#hell never be great but all the shit he goes through and actually developing friendships does beat some sense into him gradually

[4giorno]

so i have wyll this time around. and this is my life now

#hdjdjdjdjdd i try so hard to be nice to him so that he doesnt absolutely hate my character #my character is such a rat in the beginning HHDKDJKFFK hes not like selfless and good at the end either but he definitely develops #hell never be great but all the shit he goes through and actually developing friendships does beat some sense into him gradually #but right now its fun to be an ass again lmao

[skinnyducky]

excuse me, i love you // v.h.

requested by @thatmultifandomlovingmf

a/n i hope this lives up to your expectation ! i had an idea prior to writing this and i thought it would be nice to sort of mingle the two ! sorry, if this wasn’t what you wanted ! and also same, i still don’t know my ff terms that well either :D

Word Count: 1535, edited

WARNING: fluff, language, fluff.. and more fluff.

---------

Vinnie and you were chilling in his room, lying on his bed. Well, at least he was chilling. You were cuddled into his side and fast asleep—college will do that to you. He took this chance to admire you. He truly loved everything about you, and it made him think: how was he so fortunate to have someone like you? Sure, you’d been best friends for a long time, but that didn’t mean anything—at least to him it didn’t. This thought danced around in his mind, and he recalled back to the event that started your relationship…

 Two years ago…

 It was a Friday night and Vinnie was sitting in his room, scrolling through Instagram and liking whatever random photos popped up on his feed. This wasn’t how he typically spent his Friday nights. Normally he’d be with his best friend, you. However, due to a series of unfortunate events—aka Jackson Dougland asking you out on a date—he was left to his own devices.

As he sat at the edge of his bed, he wandered why him? What made Jackson Dougland so great that you actually entertained going on a date with him? He was just your average dimwit who cared more about his sport achievements than anything else. You deserved better than someone who was just going to use you as a trophy; you deserved Vinnie—or at least that’s what he thought.

Vinnie was unsure of when and why he started to develop a crush on you. Maybe it was because you’re the only girl who really understood him, maybe it was because you’ve been best friends for years, or it could be from the fact that you appeared in every one of his dreams—and that includes the nightmares with Elmo. There was just something about you that made his love for you shift from platonic to romantic, and he had no clue why. He couldn’t tell you that though. For one, it’d be embarrassing if you rejected him. And two, he couldn’t bare to risk your friendship. So, he thought it’d be better to conceal his feelings than to let them pour out.

As he mindlessly stared at his phone, he heard a slight tap at the window. He fell into confusion as he looked over to see nothing there. Shrugging it off, he went back to looking at the small screen in his hands, but once again, there was a tap at the window.

“What the hell?” Vinnie muttered to himself, getting up and going to check out the ruckus. He opened the window and stuck his head out, finding no sign of where the tapping could’ve come from. That was until he was hit in the face with a pebble.

“OUCH, dammit!” He shouted as he rubbed his throbbing cheek. He looked down to see who the culprit was, only to find you standing there. “Y/n? What the hell?”

“Sorry,” you sighed. Vinnie noticed something different about your demeanor. Normally you were happy and cheery, but right now you were the complete opposite, from the slight frown on your face to your hunched stature.

“Can I come in?”

Vinnie nodded and rushed downstairs to open the door for you. Letting you in, he led the two of you back upstairs and into his room. Once you were inside, he shut the door and watched as you plopped down face-first on his bed.

“What’re you doing here?” Vinnie asked, leaning against the door. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your date with Dougland?”

You let out a groan and sat up, looking your best friend in the eye. “I was, but then I found out he had other motives.”

“What do you mean by ‘other motives’?”

“He didn’t really wanna go out with me. He was just using me for sex.” You said, fiddling with your thumbs. “I was just another notch on his belt; another girl he could brag about getting with to his buddies.”

Vinnie frowned as he sat next to you. “I’m sorry that happened.”

“It’s like, why me? What did I do to deserve this?”

“Completely nothing.”

“I thought he was so sweet. He went on and on about how we were gonna go to homecoming together, and that he wanted to spend the rest of high school with me. But come to find out, it was nothing but lies.”

“I know, I know.” Vinnie sighed. He hated seeing you down, especially in this instance. You deserved nothing but complete happiness, and the fact that someone came along and ruined that for you, it pained him. “You don’t deserve that.”

“Maybe I do,” You replied, your voice breaking. “Maybe this was a sign that love isn’t for me.”

Vinnie shook his head as he looked at you. “Now, Y/n.”

You groaned, “It’s the truth. Think about it, no guy has ever shown interest in me before, and if they have, they’re either like Jackson or they’re in middle school.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“No, it’s not. I’m just gonna have to face the facts: I’m meant to be alone.”

“Y/n-“

“I should’ve known better.”

“Y/n-“

“Nobody would ever want me.”

Vinnie growled, getting up from beside you. “There are people who want you, Y/n! You’re just too blind to see it!”

You scoffed. “Oh yeah, and who might that be? And if you say one of your baseball boys, I swear to god-“

“Me, Y/n…it’s me.”

You finally stopped your yapping and sat there in shock. Vinnie felt at peace, glad that he was able to get you to calm down. However, that peace was disrupted once he soon realized what he had said. “Oh, shit.” He mumbled to himself, although it was loud enough for you to hear.

“What’d you just say?”

“Oh shit.” He repeated, though he knew what you were referring to.

“Not that, idiot, what you said before that.”

He sighed, sitting back down. “Fine. I said that I want you. And before you go off the rails, I truly meant what I said. I don’t know when I started having feelings for you, but I do know that they’re strong. I get that we’ve been best friends for a while and it’s weird, but I just can’t help the way I feel for you.”

“Vinnie, I-“

“I completely understand if you don’t feel the same, I don’t expect you to.”

“Vin-“

“Just promise me that we can still be friends. I don’t know what I’d do without-“

Before he could finish his sentence, you smashed your lips against his. He was taken aback; so many thoughts were roaming around in his head which was nearly on the verge of combusting. When you pulled back, the two of you looked into each other’s eyes for a good minute.

“Wow.” He breathed, causing you to laugh. “I was not expecting that.”

“I could tell.” You grinned. “Do you really mean all of that…all of what you said?”

He nodded. “Of course, I do, Y/n. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I care about you, and it sucks to hear you go on and on about not finding someone when I’m right here, someone who wants to be with you for you and not for your body or anything. I love you, like so fucking much.”

A smile crept onto your face as your hands found their way to the back of Vinnie’s neck. “You are absolutely too pure for this world, Vin.”

The boy laughed keeping his eyes fixed on yours. “I honestly don’t know what to say. No one has ever said something that sweet and meaningful to me. Maybe it’s because you’re my best friend but hearing it from you feels ten times better.” You smiled. “You mean a lot to me, Vinnie. The fact that I mean that much to you, it’s sweet.”

“This feels like a friendzone speech.” Vinnie said as his shoulders fell.

“I wouldn’t have kissed you if I was planning on friendzoning you.” You chuckled, stroking his head. “I really wanna try this out.”

“You mean like…you for real wanna go out? This isn’t for play-play?”

“Yeah. I feel like we’ve always been a couple. It just took some maturing, a moment of weakness, and one of us to say something for us to figure it out. And now, since we’ve figured it out…I think we should try and see where it goes.”

Vinnie gulped, “But what if it doesn’t work out? I don’t wanna lose you, Y/n.”

“And you won’t.” You reassured. “We’ve been in each other’s lives far to long to just walk out. I have no intention of leaving anytime soon.”

“If that’s the case, then I guess all that’s left to ask is…Y/n, do you want to go out with me?”

“Yes, Vinnie. I would love to go out with you.”

 Flashback over…

 As the scene left Vinnie’s head, he couldn’t help but grin. Two years ago, he would’ve never thought being with you would be possible. But here he was together with you. He had all he could ask for.

And he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

#vinnie hacker #vinnie hacker x reader #vinnie x reader #vinnie hacker imagine

[it-fits-i-ships]

Combing through every single episode of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous for Yasammy moments to write meta analysis about part 4 (parts 1, 2, and 3)

Once Yaz is inside the lab we see her frantically looking for the antidote, getting more and more panicked the longer it takes her, we even see her get so frustrated that she starts throwing things and when she sinks to the floor she looks ready to have a full-on breakdown, it’s only when she notices the medical case and has that spark of hope that she gets up to continue her search, this combined with the sheer relief she experiences when she doubtfully opens the case to find that it does in fact hold the antidote really goes to show just how seriously Yaz takes this mission, I think that Yaz would take this kind of mission seriously if it were any other member of the group as well but not to this degree, it’s clear she cares very deeply about Sammy, she collapses in on herself and starts crying a little bit as she clutches that case to her chest, her world has been in danger of completely falling apart and she just found the one thing that can save it Yaz is a real ride-or-die, especially when it comes to Sammy, she is willing to put herself in so much danger just to make sure that Sammy is safe, she jumps the river in one go (despite the realized risk of her landing wrong on her bad ankle), as she’s sitting there cradling her injured ankle she remembers the first time Sammy offered her meaningful support, encouragement, and affection, she remembers how Sammy says she never gives up when it comes to friendship, Yaz knows deep down that Sammy would never give up on her and she sure as hell isn’t going to give up on Sammy, this reminds her what she’s fighting for and she gets back up, Yaz yells at the scorpius rex, basically telling it, “Come at me, bro,” Yaz is done taking shit from anyone, nothing is going to stop her from getting back to Sammy with that antidote, not even a freak of nature franken-dino with venomous spikes, during the final stretch of her journey, tired, injured, and terrified, Yaz trips and has several more flashes of memory in a row of moments where Sammy was saving her or hugging her or telling her that she’s her best friend in the whole world As I said in the last post, the term best friend is often used in children’s media to reference closer relationships between same-gender pairings in a way that adds queer subtext so it makes sense that this last part of Yaz’s flashbacks feels like a love confession from Sammy (albeit an indirect one) Yaz clearly loves Sammy too (even if she hasn’t consciously realized it yet) as she is willing to risk everything to save her and fix their relationship, when she gets back near the fort and sees how grim and somber the atmosphere is she musters every last bit of strength she has and pushes herself to the finish line, she is immeasurably worried that she will be (or already is) too late and she’ll lose Sammy forever, even after Brooklyn administers the antidote it takes a while for Sammy to show any kind of improvement so Yaz gets even more anxious and desperate, she even admits that she really does care about Sammy and she didn’t mean what she said before, she needs Sammy to know that, this scene reminds me a lot of the scenes in shows and movies where someone’s significant other is in the hospital and the healthy one gets very upset and refuses to leave the injured/sick one’s side When Sammy does wake up we are again treated to her perspective, the first person she looks over to is Yaz and the first thing she does is casually great Yaz (which is just adorable, as is Yaz’s genuine relieved smile after finding out that Sammy’s going to live), Yaz does everything she can to help and support Sammy, from checking on her when she first starts sitting up to supporting her while she’s walking to trying (and failing) to improve general morale in Sammy’s stead, ultimately Yaz’s plan to improve morale just freaks everyone out but the fact that she’s trying for Sammy’s sake is really sweet Also, can we just talk about the fact that Yaz has her hand fully on Sammy’s thigh when she asks how Sammy’s feeling? Or the way Yaz practically melts into the hug Sammy gives her?

Or the way she keeps taking, like, every opportunity to touch Sammy (rubbing her shoulder and her back, wiping the extra water off her face, etc.)? I’m sorry, there’s no heterosexual explanation for that combo The way that Yaz holds and protects Sammy during the stampede, the way that Sammy clings to Yaz with both hands (fingers tense and digging into Yaz’s arm), and the way they huddle close to each other suggest that they are both dealing with some direct trauma, Sammy just narrowly escaped the clutches of death at the hands (spikes?) of a dinosaur and now here they are possibly about get trampled (again), she still doesn’t feel good and she turns to Yaz for comfort, likewise Yaz is still very much aware that she almost lost Sammy and she had to leave her in order to get the antidote so she wants to make double damn sure that Sammy knows she’s there and that she’ll protect her, when it comes time for them to run Sammy has a moment of self-doubt, Yaz knows that Sammy needs her to snap her out of it in her own Yaz way (as opposed to trying to be overly cheery and positive like she was earlier) Yaz continues to offer gentle touches to comfort Sammy on the boat and when Sammy finds out that Ben plans to stay on the island instead of coming with them on the boat, she also uses physical touch to share Sammy’s excitement when Ben decides he actually does want to come with the rest of them on the boat, she also continues to protect Sammy from the onslaught of dinosaurs they have to unleash to get rid of the shady guy working with Dr. Wu who made them leave the boat, Yaz pulls Sammy out of the way of multiple dinos and holds her close Last but certainly not least, when they finally get back to the boat and leave the island we get this absolutely precious moment where Sammy is sleeping and Yaz comes over, looks at her, gives a contented/relieved sigh, and smiles one of the warmest smiles we have ever seen her smile, if that’s not the face of someone in love I don’t know what is, here they are finally safe, Sammy can rest, Yaz doesn’t have to worry about being immediately by Sammy’s side all the time to protect her from danger and she can just enjoy being around her I suspect that in season 4 we will likely see their relationship develop further because of them having some time and space on the boat (and possibly wherever they go next) to process and confront their feelings and, given that Brooklyn canonically asked if Sammy has a crush on Yaz, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that they might even canonically end up in a romantic relationship Anyway, Yaz and Sammy are in love, thank you for coming to my TED Talk

#jwcc #yasammy #longpost

[grittyreadsfic]

hello my friends, one singular person asked for this weeks ago so i’m here with my most unhinged rec list yet: tk and nolan.

now, this one was hard to reign in, so i really didn’t. this pairing had maybe 230 fics in the tag when i first started reading hockey fic, and it’s now over 900, and i’ve read far too many of them, and that makes it so hard to parse it down. so i just...didn't!

so with that said, please enjoy so you want to get into tknp: a beginners guide to a classic case of idiots to lovers

i told myself that i couldn’t rec an author’s entire body of work but then i remembered this is my blog and i do what i want, so i did some consolidating. here’s a list of the quintessential authors for this pairing, you can start at any of their profiles and pick any of their fics at random, and it’ll be one of the best ones for the pairing, hands down.

therainbowsedge: i’d start with the summer camp fic, or the sex toys one, as both beautifully capture the true idiots to lovers nature of this pairing, but just top tier writing all around

manybumblebees: the wedding fic is so tender and port stanley is a classic, but literally pick any single fic and you’ll have a perfect tknp fic. i’m not kidding

jamesvanriemsdick: their tknp fics in their series are some of the hidden gems of this pairing (the tk heartbeat fic makes me LOSE it) but the delaware fic or the seattle fic…..there’s really something for every mood

catchascatchcan: start with era of gods because i could write literal essays on how it’s some of the best fantasy worldbuilding i’ve ever read, but then just read everything else on their account, including non tknp fics. you won’t regret it

hackysack: ao3 user hackysack has written one of two timeloop fics that i absolutely adore, and i thought about just calling that one out in particular, but all of their work deserves the attention

canary: nothing to prove was the first tknp fic i ever read and i was immediately hooked. all of their fics are a good starting place for the pairing, and just really give you a feeling for the pairing

and now, for the fic recs!

to be, despite it all by smudgedfreckles

summary: or, nolan patrick’s gender thesis, by travis konecny.

why i love it: there’s not a lot ofo nonbinary characters in media, even in fic, but this fic’s treatment of nolan and their path to figuring out their gender just feels so real and made me feel so seen. tk’s characterization is also just top notch, and it’s just a super sweet story about two people who love each other

last ones standing by makeit_takeit

summary: If you’re committed to finding your future spouse, reads the last line of the ad, and are ready to look at yourself and your love life in a whole new way, apply now.

