#first of all the weirdos would ship him and the guy that ruined his entire life. because of course

[manslaught]

saw a post about "how would people mischaracterize your oc if they were canon" and i dont know about mikayla but i think about this constantly for ace

#first of all the weirdos would ship him and the guy that ruined his entire life. because of course #second worst thing would be making him redeemable. he's trash the way i intended. #tbd. #worst thing anyone could do to mikayla is hc her as anything but a lesbian. actually #constantly tormented by that person who said trini isnt a lesbian. i think about it when i cant sleep

[spinel-swell]

OKAY DOMINATOR TIME, COMIC AND EPISODE DESCRIPTION UNDER THE CUT. THERE ARE SO MANY WORDS I’M SO SORRY I JUST KEPT GOING. ALSO DON’T READ THE TAGS FIRST

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME I’M WRITING THIS POST IT KEEPS GETTING DELETED OH GOD. Sorry if this is disappointing to some people, I just went with my heart. There are a LOT of words here.

Okay. Please watch/rewatch the episode before reading this and the comic.

The episode starts out normally! Wander’s playing capture the flag, Hater’s tryna kill him, Peepers is exhausted, Sylvia is beating up Watchdogs, and Spinel is teaching about a third of the Watchdogs how to do handstands. 

Then, Dominator shows up. 

You would think that this episode would focus more on Spinel, but no! Sylvia, through desperation of making sure at least one of her friends is safe, asks Spinel to stay on the planet and make sure everyone and everything gets off safe. Obviously, Spinel isn’t gonna take this extremely well, but she still stays. Just... with building anxiety.

After that, most of the episode just goes on normally, with a few token mentions of Spinel and wanting to get back to her as fast as possible. Sylvia is trapped in a lava ball, Wander is trapped against the wall, and Hater and Peepers get brought into the room eventually by a Dombot, and Dominator is still maintaining her cold (well, not really cold), indifferent facade.

By this point, the view switches to Spinel, who’s pacing back and forth on the surface of the planet, punching herself in the head (with added squeaky sound effects) and trying to ignore her growing concern, but it’s getting harder and harder with each passing second. Eventually, it gets too much, and she stretches into the ship.

Inside the ship, Hater gets angry and traps Dominator, frees Wander, and la-dee-da everything goes like normal. Then when Dominator is attacking Hater with a fountain of lava, Spinel is brought in looking mildly perturbed by a swarm of miniature Dombots, who have her in restraints. Sylvia calls out to her, Spinel smiles, stretches out of her restraints, and begins walking over. Then, she stops. She notices what’s going on, and looks confused, then concerned. Spinel realizes that it wasn’t that her friends were making her wait, it was this... weird, hulking person. Who were they??  So, obviously, she stretches her arm out and just... snatches Dom’s face-plate right off of her helmet. 

Everyone in the room freezes, including Dominator. The lava shooting at Hater stops and he falls to the floor. She was not expecting that. She hadn’t even noticed Spinel escape her restraints, or even enter the ship with everything else going on. Not fair. So Dominator reacts in classic fashion, with obvious frustration and disappointment. “UGH! Are you kidding me?! Do you know how long it took to set all that up? You RUINED IT!” Spinel blinks. Everyone blinks. Sylvia and Peepers start herding their respective weirdo friends out of Dominator’s attack range (Sylvia still rolling around in a lava ball), while Spinel takes a step closer, confusion written all over her face. “Uhh... whazzat?” “Um, HELLO? The bots, the awesome outfit, the way I was totally destroying you dorks before you went and cheated me out of my entrance?” Dominator groans. “What a disappointment... oh well. I can still destroy you nerds and then obliterate your little galaxy even harder than I was already planning to!” Spinel just looks confused. And slightly disturbed. This person was... familiar, in a weird, uncomfortable way. Like... potential. But bad potential, the kind that made her gem feel tight in the chest of her form. She just didn’t make sense. “Wh... why d’you want to do all that?”

Dominator rolls her eyes, looking extremely irritated at this entire exchange. Her response completely encapsulates her uncaring frustration. “Uh, why not? I’ve got nothing better to do. Crushing your galaxy, looking out over screaming and crying faces, blah blah, you know. Fun stuff.” She grins down at them all, expecting terror. She gets a lot of different reactions, fear, hatred, confusion, disappointment. 

A lot of little tiny, repressed realizations come back in full force, after all the adventures Spinel has yet had with her little group. Mixed with the anxiousness of that day, the reminder of how it feels to be alone, the confusion and shock- Spinel is silent for a little bit. Then...

The slam of Spinel’s massive gloved hands cracks the glass separating them from the massive Dombot control room. Alarm lights start blinking.

Sylvia and Wander stand in shock. Spinel had shown her temper before, on a couple occasions, but... this was... different. She looked... worryingly scary. Like she might do something she’d regret. They look at each other.

Dominator throws up a hand and shoots lava at Spinel, which drips down her light form and hardens, before breaking apart as Spinel grows in size just slightly and makes a crushing swipe towards the villain. Dominator dodges, and starts throwing more and more at Spinel, who is either unaffected by the lava completely, by virtue of being made out of solid light and a rock, and by Dominator’s organic weapons (like the darts that make your tongue swell up) by... well, also being made out of solid light and a rock. Sorry Dom, your attacks are meant for people who have, y’know. Actual bodies. And aren’t physically about as tough as diamonds.

Dominator is backed into the control panel, looking both extremely angry and also understandably intimidated. She dodges to the side as Spinel screeches and hits the control panel with a massive fist. It breaks and sparks, and the Dombot control room begins to explode and fill up with lava. Spinel shrinks a bit and starts freaking spinning like a top and slicing into the lava walls while she chases Dominator around the room. Dominator is fast, and nimble, and strong, but she’s still not a gem. And she’s never seen a gem. Nobody has. There was no way she could’ve anticipated... this. As we all know, this is unexpected even to other gems, let alone an organic being. Spinel slings her arms around and stops the spinning attack long enough to fling a massive hand out to grab Dominator. She lifts another fist up in preparation for a punch- “SPINEL, DON’T!!” Wander has his hand out, looking panicked, and Spinel stops to get a better look at her friends. They look scared. So do Hater and Peepers. She looks back at Dominator and- whoops, Dom’s already left her suit. She’s on the ground and backing away. Spinel looks at her, and her body shrinks- but with one massive hand still holding the suit. She looks Dominator in the eyes and crushes the suit into lava. Speaking of lava- the glass breaks and the room begins flooding with it. Dominator sprints towards the wall, which opens a doorway that melts away as soon as she goes through. Spinel grabs all of her friends- Hater and Peepers included- breaks Sylvia’s restraints, and grabs on. They barely make it, but they do, thanks to Hater and his electric powers.  Understandably, Hater and Peepers get out of there as fast as possible. Spinel is... quiet. Looking at the ground. Wander and Sylvia walk over to her, and it takes them each placing a hand on her shoulders for her to finally break down. They’re gonna need to talk.

The name for this changed episode would be: The Greater Dominator. SOrry to huge Dominator fans, they BOTH have fantastic villain songs, but- at least in MY mind- Spinel would outmatch Dom in a fight. And... well, wouldn’t like her very much. She reminds her of her least favorite bits about herself.

Noo... I can see why you asked though on a level. Uhh. She wouldn’t have a crush on Dominator, but she could crush Dominator. ALSO THANk YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENT SORRY FOR THE COMPLETE AND UTTER DIFFERENCE IN HOW THIS TURNED OUT.

I think that would be a lot of what Season 2 would end up being about, after this. Spinel is going to have a much harder time, uh, controlling herself. It’s difficult. She just has so many years of stored up emotions that are looking to EXPLODE, and this confrontation with Dom was only the beginning.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, Dominator’s appearances will be DIFFERENT. Alike to Hater’s approach, but for different reasons, she’s gonna try to avoid Spinel. And because the trio move around to so many planets, conquering the galaxy just got a whole lot harder. Later on, she might have... different motivations.

Hater has no idea how he sees Dominator now. I mean, obviously she’s a hot lady. But also, uhhhhhh, that sure was something wasn’t it. The threat seems... lesser, now. He might actually end up seeing her as more rival than rival/love interest (which can still be fun).

Anyway, uh, woof. Hoo boy. Writing, am I right? I hope you guys are here mostly to see Spinel be cool and not because you really like Dominator being an unstoppable force and junk. We’ve already got a whole show full of that! WATCH WANDER OVER YONDER-

#Wander Over Yonder #woy #spinel su #spinel steven universe #lord dominator #wander woy #sylvia woy #I'm not gonna tag peepers and hater cuz they don't play a big role here #I typed for 1 million years #STILL SCARED OF HOW PEOPLE WILL TAKE THIS #just c'mon I mean... Dominator is cool I get you but just look at my girl Spinel #look at her go #THIS BLOG IS ABOUT HER YOU CAN'T EXPECT ME TO FAVOR DOMINATOR #spinel over yonder

[lost-eternity]

Matchup Requests: CLOSED

Match up request for: @ imightsecretlybeadragon

Okie dokie. I match you with...

I love your tag name, hun

I had to ship you with Sherlock himself 

I was originally considering Mycroft but he honestly can't handle spontaneity 

That's more Sherlock's thing

Although the number of hobbies you have tried your hand at, only to drop most of them, tells me that you grow bored easily and hence need things to occupy your time

So does Sherlock. Except his methods of quelling boredom are not nearly as tame as candle making. 

He'll keep you on your toes

I also considered Mary as a potential match but finding information on her online is incredibly scarce, for some reason. RIP

I believe that your ambition, drive, and willingly to throw reason to the wind and embark on thoughtless adventures is the perfect reason why you would mesh so well with Sherlock Holmes. You would totally be willing to jump out of windows or attempt crazy experiments with him instead of judgmentally staring as most would

As much as Sherlock enjoys John's company, he cannot handle people asking him questions all of the time

Either they need to be on the same level as him- or shut up and do as he says until he reveals his thought process in some theatrical way

While you may not be able to under exactly where that man's mind is at, you are definitely smart enough to understand the general gist and decide for yourself whether or not you want to follow through 

Because sometimes Sherlock really needs someone to look him in the eye and say "no". Instead of passively being yanked around like a dog on a leash.

Both of you have a habit of becoming so engrossed in your work that you forfeit biological functions like sleep. Sherlock really appreciates your understanding in regards to this because he knows that you will not disturb him. 

But when he is going on three days without sleeping or eating, your more nurturing side will step in, force him to rest and give that man some damn sustenance.

Which is why I feel like you would work very well with him. You know when to back off and give him the space he needs, but you aren't complaining like him because you also know when the is challenging the limits of what his human body can handle and will step in to make sure he actually takes care of himself

Like, dude. Take a freaking shower, you both look and smell like a writhing sack of horseshit 

Sherlock would probably find your tendency to be loud quite intrusive. He claims that "even your thoughts are loud. I can feel you thinking. Stop that." And promptly kick you out of the room

Try not to be too offended by him

He is like a toddler. He doesn't know any better

But feel free to give him a scalding tongue lashing afterwards

Sherlock would never admit it, but he does genuinely care for you. And it can sometimes be hard to tell. He constantly berates and criticizes you. But only because he is worrying over your well being and gets super mad if you do sometimes that puts your life in danger. Sherlock can't even bear the thought of losing you, and like everything else he doesn't like, he chooses to ignore or "delete" it. So when that fear becomes a reality,  he flips out, masquerading his concern as anger. Because he does not want to appear weak

His criticism comes from a well meaning place. He genuinely wants you to improve and do the best you can in life to become successful, he is just piss poor and phrasing. Instead his critiques come off as purely negative. You may have to remind him of this and he would be quick albeit awkward to correct. 

If you show him a painting:

"No, the lines are all wrong. The focal point should be here, but because you used 45° angles, the focal point ends up down here."

Cue an unamused look from you

"What? Oh... uh. Y-your use of colour palate is... adequate...."

He's trying

~

Knowing Sherlock, you did not really ever "meet"

At least not how most people would

The first time you met, Sherlock had you pinned beneath him on the ground, demanding that you take off your clothes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Let's start from the beginning 

You were near Hyde park, cloaked in a heavy woolen coat to combat the biting cold of the winter-scape around you

With your hands shoved deep in your pockets in an attempt to warm them, you continued at a brisk pace, wanting to get back to your flat before the scheduled snowfall 

That was when a dude on a motorcycle nearly careened into you. You jumped back and glared over your shoulder, fully prepared to tell him off. Instead, what you saw rendered you speechless

The guy who almost hit you was wearing a... bunny head mask. What the hell?

So distracted by this weirdo on the motorcycle, you did not notice another man in a black trench charging down the way. He actually did hit you from a full sprint.  

The force of the impact knocked the air from your lungs and caused you to fall over, he taking a tumble shorter thereafter 

The man, now having you stretched out beneath him, seemed entirely preoccupied. If he recognised the implications of your situation, he gave no indication to it. 

He spared you a single glance before looking back after the motorcycle bunny guy. 

"I need your jacket, now!" He demanded, not once looking at You

"Excuse me?" You asked.

"Jacket!" He demanded again. "Take it off!"

Were you being robbed?

If you were, this was one weird ass mugger. 

Another man came jogging up, his breath short and strained as she rested his hand on his knees. He looked horrified then apologetic  "Sherlock! Get off her!" 

The rude trench coat fella scrambled to his feet, as if just now realising he had been on top of you. He must be Sherlock.

The second man continued. "I'm sorry about him, we aren't mugging you. We would just like to borrow your jacket for a few minutes."

"Watson, he is getting away!" Sherlock complained

You removed your coat, and handed it over, completely confused. What else were you supposed to do?

The cold air bit your exposed skin, sending goose-flesh across your arms as you shivered from the chill

Sherlock and his big ass coat moved at a dead sprint towards an ice-crusted fountain 

Watson sighed and extended a hand to help you up. He shrugged off his own jacket, offering it to you.

You immediately refused his gesture, despite the sheer cold causing you to shiver. 

Watson frowned slightly at the rejection, his forehead creasing

You watched as this Sherlock character leapt onto the fountain,  nearly losing his footing as she scrambled across. The motorcycle man had almost reached the road, if he got there, he would be lost. 

Sherlock pursued him, jumping over gates and pushing past pedestrians to cut him off on the main trail.

You did not think he would make it, but remarkably, he did. He stood before the motorcycle your jacket extended in front of him

Bunny guy did not hesitate to charge at him, probably planning to run him down

Your breath hitched in your throat as you gazed at the scene. Like a matador facing off against a bull... except Sherlock had no sword. No back up. Just a jacket. How in the world was he going to stop a guy on a motorcycle with only a jacket???

You watched in anticipation, the cold you felt completely forgotten as the motorcycle drew nearer and nearer. 

Sherlock did not once hesitate nor flinch. He remained rooted in spot, his eyes steely with determination 

The bunny suit man got within a single metre of Sherlock.

You thought for sure that you were about to witness a collision. 

You were wrong

Sherlock threw your coat then rolled out of the way.

The coat hit the back wheel as it spun, getting snagged in the shifting gears and mechanisms. 

It wrapped itself around the back wheel, seizing it up and causing the motorcycle to skid out, slipping across the ice before colliding into a nearby tree.

Sherlock was quick to pounce, restraining the bunny suit guy. 

You were absolutely amazed. Both you and Watson seemed to have the same idea as you rushed over. Watson scolding Sherlock for pulling the stunt and you out of concern for your poor coat.

~

It wasn't long before the police arrived. Apparently bunny guy was some sort of expert thief turned murderer known for his iconic bunny suit. The cops have been after him for months and Sherlock had been the one to flush him out and trap him

You were mostly distraught over the loss of your jacket.  It was a good jacket, now completely lost to the motors and gears on the cycle

Watson promised that he would buy you a new one.  He even invited you back to his flat for some tea because he was worried you would catch cold if you walked all the way back to yours

You were going to refuse and just take a cab, then you learnt that Watson and Sherlock were flatmates. 

How could you say no?

You just met some of the most interesting people on the planet, how could anyone say no to tea with them?

Sherlock seemed adamantly against the idea, complaining loudly about Watson "taking home too many strays" because "they ruin my work."

"You should have thought of that before you ruined my favourite jacket." You retorted

They were both taken aback by your wit

Watson appeared rather smug. "Yeah. You could have just used your own."

Sherlock seemed positively offended that anyone would dare suggest such a thing. "Not my coat! The coat is iconic."

Watson just rolled his eyes 

~

Despite getting off on the wrong foot, you and Sherlock hit it off rather nicely 

You were amazed by his observational abilities, but shocked him by understanding how he came to his conclusions before he even explained.

This was when Sherlock began to like you

And Sherlock doesn't like anyone

It kinda baffles John, really

Sherlock, finding you rather entertaining, is fine with you popping in for tea every once in a while. 

He even let you assist on cases

This is where he really began to fall for you

He admires your intellect and thought process, considering it formidable albeit slower than his own

Let's be real, it's Sherlock 

But things kinda start out rough

At first, when Sherlock first realises that he has feelings for you, he "deletes" them

It's scary admitting when you fancy someone

And not just scary. Dangerous. Especially for Sherlock. 

He can't allow himself to be focused on anything except for work

Of course, the more time he spends with you, the more his feelings keep coming back, regardless of how often he deletes them

So he pushes you away

He lashes out

Becomes cold and distant, trying to make you give up

But you won't. You're having the time of your life with him and always comes back. No matter how many times he yells for you to go away. Its infuriating, actually 

There will come a point where Sherlock has to make peace with his own attractions but it will be very difficult for the both of you

You will have to work with him through this

Cause Sherlock is not going to be an easy catch. And an even harder one to keep

But I have faith in you.

I hope you enjoyed dear, let me know what you think :)

#sherlock #sherlock holmes #matchup #ships #sherlock x you #sherlock x reader #match up #matchups #match ups #ship #bbbc #bbc sherlock #john watson #request #sherlock request #sherlock matchup #sherlock ship #sherlock match up

[serialreblogger]

prompt from @lunarmultishine for A:TLA: “thrashing, as if in flames.” Ended up taking some liberties with it, but hopefully kept to the spirit!

Zuko had always tried so hard.

