he can't help but laugh. You soften. "Never expected it from you, though of all people. As ironic as that sounds."

"I'm not even bullying you, come on. Don't be a bitch. I even admitted it and everything."

You grin. "Yeah. Gotta say though, I'm a little disappointed."

"Oh what, you wanted to see my moves?" Nathan hums. "You wanted some Prescott action?"

"Shut the hell up." You shove his shoulder, an action that would be a mistake to so many others, but for you, it was welcomed. "I'm disappointed that it was just a dare. I'd probably have said yes if it wasn't. But, oh well."

Nathan doesn't answer for a long moment. First, he stares into his drink, processing. Almost like he hadn't heard that right, or like you were messing with him. It's rare to see Nathan Prescott stunned into a momentary silence. He's thinking, wondering what he should say next. Suspicious that you're just playing with him, hopeful that maybe you aren't.

And, you hadn't been. Truth be told if given the chance you would allow him to take you out for the evening. Show you fancy things, try out something a little more intimate than just laughter and poking fun at classmates together. You enjoyed his presence, looked forward to it at times.

A small part of you had hoped that he felt the same, maybe. Somehow. While grateful that he respected you enough to cut the crap before it even began, you couldn't help but feel a little... Disheartened at the prank. You'd saved your pride by denying him beforehand, but, if it had been genuine...

"So if it wasn't a dare," He began, quietly, barely audible over the booming music overhead. Eyes barely visible in the sea of vibrant lights crashing like waves. "You'd have said yes."

You shrug, trying to play it casual to save your own feelings, just in case. "Probably. I mean, we're already friends. We have fun so it couldn't have been that bad." He nods along to almost every word.

"Well what if we did it anyways." He blurts.

"Did what?"

"Go out tonight. Like, you know ditch this lame ass party and have some real fun."

"You love this lame ass party, and plus," You shake your head in feigned annoyance. "I'm not sleeping with you, Nathan."

He glares at you. "Fucking duh. I'm just saying we can go and hang out somewhere else. This party happens all the fucking time so it's not like we're missing anything."

"But, wouldn't that make me the butt of our friends joke?"

He shrugs. "Fuck em. It was a dumb dare anyways."

"Now it seems like you're trying extra hard to convince me to say yes." You state, and he's frazzled, running lines through his brain to try and save the absolute failure of asking you out. You decide to spare him, take a little leap of faith for yourself. "But, alright. I'm in."

Nathan gapes at you. "You're in?"

"Yeah, why not. I'm not busy right now and if you're not either than," You smile. "Why not. You better wow me though, Prescott. I'm talking a night to remember. Fireworks, dinner by candle light, a serenade. The whole package."

Nathan's eyes light up, but he tries to hide it, rolls those beautiful blues. "Well considering I've had like no fucking time to prepare how about we instead go to the roof and chill out."

You toss the idea around in your head for show. You already knew the answer the moment he asked if you were being serious.

"I mean I guess that would work," You say. "I was looking for fireworks but I suppose that will suffice. Feel free to go tell our buddies their joke may have backfired on them."

Nathan shakes his head. "Nah, don't even bother. They're all drunk and probably don't even remember daring me in the first place."

"Alright then," You push yourself off the wall, feeling your cheeks warm. A flutter takes wing in the base of your chest, your heart picking up just a little faster. You can't stop the smile that graces you as you say, "Lead the way, Prescott."

Nathan does lead the way. He takes your hand into his own, your fingers tracing over his boney knuckles as he drags you through the sea of bodies, out to the school hall and up winding stairs.

You giggle like a child when he struggles to find the correct key on the janitors ring he'd snatched weeks ago just in case, tease him when he almost spills his drink all over himself. Nathan's hands are almost shaking, but you chalk it up to the alcohol. You chalk everything up to the alcohol- his trembling fingers, his red face, a shy, albeit goofy smile resting upon his lovely, angular face.

The night was cool and crisp, a stark contrast to the smoldering heat of the Vortex Party.

He looks amazing out under the stars, and underneath the scope of the vast, black sky dotted with trillions of perfect, twinkling lights, you feel at peace.

Looking at him, you feel like this may be the start of something you'd denied yourself the chance of ever even imagining.

Out there, alone but together, hearing the echoes of music mixed with the livelihood of crickets in the darkness...

it truly was a night to remember.

-----------

Days later, you sit atop your desk, feet tapping rhythmically on your chair, typing away at your phone.

"Love the top," A familiar voice pipes, and you glace up to find Victoria standing before you, books pressed to her chest. She takes in your shirt, a nicely fitted long sleeve with a rather low cut v-neck. "Why haven't I see that one before?"

You shrug and set your phone down. "Never got around to wearing it I guess. Not a big fan of V-necks."

"It fits you," She sets her books down at the table beside you and brushes a hand through her hair, making sure every strand is in line. "I'll have to get one myself."

"You know what, you can have it after today," You say, and she perks up in disbelief. "As a thank you for what happened at the party."

That disbelief soon turned to confusion. "...Meaning?"

"Y'know, making Nathan ask me out. He made a whole huge deal about it- said you guys were drinking and playing Truth or Dare of all things. Gotta say, I was a little surprised."

Victoria's brows knit. "We hardly drank at that party, and I wouldn't be caught dead playing Truth or Dare. That game is for kids."

It almost knocks the wind out of you.

They hadn't even been playing in the first place.

As the teacher walks into the room, the first period bell blaring annoyingly over the speakers, you climb off your desk and prepare for the day, hardly able to contain yourself. It hadn't been a dare, after all.