At the bottom of the ad there’s a link, and Travis finds his finger hovering over the screen, lip still caught between his teeth.

“I mean,” he says very reasonably, speaking out loud to his empty apartment like some sort of possibly-crazy person, “just applying doesn’t mean anything. Maybe I just fill it out, and see what happens. It’s not like I’m really gonna get picked to be on TV, come on.”

He snorts out loud, just to show his apartment he hasn’t lost his grip on reality or anything; he fully understands how ludicrous that would be.

Then he clicks the link anyway, because yolo or whatever.

why i love it: what part of a married at first sight fic doesn’t make you want to immediately dive right in? the concept is fun, the execution is absolutely flawless, and it captures their dynamic so well while letting it develop naturally

motivation by connectknee

summary: Kevin knows when to back off, the article said. He knows just when to shut up and leave Patty alone, something Travis has never known how to do.

why i love it: the thing i love about this pairing is that tk is loud and in your face, and nolan’s more reserved, a little quieter, a little harder to read. this fic does a really great job of exploring how tk could feel like maybe he’s just a bit too much and is one of my favorites in terms of miscommunication

a tenderness grows by rusesdeguerre

summary: Nolan wouldn’t say that landing a job as the Philadelphia Flyers’ psychotic and probably clinically insane mascot was a childhood dream of his. Maybe tangentially: playing pond hockey in –30°C weather and pretending to be Sidney Crosby is practically a rite of passage when you grow up in Manitoba. That, and experiencing the distinct displeasure that is thousands of mosquitoes sucking your blood out when your father drags you on a father-son camping trip into the backwoods of the northern Canadian Prairies.

why i love it: this was the first fic i recced on this blog, and i stand by that decision. a fic where nolan is not only not a hockey player, but is in fact the person in the gritty suit? absolutely perfect, and so charming from start to finish

meet me at my window by springsteen

summary: Travis has lived in Philadelphia for a few years now, long enough to know there isn’t a major city in America where superheroes don’t destroy an entire city block trying to save humanity or whatever. He can deal with all the super-shit, but Travis did not sign up for getting woken up from a deep sleep because some fucker’s trying to break in through his window.

(5 times the super-villain known as "The Cat" breaks into Travis's apartment, plus 1 time Travis invites him in.)

why i love it: there’s a lot of things to love here, but the concept is just absolutely one of my all time favorite aus ever. it’s fun and charming and the perfect glimpse into a world where heroes and villains exist, and what it’s like just to be a run of the mill kind of guy existing in it. tk and nolan’s back and forth in this make it so engaging, and it’s such a top tier fic

body’s in trouble by cloudsandpassingevents

summary: “Oh, sorry,” someone says. “Didn’t know anyone else was here.”

Nolan freezes, then turns around very slowly. When he looks up, Nicklas fucking Backstrom is standing behind him in a hoodie and baggy sweats, holding the biggest bag of Swedish Fish Nolan’s ever seen in his life in one hand.

“Uh,” Nolan says around the pop tart between his teeth. “Yeah.”

What the fuck, his brain helpfully supplies.

why i love it: from nolan’s inner voice, to the way the author explores all the dynamics within the team, to the way they write the unexpected but actually, it kind of makes sense friendship between nolan and backstrom, is just absolutely fantastic. there’s a lot of moments that circle back and build on each other in a way that really just makes it super compelling

rhizomatic foundations by lighthousetowers

summary: Twenty days after he moves in with Kevin Hayes, twenty days – three months, five months, depending on how you look at it – after not talking to TK, TK shows up at the front door with a plant the size of a basketball in his hands.

TK grins. "Patty, meet Reginald." He lifts up the plant. "Reggie, meet Patty. He's going to be your new - caretaker."

"What the fuck," says Nolan, not moving a single muscle.

Or: That Nolan can hear the plant talk might as well just happen.

why i love it: this is probably my favorite magical realism fic just about ever. it’s fun and charming and a little weird, but in the best possible way. there’s such a wonderful narrative in it, and lighthousetowers always has such beautiful writing, and it really shines in this one. the dialogue and nolan’s characterization are also part of what set it apart for me as one of the best tknp fics

in the dark of any town by mengetpegged

summary: If the voice has an accent at all, it’s a flat prairie Canadian, with none of G’s French-Canadian softness at the edges. But mostly, the accent is just ‘pissed off,’ which TK believes is a default setting for ghosts.

“Who are you?” TK asks, and he doesn’t like how strained his voice sounds, doesn’t like the tinge of anxiety tinting the rise of his question. He tries to regulate his breaths—in through his nose, hold, out through his mouth—but it feels like he’s not getting enough oxygen, which makes him panic even more.

“Someone with a fucking migraine, dickhead,” the voice says. “So keep the lights off and shut the hell up.”

(or: Nolan Patrick, Hotel X Ghost)

why i love it: i’m usually not super into ghost fics, both the spooky kind and the nonspooky kind, but this one is a rare exception. it’s charming and fun and tender and it’s got some of, in my opinion, the best characterization of tk and nolan in any fic. the way the author writes their dynamic and their dialogue is just unmatched

lets_make_this_moment_a_crime.mp3 by honeydripping

summary: Travis meets Nolan at a Midtown show in 2002 when he punches Nolan in the face. He can’t help it, “Like A Movie” just goes off.

But he does feel guilty about it.

or

TK and Patty work at a bakery together. They go to punk shows to pass the time.

why i love it: idk if anyone asked for an early 2000s emo/punk/alt au but wow! i sure am glad it exists! really the vibes of this fic, as silly as that sounds, are absolutely unmatched. i love the structure with the music, the development of their relationship, and just everything about how the author wrote the setting (there’s this whole thing with tattoos in it that makes me feel absolutely insane)

you’re ripped at every edge by you’re a masterpiece by conformityissuicide

summary: “Ugh, look, this yoga teacher has it out for me, man. And I can’t go back there without at least having some of the basics down. I’ve got to win this battle.”

“Yoga isn’t really something you win at,” Hartsy starts.

Travis cuts him off, “You can win at anything if you try hard enough.”

+++

OR that time Nolan's a grumpy yoga teacher and Travis realizes he wants to bone him and prove him wrong about Travis' non-existent yoga abilities.

why i love it: listen, if you want tknp, at least one of them has to be an idiot, and this tk absolutely captures the obliviousness i love to see in him in fic. it’s such a great characterization of them both and such a great concept (and even better execution)

you form a terror pack (and i’m aware of that) by dalmatienne

summary: “Can I help you?” TK snarks, both eyebrows hiked up in a way that has earned her many elbow checks to the ribs.

The chick looks down her nose, long thick eyelashes fluttering. Red-bitten lips part to blow a florid pink bubble and TK can smell the chemical sweetness when it pops.

“Yeah,” she says in this monotonous voice that seems almost at odds with her bubble gum and neon skates. She jams her stopper into TK’s thigh again, literally inches away from where it’d really hurt. “Tie ‘em.”

why i love it: to be honest, i generally don’t read rule 63 within hrpf, but this one is just absolutely knocks it out of the park. the concept (i fuckin’ love roller derby), the characterization of nolan, the pacing, the rituals, the tone of the entire fic, it’s just all around a perfect read from start to finish

thrills and grills by bitter_leaf

summary: Travis can’t even begin to wonder what he did in a previous life to incur the wrath of this fucking cook. Travis thinks he’s a nice person, doesn’t conduct himself in any way that could be considered particularly dickish, and unless this guy has some sort of issue with hockey bros or people from the boonies, he’s not sure how he started shit without even knowing.

__

Patty has a vendetta. Travis just wants to eat his eggs in peace.

why i love it: honestly this is the enemies to lovers fic i’ve been waiting for. i remember seeing the reddit post when it first went viral and thinking it would make such a great fic premise, so stumbling across this one was just so wonderful. super engaging and fun and so hilarious to read!

nothing but room for you by fightingfuries

summary: When his agent tells him he’s going to be traded to the Devils, Nolan isn't sure how he feels about it. Might be easier if he was going somewhere farther away, like California or fucking Florida. Somewhere sun-soaked and foreign. Someplace so different from Philadelphia that he can forget he ever played for the Flyers, forget everything that happened there.

Or Nolan fucks up, gets traded, gets his shit together and falls in love. Not necessarily in that order.

why i love it: i cannot stress to you how much i love trade fics, and this one is one of my absolute favorites. the trade to the devils-so close to philly, still, but there’s more to distance than physical miles-was such an excellent choice and the split timeline adds so much to the narrative, and the emotions are real and messy and complicated in the best way

a couple of runaways (i’m glad you stayed) by overturnedgoal

summary: The person in the video he’s watching is super annoying. Some obnoxious holier than thou granola type who keeps talking about their environmental impact as if they aren’t driving a gas guzzler around, but the basic idea of living in a van, driving around wherever, camping all the time, just going hiking and swimming and seeing the whole country? It sounds pretty dope, honestly.

why i love it: i like to watch tours and conversions of vans/buses into tiny homes as a self soothing method, and this fic has the same impact that watching those do. it’s such a fun concept, and it’s so fuckin’ soft, and the dialouge between tk and nolan is just *chef’s kiss*

all candor and style in the crook of your smile by p3trichor

summary: It’s a photo of Nolan on his knees with someones’ fingers in his mouth, lips slick with spit. Travis flicks by it almost too fast and he’s only got seconds to decide if he wants to screenshot it, if he wants to just give up the ghost right then and there. Except Travis’s phone freezes momentarily and then the group refreshes, sidcros87, Bert59 and 14 others took a screenshot!

It’s gone before Travis even has time to process it and he already wasted his replay of the day on a stupid video of a stupid fish that Hayes caught.

Can you send me that screenshot Travis texts Bertuzzi before he can overthink it, his dick already stirring in his sweats. Tuzzi sends back the cry-laughing emoji and then the screenshot before Travis can be too annoyed at him.

Or, Nolan is being weird about Travis's break-up and TK is maybe not straight.

why i love it: i genuinely don’t think i have words for the amount i love this fic. it took me forever to actually read, but it’s absolutely one of my favorite fics, and it’s an absolutely riot to read. carter’s meddling and the presence of tyler bertuzzi both make it extra fun, in my humble opinion

#fic rec #rec list: so you want to get into tknp: a beginners guide to a classic case of idiots to lovers #fic: flyers #fic: tknp #men's hockey fic #hockey fic #men’s hockey rpf #hrpf #fic: therainbowsedge #fic: manybumblebees #fic: jamesvanriemsdick #fic: catchascatchcan #fic: hackysack #fic: canary #fic: smudgedfreckles #fic: makeit takeit #fic: connectknee #fic: rusesdeguerre #fic: springsteen #fic: cloudsandpassingevents #fic: lighthousetowers #fic: mengetpegged #fic: honeydripping #fic: conformityissuicide #fic: dalmatienne #fic: bitter_leaf #fic: fightingfuries #fic: overturnedgoal #fic: p3trichor

[thepapergirlandthespiegelman]

Castlevania Season 4: I’m not mad, just disappointed

Season 4 is poorly written fanfiction, which is...better than a lot of things could be, I guess.

Spoilers below the cut.

Content warning: trauma, sexual assault, psychological manipulation

The Gods Have Had a Change of Heart

Or, “Season 3 Blocked and Ignored”

Season 3 felt like the fabric of the universe had been twisted just to inflict additional pain. Season 4 overcompensates in the other direction; trauma evaporates, and good things happen for no other reason than to make our favorite characters happy.

The Season 3 finale left two characters in particular totally devastated: Alucard and Hector. Alucard is violently betrayed in a horrifying sexual assault by the first two people he’s spoken to since Trevor and Sypha left. He ends up killing them in self-defense and puts their bodies on stakes outside the castle, alluding to his father’s habit of doing so and potentially hinting at a turn toward evil. Hector is seduced by Lenore and then enslaved using a magic ring.

Yet at the start of Season 4, it’s as if these things never happened. Alucard is troubled, but not totally devastated, certainly not evil. Taka and Sumi are referenced in exactly one conversation with new character, Greta, in which she says the rather tactless throwaway line, “I had a boyfriend and girlfriend at the same time once. But they never tried to kill me.” Hector is nominally imprisoned, but immediately seems highly agentic, perhaps even more so than before. He studies, lays traps, and makes secret plans with other people. Furthermore, his relationship with Lenore is completely transformed. From falling to his knees in abject horror and despair at being enslaved, he suddenly switches to light banter, in what is apparently a basically okay, mutually enjoyed romantic/sexual relationship. Manipulative, selfish Lenore is now a sympathetic character struggling to reconcile her own role and feelings with Carmilla’s plans.

The events of season 3 happened, remaining canon in the most basic, literal sense. But the emotional weight attached to them has disappeared into thin air.

Not gonna lie, I did breathe a sigh of relief when I saw that Alucard and Hector were okay. I’m soft-hearted! I don’t like seeing characters I like suffer! I mean, conflict is important, and I can deal with (or even enjoy in a certain sense) seeing characters suffer if it makes sense and serves a narrative purpose. But as far as I can tell, the season 3 finale was nothing more than lurid, meaningless violence. I probably wouldn’t have continued watching the show if it devolved into nothing more than finding novel ways to torture the characters.

Still, it doesn’t feel quite right to pretend like nothing happened either. Or, really, not that nothing happened, but that those things didn’t matter, didn’t hurt, didn’t leave lasting scars. That’s...almost kind of worse.

But, I thought, I can sort of forgive this sudden shift in the stars, given that there may have been some sort of change in creative direction relating to Ellis’ decreased involvement with the show.* Plus, season 3 was insanity. It’s not like it was full of great writing choices, so if we quietly ignore some of them, maybe that’s for the best.

*I only later learned that Netflix actually chose to continue with Ellis’ season 4 scripts. It is not lost on me that maybe Ellis doesn’t know how to write about the lasting effects of traumatic sexual experiences or how power dynamics can make a sexual relationship problematic because he doesn’t understand that those things exist.

Characters Being Nobody and Nothing Happening

Pretty Pictures, Not Much Else

Unfortunately, the disconnect between seasons 3 and 4 isn’t the only problem with this season. Although I felt that season 4 was a bit less boring than season 3 (I particularly enjoyed some of the earlier episodes of season 4), it suffers from the same basic problems of Characters Being Nobody and Nothing Happening.

None of the characters experience any significant development, let alone any sort of coherent arc. Sypha has changed slightly, becoming more rough and jaded. I did really like the scene where she talks about becoming the kind of person who says “shit.” I think it really speaks to how entering into a relationship with someone means taking on aspects of their lifestyle, and how that can change you in ways that you can’t predict and therefore can’t exactly “agree” to. Sometimes those changes are good, sometimes they’re bad, sometimes they’re neutral, and sometimes it’s difficult to know. But you have to accept that you’re sacrificing some aspects of the person that you could have been if you chose to live completely independently, or with someone else.

Trevor really hasn’t changed since season 1 when he first decided to take up the mantle of hero again. Likewise with Alucard. Hector and Lenore change, as previously noted, but that change is sudden, jarring, and occurs completely off screen in between seasons 3 and 4. Carmilla dies as exactly as she lived: bitter, angry, and violent. Saint Germain just kind of...gets fucked over in a nonsensical subplot, which is its own whole can of worms.

We also get several new characters in season 4, none of whom have developed personalities or motives, nor do they develop any of those things over the course of the season: Greta, Zamfir, Varney, Ratko.

And nobody. Does. Anything.