He wasn’t like Azula; he didn’t--he didn’t get people, never caught the secrets in their small expressions, he couldn’t tell when they were being sarcastic (“calm down, Zuzu, it was just a joke”). He stood too stiffly and didn’t fit in and “you’ll get better at these things when you get older,” Mom said, but he didn’t and--and he didn’t know what Dad wanted.

He tried so hard.

(he tried so hard, but it was never good enough. he was a failure. a disappointment. disrespectful. dishonorable. his father was right to banish him)

(his father was right)

(his father was always right)

(wasn’t he?)

((no))

Zuko still dreamt of that day.

He hadn’t, at first. When he’d just gotten command of his ship, for a full month after--after, he didn’t dream at all. Or if he did, it was just little things; ordinary ones, about Uncle playing a nonsense game of pai sho, or the Earth King coming to dinner. Oh, he thought about it often enough. Between the monotonous changing of bandages, and the throbbing burning pain where his eye had been (was his eye still there? Zuko couldn’t bring himself to check, in those early days), and the constant sway-sway-swaying of the ship (he was banished, and the floor beneath him was determined not to let him forget), Zuko spent every waking thought berating himself. How could he let this happen? How could he disappoint his father so thoroughly, so finally?

“I believe you have healed enough to take off your bandages,” Uncle finally said. “However, you must be careful not to aggravate your injury further, Prince Zuko.”

“Yes, Uncle,” Zuko replied.

He looked in a mirror as soon as Uncle left, for the first time since his banishment. He stared until tears blurred his vision (blurred his right eye; his left eye was there but barely and it couldn’t see anything clearly so what did it matter if tears gathered in its ruined slit), and then a tear fell, he saw it slip down what was left of his cheek--

He used the shards of the mirror to shave his head.

He had no honor. (sway, sway, swaying beneath his feet) Only the last thin hope of regaining it, as slim a chance as he deserved, but he would redeem himself. He left the phoenix tail, tying it up with a spare roll of white cotton. He would get his honor back. He would find the Avatar, he would--he would make up for his disrespect--

(he just wanted to go home)

he would make his father love him again.

That was when the nightmares started.

(they never ended. sway, sway, sway, and he never woke up)

* * *

Look. Sokka hadn’t signed up for this. Was it his fault he had a weirdo waterbending sister who broke the Tui-cursed Avatar out of his ice cube? No. It wasn’t his idea to go traipsing all over the four nations to beat the Fire Lord, it’d just kind of happened. 

And now here he was, hunching into his sleeping roll in a Fire Nation cave and trying to ignore the gloomy Fire Nation prince who seemed to be having a lovely little nightmare in the corner.

How was this his life? 

With a quiet groan, he gave up on plugging his ears under his blanket and just stared blankly at the rocks above him. Had he offended a spirit in a previous incarnation? Was this his punishment?

For a fleeting moment, things quieted down, and he dared to hope that Zuko would chill out on his own. That was probably the last straw. He should really know better than to hope for things like that; it made it too easy for whatever supernatural forces were conspiring to torment him.

Instead, the little pained noises turned into a high, quiet whine that was just painful to hear. Spirits, that wasn’t playing fair. Zuko was the bad guy, he shouldn’t be allowed to make sounds like that.

Sighing, Sokka kicked his way out of his sleeping roll and started over. To his surprise, Toph was already there. 

Okay, cool, so this was taken care of, maybe he could just scoot right back to his bed without them noticing--

“Get over here, you blockhead,” Toph hissed.

Right. Blind. Foot-bending, all-knowing badger-mole girl. Sokka sighed again and sidled over.

“I’ve been trying to wake him for the past minute while you were dithering in your sleeping bag,” Toph grumbled, “but no dice. I don’t know how to get him up without scaring him more.” 

“And, what, you haven’t tried just slapping him awake?” Sokka asked. She grabbed his hand before he could raise it, gripping it tightly enough to hurt.

“No, Snoozles,” Toph snapped. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not all ‘hit first, ask questions later.’ And...his heart rate is really high. I don’t wanna make it worse.”

“Okay, okay,” Sokka said, finally managing to snatch his hand back. He examined it quickly to make sure nothing was broken--what? the kid was stronger than she looked--before turning his attention back to Zuko. He’d quieted down for the past few seconds, but as soon as Sokka saw his face it was pretty obvious that wasn’t a good thing. It didn’t exactly look like he was having fun. Wait, was Zuko crying?

“Zuko,” he said softly. Tentatively he reached forward, extending his finger to poke Zuko’s temple.

The result was instantaneous. Zuko shot upright, gasping and bringing his hands up defensively. “No, please,” he begged, clearly still half-asleep.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sokka scrambled back, because Zuko had that look like he might firebend at anything that moved too close. Toph did the same, he saw. “It’s just us, Toph and Sokka, you’re here to help train the Avatar, remember?”

“With--” Zuko was breathing hard, like he’d just run a marathon. One hand came up to touch his... his scar, Sokka realized, with a sinking feeling. Zuko flinched when his fingers brushed burned skin.

“Hey, Sparky,” Toph said quietly. She waited until Zuko’s gaze had flickered to her, away, back again. “You with us?”

“Yeah,” Zuko rasped. He was still way too pale. “Yeah, I--sorry. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“Nope,” Toph reassured him. “Neither of us were asleep yet.”

“Good,” Zuko nodded, short and rapid like a startled bird. “That’s good. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, bud,” Sokka blurted. He hesitated, then shimmied back over to sit next to Zuko. “It’s not like you could help it.”

Zuko was quiet for a beat too long. “Right. No. I couldn’t... I couldn’t have helped it.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Toph asked gently. Sokka glanced over and saw she’d taken Zuko’s hand.

“I--” Zuko swallowed. “I don’t know. Yes. No.” He growled in frustration. “I don’t know what I want.”

“That’s okay,” Toph said easily. “We can wait.”

Sokka nodded, though he wasn’t sure Zuko saw. He was sitting on Zuko’s left side. “Take your time,” he added, just in case.

Zuko did. It must’ve been almost half an hour later that he spoke, and Sokka had almost fallen asleep at that point. 

“It was my father.”

“Your scar?” Toph murmured, and Sokka wondered who’d told her about it.

Zuko nodded. It was harder to see him now; the moon had shifted, from shining almost full into the cave to somewhere further overhead, and now he was barely more than a silhouette beside Sokka. 

“I wanted,” Zuko started, and spirits but he sounded so lost, “I don’t know what I wanted, anymore. I thought I wanted honor. Now I think I just wanted his love. It doesn’t really matter, I guess. I asked Uncle to let me join in on the war council, because I thought it would help me learn to govern well, and I promised him, I promised not to speak. But then the general said he wanted to use an entire battalion of new recruits as bait, and I--I was such an idiot. I actually stood up and shouted at him, in front of my father and everyone, and I’d broken my word to Uncle and disrespected the Fire Lord and all his advisors. It was foolish and hot-headed and I deserved to be punished.” 

The silence stretched, and then Zuko shook his head. “But not like that,” he whispered in the darkness.

Softly, Toph prodded, “Like what?” 

“Agni Kai,” Zuko blurted, like it burned to say the words. “He challenged me to an Agni Kai. It’s--it’s a Fire Nation tradition, I guess. A way to resolve conflict. I thought when I accepted that I’d be fighting the general I’d interrupted, but I was wrong. It was him.”

Sokka sucked in a breath, trying to keep quiet. This was... it was a lot.

“I think he might have been looking for a way to kill me, actually,” Zuko added reflectively, and now Sokka felt like he’d been punched in the gut, “but when I realized it was him I refused to fight. Thought I was a coward for so many years after that, but now I realize that attempt at respect is probably the only reason I’m still alive. It would be hard for even the Fire Lord to claim he’d accidentally killed his son in an honorable duel, when his son refused to fight him.”

“Zuko,” Sokka whispered breathlessly.

“So instead he just burned me,” Zuko continued, relentless now. A dam had broken, and now he couldn’t stop. “There were all those witnesses, so he couldn’t kill me, and he was so angry, and I don’t know why he hated me but I’m sure now that he did. And he grabbed my chin in one hand and my left eye in the other, and held me still while he branded my face. And I screamed and screamed and he didn’t stop, and nobody stopped him, and I dream about it over and over and over and then I wake up and it still happened.”

Sokka felt sick. 

“And now I’m marked forever as a traitor, without honor, and that is never going to go away and it will never change. I thought I could change it by finding the Avatar and bringing him home, I thought that for so long,” Zuko’s voice was shaking and hitching now, Sokka thought he was probably crying, “and I was wrong. I don’t know how I could have been so wrong. I guess I was just blind.”

“Hey,” Toph hummed.

“Sorry--” Zuko tried to backtrack, but she just huffed. 

“No, not that, dummy,” she scolded. “I know you meant like the metaphor. I meant ‘hey, you’re not a traitor.’ Actually, it sounds to me like you’re the most loyal person in the Fire Nation.”

“What?” Zuko sounded super confused. Sokka could relate.

“Look, we all know your father is the worst person currently alive,” Toph stated. “And if we want to talk about disrespect, it sounds to me like it’d be a lot less respectful to use a bunch of kid soldiers as bait than to say ‘hey, that’s a bad plan.’ Zuko,” and now her voice was back to sounding so uncharacteristically gentle, like she was picking her words carefully, “I don’t think your scar is a mark of dishonor. I think it’s a mark of bravery. You stood up for people who needed standing up for. And you did your best to stay true to yourself under a father who wanted to kill you.”

“She’s right,” Sokka agreed, surprising himself. “Everything you just told us--if that isn’t a story of honor won, I don’t know what is. You’re...you’re a good man, Zuko.”

Zuko let out a strangled sobbing sound.

“Uh, is it okay if we hug you now?” Sokka asked. “Because I kind of feel like this is a ‘hug’ moment.”

“...alright,” Zuko breathed, and then they were all a tangle of limbs and snotty emotions. They stayed that way, huffing and sweaty and comfortable, until they all fell asleep.

They didn’t dream anything at all.

(In the morning, Katara stood over their snoring dogpile, hands on her hips and a perplexed frown on her face. 

“Ah, let them sleep,” Aang told her. “I woke up a little in the middle of the night and it sounded like they were having a pretty intense conversation.”

Katara rolled her eyes, but her stance softened, just a little. “Well, alright,” she grumbled. “You still need to practice your waterbending, anyway. Come on!”

And with a groan, Aang followed her out. The others slept on.)

#a:tla #atla #avatar the last airbender #fanfiction #linden's originals #linden writes #long post #the angst and the found family that is my jam #and i will spread it on my toast until my dying day #hm. yes #after spending 2+ hours writing this i do in fact feel much better #thank you for the prompt lunar #much appreciated!! <3

[destiel-love-forever]

I Love You

Anon Prompt from Tumblr: Something written to fit Billie Eilish “I love you” .... i can’t help but picture Destiel whenever I hear it     --   To say I enjoyed writing this is an understatement <3 Hopefully you enjoy reading it. 

It’s 3:10 now. Stairway to Heaven is over. They pass mile marker 24. Dean’s no longer smiling. Castiel’s moonlit eyes are brimming with tears.

And everything has changed.

Read Below or on AO3: HERE

It happens just after 3 a.m. on a crisp fall night. The Impala is driving down I-80, heading to their hunt in New York. Sammy is passed out in the back seat, having finished his turn driving the hour before. These kinds of nights are the ones Dean loves the most. A magic falls over the impala. Sam isn’t very good at night time driving, so it’s Dean pulling the late shift. It’s dark outside, the stars above shining as the impala travels down tree-lined roads. The radio plays some of the best music at night, not bogged down by idiot’s calling in and requesting crap. Hot coffee will be sitting in the make-shift cup holder beside him, unless it’s been a particularly rough day. Then it’s a sugary energy drink that makes him shake but does the trick.

And, of course, there’s Castiel beside him. On the nights Dean favors, Castiel is always beside him. Forcing himself to stay awake, to keep Dean company, even though the now-human is always so damn exhausted.

These nights are when Dean and Castiel have their talks. Dean supposes that’s where he first went wrong. His mistake was letting Castiel see right through him. It wasn’t like that at first. Dean made damn sure to keep his guard up, just like with everyone else, but over the years that changed. Castiel wormed his way past all of Dean’s defenses, even the ones Sam couldn’t. The talks started after the two spent their time together in Purgatory. At first, Dean was hesitant. He mostly listened, letting Castiel say all of the things he was too afraid to. But as time went on, as Dean let Castiel in, it became so easy to say everything Dean never let himself say before.

Tonight, just like all the others, they’re talking. It’s 3:07. In the front seat of the Impala. With Stairway to Heaven crooning softly from the turned-down radio. They're just passing mile marker 21.

One second, Dean’s laughing his way through a story from a trip the boys took with Bobby when they were younger. The next, Castiel is looking over at him, moonlight reflecting in his blue eyes, wearing an enigmatic smile Dean’s never seen before.

“What?” Dean asks, still laughing.

“Nothin’.”

“Whatever, weirdo.” Dean picks up his coffee and takes a sip, then hands it to Castiel without a word. He's always doing things like that. Taking care of Castiel. At first, he hid behind the excuse that Castiel was new to being human, and he needed someone to make sure he's eating and sleeping and happy. To make sure he has coffee on nights like tonight. To make sure he has good mix-tapes to listen to. To make sure he gets to watch Grey's Anatomy every Thursday night, no matter where they are.

Okay, so maybe not all of that can be explained by the whole human thing, but no one has ever called Dean on it, so the lie is being held together with a fragile string. Dean knows the real reason he's willing to make the world stop turning just to make Castiel smile. There's no need to acknowledge it, though. None at all.

Dean releases a deep sigh as he looks out at the road, pulling his thoughts back to where they belong.

"Damn, though. Bobby was one hell of a guy," he says quietly, shaking his head as he remembers his surrogate father. "Some nights I miss him so damn much. Like I just can't wrap my mind around him not being around anymore. I know it's been years, but sometimes I forget. Last week, I found myself dialing the first four digits of his number to ask him a question about a case."

Something like that would have made Dean blush in the past. He would have felt like an idiot and tried to hurry up and change the subject. No chick flick moments. Castiel changed that, though. All Dean feels now is relief.

He glances over at Castiel to find the man staring at him again. Dean raises an eyebrow, "Whatcha thinkin’ bout over there, feathers?"

Dean expects Castiel to say something cutesy or positive that will make Dean roll his eyes. Or maybe something to make Dean laugh, like those silly random facts Castiel always seems to know.

He expects, "Everything will be alright, Dean. You'll see Bobby again someday. And I know he's proud of you."

He expects, "You know, there was this cargo ship that crashed in 1992 that was full of 28,000 rubber ducks. People are still finding them to this day."

What he does not expect is what Castiel blurts out. “I love you!”

“Y - you what?” Dean slows down, looking over at Castiel again. The man’s cheeks are bright red, and his blue eyes are wide with terror. He just stares straight ahead at the road, pretending like the moment isn’t happening.

It’s 3:10 now. Stairway to Heaven is over. They pass mile marker 24. Dean’s no longer smiling. Castiel’s moonlit eyes are brimming with tears.

And everything has changed.

----

Castiel wants out of the Impala. His confession is filling every available inch, taking up the oxygen, and he’s going to suffocate if he doesn’t escape.

He should take it back. Tell Dean he was just trying to make him laugh. Then nothing has to change today.

Castiel didn’t mean to say I love you.

But he can’t do that, because Castiel meant it. Sure, he didn’t mean to say it, not now, not tonight. Probably not ever. But Castiel meant it. He loves Dean Winchester with every fiber of his being.

And now Dean knows the truth. And Castiel can already feel it between them. Everything has changed. Everything is ruined.

Dean takes the next exit without saying anything. Castiel sits back in his seat, wraps his arms tight around his waist, and closes his eyes. A tear slips down his cheek, but he’s hoping Dean will ignore it. Just like they’ve both silently decided right now to ignore everything that’s happened in the past few minutes.

The car stops moving, and Castiel forces himself to open his eyes. They’re in a motel parking lot. The sign is bright red and ominous. In his peripheral vision, Castiel sees Dean’s hands tighten on the steering wheel, the knuckles turning white. The man’s shoulders cave in. His chin drops to his chest.

“I - I didn’t mean to make you cry, Cas. Please… please don’t cry.”

Castiel opens the car door and stumbles out into the parking lot. The fresh air feels good inside his lungs. Relieving. He tilts his head back and stares up at the stars. Castiel would give anything to be up there right now. To be anywhere, really. Anywhere but here.

“What the hell’s goin’ on?” Sam grumbles before slamming his car door shut. Castiel can feel eyes on him, but he pretends like he can’t. It’s bad enough he’s still crying. He won’t make it worse by looking at either of the Winchesters right now. Sam asks another question when no one answers him. “Where are we? This isn’t NYC.”

“We’re just outside of Bloomsburg.” After a stretch of silence that’s far too long, Dean explains, “We’re stopping for the night.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m tired.”

“I’ll drive.”

“No.”

“Dean, we’re less than three hours away. We’ll sleep when we get there.”

“We’re stopping, Sam. End of discussion.”

“But-”

“Sam,” Castiel says in a voice that cracks and shakes. “We’re staying.”

The air is suddenly heavy again. Even worse than it was in the impala. Sam clears his throat and Dean shuffles awkwardly on the sidewalk. Everything sort of blurs for Castiel. They somehow start moving. They go to the front desk. Someone buys a room. Dean says something about his flask and heads back to the car. Sam and Castiel walk down a hall. They get inside. Sam takes his jacket off and flops down on the bed. Dean comes back. Castiel is still standing in the center of the room, staring off into space.

It isn’t until Dean mumbles, “I’ll take the floor,” that Castiel realizes there’s only one single bed and a rickety pull-out couch.

“Don’t be an idiot, Dean,” Sam growls. “The pull-outs a double. Just bunk with Cas.”

“I’m fine on the floor.”

“Dude, what’s your fucking problem? First you want to stop only 3 hours away from our destination. Now you don’t want to sleep next to a guy you’ve slept next to countless times during hunts?” Things must begin to process as he speaks because Castiel can hear the sound of his voice change at the end of the final sentence. In case Castiel wasn’t sure, Sam confirms by asking, “What happened between you guys?”

“Nothing,” Castiel and Dean say at once - Castiel in a broken whisper, Dean in a defensive bark.

After a loud huff, Sam says, “I’m getting my own room. Maybe the two of you can finally figure your shit out.”