And, you and Nathan's official second date was merely a day away.

#nathan prescott #life is strange #imagine #lis

[peterrparrkerr]

Hanahaki disease - read on ao3

Tagging: @lokitonypeter @just-things-things @thegreenmetblue @someonepostedart @andacheesyoneliner @bluestarker @lilcoffeecup @useless-fanfictions-for-mcu

*-*

Peter's known for a long time that he was in love with Tony. Since he was seven, and Ironman saved his life. Since he came home to Tony Stark on his couch, talking with his aunt.

Since the trip to Germany, and everything else leading up to now. The more time he spent with the older man, the more in love with him he became.

Peter never really thought he'd be the one to get sick. He thought he'd been immune. He's had crushes before, been in unrequited love before, and he never got sick.

But with Tony, it came on so suddenly. One day he was fine, and then the next, blue petals were in his sink after a coughing fit.

He'd been so shocked he'd stumbled back and almost hit his head on the bathroom door.

That was six months ago, and its not gotten better. He's been lucky enough to hide it from everyone.

With May's long hours at the hospital and his school's wacky scheduling, and the Avengers keeping Peter on the outskirts, its easy to hide the blue flowers.

He's read stories about people with the disease getting better on their own, or even learning to live with it for the rest of their lives.

He's also read about it killing people.

But he can't tell Tony how he feels. He just can't. Tony thinks of Peter as a kid. Plus, while the age difference doesn't bother Peter at all, it might bother Tony.

The man was old enough to be his dad anyway. So Peter decided to hide the flower petals. For as long as he could.

"Hey, Pete, you getting the popcorn or what?" Clint calls from the living room. Peter coughs again, hunched over the trashcan beside the kitchen island.

"Yeah!" He shouts, coughing again. He reaches into his mouth, picking the petals off his tongue before straightening. He glances down at the trash, covered in wet, wilty petals and feels his stomach roll.

He quickly grabs a bunch of paper towel, throwing them into the trash to cover them, then pushing it all down as far as it'd go.

After a second, he grabs the two bowls of popcorn and makes his way back into the living room.

"Sorry, I had to melt the butter," he excused, handing one bowl off to Clint -who would be sharing with Nat, Bruce and Steve.

Peter handed the other bowl off to Sam, who was in reach of Tony, Thor, Bucky and Peter.

"What are we watching again?" Peter asked, clearing his throat. It was always worse when Peter was around Tony.

"Halloween," Sam said, smirking over at Peter.

"Its August," Peter exclaims.

"Yeah, and we were going to watch A Walk To Remember but Tony doesn't do chick flicks, and the grandparents haven't seen it yet."

"Hey, Tony hasnt seen it either," Steve yelped, waving a hand at Tony, sitting at the corner of the couch, beside Sam.

Peter tried not to think about how close they'd be if Sam and him just switched places.

"That's because Halloween is a terrible series."

"It not!" Peter can't help interjecting. "Its right up there with Nightmare on Elm Street and  Friday the 13th."

"How do you even know what those movies are?" Clint asks, laughing on the other couch.

"I watch old movies," Peter shrugged, feeling the familiar sense of self-consciousness creep into his chest, tickling at his lungs.

"Old!" Tony barked. "Kid, the 80s aren't old."

Peter forces himself to laugh and shrug and make a joke about hanging out with people twice his age, and the conversation moves on.

But it just reminds Peter that Tony would never see him as an equal because of his age. There was no way he'd ever accept that Peter loved him. Or would love him back.

The movie plays, and Peter chews handfuls of popcorn to keep from coughing up a lung.

Bucky and Steve are on the edge of their seats, fully invested in the corny horror film when Tony starts coughing.

Everyone glances over in concern, but the man just waves his hand, mouth pressed into his elbow.

"Pop-corn-" he chokes out between coughs.

"You're supposed to chew it," Nat laughs. Peter tries not to outwardly show how worried he is when Tony's face grows red, the coughing so bad he has to get up and make his way to his bedroom down the hallway.

Everyone returns to watching the movie, but Peter can't help but wonder if Tony's okay, especially when he doesn't come back right away.

"Uh, I gotta take a leak," Peter lies, climbing to his feet.

"Thanks for sharing, little man," Sam huffed. Peter doesn't say anything else,just makes his way down the hallway.

Tony's bedroom is all the way at the end. The only people who live in the penthouse with him are Steve and Bucky, and Wanda and Vision -though they're out on a date for the night.

He passes the bathroom door, and his frown deepens when he hears Tony hacking in his bedroom.

He keeps light on his toes, reaching the bedroom door that's not all the way closed, and pushes it open just a little.

"Ton-" the sight before him cuts him off, and he ducks back a little, worried maybe the older man might've seen him.

He feels his chest tighten at the sight. Tony, leaned over with a bedside trash can between his knees, coughing up little pink flowers.

Peter's eyes widen when the man spits a glob of blood into the basket before continuing to cough.

Tears burn at Peter's eyes and he quickly backs up, rushing down the hallway and past the living room.

"Hey, where you going? Where's the fire?"

"I-I gotta go home aunt May- uh, I gotta go she wants me home," Peter shouts, snatching up his keys and phone on the way out.

He's in the elevator, and he can't stop the sobs from tightening his throat.

Tony's sick. Tony's in love with someone who doesn't love him back. Tony's in love with someone and its not Peter.

Be chokes on tears and petals all the way to the main floor, shoves the petals into his pocket and runs from the building.

He knew his love was unrequited. He knew there was no chance, but to see Tony so in love with someone else -it was like digging a knife into his heart and twisting.