Trevor and Sypha spend the entire season trying to explore and aid Targoviste, which comes to absolutely nothing. They’re unable to help anyone, Zamfir dies, and they end up just jumping through a magic portal to the actually relevant subplot in the finale. Carmilla literally does little more than draw maps until she’s ultimately killed. Hector plays a minor role in Saint Germain’s extraction of Dracula from Hell; otherwise, he and Lenore basically just exchange banter. Saint Germain does sort of do some stuff? But it’s often unclear how he’s made his connections, who the people who are helping him are, or what exactly he’s doing in terms of his magic beyond “whatever it takes to get back to his lover.”

Sure, there are fight scenes, but they feel meaningless. There’s no context, no stakes. There’s also a LOT of dialogue, and it is. Not well written. Exposition is embarrassingly clumsy at times, and the philosophical musings are cliche at best, muddled and confusing at worst. There’s just not all that much going on.

That is, except for Isaac. But more on him in a second.

What Kind of Show Is This?

When the plot line adapted from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse ended with season 2, the show struggled to establish a new identity.

Despite nominally dealing with themes like whether humanity is inherently good or evil and how to cope with wrongdoing and loss, seasons 1 and 2 ultimately boiled down to a pretty generic action-adventure/fantasy plot with found family/power of friendship elements. Main characters Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard don’t really wrestle with big philosophical questions or suffer any major defeats. They know that they have to take down Dracula for the good of the world, and they work together as a team to do it, with a little character development relating to their various backstories sprinkled in.

Then season 3 happened, and things got weird. The trio is broken up for what feels like a pretty trivial reason—Alucard has to protect the castle and Belmont hold, I guess? And the result of that decision is that the dynamics for the three main characters are completely unbalanced.

Ellis openly admits that he basically went feral with the writing of season 3, and it shows. The messaging in seasons 1 and 2 was cliche, but consistent. The message of season 3? Anyone’s guess.

Season 4 reversed the darkening of tone from season 3, but shares its inability to pick a story and tell it.

Isaac is the Main Character

Always has been.

While I can’t say that his character or arc are perfect, I can say that he actually has a character and an arc. He starts off motivated by his fierce loyalty to Dracula, then has to struggle to find his purpose once Dracula is gone. He goes from subservient to agentic. He goes from fully endorsing the genocide of humanity and not caring about his own life to seeing some worth in humans and genuinely wanting to live. He has an interesting moment that deepens our understanding of what night creatures are, while also serving as an exploration of the meaning of one’s fundamental nature. Most importantly, these changes happen naturally over the course of the show. They never feel forced or out of the blue, and while I feel like even more could have been done with Isaac’s character, there’s a lot to appreciate about what is there.

If there’s any thread holding Castlevania as a single, coherent work together, it’s Isaac. Not only is his character the best executed and the most coherent over the course of the show, his character explores themes that are larger than himself and relevant to the show as a whole, like those mentioned earlier: misanthropy versus a belief in the value of humanity; the ability to go beyond one’s “nature” or initial circumstances; and how to respond to being wronged or losing something important to you. Exploring the individual lives of characters is great, but really good writing usually requires going beyond that to reflect on broader questions and ideas. Isaac is the only character here that serves that larger purpose.

Sorry...I Just Don’t Buy It

The season 4 finale is crazy, although in a different way from season 3′s.

Varney being Death makes no sense on several different levels. I’m not going to spend a lot of time picking that particular plot twist apart, but I will talk about why I think it doesn’t work at the largest scale, and how I think season 4 might have been done better.

Last minute twists with zero foreshadowing are rarely a good idea, and this is no exception. Why introduce this “Death” entity at the last minute to be the most important battle of the season? The finale of the entire show, even? Besides the lack of logic or emotional buildup, this robs the show of the opportunity to make use of the antagonists that it already has. Since Dracula died, Carmilla has been the obvious choice for a new big bad. Why hasn’t she done more?

Season 4 feels crowded with characters and plot lines that amount to nothing. Why not bring some of these characters together? If Carmilla is the main antagonist, how come she never meets any of the protagonists (except Hector, who is a pretty minor player in this ecosystem) or even affects them in any way?

Season 4 feels like maybe it was trying to make something out of season 3 and the model that it presented, but it ultimately fails to do so. The writers throw the trio back together at the end anyway, so why not have them rejoin sooner and work together? Maybe Sypha and Trevor’s past experience with Saint Germain could have helped Alucard and Greta piece together what he was plotting sooner, rather than all four of them being completely blindsided by it in the penultimate episode. (Sypha and Trevor know that someone is trying to resurrect Dracula, but they fail to find out any actual detail about the plans, despite their supposed attempts.) Have characters actually do stuff, figure stuff out, advance the plot!

Likewise, maybe Carmilla becomes aware of Saint Germain’s scheming, sees it as a threat, and tries to take him down. Maybe she tries to get involved and somehow use alchemy or the Infinite Corridor to her own benefit. What does it look like when power-hungry Carmilla, who wants to rule the world, finds out there’s an entire multiverse out there? That could easily set her up to be a foil to Saint Germain, causing him to realize that what he’s doing is wrong.

What actually ended up happening in the show feels disjointed and often empty. In particular, most of the events that happen in the last two episodes just don’t really work for me. I didn’t like Trevor suddenly sacrificing himself to this random, new, super powerful enemy, or how the gems and dagger that he found just happened to be the perfect weapon to kill this new enemy, or how he inexplicably returns from the dead.

This kind of thing is what I mean when I say that this season feels like fanfiction. Trevor comes back from the dead for no discernible reason other than that it would really suck if he died. Greta as a character seems to literally only exist to be Alucard’s girlfriend and support him so that he doesn’t have to continue to be alone and potentially turn evil. Alucard’s trauma from Taka and Sumi and Hector’s trauma from Lenore are both conveniently erased. Even Dracula and Lisa are resurrected somehow and get their happy ending. And it’s like, I guess I prefer deus ex machina to the opposite (Does that have a name? When everything is going well but then something terrible happens for no reason other than to make things worse for the characters?), but they’re both bad writing.

God. This isn’t even getting into what happened with the Council of Sisters. And I don’t even really like those characters, but that doesn’t mean I want to see their characters handled poorly.

I’m not sorry that I watched until the end, but I can’t in good faith recommend the show as a whole. If you’ve yet to watch Castlevania, just stop at the end of season 2. While there are some shining moments in seasons 3 and 4 (4 more than 3), it’s just really not worth it.

#review #thoughts #television #animation #adult animation #video game adaptation #fantasy #Netflix #Netflix Original #Castlevania #storytelling #writing #characters #plot #character development #vampires #Isaac (Castlevania)

[randomprose]

MoShang Week 2021 Day 01: celebrity au / sugar / rivals

When all is said and done—that is, after Shang Qinghua had accepted his victory and fielded the press of any question of the stunt Mobei Jun pulled—Shang Qinghua goes back to the Endless Abyss Sugar Masters kitchen studio.

He sits in front of the xianxia sugar sculpture monstrosity Mobei Jun made to tell Shang Qinghua and basically the whole world of his feelings and couldn’t help but snort a laugh at the life sized cultivator Mobei Jun sculpted out of pastille in Shang Qinghua’s likeness.

It’s…big. When Shang Qinghua called it a monstrosity, he wasn’t even exaggerating. It’s bigger than even Mobei Jun with its base, an intricate background, and a truly impressive pose of him riding a sword. Shang Qinghua truly believes Mobei Jun would’ve won had he not been technically disqualified.

The theme was ‘famous historical people’ and while Shang Qinghua has surely made a name for himself in the culinary industry, he isn’t exactly in the same line as Athena or Leonardo Da Vinci.

It’s just…fucking massive (has he already said that? Because it is) and just really, really intricate. Wow. Shang Qinghua can’t take his eyes off it. It took a truly herculean effort earlier for him to snap out of how amazed he is. This could probably sell way more than the average expensive sugar sculpture. He doesn’t even know if anyone will have the heart to melt this shit for consumption. Hell, it shouldn’t be. This piece should be preserved and put in a food art museum or something.

Is that egotistical of him? To want this sugar sculpture of himself preserved for all eternity? Well, it doesn’t matter! Embarrassing at it is, it really is such a work of art. Mobei Jun should’ve won the whole damn thing and he would’ve too! If the stupid man hadn’t—if he wasn’t so—why did he—

Mobei Jun really likes him this much?

Shang Qinghua doesn’t even know where to begin to process things. For the longest time, he always thought of Mobei Jun as a cocky upstart hellbent on running him out of the industry. Up until this competition and having been forced to work together at the start, Shang Qinghua has never thought of Mobei Jun other than as a rival no matter how one-sided it may be. And now suddenly he finds out it’s not only one-sided but he’s apparently Mobei Jun’s muse and the whole reason he got into patisserie and confectionaries? That he wasn’t out to ruin Shang Qinghua’s career but just actually wants to work with him? And date him?? Apparently???

How does he even respond to that? Does anyone know? Because Shang Qinghua sure as hell doesn’t!

And it’s not even that he finds the idea of dating Mobei Jun unthinkable. They’re friends! Sort of! He thinks! Well, they’re friends now that’s for sure. Before the producers decided that ‘hey, you know what will be great? If we pit the members of the final team against each other like the fucking Hunger Games!’ they were teammates and they were one of the strongest teams to beat. They’re very popular with the audiences too. And no matter how Shang Qinghua had tried his best to not like Mobei Jun at the start, you just don’t go clearing through one of the toughest most cut throat culinary competition in the country as a team without developing some sort of friendship along the way.

When Shang Qinghua finally got over himself and got to know the guy, he found that he’s actually…nice. Great, even! Mobei Jun is funny in that quiet sort of way and has the driest sense of humor Shang Qinghua has ever known of someone. Once, Shen Jiu was grilling them about their spun sugar technique and Mobei Jun mumbled something vaguely offensive and rude that made Shang Qinghua laugh and had Shen Jiu nearly flaying him alive on national TV.

And Mobei Jun apparently likes him way more than how a friend should but it’s...not bad? He’s not uncomfortable or creeped out or anything. It’s just…surprising! Yeah. Shang Qinghua is self-aware enough that people who look like Mobei Jun don’t usually go for people who look like, well, him.

Still, the question remains.

Does Shang Qinghua feel the same for Mobei Jun? And if he does, will he really be opposed to dating him?

The doors to the studio open and who should come in but Mobei Jun himself. He’s a little early than Shang Qinghua expected. He’s not done thinking things over! But he looks at Mobei Jun changed out of his chef’s attire and into a casual loose fitted shirt over dark jeans and combat boots, perfectly at ease at himself despite the earlier stunt he pulled while the person said stunt was directed at is already way in over his head overthinking things.

Mobei Jun stops just by the side of his confession piece looking expectant and Shang Qinghua sighs.

Ah. Who is he kidding? Mobei Jun is exactly, exactly, his type it’s insane. His ideal man in every sense of the word and he kind of hates himself for it.

“You idiot,” Shang Qinghua exhales leaning forward on his knees where he’s perched on the steel table of their former work station. He lets out a short almost hysterical laugh as he runs his hands through his face then his hair in exasperation. “Why did you have to throw in the towel? Don’t even try to reason. That’s what you fucking did. You couldn’t just follow the theme and then ask for my number right after? What the fuck.”

Mobei Jun has the audacity to not look affected at being called out. He just blinks at Shang Qinghua who’s clearly having some kind of Crisis. He thinks it’s cute.

“Do you feel like your victory has no meaning?

“What? No.” Shang Qinghua sits up and sees Mobei Jun has come closer. “I don’t believe in shit like that. A win is a win no matter the circumstances. I won and you lost. Hah!”

“Hmm,” Mobei Jun hums, leaning on the edge of the table beside Shang Qinghua with his phone held out. “So, can I get your number now?”

Shang Qinghua rolls his eyes but takes Mobei Jun’s phone anyway. “See, this is what you should’ve done instead of being all cheesy and confessing on national television.”

“Well, you know,” Mobei Jun shrugs. “Grand gestures and all that.”

Shang Qinghua spies the slight tilt of his lips as he hands him his phone back and, God, this man makes him want to expire right on the spot.

“Well, you looked like a straight-up fool,” he says instead by way of deflection but he really can’t do anything with the stubborn smile spreading on his face.

Mobei Jun doesn’t rise up to the taunt. He just holds up his phone and snaps a quick picture of Shang Qinghua, making him blink after the flash went off.

“Wha—”

“No, see, you look like a straight-up fool,” he says showing him the picture he took where Shang Qinghua looks, for all intents and purposes, a deer caught in a headlight. It’s quite literally unflattering.

“I wasn’t ready! No!” Shang Qinghua attempts to snatch Mobei Jun’s phone but he quickly turns the other way. Shang Qinghua tries to reach for it still while draped across his back. “Don’t you dare put that as my contact photo. Argh!”

“Nah,” Mobei Jun says easily avoiding all of Shang Qinghua’s attempts and already setting the picture as his contact photo. “I like this one. Very candid.”

“I don’t like you.”

“Mm. Pick you up later at seven?”

Shang Qinghua huffs as Mobei Jun returns to leaning against the table. He does not get off of him and just remains slumped on Mobei Jun’s side, chin propped on his shoulder. If Mobei Jun leans down just a little he could easily just plant one on Shang Qinghua.

“Eight and you’re paying for everything. Then afterward, we’ll take another photo, a nicer one, and that will be my contact photo. I’ll take one of you too I guess.”

Mobei Jun hums low and warm sounding content. “Alright,” he says before leaning in to kiss Shang Qinghua sweetly on the nose.

Shang Qinghua scrunches his face at that before leaning forward to give Mobei Jun a proper kiss. He feels Mobei Jun smile against his lips and couldn’t help smiling in return.

[ao3 | twt and other moshang week prompts | buy me a ko-fi // more fics]

#moshangweek2021 #moshangweek #moshang #shang qinghua #mobei jun #writing #svsss meme #svsss fanfic #scumbag system #scumbag villain self saving system

[a-tomb-with-a-view]

Full fic rec list, because people have asked

Be warned: chaos and lots of swearing ahead.

Everything by @on-irratia but also I made a specific list of the shit of hers that I adore which you can find here. Here is my list of Bobby fic recs and also my list of Alex fic recs, if there’s anything specific you’re looking for lemme know and I’ll make a smaller list for you :))

Genuinely I love so many fics so obviously not everything is here and this is super tiring so I’m not doing another big, non-specific one for a while, so please feel free to add on or tag authors I don’t have the @ of, there is so much I know I haven’t gotten in here

Sea Shanties Have Nothing On You

Starting in hot with some ralex, its soft, its sweet, I just want a bf/gf to watch me fondly as I lose my fucking mind over a washed in ship wreck at the arse crack of dawn pls & thank. It’s the first of a series, they’re all soft and make me missed being hugged, there’s some boggie, some willex, it’s so soft

Author’s @ unknown

I’ll Bend And I’ll Break But That’s Just The Way I’m Made

The juke? Impeccable. The willex? Sublime. The soft boggie? Amazing. The Reggie-with-an-invisible-disability? So fucking far up my my street. I got to learn something, I got to feel something, loved it

@sweetheartreggie idk why this won’t link

Maybe You Find It Stuck In Your Molars

Genuinely this author slaps and I love all their boggie but this one made me incredibly soft, I loved it, Luke being oblivious, Bobby being mr no feelings until his bf or his best friend needs assurance or love bc he found three needy bitches and said these are mine 💜 and I love him for it

@sunsetcurvecuddles

BOBBY’S SEXUALITY CRISIS SUMMER

Okay I love Agnes and everything she’s done, obviously, but this is just so bloody fun, and so fucking soft, and it had insights into Bobby’s relationship with everyone and I just thought it was neat yk

@the-anxious-gay-drummer

Maybe We’re Meant To Be

I genuinely don’t know what it is about this fic, but I just started crying halfway through it. I don’t even mean like my eyes got glassy and my shoulders shook a little bit, which is usually the extent of my feelings, I mean I literally sat there and fucking cried for ten minutes, it’s got some phantoms ot3 and some bobby&willie qpr and I love it sm

I don’t know if the author currently has a tumblr

(You Know) The Rest By Heart

This is some good ole phantoms ot3, we have their friendship with Bobby, their friendship with each other, their relationship developing from three ridiculously codependent friends to three ridiculously corrodent more-than-friends which is incredibly true to form and it just gives the good ole warm and fuzzies

Idk the authors @

I’ve Been So Good (Where The Hell Is The Karma)

I’m a sucker for some good ghost Bobby shit, anf this is the good ghost Bobby shit. We got different times of death, some emotional processing, some boggie, it’s fuckin awesome

@itsthebooks

Relight The Spark

Ray!!! Adopts!!!! Some!!!!! Motherfucking!!!!! Ghosts!!!!!! That’s literally all I have to say on this one it made me so fuckin soft and ugh just go read some ray&reggie y’all it’s chicken soup for the soul

Idk the author’s @

Breathe These City Lights

Just. Willex being fucking adorable, man. Just willex being the softest bastards to grace the face of the planet. I got literally nothing else to say, it’s soft, it’s sweet, and willex

@sunsetsandcurves

Dude, Where Are My Keys?

