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mllebabushkat · 1 year

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☀️ Warrior Nun S2E8 🌙

FINALE IM NOT READY

oh?? reya hello there

protective!bea is so hot ugh

not at her Instantly going for vincent's throat

EUROTRASH JESUS— michael u legend bahahah

ava rising from her crown!coma in the back like she’s been possessed ahahhahahshs

the softness!! in avatrice's little exchange "are you alright?" "fine"

i have a pit in my stomach did you see/hear ava THIS GIRL has just accepted the inevitability and necessity of her self-sacrifice HASN'T SHE 😡😭

nooooo ava + michael my noble selfless babies :(((

hehe bea and superion ava protection squad <3

awwwweee my feels are soft and easily hurt all those goodbye moments :(((((((((((

AVA WRITING A FAREWELL LETTER TO BEA MY HEART- 😭😭

“sometimes the simple truth of being alive just…moves me” she has grown up So Much i'm so proud oh ava dearest 🥺

and superion :(( she doesn't really know but she Knows and she accepts what must happen much as it tears her apart

grumpy bea hahah i still don’t like that look on her

“you’re still a nun aren’t you? forgiveness is part of your job” -> ava sowing more seeds in bea's crisis of faith :")

michael to jillian: “i’ll see you again” um. ru sure sir

first that talking heads quote (she only learns from cam the best), and now “don’t fuck it up” YES QUEENNNNNNN SUPERION

legit my fave

oh lemme take a moment to say i LOVE the brutalist concrete set design this season !!!!!!! *kisses for the crew again*

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA michael cocking his eyebrow at the fbc guard when vincent calls them adriel's virgins 💀

yasmine <333333

"that is not in any way how that works" lmaoooo

also the LITTLE SMILE on her face as she says it bea is SO. WHIPPED adsghakldfk

they’re so stupiddddddddd ocs girlies why would u have ur reunion in the open whyyyyyyy

"sister warriors don’t run" have i mentioned i love yasmine

YES AVA PHASING PUNCH

“wow she’s incredible” “yes she is” THE SMILE ON HER FACE DID I MENTION BEA'S WHIPPED

YES cam reunited with her crossbow <3

yessss avatrice combo attack fave move!

no i don’t like the distrust between them :(((((((((((

the cross reflecting in avas eyes :((( oh no :(((

wait i can't help but to imagine yasmine might've had that one moment of doubt of what if ava turned on them

OK before we get to

That Scene

let it be known that this was actually such a beautiful moment, like much as the gifsets are gorgeous they do not do the magic of this scene any justice,, my heart is so full l;khsl;js;lhjssfd

alright, ✨AVATRICE✨

"Because things change when you realise not everything's about you" bea's words laid down right back at her feet ow my heart hurts

did my eyes start watering when the music started? obvs.

"They die so everyone else can live"

"I’m doing this so you can live your life. So live it, okay?"

"I won’t. I can’t." (what is my life without you?)

and you can see the infinite fondness in ava's eyes, you can see that she plans to kiss bea already when she steps forward

and she disarms her! (because of course bea had to make a last ditch effort to save ava from herself, and of course ava's grown enough to match her in combat)

and she kisses her !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

❤️

and of course it’s oh so tender

[Hymn for Her] has me in a CHOKEHOLD

the way the camera spins and the chorus swells like a revelation, like they've finally found home in each other 💖

bea's hand reaches out first and of course it's the Patented Avatrice ✨Face Caress✨

THE FOREHEAD KISS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ava's teary smile, and bea returning it with a hint of a smile and a nod

"IN THE NEXT"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOJDGDJDKSKAHSH

this music im cryign again 😭😭

we all agree we aren't normal about this scene right?????

bea is shell shocked, and ava’s heartbroken, but they both dutifully carry on in that deathly silence (*kisses for the sound designer*)

“we have no choice.” “we have a million choices…we’re both living on second chances anyway” 😭😭😭😭😭😭

there’s that parallel between ava and michael again (i love the two of them),

and there’s that great inevitable tragedy of all our heroes carrying a sacrifice they don’t deserve to be burdened with

i’m waxing poetic this episode and nobody can stop me

but the plot chugs ever onward so-

“semantics, huh? That’s what we’re betting our lives on?” “we’re betting our lives on faith.” “huh, even worse.” SPITTING FACTS atheist agenda ftw

ADRIEL A-POSING HAHAHA he looks so fucking awkward standing with his legs apart like that ajhahdhdjaha

ooooh an uneven cross window this setpiece is fantastic

NO LILITH

MICHAEL HIS HEART?????????

WHAT THE E FUCK

that’s goddamn brutal

holyyyyyyyy shittttttttttttttttt

THATS IT? HESDEAD? JUST LIKE THAT

??????

grudging respect to the writers for having the balls to put in such a cruel end

i still can’t tear my thoughts away buT

BEA HALLWAY FIGHT MY BELOVED

OH the waver in her voice 🥺 when

“you all stand between me and ava.” NO MORE PRETENCE this is HER girl in DANGER she’s gotta save her !!!!

“stay… and you’ll never walk again.” BRUTAL. LOVING this look on bea

wow wow wow ave maria melting into that 2WEI arrangement is gorgeoussssssssssssssss

that deep resonant bass hits SO good

btw i’m so proud of myself for instantly recognising a signature 2wei song without checking they really are the kings of epic soundtracks

YES BEA KICK ASSSSSSSSS you are a work of ART

a l s o yES YASMINE THE CROSS SHIV

“that’s your femoral artery” i LOve a nerdy badass <33

“oh you uNHoLy biTcH” AHDHFKALHDJDKD LMFAOOO YESSSS

wanna take a moment to acknowledge bea’s compassion when she tells yas keep safe, you’ve done enough.

yasmine my bby going “maybe I’ll just sit here and wait for a while” hahahahA BEST GIRLIE ILY

update up top: camilla my beloved still kicking ass <3

sigh alright back to the slaughter chamber

hmmmmmmmm backstory

what is adriel’s gripe with reya ? is it possible it’s actually valid??? i need to know M O R E

alright adriel’s distracted thx for the mindfuck cam mwah x

OK AVA LESGO

yes stab his little bitch ass,, love that sword toss + phasing move gO STYLE ON HIM

fuck lilith uP

adriel is an airbender ?????

oh but the shot of michael’s lifeless heart :(((( i didn’t need to see him like this again :(( i’m really gonna miss him rest in peace my boy :(((((

BEA-

OH SHIT THE BOMB And the

divinium shrapnel-

“wait just let me rest for a little bit okay” WAIT NO SHE’S DYING

AND ADRIEL LIVES NO NOT THE EVIL LAUGH NOT THE VIOLIN CADENZA—

(side note love the shot of adriel limping then walking as his foot horrifyingly twists back to normal)

“i cannot be killed in this realm” fucking semantics didn’t pull through in the end :(((

bUT CAM WITH THE CLUTCH

OH AND ava’s been fighting without the halo this whole time???? what a BAMF

TARASKSSSSSSSSSSS WOW never did i think they’d save the day no i lie. semantics saved the day

HAHAHAHAHAHAA TEAR THE BITCH APART insert kill bill meme

ok but did they actually kill him this time (if so DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD)

reya to the rescue..! that *nod*

ah, birdsong. they’ll be alright up top :)

ALAS

ava’s still dying

and they’re cradling again

and surely these are their final moments together

“Why are you always trying to save me?” (she loves you)

“Let me go”

“Be free” (remember this exchange from last time?)

“I love you” (you knew that)

“I love you” (you didn’t hear)

see you, ava

:”(

lilith, still “i really hope we end up on the same side”, and then she’s gone too

and there’s nothing left except for the music to ramp up, and the arc to power down, and her to sit at its base,

alone

and it finally hits her, she’s lost, it’s over

bea 🥺 darling

:((

…

but post credits????!!!

post-ocs!bea is Yet Another Vibe

ugh when i have the energy i’ll make another rant about the significance of her looks this season

sister dora arms! cute hair~

of course, the montage and the cast sendoffs as bea walks out but she looks happy, free

a final farewell, but only for now <3

and the sword glow????

AND THAT’S IT

extra shoutout to [Always Forever] the lofi credits, istg the ost this season SLAPS

but yeah, holy shit, it really is over. that’s it, that’s all of season 2 huh (i’m hoping so hard for a season 3 and more). damn this was a good ride. so many new memories to treasure. so many more thoughts yet to be articulated. but all that for later,

in the next x

#warrior nun #wn #warrior nun season 2 #avatrice #thanks for coming along <3 #i have nothing but love and respect for this series and its cast and crew and fandom #babushkat rambles #babushkat watches warrior nun

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lonelier-version-of-you · 2 years

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Overall I liked this week’s episode. It wasn’t quite as strong as last week’s, but that may just be because I don’t like what they’ve been doing with Sah’s storyline. I really enjoyed everything else.

The Dylan stuff was absolutely fantastic. I love it and I love William Beck’s acting. And I am really, really glad the show is finally addressing Dylan’s mental health, because he’s been blatantly unwell for nearly 2 years at this point (going right back to when he was looking at houses for him and Faith in February 2021, a move I’m still baffled that people thought was romantic), and I was really worried it would just be swept under the rug, but no, it’s just been building up really slowly. Look, not that I want to sound happy that Dylan is ill, but I’d rather have him be ill and the show address it than have him be ill and the show not address it, so... yeah.

I also just love that the show is currently in a place where people on Twitter are whining that it’s “too political” every week. Mate, if you don’t want politics, fuck off and stop watching Casualty.

I expected after Dylan’s whole “I can’t fix the NHS but I can fix things here” speech a few weeks back that the show was going to quickly deconstruct that idea and show that Dylan actually has very little power in the grand scheme of everything, and I was right. His speech tonight calling back to that moment was WONDERFUL. I’m definitely gonna gif it. Probably won’t gif it right away, because tomorrow is Johnrik Day (AKA the “One Man And His God” anniversary) and I’ll be focusing on that (might make a little gifset of them, we’ll see), but I’ll gif it at some point.