He makes it to his bedroom and buries his face into his pillow, muffling his crying so May won't hear when she gets home. Hopefully she'll think hes still at the tower and won't check on him until the morning.

He cries himself to sleep, eyes gritty and heavy.

*-*

"Hey, kid, how's patrolling going?"

Peter jolts at the sudden sound of Tony's voice in his ear, momentarily forgetting he has a connection to the tower now. New upgrades.

"Uh, good," Peter huffed, swinging from building to building. "Stopped a mugging, and helped a couple people with the parking meters."

Tony chuckles over the coms. "You gotta stop showing people the coin on tape trick."

Peter can't help but smile through his mask. He clears his throat when he feels the familiar tickle at the back of his throat.

"Fuck capitalism, Mr. Stark," he says.

"You do know capitolism is kind of my job?"

"Its not," Peter countered. "I mean, it relied heavily on it in the beginning -what with the weapons and war profiteering- but you've come a long way! Sustainable energy and you're even recycling!"

Tony chuckles again, and Peter has a moment to regret his words -Tomy probably thinks he's just a dumb kid- before a coughing fit hits him out of nowhere.

It's so bad, Peter loses his momentum and drops onto a rough of a small cafe. Hes on his hands and knees, crawling from the edge of the roof as he coughs and hacks.

"Pete, you okay? What's wrong?" Comes Tony's worried voice.

Peter feels the petals coating his mouth with nowhere to go and frantically tugs on his mask. He's choking, suffocating.

He rips the mask off and heaves a mess of petals and blood onto the gravel roof.

Its never been this bad. Panic grips his chest when he coughs and wretches more than he can get a breath in. He's suffocating.

Tears burn his eyes as he struck less desperately to take a breath. Just one breath.

His head begins to spin, chest heaving and he drops from his knees to his hips, legs curled off to the side as he holds himself up with shaky arms.

There's so much blood and petals, Peter doesn't know where its all coming from.

He's too busy dying to notice the suit of armor that drops onto the  roof, or that Tony's suddenly rushing towards him.

"Jesus, kid!" He breathed.

Peter lets out a sob, blood and petals continuing to fall from his mouth. His stomach hurts from the heaving, his chest from lack of oxygen.

Tony grabs him by the arms, pulling him forward until he's away from the pile of bile, blood and blue wilting flowers, nearly cradling him in his arms.

"Its alright, you're okay, you're gonna be okay," Tony repeated, rocking Peter while he continued to cough and sob.

He shakes his head, even as exhaustion and lack of air flow has his eyelids drooping, body settling further into Tony's hold.

When he wakes up again, he's in a hospital bed. Theres an iv in the back of his hand, and a tube running down his throat from his nose.

He swallows around it and has to fight back panic at the strange feeling.

There's a heart monitor on his index finger, and a few on his chest -which is bare.

Peter moves shaky hands to the blanket and pulls it up just enough to see. Someone had taken his suit off, leaving him in his red boxers.

He blushes at that. Who had taken his suit off? Damn, he hoped it wasn't Clint or Sam.

He drops the blanket just as the door opens. He looks up to see Tony step inside and he wants the bed to swallow him whole.

"Hey, kid," he greeted, shutting the door behind him and making his way towards Peter's bed. "You had us all pretty worried."

Peter drops his eyes to the itchy white hospital sheet, picking at a loose thread and not saying anything. What was there to say?

Tony sighs as he settles down into the chair beside the bed.

"Your aunt May is in the middle of a shift, but she'll be stopping by when she's got a break to check up on you."

"Okay," Peter barely manages to murmur.

"The doctors had to pump your lungs," Tony continued. "But its not a cure, Pete. They'll come back."

Tears burn at his eyes and he quickly brushes them away, sniffling as he does so.

"I know," he said. "Its alright, I'm okay."

"Peter," Tony sighs, grabbing Peter's hand. He looks up then, seeing the concern in the older man's eyes. "You're not okay, you're really sick."

"People live with it all the time," Peter brushed off.

"Who is it?"

"What?" Peter asked, heart monitor matching his fast pulse.

"Who is it? How long have you been like this?"

and it must be because Peter is tired -exhausted and drained and so sick of being sick- because fresh tears bloom and he pulls his hand from Tony's.

"Long time," is all he can say as he presses his palms into his eyes, rubbing at the tears.

"Who," Tony presses.

Fuck it, Peter thinks. He's already dying, he's already humiliated. Why not just confess?

"You," he says, pulling his hands from his face. "I've-I've been in love with you for- for years."

He can't handle the shocked look that filters through Tony's features, so he looks down at the iv in his hand, lower lip trembling.

"And I know you don't think of me that way," he continues. "I know, so its okay, I'm fine, I'll get over it or, or get the surgery or something-"

"Peter," Tony interrupts, moving from the chair to the side of the bed. He grabs both sides of Peter's jaw, forcing him to look up at Tony. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because," he says on a wet breath. "Because you've always thought of me as a kid. You- I'm still just a kid to you, and thats okay, Mr. Stark, I'm-"

Tony's eyebrows furrow as Peter has to stop talking. He's getting to the point where he's babbling, not understandable.

"I don't think of you as a kid," Tony says.

"Yes, you do," Peter huffed, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. "You do, and thats okay, I promise, I've live this long with it, I'm okay."

"Has it always been that bad?"

Peter shakes his head.

"What made it worse?"

Peter's showing his hand already, he might as well expose the card up his sleeve too.