God this makes me so fucking soft, it’s Ray!! Adopting!!!! Reggie!!! Except more like Reggie adopting Ray but Idgaf this is just the actual height of adorable

@thedeathdeelers

I’ll Keep Us Together (Whatever It Takes)

God man. I just reread this because I’m literally just going through my comments to find things I’ve commented on to see if I wanna put them in here and good god. It fucking wrecked me again it’s incredible. The willex, the longing, the slight angst? Incredible

@sunsetcurbed

Family Matters

Ray!!! Adopts!!!!! Some!!!!!! Mcfuckin!!!!! Ghosts!!!!!!!! Like. God this is so soft and sweet and I would like to be hugged by a father pls and thank you <3

Idk the author’s @

You’re Pulling Down My Walls Like You’re My Only Sun

This fic is just. It’s so fucking beautiful, and it goes into different types of love and different expressions of love, and there’s Alex and the guys and willex and it’s just. It’s rly good kiddos it’s rly fucking good

Call My Bluff/Call Me Babe

*screeches in fake dating and yearning and pining and holymotherfuckingsonofabitch this is so soft*

Idk the author’s @

But I Think I’m Lost Without You

Would recommmend reading the sequel immediately after for the sake of not wanting to cry, but honestly this and the sequel are so so good and I loved the insight into the boys and Bobby and the dumbassery of them not knowing they’re all in love and I really loved the storytelling of this with the photos and the little anecdotes

Idk the author’s @

Umm, I Never Went To Oovoo Javer

This is just fucking funny ngl. It’s funny, it’s sweet, you’ll have a great time, what more could you possibly want? Willex? Well this bad boy has that too

@sunnylemonss

There are many that I’ve undoubtedly missed because I’m not smart enough to keep a note of fics I’ve enjoyed, but I’ll prolly do this again at some point, so enjoy these kids

#jatp #julie and the himbos #julie and the phantoms #julie and the fat ones #luke patterson #julie molina #reggie jatp #alex jatp #willie jatp #willex #fic recs #meg gives fic recs

[atalante241]

A Dream SMP SBI focused AU where all of SBI is related and everybody in the fam know it, except Tommy.

Tommy just assumes that they’re really close friends or some shit, and Wilbur calling Phil dad sometimes is an inside joke between the two.

Like growing up they were a really weird family where all of them had like, their own house/building and they just vibed. Like Tommy was raised by Phil but he doesn’t really remember it (like, can you remember anything from when u were 0-5 yrs old? Cause I sure can’t.) and he was given his own building thing when he was like 5 nearing 6, through that ended up being left alone more. And it was purely by accident, and he started hearing Wil and Techno reffed to Phil as just “Phil”, so he started doing it.

Along time it completely slips his mind that they’re family and not just a very small gated close community, and as I said before they’re a weird ass family Phil leaves on exoditions sometimes. He even might take Wil or Techno along on chance, but not Tommy bc that is a straight up child. Sometimes the trips take months but Tommy isn’t bothered, why should he be bothered that his neighbors leave for months on end sometimes. So the now 7 yr old takes care of himself all alone, and he doesn’t see this as weird bc the rest of SBI doesn’t see it as weird. He just legit thinks that straight up children can live alone and be just fine.

This one time a creeper blows up his house, and because he’s got no clue on how to repair it he just makes a dirt shack. But he thinks it looks ugly (OOC I know) so he carves out this hill and lives in there, and that how he develops a habit of building his homes in hills and mountains. Also when he’s bored he starts mining and accidentally creates these basically ant tunnels that travel underneath the big ass clearing the SBI lives in, there’s also at least one tunnel that goes into/near one of the buildings the SBI have separately.

Tommy doesn’t feel neglected because he doesn’t realize that he should, being left alone for months. He doesn’t feel bad about spending most of his b-days alone because he thinks that he has no friends, and the people around him are just his neighbors and shouldn’t come to the random kids b-day party. He also doesn’t realize that usually ppl have to pay some kind of tax to live in a house somewhere, he jus thinks that u just build a house somewhere and thats it.

He’s kind of is close to Wilbur, but it’s more in the way of saying hi to someone as you pass them but never interacting with them. He gets closer to Wilbur through the drug business.

(Tommy meets Tubbo at the SMP, but they had been pen pals for 6 yrs. They got connected through a magazine that advertised pen pals and how it’d get you one, it worked and they became friends. Tubbo also knows of the fact that Tommy lived alone, and is on the same page as Tommy about the family.)

At 15 (nearing 16) he leaves for the SMP, he waves the rest of the SBI goodbye because for some bizarre reason they all came out to say bye to him based on the one thing he said to Wilbur about leaving. At the SMP things go like normal, except new conflict rises from Tommy simply not paying his taxes. Dream goes to confront him with some other people that tagged along just for the fun of it, only for it to turn into a giant ass street fight because: Dream thinks Tommy’s bullshitting not knowing what taxes are because he knows Tommy didn’t lie to him about living alone before (he believes him bc he knows how to do household chores and up keeping), and Tommy thinks Dream’s just trying to exploit him because he thinks he’s some stupid kid. Said street fight that lasted 2h became know as “The Tax Scrap”, as it was a scrap and in led to taxes being demolished completely so no one had to pay them.......there was a party held for Tommy because of it.

After Tommy turned 16 around the summer months Wilbur comes and they do the whole drug shit and independence, they get way close doing so but not nearly “brother” close. Wilbur’s sad about this because he thinks that Tommy’s mad at him and the rest of SBI for leaving him alone during all of their trips, while Wilbur’s angsting Tommy’s all “I’m so very happy. And I’m getting super close with my old neighbor, this is great! Hey the whole of the SMP looke at the man named Wilbur Soot and know that I’m in no way related to him but we’re just old neighbors!!”. Yeeeh, Tommy unconsciously lets everyone know that they’re just old neighbors. Unknowingly hurting Wilbur because he thinks Tommy doesn’t want anything to do with them and is just acting civil, so he tries to be like 10x friendlier. They become great friends.

Everything happens pretty much the same except Wilbur trusts Tommy less while in the ravine because he still thinks that he hates them, he and Techno also have a angst session while Tommy’s asleep bc they think he hates them. This is before the Vilbur and Festival (the angst session). During the Pit scene Wil says something along the lines of “He hates you, look—look at him. He despises you, look how..—how angry he is!” After the 16th Phil wants to talk to Tommy about everything and make sure he’s alright (Very OOC of him, I know.) but is deterred by Techno telling him how Tommy “hates” them, and that he refuses to acknowledge them as family.

Sometimes Ghostbur slips and calls Tommy his little brother, Tommy’s shocked because did that mean that Alivebur saw him as some kind of little brother figure? He’s very flattered and totally doesn’t hug Ghostbur out of embarrassment. Ghostbur sometimes slips infront of people that aren’t Tommy and that leads to a lot of confused people and a rumor mill (that’s actually true for once) that Tommy and Wilbur were actually brothers, while wisiting or maybe through the msg’s Ranboo asks Tommy about it and receives the anwser that Tommy and Wilbur weren’t brothers but Tommy’s pretty sure that Wilbur saw him as one, at least he assumes from Ghsotbur’s ramblings. Ranboo tells this to people and it leads to a lot of aww’s because adorable, and then those aww’s turn sad bc Ghostbur exists.

Everything goes the same as canon except after Tommy betrays Techno, Techno during the moment he and Tommy are yelling at each other while tnt’s exploding -making it impossibly hard to hear them and messing with the animatic audios- yells something about Tommy being his brother and betraying him. And that leads to Tommy saying something like “Did you really see us as that close...” and now he feels sad bc the friend he betrayed was so attached to him that he saw him as a brother figure, but that sets Techno off more bc Tommy still denounces them as family in his eyes and he’s pissed bc of it. So they start fighting, eventually Phil stops to watch them. He’s also pissed at Tommy for the same reasons, during the fight Tommy gets like super injured or something but neither Techno or Phil want to kill him before they get to know the full reasons as to why he disowned them.

That leads to angsty as hell dialogue that breaks everyone’s hearts, and the whole gang realizing that Tommy didn’t even KNOW that they were family. It’s silent after that (not really there’s like 50 withers still around and explosions are happening left and right, but u get the point), idk how it all ends put it has something like this.

Tommy gets hugged

He’s still bleeding so it hurts and he’s kinda dying

Bc Techno and Phil are sad and kinda want to start over (and let’s be honest no one in that family is fully sane) they figure GhostInnit would be easier to deal with, also they’re still mad at him so they stab him

While also hugging him, it’s real messed up

Some people witness it and are kinda creeped out because to them it looks like two ppl that aren’t particularly close to Tommy are just hugging him after they stabbed him as if they cared

Through some magical power of teamwork and friendship the ppl fighting for L’Manburg (rip) get Tommy away from them, and some other crap happens the two have to flee. Later on Ranboo goes to live with them (fuck yes to that, that boy deserves peace. But fuck Phil adopting him It’ll all go to hell. Have you seen Phil’s other two kids +Tubbo??) but stil travels to the SMP bc I refuse for his friendship to end with Tommy and Tubbo, he kinda carries the news of GhostInnit existing to them unintentionally. So the leads to a game of extreme hide n’ seek where Tommy doesn’t know he’s supposed to hide so people literally just shove him into closets, rooms and houses all willy nilly. The whole servers in on it except Dream who just looks at all of them like that one meme. (No, I do not know what I’m referencing but I know at least 70% your pictures something)

The end vibe: Happy GhostInnit vibing with friends while the whole server is playing hide and seek him as the hider w/out him knowing, if Techno and Phil get him they’re gonna have so much family bonding and consequently make Tommy mad at the server bc he thinks thy were keeping him from his fam on reason, when they’re were just actually trying to keep him away from the two anarchists that were after him for some reason bc they didn’t know about the fam crap. GhostInnit doesn’t know they’re family bc it was kind of a bad memory him dying, he remembers everyone but not the bad things that have happened with them.

(Cross-posted off of Ao3, fics inspired by this one

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28894026

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30526023 )

#241 writing #dream smp au #Dream SMP #tommyinnit dream smp #technoblade dream smp #wilbur soot dream smp #philza dream smp #ghostinnit

[chrispaulcolfer]

hi! i know you’re a chris/kurt stan, but i was wondering if you have any favorite blaine moments or blaine episodes? (also, i just wanted to say thank you for defending blaine/klaine so hard. so many kurt stans are so anti blaine and it really bothers me, so thank you for understanding where blaine is coming from too)

Hello there! General Kenobi.

Listen, I will defend Blaine Anderson on my death bed. The amount of shit people choose to hate him for is ridiculous and is more telling of them. Because there's enjoyment of enemies to lovers and then there's just extreme out of character "development" to make your enemies to lover ship seem like the better choice to canon because "omg abuse". Not here for it. Just enjoy your ship but keep the slander and hatred for Blaine Anderson out of it, wow so simple. Amazing.

Okay anyway. Favorite moments and episodes of one Blaine Anderson.

10. Never Been Kissed. I love his introduction. He grabs a strange dudes hand to take a shortcut, then pulls a fast one by being all "oh and by the way I'm a warbler so lemme serenade you real quick strange dude". WHO DOES THAT? It's ridiculous, it's perfect, and it's nice that he's introduced as someone who has also been through the hell of being bullied for something that defines him as a person, but still being the bigger person in the end and coming out stronger. He's there at the right time, the right place, and it's because of him that Kurt remembers he has a voice.

9. In season 6, watching him regain that confidence and stride that he had in season 2? Love it. It's nice to see that he went to therapy, stepped outside his box, and took a chance on something unexpected for himself (even if who he dates is stupid, and it makes me nauseous - I blame the writers for this stupidity and not the character. The character is just their pawn to get the viewers reaction). I like that he fights for Jane, I like how he confronts Rachel and Kurt and doesn't go easy on them in regards to the competition, and I like that even through the bullshit HE is put through he still doesn't let it consume him and make him into a bitter person. Plus, again, HE WENT TO THERAPY! I love that!

8. Dynamic Duets. Seeing Blaine take control of the school without anyone questioning him?! Amazing leadership. We see him being a great leader in other episodes, before and after this one, but this one really hits it on the head. He gets everyone to dress up as superheroes to help boost everyone's confidence, express themselves, and just get out of their box in such a creative and fun way. We see him struggling still with feeling like he fits at McKinley because the reason he transferred is gone and no longer his boyfriend. I like that we can see the struggle! He's lonely. He's depressed. He's trying so hard to be better at getting by, but we see the struggle emotionally and mentally. He almost transfers to Dalton again because he thinks it would be better for everyone. He has Sam now, and that's it (which, bleck blam, but it's still important this episode so whatever). We see how self-destructive he is but still comes out on top by doing something great for the community. I like seeing character development. I like seeing the tidbits of character thought process, because like Blaine I've been there. Wanting to feel apart of something where you feel WANTED not just accepted. — also this episode he shames Mr.Schue for not even noticing the trophy is gone which DRAG HIM ANDERSON!!! That hint of sass! LOVE IT. Also Nightbird as a whole? Yes. Good.

7. Puppet Master. I like seeing what would go on in Blaine's brain on drugs - is that weird? It's an interesting view into his subconscious. He doesn't handle things like everyone else with their fantasy world them being hot and desirable. Nope! Blaine wants to feel validated, appreciated, and interact with felt-people because real people have hurt him - but felt-people can't. Felt-people can be tossed aside without causing them harm. Felt-friends compliment his body. Felt-fiancé's do whatever you want (kinky - what were you going to do with Kurt puppet that night you tried to take him back from Sylvester, Blaine? Cheeky). I like this quirk. I just don't like the ending song, that's it.

6. I love his moments where he performs by himself or for Kurt specifically. There's something different about how he performs if Kurt is watching (Cough Syrup, Teenage Dream (acoustic & original), All of Me, Beauty School Dropout, Barely Breathing (though that's just a figment), It's Not Right) vs. when he's in a group number. He's good in every song he does, and maybe I just think he performs differently because I'm a sucker for the angst majority of those songs being but whatever. I like it.

5. Love the Blaine being dramatic as a whole. Remember his reaction to seeing Tina and Sam making out and then running down the hall? And how MUCH HE LOVES BUMPER BOWLING?! I do. It's amazing.