Also, I said this already, but I find it both annoying and funny how they’re going out of their way to avoid acknowledging that Henrik left the hospital, while also not outright retconning the fact that he left the hospital. Hence, we’re getting all these mentions of the chairman and stuff thrown around, but nothing about the CEO. I’m begging you, Casualty, please just confirm that Henrik left. You don’t even have to tell us the actual name of the new CEO if you really can’t be bothered. Just give us a line that starts with “since Mr. Hanssen left...”, or have someone go “I’m gonna talk to the CEO about this and see what she thinks” to confirm it’s not Henrik anymore.

Anyway, diverting back from that tangent onto the topic of Dylan and his storyline, I loved Betty. I thought she was just lovely.

Paul was worried that what he said about Dylan could get him in trouble - let’s hope it does, because I want him to just leave already. Why is he still on the show? Having him punch Dylan, however unintentionally, just makes me hate him more.

I also hate Marcus, but he’s clearly a short-term character we’re meant to hate. Whereas Paul’s been here over a year and there’s still nothing likeable about him.

I liked all the patient storylines tonight. I especially liked the guy who had been taking his girlfriend’s contraceptive pills because he thought that would make extra sure she didn’t get pregnant. That was so cute. Silly, but cute.

The Sah stuff... the stuff with them being kidnapped was better than I expected, but I really didn’t like the stuff with their family. The kidnapping stuff reminded me of when Henrik was kidnapped just as much as I thought it would. His responses were not dissimilar. If I had a nickel for every time an autistic-coded queer Holbyverse medic got held hostage, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

As for the family stuff, I am glad Kevin survived the episode. I really expected him not to, so I was relieved that he did. But other than that... I am just so tired of storylines where trans people are expected to “make things up” and “reconcile” with their bigoted family members, even if in this case there were admittedly extenuating circumstances (which you can’t say for the similar storyline on Holby with Louis). Especially in this case, because Sah’s mother isn’t just bigoted, she left them alone when they were only a teenager and they needed her. Sorry, but she’s a terrible person. Sah has no obligation to forgive her.

Also, what the fuck was up with them having Jan misgender Sah? Jan has no reason to misgender Sah. She’s never ever had to call them by she/her, because she met them long after their coming out. They’ve been using they/them for as long as she’s known them. (I know some people just tend to mix words up, which could lead to unintentionally misgendering someone even if you’ve always known them by their current pronouns, but we’ve seen no sign of Jan being like that before from what I remember.) Add to that the fact that Jan is literally queer herself, and just... she should know better. Having her misgender Sah is not a good look.

Loved Sah’s new haircut, though, I’ve gotta say that.

There was very little Faith tonight, which pleased me. Honestly, I could almost forget she was in the episode. Hopefully she’s leaving and they’re phasing her out now to make sure no one will miss her - I can dream.

There was, however, not enough Stevie. I wanted more Stevie.

Anyway, there’s no episode next week, because of Strictly IIRC. So... next review whenever the next episode airs, lol.

#BBC Casualty #Dylan Keogh #Sah Brockner #Casualty spoilers

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matan4il · 2 years

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Buddie 513 meta

As if 512 (among other eps) didn’t make the Madney and Buddie parallels obvious enough, then this ep really drove the point home. For example, just like Albert calls Maddie because she’s Chim’s partner and those two are raising Jee Yun together, so we also get Christopher calling Buck, because that’s Eddie’s partner and his co-parent in raising Chris. They’re a family, your honor! (as demonstrated in this gifset) We discover in this ep that Madney have broken up, mentioning the distance between them for all these months. Except we see in this ep that even when romantically apart, they still hover around each other, and their most significant, intimate moments are shared with one another. Does that remind you of other partners we know?

But that’s not just a comparison in general terms. The ep’s very structure regarding Buddie also reflects that exact narrative progression: throughout most of it, Buck and Eddie are apart, dealing with their own issues. And yet the most important moment they each have during the ep is the one they share at the end of it. In fact for Buddie, it’s the very climax of the ep (as I mentioned in the same gifset), that pivotal moment, the one that holds the greatest emotional importance in the ep, it’s reserved for these two men and their family, their relationship, the trust and closeness that they have developed which allows them to reach a breakthrough at the very end of the ep. ~~~

If that wasn’t enough, the ep did provide us with foreshadowing for this. For example, when Maddie shows up and we see her getting updates from Buck, the very first thing she hears from him is that Eddie has quit the 118. After that, she also hears an update on Taylor. Even just having Buck mentioning these two people together would have shown that Eddie is no less emotionally important to him than his actual gf... But then Buck actually mentioned Eddie first. I’m at a loss for words. Another hint is the scene with Frank telling Eddie that he needs to talk to someone who understands his trauma, which then transitions into a scene with Buck. And in case it wasn’t evident enough, Frank also mentioned to Eddie “anyone else around you” and this ep made it very clear that while Eddie referred to the whole team as his chosen family back in 311, the people he actually surrounds himself with in his daily life, the ones so close he might unintentionally drag down with him, are Chris and Buck.

Lastly, we get Eddie listening on the radio to Pauline speaking, and he clearly identifies with her (just think about how she says she feels empty, much like Eddie mentions to Frank in 309 that there are moments which he knows should fill him with joy, but they don’t), then who pulls her off the ledge, before she’ll self-destruct completely? Buck does. Just like he’s going to do for Eddie before the end of the ep. ~~~

On the job, Buck and Lucy started off getting in each other’s way, which although the context is very different, made me think their “chemistry” is more like Eddie and Hen getting in each other's way in 505 than like Buck and Eddie always working seamlessly together, even before they became proper friends. I’m just saying, this can’t hold a candle to our battlefield boyfriends. I can’t wait until Buddie are officially back to that! ~~~

With Buck and Taylor, this ep demonstrated, even before bringing the kiss into the mix, that these two don’t belong together romantically. Taylor moves in and doesn’t communicate with Buck at all about what to bring and what to do when they have potential clashes (like two couches), instead she simply overrides Buck. That is not what a good partnership looks like. Then, it takes Maddie no time to figure out that there’s something wrong with this moving in together, but Taylor, who actually lives with Buck, can’t tell something’s up, showing very low levels of communication and familiarity (just think in comparison of how well Buddie know each other, for example Buck realizing within two seconds that Eddie isn’t okay during their dinner in 511).

I was proud of Buck for finally being honest (and clearly, he needed one of his loved ones to return to him so he’d have the strength to overcome his abandonment issues to do that). And not just about the kiss, I think it was really important that he didn’t stubbornly insist the moving in suggestion was detached from those issues. Taylor was fully within her rights to be upset with him. At the same time, after thinking about it, I have to say she was also a bit unfair to him. She’s in the same city she has lived in for years, it’s not like he uprooted her to move in together in a place where she has no one other than him, so it would stand to reason that she has friends she can stay with. She also has enough money to afford a hotel room for a couple of nights if she has no friends, even to buy extra clothes if she doesn’t feel like returning to the loft to get some. It’s not great, but it’s a possibility. So while I think she has every right to be upset, her being unfair still ended up feeling like another time when she was right, but still took things one step too far for me by putting too much blame on Buck, meaning when she told him off after the double date in 408. And then this arc concludes for this ep with the “no more lies” line, which is TV code reminding us there is still a lie hanging over a couple and that it WILL come out and they WILL break up. I just continue to hope 911 handles it in a way that allows Buck to grow. At least in terms of how he coped with most of the romantic entanglement in this ep, it does feel like his approach was more mature than it might have been in the past. ~~~

(The rest under a cut. Thank you so much for reading! Huge thank you to the incredible @judsonryder and @whosoldherout for the gorgeous gifs!)

I have said this before, more than once, but somehow Buck and Eddie’s romantic trajectory always seems to be so similar, and this ep continues that theme. They both felt in s5 that they “owed” their respective girlfriends to stay with them. At the beginning of 5a, we got to hear Eddie verbalize what’s off about his relationship with Ana, and now Buck had the same thing with Taylor. It still took Eddie a moment to find his footing and break up with Ana for his own sake, and in this ep we saw Buck in the same place, having the required insight to end things, but not yet taking the naturally following action of breaking up with Taylor for his own good. ~~~

I wanna say something about Eddie hearing in therapy that a part of the issue is how he’s so busy looking after everyone else and helping them that he’s neglecting himself. This has been a recurring theme with Eddie since 210, when he wondered aloud to Buck whether he’s with Shannon because of him or for Christopher’s sake, and it was of course magnified when every time Eddie mentioned how he was taught not to consider his own pain (301) or that he was only going to therapy for his son (309) or sticking it out with Ana because she’d be the perfect mom to Chris (502). And then Frank, in this ep, doesn’t actually manage to break through to Eddie about the importance of not ignoring his feelings without bringing up how his current course might actually end up hurting those he loves. So basically, Frank gets Eddie to understand he HAS to take care of himself by using that same sense of care and responsibility for others that’s been burdening Eddie all along, and if that doesn’t break your heart, IDK what will. Oh yeah, I do. “They’re all dead.” OMG, that was so much, and I just need someone to tell Eddie that the good we bring into this world matters even when we think it doesn’t. That his sacrifice and trauma make a difference and his heroism matters. That the extra years that those people got thanks to Eddie? They matter. The moments of joy they experienced during that time? Matter. The good that they might have been responsible for during these years? Matters. The joy and gratitude of those people’s families and friends for that duration? Matter. Someone please hug that man and tell him that HE IS ENOUGH. (*cough* Buck! *cough*) ~~~

Hey, remember when we, collectively as a fandom, found out in 301 that Eddie had a key to Buck’s place? It was implied that they had exchanged keys much like Hen and Bobby had back in s1, because that’s what firefighters do, in case anything happened to them. Still, I pointed out here that the reason 911 gives for why the platonic Hen & Bobby exchanged keys doesn’t actually work for Buddie in 301, because at the time, Buck had quit the team. He wasn’t a firefighter or in danger. Now we have confirmation that months after Eddie has left active firefighting, specifically to avoid danger, Buck still has a key to his house... No, they really went all out on showing the parallels even in the smallest of details between Buck’s arc in s3 and Eddie’s in s5, as well as just highlighting for us again just how bonded these two are. ~~~

I’m not sure I fully have a way to talk about the end scene of the ep, with Eddie breaking down in front of Buck and them talking after that. I just love everything about it. It means so much in terms of Eddie’s story (the way we see this man who’s kept all his pain to himself naked of all his defenses) as well as Buck’s ('coz this is the one place where he KNOWS he’s needed and wanted and will never be abandoned, which stands out even more in contrast with his failing r/s with Taylor, and it’s a continuation of the natural way he has ALWAYS stepped in, since 204 at the latest, into Eddie’s mess with him, as opposed to the way he had to be talked into it with Abby, never got to that point with Ali, and was partly driven to do this out of his own insecurities with Taylor). BUT. A part of why I’m not sure any one meta post can ever cover everything about this scene is because it’s not just about these men separately, it’s also the culmination of 4 seasons in which we have seen Buddifer really becoming an intertwined family, so this scene feels like a kaleidoscope: the number of colors and reflections seems endless, and as you turn it a little, you discover a whole new image, 100% as real and valid as the last one.