"I saw you," he murmured. "During the movie. You're sick too. I didn't mean to, I was just- checking to make sure you were okay but-"

"Peter, sweetheart," Tony interrupted, and Peter looked up at him, realizing suddenly the man's eyes are watering a little.

"I'm sick because of you."

Peter feels like someone punched the air from his lungs, and he blinks up at Tony, eyebrows drawing close as he tries to process what Tony's said.

"What?" He asks feebly. A small smile pulls at the corner of Tony's mouth and he leans forward, kissing Peter softly on the mouth.

It's a simple kiss, but it sucks the air from Peter's lungs.

"We're really bad at communicating, kid," Tony chuckled wetly, their noses brushing. Peter can't help but sniffle a laugh as well, his hands moving to grip the front of Tony's shirt.

"M'not a kid," he mumbles, pressing his forehead against Tony's. The older's hands are still cradling his face, thumbs brushing against his wet cheeks.

"No, you're not," Tony agreed.

#marvel #tony stark #peter parker #ironman #spiderman #starker #ao3 #my writing #sfsummerbingo21

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" from The Owl House

Wow. They are really pushing it for that secret message, huh?

Anywho--Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

I think it goes without saying at this point that Season Two of The Owl House is setting itself up as a season without filler. Now, filler episodes aren't always bad. Yes, it hurts when a series turns away from the main plot for a week. But at best, they're utilized as a chance for the writers to play around with the characters and developing said characters without it relating to the overarching story. So, some people who see that consider it a bad thing that a series doesn't have that many filler episodes.

I like to call those people: F**king morons.

Don't get me wrong, I see where some of you are coming from. And I'd be willing to agree...if The Owl House was a plot-driven series. Which it's not. It is a character-driven series. Because for every plot thread and narrative that the show presents, they always relate to the characters and develop them further each time these threads get brought up. For example, look at "Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty's Door" (It pains me just to write that). Several narratives move forward, and it’s all done to make the characters grow. And to explain how requires going into spoilers. So keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Hooty: Might as well start with the character that this episode is about.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan when I found out we're getting a Hooty-centered episode. I've grown to love him over time, but he is a comedic character that's best used in small doses. Primarily due to how his voice is grating to me (My ears are still bleeding...). With that said, I do really love his contributions in "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (Seriously, there couldn't have been a less awkward title?). Hooty's antics when trying to help everyone are as hilarious as they are heartwarming. He deeply cares for his friends but just doesn't understand how his plans could do some unintended harm, which is pretty lovable if you ask me. We also get some surprisingly great insight into his character, as he feels insecure about basically being the comic relief who doesn't really do that much other than being funny. Rarely do you get that level of dimension from a comedic character, and it's even more uncommon for that to work out as well as it does here. It once again proves just how competent the writing is in this series to the point where we get an episode about Hooty, and it's funny and heartwarming instead of being annoying. And whoever is responsible for that, you're the best.

Lilith’s Letter to Hooty: I mean it when I say that I love how Lilith kept her word about her and Hooty becoming penpals. Their friendship was something I would have never expected to love, and I'm still shocked that it works so well, so seeing it continue like this just warms me to the bone. Plus, it is pretty sweet that Lilith's kind words are what inspired Hooty to do what he's done in this episode...meaning it's Lilith we should thank here--SON OF A WITCH! Even when she's gone, she's still working her way into my heart!

King going through Puberty: What?! KING IS EVOLVING!

(There, I made a Pokemon reference. Do I get my cookie now?)

Eda Keeping Herself Awake to Train Herself: I'm willing to bet a large sum of money that this has everything to with Raine getting captured last week. If Eda was still the most powerful witch in the Isles, she might have actually saved them. But she isn't, and now the love of her life is in the clutches of a tyrant planning something that could potentially be the end of everything. So I can understand Eda pushing herself to her limit to get back on top again, as I would probably do the same. It's not healthy in any way, and Eda would be doing more harm than good. But when it comes to the people you love, logic doesn't always win out in the end.

Luz Wanting to Make her Way into Amity’s Heart by Making the Echo Mouse Happy: ...That's it. I Just...I just love everything about it, ok?

This was also when I knew that I was wrong to doubt that there would be zero Lumity in this episode. I realize my follies now, and I humbly apologize.

Hooty Teaching King About Demons: This was so funny. So, so funny. Probably doesn't come as a surprise, especially since The Owl House proves itself as a comedy before, but the jokes have never hit as frequently and as hard as they did here. From Hooty getting offended by King's dance to him and Dana's insert wanting a "DNA sample," everything managed to successfully make me lose my s**t. It does come at the expense of King suffering, but I can stomach that much more than if it were Eda or Luz. And, as a bonus, we get lore about how demons work, added with another great joke of King getting in trouble with Hooty for saying he already knows this stuff. Humor isn't always the show's strong suit, but when it works, it f**king works.

King Wanting to Know What he Is: But despite how funny King's vignette was, we still get to see more of his character grow. We learn that he's frustrated now that there's this big question mark over his life now, feeling extra angry that his father "abandoned" him to leave such a present mystery. It shows the hidden resentment he has that Lilith inadvertently brought out, made even worse when King's father hasn't responded to the video yet. King hasn't really gotten that much development until "Echoes of the Past," so it's pretty cool that the writers haven't really slowed down on it. Especially when it leads to these great moments of King venting his frustrations.

King’s Shouting Powers: KING learned FUS RO DAH!

(And now that's a Pokemon reference AND a Skyrim reference. WHERE'S MY GOSH DANG COOKIE!?)