4. THE WHOLE THING WITH ELLIOTT!!! Why did they only have one scene together?! Elliott being so understanding, and supportive, and not at all thinking Blaine is this weirdo for just BARGING into his apartment the way he does. He just HANDS HIM A GUITAR and Blaine takes it and it WORKS. He lets Blaine vent, he doesn't take it personal, and then Blaine calms down and apologizes. AND THEN THEY JAM. The best thing. That friendship would've been god tier.

3. Also that sass. "Huh, that's so unlike you." "I would say bye, but I wouldn't want to make you angry." "Well, he's not coming out anytime soon." "Why dont YOU put it back because it's YOUR apartment?"

2. I also LOVE that he isn't perfect. I love that we see him struggle. It makes him more realistic. Seeing his body issues in season 5, the depression, the self-destruction, the people pleasing perfectionist, the meltdowns, the struggle - because we see him struggle and overcome it in the end. Despite everything he struggled with, he got his happy ending with his soulmate AND A CHILD. He's succeeding in life with a family!

1. Tested. The whole episode. His traumatic response to Kurt's traumatic response. His body and self-confidence struggles. His defensive attitude and self-destructing basically, before snapping that built-up wall and finally communicating with Kurt about what the underlying problem actually is. IT IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE FOR A REASON! For Blaine, for Kurt, for both of them. Because not everyone reacts to trauma the same! It isn't going to be pretty! It isn't rainbows and puppy dogs dancing on clouds. It's crumbling in silence, and trying to be stronger than you are, and shutting down, and not having processed something completely because life still goes on like the trauma never happened all around you. It doesn't stop. So you find ways to cope. Like eating too many cronuts that you gain more weight and start to slip down a self-loathing hill to the point where you make things up in your head because you're overthinking and not wanting to burden anyone, especially the person you admire and care for the most because then they'll be disappointed in you and that has to be one of the worst feelings. BUT IT ALL COMES TO A HEAD, and ugh. Love it. Dont care. I like the realism about it, angst and all.

#Blaine Anderson #long post #answered #sorry this took a while a dude got busy

[sexyglances]

The "Rapunzel" is a Lie in Run On

My favorite theme of Run On is that it is up to you to make your own happiness in life and that you have the full autonomy to do so, no matter what anyone else says. And my favorite ways the way the drama shows that is how a) that for your own happiness you must put yourself first in your own life, b) building a personal found family with real, caring relationships is important, and c) cherishing both yourself and your found familial relationships together is key to creating a truly fulfilling life.

The idea of a Rapunzel is mentioned a couple of times in the drama, and in a way, many of the characters could fit the role of a "Rapuzel." Seongyeom, Danah, and Woosik have all been stuck in their own lonely "towers" based on society's "rules" and expectations about how they should conduct their lives. And while they all have had someone come into their lives that has made a profound impact on them, none of these people had a Prince/ess Charming swoop in and save them from their lonely towers. Instead, their prince/esses have only been catalysts for change. They may have opened the door for the Rapunzels and encouraged them out of their towers, but in Run On, the Rapunzel has to make the active choice to leave their tower. Only by their active choices to redefine their relationships with themselves and with others are they able escape the confines of duty, obligation, and expectation and learn to live life and build meaningful relationships for themselves.

The drama started off with a lot of relationships based solely on pretense only, as if circumstances are what make strong bonds. But as the episodes go on, it's demonstrated that it's not the obligation of a powerful relationship that defines the strength of a relationship, but rather the relationship strength is determined by the actions a person takes in the relationship. In the beginning, we have Seongyeom surrounded by "strong relationships," a picture-perfect successful family, an elite track team with a renowned coach, and a sports agent that gets him in photo shoots and in the press. But as we delve past the outside illusion of these relationships, we see a family that is mostly absent from each other's lives, teammates and a coach that at best Seongyeom leaves at arms length, and at worst actively talk and scheme behind his back (and do even worse to Woosik), and even Danah barely knows Seongyeom on a personal level and openly admits their business relationship is used for her personal gain. Danah is in a similar situation where most of her obligate family/business relationships are trash as well, even if they look great from the outside; and she openly admits she has no friends either. Woosik is the lowly hoobae in his track team that doesn't have enough social capital at the time to stop his bullying or get the coaches to stop looking the other way from his bullying. All of these dynamics are based on the idea they must sacrifice parts of themselves for the greater (fucked up) system at large.

Then Mijoo enters the story. As an orphan she has had to build a found family for herself her whole life. Because she has none of those pre-determined familial obligations, and is a freelancer with no business to ruin outside of her own, she isn't beholden to the same rules of conduct that seem to be holding down Seongyeom, Danah, and also Woosik. Because she had to survive on her own, Mijoo learned early on that let herself out of her Rapunzel tower long ago. Waiting for someone else who might never come wasn't going to put the proverbial self-worth food on the table. Instead, she went out and foraged for those found family relationships herself.

The other great thing about when Seongyeom confronted his father was that it wasn't because Mijoo said anything about what his father had done or that she had encouraged any specific action in that case. Again, there's no "damsels in distress" here with a hero ready to take control (the "Rapunzel" is a lie!), it's about seizing your own life for yourself. Mijoo may be "[Seongyeom's] strength" but the way he stood up to his father in a way he never has before was done alllll on his own. Seongyom, the guy that was once considered "shameless" because he felt no embarrassment in the past when he did things is now actually feeling real shame and embarassment at how his father treats the people Seongyeom holds dear. The portrayal of a loving relationship resulting in self-actualization and autonomy an incredibly beautiful sentiment that isn't really portrayed in romance stories, at least not as explicitly and openly as it is in Run On.

The other thing I want to touch on is the running theme of embracing found families in lieu of obligate families in Run On. At the beginning of the story, Mijoo, while a bit of a loner, has a demonstrated strong relationship with May, and as the story goes on, we see most of her business relationships are also real friendships based on warmth and sincerity. That same sincerity is brought on as her relationship develops with Seongyeom and as she makes friends with Woosik, Younghwa, and even Danah (Mijoo's quips to Danah may be biting but they are sincere, haha). As Seongyeom learns to build his own sincere relationships with his own found family, we also see him bloom from someone with a husk of a social net, a person who barely ever put himself and his actual emotions out there, to a person not only with strong convictions for others but convictions in his actual relationships with others. He lets himself care for others and in turn that opens himself up to the genuine care others have for himself as well.

My favorite scene demonstrating this is after Woosik's training session when Mijoo and Woosik were sitting next to each other looking over the footage. Seongyeom looked at them, not with the detached observation he would have had in episode 1, but with a bit of jealousy tugging at his heart because he wanted to be included. And then he actually expresses he wants to be included, something that would not even cross the mind of the old Seongyeom to want or express. And Mijoo and Woosik's response? They immediately met Seongyeom with warmth, and they not just let him sit down, but sit with them. Like they literally moved and made room for him between the two of them as if it was nothing. Because unlike any relationships he used to have, Seongyeom being included warmly is a given with them. They have such a natural affinity for him, that they just automatically folded him into their interaction. It was such a small scene but it really demonstrated the growth these characters and their relationships have had. There's no room for jealousy here, but there is room for Seongyeom.

And lastly, Run On drives home the importance of cherishing both yourself and the people you care about in tandem for a fulfilling life. In episode 12 we have the scene when Mijoo told Seongyeom's father that Seongyeom is not an object that parallels when he in turn told his father that his sister and Mijoo couldn't be treated like objects either. Neither Seongyeom's or Mijoo's self-worth is defined by the other person standing up for them, hell, they didn't even know each other did that. But just knowing you have that emotional support in your life is a comfort that both Seongyeom and Mijoo know what is like to live without, which makes their convictions even stronger. They've felt life without that support so they do not want the people they care for to have to continue to be treated that way. Nobody deserves to be treated as a pawn in someone else's life. And they can both boldly stand up against this treatment of their loved ones because of their self-actualization (or at least partial self-actualization, they're not perfect) in how to extrapolate their self-worth and tie it into their strength of care for others.

What else is interesting is that at the end of episode 12 when Mijoo is upset because of her verbal tussle with Seongyeom's father, I thought we would get a parallel to Seongyeom in the beginning of the series, where Seongyeom sacrificed himself for others, he was always putting himself second. But in a poignant reversal, she broke up with him not as a sacrifice for him, but for herself, because she is the most important in her own life. This is due in part because she still has that automatic defense mechanism that she can only rely on herself in tough times. That defense mechanism of relying only on herself, however, also has the beautiful reversal of that she knows that she has to work through shit herself to make herself happy. A double-edged sword mounted in a hilt of self-worth.

"Must I continue seeing him at the expense of myself?" Mijoo says. Of course we know this is an emotional strawman argument but I love that Run On has a clear message that having to hide yourself in a Rapunzel Tower for a "caring" relationship means that relationship isn't based in care at all. She also says, "I value myself more than anyone else." Mijoo can't sacrifice herself for Seongyeom's toxic relationship with his father (not that Seongyeom is asking her to, but as an orphan she feels guilty for "coming between" Seongyeom and his father even though she is at literally 0% fault in that relationship mess). Younghwa won't change who he is for Danah, and in turn Younghwa doesn't expect Danah to put him before her either. Woosik can't let his self-doubt change him into someone who has no drive. Now that he's letting himself believe in his ability to recover, he has a better support system than he ever had in his former track team. And as far as Seongyeom is concerned, even all of friends, his new found family, (Woosik, the other track dude, Younghwa, and the former track coach he brought back to coaching) take his personality and his friendship for what it is, none of them are trying to change his personality or mold him into something he's not. They've all actually expressed acceptance and affection for his personality quirks.

The isolation of a "Rapunzel" state-of-mind is being dismantled for all these characters in Run On, and it is immensely fulfilling to see the characters grow as they leave their societal expectations behind and form fulfilling lives for themselves filled with people who love and support them. Self-actualization at its finest.

#run on #kdrama #meta #my meta #heh this started out as a 5-sentence-long post about the post-workout jealousy scene and spiraled #i have meta control problems lol #also i'm including seongyeom's bio sister as part of his found family bc their relationship is now an active choice #long post

[hamliet]

when does a relationship become queerbaiting? theres a book that i really like and the 2 male leads characters have a lot of storylines and arcs where they get closer and i think some of the tropes used can be similar to the typical romantic tropes, neither of them end up with anyone at the end of the story since its more about found family and the long journey the whole cast goes through. they even get shipped by another character as a running gag. personally i always saw it as being open to interpretation but recently the revised edition of the original novel came out and there were several lines those 2 characters had about each other that were kinda toned down, i didnt think much of it but i saw a post about how it was clearly baiting and the author was being homophobic for toning it down. i didnt think it counted as baiting since as far as i know, the novel was never advertised as anything with romance and the author never pretended they were gonna end up together. i am definitely a little weirded out by the decision to change those specific lines but a lot of the story stayed the same, including a lot about their relationship so idk what to think.

i guess im more confused on if it counts as baiting, or even substext??

Sooooo I am not the best person to ask about this, because I’m a cis woman who has thus far in life only been attracted in a romantic sense to cis men. I can talk a bit about baiting as a general concept in fiction, but you should definitely take it with some grains of salt. 

Baiting, for me, is like deliberately playing up an aspect writers have no intention on delivering on. Usually this is done for ratings, to tease fans, fanservice, etc, but without payoff, it is just bad writing. Red herrings are good in writing, but only can be successfully used if the actual result is more satisfying than the herring. This applies to writing in general, not just to romantic ships. However, when the baiting involves historically underrepresented groups for no reason other than to get fans to spend money consuming the story, I think we can all agree that becomes something more grotesque than just bad writing: it’s insensitive, socially irresponsible, frankly hurtful. 

Some common examples are Bridgerton which has a gay character, who is extremely minor, yet they played up this character in advertising. Also, Rizzoli and Isles I think actually had its producers mention deliberately playing up the lesbian subtext to hook the audience without ever intending on following through. 

That said, context also matters. Like, there are aspects of the culture of the work’s author, the target audience, and such that come into play here also (so like, romantic tropes differ by culture. For example, enemies to lovers is common in Asian stories but less in the west, and the “girl who pursues a guy” is extremely common in Japanese shonen in particular, while it is very much a cringe trope that almost never results in romance in American fiction. So if a writer reads, say, tropes that are common in America into a Japanese work and says it’s baiting, that’s quite possibly not the intent even if it may have been the experience of the reader. So even if there was no intent, there can still be hurt, and that hurt can be real, if that makes sense. 

The definition of what constitutes ‘baiting’ varies. I do think that, in true Tumblr fashion, the term gets thrown around a lot and loses its intended meaning, or is so rigidly defined that creators can meet the letter of the “not a bait” requirement while ignoring the spirit of it.

To start with the latter: regarding something hitting the letter of what most wouldn’t consider baiting yet not really the spirit, let’s look at The Rise of Skywalker. This movie had a genuine lesbian kiss in it... between two characters we’d never seen more than a glimpse of while others are celebrating around them. Since it has a kiss, it’s not baiting, right? Well... the director deliberately said in the lead-up to the film that he included it because he “wanted LGBT people to see themselves in the film.” If “see yourselves in the film” is like a nanosecond of background, then, like... idk. Baiting or not, it feels icky, and I know some people consider it baiting and some don’t even if they don’t like, love that representation. But I think this is more queerbaiting than like, Nobara and Maki, who don’t have explicit romantic coding. 

Going back to the former, in terms of ‘queerbaiting’ losing its intended meaning... I think there are a lot of really poorly written romantic ships out there, often het, while a lot of same-gender relationships are really well written regardless of whether there’s romantic coding within the text. The main emotional energy in stories with 90% male characters (as frankly many if not most stories are, great job world) is probably between two men. There’s just so much more potential with well-written characters who share a lot of screen time, so of course people are going to ship them. In my opinion, this does not inherently make it baiting, but it certainly creates an environment that lends itself to baiting even if the writers aren’t intending to do this. 

Like, you could say the main emotional energy in BNHA is Bakugou and Deku. However, Bakudeku is 100% not queerbaiting. It’ll never be canon romantically (I don’t even ship it lol). There has been nothing to imply romance between them even if the main emotional message can be seen in their development. Deku/Ochaco is likely to be canon, but there is a significant lack of genuine emotional energy between them (the story’s plots and themes don’t coalesce around their relationship), so it’s probably going to feel forced. In contrast, Naruto/Sasuke had an actual kiss in canon, which while played for laughs is a lot more direct romantic coding than anything between Bakugou/Deku. I actually don’t think the majority of Narusasu is baiting, but I definitely think that one moment in chapter like 3 was really poor fanservice for yaoi fans, and has not aged well at all. 

It is also the case that fans can confuse headcanons with what is actually in the text, and that just never ends well. For example, Clover and Qrow’s ship in RWBY: a lot of people read Clover as gay, which led to “bury your gays” outrage when he died. A member of the crew stated explicitly they had never intended for Clover to be a love interest for Qrow, and truthfully here was nothing strictly romantic in their relationship--nothing like a kiss or a declaration of love or a parallel to another romantic couple. Hence, I don’t personally consider it queerbaiting or bury your gays, but a lot of fans felt that it was and their pain is legitimate even if I think textually the argument isn’t there. The one thing I do think is true about this in particular is that there was also no strict platonic coding, which encourages headcanons. Clear writing, yo. It can help. 

Note the word “can” not “will,” because strict platonic coding doesn’t always fix things, either. In what was probably a reaction to the outrage over Clover’s death, you had extremely blatant platonic coding of Ruby and Penny’s relationship this season leading up to Penny’s death. Ruby refers to Penny as “our friend” three different times, wherein “friend” sends a platonic message and “our” sends an even stronger message that it’s not about the two of them despite the fact that their friendship is one of the sweetest and most interesting in the show. A lingering Ruby-Penny hug then is followed by a lingering Penny-Weiss hug, then Yang, then Blake, etc. The writers went out of their way to hit people over the head with “platonic” and yet they have still gotten accusations of bury your gays and queerbaiting because people will see what they want to see in a story. 