Just think about this example of the endless reflections we have in that scene: Buck answering Christopher’s phone call with the biggest smile reminded me of his smile as the two of them teased Eddie together in 403, and of course it also reflected 408, the first time we saw Chris canonically go to Buck when he was distressed over trouble with his dad, while back then, it was Eddie’s turn to talk on the phone to Buck and be reassured that even if in that moment it doesn’t seem that way, they WILL be okay. Which is in itself another row of parallels, as we consider all of the times these three have asked each other whether they’re okay or promised one another that they will be... this one gets so long, I fear it will get too much to gif in this post.

Or another one would be showing how Buck is and always has been Eddie’s person to go to, to talk to, to confide in, just like we saw Eddie opening up in 210 about Shannon, or how we saw him struggling in therapy in 309, but talking to Buck and spending the evening with him was “[his] kind of therapy” or 312 when it’s Buck’s advice that helps Eddie in his biggest challenge with his son at that point... and in 513 we literally have Frank and Buck asking him the same question during this ep, “What are you afraid of?” But it’s not the professional, competent therapist who gets Eddie to spill. Buck was and continues to be the one person Eddie truly opens up to. Honestly, this is going to be one of those moments on the show that we are going to return to endlessly, much like the tsunami arc, the kitchen scene or the guardianship reveal, because it’s not just the depth and intensity of their experience together that’s so meaningful here, it’s also the way it’s so naturally a part of this family’s journey together. And the best part? Their journey isn’t over yet and we get to keep enjoying it.

~~~ These posts take a lot of work from multiple people, so thank you for every reblog, for every time you share the link to the post, for all support! xoxox

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writefightandflightclub · 3 years

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I really enjoyed your Nathan fluff 🥺 we love this angry peach fuzz king 👑💖 would you ever write him being comforted after having a nightmare? 💕

First of all, LOL @ “angry peach fuzz king” 🤣🤣🤣

Second of all, here you go! 🧡 I will warn you - I think I forgot the fluff a little bit though. It became more hurt / comfort? More angst than expected? It ends nicely though and comfort is given to Nathan - but only after I’ve subjected him to rattling around in his own head and house for a bit.

Through the looking glass (Nathan Bateman x GN!reader)

Summary: Nathan has nightmares after The Incident. After so long alone, he doesn’t realise how badly he needs a little comfort - and maybe he doesn’t believe that he deserves it.

Author’s note: hopefully this isn’t too similar to All Better. I know they both take place post-stabbing, but I tried to give this a different focus. I know I could have made the nightmares based off of anything given the ask, but this timeline / focus seemed most sensible to explore the character.

Warnings: nightmares following traumatic incident (a stabbing); mentions of blood and injury - not graphic. Self-harm (punching the bag until injury); Body horror if you squint (some gruesome descriptions occurring in-dream, but fairly abstract); swearing; implied alcoholism recovery if you squint; mentions of therapy; Nathan mildly injured in fic; reader offering comfort.

Rating: MATURE for themes mentioned above.

GIF: by @santiagogarcia (this whole gifset is magic- check it out + reblog!)

Nathan wakes up breathless, plastered to the covers by a sheen of sweat - and not in a good way. On instinct, or out of habit by now, or maybe somewhere between the two, his palm slides over his body to the site of the wound.

He is so slick that he half-believes he is soaked with dank, deep blood again, until his fingers trace over nothing more than a half-concave, half-ridged scar. The lack of searing pain is the next point of evidence leading him towards an alternative conclusion. He’s not dying (again).

It’s just another gruesome nightmare.

Although… there is nothing “just” about it.

The nightmares are pretty brutal. Brutal enough for him to wake with ragged breaths and a hammering heart, his sheets dampened and coiled up around him. Enough that it takes effort to sift through the layers of terror and distinguish reality.

With what can only be described as a whimper, Nathan swings his legs over the edge of the bed, bringing himself into a seated position and bracing his head in his hands until his racing heart levels.

In his mind, he’s telling himself to be logical about this. That Ava hasn’t truly arrived to finish the job she started; but logic is not the safe haven it used to be.

She could come back.

She’s still out there, somewhere, and Nathan distinctly got the impression, last time, that she was vehemently not a fan of him.

His hand trembling, Nathan reaches for the glass of water by his bedside, glugging it down so eagerly it spills into his bushy beard.

Since the… accident? Malfunction? Functioning just fine, actually? Failed experiment? Greatest achievement known to man? Attempted murder? (Truth be told, Nathan isn’t quite sure what to call it, so he simply calls it The Incident.)

Since The Incident, Ava has begun to regularly visit him in his sleep.

The visitations are not waning with time. In fact, they are happening more often, not less. They are happening more since you moved into the house.

It’s a bad fucking time to have quit drinking.

You’d been sent by the board. Something about Nathan taking “tortured genius” a slice too literally. Something about him being in isolation too long and needing another human around in the compound.

Well, that’s not technically true, is it? The shit all started when he opted to get social, after all.

Fucking Caleb.

Before that, he was doing just fine.

Nathan doesn’t like it at all - having you here. Being watched. Observed. Having someone monitoring his actions. Waiting for him to either fuck up or prove himself.

Ironic really, considering where he kept Ava. The experiments he ran on her.

She’d probably find it poetic, if she could truly understand such a concept.

At the thought of her, Nathan physically shudders, and reaches for an old vest to haphazardly mop the excess sweat from his skin. Then, he balls up a change of clothes and tracks nude to his wet room, feeling relief as the luke warm water sluices over his skin.

He watches himself in the mirror as he stands there naked. It’s not a vanity thing - at least not any longer. These days, he examines the way his form has changed since it happened. He lost some of his muscle and bulk during recovery, whilst unable to exercise, his arms slightly smaller and his abs softer. His stomach a little more rounded.

There’s also the puckered scar, of course - that permanent reminder of where he was skewered through the chest like a piece of kebab meat.

His gaze travels up over his body, until his eyes settle on his still haunted face. He doesn’t have his glasses on, and somewhere between the blurred vision, misted mirror, clouding steam and sluicing water, his reflected face distorts. It transforms - for the briefest of moments - into her.

Still amped with adrenalin from his harsh awakening, this briefest flash sends a surge of panic zipping through Nathan’s chest, his heartbeat racing so hard he can feel the pounding of blood in his ears.

Fuck, he curses, reaching his arms out to brace himself against the shower wall above him, his body trembling and his head dipping down between the cradle of his broad shoulders as his legs threaten to buckle.

He turns the water cold, until it is practically glacial and thundering on to the back of his neck, subduing this spiking heat.

She really did a fucking number on me, didn’t she?

It’s true though.

Ava is haunting him. When he sleeps - and at other times too.

Nathan didn’t know robots could do that. Didn’t know they could spawn ghosts.

Nathan doesn’t believe in ghosts, of course… but he does believe in trauma and its effect on the brain. He at least concedes that it is natural to continue to feel afraid; but this?

Being dogged by the spectre of her taps into Nathan’s deepest insecurities.

After all, there is nothing a genius fears more than doubting his own mind.

Nothing a God fears more than his own mortality.

And the man? Turns out, there is nothing he fears more now, than dying alone.

With a ragged breath, Nathan towels off and pulls on his grey sweatpants, tugging on his black zip-up hoody over his bare chest. And then, keen not to return to his damp, tangled sheets, he tracks towards the kitchen - mainly for want of any more favourable option.

Of course, he had returned to the compound after The Incident. Something about that many fibre optic cables being a bitch to lay down. Sunk cost fallacy and all that - too much already invested.

But it possibly wasn’t the best choice for his recovery.

Nathan has certainly gotten more used to walking down that hallway since he returned from the hospital, and yet he still finds himself holding his breath until he is free of it. Still finds his pace is just a little faster as he passes through. His gaze deliberately averted from that spot.

Once, you’d found him lying in it.

Lying in that exact spot, his body arranged like a crime scene photo, his eyes closed.

Hey, it’s hardly his least healthy coping mechanism, is it?

What in the fuck are you doing, Nathan?

Re-enacting my death, obviously.

Uh-Kay…. A beat. A devious smile. Shall I get some popcorn?

Absurd as it was, he had laughed. Laughed for the first time since it happened, and, with an extended hand, you had helped him up off the floor.

Still, now that he’s alone, he does not dwell in the corridor, colder and darker as it is without your light in it, and he tries not to think about your face or hers as he pads to the kitchen.

When he arrives though, he bypasses it entirely - heading out on to the decking, the crisp night air soothing his hot skin.

He wants to be outside.

There are too many ghosts in his house now.

He has tried to shake it. Tried to desensitise himself to Ava’s face. Spent longer than strictly necessary poring over footage of her.

He built her. Shouldn’t that take the fear out of things? Not to mention the fact Ava’s face was simply a composite of some manipulable nerd’s wank bank browsing history.

Fucking Caleb.

Still, once Nathan had looked her in the eyes and seen a rage that was all too human, things seemed a hell of a lot different.

Nathan crosses to the punchbag on the deck -lit by creeping dawn- on instinct, or out of habit, or maybe some combination of the two, his unease riling him enough to sock some punches at its midsection. Right at the equivalent site of his corporeal puncture.

He punches so hard that the skin on his knuckle splits, but Nathan doesn’t stop. He throws punch after punch until his hands are scathed and bloodied, and a trail of spit hanging from the corner of his mouth. Until he hugs the bag - the closest thing he has to a warm body to hold - and slides down it, coming limply to his knees, wiping his face on his sleeve.

He stays there, dead eyed and still for some time, the pain in his hands raw and singing. Unpleasant, but better. Better than what he was feeling, and worse all at once.

He considers his tired, cumbersome body, and contemplates remaking the world one more time. Uploading his mind into a machine or some shit, so that he doesn’t have to contend with the fragility and failings of his own existence.

He stays there, until some motion in the interior of the compound causes the light and shadows to dance differently over him, and he looks up to see your figure there, cast in a soft halo of yellowed light.

He tips his head up slightly, opening his mouth as though he might cry out to you for help, but no sound comes out - only a thin, dry croak.

So, instead, Nathan watches you for a moment, moving seamlessly around his kitchen as though it is your own. Maybe it is - more yours than his now.