Eda’s Nightmare: If King's vignette hits you hard with the laughs, Eda's will absolutely hit you harder with the feels (never make me say "feels" unironically again). Knowing that Eda's life got thoroughly screwed over by the curse is something we could figure out on her own. But seeing just how much the curse ruined her life and tore apart relationships that mean the world to her really does a swell job at ripping apart the soul. What's even more tragic is, technically speaking, it's all sort of Eda's fault too. She kept hiding the curse, refusing to be a burden to others who would do all they could to help. If she had only been open and honest, things probably wouldn't have changed much, but they most likely would have been better than they are now.

Eda Attacked her Father as the Owl Beast: ...I don't know what I was expecting when "Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances" hinted that there was some possible tension between Eda and her father...but it definitely wasn't this.

The fact that we see blood where his eye used to be doesn't make things any happier, either.

Raine Broke Up with Eda: Before we get into anything else, let's celebrate the fact that it's now confirmed that Eda and Raine really did use to date in the past. Because this show is just f**king phenomenal with its LGBTQA+ representation!

But, seriously, this is a fantastic reveal that goes far beyond just shipping...well, sort of. It shines a new light on Eda and Raine's interactions from last week, revealing that while they're not a couple anymore, they still very much love each other. It helps make their last interaction especially tragic, as they were both on the same page now and could very well be together again. Only for them to be forced apart for the second time in a way that's much worse than the first. And I frickin' adore that this series changes the impact of one episode one week later. Again, it shows just how competent these writers are, and kudos to them for making something so...perfect.

The Moon Person: WHO THE FU--Nope. Nope! We have more than enough mystery bulls**t to deal with through CreepyLuz and Philip Wittebane, so I am PUTTING YOU ON THE BACKBURNER FOR NOW!

(They're probably nothing more than a one-off character, anyway)

The Owl Beast and Eda are Connected: Through visuals alone, we, the audience, can clue into what the curse really means. The Owl Beast doesn't want to be a part of Eda as much as she doesn't want it to be a part of her. Whether they like it or not, and they very much don't, they're stuck together. The thing is, and this is what I love the most, they still decide to make the best of their situation rather than let it ruin their lives even more. This might be the best possible turn Eda's curse could have made. It'll still affect her, and there are probably more negatives than positives, but at least now, it's not the worst thing in the world. And I feel like that's all anyone can ask when in a position like her own.

Eda's “Pretty Dream”: I don't know what emotions are toiling inside me more with this moment. Awe and wonder over how beautiful Eda's dream is, or heartbreak over the implication that she has only had nightmares since getting cursed...I'm gonna say both. Yeah, it's definitely both.

Eda’s Harpie Form: Well, fan artists are gonna have a field day with this...especially the freaks.

(You know who you are. And you're weird!)

Luz Calling Amity a “Cotton-Candy Haired Goddess”: ...Have I ever mentioned how much I love this show?

Hooty Kidnapped Amity: ...Hooty, if your stupidity wasn't charming, I would be more than willing to call the authorities over how you kidnapped a girl in your version of a knapsack and locked her in the basement. For that is going to ring SO MANY alarm bells in people's heads.

Amity and Luz Stuck in a Tunnel of Love: *Smacks lips* Mmm. The adorable awkwardness of this moment is just *chef's kiss* magnifique!

Luz being afraid of getting made fun of:

Amity’s look of hope: I mean...just...f**king--LOOK AT HER:

That is the look of a girl who, while embarrassed as hell, still is ecstatic to learn for a brief moment, everything that she is hoping for has a high chance of being real. Who, in their right mind, wouldn't go "Aw!" at something so pure and innocent?!

Luz Destroying the Tunnel of Love: This is how to effectively utilize dramatic irony. The audience can understand why Luz is tearing the place apart because she explicitly states that she's afraid of Amity rejecting her in the end. They also know that's bogus, thus making it extra painful to watch Amity's heart break more and more with each second (which is perfectly represented through Amity's expressions). You feel bad for both of them, and even worse when you know that it can easily be prevented by the simple art of communication. That's what makes it great dramatic irony. Knowing the point of view of each character results in a scene that evokes emotions in two different ways.

Hooty’s Breakdown: This was...genuinely hard to watch. Not that it was badly written, far from it. It just...hurt seeing how destroyed Hooty was when he realized he failed the people he has such an admiration for. On the upside, a wholesome moment follows soon after as the Owl House gang tries to reassure Hooty that he's done a lot of good that night. It's a pure action that shows even though Hooty gets on their nerves all the time, they still care about him...damn it. I think I'm gonna cry.

Eda’s Advice for Luz: ...Eda...You're the best.

You found out that your surrogate daughter wants to ask a girl out, and not only were you quick to deliver the best possible advice ("Just go for it!"), but you also quickly reassure her that it doesn't need to be perfect.

And you know what? That's it. Eda is the best cartoon mom! She might not technically be Luz's mom, but I don't give a s**t because she is the best!

Luz and Amity Ask Each Other Out: Shh-sh-sh-sh...

Do you hear that?

...

...

...It's the sound of dozens of Lumity fans collectively losing their s**t...and I'm one of them.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!

IT!

IS!

CANON!

AH-HAHAHAHAHA!