The sound of the door shutting seems to echo inside Castiel’s chest. He can feel Dean on the other side of the room. Even though he’s human now, Castiel hasn’t lost that connection. He’s always hyper-aware of Dean. Tonight is the first time he’s ever hated that.

“I - uh. I’ll take the pull-out.”

Castiel manages a slight nod. He walks over to the bed Sam was just on. Numb. Empty. Broken. His hands shake as he tries to take off his sweatshirt, so he leaves it on. In fact, he gives up on trying to get ready for bed entirely, settling for just crawling onto the center of the mattress and laying there atop the blankets.

He’s not sure how much time passes before Dean turns the light off. It doesn’t take long before he can see again in the dark, his eyes having adjusted. With just a slight shift, Castiel is facing Dean. He can tell without being able to look at his face that Dean’s wide awake.

Dean must sense him looking, because there’s a sudden creaking noise and then he’s rolled onto his side, staring straight at Castiel. “Cas, can I just say-"

"Don't," Castiel whispered, eyes burning with fresh tears. "Please, Dean. Just... don't."

Anything Dean has to say will just be a lie. Castiel can’t survive that right now.

At least Dean accepts that. He shifts so he's lying on his back, one arm thrown over his head as he stares up at the ceiling. Castiel stays where he is on his side, openly watching Dean. The two of them lie that way for a long time before Dean finally exhales and closes his eyes. "Night, Cas. Sweet dreams."

It's something they've said every single night since Castiel turned human. Sleep was so hard to get used to, and the nightmares he had were horrific. So, Dean did his best to help. He'd keep Castiel company at night. He'd wake up with him when he had his dreams. He'd check in on him whenever they were apart.

And always, always, no matter what, he'd say goodnight and tell Castiel sweet dreams. It didn't matter if they were together or across the country from each other. It didn't matter if it was face to face, a phone call, or a text. It didn't matter if they were dead-tired, injured, or drunk off their asses.

It didn't even matter if Dean went home with someone from the bars.

Castiel always got his goodnight. His sweet dreams.

And the fact that Dean gave it to him tonight, even after everything, gives Castiel hope that maybe he didn't ruin everything. Maybe, if they just wake up in the morning and tell themselves a real good lie about how the night before never happened, things will be fine.

It's enough reassurance where Castiel can manage to say back, "Goodnight, Dean. Sweet dreams."

----

Dean's never been more distracted during a hunt. He gets the monster wrong by jumping to conclusions, too concerned about Castiel across the library table to actually do thorough research. He misses a blatant clue at the scene because Castiel is staring off into space, looking seconds away from crying. When they hunt the thing down, he nearly gets himself killed because he's hyper-focused on every movement Castiel makes.

By the time they're back at their motel in New York, the monster dead after a grueling three days, Dean knows something has to be done. He has to say something to fix this. He and Castiel can't go on this way. He won't survive it.

But what the hell should he say? He stands under the scorching hot shower in the room he and Castiel are once again sharing, trying to figure out how to tackle the situation. He can't tell Castiel he loves him back.

Not that it'd be a lie. Dean does love him. Dean loves him so much that some days just the simple fact that Castiel exists makes it hard for Dean to breathe. But Dean can't love him. He won't. Before, he told himself he couldn't be with Castiel because he was an angel, and Dean's stained and broken. He had already gotten Castiel to rebel from hell, to fall once, to go through civil wars to go to purgatory, to die more than once. Dean couldn't be the downfall of the angel anymore.

Once Castiel fell for good, Dean told himself Castiel was fragile. Dean loving him would just put a larger target on his very-human, very-mortal back. It'd be Lisa all over again, only worse. Because Dean can survive a life without Lisa. He can't survive a life without Castiel.

And things were going great. He got to spend almost every day with Castiel. They get alone time during their nights in the impala. Sometimes they even go on hunts together without Sam, or get a free weekend in the bunker because Sam went off to help some other hunter he knows.

Things were good. Manageable. Safe.

God… why did Cas have to ruin that? And how the hell can Dean fix it?

----

When Dean comes out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, Castiel's mouth goes dry. He's glad he's sitting, because it's been a while since he's seen the man with so little clothing, and adding in the drops of water running down his sharp edges, and the whole openly in love thing, and Castiel is having a hard time breathing.

Dean's hand immediately grabs at the towel, holding it in place. "Cas! I - I, uh… I thought you were going with Sam for supplies?"

Feeling ashamed of his probably obvious reaction, Castiel mumbles, "He ended up going on his own. My ankle is sort of bothering me, so he made me turn back."

Dean's eyes narrow. "On your own? Injured? At night? How far did he make you walk? Did you have your gun on you?"

Castiel watches as Dean digs in his duffel, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and the small bag they use for medical supplies. "Cas!" Dean says loudly, reminding Castiel that he was asked a question. Or, well, multiple questions.

He tries very hard to concentrate as Dean slips the sweatpants under his towel, letting the towel drops just a few seconds too soon, giving Castiel a flash of creamy, freckled skin he's never seen before. "He, uh… walked me to the door. To the, uh, the doorman. I was only alone on the elevator."

"Thank god we're staying somewhere nice tonight. If this place was sketchy, someone could have still hurt you."

"I woulda been fine, Dean. And it's not that bad," he whispers, referring to his ankle that Dean is now kneeling in front of to look at. "Just sore."

"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt? You have to tell me that stuff, Cas."

"Why? You don't tell us if you get bruises or your shoulder gets tweaked and hurts for a few days. It's not a big deal, Dean."

"This is different."

He doesn't say it, but he doesn't have to. Castiel hears what Dean really means anyway.

You're different.

And before, Castiel would have misinterpreted that. He would have felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought of Dean thinking Castiel is special. That Castiel is important.

Now, Castiel sees it for what it is. Castiel is different because he's weak. A burden. All of that time and energy Dean spends on him doesn't come from being in love, it comes from obligation. All Castiel is to Dean is the damn angel-turned-human that Dean's now stuck caring for.

Castiel's eyes water and, of course, Dean catches it. "Cas? Does it hurt that bad? I think I have some meds."

"No, Dean. I can barely feel it," he admits in a watery voice he can't even recognize.

Dean brings in his eyebrows. "But then, why-" and he stops, understanding, and it breaks Castiel's heart to see the pain and guilt on Dean's face. "Cas… please, don't-"

"It's okay, Dean. Really."

"It's not, Cas."

"It is. Really. And my ankle is fine, okay? It's fine."

Dean stays down on one knee, a hand on Castiel's thigh, the other cradling his injured ankle. His thumb skates in circles along the curve of Castiel's joint. "I miss you, Cas. It's only been a few days, but god, I miss you. Can't we just - can't we just go back? Pretend you never said it?"

There has never been a pain that Castiel found unbearable. Not when he was an angel, and Michael disintegrated him with a snap. Not when he was tortured with angel blades. Not when he turned human and was stabbed in the gut. Not when Dean reacted the way he did the other night.

But this? Castiel isn't sure he can survive this.

Pushing to his feet, and side-stepping Dean, Castiel stumbles over an excuse to leave. "I'm gonna - I need to - I'll be back, just gotta… ya know. Get some air."

"Cas," Dean whispers his name in the same tone he used to before, when he would pray to him. Even without being able to feel what he used to feel as an angel, Castiel can recognize the longing in his name. The desperation.

He reminds himself that this is the man he loves, the man he will do anything for, and forces himself to ignore his feelings. Forces himself to give Dean a smile, even though Castiel feels like dying. "We're okay, Dean. Promise. Just need some air."

----

Dean lasts six minutes before yanking clothes on and storming out of the hotel. He takes one look at Fifth Avenue and realizes his mistake. There's no way in hell he'll find Castiel in this city. Six minutes may not be a lot back in Lebanon, or some other small town where they're hunting, but in New York, six minutes is enough to disappear completely.

Six minutes could be all it takes for him to lose Castiel forever.  

Tears burn Dean's eyes as he tries calling Castiel. He gives up after the third unanswered attempt.

Castiel. He knows Castiel.

If he can just calm down, he can figure out where Castiel would go.

After closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths, he realizes the one place Castiel always found peace as an angel. He went there whenever he needed to seek revelation. He brought Dean there for his talks. Dean taught him the lesson about humanity mattering on a bench there when Castiel and Uriel wanted to level that town to protect a seal, and Dean had stopped them.

And back in Lebanon, it's Castiel's favorite place to be. Especially on Saturdays. He loves to see all of the families as he sits on a bench by the river, feeding the ducks.

Castiel has always found peace at parks. Now he's in New York City, the place with probably one of the most famous parks in the country, if not the world.

Dean's not an idiot. Central Park is huge, and there's little chance he'll be able to find Castiel there, but it's a start, and that's good enough for him.

He enters near the pond, since it’s the first entry point he comes across since walking in that direction, assuming that Castiel would see it and enter there as well. It’s eerie to see Central Park so empty. The place is shrouded in darkness, the air still and quiet compared to the bustling street Dean just left. The city lights shine down on the trees and water, giving everything a warm glow. When Dean lifts his gaze, he finds the Gapstow Bridge up ahead, the thing lit from the buildings in the distance like a beacon.

And like fucking magic, there he is. Castiel Novak. Perched on one of the larger rocks on the edge of the pond, curled in on himself, chin lifted as he stares at the bridge.

Dean gives himself a moment, stuffing his hands in his pockets and watching the man he loves. The man he keeps hurting. The man he can’t imagine losing. The man he’d do anything for.

He walks up to him from the side, wanting to give him a chance to sense movement so Dean doesn’t scare the crap out of him. When Castiel sees someone coming, he tenses up and reaches toward his pocket. Dean smiles at that, knowing the man’s knife is there.

“I come in peace. Don’t shoot,” Dean teases, his voice falling flat despite the joke.

Castiel’s shoulders drop, not exactly in relief, unfortunately, and Dean walks a little faster. He plans to sit down beside Castiel so they can talk, but Castiel launches himself to his feet and meets him halfway.

That’s when Dean notices he’s crying. His face is covered in tears, eyes red enough to notice even in the low lighting. His voice trembles as he speaks. “We can go back. I - I take it back. I miss you too. I take it back, Dean. Okay? I take it back.”

“Cas-”

“Is it better now?” Castiel asks, grabbing the front of Dean’s shirt and clinging to him. “Did I fix it? I take it back.”

Dean’s heart breaks.

No. It fucking crumbles.

He pulls Castiel into his chest, carding his fingers through the man’s crazy curls and using them to hold Castiel’s face against him. Dean dips his chin down and rests his nose in his hair, inhaling him. Castiel releases a choked sob and says again, “I take it back.”

Dean closes his eyes, a tear slipping down his cheek. “Don’t take it back. I don’t wanna pretend it didn’t happen, okay?”

“No!” Castiel tries to pull away, but Dean tightens his hold on him. Deflating against Dean, Castiel just cries harder. “No! I take it back, okay? I take it back.”

“I love you, too,” Dean admits.

Fingers dig into his back as Castiel sucks in a shuddery breath. “What?”

“I love you, Cas. Okay? I - I can’t escape the way I love you anymore. I’ve spent so damn long pretending. Thinking it’d be easier. Thinking it was for the best. I never wanted to love you. I still don’t want to love you. But,” Dean shrugs a shoulder, laughing softly as another tear falls down his cheek. “But I love you. I love you so fucking much. I’m tired of running from that.”

When Castiel tries to pull away again, Dean lets him. Watery blue eyes stare up at him, wide and afraid. “Do you mean that? Or are you just sayin’ it to fix things?”

“I mean it.” Dean cups Castiel’s cheeks with both hands, using his thumbs to wipe away his tears. Then he leans down and presses a soft, hesitant kiss against Castiel’s lips. He pulls away just enough to speak, their lips brushing together with each syllable. “I love you.”

Castiel releases another sob, this one relieved and happy. Then he fists the hair at the back of Dean’s head and crushes his lips to Dean’s. He kisses Dean until Dean’s dizzy and breathless, then pulls away to gasp, “I love you, too.”

#destiel #mutual pining #idiots in love #poor sam stuck on a hunt with these two idiots #driving in the impala #hunting #saving people writing prompts #angst #angst with happy ending #love confessions #song prompt #i love you by billie eilish #New York City #sad cas #confused dean #stubborn dean

[therainroguefanfiction]

📱 Find Me (Tooru Oikawa) #4; Popularity

📑 Table of Contents | ◂p r e v i o u s

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It was the weekend and you had big plans. You had recently found a baseball anime that seemed quite interesting. Plus, the main characters were all first-years, so there was no need to be sad about the third-years graduating before reaching their dreams. That was always your least favorite part of sports anime.

You were so invested in the characters that you ended up binge-watching the entire first season in one sitting, not at all interested in the burnt eggs your brother begged your parents to make because he wants to be more responsible. Honestly, what middle schooler wants to be responsible? You were sure he was on drugs, but trying to figure out if that was fact seemed like a lot of effort.

“Umm… Y/N?!” He cried from the kitchen, his voice full of panic as it traveled across the house.

“Yeah?” You called back, eyes not leaving the screen as the two main characters experienced a cute bonding scene, their hands pressing together. ‘No wonder people ship them so much, how cute.’

“Um, um -!” Rushed footsteps echoed down the hall and a moment later, your brother rushed into the room, his small body slamming into your door. You jumped, throwing popcorn across your room. “THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE!”

Your head snapped in his direction and you scrambled off the floor, stepping on the PS4 controller and cursing, hopping on one foot. The smell of burnt food brushed against your nose as you rushed down the hallway, heart racing as you turned the corner.

The pan was sitting on the stove, the eggs inside alight with a soft flame like that of a candle. “How in the fu -”

He gulped, not wanting to peer around the corner. “I-Is it bad?”

With a sigh, you picked up the pan and brought it over to the sink, turning the water on before snatching your hand back to avoid the steam. You glanced over your shoulder, seeing the top of his head peeking around at you. “You should really stop cooking,”

He huffed, stomping back down the hall.

‘Some dreams just aren’t meant to come true. You’ll learn that soon, kiddo.’ You turned the water off, carefully throwing the ruined food into the trash before proceeding to clean the mess he had made. ‘Is that… how did he get egg on the ceiling fan?!’

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You stepped out of the house with a sigh, rubbing the back of your neck and mumbling under your breath. Even though you did your best to clean the kitchen, your parents came home and instantly knew something was up when a wad of burnt egg fell on top of your dad’s head when he opened the fridge. How? You had absolutely no idea.

Being the older sibling, the fault fell on you. Apparently, it was your responsibility to keep your brother in check when they were gone. Honestly, what sense does that make? Even with his lack of cooking ability, he was still more responsible than you.

In any case, you were being punished.

By being kicked out of the house for the day.

You had to go shopping for the upcoming week’s groceries, given a list that your mother explicitly forbade you from deviating from. It’s safe to say that you were not too happy about this development.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket and you pulled it out half-heartedly, expecting to see a text from your mom about something she forgot to add to the list, but it was the friendfinder app. Your mood instantly brightened as you brought up the messages with Tooru, not that you’d ever admit that.

You frowned down at the messages, feeling a sense of dread creeping up on you. This was starting to feel like a lot more than just a coincidence. What was it they said about coincidences? Try as you might, you couldn’t remember, so you decided to look it up on Poogle only to find a bunch of quotes that had nothing to do with your current situation.

‘I’m starting to think this is a really bad idea. This guy has to be really popular if he’s on the volleyball team, all of them are. Plus, that means he knows that brunette with the fangirl squad.’ The thought sent an unpleasant chill down your spine. ‘Should I back out and just try to connect with someone else?’

On one hand, you didn’t actually know anything about this guy’s personality. For all you knew, he could be the kindest, sweetest person on earth and you’d be the invisible weirdo that threw away the chance to befriend him.

Then again, he could be a complete whackjob that’s arrogant and likes to get under people’s skin. Was it a chance you were willing to take?

‘I should sleep on this decision,’ You decided before continuing on your way toward the grocery store. A few minutes passed before your phone dinged as a notification came through.

Your brow quirked up. Was your mother also an otaku? Or did she simply find the picture and think it was cute? ‘Hmm, I should investigate this further!‘

You can try as hard as you like to forget about what was happening with your new friend, but it would definitely be coming back to haunt you.

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▸n e x t

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[alias-b]

Without The Lights~ Billy Hargrove x OC Camille Harper

Chapter 11: There Are Worse Things I Could Do

A/N: Valentine’s Day of 1985 after a terrible school prank. Camille gets some horrid news and comfort from a surprising source. TW: Death, talk of abortion, asshole high schoolers, mental break, and brief self h*rm scene.

    The comments weren’t bad. Oh, no.

    "That's the one... Her."

    "Queen Bee. Queen Bitch."

    "Slut."

    "Wonder who the daddy was."

    "Baby killer."

    "Hargrove better watch out, she traps boys. He'll lose interest now for sure."

    "Camille, the whore, Harper."

   Those were all tragically and hilariously to be expected.

  It was the staring. Those damn eyes. The way she could walk into a room and have it hush. Teachers and students alike. Thinking those thoughts too loudly. Camille marched in. Knowing they were talking about her. Eyes lifted and moved over her body like she’d never get privacy again. Camille was used to being watched. Desired. But, this... Avoiding her face was one thing. Staring direct at her long scraped out womb was another. The attention burned. Lights scorched. No dark corners to curl up and hide away in. And how Camille tried to. She imagined layers of flesh melting away until she was muscle and bone. They would rub salt into the rawness of her wounds.

  Camille turned her nose up to all that shit. Fixed her lipstick. Flicked her hair. Blew bubbles with gum like nothing was around. She spoke up in class. Made herself more visible because she had no choice and she wanted control again. Camille burst with technicolor. Crushed them all. Swayed like a dancer down hallways. Undaunted. By force. But, undaunted nonetheless.

  Billy watched her float. Like nothing could touch her. He found himself wishing that he could float too. Camille tried to sit alone at lunch. Tried. Steve smacked a tray down across from her. Sent a message that nothing had changed. Students watched their king sit and eat, sliding an extra carton of milk over. She’d tried to skip the meal too. Nancy and Jonathan came next, adding crackers and a brownie to the lunch. Billy was on her right after, placing his green apple there. Hadn't lost interest of course. Heather ushered Robin over even and they joined. Camille let herself smile.