Observing you like this, through the tall, cinematic windows, it is as though he peers in on another world entirely. Something less resembling a nightmare.

Lighter than that. Something more like a good dream, albeit a good dream that Nathan cannot be part of. One he can only ever watch, from the outside looking in, always fated as he is to be on the other side of the glass.

Truth be told, you haunt him too. You represent everything he could have and yet doesn’t deserve.

You appear in his nightmares and his dreams, in various terrifying and beautiful incarnations. Many variations of which his therapist would have a field day with, he’s sure - or, she would, if he’d ever fucking call her.

When you first arrived here, he was plagued by grotesque visions of you. Grotesque visions of the skin being peeled back from your body. Sometimes, circuitry beneath, and other times, muscle and bone. Sometimes, Ava’s face was buried beneath the chilling slip of your fleshy mask.

Sometimes it is a better dream. Sometimes you save him. Sometimes he saves you.

Sometimes it is a good dream. Ava isn’t there at all. But the good dreams never seem to last for long.

Sometimes you kill him, and sometimes...

The glass door slides open.

“Reenacting your own death again, are you?” you tease, though not unkindly, interrupting the spiral of Nathan’s incessant thoughts.

A lump forming instantly in his throat, Nathan swallows thickly, and looks up at you helplessly with a thin, joyless smile. He snorts as though it’s funny, but it really isn’t. “Over and fucking over.”

You nod once, and, without hesitation, you extend your hand towards him. Your gaze cuts through him as you search his face and he feels suddenly see-through, as if he’s about to be hit with some Shyamalan-esque twist. Was he the ghost all along? Did he die here after all?

If so, is this purgatory because Ava is here too, or heaven, because you are?

Christ. So fucking schmaltzy, Bateman.

After hesitating, Nathan takes your hand and you yank him to his feet, drawing him inside, through the looking glass.

The room seems warm on the other side. It feels… safe.

“What happened?” you ask, as you look down at your joined hands, your thumb painting a smear of red across his split knuckles.

You mean now. What happened now, but Nathan’s mind harks back further than that. In his mind, everything is connected. Every thing threaded to another. This one smear of blood to that weeping flower of red.

The thought -the thoughts, all of them- halt him in place, his feet firmly planting on the ground. Nathan’s hand clenches tightly around yours as though it is a lifeline, as he is cast adrift on this familiar crimson tide, his face growing increasingly angular and stern.

“She...” He swallows, unable to complete that precise thought, his eyes dropping down to his feet.

You turn your body towards Nathan as he croaks, still not letting go.

Your eyes flitting around his face, attempting to search his eyes, you tentatively step closer, sliding your palms slowly over his tense shoulders, feeling them rise with an uneven, stuttered breath as you do so.

He’s so tired. He’s so very, very tired.

And it happens all at once on the exhale.

Suddenly, your arms are tugging him closer, and his face is contorting as a violent smattering of tears beads in his long lashes. You are encasing his body in your embrace and rubbing circles into his back as his buzzed head sags all too willingly toward the junction of your shoulder, your fingers splaying along the smooth flesh at the nape of his neck and pads dancing over the gentle prickle of his hair. You are shushing and soothing and reassuring and squeezing and smoothing and cradling and Nathan can feel it. Can feel his heart race in his chest and…

Finally.

Finally, his heart is not pounding because he is reliving his death.

It is pounding because he feels alive again.

When was the last time he cried, even? The last time someone really hugged him? He doesn’t remember the last time. The serendipitous combination of Nathan willing to be vulnerable, and another being willing to hold space for his pain is an all too rare thing.

There’s a reason -or several - he’s so emotionally constipated, after all.

Fuck. I’m taking a huge emotional shit right now.

Nathan remains in the welcome circumference of your arms longer than is strictly necessary - until the tear trails over the bridge of his nose begin to feel cloying. Until his breaths steady, and until his thoughts and ego creep back in. Until he notices the way his hands are clasped at your waist like claws, fingers sinking into your softness, and he thinks to release you.

Then, he leans away, a weight on his brow making his expression stern.

He waits for you to judge him, another swallow trailing thickly down his throat.

However, your eyes are kind and level, dancing with soft concern. Not with judgement or satisfaction or pity, or with anything he fears.

It is refreshing not to feel so afraid.

Finally.

“She…” Nathan begins again, finally finding courage. All at once his eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline. “She fucking stabbed me.”

You take his words in. You listen.

His “reveal” is simple. Plain and factual. A little indignant. Kinda salty. It’s not overly emotional, or articulate.

But it is enough.

Your eyes narrow, and you nod slowly, trying to understand the true meaning beneath his words.

You even reach up to cup Nathan’s face, his springy beard a cushion beneath your gentle palm as you hold him. “Yeah, genius,” you tease, with a tentative, lopsided smile, dropping your arm all too suddenly, perhaps as you catch yourself. “I got that from context.”

In response, Nathan chucks air from between his teeth, bringing his hand up to comb through his beard - perhaps to obscure his involuntary smile, or perhaps chasing your tender touch, the impression of it left warm on his cheek.

As he brings his hand up, your brows draw together, and you hook his bloodied paw delicately in yours, examining the wound, and leading him gingerly across to the couch as though his whole being might be hurting along with it.

It is.

You order him to stay put while you fetch the first aid kit, and then, in stages, Nathan watches you with fascination as you painstakingly clean and tend to his wounds, without ever being asked to.

He watches you carefully swipe the angry red away from his skin, and, to his overactive mind, it’s all connected. This red is one and the same with the flower of blooming red from The Incident.

Ava hurt him then, and she is hurting him now too.

And you…

“Going to tell the board about this?” Nathan asks, his voice weak and scuffed.

You search his eyes, holding your words back for a moment before answering. Then, you launch them on a big breath. “Fuck the board, Nathan. I told those assholes to stick it.”

Nathan blinks in confusion, shaking his head, his hand flourishing emphatically through the air. “Then… what the fuck are you still doing in my house?”

“Well. I’m… here for you,” you admit, sucking in air through your teeth, your voice shrinking. “If you want that.”

Well, that’s news to him.

Welcome news, perhaps?

You’re not watching him at all, are you? Not observing. Not asking him to evidence his humanity. Not waiting to see whether he fucks up or proves himself.

Instead, you’re seeing him. You’re seeing him and you’re not running.

Nathan had begun to think that maybe he was the nightmare. He’d begun to think he might always be haunted.

Always alone. That he might die that way; again.

And now, here you are.

Nathan thinks about that. He could so easily revert to his old ways, in this moment. Of pride and ego and stubborn independence.

But, perhaps those assholes from the board got a few things right - he’ll admit.

Maybe he had been in isolation too long. Maybe he didn’t need to take “tortured genius” quite so literally.

And so, Nathan almost protests. Almost rejects your presence and your comfort and pushes you away. But the truth is, he’s just so… tired. He’s had so many nightmares, and this time, he’d like to be on the other side of the glass. He’d like to step into that dream.

Nathan takes a deep breath, and releases on the exhale. Releases more than air.

He slowly, ever so slowly, shifts towards you on the couch, angling his body until he can safely dip his head towards your lap, his nose pointed in towards your abdomen and his knees curling around you.

“Th.. this okay?” he asks weakly.

You throw your splayed hands up into the air in surprise as the weight of Nathan settles there, but as he curls his arms around your middle and shuffles closer, you ease into it. You snake your fingers in intricate caresses over his head and neck and shoulders.

“Yeah, Nathan. This is okay,” you soothe gently, voice taut with emotion.

You comfort him.

And finally, Nathan does not need to peel your skin back to know what’s underneath.

He knows you’re not a robot, and that, as your kind touch finds him corporeal, that he is not a ghost.

He closes his eyes. And this time, when he next wakes, he knows that whether the dream is bad or better or good, it doesn’t matter. Because you will be there with him.

He wants you with him.

It’s not at all natural to him, to have you around. For the longest time, he didn’t like it. It didn’t come instinctually, and he has formed no familiar habits.

It isn’t easy - he doesn’t make it easy.

But he wants it to be.

And, in your arms, he can finally dream that it will all work out. What’s more; he can dream he deserves it, too.

#Nathan Bateman #Nathan Bateman x reader #Oscar Isaac #ex machina

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notanotherreidgirl · 3 years

Text

It’s Doctor

Summary: Spencer stands up for Reader against a police sheriff

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Kissing, pushy guy (he’s a bit of an ass), there’s a miniscule amount of angst, i think that’s it

Word Count: 1120

A/N: Ok here’s a first, no horizontal tango this time. Inspired by this gifset

Spencer didn’t mean to eavesdrop but when he saw you and the sheriff of the police department, he came to a standstill. He had only cracked the door open before seeing you packing up the evidence board, going up on your tiptoes to reach a photograph at the very top. The sheriff jumped at the opportunity to stand close to you, brushing up against your back as he easily grabbed it. He lingered there, trapping you between him and the board before stepping away and making a show out of handing you the photo.

Spencer felt a flash of anger quickly followed by disappointment and regret. Just that morning Derek had teased him about you, insisting that if he didn’t make his move soon someone would come and whisk you away.

“A pretty girl like Y/N isn’t gonna wait around forever” he had warned. Derek was right. Of course he was right. Derek was always infuriating right about these things.

You were the one person that would listen to him ramble for over an hour, only interjecting to ask thoughtful questions. You watch Doctor Who and you love Halloween and you are perfect. You are absolutely perfect and it’s a miracle you even give me the time of day he thought. So he decided on saying something tonight, inviting you to his room to watch TV and unwind after the case.

He had been beyond nervous but also secretly excited, trying to find the absolute perfect words with which to convey his feelings. Foolishly, he let himself imagine you loving him back and he could hardly wait to see you. Now that balloon of excitement welling up in his chest had wholly deflated. It was just as well, at least he didn’t ruin your friendship in the process of having his heart broken. Resigned, he started to turn away.

It was a habit of yours - packing up after a case. Hotch had protested at first, insisting that everyone should pitch in but no one else was as careful about every little detail as you were. Emily, in particular, had a habit of just randomly shoving papers into unlabeled folders and leaving someone at Quantico to sort through them later. Besides, you organized the paperwork just to everyone’s liking, making sure that the documents Hotch had to sign off on were paperclipped together and printing everything out to accommodate Spencer's aversion to technology.