HOLY S**T! Holy s**t! Holy s**t...might just be the best way I could possibly describe this! Finally, after all the waiting, speculating, and praying, THESE TWO IDIOTS FINALLY GOT TOGETHER! AND IT WAS PERFECT! I mean, it was awkward as s**t, but that's what makes it perfect! You know why? You wanna--Hey! *snaps fingers*. You want to know why? It's because they're teenagers. Of f**king course, it's going to be awkward! This is their first relationship, so there will be a lot of missteps along the way. And that, in itself, brings me to the best (second best part?) thing about it happening in episode eight of the new seasons. Most endgame couples get together in the climax or even at the end of the series. But to have them get together this early on, means there will be quite a few episodes dedicated to showing them grow as a couple.

And better than that--EVEN F**KING BETTER THAN THAT--dozens of kids are going to see these two, a realistic depiction of young love that just so happens to involve two girls, and are going to learn once and for all that there is nothing wrong with being who they are. That fact alone is f**king incredible. Yes, it sucks that season three got cut short, and we'll have even less time with Luz and Amity, but knowing how many kids have felt seen today almost makes it worth it in the end.

And if I see one mother f**ker saying this was poorly paced, I might just hunt them down for SPORT...Sorry if that was an overreaction. I'M JUST SO HAPPY! Because they're happy! Look at them. Listen to them! It's so...GAH-HAHAHA!

“They’re adorable! And deserve all the happiness!”: You're darn right, Hooty! You're darn right.

King’s Father(?) Shows Up: What the--WHAT?! They're doing this now?! Here?! After everything else?

Oh, man. What could this mean? What dynamic changes will this cause in the main cast? How could the writers fit this in during the next two episodes? And what--

Hooty Eats the Letter: ...Pfffft--HAHAHAHA!

Oh, man...I should be mad, and I wouldn't blame others if they are...but that is too much of a brilliant f**k you that I can't help but appreciate it. Bravo writers. Bravo.

WHAT I DISLIKED

...Dislikes? Dislikes? You would honestly believe that after everything I witnessed in this episode, that I would have the gull to list anything wrong with it?!

HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT I WOULD BE SO CALLUS TO--Actually, I do kind of have an issue with the episode's title. It's just too much of an awkward mouthful for me to get behind. I understand that the writers wanted to sneak the K into the secret message, but were there really no other titles starting with K that they couldn't come up with?

But that's just a personal issue, and in no way do I think anybody else would feel the same way. Especially with how well-written everything else is anyway.

IN CONCLUSION

"Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (title aside) is another A+ episode. It was hilarious, heart-wrenching, and downright adorable while keeping me entertained with every minute. I'm sure there are some issues I was willing to ignore due to how expertly written everything else was, but why bother looking for the chinks in the armor when I could just enjoy a perfect episode for being so...perfect! Some of you might be willing to disagree with me, but to that, I say: Don't knock it till you've tried it.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I'm going to go lie down. It's...It's been a day.)

#the owl house #the owl house season 2 #the owl house reviews #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #toh hooty #king clawthorne #eda clawthorne #raeda #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #lumity is canon #what i thought about

[libertybri]

4 times anon here! I was hoping for 4 times MacCready almost confessed and one time Sole did instead? Like, Mac has a huge crush on Sole and he keeps trying to tell them how he feels but something happens like they're attacked or Sole falls asleep or he just can't get the words out so he cracks a joke instead or something like that. Eventually, Sole tells him about their feelings instead of the other way around. Sorry its so long.

Too Many Distractions - MacCready x gn!Sole

The first time he almost got his confession out, the two of them were having a seemingly normal night on the town. Drinks at the Third Rail that were to be followed by a long night of drunk jokes and platonic cuddling in their shared hotel room. MacCready knew in his heart, after everything the two have been through together and all of the time that has passed, he was in love with them. Though, words were his enemy. He wanted to find the right way to tell them without it coming out as a jumbled mess. So with days of preparation, he believed that night was the night. He planned to order their drinks, bring them back to their private table, and lay it all out for them to process.

MacCready carried both drinks in each hand, sliding into the booth beside Sole and left their drink in front of them. He watched as Sole picked up the glass and brought their lips to it, promptly smiling as the whiskey left a warm trickle down their throat. “Sole, look, I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and I just think it’s best if we have an honest talk right now.”

“I’m listening.” They smiled at him, sharing that same look of adoration he doesn’t realize he always gives them.

The corners of his lips curled up as he opened his mouth to speak, all of the images of him and his potential lover flashing through his mind as he gained more excitement in each passing second. “I think you’re really great, and great for m—“

“Someone help! She’s choking!”

“She can’t breathe!”

Both his and Sole’s attention were diverted to the scene. A woman was choking on her dinner and not many people knew the correct heroic response, except for Sole of course. MacCready watched as they stood up and rushed to help the woman, saving the day as they usually did. The rest of the night they couldn’t get a moment alone as someone was either offering to buy them drinks or just chatting up the heroic Sole, annoying MacCready more than anything.

Another time, he thought.

The second time his confession almost made it their way was really just out in the open. A few days after that event and he had given himself more pep talks to get into the moment, he felt ready. “Sole, there’s something on my mind I’ve been meaning to tell you. And I’m just going to get it out as quick as I—“

Before he could even finish his sentence, ironically bullets whirled passed the two of them. Sole immediately forced the man into cover, unintentionally shushing him. He groaned as the raiders shout degrading remarks at them. Surely it would have been like any other rodeo and after taking out the deranged killers of the ‘wealth, he could still lay it on Sole and finally get his confession out there.

All of these thoughts running through his mind must have been quite the distraction, however, as MacCready peaked above cover for far too long. A bullet barely managed to skid passed his neck and left a gash not deep enough to penetrate anything serious, but enough to make him hiss and worry his partner. After taking out the last raider, Sole worriedly looked at him. “C’mon, Diamond City isn’t too far from here. We need to get you to a doctor,” they rushed out and dragged MacCready along.