Seeing what you want to see in a story also isn’t inherently bad. People who are underrepresented are going to have to read themselves into stories because Lord knows writers ain’t incorporating them well enough if at all. It’s why “Mary Sues” are common in fanfiction, which is primarily written by people who are not straight white men: because where the hell else are we to see ourselves in fiction? So essentially the macrocosm of culture creates this problem, both in terms of baiting and the misuse of the term, and the only fix is a shit ton more good representation.

#ask hamliet #writing stuff #Anonymous

[dameferre]

i also wanna know abt who am i really 👀

okay. so. ‘who am i really’ is the first zukka thing i ever wrote, started before i had even. finished watching the show lmao

basically i have 25k of it written, probably another 4-5k written in notes and an outline, but i am mature and knowledgeable of my own shortcomings enough to know there’s no way in hell i’ll ever finish it, because that 25k? isn’t even. 20% of the fic if i were to actually write it, like this shit would approach 200k in its final form and i very simply do not have the time to actually. write that lmao

but i’m happy to talk about it! so basically it was the whole ‘oh my god they were roommates’ premise except zuko is sokka’s downstairs neighbour, they fight over music volume, and for the first part of the fic zuko’s a bootlicking son of the city police chief and starting out at the police academy, who calls the cops on sokka for his music one night

aand i just realised how long this is gonna be so under the cut!

so we start from the ‘zuko’s a fucking asshole’ stage and move on from there, and then due to a couple of different mildly traumatic events  zuko realises the police system is inherently evil, has his whole redemption arc slash emotional breakdown and quits the force, he gets cut off by ozai and moves in w sokka for cheaper rent bc sokka is a nice person (who’s seen the way zuko has been walking around looking like absolute Death for weeks) and also needs someone to help w the rent

we also start from the point where sokka’s dating suki, and zuko’s still coming to terms with his sexuality, so there’s all that to work through

basically it just goes into the development of zuko and sokka’s friendship, and zuko’s development as a person going from an incredibly sheltered, incredibly privileged life to... the opposite of that lmao and how his friendship with the rest of the gaang grows, and his personal journey, and whatnot, just a nice little mirror for canon except w more swearing and the author talking about how all cops are bastards

it’s all self indulgent nonsense and little bits of shit that popped into my head so i wrote it down, really, but here’s my favourite bit

“So I was thinking.”

“Never a good sign.”

“Ha, ha.” Sokka deadpans. “Seriously though. I want a GNO. Drinking, dancing, questionable choices, might even get some action if I’m on my game.”

“And you think this is something I would enjoy.” Zuko, the introvert who can’t dance, responds.

“You’ll enjoy it because you’re going with your best friends, one of whom is just getting over the emotional hangover of the end of a three-year relationship.” Sokka pouts. “We can even go to a gay club! It’s been ages since I’ve been to one.”

Zuko snorts, and looks back to the TV. “I thought you wanted to get some ‘action’.”

“I mean, I would also be fine with just a fun night out with the gang. But if there are interested parties.” Sokka shrugs.

“Well, forgive me if my idea of a fun night isn’t watching Toph beat the shit out of you for creeping on lesbians at a gay club.”

Sokka makes an exasperated noise. “C’mon, you know me better than that.” He says, throwing a cheeto at the side of Zuko’s face. “I said interested parties. I can be strictly dick-tly for an evening, no sweat.”

Zuko turns, brow raised. “What does that even mean.”

“Y’know. I wouldn’t say no to a girl of the bipan persuasion if she wants to make a move, but if I’m actively pursuing anyone, it’ll just be guys. And, y’know, any non-girl people who seem into it.”

A record scratches in Zuko’s brain. “You… why would you pursue a guy.”

“I dunno, if he’s hot?” Sokka says, looking at him like he’s crazy. “Or has a nice smile? Shiny hair? I dunno, why do you usually pursue guys, Z.”

“But.” Zuko stammers, staring at Sokka. “But I’m attracted to men.”

Sokka blinks at him. “…so am I?”

What. “What.” No seriously, what. “What?!”

“Is this… are you trying to be funny?”

Zuko stares at his roommate, frantically trying to understand what’s going on. “Are you trying to be funny?!”

“No, I’m being bisexual.” Sokka says, slightly defensively. “Because I’m bisexual?”

“Since when?!”

Sokka stares at him, then gestures to wall. “Zuko, that’s been up since I moved in. I know you’ve seen it.”

Zuko turns to stare at the wall, but all he can see is- “The flag?”

“Yeah, Zuko, the fucking flag. Did you think I just thought it was pretty?”

“Is-” Zuko flounders. “Is the flag significant?”

Sokka looks intently, somewhat crazed, at Zuko’s face, like he’s searching for something. Whatever it is, he obviously doesn’t find it. His arm is still held out towards the wall, and he uses it to gesture towards the flag again, more aggressively this time. “It’s the fucking bisexual pride flag, Zuko!”

“I.” Zuko gapes at him, still confused. “I thought the pride flag was a rainbow?”

“Oh my-” Sokka starts. “Are you fucking with me right now. Is this you fucking with me.” He pauses, staring at Zuko. “Jesus fuck, Zuko, there are different flags for different sexualities. That’s the bisexual one.”

Zuko stares at the flag, then back at Sokka, then back at the flag. Then back at Sokka. “Well how was I supposed to know that?!”

“Everybody knows that, Zuko!” Sokka exclaims, then brings his hand up to rub at the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I guess you just. Didn’t know that. Somehow. And that’s fine. Point being, I am bisexual. I am attracted to all genders, I’ve been- I thought- out since I was sixteen. So yeah. I’m bi.”

“But.” Zuko’s brain has been trying to process this information, and now rejects it entirely. “But that. You can’t be.”

Sokka gives him a weird look. “I can’t be?” His face shifts, into something sort of… defensive. Wary, almost. “Do you have a problem with bisexuals?”

“What?” Oh shit. “No, of- of course not! I- I love bisexuals! All of the- um,” Zuko’s mind races, trying to think of a bi person he knows personally, and then frantically widening its search to any bisexual human being in all of recorded history. “Jet! Jet’s bi! Love Jet, he’s, um. Yeah! Bi.”

Sokka’s face isn’t defensive anymore, but it is shocked. And- something else, Zuko can’t quite place. “You love Jet?”

“What?”

“You just said you loved Jet.” Sokka says, sort of quietly. “I just- I guess I didn’t know you guys were at that point.”

Zuko absolutely does not love Jet. Only Jet loves Jet. But Sokka’s looking at him, lit by the artificial glow of the TV, still the most attractive thing Zuko’s ever seen. So Zuko’s self-preservation instinct kicks in. “Uh. Yeah, you know.” He swallows. “It’s still pretty new, but. Yeah.”

“Well hey, that’s.” Sokka gives a small smile. “That’s great.” He places his hands on his thighs, pushing up off the couch. “I’m just gonna text everybody, see if we can get the night planned.”

He walks away, leaving Zuko to his mental breakdown in peace.

Sokka’s bi.

Sokka.

Is bi.

[later that week or some transition i haven’t written lmao]

“Zuko, you know I’m bi, right?” Suki laughs, but the grin slides off her face when Zuko hesitates. “You know that, right.”

Zuko makes a reluctant face. “I know now…?”

“Oh my-“ Suki stares at him, then looks at Sokka who makes a face as if to say ‘see, what did I tell you’. “Ew, Zuko!” She cries. “Ew, you thought- you thought I was straight?!”

“You had a boyfriend,” Zuko defends himself weakly.

Suki looks like she wants to scream. “I’ve never been so offended in my entire life.”

“Now you know how I feel.” Sokka says.

“Me! A straight girl!” She laughs, slightly hysterical. “Me!”

“Okay, I guess I just-” Zuko starts, but Suki holds out two fingers in front of his face, shutting him up.

“No no, that’s enough from you today.” She looks, wide-eyed, at Sokka. “What do I have to do, paint the fucking bi flag on my face?”

Sokka snorts. “He wouldn’t recognise it, anyway.”

Suki turns back to glare at Zuko. “I thought we were friends, Zuko.”

and then in a perfect world this would be followed by a montage of all the times sokka has definitely been openly bisexual in front of ‘still coming to terms with his own sexuality’ zuko who’d just. wrote it off as bro culture

#this au has so many fun things half-written for it lmao #shame most of them will die with me #wow i'm dramatic #if you can tell id just finished my schitt's creek rewatch when i wrote this so can i lmao #dickpuncher #elle writes things #elle answers your questions

[buckybarnesthehotshot]

Hiiii🥰🥰 could I get a tony x reader where the reader is related to Peggy Carter in some way. He always flirts and annoys her until something goes wrong at the lab or at SHIELD and they end up getting sent back to the 40s so they have to find Pegs and Howard to help them get back. And while there they realize how much they actually like eachother and all. Pleeeaassee. I really like this idea and I can’t wait to see what you might do. Thank you 🥰🥰

 Blast From The Past (Tony Stark x reader)

word count: 2720 (this was longer than expected but oh well)

warnings: mentions of guns, time travel, and this isn’t edited

A/N: okay so I’ve never tried writing anything for Tony so this was a fun challenge and it took me a while to finish but here we are, I hope this is what you asked for, anon :))

      Tony Stark, yet again, was visiting another S.H.I.E.L.D base under the orders of Nick Fury. He was what Fury called a consultant and some scientists in one of the bases were said to be working on a breakthrough; something that could advance S.H.I.E.L.D tech. They needed his help in developing something, but they wouldn’t tell him what.

       The moment he stepped foot in the base, he was surrounded in a crowd of young agents; trainees he guessed, seeing as though they could not help themselves but be starstruck in his presence.

       “Agents, I expected better of you,” a voice echoed through the room, causing the agents to step away from Tony and return to where they were stationed. When the crows cleared, Tony recognized the striking features of Y/N L/N, the woman he’d spent most of his childhood with.

       “Y/N, I didn’t know you worked here,” Tony grinned, amused at the sight of Y/N playing into a leadership role at the base.

       “Stark, this is my base and you have no business being here,” Y/N scowled, Tony’s presence annoying her.

       “Well, Fury would say otherwise,” he smirked arrogantly, earning a huff of realization from Y/N. Of all the people Fury could send, he sent the most infuriating man alive.

       “You’re the consultant?” the e/c-eyed girl frowned.

       “I think, I am. Then again, Fury refuses to tell me I’m a consultant for,” Tony scoffed, drawing a chuckle from Y/N.

       “Before I tell you anything, I’m obliged to tell you that you might have to work on the project for quite a while. Three weeks, at minimum,” Y/N explained, leading him through the base and to an elevator.

       “As long as it means I get to see you more? Sure,” Tony smirked as Y/N rolled her eyes before scanning her I.D, shutting the elevator doors.

       Y/N and Tony had a complicated friendship—well, if you could call it that. Not many people knew, but the pair were childhood friends before it all came to an abrupt end when Tony and Y/N had an argument when it came to what they wanted to do in life. Y/N, after all, wanted to follow in her aunt’s steps.

       “They’re fooling you into thinking this is what you want in life, Y/N!” a young Tony stark yelled out, his voice echoing through the walls of the Stark mansion.

       “This is what I want, Tones. I want to help, no matter the price,” Y/N argued back.

      “And what if the price is me, huh? I don’t want anything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D,” Tony scoffed. Y/N frowned before her face hardened.

       “That’s a price I’m willing to pay,” Y/N rolled her eyes in annoyance before bolting out the front door, never to see Tony Stark again…until he decided he wanted to fly around in a red and gold suit, calling himself Iron Man.

       Looking back at the argument, Y/N now knew why he was so adamant about not working with S.H.I.E.L.D. After all, the organization is what kept Tony from his father all those years ago.  

        When Tony became Iron Man, a silent agreement was formed between them. They were coworkers and their past would not affect that.

       The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened, revealing an army of scientists working together in different groups, confusing Tony further. Based off what he was seeing, he still could not figure out what it was Y/N’s scientists were working on. Y/N easily read the expression on Tony’s face before leading him out the elevator and beginning her explanation.

       “Time travel has been a myth amongst mankind for quite some time now, but recently, on a HYDRA bust, some of our agents found a new component that could help make it possible. Now, we’re kind of working tooth and nail to get the technology for it working,” Y/N explained, taking in the shock which formed on Tony’s face.

       “Time travel shouldn’t be possible,” Tony muttered to himself.

       “This component, when it comes into contact with something damaged, it regenerates cells. At first, we thought it was a regenerative component until we heated it wrong and ruined the supply of mangoes we keep in the lab. Turns out, it doesn’t regenerate shit,” Y/N explained.

       “And you’re sure this component of yours could help make some sort of time machine?” Tony questioned, leaning his face into his palms as he took in all the work that was going on around him.

       “Yes,” Y/N nodded before Tony reluctantly agreed to help with the project.

       And that was how Y/N Carter and Tony Stark began seeing each other regularly and for some reason, Tony appeared to make it his personal mission to annoy the shit out of the superior officer.

       “You know it would be a lot easier to work if you didn’t distract me with that face of yours,” Tony huffed one day while he was revising the blueprints for the project.

       “Are you calling me ugly?” Y/N raised a brow.

       “The opposite of that, actually,” Tony smirked, earning an eye roll from Y/N. Most of the days went on like that; Tony making flirty remarks and Y/N doing her best to shrug them off.

      All that until finally, the machine was completed! Well, almost. They weren’t able to conduct any tests yet and nobody else knew the state the machine was in. Tony, claiming he didn’t work well with others, booted everyone out the lab before he could think of the best way to get the machine working.

       It was 2:39 in the morning when he had the breakthrough that changed everything. In his excitement, he found himself dialing Y/N only to find out that she was still in the building. When he told her there was something he wanted to show her with the machine, she rushed down to the labs and was greeted with the sight of him standing in front of the machine, arms wide open as he welcomed her in.

       “I finished it!” Tony exclaimed, excitedly pulling Y/N into a hug, shocking the girl.

       “Great, we can probably do something about how to test this thing in the morning,” Y/N smiled happily as she pulled away from the hug.

       “I was thinking, maybe we could test this together,” Tony offered, holding his hand out. Y/N hesitated before taking it. He practically tore her arm off when he dragged her to the machine and let it fire up.

       “Tony, what about our way—” Y/N was stopped when she was engulfed in a bright light.

       When the bright light faded, Y/N found herself looking around the unfamiliar space. Wait, no. Something about it was familiar to her.

       “It worked!” Tony exclaimed excitedly.

       “Great, how do we get back?” Y/N questioned. Tony’s face fell, panicking Y/N. Did he not think of a way to bring them back?

       “Fuck, I didn’t think of that!” Tony exclaimed and suddenly a loud beeping rang through the room and they knew they were fucked.

       Men stormed into the room, wearing uniforms and armed with guns. Y/N began counting the men that begun to surround them and she managed to count at least 27 of them. If she had a decent weapon, hell a dagger even, she knew she could have been able to take them all, but she knew if she had any shot at getting back to the present, she would just have to comply until further notice.

       “I’m unarmed,” Y/N stated cautiously, holding her hands up to her head as she kneeled onto the floor.

       “The fuck are you doing?” Tony questioned, a confused look painted on his face.

       “Sit your ass down, bitch,” Y/N rolled her eyes, kicking Tony’s ankles, forcing him onto his knees.