  “So, anyone catch Mr. Creed’s new hairpiece? A surprising color.” Steve leaned forward and Heather laughed. He attempted to make his friend feel normal again.

  “I couldn’t even take notes, I was waiting for it to crawl away.”

  “Definitely hiding something,” Jonathan piped up. Camille watched her odd group of friends joke, picking up the apple to bite into it first. Billy shot her a wink so she nudged his leg with her own.

  “I had him last year. Once he got frustrated and ran his hand into it. Flipped half the thing over and finished class like that.” She chuckled finally when they did, encouraged.

  “He’s gotta put that whole collection out of their misery.” Robin added. Camille enjoyed feeling like a teen again. For once. Steve kicked her foot under the table, flashing a smile that set her at ease. It was like this over the next week. Gluing little shards of glass back together. Trying not to slice tired fingers. Rosemary acted as if nothing happened prior. Cooped up in her studio with new designs. Work was better. Better than a daughter who refused to be a daughter. Camille stayed afloat until the ship cracked again. The perfect hive threatened to crumble in.

  Her stupid locker. Still broken. This day, she jerked it open for her chemistry book with Robin next to her, ready to walk to class. Red splashed all down her front. Covered the floor and Robin’s shoes. A bucket of blood red paint clattered, dribbling all over. Camille went into shock, hands lifting while it pooled out. Like most shitty things in her life now. Pooling out. She longed briefly to let it cover all else. Clothing ruined. The crack deepened when Carol pointed to laugh across the way. Ex-popular friends joined in around her. Tommy was cackling, racing away to catch more attention. Billy's foot came out by his locker and the boy tripped hard, smacking the floor. Students ceased their laughter.

  "Eat shit, you little bitch." Billy bared his teeth. Looking utterly feral because that was his default setting.

  "Mad someone got your slut before you did, Hargrove? You'll have to fight every quarterback in Indiana." Tommy dragged backwards but was ripped up, shoved into the lockers. Camille paid no mind.

  "Get the fuck out of here." Billy struggled with his rage and tossed Tommy the other way, arms swiping out to frighten him off. Tommy was Steve's added beefcake muscle once upon a time but he'd be a fool to challenge a fire-breathing hyena like Billy Hargrove.

  “What the hell, Carol?” Robin spoke first back down the hallway. Heather ran along to see her friends. Odd bunch they made. Camille the freak. Robin the weirdo. Baby faced Heather. Billy shoved his locker closed and pushed students to see his friend too.

  “Are you okay? Camille?” Heather was ignored. Baby killer, came some more utters and Camille stalked forth. Carol shut her mouth and cried out when a fist charged right next to her head. Its force dented the locker in. The brass knuckle punch style she'd easily picked up from Billy. Something detached inside Camille. Instead of hitting Carol and crying, she just laughed. Eyes wide. Unstable. It echoed into their school. Demanded respect and attention because this was stone fox Camille Harper here. She laughed louder. How could she not? Her entire life was fucked. It was a lie. Why hide when the cards were all on the table today? More of her friends rounded the hallway in awe.

  “Carol. I should be upset. What a clever, clever prank. How many brain cells did it take between you all? I wonder. But, you know…I’m not mad one little bit. Because I grew out of being a nasty bitch and I know you won’t for a while.” Camille was grinning. Carol looked shocked, tipping back to avoid the paint. “You don’t have to date a shitty ass guy who tries to fuck your friends when you take breaks and hate yourself, you know? Good luck with that. Been there, crawled out.” Camille jerked forward to hug Carol as tight as she could. “We’ll get through it together.” One hand took Carol's jaw. Red swatched her skin before she pushed her backwards after planting a hard, sweet kiss on her cheek. Paint swiped Camille's fingers so she reached up where there wasn’t paint on her shirt and traced an A.

  A scarlet letter.

  “Bitch! Camille, what the fuck? You lost it.” Carol looked down at herself, clothes ruined now too.

  “Bold to assume that I even had it to begin with, babe.” Camille left her, head still high. Hips swaying. Paint splattering. "Well, any of you wet dream drones have anything else to say to me? Now's the fucking time!" Arms swiped, sending spatters of red into nearby students and lockers. Instead the entire crowd parted for her in sync. Moses standing at the damn Red Sea separating it. "I thought so." She puffed, lips lifting to smile because she owned them still. "Robin, sorry about the shoes."

   "You know, I think this could be a great look actually." Robin joked instead, rolling with it because her friend was clinically insane and she adored her now.

  "Right. Now, where is Billy Hargrove? Hm? Don't be shy, sweet face." Camille commanded her drones to part further and reveal him there at the center. Billy had stopped to watch halfway toward her, eyes fixated and huge when he got a better look. "Ah, there you are." She sucked her teeth, clicking her tongue once before she came forth. "Should have smelt the smoky hairspray and warm cologne, it's still to die for." The teen dream stopped in front of him. Everyone was dead silent. Awed. Impressed. Aroused.

      Queen Bee Camille.  

  “Pick me up tonight." Hands on her hips, head cocked. Flirty and unashamed. Splashed bright red. A firework bursting in his life. "Seven o'clock sharp. We are going to the god damn movies. It's a date, just so we're clear. Be prepared to hold the door for me.”

  “You’re the boss, Hester. Wear something red. Color's good on you.” Billy winked, shrugging before he too stepped aside to let her go. Unworried. Happy. Camille left a trail of footprints all down the hallway. She entered the girl’s gym showers in her clothing. Earning shocked looks when she started laughing aloud again and got under cold spray. Cleansed her skin. Red sloshed all down into the drain like the flood of a period. Her clothing was still ruined. They called her mother again to get her. Took an entire load of towels to get her out of the showers without making another mess. Camille was still laughing the whole way.

  It never ended.

** ** **

  “Camille, I’m not sure this is a good idea. You should rest. You've had a rough week.” Rosemary had frowned. Her own palms shook when she clasped them. Camille didn't notice her shaking

  “I’m peachy.” She imagined teeth peeling fuzzy peach skin away to suck the juicy fruit within. That sweetness dripping from soft, plush lips.

  “You’re different.” Rosemary couldn't get her daughter to turn around and just look at her. Not like she used to.

  “I’m different?” The teen huffed and yanked up into the tree in front of their house. Another awful prank. Hung baby dolls from branches. “You going to help me here, mother?”

  “They need me in New York again.” Rosemary resigned herself. Guilt swirled and she pressed her lips. Stared for a long moment, desperate. “Ask me to stay with you, I will.”

  “You're right. I am different.” Camille admitted, head turning. “My eyes are open.” Her mother looked truly unsettled. “Go, they need you. I can handle myself.”

  "I'm so sorry, Camille." Rosemary never said what for. First mistake. Her mother turned to go. "I left you something in the kitchen. Cheer you up. It used to." Camille never went to see what it was. Second mistake. She dumped the toys into their trash bin and prettied herself up. Wore a casual pink dress that slipped from her shoulders with cherries all over it. Small splashes of red. The Camaro howled while she applied the same red to her lips. Billy felt his heart charge when he pulled into the driveway. Finally.

  “Millionth time is the charm, huh?” Camille approached when he got out. "Devil's pride nice still?"

  "Yeah, I'd say so." Billy prettied himself as well, fitted shirt opened halfway and tucked into tight jeans. His preferred style. She smiled at him like nothing was wrong.

  "Shall we?"

  “Chariot awaits,” he cocked his head and offered a single peony from behind his back. Pink. Billy got the door for her and went around to drive them off. Let her pick the flick and he bought the tickets. The Breakfast Club. He only whined a little about it. Camille bought the snacks and they found seats up in back. More teens filled the room before the lights hushed. They took turns snagging popcorn and sips of soda. As much as he rolled his eyes prior, Billy grew invested. Every teen in sight felt it. Damn movie was too relevant. Camille leaned into him, allowing his arm behind her. Idle fingers traced the bare skin of her shoulder. The world let them be blissful teens tonight. For a little while. Third mistake. Credits rolled and he held her hand just like they discussed. Kids filtered out so Camille leaned in to kiss him, inches away before she gasped instead.

  “Hey. Robin and Heather are here. Check it out,” she noticed them down closer to the front. Giggling. Tossing pieces of popcorn while they joked and stood. Heather looped her arm into Robin’s. Grins followed.

  “Didn’t know they were actually close friends now. Lab partners or whatever.” Billy shrugged and Camille had to cover her lips. “What?”

  “Boys are so oblivious, come on. To the diner.” She tugged at his hand to go down the steps.

  "As you wish." Billy pulled her into him, earning a slight giggle. Chilly air swept and his leather jacket was already around her.

  “Camille!” Heather caught them exiting the doors, hand leaving Robin’s quicker than intended. Camille peered at the space between them, eyes lifting.

  “Heather…hi. Nice to see you both. Fine night compared to earlier, yeah?”

  “Yes. Sorry, we didn’t know you guys were up there. I would have said hi. Great movie, right?” Heather continued.

  “I loved it and so did Billy, despite the whining.” Camille joked, patting his chest. “Hey, Robin.”

  “Hey…” Cold wind passed them so Camille brought Billy’s jacket closer.

  “You got Billy to sit through that, impressive.” Heather was entertained.

  “Just wait till you see my other tricks,” Billy lit up a cigarette behind his date.

  “Okay, on that note, you guys…have a good time.” Camille kissed her friend's cheek, winking. Heather gave an honest smile, relaxing again.

  “Thanks, Camille.”

  “We’ll see you two in class, yeah.” Robin crossed her arms. “Now do the trick where you disappear, if you could.”

  “Love that one,” Billy pressed Camille’s back when she gave Heather a knowing look of encouragement. He drove her to the diner and they found a corner booth. “Large milkshake. Chocolate. Side of fries.” He told the waiter. “Well, Harpy, we covered it, didn’t we?”

  “What?”

  “We angrily laid this out in detail months ago. Hit all the important points.”

  “Hm, I think there is always room to improvise.” She purred, chin resting in her hand as she leaned over.

  “Oh, say improvise again.”

  “No,” Camille laughed when he gave that world melting smile. Food was set down. Billy snagged some fries and shifted the plate between them. She sipped and hummed blissfully. “I’m going to have that song from the movie trapped in my head for weeks.” Camille plucked up a hot fry to eat.

  “Thought it was funny us going to see that? Criminal and princess.”

  “I didn’t plan that,” she grew amused. “Didn’t know the movie would be like that. Frankly though, I’m starting to think I’m more of a basket case now.”

  “Can’t argue there,” Billy dodged a fry at that, laughing before he stole her milkshake. "Queenie is buzzing along a very fine line."

  "Suppose I feel like I have wings today." Camille gave a shrug. "Guess that I also wanted to bring up more of the wildly unhinged me who told her ex to eat shit."

  “Hey, look, I know you’re all smiles now and great. But…”

  “Disgraced bee flew too close to the sun.” Camille rolled her eyes and sat back. “I’m not faking it for you. I don't do that with or for boys, rest assured. These last two weeks have been…fucking awful. But, I’m on a date with a guy I care about and I think it’s going well.”

  “We talking B minus work?” He gaze at her closely.

  “Oh no, I think you’re on your way to a solid A plus with extra credit. Gold star work.” She joked. It was intoxicating even still. The way he smiled at her. Charming as hell. Lighter. Easy. Slow and steady, her hand came to touch his. Fingers curling. Eyes met and they stayed to enjoy the lingering beat between them. “I want to try something.”

  “You do?” Billy’s brow furrowed and she wasn’t hesitant.

  “I want to try it back at my place.” They scrambled to pay and go. Rain splattered lightly so he pulled her by the hand. Hair and clothing damp. Unable to resist, Billy yanked her into his chest. Hands on her wet face to kiss her there under rain and stars. Camille responded, pulling at him until they both laughed and continued to his car. Giggling teens on a date. Nothing to lose. So they thought. Billy sped while she slid over and placed playful, teasing kisses on his neck.

  “Harpy, I’m supposed to be setting a better example when I drive.” He’d joked, stilling to kiss her again at a red light. Hands smoothed along his thigh and they couldn’t park fast enough in her driveway. “Hey.”

  “Hm?” Camille was still in Billy's neck, palms sliding up his chest.

  “Look.” He pointed. Jim Hopper’s Blazer sat parked in front. The Chief was waiting, snuffing out a cigarette before Camille hurried out on unsteady feet.

  “Jim.” She felt a gust of cold crackle up her spine when he lifted his eyes. Rain stilled. "How long have you been here?"

  "Not long." He stared at them, clearly on a date and worked up. Camille came down fast.

  "What are you doing here, Jim?" She'd asked it quieter.

  “Camille, I think we should talk inside.” His palm was on her back to guide her forth. Camille's hand slipped from Billy's and they mourned that.

  “What happened?” She pressed, struggling to open the door.

  “Hargrove, give us a moment.”

  “No, Billy, come inside. You can say it to both of us.” Camille marched up to him while he took his hat off. A motion that appeared grave. Billy shut the door, his own flesh chilled when rain dripped from his curls. “Say it.”

  “Camille.”

  “Say it!” She barked at him, echoing in that empty house. Jim’s eyes drew to her own.

  “It’s Judith.” He crumbled her world. “I’ve been checking on her and-”

  “No, don’t you fucking…lie. Don't you lie to my face. It's fine. She's fine.” Tears welled. She got smaller. “You were supposed to protect her.”

  "I'm so sorry, I only heard a few hours ago. We've had people on her I trust. There... Something happened."

  "It's a mistake. No...No! You don't know shit. You're nothing but...a fuck up. You're just a fuck up!" She spat and he remained tender while her rage filtering out at him. "You are a liar."

  “She’s gone, Camille.” He was pushed hard at that.

  “Shut the fuck up…she didn’t… I knew they’d come for her! Another loose end to torment me with.” Camille couldn’t catch a breath, stumbling back before he took her arms. The dark secrets she kept. The life she had. The mother she never got to know. Gone. Gone. Gone. It all just fluttered. “Ngh, no!”

  “She passed, Camille. They confirmed it. I saw the certificate. Photos. Everything.”

  “How?”

  “Camille.”

  “How did she die?!” She screamed it. Echoing again. Billy pressed back into the door. His face felt impossibly hot.

  “They say she did it herself.”

  “They say…? A gentle, manic woman who never spoke and just spent her days rocking.” Camille broke. “So they killed her. They fucking killed my mother. Just to ruin me further. They know I can't mourn it. They know I saw her and they know I have to hide. Fucking, they killed us both. Again and again. Finally finished her off. It's because I found her. It's my fault.”

  “You didn't do this. There was something. Small. Carved into her arm. Three numbers.” Jim reached again to stop Camille from falling. “Hey, you have to breathe. Easy.”

  “No, she’s not… She can’t…” Camille was beating on his broad chest. “Lies! Lies! You’re a liar! A shitty, awful liar. I hate you! You fuck up! You were supposed to watch her. You...”

  “Camille,” Billy found his own voice, hands up to pull her off Chief Hopper’s towering frame. She slipped out of his jacket.

  “No, no, it isn’t true.” Camille rushed beyond them, tearing up the stairs. She saw her room empty. Kicked bedroom doors open. They pursued to stop her, forces jerked them aside. Her nose bled. “Can’t… It can’t be right.” Camille rushed down the stairs again. Nothing in the living room. She stopped in the kitchen when she saw them. The gift. To cheer her up. Confirming her worst fears. A vase of bright, freshly cut sunflowers left by her mother. An apology and a confession. She’d known. “No, no…no.” A wail tore. Shook the whole house before she lifted the entire thing to smash them. Yellow petals exploded around her feet. The doors slammed to the room when she fell to her knees. A sharp shard cut into her palm before she lost herself and dug it into skin. Eyes wide and unfocused. Three tiny numbers bled out.

  “Hey!” Jim pounded at the door, kicking it open when she relented before he tore her up from the floor. “Knock it off!” Camille dragged and wished to bring the entire house down. He held her arms tight so she bucked around and wailed again. Everything took too much of a toll on Camille. This was the last straw. Rosemary stared at her eyes earlier and knew. Knew what would come. And Camille would have to smile upon seeing her when she came home.

  Billy’s hands were on her face. He was talking too fast for her to process. He slipped away when she fell back into Jim, sobs barely subsiding because she was exhausted. Fingers gripped her forearm and Billy was tying a towel around it.

  “Go pack her a bag. She’s not well, I’m taking her home. Hurry.” Jim pulled her to her feet, half carrying her into the living room to put her on the couch. They cleaned the mess without words and got her into Jim’s car. Her cries silenced when the door shut. Billy found the silent wails of agony more horrific from outside the car.

  “Kid, I’ll handle it from here. Get yourself home.“

  “Fuck that, I’m sticking with her.” Billy edged forward. "You don't know her."

  “Billy, you helped. You did.” Jim eased. Billy didn’t jerk when a hand touched his shoulder. “What Camille needs is to process this. She needs rest.”

  “After she found her mother the first time, she stuffed herself with pills. I made her throw them up, she took so damn many. I am not…” Billy felt himself tremble. Jim understood, nodding. Watch her. “We were happy.”

  “Yeah, you’re good kids. You are. Just trying to make it better and you will. Camille needs to rest and she isn't safe to be alone in this house. Give it some time. Give her some time. Things still bad at school?”

  “Hung babies and red paint aren’t exactly welcoming.”

  “I’ll handle it. Go home. Let me take care of her, I know enough and if she's like El: her abilities could lash out. I’ll call if anything happens. All right? I'll call you first,” Jim pressed him to leave and he finally did. Billy didn’t drive home, instead he was stumbling up to another door. Bell rang and Steve Harrington looked confused.

  “Hey, man…you lost?” Steve didn’t see anyone behind him. Billy looked like utter shit. “You do know this is my house, right?”

  "Yes, asshole, I fucking know which-"

  "Okay, good talk," Steve moved to shut the door and Billy dropped the anger.

  "Wait..." Billy's foot stopped him. Steve sighed and pulled it back open.

  "Try again, pal." He waited so Billy changed his tone.

  “You got alcohol in there?”

  “Parents are gone to the weekend, uh…yeah.” Steve relented then stepped aside. “What’s going on?”

  “Start pouring first.”

** ** **

  “Camille.” El was excited until she saw her expression.

  “El, give her a moment.” Hopper guided the mute teen into their little cabin. His puffy police coat over her frame. “Pull out the couch for her.”