He was reluctant, but knew it was for the best that he went along and worry about his health first. It would be much easier to confess that night anyway, he thought.

That thought leads to the third time that dear confession barely managed to miss Sole. The two laid in bed together in their home in Diamond City as they talked about the many things that go through their mind in a day. MacCready could hear the sluggish tone creeping in their voice as they sunk further into their pillow.

This was it, now or never. He shifted to lay on his side and face Sole, gently running his hand over their arm. They looked at him through hooded eyes, gleaming softly at the man before them. He sighed as he started speaking softly, “I’ve been trying for a while now to get this out there. I mean, there’s a bit too many distractions out there. Now that it’s just the two of us I think I might finally be able to tell you how I feel.”

He closed his eyes as the confession glided smoothly off his lips, “I don’t think I’ve ever been more sure about anything in my life when I say I want to spend the rest of my time with you, Sole.” He gave them a moment and waited for any response.

MacCready internally cringed at their silence and finally opened his eyes to face them. He wanted to be annoyed with them for dozing off during his heartfelt speech, but as he listened to their soft snoring and watched as their chest rose and fell with each gentle breath, he couldn’t hold onto that agitation any longer. He understood it was a long day. Besides, he waited that long, what was one more day to hold out on the confession?

The two awoke in Diamond City that very next morning, relaxing as they basked in each other’s time for once. They sat outside on the roof of their home, watching the gleaming sunrise as they ate Sugar Bombs together. MacCready leans into their shoulder, causing them to stifle a laugh and turn to look at him. “Something on your mind, Mac?” They tease.

“Well now that you mention it,” he quirks a brow and sets his bowl down.

Sole does the same, turning their full attention to man. “It seems that every time I try to let you know how I feel, something gets in the way. Right now, this moment, just you and me, there is nothing that could ruin it. It’s perfect and I couldn’t ask for—“

MacCready wants to break down right then and there as their Pipboy sounds an alert, alarming Sole that a nearby settlement was in need of help. They give MacCready an apologetic look as he huffs and shakes his head in defeat.

“Hey Mac, I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but you take too long. It’s my turn now.” As they pack up and begin to move out for the day, they continue speaking, “The more time we spend together, the more I am falling in love with you. I didn’t think it was possible but you really proved me wrong.”

“Wait, r- really?” He blinks repeatedly as the shock settles in on him, “That’s- I just- I’ve been trying to confess that for days! You just let it out so easily! Sole, that makes it so much easier for me to tell you now how much I love you.” He gushes out quickly, utterly in love with his partner. He blushes deeply as Sole takes his hand. “Well, let’s go hurry and kick some mutant butt so we can come back and have a date night.”

“Sounds lovely.”

#maccready #fallout #fallout 4 #fallout 4 maccready #fallout fandom #fallout fanfic #fallout companions

[matchstickdolly]

Lucifer 5B: Cutting off Touch to Spite Your Fans

Spoiler warning: This post assumes you've watched all of Lucifer, season 5, part B.

CW: There's plenty I like about season 5, but this is a negative post. I know not everyone is up for negativity about the things they love. I also generally avoid it and (try to) keep my mouth shut about things I don’t like in most spaces. It’s good etiquette. But this is my space, and I have thoughts specifically about purity culture and the treatment of sexuality and trauma in fiction. You’ve been warned!

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I'm a professional writer (not in TV). I've worked with enough bad clients, editors, and other writers to recognize some hallmark behaviors in how both Fox and Netflix gave Lucifer's writers incredibly difficult, unfair, and frankly weird situations to create through.

Fox did them dirty, interfering and ordering too many eps in S3. Netflix did them dirty, ordering 10 eps for S4 when it clearly needed ~13. Then Netflix ordered 10 "final" eps for S5—then, just kidding(!), 6 more after they'd done their writing for the 10. (What the fuck?) And then Netflix ordered 10 more for a "final-final" S6 after the writers had done their best to tell their whole story in S5. (MORE what the fuck.)

Talk about whiplash for creators, and half of those who consume content don't even care to understand such creative pain.

So, there are problems on multiple fronts. There's much I'll forgive writers, accordingly. I go into most shows expecting plotting/pacing issues. I look, instead, for characters and relationships that will triumph over those issues.

Heart is what the show Lucifer has always had in spades, both in its characters and in the immensely committed, wonderful ways the actors have tried to realize the characters' humor, love, trauma, and—most importantly—struggle to find healing. Yet, when given the opportunity to show health alongside another in a relationship, the writers/directors of 5B chose to remove most sexual humor and physical intimacy from their female lead and bi/pan characters to, I feel, sanitize them and troll fans. What happened?

Well, for one, say hi to showrunner Joe Henderson bragging about how the writers decided to be colossal dicks to the fans who helped secure their jobs:

From CBR's 'Lucifer Showrunner Joe Henderson Dissects Season 5B's Chaos'

Have we not suffered sidelined/repressed female characters, "bury your gays," and, oh, Chloe fucking a serial killer enough? Must we also say hello to neutered relationships once characters find stable love (whether same or opposite sex)? The result of withdrawing more sexual humor and physical intimacy from paired characters is an uncomfortable suggestion that they're reformed by "pure" love—more chaste and aloof, more acceptable in polite society. This is only done to end-game committed relationships.*

The writers seem to think they're edging the viewers, but the reality is they're taking traumatized minority characters who rejoiced in sexual freedom, but lacked and craved an emotional connection, and showing they can't have both, or, if they find both, it will never last. They've taken hypersexual characters and said, here, even they can have the love and commitment they desire, but some physical intimacy, especially sexual intimacy, is what they must trade for it.