You had devised a system. First, you’d take down the pictures of victims and crime scenes and headshots. Then the witness statements would go in the correct folders, the paperwork neatly arranged in it’s own box. At the very end you would wipe down the board, erasing the profile and putting the case to rest. It was cathartic.

But not tonight. Tonight you had Sheriff Hobartson breathing down your neck.

“I heard you and your team ain't leaving till morning. Maybe tonight I could show you around town” The look in his eye made Spencer think that he was planning on showing you more than an unimpressive suburb. “What do you say, sweetheart?”

“I’m sorry, Sheriff. I actually have plans”. Tonight was the night. You were going to tell Spencer how you felt about him. You had a whole speech planned out and you had been rehearsing it in your head all day. In fact, you were so preoccupied with figuring out the perfect way to tell Spencer that you barely paid attention to Sheriff Hobartson’s blatant advances for the whole case. Something that only encouraged him.

“Come on, sweetie. Don’t lie to me, you don’t have any plans tonight” he straightened his back, invading your space and towering over you. You realized that you were alone with him at the station.

“I don't appreciate your insinuation, Sheriff. I’m not lying to you.” you said firmly, taking a cautious step back. “Thank you for your offer but the answer is no.”

“You’re kidding me right? You FBI think you’re so much better than us! Just coming in here!” he reached forward to grab your arm. “Listen missy -”

The sound of Spencer slamming the door open interrupted him. “It’s Doctor.”

The sheriff shrank away from you, his demeanor rapidly shifting now that he had been caught. Spencer continued to speak as he strode into the room.

“It’s Doctor Y/L/N. She has two PhDs in subjects that you couldn’t even try to wrap your head around. She’s here because you needed our help to do your job. It took four dead women for you to swallow your pride and call us. The unsub behind bars right now? He’s there because of Dr. Y/L/N. And it’s going to be her that decides if you still have a job next week”

Sheriff Hobartson met your eyes frantically, realizing that he was at your mercy now. “I’m not going to lie, things are not looking that good for you right now,” you said evenly.

He started to string together an apology but you couldn’t hear him. Spencer had turned and reached out a hand. You took it without thinking. His hands were always warm, always gentle, always pulling you to safety. He curled his fingers over yours, thumb crossing over thumb and palms sliding together. “Come on Y/N,” he said softly. “The sheriff will finish up here. It’s the least he can do.”

Together you left the station without looking back. Your hands were still interlocked, only separating briefly when Spencer walked around the SUV and buckled himself into the driver’s seat. What now? All your carefully rehearsed words had disappeared. “Spencer, thank you. I’m so sorry you had to do that.”

“I couldn’t stand him speaking to you like that,” he slowed to a stop. You registered that he had parked in the middle of the road but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. It wasn’t like there would be anyone driving around a small town in North Dakota at nearly midnight. “You don’t deserve to be treated like that. You’re so good, Y/N. You make everything better, even this job. You make it easy to sit through briefings and see the worst things that humanity has to offer. You’re smart and compassionate and -”

This time it was your turn to do the interrupting. You launched yourself across the console and pressed your lips to his. His response was immediate, pulling you as close as possible and cradling your face in his hands. For a moment, you were floating. The kiss was every inside joke, every Doctor Who marathon, every late night reviewing case files, every unspoken I love you.

So there you were, two FBI agents with 5 doctorates between you stopped at a green light in the middle of nowhere, desperately in love with each other. And it was absolutely perfect.

#spencer x reader #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction

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heymacy · 3 years

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@heymrspatel‘s tags on my recent gifset had me all moon-eyed and inspired, so i wrote a little something featuring a grumpy Mickey, a spooky movie night, and floofy hair. i don’t know how it happened either, but it did, so please enjoy about 1.2k words of Soft Husbands 🥺🥰🖤🎃

“i love you, jerkface” - dani dennison, hocus pocus

Mickey had been in a bad mood all day.

Ian suggested ice cream and a movie, and Mickey agreed, albeit reluctantly, grumbling something about bribery under his breath as he walked out of the kitchen and towards the living room.

He flopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote where it lay beside him, turning on the TV. It opened to the Amazon account they shared with the rest of the Gallaghers, their yearly subscription a gift from Tami last Christmas.

Someone, probably Debbie and Franny, had recently watched “Hocus Pocus” and Mickey snorted softly, remembering how much Mandy loved that movie when they were kids. She watched it almost every day for the whole month of October every year, sometimes randomly in July or December, and Mickey had the whole thing memorized by proxy.

“What d’you wanna watch?” he shouted towards the kitchen where Ian stood, spooning out two bowls of mint chocolate chip. He felt a little bit guilty using the fancy metal ice cream scooper, considering Mickey had snagged it from Debbie’s place a month ago in yet another round of their spiteful kitchen-utensil-abductions. All over a fucking potato masher. They really were a couple of children.

Ian shoved two spoons into each bowl and stuck the ice cream back in the fridge.

“I dunno,” he said as he walked into the living room, shrugging as he passed his husband, whose eyes remained fixed on the TV. “What do you wanna watch?” he asked, and Mickey groaned.

“Don’t do that shit.”

Ian handed him one of the bowls of ice cream.

“What ‘shit?’”

“You know what shit,” Mickey said, distorting his voice a bit in mockery. “Oh I dunno, whatever you wanna watch, baby.” He made a face, scrunching up his nose in feigned disgust.

Ian snorted.

“S’bullshit,” Mickey grumbled, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth as he settled in, pouty as hell. Ian knew that in about 20 minutes, he’d be back to normal. He just needed to get it out of his system.

“Alright, alright,” Ian said, fighting a grin. “How about Hocus Pocus? It’s already up there.” He gestured to the screen with his spoon and Mickey sniffed, shrugging.

“Fine,” he said, knowing that Ian was at least half aware of his history with the film, and avoided eye contact as he slid onto the floor, sitting with his back against the couch.

“Really?” Ian said, smirking, and Mickey just shrugged, swallowing his ice cream.

Ian’s smirk widened.

He slid across the couch to where Mickey sat and threw one of his legs on either side of his husband, capturing his shoulders between his thighs.

“The fuck’re you doin’?” Mickey protested through another mouthful, and Ian just settled in, pressing play on the remote. He listened as his husband mumbled some semblance of a protest before giving up, knowing Mickey didn’t totally hate it when they sat like this.

About thirty minutes into the movie, ice cream long gone, Ian started feeling fidgety.

Mickey chuckled quietly as Sarah reached up into the ceiling, pulling out her “lucky rat’s tail,” and Ian found his hands absentmindedly carding themselves into Mickey’s hair. There was a distinct but soft crunching sound as his fingers ran through Mickey’s hair, breaking through the gel-like product Mickey had used to style it that morning.

“Ow,” he protested, giving his head a little shake. Ian dropped his hands onto his legs.

“Sorry,” he said, refocusing on the movie. He felt Mickey’s hand on his own, moving it back to his head.

“I didn’t say stop,” he mumbled, and Ian was helpless not to grin, thankful that Mickey was turned away from him facing the TV.

He leaned forward a bit, resting his elbows on his thighs, the strands breaking apart quickly as his husband’s hair returned to its usual soft, fluffy form.

“Your hair is getting kinda long,” Ian mused, only half-thinking as they remained focused on the movie, Dani leaping out from behind the counter with a scream.

Mickey turned his head back around and glared at his husband.

“You gonna get on my ass about my hair, too?” Mickey snapped, irritated, referencing one of the could-go-wrong, did-go-wrongs from earlier in the day. What was supposed to be their attempt at helping Lip and Tami out with the new baby had turned into an impromptu roast session at Mickey’s expense, Lip making some smart-ass remark about Mickey going for the “boyband look” as Debbie egged him on, asking him when he was “going on tour”.

Mickey had just about heard enough and stormed out, already pissed off after dealing with a rude, cheap-ass supplier earlier that morning. Ian had followed, shooting annoyed looks at his siblings before he left, both of them riding home in the ambulance in silence.

Ian realized immediately how his comment probably came off, and he rushed to correct himself.

“It’s not a bad thing,” he said. “I like your hair longer sometimes,” he mumbled, leaning forward and planting a kiss on the top of his husband’s head. Mickey huffed and rolled his eyes, all in show, realizing too late that Ian couldn’t actually see his face.

“Well I’m cutting it off tomorrow, so.” Mickey shrugged. “Won’t have to use that shit anymore,” he said, referring to what he had once called hair gunk.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do,” Ian said, and it was quiet for a minute while Max stole Winifred Sanderson’s spell book.

“Yeah, well,” Mickey said, shrugging, apparently choosing to remain vague and unelaborated.

Ian sighed and continued combing his fingers through Mickey’s hair, picking up the smaller pieces and lifting them, watching as they fell against the rest of the dark mess he’d created.

“You know I like your hair all the time,” Ian said, and Mickey was quiet. “Right?” he asked again, and Mickey just sat there, the very last bit of his resolve slipping away.

Ian slid his fingers into Mickey’s hair and grasped at the strands, yanking his head back so they were looking directly at each other.

“Right?” Ian said, and Mickey finally grinned, just a small curve of his lips that gave way to a lip-bite and a soft chuckle.

“Right, asshole,” he said, grinning, and Ian leaned down, Spiderman kissing his husband softly before leaning back up and pressing one more kiss to the tip of his nose, finally releasing his grip on his hair. Mickey giggled as he settled back in for the rest of the movie.

When the firefighters left the Sanderson house, Mickey climbed up from where he sat on the floor, crawling into the spot beside Ian. His husband welcomed him in with his arms spread, both of them settling in comfortably to their regular position, Mickey leaning against Ian’s chest, head resting on his shoulder, fingers laced together where their hands rested on Ian’s thigh.

A few minutes later, Mickey turned his face up towards Ian, who looked down at him with happy, tired eyes.

“I love you,” he said, his face apologetic, regretting wasting thirty minutes on the floor instead of in his husband’s arms.

Ian smiled.

“I love you, too, you grumpy bitch,” he teased, and Mickey snorted, grinning, tilting his face up for another kiss that Ian met with a smile.

#me? writing post-finale canon-compliant content? writing something that isn't an AU? i can't believe it either #i have no idea what this is but inspiration struck #also yes i'm working on TLO too so i'm in the grumpy mickey zone i'm SORRY #ficlet #things i wrote #one shot #under 2k #soft husbands

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canary3d-obsessed · 3 years