  “What happened?” El asked instead when Hopper got Camille into the bathroom. The door shut so he helped fix the couch into a bed. Eleven brought extra pillows and saw him locking up knives and pills. “Why?”

  “Camille is incredibly upset.” Jim explained it carefully. “Her mother. Real mother…she passed away.”

  “Gone.”

  “Yeah,” Jim swept the young girl under his arm. “We have to be careful with her. She’s hurting. Sometimes when people hurt…they take it out on themselves. She’s going to stay here a few nights while Rosemary is out.”

  “I can watch her.” El promised and Jim pressed a smile, rubbing her shoulders. Camille looked numb when she appeared. El hurried to take her hand and get her to lie down. “I’m sorry…about your mama.” Camille hated herself for the tiniest thought that maybe it was for the best. The older teen peered at her and nodded while El turned on the TV for her. Noise to fill the voids in the room. Jim pulled a chair up to unwrap her wrist. It took a moment for the little girl to realize Camille did it to herself.

  “Give us a moment,” Jim nodded so El went into her room. He cleaned the cuts and applied ointment while she reclined there. “Wanted the scar.”

  “They erased me.”

  “Six isn’t who you are, Camille.”

  “Guess I’m not really sure what I am any longer. Queen bee. Freak. Slut. Six. Baby killer. Always the fucking brands.” She paused. “Sorry, you lost your daughter.”

  “Two completely different scenarios, Camille, you’re not a bad person and I wrote the book on fucking up. No room to judge a teenage girl for making a terrifying and informed choice about her body.” Jim got up and pulled something from his coat pocket. “They sent me this with the certificate.” The tiny Star of David necklace. She let him clasp it so it could hang down low with Billy’s pendant.

  “Thank you.” She welled up and closed her eyes to still it.

  “She loved you. She did.” Jim touched her hair. "I'll let you have some space."

  "Wait," she sniffled, cracking. "Can you just hold me for a little bit?" Jim stilled, air leaving his nose before he sat back down. Awkwardly, she came up to scoot into his arms when he sat on the edge of the mattress. Jim floundered a little too, uncertain. She adjusted half in his lap. Camille pressed into him when he held her tighter, arms up against his chest. Inhaling the scent of him. Nothing like her own adopted father. Long rotting in the ground. She still closed her eyes to pretend. She wondered what her real father smelled like. Maybe something like this. Crisp. Safe. Jim rocked her when she began to shake in his arms. They melted more together. He cupped the back of her head so she lifted it to look at him. Small. Fingers smoothing idly into the fabric of his shirt as his thumb caught a single tear. "You're not a fuck up." She rasped then. Lips pressed at that.

  “Get some rest, Camille.” He offered, tucking long hair aside. She eased herself back into the mattress. El came out in her pajamas to crawl in next to Camille.

  “I can watch her,” El stated again when Camille was lulled to sleep. Jim stayed there petting her head until El took over. The little girl kissed her hair like Jim had done to her many times before to comfort her too. Hopper went to his room and left El curled into her sister. They looked peaceful.

** ** **

  “Hello?” Nancy was groggy when she received a call.

  “Hey, uh, Nancy, it’s Steven,” Steve snorted into the phone and Nancy was alert.

  “Steve? It’s late. Are you drunk?”

  “I’m the moral support, Nance.” Steve was trying to quiet someone behind him. “I have every single thing in my life...super under control.”

  “Oh, my god. Where are you?”

  “Home, near the pool. Um, Nancy, I did…something bad.” Steve slurred. “Remember how we dated for like a year? Wild. I was a shitty boyfriend.”

  “No, Steve, you really weren’t. Not at all.” Nancy was up, Jonathan lifted his eyes in question across from her.

  “Couldn’t even beat the keg king, a little girl had to step in. She’s like…way cooler than me. I think Max is the real keg king at heart.” Steve was laughing and Billy snorted, seated in a lawn chair near him. “I…am just calling…wait, why am I calling again?”

  “Camille…needs her fucking band of annoying nerds. The party. That thing…she doesn’t,” Billy hiccuped, plastered, “I’m not enough, ah, and I never will be.”

  “Billy wants to have a party.” Steve was laughing.

  “Billy? You’re drunk with Billy Hargrove?” Nancy smacked Jonathan’s shoulder to get him moving.

  "Ow!"

  “We’re coming over. Now.”

  “You’re with Jonathan, that’s hilarious.” He cackled. “Byers! He kicked my ass too!”

  “He told me!” Billy fell back, grinning.

  “Don’t go anywhere,” Nancy smacked the phone down. “Come on.” Back at Steve’s, he fell into a pool side chair.

  “She could def...definitely not even tell I’d been drinking. I’m…sneaky like a ninja.” Steve reclined back.

  “Shit is fucking wild, man. How did I get here? Look at them.” Billy watched the hundreds of stars dance in his state, lulling about.

  “You…are a fucking asshole.” Steve was swatting for him, hitting only air.

  “Yeah, I am.” They tried to high five and missed that too. “Pissed off a junior demolished you at everything you love?”

  “Beside the point. You’re like…like a real…huge asshole. But, you’re also not so bad. You know? I just…can’t fight for shit. And you somehow became friends with Camille Harper. My friend. My queen friend.” Steve was laughing again.

  “She tricked me into her intr...intricate friendship rituals.”

  “Oh, she does that shit. We all fall for it. You especially. And…you…you beat the shit out of me and then your kid sister stole your car. What the fuck was all that?”

  “What the fuck was that?” Billy agreed, head tipping. Nancy and Jonathan sped there, coming around back to see the two wasted boys.

  “Ayy! It’s Nancy! Nancy…!” Steve clapped. Billy was trying and failing to light a cigarette. They hollered in sync so she shushed them.

  “Hey, zip it! Both of you.” Nancy ordered. “What is this?”

  “If Camille were here it would be exactly…like…The Breakfast Club.” Billy started cackling and Steve joined him. “New party name, you fucking nerds.”

  “This guy is hilarious, he’s so right. So…right…”  

  “Hey, hey focus.” Nancy picked up a spray bottle for the window flowers and hit them both with water. They hissed and whipped around to avoid the cold like a pair of cats. Billy’s cigarette sizzled out so he flicked it, giving up. Jonathan covered his lips and tried not to laugh at this all. “What happened? Where is Camille?”

  “Police Chief kidnapped her mid date.” Billy had his hands up when she threatened them again with the spray bottle.

  “Why?” Jonathan stepped forward. Billy blinked as some awareness came back.

  “Bad thing… Her, fuck shit… Her mother. They got her.”

  “Her mom? Rosemary?”

  “No. One in the hospital.” Steve played with his shirt. “She didn’t make it.” Nancy lowered the bottle, realizing.

  “Oh, no… Where is Camille now?”

  “Hopper just…whiskered her away. Adopting another one probably.” Steve tried to sit up and Jonathan hurried to assist him.

  "You need a bed, come on."

  "Hey pal, I may have let you kick my ass but, you are not qualified to tuck me in." Steve dragged with him. Billy stared at the pool with a harder expression, lights fluttered on his face. Made him look almost ethereal.

  “We gotta get them inside.” Jonathan was helping poor Steve along still. Billy managed to sit up more and Nancy saw a flower in his hand. Camille had left it in the car. He stared at the petals and leaned to drop it into the pool. Water shifted with ripples. Billy watched them carefully so Nancy crossed over.

  “Billy, you’re not looking well. You need to get inside.” She and Jonathan heaved Billy to his feet next. "There we go." He stumbled and made an odd sound. Nancy realized that he was sniffling. She saw nausea sweep his expression and they hurried him into the bathroom so he could throw up. “Jonathan, water.” He rushed to find a glass. “Here…” Nancy was wiping Billy’s slack lips with a wet rag. He pressed his cheek to the seat and tried to overcome the sensation, moaning. Teeth clenched when another feeling flooded him. Nancy gave his back an awkward pat. “It’s okay.” She took the water from Jonathan and helped him drink. “Check on Steve.”

  “Got it.” Jonathan left again. Billy slipped against the wall, room spinning. Nancy squatted down barely a few feet away, arms crossed over her knees.

  “Don’t have to stay here with me, Wheeler.”

  “I know.” Nancy shrugged. Not the night she imagined. Not the person she imagined comforting. “Don’t mind it if you don’t though.”

  He blinked and didn’t say anything, eyes glazed.

  “So, Hopper’s watching her?” She saw Billy nod. “And you guys had a date tonight.”

  “I think I was decent.” His voice was quiet. Raw.

  “I bet that you were.” Nancy pressed her lips and he flickered his eyes over her face, opening up.

  “Not supposed to see her. Whole tutoring lie is only going to go so far. My dad doesn’t like it. But, I like it.” He slurred, eyes closing. “Another round with the belt when he finds out. Story of my fucking life. Maybe I deserve it, I was a shithead. I still am.” Nancy’s eyes changed.

  “He hits you. I mean…we all had some idea about it. Ah...you don’t deserve it, all right? And you don’t have to go back there, you know.”

  “All that wishful thinking. If I don’t, he’ll want someone else to hit. He’ll hunt me down. I tried to run before. Long time ago. Learned quick. I can't. Dad wins.” Billy numbed. “Didn’t want to care.”

  “You’re different. We all see it. Good different.” Nancy offered. Familiar words touched the world. “My friend changed too. Before and after your family got here. I did also and so did Jonathan and Steve. We all did stupid teenage things.”

  “Some of us did worse than others.”

  "We all hurt people." Nancy admitted, eyes flickering. "My friend died because of me and I can't take that back. I can only do better. Never let it happen to someone else."

  "She died because a monster grabbed her." Billy swallowed bile, chest heaving. "I used to be a monster too. Grabbing people. Squeezing. Laughing about it after."

  “What Camille sees in you now…it makes her happy. What Max sees in you makes her happier as well.” Nancy offered, careful. Billy lulled with an amused scoff to hide the way his tone thickened.

  “My mom didn’t see it. Why won’t my dad see it either?” Billy cringed this time, lips trembling and eyes filling to the brim.

  “It’s…going to be okay. It’s going to get better. I know how that sounds. But, not just for you alone. But, for you and Max. Camille. All of us. Because we have this…amazing group and we’re trying so hard despite everything. Even when we want to stop.”

  “I’m not…I’m not crying over my dad. He’s never…going to love me. Just, fuck him. Fuck him for me and Max and Susan…and…my mom. Fuck him! Fuck. Can’t touch anything. Can’t be touched. Fuck him. I’m crying…because…because, I…”

  “Billy, it’s okay. Just breathe.” Nancy offered him some tissue.

  “I can’t. Can’t stand to. I’m finally awake.” Billy wept, the airy syllables barely connected. “I love her.” He’d squeaked it like a mouse, fists rose to touch his head while he crumbled. Nancy stayed there with him to share the space. Let him weep. When he was calmer, she nodded to affirm that he was perfectly sane through the hurt.

  “I know you do.”

#billy hargrove #Billy hargrove x oc #billy hargrove fanfiction #billy hargrove fanfic #Camille Harper #writing #mine #without the lights

[applekitty]

‘game dedede’ is not a good person to ship escargoon with and here’s why

im glad my escargoon analysis resonated with lots of people. i saw some comments on it, which i feel the need to reply to because they’re on my post. a small few comments have been about the main focus of this whole multi paragraph crazed yammering; game dedede

(content warning: i talk about the horror comic killing stalking for four paragraphs. wow i bet this content warning doesn’t give mood whiplash at all)

now, game dedede isn’t much of anything. he’s a non-character, as he has no discernible personality in the games that isn’t really much of anything more than a catalyst for people to project a personality onto. as are all the game characters, because kirby isn’t focused so much on plot and indepth character development as it is about the gameplay. nintendo’s always been good at gameplay,  so they have basically stuck to what they’ve known and sprinkled small plot bits around places and entirely discarded anything other than hints personalities so that way they have an excuse for pure gameplay and fun to occur. it’s the same way with mario, and zelda, and usually basically all of their properties. yes, even pokemon, though usually when pokemon gets too plot heavy we get games like sun and moon, which are basically just cutscenes upon cutsc- 

what was i talking about? oh, right, game dedede.

game dedede is usually seen by the fandom as a variety of things, but the main one is nice. and by nice i mean he is usually portrayed as someone who is typically valorous and is doing the right thing, not someone who is necessarily pleasant, though some like to make him pleasant or jolly. if you know me or have even been on my blog even once on pc you’ll notice the cool deviantart stamp i got from one of my friends. i fully agree with the things it entails; dedede not being your typical uwu ‘do nothing wrong’ monarch that he’s often now plastered as because he did the whole ‘i help this cat’ in rtdl or because he wanted to keep nightmare from coming out of the fountain in nightmare in dreamland and.. whatever the name was of the game that it was a remake of.

people usually want to be able to root for the protagonist, and since dedede was a protagonist and / or in the right in a few occasions, we want to see him as a good guy doing good guy things. and there’s plenty of different ways to take that, as there’s both evidence for and against him being a morally light character. but that’s not really the point of what i’m talking about here. regardless of your own personal opinion on how ‘game dedede’ morally is, he is not a good person for escargoon to be with. there’s a reason why i said someone should be shipping him with an oc rather than game dedede, and it’s precisely because ‘game dedede’, even if he somehow zapped into the anime verse, would not be good to ship with him.

and it’s not based on chemistry or because game dedede is secretly or openly evil or something like that. it’s purely because escargoon is still a victim of abuse. and if you’re someone with a few braincells you want him to get out of that abuse and go find a new husband who’ll love and care for him. for escargoon to get game dedede seems to make sense at first because escargoon is so devoted to the anime one, but when you look at it, it’s not healthy at all.

this is essentially taking escargoon’s old abuser, wiping away all the ‘sins’ of his character just to make it so escargoon can date him. just so he can date an idealized version of his abuser. this person is quite literally just his abuser but with a mental coat of paint. 

allow me to draw comparison.

i’m going to go off here about a comic that i warned about at the top of the post. i’m not going to go too indepth about it due to the sheer nausea i might cause people if i do. it is a rather extreme example sheerly due to the content of said comic, but i can’t think of another better one off the top of my head. there’s a comic named killing stalking which was a big note for socio-political talk i think a few years back. it was a horror comic about a killer and a stalker wherein the murderer takes the stalker in, breaks his legs, and keeps in his house. the stalker, who already had sexual interest in his kidnapper, is abused due to various here and there reasons, and then after a while the comic begins the two’s sexual-romantic yet still abusive relationship. here’s the thing. the two of the characters are both men, so the relationship is gay.

many took to tumblr and various other medias smacking the comic for the display that it created (the comic chock is full of fairly nauseating things that are worth calling disgusting, but are expected of a shock horror comic) and the association it made between gay men and murderers, as well as making gay men look predatory and dangerous. normally said comic wouldn’t have been much of a problem or very noteworthy if it were about a straight pair, but it was about this Evil Gay Murderer Pair, so it was a source of controversy like shit is an attractor of flies.

despite the controversy that the comic had gotten, and the treatment in-canon it had of its characters being very clearly evil and in the wrong and clear deservance of being detracted, something strange happened. not in the comic, but in the people who decided to support said comic. people decided to support it for a number of reasons, one being that ‘oh it’s a horror comic i like horror despite what controversy or effects it may have on people’. i remember seeing it once, on my dashboard, i think. or back in the day when i was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with this comic that everyone on my dash was just going to town on. people were shipping the two main, gay characters with eachother. and they weren’t doing it in a way that was ‘oh the murderer is so hot look at him in all this blood’ sort of way. it was in a much more.. ‘cozy’ position. it was fluffy. it was shown as cute. at first i thought it was because people were fucking weirdos, but i remember this one caption that has been recalled in perfect paraphrased clarity to me.

‘some people make aus to make their ships more angsty, but i’m out here making mine healthy lol’

people were taking the murderer, the main person who was causing the problems in the comic, and turning him into a loving husband for the stalker (who was shown as very mentally ill and in desperate need of love and attention). people were making the pairing that the comic itself showed as horrifying and awful to be fluffy and cute and devoid of any problems. so that way the victim was no longer hurt. it was an au. the murderer had a new personality, he was a changed man who never hurt anyone, so he was perfect for the stalker. that way, the ship could be had but there would be no issue whatsoever.

and to be quite honest, that’s what we have here. we have an offshoot of that. though obviously the source material is much less dangerous in our case, we still have a victim in desperate need of love in an abusive relationship with someone who hurts them. then, we have people shipping said victim with a new version of that abuser just to wipe the slate clean. just to keep the ship going without anyone objecting to it, because it can all be explained away as an au or what have you. though, i’m sure the ship in killing stalking was very much bashed by people (at least, i hope it was), while this one isn’t.

i can hear my strawman in the replies already going ‘well thanks for the tangent. but ching, game dedede’s a different person. he is legitimately a different canon than anime dedede, meanwhile this is people making things up that the canon doesn’t support. if you dated a twin you won’t apply the sins of the twin on the other one, would you?’ and if this were a real life situation, you’d be correct. 

it’d be wrong to place the sins of one twin onto another sheerly because one was an abusive asshole. but since is a real life scenario, putting a victim of abuse back with someone who looks exactly like their abuser would most certainly create extreme fear and panic in that victim. it wouldn’t matter if one of the twins hasn’t done anything, the potential relationship would forever be ruined and it’d be out of their control. and no one, no self respecting person, should ever have a victim date them if they look exactly like said victim’s old abuser. that’s just asking for mental troubles and constant panic attacks.

but that’s if this were real. it’s not real. this is video games and cartoons. it doesn’t come down to that, it comes down to us and what we decide to do, and what we decide to ship. these are not real people. we are putting them together for our own amusement because you’d think they’d get along. and doing this with a ship like this with game dedede says, to me, "I do not care if it is abusive in canon, I want to ship it anyways without any problems or people calling me out, so I’ll make it so people can’t do that by stripping the abuser of their abusive characteristics and make it so this abusive ship is all sunshine and rainbows". this is especially poignant if escargoon is stripped of all his abuse as well, allowing for him to be shipped more easily. it is quite literally going ‘nope’ when one is confronted with the very real trauma of a character and discarding it. don’t get me wrong, some things in canon should be discarded in some sources of entertainment, but a character’s abuse being discarded entirely for the sake of shipping just does not sit well with me.

of course, people who ship it are absolutely not thinking this maliciously when they ship discountdesuka, but that’s what it is irregardless of what they are thinking.