There's always one more case, phone call, or coincidence interrupting intimacy. Traumas or deaths deserving emotional and physical comfort go on to receive none or only one aspect. Done sometimes, it's fine. Done always, it's sick. Dan dies, and there's no hugging? Really?†

Don't craft characters who crave a full range of emotional and physical intimacy, only to rob them of related scenes every chance you get. That's not complexity. That's bad writing. To even achieve this in 5B, they must squash banter and sideline their female lead yet again.

What a gift to purity culture, which tells us to be more palatable by bottling and buttoning up. That sex should be taboo, but violence glorified. That there is no heated desire among "Good Women," that sexual minorities of all genders shouldn't experience it much at all.

5A is so good. At the very least, it's on the right path (clearly, since the plot payoff from 5x01 to 5x16 is great). It shows a couple working through difficulties and trauma, toward each other emotionally and physically. It even pokes fun at people who think an established relationship means the death of romantic and sexual appeal (a tired and hugely sexist trope). And then... And then 5B reverses that, pretending established relationships are barely physical during emotional struggle and that the honeymoon phase doesn't exist. It robs characters of joy and comfort through physical intimacy when they need it to move through or push beyond trauma.

It's telling that so many fan wishes for Deckerstar are about healing touch and existing in each other's spaces: amending Chloe's spicy PDA history with Cain, Chloe caring for Lucifer's wings, soft family scenes a la Monopoly night and shared meals, morning-afters, etc. Reasonable fans aren't asking for porn; they're asking for connection and humanity. They're asking for writers not to forget characters (and, yes, including hypersexual characters) on their way from Point A to Point B.

That 5B lacks these things isn't a "tee-hee frustrating" slow burn or a cockblock. It is, in so many scenes, excising from characters a core part of what nearly every human and fictional monster craves. And it's a slap in the face to the "found family" trope. When you remove or tamp down a casual physical intimacy that was previously there, characters and their relationships fall flat, even if only partially. They become blunt weapons creators wield against watchers or readers begging for scraps of warmth.

Minorities shouldn't be killed off with ease, and they shouldn't be stifled with ease, either.‡ And maybe there shouldn't be deep trauma driving a wedge in a romantic relationship if you're not going to explore it through that relationship, too—physical intimacy included.

I'm still reserving some judgment. I loved the family drama and the end. (Although, again, where was the physical intimacy? No intimacy when Chloe or Lucifer return from the dead? Really?) I see where they could do awesome things, and could have done more if not for network BS.

But I no longer trust Lucifer's writers and directors. They thought S5 was the end. And what they gave us of Deckerstar, of the relationship that symbolizes health and healing in their fictional world, is this: cold distance. And they got a kick out of doing it, apparently.

If this is a "love letter" to me as a fan, I'm burning it. I can only hope S6 course corrects. If not, the writers who made these choices shouldn't write sexual minority and/or traumatized characters again. If you don't understand most of us, you should stop fucking using us.

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* If you don't believe me about the differences between casual/short-term relationships and end-game relationships in Lucifer, go back and look at how Lucifer and Maze are with strangers in all the other seasons. Look at Chloe's sex dream, her propositioning of Lucifer in a library, her sex with Pierce in the evidence closet. Look at how much physical intimacy there is between Lucifer and Eve, and then between Eve and Maze (if only as a ploy). Across seasons, there are sex/kink jokes and scenes galore.

Compare this to how these same characters are portrayed when with their end-game loves. Notice the gentle pecks on the lips and the huge general drop in sexual humor between 5A and 5B. How boring. Where's the spice these characters had? Also, give me a damn break. Buttoning up in a relationship is contrary to four and a half seasons of emotional character work that's been communicating security in our relationships is personally freeing.

† I'm not just talking about sexual intimacy in this post, though that is a big part of it because of the characters. 5B lacked crucial found family scenes, too.

Chloe should have been at God's family dinner, but being so would have prevented more ham-fisted angst. Chloe never even has a one-on-one with God, probably because that would demand a straight answer about her miracle status, which I would guess will be used to drive yet another wedge between her and Lucifer next season, but we'll see.

In multiple before- and after-work scenes, there was no reason for Lucifer and Chloe to be apart more, even, than they were in S1 and S2. Monopoly night was in S3, for crying out loud. Most horrifying of all? No one touches Chloe after Dan's death, but Trixie. Meanwhile, Linda, Amenadiel, Ella, Maze, and Lucifer all receive physical comfort. No wonder Chloe's tired of being strong.

‡ If you don't think it's offensive that they stuffed all their wlw content for two hypersexual characters into a few clunky, irrational, and chaste scenes that rushed I love yous, a marriage-like proposal, and the mention of soulmates, I don't know what to tell you other than get off my lawn.

#deckerstar #lucifer on netflix #meta #purity culture #established relationship #sexism in media #conservatism in media #bi/pan issues #biphobia in media #trauma #me irl #writing #bad character writing #writing is work #this is not established relationship #we all knew maze would suck #who could have guessed deckerstar would too #who could have guessed linda would be an asshole #but god was truly great #fans are often wrong but should still be respected (somewhat) #fuck you and the miniature pony you rode in on joe #i won't forget this interview #s6 better fix it #lucifer season 5 #lucifer season 5 part b #lucifer season 5b #lucifer 5b #lucifer 5b spoilers #long reads #long post