       “Damn, if you wanted me to kneel for you, you could’ve just asked,” Tony muttered, holding his hands above his head too.

       “Shut up,” Y/N rolled her eyes as the agents drew closer and closer until they began cuffing the pair.

       The pair were assisted to what appeared to be some kind of interrogation room. It was too familiar to her. Sitting on a cold metal chair, handcuffed to a metal table, facing a one-sided mirror.

       To her shock, it wasn’t just some agent who came in to interrogate her. No, it was Peggy Carter. Y/N’s eyes lit up in recognition of her aunt in younger years.

       “Who do you work for?” her accented voice rang through their ears like smooth silk.

       “We’re visiting from the France unit,” Y/N lied, putting on a fake French accent as she explained herself.

       “Ah, oui,” Tony nodded along.

       “We weren’t expecting any visitors, and who are you?” Peggy snarled, leaning against the metal table.

       “I told you, Miss Carter, I’m Agent Edith Broussard from the Paris base. Check my badge,” Y/N rolled her eyes, motioning to her coat. Peggy reluctantly reached into her coat pocket and pulled out Y/N’s identification card along with her badge. Behold, there it was, the old S.H.I.E.L.D logo and an I.D card from S.H.I.E.L.D’s Paris branch.

       “My apologies, Agent Broussard,” Peggy nodded as she uncuffed Y/N from the table.

       “This is my—” Y/N explained only to be interrupted.

       “Husband. Hi, the name’s Antoine Broussard,” Tony attempted to shake Peggy’s hand only to be stopped by the cuffs around his hand. Peggy looked to Y/N as though to verify he was actually telling the truth and she just nodded.

      “Miss Carter, our system, it didn’t work properly. Do you have anyone on base who can help with this?” Y/N questioned, holding up a small remote. Tony looked to her, his face contorting to one of confusion.

       “Of course, we do. Howard Stark, he’s our best scientist here,” Peggy smiled, leading them into a lab of sorts.

        A sharply-dressed man greeted them, his arms held wide open as he proudly showed off his lab to the new visitors.

       “Who’s this lovely lady?” the man smirked, earning an eye roll from Tony. Of course, his father was the only person who could help them.

       “His wife,” Peggy deadpanned as Howard’s face fell.

       “You got luck with this one then,” Howard winked before turning to Peggy, “What do you need today, oh great Agent Carter?”

       “They’re agents from the Paris base and their traveling system malfunctioned and they need help fixing it,” Peggy explained.

       “Can’t you fly them out on the next jet to Paris?” Howard questioned.

       “That’s the problem. We’re unlisted agents, Mr. Stark. Flying, even on a S.H.I.E.L.D flight, could put us at risk of exposure,” Y/N explained, earning a nod from Howard.

       “Let me see this travelling system of yours,” Howard requested, holding his hand out. Y/N reluctantly handed over the small device she herself had been working on.

       “This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. What’s this made of?” Howard muttered as he began to observe the small device he held.

       “It’s confidential,” Y/N crossed her arms over her chest.

       “I can’t work on something if you won’t tell me what this is for,” Howard huffed, still fiddling with the device he held in his hands.

       “That’s what I told her,” Tony muttered, earning a quick glare from Y/N.

       “Mr. Stark, as much as I’d like for you to be able to work on this more efficiently, I’m under direct orders from our base not to let any of this information leak. Even if you try contacting our superior about this, they will tell you they know nothing about the project or our existence,” Y/N frowned, earning a look from Tony. Damn, she was good at lying on the spot.

       “This could take me months to figure out,” Howard muttered.

       “Cut it down to one,” Peggy and Y/N spoke simultaneously, earning a chuckle from both Tony and Howard.

       “That’s impossible,” Howard frowned.

       “It is if my husband works on it. He’s one of the most brilliant minds we had on our base and trust me, he knows his shit. He’s one of the scientists who worked on the project,” Y/N smiled, giving Tony a small nudge.

       “Well, you must be pretty smart if you managed to work with this stuff,” Howard chuckled in a confident matter.

       “Actually, I had nothing to do with that device. I worked on the model we have in the lab,” Tony chuckled nervously as he too scanned the device.

       “I made it based off your blueprints. I reverse engineered everything, but I didn’t have time to finish working on it. Not everyone could be a super genius,” Y/N chuckled.

       “No, this is great, actually,” Howard mumbled, taking in the workings of the device.

       “I’m going to show Agent Broussard to their temporary chambers. I assume you and Antoine can handle this?” Peggy raised a brow, expecting a proper answer.

       “Sure,” Howard nodded with a huff before Peggy led Y/N out of the room.

       Although they were out of their time, Y/N and Tony somehow managed to fit into roles at the base. Y/N, as she naturally would have, assisted Peggy with taking on the leadership role in the base. She was an outsider, yet Peggy seemed to place her trust in the girl.

       Tony, on the other hand, was busy working with Howard in the lab to get them back to their “base in Paris”. For once in his life, Tony felt content. Why? He was finally able to prove to his father how capable he truly was—well, even though Howard didn’t quite know that Antoine was his son.

       “Agent Carter, can you bring Agent Broussard down to the lab?” Tony requested over the base’s communication system.

       “On our way,” Peggy responded curtly. Over the span of the few weeks, Tony and Y/N found themselves growing fond of each other. After all, they were the only ones they could trust.

       When they arrived at the lab, Tony engulfed Y/N in a tight hug, muttering a quick “thank you” into her hair, confusing her.

       “I’ll explain later, but we finished the machine!” Tony exclaimed excitedly.

       “And you took everything into account this time? We can’t leave any traces of this behind,” Y/N whispered loud enough for only him to hear.

       “Yeah, babysitting my dad wasn’t exactly a fun experience, but at least I know how you feel whenever you’re around me,” Tony chuckled.

       “Great, can we launch the machine?” Y/N questioned, her eyes gazing upon the gadget in Howard’s hands.

        “Don’t you want to test it first?” Peggy questioned, her expression being painted as one of concern.

       “I have full faith in you, and it’s been weeks since we left the base, I don’t think we can afford to lose anymore time,” Y/N smiled graciously before taking the machine out of Stark’s hands.

       “Wait, there aren’t any records of this project here, are there?” Tony questioned, facing Peggy.

       “I already had a talk with Edith regarding the confidentiality of this project. You, Howard, Edith, and I are the only ones with knowledge of this project and that will be how it remains,” Peggy smiled.

       “Thank you, Peggy,” Y/N gave a nod of respect before turning to Tony, “Let’s go home.”

       “See you around, Agent Edith Broussard!” Peggy smiled only to get a quick response from both Tony and Howard.

       “You won’t,” they’d both said at the same time, also drawing a chuckle from Y/N and Peggy. Tony fiddled with the small device until finally, they were engulfed in a bright light.

       When the light faded, Y/N took in her surroundings to see she was now in the lab of the present S.H.I.E.L.D. base, the moment after they’d left for the past in the first place. She peered behind her to see Tony smiling down at her like a madman.

       “Do I have something on my face?” Y/N’s brows furrowed in confusion.

       “I want to thank you for putting me on this project. It was pretty fun working with my dad even if it was as Antoine Broussard,” Tony chuckled, his brown eyes glimmering with joy.

       “Well, I wouldn’t be able to work alongside Aunt Peggy if you didn’t manage to finish the machine…even if you fucked up with getting us back,” Y/N chuckled.

       “So…dinner?” Tony offered, smiling down at Y/N.

       “Sure,” Y/N smiled back as Tony led her out of the lab to begin their search for a restaurant still open at 3 in the morning.

TAGLIST: @captainamerica-is-bae / @sxphiiwrld / @spatium-viatorem / 

#tony stark x reader #tony stark #tony stark imagine #tony stark fanfiction #tony stark x you #tony stark x y/n #iron man #iron man x reader #iron man imagine #iron man fanfic #iron man x y/n #iron man x you #avengers imagine #avengers x reader #avengers x you #avengers #requests

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

hot take: Louis and Violet's "friendship" is one-sided and poorly written. The only reason its considered a "brOTP" is because the fandom writes the friendhsip better than Telltale did.

I mean... you’re not wrong, anon, hahaha.

In fact, I totally agree that their friendship isn’t well developed within the game, and because of that, it feels one-sided. 

They have the chemistry of two friends who care about each other, but the game doesn’t feel the need to show or develop this further than light banter and a couple of mini-monologues from Louis and Violet when you save them, monologues that don’t even add up with the character actions...

Both card games are great. They get along well there, but the rest of the time? Ehhhhh....

If Violet isn’t putting Louis down to his face, she’s doing it behind his back, and Louis doesn’t trust her enough to even tell her why he wants to board up the back wall later instead of right that minute, which means he’s probably not as open with her as we once thought. 

Violet’s so pissed about Marlon that she can’t be bothered to take in the fact that Louis is mourning/traumatized from his death, which results in her calling him names, degrading him in front of others, and shit-talking Marlon right in front of him, which he does call her out for. Because Louis is still processing everything about what Marlon did to the twins and Brody and why AJ felt the need to shoot him after he gave up, he’s just as angry and upset and doesn’t know what to do so he votes to kick Clementine and AJ out, even if he knows that he doesn’t actually hate them or really want them to leave. He doesn’t know what he wants, he’s just all over the place. This pisses Violet off because she wants them to stay for her own more selfish reasons which blind her to the fact that AJ murdering someone, even someone like Marlon, the way he did is bad.

They’re both on the extreme sides of this, and they’re both wrong. Just gonna throw that out there-- Louis and Violet are both wrong here. I lean more in Louis’ favor than Violet’s because I don’t agree with Violet’s idea that AJ did nothing wrong, but ultimately kicking Clem and AJ out isn’t the best choice of action here. But that doesn’t mean AJ is justified in what he did and he needs to know that. 

After all the nonsense, these two spend two weeks bickering about this and that while under the stress of raiders wanting to take them away. Because of that they never reconciled and don’t do anything close to that until the card game. Nope, they’re just arguing because Violet won’t shut her mouth and listen and Louis won’t open his mouth and be honest. 

Communication is their biggest struggle.

Then where the imbalance really starts to shine through is when you play both routes, and see that what Louis is telling us about Violet isn’t exactly what the game portrays. He talks about how if he needed her, Violet would be there,  meat cleaver in hand, ready to protect him... buuuuut when you save Violet, she completely forgets that Louis exists once we get on the boat. She never asks if he’s okay or how he’s doing, and when she reunites with Clementine after the cave scene, she has nothing to say about him losing his tongue. The most we get out of her is that weak little “Lou” that’s honestly just.... pathetic. And she certainly does nothing to help or protect him after he's tongueless, bleeding out, and can barely walk, choosing to stay with Minerva instead. 

It doesn’t help that she seems to be facing him with a cleaver more times than protecting him with it. Y’know... after AJ shoots Marlon and Louis is distressed and everyone’s looking at Clementine, Violet pulls out her cleaver on Louis and the others and steps in front of AJ... who the group isn’t even looking at and wouldn’t even attack. So, good job there. 

If they wanted this to make sense without it coming off like Louis and Violet’s friendship is one-sided... maybe have her ditch the ex-girlfriend who tried to murder Clementine and help Louis get off the boat? Oh, that messes up your “we gotta have Louis save Clem on the beach and Violet to crawl up shore no matter the player choice” nonsense? Oh, my bad, you’re right. We’ll just settle for it being bad then. 

And the thing is... Violet’s talk about Louis isn’t entirely accurate, either, though it does appear more so than Louis’ talk about her based on his actions. She talks about how Louis actually cares about people, which IS true. He’s proved many times that he cares about and values those around him more than he does himself. Unlike Violet, he does ask if she’s okay when they’re stuck on the boat and will tell Clementine that her eyes aren’t infected. He’s also the one to hold her hand and guide her back to the group after the explosion. 

And we all know how honest he is about his feelings with Clementine after they start a relationship, which makes Violet’s idea that when Louis cares about someone, he doesn’t just feel it, he says it. 

But the idea that he’ll just always say how he feels, scream it, sing it isn’t.... quite there? Okay, how do I explain this... he’s honest and loud when he’s pissed or distressed, but when he’s not...? Louis isn’t open with how he cares about others he doesn’t have the same deep connection with unless he’s stressed, upset, or has quiet, one on one time with them, and even then it can be hard for him to come out and say it because he feels like they’re not really hearing him. Y’know... like every conversation he has with Violet ever. 

I mean, Louis barely shares anything significant with Clementine until they go hunting and he tells her about how he believes they all have one thing: this moment, and as if realizing he’s shared too much, he switches his persona back on and pushes her away back over to Aasim. He does a little friendly flirting but even that doesn’t always come the easiest [like when he asked if she ever had a boyfriend] and it doesn’t become more serious until much later. 

Then we don’t get much from him and his feelings for her until the talk in the quiet talk in the dorms, then he opens up more about Marlon after the two-week time skip during shooting practice, and eventually breaking down the entire wall and being open and vulnerable with her in the piano room. But it takes effort to get there, and it’s quiet. That’s the thing-- he’s not shouting anything or singing or whatever because that’s the persona. When he sings Oh My Darling to Clem in ep1, it’s cute and fun and all, but it’s not as real as when he sits down and plays Don’t Be Afraid in ep3. That’s quiet, emotional, and more him, and the only time the group is sitting down and actively listening.

This makes me believe that Violet truly thinks that Louis is loud and always honest about his feelings is based on the outer wall of his that she sees every day rather than what’s beyond the wall... if that makes any sense. Hell, the same could be said for him. You could argue they’re both just seeing what the other wants them to see. 

So this whole thing makes me wonder if these two just don’t really know each other the way they think they do.... which is interesting. Like, with everything said, I don’t actually doubt that they care about each other and have their own ways of showing it, I’m just throwing doubt at the game for not expanding on this friendship outside of banter and the verses thing they got going on. 

So yeah... brotp within the game itself? Probably not. But that’s fine, we have a community that goes them justice to help fill the void. Fanon brotp Louis/Violet is enjoyable and I love it. :) 

#asks #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg clementine #twdg marlon #twdg brody #twdg minerva #twdg aj

[princess-rosie]

Sanders sides dance school au because I can

(This dance school does most, if not all dance styles, and most of the students just do it as a hobby, it isn’t like a boarding ballet school)

Patton Hart

The cinnamon roll who the others must protect at all costs

Not the best dancer technically but he has good rhythm and amazing performance and personality- he still loves dance so much, and is improving every day

Has been here the longest, since he was a toddler

Is tiny and looks so short compared to everyone else on stage

Has made so many friendships and cares about his fellow dancers so much, loves dancing as a team

Loves wearing tutus

If the dance has a lift, he’s nearly always the one who’s lifted because he’s super light and trusts the others so much

A lot of the time on stage he can’t stop laughing because he’s just so happy to be performing

Loves every style of dance so much- don’t make him choose a favourite!

Is extremely unlucky when it comes to quick costume changes, almost always has a back-to-back in shows, Virgil and Remus don’t do as many dances so are always prepared backstage with his next costume

Brings a teddy bear to the backstage dressing room, no one judges him

Loves partnered dances, especially with Janus

Doesn’t score that high on exams, just sees them as a bit of fun and loves hanging out with everyone during the extra practice lessons

Always brings snacks for everyone while they wait between classes

Loves all the glitter and costumes, gets very excited when it comes to showtime

Always helps with the younger kids on stage. They often get bored while waiting for their dances so he plays with them while having a mental breakdown on the inside

Compiles all the show photos into a scrapbook and invites everyone over to his house to rewatch the show footage. Will remember the shows for the rest of his goddamn life.