‘game’ dedede / escargoon is a ‘what could’ve been’ situation. 

it is an idealized version of dedesuka, one which throws a key aspect of escargoon’s out the door purely for the fluff and the cute gay moments that could’ve been. and sadly enough, it’s probably what escargoon dreams and hopes could happen (which is arguable because escargoon gets suspicious whenever dedede is nice to him), but it never does.

i understand why people do it. i know they don’t have some secret plan to be evil by creating secret abusive content that has hidden messages in it so everyone will ship abusive ships or something ridiculous like that, and if you thought that i thought that you’re very wrong. 

in some’s cases (as shown by the tags on my escargoon post), they want to reclaim a relationship which was blatantly homophobic in execution and turn it into something better. others just want a cute ship because their version of ‘game’ dedede is morally better than his anime counterpart, and wouldn’t hurt escargoon. they want to make wholesome content to drown out canon’s shows of abuse and negativity. which is understandable to want, but to show respect to the concepts the show puts out, isn’t something that should be embraced with ‘game’ dedede/escargoon. 

but there is no undoing what anime dedede/escargoon is in the show, and what it means to give escargoon over to ‘game’ dedede instead. ‘game’ dedede / escargoon is not abusive by any initial means, but it is still something that should not be shipped regardless.

it is disrespect to escargoon’s status as an abuse victim to  ship him with the same exact person who abused him and say it’s okay because ‘he has a different personality’. 

i am begging you. please ship escargoon with your oc or some other game character.

#shitpost #kirby #kirby right back at ya #hoshi no kaabi #analysis #it has a tl;dr at the end #bash anime dedede for being 'ooc' (or anything of the like) in the replies and die by my sword

[beesmygod]

this is what riverdale is about (part 5)

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

hey guys. im back to upset you with more information about the first season of riverdale. the next post will wrap up season one. this post will cover eps 7-9. iirc the previous episodes, even when watching it, felt like filler. i was worried i was never going to get the fire of the first three episodes back. we do. don’t worry.

images are from the riverdale wiki

SEASON 1 (PART 3):

in a lonely place: jughead is now living in the high school, living every weirdo teenager’s worst nightmare. even better, literally everyone finds out about his relationship with betty “harriet the spy” cooper, making things a little awkward in the group. while discussing polly’s bold escape, cheryl’s goon squad of mean teen girls let her know the hot goss, which she takes to her mother and the sheriff to implicate polly in the murder of jason blossom. she then, and i mean this 100% literally and honestly, goes on twitter and tries to get the following hashtags trending: #PollyCooperKilledMyBrother, #NowhereToHide, and #SharpenYourPitchforks.

jughead then tries to convince his alcoholic, gang leader dad to shape up and get his job back at andrews construction but his dad is a stupid dick. later the gang goes on a hunt for polly in the woods. when this is unsuccessful, betty’s mom reveals ALL about polly’s pregnancy on camera during her plea for her to come home. it turns out polly is just hiding in the attic of the house, where betty finds her. polly begs betty not to tell anyone where she is and that she wants to have the baby and continue with her plan to go to the farm upstate where she will raise it herself. keep that in mind.

with the knowledge about the baby out in the open, cheryl offers an olive branch to betty by offering to let polly secretly stay at their house. cheryl is truly a capricious trickster spirit who pivots from one extreme to another at the drop of a hat.

then literally the most crazy and inexplicable thing int his episode happens: veronica, kevin and josie go to a fucking club on a school night. these teenage kids go to a club in a town that primarily runs on maple syrup and they are let in for some unexplained reason and this is just portrayed as a normal thing you can do in riverdale. they are minors and end up drinking for free when hermoines mom cancels her card and they threaten the owner by exposing him for serving minors. this scene is BONKERS

jugheads dad goes back to work with fred andrews but there’s tension between him and archies dad. literally none of it ends up mattering. don’t worry about it. jughead tells his dad that his mom is getting her GED, working in a call center to support jellybean (his little sister, not like a dog or something). this is a huge spoiler from the future but i dont know if the riverdale writers forgot about this scene or don’t care but none of this turns out to be true to their situation at all. not even close.

jughead is arrested and unarrested for jason’s murder when archie’s dad inexplicably forges a time card to cut him loose. the only proof was fingerprints on the torched car, which are still there for some reason. cheryl intercepts betty yet again to warn her and polly that the blossoms also are insane weirdos who just want her for the baby so polly is shipped off to the stay with the lodge family in the 5 star hotel.

the final shot reveals jason’s varsity jacket is in jughead’s dad’s trailer...for some reason.....

the outsiders: this ep starts with polly explaining literally everything we already know except with the added information that jason was selling drugs FOR the southside serpents for money for the baby. betty worries about how escalating situation between the coopers and the blossoms and who gets control of what when it comes to polly and the baby, and veronica bizarrely suggests they hold a baby shower to unite the feuding families. if you just want to have a party just say so.

clifford blossom, professional bastard man, has purchased archie’s dad’s construction crew out from under him which leaves the project in limbo. he confesses to archie about how fucked the company is now and how everything is fucked. clifford is also making a play for the land veronica’s dad secretly bought from prison using his wife as a proxy, which makes the whole “let’s host a baby shower thing at our apartment and invite the blossoms” thing seem like a hugely bad idea now. BUT DONT WORRY TEAM!!! 4 high school boys are here to do construction for no pay to save the company. no one verbalizes what an insane plan this is. they carry on until moose, the big closeted gay lad, get his ass flipped like a pancake by two anonymous goons who bust up some equipment and moose’s face. archie the brain genius decides he’s going to solve this mystery himself, taking moose and jughead to a bar called “the whyte wyrm” (literally the worst name for anything ever in human history) to find out who did the slapping. as archie is about to get his head caved in by a gangster, jugheads dad shows up in his cool leather jacket, revealing himself to be the head of the gang.

the baby shower is a miserable affair. alice cooper shows up, penelope blossom shows up, for some reason they bring the senile grandmother. the tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. then archie BUSTS in flipping his ass about jughead’s dad being a gangster. the just immediately throw him out which kind of rules because no one has time for him right now. the baby shower ends horrible when the blossoms make the lightest suggestion that polly might visit them and betty’s mom loses her fucking mind. everyone shuffles out except for polly, betty and alice. POLLY NOW DECIDES TO REVEAL THAT HER DAD HAD SCHEDULED AN APPOINTMENT FOR AN ABORTION APROPOS OF NOTHING. COME ONNN. anyway alice focuses her insane rage on hal who she boots out of the fucking house for his insane choice.

jughead and betty ask jugheads dad if he killed jason, he denies it and then they share a smooch outside the trailer. “they” being jughead and betty, not his dad. that would be a little too weird. well, not as weird as the reveal that jugheads dad has been instructing kevin’s serpent boyfriend to date him and pretend to like him for information.that’s pretty fucking weird. jughead’s dad refers to jason’s jacket as “insurance”.

jughead’s dad then shows up with his gang to take over the construction from the 4 high school boys, but hermoine reveals that the goons that were sent were sent by her husband, who might have caught wind of her affair with fred.

polly wisely decides to take her change with a different insane family instead of the one that tried to force an abortion on her and heads to thornhill manor with cheryl and the rest of the blossoms.

la grande illusion: i really need to thank whoever transcribed this entire narrative buttnugget from jughead because it truly is a spectacular example of the level of writing quality you get from the fine people at the cw. please enjoy this screencap of the opening monologue from the riverdale wiki:

today in riverdale is the annual meeting of the board of trustees, where the blossom family meets to discuss the state of the business and slurp syrup in redheaded harmony. the wigs on this show are outstanding and never more noticeable than when they’re all lined up in a row for you to appraise. cheryl invites archie to the tree-tapping ceremony and he, for reasons i cannot understand given everything we know and love about cheryl, accepts, albeit after some prodding on her mom’s behalf. she knows people at a very prestigious music academy you know, nudge nudge. betty thinks its also a good idea for him to go so he can check up on polly, who is ignoring betty’s calls now.

ethel, who you probably remember from the “sticky maple” episode, reads a fucked up poem to the class and veronica reaches out to ask her what the FUCK that was all about. things at home aren’t good for ethel: her family is fighting over money and they’re going to have to sell the house. so veronica invites her over for a play date with kevin so they can do whatever rich people do.

archie attends the tree tapping with cheryl where he holds a bucket and cheryl taps the tree. everyone claps. great job cheryl. archie comes to her defense when her family shit talks her ability to hit a tree or lead a company, but i guess they somehow don’t know that she is the most wild bitch on the planet and can not be dissuaded from doing anything. in fact, she insists that archie join her for a banquet later and he CANNOT say no.

betty is told polly is fine, and passes on this and the news from the blossom shareholder meeting to her mother who plans to use this information to destroy the blossoms using her newspaper. betty’s mother is truly a needlessly perpetually horrible woman for literally no reason almost 100% of the time. if its not to betty its to her sister and if not to her then to any random stranger she can sink her fangs into. however, her husband is still fucking pissed about the whole “getting thrown out” thing and is enacting a one man coupe on the newspaper. alice trashes her own office in retaliation. these people are the worst.

meanwhile veronica realizes that ethel’s dad used to work for her father, until hiram lodge’s incredibly illegal deeds financially ruined them all. ethel’s father tries to commit suicide and veronica shows up with flowers explaining how her family is the one responsible for all this. as you can expect ethel is not really pumped about this turn of events and tells her to tell the truth at her dad’s trial.

at the banquet, archie is HIGHLY encouraged by the blossoms to keep seeing cheryl. perhaps...in a romantic way? i wonder what reason this family of redheads could have for trying to indoctrinate yet another ginger into their fold. they share a weird kiss and archie flees, but not before securing two bits of information: polly warns him that the blossoms are involved in jason’s death and the blossoms themselves are close to securing the drive-in plot and part of their plan was to send veronica’s father to jail to eliminate the competition.

betty FOR SOME REASON invites her mother to write her expose at the school newspaper. why? i don’t know. her mom accepts. why? i don’t know. archie’s girlfriend, valerie, dumps him because he’s been spending so much time for cheryl, which i don’t know what he was expecting. in the final scene, cheryl, spurned by archie, scratches out his and polly’s face from a photo of the tree tapping. like a normal person would

---

if you like my posts and write ups on various things you can see more of it on my patreon, which is primarily for my webcomic, but sometimes other things too. consider tossing me a buck for more freebies. ok bye see you next time for the end of season 1

#riverdale

[variabels]

Fictober #5 Mega Man makes an educational video

A/N: Yo, I’m back. Spent my whole weekend obsessing over the return of the King. So proud of M2K for making 5th. This chapter needs no context.

Prompt number: 5  “I might just kiss you.”

Fandom (AU if applicable): Super Smash Bros

Rating: T

Warnings/Tags: Mega Man taking the birds and the bees literally

Words: shrugs

Ships: none

“Oh… I might just kiss you.”

“Cut!” Nana yelled, “Toon Link, you are a terrible actor!”

“Fuck you!”

“You guys really don’t need to help me with this,” Mega Man sighed, “I don’t think this is what I’m supposed to do any way.”

Every tournament, Crazy Hand chose someone to do a sex-ed class for all the newcomers. His choices were always questionable, he’d never choose someone qualified. He insisted it was all random because no one wanted to speak about the topic especially in front of kids.

This year Mega Man had been chosen to explain the birds and the bees to the newcomers. He had asked his friends to help him make a video to explain the topic but no one really knew what they were doing.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lucas told the robot, “You can’t be worse than last time where Marth presented it in Japanese.”

“I’m sure he did an amazing job even if it was all in Japanese. His powerpoint was full of pictures I’m guessing are accurate. I wish I could have understood it, Roy and Cloud really seemed to like it, they participated a lot.”

“The old Link said that Roy told Ike who told Pit who told Palutena who told old Zelda who told him that Marth was just making jokes the whole time,” Toon Link laughed, “You should do the same. When I had to go to that class, Bowser did the presentation and showed weird drawings he made of Peach.”

“And when I had to go, Kirby talked about nothing but food!” Nana remembered, “I think Mega Man’s got a pretty good shot at doing a decent presentation. What happened back in the first tournament, Ness?”

“We learned about sex,” the psychic boy answered.

“Must have sucked. Math’s confusing. Strange to think they didn’t even bother spelling six correctly.”

---

Mega Man didn’t want to bother his friends any longer. They were doing too much work, so he had to put even more effort.

He went on google and did lots of research before writing a script. Once the script was done, he recorded a video with his friends and prepared a presentation to show to all the newcomers.

Two days later, it was the big day. Despite being a robot, Mega Man couldn’t help but feel nervous. It was his first time doing a presentation. He had never been to school after all. Then again, neither had most of his friends.

“W-welcome,” the robot glitched, “I-I a-am h-here to pre-present the b-b-b-birds and the be-be-bees. Please watch this video.”

The room went dark and no one knew what to expect. Newcomers were placing bets on whether they’d get to see Mia Khalifa or Ryan Creamer. No one thought Mega Man would completely surprise them.

---

“Bzz!!!” Young Link smiled as he was dressed as a bee, “I’m a bee and I make honey! Don’t confuse me with a mean wasp!”

“I’m a mean wasp!” Toon Link yelled, “I’m going to ruin your summer meal!”

“Not on my watch!” Ness who was wearing a bird costume smirked, “I’m a bird and I can eat you!”

---

All the newcomers were speechless. Meanwhile, Mega Man was feeling embarrassed. He was sure they hated it. But when the video ended, everyone stood up and Mega Man received a standing ovation.

“Aw, man, that was awesome!” Terry applauded, “Won’t lie, you had us in the first half.”

“I still can’t believe I had to attend this class again!” Mii Gunner complained as she took off her Sans mask, “All because of this costume. But at least, I understood something this year and it didn’t last four hours.”

“Thank you so much!” Mega Man grinned, “I’m so glad this helped.”

---

Despite the positive reception of the class, Master Hand, who had just learned that no one had actually learned about the birds and the bees, called all the previous “teachers” to his office.

“I demand to be excluded!” Kirby yelled, “I can end your entire career by calling Dad.”

“Kirby, you taught everyone about food,” Master Hand argued, “It was out of subject.”

“Well… Some weirdos like food that way.”

“Please stop.”

“I actually taught them the subject,” Bowser protested, “I explained everything in detail.”

“Oh, you’re not in trouble because of that. Your pictures were the problem.”

“And what did I do wrong?” Marth asked, “It was in my contract to do these sort of things in Japanese, so only two people understood.”

“You didn’t hire a translator and made too many inside jokes with your friends. Everyone else felt excluded.”

“A-and me?” Mega Man stuttered.

“You clearly didn’t learn a single thing Marth taught you last year.”

Mega Man left the office feeling defeated. The others didn’t appear to care about getting scolded. But Mega Man had put in so much effort and it was all for nothing.

But all his friends and the newcomers approached him telling him he did a great job and that Master Hand could get fucked in the ass despite not having one.

Mega Man didn’t get it but he was happy to receive support.

#fictober19 #ssb #ssbu #super smash bros #super smash bros ultimate #smash #smash bros #ultimate #smash ultimate #mega man #toon link #young link #ness #lucas #nana #ice climbers #bowser #master hand #marth #kirby #terry #mii gunner #sans #crazy hand #crack #crackfic #crack fic #fanfiction #fanfic #fic

[icarusatmidnight]

Oh gosh, asks definitely coming your way for this one! For Olea and Thyme, #s 4, 10, and 19. And for you, #22 and 29. (Let me know if you want more asks and I'll send one for the other two, too!)

:D!!! Thank you so much for these and sorry it took a bit of time for me respond. I kinda went overboard with ninety percent of the questions. ^^;; For anyone curious, the questions are from this ask game too~ It’s cute, so reblog it and have fun!

4. Their favorite physical feature on each other? 

Thyme would die for Oleander’s smile and his tooth gap, oh my god!! I will never be able to stress this enough. Thyme always has had a thing for teeth but he really digs people who have imperfect teeth, like crooked ones and teeth gaps and the like, especially when they smile all bright too. Oleander isn’t honestly much into bright smiles, but he smirks like a goddamn boss and his tooth gap just peeks out and it kills Thyme every time. It’s goddamn beautiful & he will fight everyone who says otherwise! o:

And I wanna say ‘awkward natural charm’ for Oleander because he’s kinda endlessly fascinated by the way Thyme holds himself. But! I’ll go with his eyes for Olea because he dearly loves Thyme’s mismatched eyes too. He has one albino pink eye and the other is this deep dark brown color but unless it’s during one of the Icarus meetings, he tends to cover up as his pink eye. It’s one of the signs of his burn. But Oleander thinks they look so frickin’ cool! *o*!! Even putting colors aside, Thyme is just so expressive and bright and it definitely carries into his eyes effortlessly too, all that love and warmth and joy. You can just see the whole of the universe within them and it’s a crime that he tries to hide them behind contracts and dark sunglasses.

Like Oleander knows that Thyme is uncomfortable showing them at times and he definitely respects that, but he also really wants to burn all the sunglasses that boy owns. >:(! Your eyes and existence are beautiful, Thyme, deal with it!

10. Do they have pet names for each other?

Haha! They should have pet names but not really?? Oleander isn’t much of a nickname person in general and Thyme is so a ‘romantically calls you dude, platonically calls you babe’ kind-of guy. I think if they ever stumbled over a set of names, they’d be ridiculous and semi-ironic. 

Sugarpop would be a good one though. o:

19. Describe how they communicate.

TT___TT!! This is my favorite question, ngl, and I might’ve gone overboard answering it.

Okay! At a glance, it probably would seem like they’d be complete shit at communicating at first, just given how much they differ in their styles. Oleander is sarcastic and blunt and a bit callous at times, and he does his absolute best to keep everything on a surface level. He’d much rather be thought of as shallow then to let people see his depth without his permission. Thyme instead is stupidly sincere, absolutely wears his heart on his style and is sympathetic towards people, all people even ones he’s just met. He has …kinda puppy-dog tendencies with how affectionate he’ll be around people too.