Text

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 25 part two

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Jin Jerks Continued

Jin Furen is all judgy about Wei Wuxian, so it's hard to like her, since WWX is our protagonist and whatnot. But! Jin Furen is actually totally awesome. She adores Jiang Yanli and takes sides with her against her own son. She knows he likes Yanli and works her ass off to do all the courting for him, since he sucks at it, rather than picking a random wife for him and sticking him with her choice. She's always gentle with Yanli in her tone and body language. And Jin Zixuan had to get his good side from somebody.

Wei Wuxian politely tells Jin Furen that it's all over (again/still) between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, and cousin Jin Zixun rushes up to argue with him, saying he's being too proud and that he shouldn't talk to Jin Furen that way, since she is his senior. Wei Wuxian, still politely, explains the clan politics that underlie every one of these Zixuan-Yanli interactions. As a matter of clan pride, the Jiang Clan can't allow Yanli to be insulted.

Cousin Jin Zixun immediately goes all in on the clan rivalry, beefing with Wei Wuxian about how much prey he caught. Everybody forgets all about Yanli's situation while they talk about the hunt results instead.

The Jin cultivators--parroting what they heard from Jin Guangyao--say that Wei Wuxian has flute-walked 30 percent of the prey into nets by himself. Lan Wangji actually decides to react to something, saying "30 percent? and giving Wei Wuxian such a series of LOOKS, oh my god.

This Wangxian moment is an important one, I think, because it shows where Lan Wangji's priorities are, and they're...wrong. He's continually telling Wei Wuxian "be good," in one way or another; trying to help him back to the correct way of being a cultivator. Meanwhile the Lans are totally fine with the Jins being murderous shits who feel entitled to insult high-ranking ladies.

CJZX continues to snipe at Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji continues to judge WWX for being unsportsmanlike.

(more after the cut!)

Wei Wuxian says that he's just showing his capability, and CJZX tries to tell him both that 1. he's practicing evil cultivation and 2. he's just playing the flute. WWX offers him Chenqing and says "show me your capability" which I think is cultivator speak for "fight me, bitch."

Cousin Jin Zixun moves the goalposts, saying that Wei Wuxian broke the rules, and starts in with class-based dogwhistling, saying "it's understandable that you don't know the rules," and citing examples of Wei Wuxian’s previous bad manners at cultivation events.

Things escalate and pretty soon Wei Wuxian is yelling at everybody, threatening to tell them why he doesn't carry his sword, (which would actually clear up SO much) and saying he's going to beat them all using necromancy whatever is just this side of necromancy.

Cousin Jin Zixun tosses his birth status at him, and then it's ON. Scary music, shaking fist, Chenqing booting up...

Lan Wangji, who has been singularly unhelpful since CJZX started talking, suddenly forgets his judginess as he's swept into motion by his constant fear of whatever is going to happen next time Wei Wuxian loses his temper.

He rushes to Wei Wuxian’s side, grabs his wrist, says his name, and wills him to chill the fuck out. Jiang Yanli joins him, grabbing Wei Wuxian's other arm, and Wei Wuxian manages to get control of himself.

Queen Yanli

Yanli has had it, and she has Wei Wuxian stand behind her while she goes to politely reduce Cousin Jin Zixun to a heap of smoldering cinders.

First she recaps CJZX's accusations against Wei Wuxian; says she doesn't know a lot about the hunt, and apologizes formally on her brother’s behalf. WWX says "Shijie!" but she shakes her head at him and he shuts up.

CJZX laughs and tells her, in a tone designed to infuriate Wei Wuxian even further, that Wei Wuxian doesn’t rate her apologizing on his behalf, and says that their clans are like family; reinforcing WWX's outsider status. I don't think CJZX is taking orders from Jin Guangyao, because he's way too big of a snob for that, but he's definitely helping JGY to move his agenda forward.

Even Lan Wangji is having trouble staying cool during this exchange; he is focused on keeping Wei Wuxian in check but he’s also angry himself, judging from what his neck is doing here, anyway. *Stares at his neck for way too long*

Wei Wuxian is super upset about Jiang Yanli apologizing, and he’s unable to hold back tears, even with Lan Wangji using the power of extreme staring to help him.

Jiang Yangli is nowhere near finished, though and she turns around and proceeds to tell everyone that they suck, that it's not Wei Wuxian's fault if he's more talented than everybody else, and that they are just making up rules because they are a bunch of losers.

Clan Leader Yao has the nerve to say that they know the rules "in their hearts" which is just another class-based dogwhistle.

Yanli defends Wei Wuxian's cultivation method to everybody, saying it's something he worked at and put effort into--that it's different, not wrong. She's literally the only person who defends his cultivation style, even though they all have benefited from it.

Then she gets right up in Cousin Jin Zixun's face and tells him that it's not ok for him to insult WWX by calling him the son of a servant, and she wants CJZX to apologize. (full gifset here) All of the Jins and Captain Blowhard Clan Leader Yao are SHOCKED at this idea. Jin Furen tries to talk Yanli down but Yanli politely nopes her away, so JFR tells CJZX to apologize.

He's saved from having to actually do it by the arrival of Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, who jump down off a box fly over to find out what's wrong.

Jin Furen yells at smiley, blinkey Jin Guangyao, telling him he should be able to figure out what's wrong, saying "aren't you good at judging the situation," i.e. aren't you a conniving little creep? She's bitchy but she's not wrong.

When the "30 percent" thing is explained again, Lan Xichen gives Wei Wuxian the same Lan Glare of Sportsmanship Disappointment that his brother did.

Lan Xichen: It's fine for my boyfriend's obviously power-hungry family to insult my brother's war-hero best friend in a bid to reduce his social status, but him using magic powers in our magical creature hunt is super wrong.

Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen explain that they're going to open up more area for the hunt, but it's too late to make Cousin Jin Zixun happy. He takes his ball and goes home.

The Breaking of the Fellowship

The remaining group stroll slowly through the woods, Jin Furen and Jiang Yanli together, while Wei Wuxian walks at a bit of a distance and Jin Zixuan follows right behind his mother. His mother offers to beat him to make Jiang Yanli feel better. See? Perfect Mother-in-Law material.

Jiang Yanli tries to leave again, and is stopped again. This time Jin Furen tries to convince her to come back to the stands to sit with her and Jin Zixuan, and not to go with Wei Wuxian. First she tries saying that it's not appropriate for her and Wei Wuxian to be alone together. Yanli shuts that right down, saying that Wei Wuxian is her didi. Then Jin Furen says that Wei Wuxian has "strong wicked energy" and that he may do something evil. Like fighting back when he is ambushed on his way to a party.

Jiang Yanli repeats that Wei Wuxian is her didi, and says that she'll never leave him. JFR keeps trying but Wei Wuxian steps up and takes Yanli by the wrist and goes to lead her away. Jin Zixuan finally, FINALLY admits that he likes Jiang Yanli.

He is embarrassed, Jiang Yanli is delighted, and Lan Xichen is amused.

Jin Zixuan runs away and Jiang Yanli agrees to go back to Jinlintai with Jin Furen. Wei Wuxian is super immature unhappy about it....

....but he accepts her decision, in a nearly wordless exchange that we’ll see echoes of much later, between him and Lan Wangji. (Exceptionally cruel gifset here)

Wei Wuxian formally bows to Jin Furen, asking her to take care of his sister. Because he recognizes this for the parting that it is.

Jiang Yanli isn't wrong to make this choice. She deserves to be happy, and married women in this environment can't live with their original family. But she told Wei Wuxian, over and over, that the three of them have to stick together, only to change course and leave him behind with no warning. It’s not even five minutes since she said "I will never leave him." Wei Wuxian isn’t the only person making impossible promises in these parts.

Jiang Cheng and some Jiang cultivators show up, and everyone, including Wei Wuxian, tells Jiang Cheng that he missed an important scene, but nobody will tell him what actually happened.

Wei Wuxian says he's going into town, and he leaves Jiang Cheng behind just as abruptly as Jiang Yanli left him.

Jiang Cheng asks Lan Xichen what happened, and Lan Xichen says "there was an argument but it's mostly smoothed over now; also, Jin Zixuan says he likes your sister." Ha ha ha ha! Of course he does not say that, he says "You should ask your sister at the banquet" and Jin Guangyao says it wouldn't be appropriate for them, as outsiders, to comment.

I would like to see Jiang Cheng respond to this by beating the crap out of them with Zidian for being a couple of coy bitches, but he just furrows his brow.

JGY hangs back from the group for a second to tell JC that WWX is sooooo great, before they all head back to Jinlintai.

Insecurest Boi

As everyone is walking Jiang Cheng hears Captain Blowhard saying that Lotus Pier made a strong impression today, and that they'll be able to recruit a whole lot of disciples. The cultivators are of two opinions about whether having Wei Wuxian is a good thing for a clan.

Then a Jin cultivator says he heard that the Yin tiger amulet is made of the missing piece of Yin iron. He says he overheard it from Jin Guangyao. He says even if it's not for certain, the timing fits. Jiang Cheng reacts to this as if he 100% believes it, because Jiang Cheng is a dumbass sometimes.

He should just frickin’ ask Wei Wuxian about the amulet. Lan Wangji asked where he got it and Wei Wuxian told him, and Jiang Cheng, while they have their issues, is officially on WWX's side, so there’s no reason for WWX not to tell him.

The Jin cultivator goes on to say that the Jiang Clan ain't shit, that all their deeds belong to Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng takes all of this on board totally unfiltered. Literally everything that any Jin cultivator other than MianMian says is propaganda coming from Jin Guangyao, but Jiang Cheng thinks they're friends and doesn't know how to recognize manipulation.

Jiang Cheng is hearing the exact same criticism that Jiang Yanli heard, but he's not equipped to handle it, and instead of fighting back he gets angry at Wei Wuxian. Despite all his recent growth, he is still crushingly insecure, and this is hitting him right in his tenderest spot. Jiang Fengmian has a lot to answer for.

Instant Replacement Sister

Wei Wuxian is off working through his own feelings; he's wandering the street in Lanling with a bottle of wine in hand. Wen Qing, in her red Wen robe and her hooded cloak, is wandering the street in the opposite direction. They pass each other without seeing, in a moment that's excruciating to watch the first time.

But then some Jin cultivators obligingly push her to the ground, and Wei Wuxian, with his beautiful heart of fucking gold, hears someone who needs help and turns around.

For a moment he smiles in recognition, before the smile clouds over. Wen Qing, for her part, looks horrified; perhaps it’s everything she’s going through, but perhaps she can see that he, in his own way, is struggling nearly as much as she is. Meeting with her will galvanize him and give him the life direction he desperately needs.

A Day Late and a Tael Short

Lan Wangji wants to solve Wei Wuxian's problem, but he lacks imagination, so his best idea is to hide him in Cloud Recesses.