Logan Berry

Braincell of the group

The only one with his shit together

Technically perfect dancer but struggles with performance/expression sometimes

Always brings extras of everything to shows because he knows people will forget/lose stuff

Knows all of his routines off the top of his head, sometimes even teaches everyone else

Memorises the running order of every show and makes spreadsheets to show who’s in which dance, people make fun of him for it slightly at first but they’re actually really helpful

If you have a question about literally anything- choreography, costumes, show timings, he will know

Does ridiculously fast tap solos and always gets the rhythm 100% perfect

Whenever the dancers have to come on stage in a line, there’s an agreement that Logan always leads because he’s often the only one who knows when to come on

Very determined to succeed in his exams, prepares extensively. the only time he will show emotion is if he thinks something has gone wrong. Usually gets near perfect marks in everything but performance

After each show he rewatches the footage and makes notes on everything he did wrong to improve for next time

Struggles with emotional stuff but he truly does see the dance school as a second home and dancing as far more than just a hobby

Roman Kingsley

Probably the best dancer in the school, wants to dance professionally someday

Exceedingly hard-working, technically flawless, amazing performance, always gives 100%

Has glitter and hairspray with him everywhere he goes

Loves every dance style but if he had to choose a favourite he’d probably go for ballet because he loves how graceful it is and the acting involved

Also does musical theatre and has an amazing singing voice

Extremely overdramatic, and just loves how extra the whole thing is, especially show costumes

Does so many classes he practically lives at the dance school

Can’t possibly be tired or worn out because he loves dance so much

Is in practically half the dances in every show but somehow manages it

Sings along to every song he dances to, even if it isn’t a musical theatre number

Got on his knees and begged the musical theatre teacher to do Hamilton. Did not succeed because swearing and there’s little kids in the dance school. However he did get away with Dear Evan Hansen- a contemporary routine to Waving Through a Window

Works very hard for his exams and it always pays off

Remus Kingsley

Chaos incarnated.

What’s a routine, he’s just here to vibe

Has come on stage late more times than you can count, sometimes because he’s lost part of his costume, other times because he genuinely forgot when his dance was

Technical disaster but is entertaining to watch

Is so chaotic in class, rarely listens, pisses the teachers off to no end- Roman often has to go over the routines with him afterwards because he doesn’t retain any of the steps

Has forgotten the dance while onstage multiple times but the audience rarely notice because he doesn’t fit with what everyone else is doing anyway

Does twin duets with Roman sometimes

Just dances for a bit of fun and to make friends- he knows he probably won’t get a career in dance but is so proud of his brother and supports him all the way

His favourite is Irish Riverdancing

“Ugghgh tech rehearsal is sooooooo boooriiiing”

Relies on Logan to know what the hell is going on

Roman also knows his routines better than he does. Sometimes, if Remus is in a dance but Roman isn’t, Roman will wear his costume and fill in for him

Can actually do the technique on the rare occasion that he tries

Usually freaks the hell out on exam days as he has done zero practice and gives every excuse not to do it. Somehow passes every time

Spends the entirety of tech rehearsal looking around for the filming cameras so he can stare straight into them and freak people out

Somehow manages to ladder every single goddamn pair of tights he wears

Janus Sanders

Charming with excellent performance skills

Says the costumes are too extravagant but secretly he loves all the glitter and fancy stuff

Loves ballroom dancing, him and Roman taught Patton to waltz and now he is a regular at the ballroom classes

Also loves the more jazzy dances and some of the tap ones

Doesn’t really pay much attention in class but somehow gets the routines spot on

Is usually the one to do everyone’s stage makeup

Also loves the musical theatre routines, him and Patton are usually the side characters while Roman is the lead

Knows how to razzle dazzle an audience, has good technique too

Also has potential for a career in dance but he isn’t sure

Encourages his fellow dancers to drink water and take breaks if needed

Loves any dance with a prop so he can be extra

Also loves partner dances, especially since Patton joined ballroom

Is pretty chill about exams, charms the examiner with his performance skills and usually gets great results

Orders pizza for everyone after the shows, runs to the theatre foyer in full costume and makeup to meet the delivery person

Sneaks a TV into the dressing room and somehow makes it so they can watch what’s going on onstage. No one knows how he got it there and honestly they’re afraid to ask.

Virgil Storm

Doesn’t know why he’s here half the time

Has a love-hate relationship with dance

Often has panic attacks backstage but his friends are always there to support him

Doesn’t stop going on about how he thinks the routines are “cringey” but secretly loves performing and acting

Loves more modern dance styles like commercial

Overthinks everything a lot

Doesn’t take many exams but when he does he gets very nervous

In class he tends to do the routines half-heartedly but will go full out with the performance onstage. Never rewatches the footage or looks at the photos but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t look back upon those show memories with extreme fondness

Extra info

Roman, Remus and Logan are 16

Janus, Virgil and Patton are 15

Heights from tallest to shortest-

Roman

Remus

Logan

Janus

Virgil

Patton (shortest by far)

Ranking of who does the most classes:

Roman

Patton and Janus

Logan

Remus

Virgil

At shows all 6 of them share a small dressing room and look after each other

Everyone goes shopping in town between matinee and evening performances in full makeup, they get the craziest looks but they don’t care

For partnered dances the usual pairings are Patton and Janus, Logan and Roman, Virgil and Remus (do whatever you will with that information)

I may develop this au in the future and possibly write something if my writers block will ever end

Also if any other fanders do dance, feel free to tag yourselves! (I’m Patton and Logan)

Edit: if you like the idea of this au and are interested in reading it as a (probably terrible) fic, you can do so here (tumblr) or here (ao3). If you do check it out let me know what you think!!

#moceit #intruxiety #logince #sanders sides #thomas sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #janus sanders #virgil sanders #ts patton #ts remus #ts virgil #ts logan #ts janus #ts roman #ts sides #sanders sides au #sanders sides dance school au #long post #dukexiety

[kbstories]

impression//expression

“It’s not like Kirishima had come all this way to U.A. to immediately break the promise he made to himself upon arrival.

It’s just that Bakugou is as feral as they come, and the moment Kirishima recognizes it’s fear he felt crawling up his spine that day, he makes it his personal mission to face it head-on until it’s gone.”

(Or: Being friends with Bakugou Katsuki is anything but a linear experience. Kirishima Eijirou would have it no other way.)

Tags: Kirishima POV, Developing Friendships, First Impressions, Slice of Life, Character Study

No additional content warnings apply. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9.

***

Kirishima Eijirou had stared at the grin on Bakugou’s face when he pulled the pin in his gauntlet and thought: Holy shit, this guy is insane.

Over multiple screens, a good chunk of Ground β went up in a blast so strong the floor trembled with its aftershocks even here, miles away. Concrete and steel and glass were incinerated in a gust of fire and debris until all that was left was Midoriya’s crumpled form amidst plumes of smoke and Bakugou standing tall in the ruins.

The cameras shorted out once, twice before the image stabilized; the transmission remained silent. There was no sound needed to see how Bakugou’s grin got an edge sharper in the wake of the explosion.

Insane and absolutely deadly.

It wasn’t Kirishima’s first impression of him, per se. Certainly he’d had some sort of reaction to the only name ranked above his own after the Entrance Exams and the total sum of zero rescue points listed beside it. He can even remember the twinge of something in his chest after seeing that infamous quirk in action on day one – be it awe or envy or plain curiosity, that innocent question of How does it work, though? that accompanies most encounters with a new power.

Still: In those first few days, when Kirishima thinks of Bakugou Katsuki, he thinks of the mad glint in his eyes as he went above and beyond in his attempt to murder their classmate (or seriously maim him, at the very least).

In hindsight, having him play the villain was perhaps less coincidence and more fate, given the optics of what could reasonably be described as a shitshow. And, okay, Kirishima knows it’s not exactly fair to judge someone based solely on fleeting observations. His parents taught him better than that. Crimson Riot showed him better than that. It’s not like Kirishima had come all this way to U.A. to immediately break the promise he made to himself upon arrival.

It’s just that Bakugou is as feral as they come, and the moment Kirishima recognizes it’s fear he felt crawling up his spine that day he makes it his personal mission to face it head-on until it’s gone.

Endure and overcome, just like any other obstacle looming over the difficult path ahead. Kirishima smiles around the pencil he’s chewing on as Aizawa drones on, eyes trained on the uniquely tense set of shoulders across the room.

Yeah. Bakugou won’t even stand a chance.

*

It takes many cold shoulders, rebuffed lunch invitations and countless glares – and a villainous intervention Kirishima could’ve honestly lived without – for a rough voice to say:

“You there. Shark Teeth.”

The sun is starting to peek into the room as it hangs low and lazy in the sky. Class 1-A has just been released into a well-deserved weekend: Kirishima is very much aware his mothers want him home as fast as possible after what happened at U.S.J., and he’s throwing his things into his bag at peak velocity. Only after a tap on his shoulder and a subtle nod from Sero does he register it’s him Bakugou is talking to.

Perhaps ‘growling at’ would be a better description, but… semantics. Kirishima throws the guy a look and a smile over his shoulder either way, “Hey! What’s up, man?”, and given Bakugou’s eyes only narrow a little, he’s about 70% sure he’s not done something to land on his shit list.

Yet.

All Bakugou does is direct a decidedly less neutral look towards Sero, who jolts and stumbles over a quick “Um. Gotta– Yup, okay, bye!” before he books it out the classroom. Kirishima watches him go with some bemusement and a muttered “Dude”, not that Bakugou reacts to it in any way.

“Spar with me”, Bakugou says instead – demands, really – and Kirishima feels his brows tick upwards before he can stop himself, hands pausing in his quest to cram his notepad next to his books without wrinkling its cover page too badly.

“Uh. Like, right now? ‘Cause I can’t. Well, I could but I’m about to miss my train as is and I’d have to tell my–”

A slow blink, and even that is threatening when it’s coming from Bakugou. “No, asshole. This weekend, or something. I don’t care.”

Oh. Kirishima blinks. Something about Bakugou approaching him out of his own free will must be causing a substantial lag between different areas of his brain because– Oh.

“Wait. You wanna hang out?”

Maybe he could’ve hidden the clear surprise in his voice a bit better, that emphasis on you that sort of slipped in there without him really wanting it to. Kirishima’s heart sinks at the twitch to Bakugou’s brow that pretty much guarantees whatever he actually meant to say is forever lost to the ire perpetually simmering in that red gaze.

Well, it was nice knowing what going to U.A. is like. At least none of his classmates are present to see Kirishima’s inevitable – if incredibly untimely – demise.

Then Bakugou… rolls his eyes, exhales a harsh tch for good measure. “Whatever.” He shoves his bag further up his shoulder and, without a glance back, walks out the room–

Oh no, you don’t.

Out of all foolish thoughts it’s that one that shoots through Kirishima’s head before he grabs his stuff and goes after him. Bakugou somehow manages to maintain that no-fucks-given air to his gait despite how fast he walks, and Kirishima falls into a light jog to close the gap.

“It’s a great idea, man. Can’t have us going soft over the weekend! Plus Ultra, just like All Might said, right?”

Bakugou gives him a withering glance of a side-eye for his trouble. Kirishima notes the distinct lack of explode-y manslaughter, though, and allows himself to settle right into Bakugou’s pace.

“Besides, it’s been like a week and we’re already having villains crashing our lessons. I mean, we showed ‘em what’s what and all, but still! Some extra training can’t hurt.”

It’s not like Kirishima minds being the one to carry a conversation yet the fact that he hasn’t been told to shut up is… something? Not enough for Kirishima to point out, it’s just a thing he notices, just something, so he keeps talking. Past U.A.’s gates, down the stairs and onto the busy sidewalk they go, and Bakugou’s hands never leave the pockets of his pants as he marches past clusters of people in an unflinching line.

Head held high, eyes dead ahead. Cutting through the crowd with his presence alone, and in his wake Kirishima follows.

The afternoon light is hitting that glow-y hue that paints even the most mundane of things in shades of gold when Kirishima realizes they’re headed to the train station. He draws up short, slows his step in the split-second it takes to ask himself if the other even takes the train home or–

Bakugou’s eyes are on him, “What?”, that one word barked so impatiently Kirishima throws the thought right out the metaphorical window and keeps walking.

“Nothing!” A flash of his home screen proves: Five minutes left. They’re making good time. Which, actually– “So what time were you thinking for our sparring sesh? I’m good whenever, unless it’s super late at night. Overprotective parents, you know how it is.”

That gets a huff out of Bakugou. That, and a gesture that’s sort of a grab, sort of a wave that has Kirishima a little stumped until Bakugou sighs gruffly. “Your phone, dumbass.”

“Oh, sure! Here.”

The device changes hands. Kirishima contemplates feeling embarrassed about the obvious crack that takes up half the screen; he’d designed his hero costume without his delicate tech in mind, and with the whirlwind of starting and then surviving week one of the new school year, he hasn’t been able to spare a minute to get neither the phone fixed nor the costume amended.

Bakugou doesn’t comment on it – in fact, he pulls his sleeve down to hold the thing as if to cushion it, and when he taps the screen it’s with his knuckles. Before Kirishima can ask, the pre-installed voice control AI chirps its distinct jingle and Bakugou tells it to make a new contact, rattling off a long string of numbers.

Even before the AI has confirmed the input, Kirishima is catching the phone chucked rather carelessly at his head. “There”, Bakugou says, starting to climb the stairs to the tracks two steps at a time.

Kirishima doesn’t have much time to process any of that before the telltale rattling of an incoming train sounds above them. “Oh shit”, he breathes, hurrying onto the platform and to the closest door just in time to see the last passenger get out. Once inside, he pumps his fist.

“Hell yeah! Dude, we–”

The person next to him, who is not Bakugou, looks rather startled. What the…? Kirishima turns a full 360 degrees before a knock just inches from his face startles him and he meets Bakugou’s smirk, firmly on the other side of the window.

Not a moment later, the train starts pulling away. Kirishima presses close to the thick, faintly scratched glass to watch Bakugou turn and walk right back where they came from. His hand is raised, the light catching white and glinting on something in his hand.

A phone. Oh, right!

Kirishima swipes across an image of Crimson Riot’s iconic pose to unlock and reads Bakugou Katsuki, having left the tab open in his haste. First things first: With a soft snort and a few swift taps, the name is changed before Kirishima hits the speech bubble icon next to it.

Baku💣💥

bro what the hell (sent 17:14)

but thanks (sent 17:14)

it’s kirishima btw (sent 17:15)

just text me the details whenever 💪🏻 (sent 17:15)

He watches the tick next to his messages turn blue almost immediately and waits. One station passes, then two. By the third Kirishima is sure he’s been left on read and laughs, shaking his head. Of course.

The rest of his way home is spent assuring Sero he has not, in fact, exited life in a flurry of explosions as well as letting his moms know he’ll be home in a few. The next time Kirishima checks his phone is between brushing his teeth and climbing into bed, two unread messages waiting for him.

Baku💣💥

[link] (received 19:35)

6AM tomorrow, don’t be fucking late (received 19:35)

The link leads to a location which his phone matches to a quirk-friendly gym pretty close to the U.A. grounds. Kirishima scrolls through a few images of the facilities with some interest before his brain registers–

6AM. On a Saturday.

Baku💣💥

/dude/ (sent 22:08)

srsly?? (sent 22:09)

😩😩 (sent 22:19)

f @ my sleep schedule but ok (sent 22:25)

Minutes later, Kirishima stares at the near-painful sight of an alarm set to 5AM before he sighs and flops face-down into his pillow. The things he does in the name of friendship.

>>Chapter 2

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha #mha #kiribaku #kirishima eijirou #bakugou katsuki #bnha fanfiction #this is just kiri and baku existing inbetween canon events tbh #this fic is also on AO3!! #my stuff