Buuuut! they’re actually really open with each other and get along amazingly well. Part of this is because like, while Olea is pretty blunt, he’s definitely not tactless. He knows when to shut up and likewise with Thyme, he knows when not to push and when to tone down a bit. They’re also both giant frickin’ dorks?? Like I also can not stress how much of their time they spend just like, sending each other stupid jokes and even dumber memes. So much time!! Is Spent!! Doing this!! Like Kingcup starts a little group chat for them all after Thyme joins Icarus so they can talk easier outside of meetings ( like ‘hey, I won’t be able to make it tonight’ and junk like that). But Olea and Thyme just ruined it~~ instantly~~ with the memes~~ She refuses to ever open it up again because it’s just nonsense and stupidity and that’s fine when it’s just Olea but not when it’s the two of them. :’l

And when they stop joking around to have a more serious talk, their differences actually help put them both at ease. Oleander doesn’t mind Thyme’s touchy-feely nature but when he’s talking about the past, it doesn’t do him any good to have that extra stimulation. And Thyme totally gets and respects that, so he’ll pull back until Olea is okay again, offering him a shit ton of emotional support in the process. And when it’s Thyme’s time to trudge through the muck, Oleander’s composed nature is kinda life-savior. Thyme has a lot of emotional support if he needs it, but having someone just let him vent?? With absolutely no judgement?? He definitely wants that more than another dose of empathy. Olea also makes an effort to be more physical too, mostly just like holding his hand or laying his head on his shoulder but that little extra presence helps let Thyme he isn’t alone, you know? 

Sooooo. That’s kinda them in a rambly nutshell, lots of silly joking about and doing their bests to be there for each other in their own ways when the other needs it. /thumbs up

22. From the outside looking in, what is their dynamic like? 

^^^ It them.

Okay! They’re friends. They’re definitely idiots in love. They joke around like loons until shit gets real, then they try to do their best to make the other one happy again. One of my favorite aspects of their dynamic though is how they seem like two halfs in a whole, but aren’t. Oleander is drawn to Thyme’s joyous ray of sunshine aura, but he’s also an extremely guilt-ridden Stepford Smiler with serious anxieties. Thyme has major heart eyes over Oleander’s unflappable rock act but it’s really just an act. He’s really unsure on even what he is, let alone who, and that’s dangerous line of thought of a kid who’s not entirely of the natural world. So, he just… pretends.

It’s really fun writing them learning more about each other and that not much changing their opinions. Oleander still likes Thyme’s need to bring a little extra joy into the world and Thyme loves how absolutely resolute Oleander is. It’s same things just in a new light~

29. What are your favorite moments that happen between them?

All of them!! ;;v;;!! I get really distracted writing them at times because I just wanna write all the scenes with them and let them be happy and sad and desperate and in love. I just really love them both, especially together.

But~ One of my favorite talkable moments in one of the first ones I kinda ever wrote for them, I guess?? Back in the early days when Icarus was just a weirdo book club, Kingcup and this other member of their club were debating over magic theories, as you do, and in the background Thyme and Oleander were just fuckin’ around, chucking stupid candy hearts each other.

They were supposed to be like a little bit of background favor but I just really really loved them in that moment. They were dorky and darling and that’s pretty much when I started shipping them. I really adored the idea of Oleander (who’d been around sullenly for years at that point) having this cute dorky boyfriend he can just screw around and be like an actual …kid with, and Thyme changed from this sarcastic bad boy to my little sunshine hopepunk nerd and I couldn’t be happier with that! 

The moment still exists in the story because I basically refuse to give up them being dorks. It’s too endearing to me~

And thank you again for the questions!!

#merigreenleaf #thyme oxeye #icarus at midnight #and thanks again!!! :D #also long post #because it me #oleander wormwood #thymander

[into-the-demimonde]

Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7, The Dragon and the Wolf review

In the final episode of the series’ 7th season, team Dany/Jon/Tyrion presents the captured wight to team cunt. Meanwhile Arya and Sansa’s rivalry comes to an end. Jaime and Theon make their respective choices and the Night King displays his real terror. Virginia: just like the rest of the season, my friend Alex will be discussing the finale with me. Alex: Glad to be here, unfortunately for the last time till at least a year from now. There’s so much awesome in this episode, should we get the one thing I think we both don’t like out of the way? V: that revolting love scene? I actually cringed the entire time. They're both gorgeous individuals, but they're RELATED! Does nobody shipping them realize this/care? A: Evidently not. I never thought my least favorite part of an episode would involve naked Daenerys, but then she went all Lannister on her nephew. I was really hoping they would forgo this, and there seemed to be hints throughout the episode that they would: Littlefinger using a romance between them as tool to manipulate Sansa, Sam and Bran piecing together the familial link between them, etc. And then they did it. V: what are the show runners thinking? What's their aim here? I also think Jon would be disgusted to know their relationship, seeing as how the Starks were so honorable and moral. A: That’s all we can hope for now. That and a scene where they find out and do the “I slept with WHO!?” comedy routine. V: after all, I remember back in the early seasons when the Lannister incest was used to make us hate them. Are we really going there with the main heroes now? That's not very thematically sound. Anyway, that scene with the wight was pretty tense. Lots of words were said on both sides. A: That was handled so well. The buildup had some great dialogue, and the final meeting went about as well as it was likely to. There’s a charge just seeing all these characters sitting together, but even beyond that it worked. Cersei wanting to control a meeting where her opponent showed up on the back of a dragon, Tyrion trying to be the sensible intermediary, Jon’s Starkish morality ruining everything. It all felt right. V: he did the right thing. And either way, Cersei wouldn't have really helped them. So it hardly mattered in the grand scheme. What about the big scene with Petyr Baelish? Fan theories pay off yet again. A: This time for the better. That has to be one of the biggest crowd-pleasing moments the show’s ever had. I would’ve liked a quick line about how Sansa and Arya had to be so intense because they knew Baelish has eyes and ears everywhere, but either way it’s an incredible payoff that contextualizes a lot of seemingly odd behavior that came before. V: I heard that theory a couple of episodes ago, but I didn't expect anything so convenient and cathartic. I'm thrilled with their reconciliation and Baelish’s demise. Honestly, he deserved it as much as Ramsey and Joffrey easily. He was worse than Cersei. Speaking of Cersei, I know she's a bitch, but her plan to betray team #1 isn't even to her benefit. How detached is she from reality? A: I think she’s desperate. She knows she’ll never beat either Daenerys or the White Walkers, so her only play is to hope they destroy each other, or at least that survivor is weakened enough that she can  finish them off. (Like in From Russia With Love: “Then, like SPECTRE.... He strikes!”) I really loved her in this episode. Without her children, she has no links to humanity left and she’s free to be as vicious she can be. Her double-cross is perfectly in character, and once again she’s taking a seeming victory away from Tyrion. V: she even turned on Jaime, her only remaining family and lover. Cersei is the ultimate narcissist. She really, in her heart, only ever loved herself. Hence her sexual relationship with her twin brother, essentially a relationship with the male version of herself. A: That’s very true. Cersei and the Night King serve as great counterpoints to each other. They’re both dangerous in different ways. The Night King is just a force of nature, demolishing everything in his path, but Cersei is more cunning, deadlier because of her treachery rather than anything straightforward. You can trust the Night King to be what he is, but you never know what Cersei will do next. I was convinced Jamie was a goner in that scene. V: it seems that the character development Jaime had a couple of years ago is finally paying off. He's finally realized what Cersei is, that regardless of his feelings for her, she's just a psychopath. There's no use reasoning with her. Tommen’s death and many events before that should have clued him in, but hey, better late than never. A: He better hope so, for his own sake. And I now think I agree with the theory that Cersei isn’t really pregnant. Once it was revealed that she was playing Tyrion too, it seemed to me like she was using it as a way of manipulating all the men in her life, even the ones she’d rather not have in it. V: it's definitely a possibility. I still can't make up my mind about it. Why would she be pregnant at this point in the story? Do we need another inbred incest baby? We've already had a ton between her previous children, Craster and possibly Jon and Dany…*shudders*. Anyway, I had wondered if she would try to reason with the Night King and forge a doomed alliance, but I guess that's off the table. A: Luckily for her she’s smart enough to know how bad an idea that would be. So I guess she’ll be the final threat once the White Walkers are dealt with. I’m willing to be she’s got something else up her sleeve, beyond the Iron Bank’s mercenaries. V: she really shouldn't have done Jaime like that. He has been her dearest ally, and this season virtually her only ally. She's so frustrating and I really don't understand anything she does. It was really satisfying for him to abandon her, though, and call her on her bullshit. It was also good to see Theon act like a man for once in his life. There's some irony there. A: And he finally found a benefit to being castrated. That was a really good scene between him and Jon, and I liked Jon spurring him on to get off his ass and make it right instead of just going around begging for forgiveness. Between this, Jon’s refusal to pretend to meet Cersei’s demand, and Sansa and Arya’s keeping the Stark “pack” going, Ned Stark’s presence was all over this episode. V: it's true. The Starks ruled this episode. I'm curious, by the way, as to how exactly the Unsullied escaped Casterly Rock to swarm King’s Landing. A: Yeah, that was a fairly big plot hole. I guess the ships were just kind of holding them at Casterly Rock and once the meeting was set up they all just pulled back. V: I remember wondering a couple of weeks ago what was going on with them. They should have shown a scene or two about it since then. A: The show seemed to just forget about them once they showed the rope-a-dope Jamie pulled on them. I guess it’s a small issue, but I would’ve rathered catch up with them than, say, have Bran be a creepy weirdo or watch Sam clean his umpteenth bedpan. V: the whole god Bran thing isn't doing much for me. Anyway, how are they going to resolve everything in 6 episodes? A: I have no idea. I assume the first one will be getting the good guys together, bringing Daenerys to Winterfell and whatnot. Then it’ll be all out war with the White Walkers -- who, by the way, now have an ice-breathing dragon that is terrifying and awesome. V: what I want to know is if Tormund is OK. He was on the wall and they just melted it down...So is he dead? Does this mean we're being deprived of Tormund-Brienne babies? Help, I'm being repressed! A: I think he’s still alive. If they were killing him off they’d have shown it. They might try to keep us in suspense for a little while next season, but I think he’ll come back early and kill him some Wights. Or maybe they’ll find him out there and he can tell them what happened. V: I demand that his wish to make babies with Brienne come to fruition. A: We can only hope. Although she and the Hound shared a nice moment this week. I like how proud they both are of Arya. They were both her mentors at different points of her journey. And, like true warriors, they don’t hold any grudges about their fight to the almost-death. Also, one of my favorite moments in the episode was a small one that made me laugh harder than anything I can remember on the show; when Tyrion begins his negotiation with Cersei, knowing full well how much she wants him dead, and she finally decides not to have the Mountain cleave him in half, he immediately walks over to the wine and starts drinking. That had me in hysterics, even more so than all of Bronn’s cock talk in the beginning. V: it reminded me that they're both alcoholic. They have that in common, if nothing else. Also, both of Cersei’s brothers dared her to kill them. Almost identical circumstances too. A: And, shockingly, she didn’t kill either of them. I figured Tyrion was safe because there’s one more season to go and he’s Tyrion, but she showed restraint even with Jamie. Not that I think either of these confrontations are done by a long shot. V: after feeling betrayed by Tommen's suicide, I'm sure she'll want revenge on Jaime for this. A: She warned him a few episodes ago that he’d better not cross her. Now he has, and flagrantly. Is her love for him diminished if she can’t control him? Or, if he’s a reflection of herself as you pointed out, will her own narcissism keep her from killing him? V: good question. I don't really know, but ultimately I think he may kill her. That would be great, and he's already a kingslayer so why not? A: I’m still holding out for Arya to finish her off. I love that Stark Girl vengeance.

#game of thrones #jaime lannister #arya stark #sansa stark #jon snow #tyrion lannister #cersei lannister #danereys targaryen #sandor clegane #euron greyjoy #theon greyjoy #yara greyjoy

[vikab]

p5 thoughts

After having drawn so much fanart of p5 (most of it being Yusuke) before the game even came out, even with my hype when I started playing on the release date, I only FINALLY finished persona 5 OTL

Below will be my mini-review and thoughts on the game?? spoilers are gonna here on the entire game

Total playtime - 87 hours 40 minutes

OK this is gonna be disorganized mess but i will try to be .. not messy Story: The story unfortunately was very weak :(  Like the game had an AMAZING start and it was tackling really important issues. I really started to care about Ryuji and Ann and their goals. Then Yusuke joins and I thought the game was just heading in perfect direction. Then I felt off during Kaneshiro’s arc as Makoto did not really feel .. really into the whole PT thing?? sorry Makoto fans i love her but she felt rly overrated... anyway Futaba’s arc no doubt was my favorite but then the game really started falling apart. like lets not talk about the whole series of events that were Morgana leaving the team that was straight up BAD. the pacing picked up a bit for the Casino dungeon and it was really intense then its Shido and thing kinda... fell back into this weird pacing ... Ah yes, let’s just wait 20 days to see if Shido has a change of heart or we die. After that the pacing was still all over the place then the huge plottwist happens. I knew about it but still liked it! The last arc had on point emotions and feels so it felt like a good ending to the game.  SEVERE PACING ISSUES KILL THE GAME FOR ME THOUGH.   I get that they still wanted the calendar system but honestly i dont think it worked any huge favors for the game . .. anyway yeah the game started amazing then dropped close to death then picked up again but not as good as the beginning Characters: I have not managed to finish a lot of confidants so near the end the parts where confidants help out it was .. very lacking lol .. . if that part wasnt so depended on the confidants that you have finished.... But overall the characters were good. Pacing of the story and the story itself did not do any justice to them I think and it feels bad bc everyone had so much potential but having a big cast it was obvious that not everyone was getting the attention they deserved Ryuji - good bro and I loved him but the middle part of the game and the constant “we gotta get the girls!” moments were so . . ugh ...  confidant rank and beginning of game ryuji was absolute best though Ann - same goes for her as with ryuji that the beginning of the game was best characterization moment for her. I liked her a lot and she’s pretty bro for female heroine! but the constant fanservice kills me guys Morgana - boy did i dislike morgana for the most of the game. he really felt like teddie 2.0 at times and i just did not have a lot motivation to like him. Last arc of the game tho?? i love morgana??? i wanna cry tbh those parts near the end really resonated with me so my final verdict is that i like morgana a lot now Yusuke - I LOVE THIS BOY. while i get the beef that people have with his recruitment arc (the whole nude modeling thing) I thought it was ok since my interpretation is that he was just pissed and really needed that inspiration he found in ann but idk. otherwise his arc was good but goddamn fuck you atlus for continuously treating him like a weirdo?? PT is supposed to be a gang of misfits and yet even the teammates keep treating him like a weirdo. . that was just really bad like come on  let me kiss yusuke and feed him. also will never forgive atlus for not letting yusuke move into leblanc. He’s a very good character and very level-headed so i love him sm. he has really great moments Makoto - I liked her a lot! i do think she’s a bit overrated and that she doesn’t fit well with PT but I think that’s just the issue with Atlus pacing of the story, because her issues during her recruitment were really good (as in i did feel like she would fit into PT well) Futaba - I LOVE THIS GIRL!! I played with jpn dub which I think does much better justice to her characterization. Her entire arc was so so good and I felt like she was a really solid character going through growth. her confidant was very very good. She has a lot of funny moments and I love her antics with Yusuke. they are the blessed characters of this game. too good for this game. Haru - love her too!!!! she was so nice and sweet but damn atlus did not do her justice at all. she is the “last” party member to join and it is so sad she does not get a lof interaction with PT. like I wish PT interacted with her somehow throughout the game before she joins, be it like help her out sometimes or something bc they go to same school so when she joins later the team dynamic can easily accept her. Goro - we dont talk about goro jk but honestly he was handled bad. his link was automatic and I get why but his initial personality just makes me hate him a lot. he was cool as a party member but not for long. I expect him to appear in spinoffs bc wtf was that ending for him goddamn atlus. i like a lot his potential as a character but everything else? hate Sae was for me quite funny during the interrogation (when you start the confidant parts) but after her casino her involvement in the story I really ended up liking Sae. she’s good Also gonna mention Sojiro bc i love that coffee dad. His dynamic with Futaba and protagonist was extremely good!!! such a solid family. I loved that he finds out the truth and how he handled it. love u sojiro Speaking of protagonist, I really really really wish atlus would ease up on the “silent protagonist” a bit more. for a game as huge as this, the silence does not do justice to the protagonist. idk i just wish there would have been a bit more voice to him and solid characterization other than some off-hand comments that imply the underlying personality. i get the whole “self-insert” part but it sucks stop putting it in games Overall character summary: pacing sucked so characterization suffered a lot. a lot of characters don’t get their time to shine and while I love them a lot it really sucks to see how they were treated. Pacing ruined a lot of things including team dynamic. Palaces: (in chronological order) Kamoshida/Castle - IT SUCKED I HATE IT. being the first freaking dungeon it sure was extremely hard and damn long. also not knowing about the calling car system really hurt lmao. i just hate this dungeon and i got stuck there a lot too Madarame/Art Museum - THE BEST ONE! Honestly I think it is the only palace that really did feel like a heist! It is a very beautiful palace and im probably also biased bc its Yusuke’s arc but this palace was legit fun to get through. Kaneshiro/Bank - it was ok, good music. i don’t really feel much for it and I was just mostly annoyed how long the vault part was. Futaba/Pyramid - I loved it  a lot too! 10/10 music I had a lot of annoyances with coffin shadows and the puzzles for a bit but overall the music and aesthetics really made the palace work well with the story Okumura/Spaceship - we don’t talk about the “lunch break” parts.... overall it was ok and I liked its aesthetic. also the implications about the workers there was good sad material. Sae/Casino - 10/10 music. overall i disliked it a lot bc some of the parts really dragged and I hated gambling in there to progress. Shido/Ship - 10/10 music. overall i liked it / it was ok. the mouse mechanic was a bit fun, the last part being ... 3 boss fights in a row without saving was sure something. 10/10 creepy outside aesthetic of sunken city. Mementos Depths - not to be confused w/ p3/4 style dungeon we know as mementos (which were pretty much mindless fun to progress thru), the depths was ... so good. mostly for the creepy aesthetic 10/10 would suffer again. the music track Freedom and Security, that plays during goro’s bad end credits, plays as the theme for this dungeon and jeez did it make me feel so emo. the parts where you can talk to locked up people who are apathetic to the world just gave me depression and i loved it.. . i didnt really like the later part of it (when tokyo merges with mementos) To rank the palaces overall its:  Art museum > Mementos Depths > Pyramid >> Ruse Cruise > Spaceship > Casino > Bank >>>>>> Castle Gameplay mechanics were very solid and fun. Movement a bit could be clunky (or that’s what i felt like) and stealth mechanic in dungeons was ok. The gameplay has A LOT of attention to detail and i appreciated it a lot. UI was cluttered but it worked and was quite Aesthetic. I think the game would have benefited if the stats weren’t so important to the social aspect or if the calendar system was revamped. Final boss imo was not as bad as P4 but still ... sucked. P3′s final boss fight is still ultimately my favorite. P5 comes close but once again, pacing issues. Protagonist summoning freaking Satanael was cool af though. Honestly my big issue with P5 was the PACING that made the story and characters suck a lot of times but overall the game was extremely solid and memorable.  Of the persona entries i played i think P5 is special so I can’t really rank it. I am really attached to the game despite its heavy flaws that kill me. P3 and P2 are still quite my favorites but P5 is like really close to them so I guess it’s a fave too i love those phantom thieves

#vika talks about video games

[rantceratops]

Coldhearted

I fucking love this episode. With like, the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. Because the animation is fucking flawless and the snow looks beautiful and Wally is 100% amazing! This may in fact be my favorite episode, certainly within my top 5 fav episodes if I had to rate them. PREPARE YOUR ANUS FOR LOTS OF IMAGES BECAUSE 500% OF MY APPRECIATION FOR THIS EPISODE IS ALL THE ANIMATION PORN.