Lan Xichen points out that Wei Wuxian might not be on board with that. This conversation is short, but it has some layers, once you know about their parents' relationship. Lan Wangji frowns but doesn't have a second idea.

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #wangxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #clan leader yao #canary3d-original #my gifs #restless rewatch the untamed

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mr-and-mr-diaz · 3 years

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Buddie Fic Masterpost

Prompt😂Updated 06/13/2021!

I can’t believe I’ve written enough for this fandom that this actually seems warranted but here we are!! For those who want to keep track, here are all the Buddie fic I’ve written in one spot, and I’ll update as I add more:

NEW! All My Buddie Drabbles In One Places

This is where I put my short buddie drabbles for when you need just a quick Buddie bite, no commitment, no long stories :) Enjoy! <3

The Best Wingman

Summary: In Josh’s first date since being attacked, Buck and Albert come along, each bringing a date of their own for a big old triple date of mutual support and fun. Of course, now that they've offered, they both need to go find dates...

I wrote this as part of a larger idea and also to indulge my deep love of Shy!Buck.

ROAD TRIP!

Summary: A glimpse into Hen, Eddie, and Buck’s 20-hour road trip to Texas in the fire truck during the crossover.

This moment had such potential for fluff and funny road trip hijinks, so glad I got to give it a fic treatment :) Contains season 4A spoilers

The Way To A Man’s Heart

Prompt from @agentmarymargaretskitz and @justsmilestuffhappens: Eddie & Christopher move across the hall from Buck and Buck is smitten. The 118 tell him to bring over baked goods.

This was pure fluff. Tooth-rotting cotton candy.

Have You Ever Heard of Scrabble?

Prompt: Can someone write me a Buddie with Christopher fic continuation of them having a family night while playing Scrabble? With fluff. I believe that would be an adorable fic.

You were 100% percent right, it does make an adorable fic! Contains season 4A spoilers

Home

Prompt from @the-wardrobeintocamelot: ABO-verse, Chris snuggling and scenting omega!Buck whenever possible because he smells like love/home/family. ❤️❤️

My very first ever ABO fic ever, also first for the Buddie fandom. I’m so happy with how it came out and I’m even more happy with how many people love it! Y’all are the best!

A Good Friend

Summary: The missing scene when Eddie comes to pick up Chris from Buck's place in 4x08 because we were so robbed!

I renamed this “Missing Scene--Eddie Comes To Pick Up Christopher” on AO3 so don’t be confused when a different title comes up. It gave me a cathartic chance to fill in this missing scene as well as air a bit of grief for how harshly Taylor dealt with Buck, telling him he’s a shit friend, despite teh fact that three seconds later she calls him for help which is something we all do to shit friends, right...? Contains season 4A spoilers

The Damned Disgrace

Summary: When Maddie is kidnapped by the infamous Commodore Douglas of the Royal Navy, Evan Buckley and her lover Chimney Han enlist the help of the only crew that dares to go against him: The Damned Disgrace, led by the fearless and terrifying Captain Robert Nash.First impressions are leery though. Captain Nash's first mate, Eddie Diaz, takes an instant dislike to Buck, doubting his motives and his ability to be of any use to the Disgrace's crew.

There aren’t a huge amount of us Buddie Pirate AU lovers, but this is still my indulgent fic for that AU because it works really well, and I truly believe that the firefam and buddie fits well in most scenarios like a ship (lolz). It also gives me a place to indulge my love for an au where Sharon hasn’t died, where Lena is still around and they are both in love with each other. I’ll update this one as often as I can!

Instinct

Prompt: ABO-verse: Omega Buck not having his safe space at his loft, starts hanging at eddies more, nesting there. Eddie buying softer blankets, etc for buck. But doesnt comment on ti, not to freak or embarrass buck.

My second Buddie abo fic! I started to write this and then writing did that thing it does where the story spirals out of control and it deviated ever so slightly from the prompt. So glad to see how many people enjoyed it! Contains season 4A spoilers

Eye of The Tiger

Prompt from @agentmarymargaretskitz: Buddie + “Your hair is really soft.”

Eddie Diaz realizes that Buck is the exception to yet one more rule... This one kind of popped out of my head onto the keyboard in a big PLOP. One moment I was looking at the prompt and the next I was looking at the fic, just like that! Please enjoy! Contains season 4A spoilers

Surprise!

Prompt from @justsmilestuffhappens : But- but what happens when Buck or Eddie say I love you to the other and not realize what they said until the conversation is over or they're in another room or leave huh?

This is what happens 😂 Enjoy!

The Other Two Halves of My Heart

Prompt: Okay but that surfing gifset is so goddamn cute... any thoughts on a sweet buddie + christopher ocean outing??

I loved this prompt! And I decided to write a fic where Ana and Taylor do exist, but aren’t dating buddie. Seriously when they aren’t trying to be shoehorned into romances that just don’t work they can breathe so much more as characters. It also gives them the leverage they need to shove these two oblivious assholes together. Featuring surfing and Soft Eddie Diaz. Enjoy! Contains season 4A spoilers

#buddie #buddie fic #evan buckley #eddie diaz #9-1-1 #9-1-1 on fox #buck x eddie #buddie fic prompts #fic masterlist

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thedeviljudges · 3 years

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the devil judge + the seven deadly sins

so, i made a gifset about who i thought falls under the seven deadly sins. and also shameless plug - please go reblog the gifset i made for this. took me ages to do.

but i figured i might as well make a meta post to correlate. so this is that post. it’s not everything i could discuss. i could be here for hours more, truth be told. but i hope it’s enough to chew on.

while i feel like a lot of these are going to be a no-brainer, i still want to talk it through because idk. i can, and i want to, and i feel like it, lmao.

gluttony

the elite are privileged and have an opportunity to indulge so much more than the general public, but in many different ways. this is shown throughout the show in the fact that they can indulge on luxury food, have political power, they can make a phone call or snap their fingers and everyone must follow their orders.

and the thing about gluttony is that there is always more to be had. you take a little and then realize it’s not enough and so you ask for more. case in point: in episode 11 when sunah suggests that yohan could be the new president, the current one gives her an alternative: dictatorship. because it wasn’t just enough for him to be an actor and the presiding president.

you’ll also know they turn in on themselves - the two other guys in the elite group. one who owns the company and the other dude - i really cannot remember their names and what they do, but y’all know who i’m talking about. it was so easy for them, when threatened, to fabricate documents to give to yohan about each other in order to get ahead. gluttony is only shared in the relationships we have until one realizes they can take a little extra of the pie. it’s the selfishness of having all the leftovers. gluttony cannot necessarily exist without someone else’s sacrifice.

lust

i kind of had an ah-ah moment when i was talking this over with @technitango. i was trying to decide who was going to be lust because lust is portrayed very, very differently in this show than what most of us are used to. we, of course, know sunah who lusts after a life of indulgence and riches because she equates that with respect more than actually wanting it because it’s monetarily worth something.

but then i realized the public is lust because of their need for justice. i won’t say revenge necessarily because they’re doing as they’re told when given the judge show. but we can quickly see how that evaporates into something akin to bloodlust, for criminals and people who normally get away with shit, to have their fair taste at conviction for their misdeeds. we even see it with yohan’s fanboy club - the lust that comes from adoration and dedication.

and even more so, the public is easily swayed and so is the nature of lust. it follows in the vein of needs and wants, and as soon as new information is presented, however may false, so does the wants and desires of what people want sway. how easy was it for them to turn on yohan for a split second on two occasions - on two accounts of bribery.

envy

envy, above all, is about wanting what others have because you do not have it yourself. it may not be exactly what they have, but a form of it. some people don’t necessarily want money - they want what it can by, which is time, health and material goods.

sunah is the perfect example of this. she envies respect and recognition. she talks about bright and shiny objects, and that’s true to her kleptomania tendences, but more than anything, she wants to be seen as an equal because being poor with a vastly different upbringing means she’s looked down upon by those she thinks matters.

which also begs the question why she feels the need to seek validation from people in higher statuses to begin with when she can be the exception and not the rule - form her own understanding and environment to show others that the typical way of the elite is not actually all it’s cracked up to be - to which we see when she has no one to celebrate her victory with. it’s lonely being at the top. you get to your goal you thought you wanted but then what?

more importantly, sunah also envies family, relationships and simply put, human interaction. she wants to be cared for and treasured, and she looks for that in her position of power. because then all eyes are on you. because then that’s what people care about. what she fails to see is that those eyes are just as fruitless and just as wavering. to be a leader means people loving the idea of you but not you as a person.

“people of envious nature are sometimes stimulated to seek to emulate those who have completed some great achievements and in doing so achieve something great for themselves,” according to Understanding Philosophy.

wrath

while i realize that gaon not might entirely fit the wrath trope, he certainly has his moments, and i think he’s lived with a tampered flame since his parent’s death. he just learned to briefly put it out in the form of distractions and a false sense of righteousness and justice. it isn’t until he meets yohan that someone finally gives him the okay to feel the entirety of his emotions, that lets him breath and tells him it’s okay to feel anger and hurt. and while gaon ultimately chooses not to exact revenge, his wrath is what led him to becoming a judge and walking away from his teenage crimality.

gaon transposed his wrath into seeking justice, transformed it into livelihood, and reformed his narrative so that he was no longer angry and a teen with rash emotions. it was simply redirected and never really forgotten. yohan turned that redirection back around onto gaon’s ultimate heartache. fueled with that, it became easier to justify himself and his actions.

the most pivotal moment of turning his back on this mindset is, of course, the minister’s suicide, where he takes a good look at himself and doesn’t like what he sees. at this point, gaon’s upset isn’t necessarily at yohan but at the situation in which they got themselves into. because the thing is, gaon doesn’t absolve himself from what they did. he doesn’t turn a blind eye to that and try to dismiss it. he owns up to what happened and confesses how he feels to yohan and how he has to leave for his own good, and in some indirect way, for yohan’s, too.

with yohan, his ultimately weakness, despite never admitting to it, is family. his wrath comes in the form of anger when the ones he loves are threatened. yohan lives by a moral code of loyalty because that means you won’t be abandoned, and as a child who lived with that verdict since the day he was born, it’s an ever-pressing theme of his.