SNOW!

Oh so clever, Greg and co., hiding the first number on Wally’s alarm clock so that is simply reads “16″ on his 16th birthday in a show where the number 16 is a constant theme. I’M ON TO YOU.

You ever notice how Wally has a poster of a female with really long blonde hair on his bedroom wall? Like we all know he’s just being a horndog teenaged boy, but like... GOT A THING FOR LONG BLONDE HAIR OR SOMETHING, WALLY? 

Things confirming Wally is a huge nerd: lots of dorky looking action figures, a model rocket ship, a Flash poster, a microscope and lots and lots of books (probably of the science variety... and comics, no doubt), poster of some boxer dude, a poster for some horror movie called Day of Dark, and a piece of art I’ve seen on Jerome K. Moore’s deviantart of Wally, Barry, and Jay in their Flash get-ups. How cute! Also a poster or something that just looks like a pair of shoes on someone’s feet??? Idk about that one, it’s pretty dark. (I would take screenshots but sadly blu-ray format prevents me from doing so, and I don’t already have one saved in my extensive library of screens)

Look at this cutie weirdo singing to himself and doing a little dance in bed

HOW THE FUCK DO THEY AFFORD TO FEED HIS ASS?

“You want surprise just watch Miss Martian’s expression when I collect my birthday kiss!” (keep making yourself think that Megan is the one you really want to kiss, Wally. Like, for real.)

Wally, I don’t want to alarm you, but your dad is definitely Amon from Legend of Korra!

Damn, Mary sure is good, turning on the TV at the exact moment that Iris got to Wally’s birthday wish in her broadcast.

“Spisak Jr. High” And a nice shout out to the voice of our very own Wally West, Mr. Jason Spisak! <3

“Sure would be a shame if I missed my own--” “Surprise!”

“Say Whaaaaaaaat, oh you guys, you shouldn’t have!” What a fucking little shit.

A little shit with the best facial expressions though, amiright?

Okay. Time to stop being silly for a moment as we approach the part that many people have a problem with. This is the part where I crack my knuckles and have a differing opinion than most.

So here we have Wally’s birthday party, and him hinting around that he wants a birthday kiss from Miss M. It’s obvious that’s what he’s wheedling for, anyone with a pair of eyes can see that. And Artemis, who happens to have a pair of perfectly functioning eyes (arguably better than most, considering some of the amazeballs shots she’s made) happens to be standing right next to the little duo as the first exchange happens.

Artemis gets understandably annoyed and, of course, jealous. That’s her crush (that she’s been trying to forget about, but that’s been a huge no-go because it turns out the crush of her crush is dating her fallback crush… this is getting confusing). Trying to get a kiss from another girl. Of course she’s jealous.

I fucking would be, too. It’s a completely natural reaction. Artemis would never, ever admit it even over her dead body, but she wishes she was the one he was wanting a kiss from so bad.

Anyway, even Miss M guesses what he wants, and she decides to give him a kiss on the forehead because she’s his friend and nothing more. Artemis gets some obvious satisfaction from this. Is it petty? Well, yeah, but who ever said jealousy wasn’t petty? We’ve all been in that kind of position, be it with a crush or something else entirely, where something happens that ruins something for someone else and you just can’t help but feel completely fucking smug/happy about it even though you know you’re being an awful person for doing so.

Artemis is glad he gets denied because it means he’s not kissing a girl that isn’t her, and perhaps to another end, she’s smug about it because that means he’s getting denied his crush in the same way she was denied her fallback crush. Like, she knows Megan and Conner are a thing, and she already lost any chance at forgetting Wally via Conner, and now Wally is blatantly being denied his crush on Megan, so Artemis is basically taking huge, huge petty pleasure in him basically getting denied the same thing as her. They both have crushes on two people that are already in a relationship together, and if Artemis has to wake up and smell the coffee about it, then Wally is going to, too.

Is our girl Artemis being petty? Hell yes she is! And that just makes me love her more, because she’s a multi-faceted human being with emotions. Is she reacting in a bad way to said emotions? Yes! But this is all sort of in the same vein that Wally and Artemis meet each other in, where Wally’s bad reaction leads to a bad reaction on Artemis’s part, and then the two of them suffer the belligerent relationship that they do all season because of it. Artemis and Wally are both very raw people.

FUN TIME BREAK: “I know this is all very new and intimidating, but I promise you, someday, you’ll get used to watching Wally eat.”

So majestic!

Back to for serious: Artemis walks up to Dick and Zee and is like “Think we should tell him?”

Look at that devious face, my god Artemis you amazing spiteful thing, you!

“He is the only one who doesn’t know.” “Then, please, allow me.”

Artemis wants to burst his bubble the same way hers was burst. It is, without a doubt, 100% petty and horrible and born of jealousy, I’m not denying that. But it does NOT make me want to throw Artemis under the bus or act like she’s a horrible gargoyle or that she’s a bitch or what the fuck ever. It just makes me more interested in her motivations for this moment, it just makes me want to understand every catalyst that leads to this moment, the frustration. In Secrets, Artemis was mad and angry and mildly hurt because Conner is taken, Wally doesn’t want her, and now she’s stuck with her stupid feelings for a guy that she thinks is unobtainable, and I can understand how said feelings creeping back so unbidden into one’s mind with no other place to channel them would drive them to be spiteful about it when the opportunity arises.

I also just want to remind everyone that Wally and Artemis are 15 year old teenagers (well, 16 in Wally’s case as of this episode, but still). They are teenagers with charged emotions about fucking everything, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. They are not the mature adults they grow into slowly over the five year gap. They’re mature for teenagers in a lot of aspects, sure, with the kind of jobs they have they have to be. But they are still young and learning how to deal with certain kinds of emotions and situations. So to an extent some leniency needs to be given when they act like this. I’m not saying to entirely excuse it, rather just understand it and why and what have you.

Anyway, by the time Coldhearted rolls around, Artemis has been stuck with her Wally feelings again for however long the gap is between Secrets and Coldhearted, and she’s had enough of seeing Wally pine after unobtainable Megan in the same way she was pining over unobtainable Conner. So she’s like, fuck it, I’m telling him.

And she does. With much obvious pleasure.

And on his birthday, no less. That seems to be the major act of heinousness that people can’t seem to get past when it comes to this scene in particular, is that it was on Wally’s birthday. His celebratory 16th birthday where everything should be happy fun time and all that jazz. It’s really hard for me to be bothered about it being on his birthday when it’s so obvious that Wally’s not even all that shocked or hurt about finding out. In fact, I’m convinced that both Artemis and Wally subconsciously knew that Megan and Conner were not interested in them/were taken long before they were actually privy to open evidence of it. They were just fooling themselves because they’re too afraid of owning up to the ways they feel for each other. In both cases, Conner and Megan were fallback/distraction crushes, and never anything more.

Wally literally does not fucking care after expressing his dejected “Oh maaaaan!” after Artemis informs him of the lovebirds. That’s it. That is literally it. Not once in the time we are privy to Wally’s innermost thoughts does he mention anything about Megan and Conner, or even Artemis. His concerns are all for the big League/Team team-up and later on for Perdita. Wally only had something that he subconsciously knew all along confirmed to him, and it fucking sucked, but that’s it. For the rest of the episode and every episode after, Wally has already moved on.

In fact, by Insecurity he has sufficiently matured from the events of Coldhearted and finally decides to “man up” for lack of a better phrase, and actually accept and try pursuing his feelings for Artemis. Pursue them in a real way, not in the exaggerated, ego-driven flirting way that he does with Megan. But in a very real, I’m-really-really-interested-in-this-girl kind of way; the fallback, safe distraction of Megan has been removed, allowing Wally to focus on how he really feels for Artemis.

In fact, I’ll just let Greg’s Spitfire rant speak for me on this one, as he puts it the best:

“Plus, let’s not forget the double-whammy of “Failsafe” and “Disordered”. Here we reveal just how intensely Wally feels for Artemis, and just how much interest each has in the other. The trick is that neither is prepared to take a risk. Rejection from Superboy (such as it was) is nothing compared to the fear Artemis has over being rejected by Wally.

Wally meanwhile is afraid to admit his strong feelings for Artemis, so maintains focus on the safer Miss Martian. Artemis does the same toward Superboy. Both then have to be disabused of the nothing that their crushes are viable. I tend to think that deep down, the revelation about Conner and M’gann’s relationship was less of a shock to each than it seemed. They didn’t want to admit to themselves what they were probably sensing deep down. One reason for Artemis’s extreme reaction to the knowledge, I think, is that she was trying SO hard to think that Superboy was a possibility BECAUSE Wally clearly seemed NOT to be, and so she wanted to having something she could use to push Wally out of her mind.

So in “Coldhearted”, Wally learns some big lessons. Miss Martian is out of the picture-- and that helps to clear his mind. But mostly, he matures solidly in the episode. Now he’s ready to behave differently. [...]”

Part of this is going to wind up leading me into a rant that’s better saved for when I get to Insecurity, though, so I’ll just go ahead and wrap this up.

Basically, I agree that Artemis was being petty and spiteful. She was jealous, I expect nothing less from her. But that just makes her a more amazing character, because truly amazing characters are not flawless, they are human beings with many different emotions and many different reactions and ways of dealing with things. They do not always respond to things in the “right” way.

I’m also inclined to say that someone needed to pull Wally’s head out of his ass at some point regardless, btw. Artemis, in being spiteful, also did him a favor. Not with any kind of just intentions, perhaps, but… anyway.

Long story short: I like this moment, it doesn’t both me, it just makes me enjoy Artemis’s character even more, and it certainly doesn’t warrant her being demonized or thrown under a bus. Nobody is perfect, Artemis is not perfect.

Moving on. I know the vast majority of you will disagree with my assessments, but whatever, let’s both just move on because you won’t change my mind and I obviously won’t change yours.

Leave it to Batman to really crash a party, AMIRIGHT?

“Can’t the Watchtower just blast them out of the sky or something?” “What’s a Watchtower?” *DEEP SIGH FROM BATMAN* Goddamnit Wally you can’t just go around saying shit like that you little shit.

Oh my god they’re all a bunch of little dorks, all excited about a Team/League team-up.

Have I mentioned how much I love their polar stealth and wish it had popped up in more than just two episodes? Like, they’re all so adorable!

“Now that’s a birthday wish come true!”

“Uuuuh, Batman? I think youuuu skipped…” “Kid Flash.”

“A girl in Seattle is in desperate need of a heart transplant.”

Oh Wally, Wally, get your priorities straight, dude. :( That’s what I love about this episode though, he grows up in so many ways and it’s really nice to see him have such a major shift in what his real priorities in life are.

“Who is this girl!?” “Does it matter?” (I almost wrote a fanfic once in which it was an AU, where Artemis was the girl that needed the heart transplant and Wally was delivering it to her. I still wouldn’t mind visiting the idea, I never really did get it quite off the ground but it has potential)

“Speedy delivery boy, at your service…”

Ugh, Wally. It’s like… such a burden to him at first. He’s so much more upset about missing out on the League-Team team up that he files this mission away in his mind as a chore, an errand run, something on the side that he’s being forced into and it’s going to make him miss out on all the fun on his birthday. It’s sad to see him think that way, but by the end of it, it’s a very proud moment to see him having realized that delivering that heart was the best thing he’d done that day, the best way he could have spent his birthday, something he can feel proud of. I FUCKING LOVE WALLY AND I LOVE THIS EPISODE, OKAY?

(Also just pointing out that Wally’s reacting way more negatively to delivering this heart than he remotely acted to finding out M’gann was taken. JUST SAYING. And that if Artemis is at fault for telling Wally about M’gann on his B-day, Wally is at fault for reacting so horribly about delivering a heart to someone that’s dying. They’re both only human though, and I love seeing them both like this. I’m just using this to reinforce my points)

MMM that snow! So beautiful! I remembered before this episode aired I had been desperately hoping there would be a YJ episode with either heavy snow or rain in at least a decent chunk of episode. For no other reason than I love snow and rain weather effects and how they can be used to really set up a scene. (not to mention one of my favorite episodes of Teen Titans, “Haunted”, took place almost entirely in a heavy rainfall setting, and I digged it)

So Wally runs from literally one end of the country to the other in what, under four hours?

Don’t expect half of this rewatch post to literally just be me posting screenshots for their beauty.

He’s so fucking nonchalant about the fact that he LITERALLY has someone’s life strapped to his back. Oh, Wally, my son. *sigh*

“As crystal, babe.” “Then go.” “Guess asking for her number’s pointless...” Oh yes, this is a guy who has clearly just had his romantic feelings completely crushed and shattered. He’ll be mourning for months! MONTHS I TELL YOU. ARTEMIS YOU MONSTER.

“Do you see him!?” “Nope.” “Did you see him!?” “Nnnope.” LOL

“I’m at max speed now, but if I really push it, I can dump this load, save the girl, and still get in on the action!” Oh my god, Wally... DUMP THIS LOAD? LIKE IT’S GARBAGE? I love him so much but UGH. WALLY PLEASE.

And the infamous scene where Kaldur steps on his king’s shoulders to get up in the air for an attack, lmao

Chicken Whizee’s sound like the most disgusting thing ever. Like, literally all I can think of is something gross milkshake with bits of chicken in it or something. *shudders*

Also, Wally, you cannot fucking pay for food with A HUMAN HEART, GOOD LORD.

South Dakota! Been there, seen that. 

Go away, Vandal! (man Vandal is legit a scary ass villain in this cartoon, like damn. It scares me when he grabs Wally and shit, like, he could probably break him like a twig and it disturbs me)

Can we just appreciate the actual shock waves from Wally slamming into Vandal at maximum speed?

Wally’s such a fierce fucking fighter when he gets the chance. That’s why I love this episode so damn much (among other reasons). We REALLY get the chance to see Wally at his rawest when it comes to fighting and his speed, like he just lets loose with no holds barred when it comes to Vandal. Speedsters are goddamn dangerous and I LOVE it. (I also love Wally using himself as a human cannonball).

“Go, get out of here! I’ll handle Vandal!” “You’ll “handle” me?” “Little hero, do you really think you have what it takes to survive Vandal Savage?” 

Put my baby down you piece of shit!

Wally literally stared death in the face and said, “NOT TODAY!”

Look at him fucking fight! Goddamn it’s so amazing! (also where did your Flash symbol go in that last one, Wally??) 

And like, I don’t have a fucking screenshot or gif of it but Vandal punches him and he goes flying backwards and catches himself in a one armed handstand and lands on his feet. HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT?

“When I heard authorities were (?) off this highway for a speedster, I assumed I’d be confronting Flash himself-- He and I are due for a reckoning.” 

God, I’ll never stop being curious about what must have happened between Vandal and Flash to make Vandy say that... color me forever intrigued. 

Wolf looks fucking demonic when he bites those wires on that auto-turret, omg.

“Kind of bashing my head into a brick wall here, need a new approach.” I REALLY wish I could make a million gifs of this fight, tbh. I don’t have any screens for some of this shit, nor other gifs saved and it’s a damn shame.

“Dude, you are so running on fumes right now. Battle didn’t help with that, either. But forget the hunger, forget the freezing temp, forget the wind chill! Just go, go!” Atta boy, Wally! Getting those priorities straight!

I honestly always love hearing Zee cast spells, it sounds so cool.

Wally reeeeally needs to work on his brakes.

Now prepare for some cute/sad Wally spam:

Oh man, though... could you imagine if Wally really had legit been twelve minutes off because of that fight, and Queen Perdita had actually died? He would NEVER forgive himself for that. That would eat him the fuck up for like... the rest of his life. Holy shit.

“Twelve minutes... the fight took fifteen...” Oh my god I can’t, he’s so crushed. :(

You can tell he’s so fucking drained throughout this last scene.

Look at him, crawling on the ground to try and get away. He’s NOT going to let that little girl die!

I like how this time Wally is able to power through and punch Vertigo in the face, whereas back in Revelations he couldn’t quite make it and Vertigo just knocks him away.

WALLY DOESNT HAVE TIME FOR THESE AUTOMATED DOORS.

“It’s called, YOU’RE BUSTED, JERKFACE!”

WALLY ILU NEVER STOP BEING SO AWESOME.

Awwwww, Perdita, you had Wally forever at “Souvenir.” <3 I just love headcanoning that they maintain a friendship for like, ever after this. So fucking sweet!

“The sword was cool, but, this just seemed like the right souvenir for the mission.” Hey, this totally echoes what Wally says to Artemis at the end of the Insecurity mission. “Keep the sai. This is the right souvenir for the mission.” Ouch. But more on that when I get to Insecurity)

“The man who finally figured out that the sweetest birthday present a lucky stiff like me could ever get, was seeing that little girl smile.”

LEAVE ME, LEAVE ME WALLY KILLS ME AT THE END OF THIS EPISODE I NEED TO CRY. I LOVE SEEING MY BABIES GROW UP.

#ranty rewatches young justice