thing is, wrath comes in two particular forms for yohan. again, one is family and the second is the rose-colored glasses he’s given himself in his revenge story. he’s always had a goal to presumably make right the wrong for taking away isaac, but within that, 10 years is a long time to plot revenge, to the point where it becomes so much easier to lose yourself to that, to become enraged with it and forget the initial goal all along. we see this in his inability to form the bonding moments needed with his niece and his casual throwaway comments over people’s lives - the comment he made to gaon about moving on to the next plan, and the ultimately nail in the coffin of pushing gaon to leaving him.

his fury has also led him to convince himself his own humanity is nothing short of a lie. therefore, it’s easier to justify the means to an end because of his own self-worth and self-deprecation. it’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy: he even admitted to gaon’s mentor that he is an abyss. he’s referred to himself as nothing but an animal or a monster - all characteristics of despondency to survive and to justify what he’s doing. sort of like a catch 22, yohan claims he’s an animal/monster and behaves as such, but because he behaves as such, it means he’s an animal/monster.

wrath for gaon and yohan are very different yet the same. they are slow-burning, and that’s a dangerous type. it’s actually interesting when you think about the fire imagery surrounding the two of them because flames are quick to lap at anything in its wake, to destroy within a matter of minutes. and yet for the two of these men, their internal fire eats them from the inside out, painfully, until they’re almost unrecognizable to others and to themselves.

sloth

sloth was a little more difficult to pinpoint because of its characteristics. it was either the minister versus the mentor, both of which i think could work in this role. however, i chose the minister simply because she’s featured more and intertwines heavily with the plot line.

soth is a medieval translation of the Latin term acedia, meaning “without care.”

the ultimate characteristic of sloth is often identified as laziness, and while it’s easy to argue that the minister hasn’t been lazy in her ability to get where she is, she became as much when she started lying to get to her position. isn’t lying known as the easier way out? it absolves you of responsibility, of putting in the hard work, of apologizing and making things right. in the end, she had a goal and found the easiest solution to get there through her lack of responsibility for the roles she more than likely swore an oath to.

but that also translates into the other attributes of sloth: a failure to do the right thing, lack of emotions for people or of the self, and the fact that it “hinders man in his righteous undertakings and thus becomes a terrible source of man’s undoing” according to The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil.

while i think there are a lot of components of sloth that may not necessarily fit the minister, the apathy and carelessness are enough to showcase her aggression, despondency and restlessness when what little efforts she does put in do not go her way. another interesting thing to note is that many of sloth’s traits correspond with symptoms of mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. it’s an interesting thing to note given the way the minister chooses to end her life.

greed

i don’t know that jinjoo would’ve had any provocation to the limelight if it wasn’t for sunah’s direction, but she’s eager to please and wants to be useful. it’s only natural for her to want more because it’s clear she’s a career woman, loves her job and has a heart for serving the people.

but like gluttony, greed is also that little thing that plants itself and can take on a life of its own. you start looking for justifications as to why you can’t have more than what you do, and in jinjoo’s situation, she’s already overlooked through no fault of her own. and it’s not that gaon and yohan are doing it purposefully, which is what makes their neglect heartbreaking, because truthfully, they’re after the same thing jinoo is. sure, it looks different and the foundation of it is different, same with their motives. but they’re all three judges on a residing bench working to exact justice - even if all three of them have their own personal agenda.

i don’t think jinoo fully aligns with greed, but she does want more for herself, and i think that’s only natural. you can tell she has a heart, and she’s keen not to be overlooked. this isn’t her pain point so much as it is she knows her worth and is more than ready to do what it takes to get where she wants. this, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily a bad trait, but we can see how it leads to being deceived, especially for someone who’s been left in the dark for so long.

she is enticed by the glitz and the glamour of being a head judge, but you can tell she feels some remorse and guilt for those thoughts at times. i think her sense of greed is a battle within herself more than it is extremely outwardly.

pride

soohyun’s pride comes in the form of her imbalance with right and wrong. her sense of righteousness and justice is so far leaning, even more than gaon’s. it can be chalked up to her being a cop, but we’ve seen instances of this outside of her role within that agency. her pride doesn’t let her see beyond saving gaon and getting to the bottom of every mystery that comes her way.

it also comes in the form of impulsiveness and her savior complex, putting elijah in danger, for example, instead of waiting for backup. it’s not necessarily from a belief that she can fix things all on her own, but she sees injustice and immediately jumps in. another case in point is her and gaon watching yohan wreck the minister’s son’s car. she’s ready to go stop him, but gaon pulls her back, most likely because at that point, they hadn’t been observing the situation for very long to get a read on it. also the fact that at that point, neither of them truly knew yohan and his capabilities.

but as to where her characteristics come from, we simply don’t know beyond that of gaon. it’s unfortunate because we don’t have much of her backstory, so there is no real understanding why she so firmly believes in entities of regulation beyond keeping her friend out of jail. she prides herself on her work and what she’s able to accomplish, which is why it’s devastating to her to have to protect gaon by cleaning up his bloody handprint.

aristotle is of the belief that, “pride, then, seems to be a sort of crown of the virtues; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them. Therefore it is hard to be truly proud; for it is impossible without nobility and goodness of character,” from Nicomachean Ethics.

but pride for soohyun isn’t about honors or rewards. it’s for herself and her capabilities, her ability to protect gaon, and the virtues she’s set as the precedent for herself. because sometimes it’s not even about establishing morals and ethics upon yourself. it’s about feelings/intuition, logic and observation. and no, i don’t mean the feelings she has for gaon. there are things that humans do, both actions and words, that we inherently know are bad without someone telling us as much and without the rules of the world seared into our brains. there are some things we know, for a fact, are wrong to us as individuals.

for soohyun, she knows that gaon’s actions, and even her own, have consequences. from what we’ve seen, i think it can be argued that it’s really about not doing those actions to prevent an outcome - not necessarily from a place of being just and right. that doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand good morals/ethics, but again, we have no background of what her internal guidance actually is.

to put this in layman’s terms, we’ll use gaon wanting to stab the conman in his youth. soohyun knows it’s wrong because it will incriminate gaon and therefore she stops it. gaon’s gone to her because he sees her as a moral compass. but is her own internal navigation rooted in justice the way gaon had to find it in the judicial system, or is hers rooted in her pride of keeping gaon safe? she stops him from doing things that will get him in trouble, but is she stopping him because the action itself is wrong or because the outcome will result in undesirable consequences for the two of them?

and of course, there is a flipped argument to be had there - i’m not arguing that gaon stabbing the conman would be right or justified. but what i am saying is that for her, her worldview is the only right one, and when anyone steps out of that, even gaon, it becomes a bit of an issue: the pride she has for that is palpable.

every character indulges

truthfully, every character has at least one form of these sins rooted in their characterization. some are larger than others, but the breadth of it can be explored even further for each. and that’s what makes them more realistic and not just characters written on a page or following a linear progression of their writing deity.

the seven deadly sins are also notoriously rooted in religion. they’re also a defining feature of aristotle’s works that represent the golden mean, in which each vice is parallel to a virtue.

the devil judge is so layered, but i think at the heart of it, it’s about humanity at its core. sprinked in are the philosophies and contradictions and what it means to look in the mirror, what happens when we’re blind to seeing our true selves and most importantly, how much changes when we’re swayed by our own misgivings. it really asks us to understand nature versus nurture, that people must find a belief in something to keep them going, and how futile our hopes and desires can actually be if we’re not carefully regulating ourselves, nevermind the entities established by society to regulate us, too.

the entirety of the show genuinely begs the question as to who is truly right, who is truly wrong, and if it’s even possible to find the correct answer.

#x #the devil judge #the devil judge meta #*#*the devil judge #so i have some Thoughts #probably not very good ones but ya know

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appleciders · 3 years

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Rachel + Leah + Water, the Director’s Cut!

Okay, so I made this gifset exploring Rachel and Leah and the ocean, but because there’s a ten gif limit and a major point of gifsets is for them to look nice, I had to sacrifice a lot of the behind the scenes thoughts and initial versions that came along the way. I still wanted to talk about them though, because I found a lot of them really cool, so I figured I’d stick all that in this post. It’s gonna get long, so you can find the rest under the cut!

So first up, we have Leah as we first see her in the water. (I’m using shitty screenshots because tumblr has a 2mb limit for gifs on text posts and I don’t feel like compressing these down lmao.) Here, she’s face-down, unconscious, floating on a fragment of the plane. This is the first time we see any of the girls in the water.

As Leah gives her dramatic speech talks to the detectives, we see flashbacks to the girl’s lives pre-island. There we see that one of them already has a very strong relationship with the water already, in her before-life: Rachel.

Rachel, as we know, is a diver. We see her take a magnificent tumble into the pool, but when she surfaces, her coach is sternly head-shaking. She corrects Rachel’s form, and after she walks away, Rachel echoes the correction, clearly frustrated with herself.

Back to Leah. We next see Leah waking up on her lil chunk of flotsam. When she realizes what the hell’s going on, she does what we all would do and starts screaming in terror.

Her panic gets interrupted by Jeannette’s classic Raise Your Glass ringtone. (This was my alarm for two years in high school, and when I watched this for the first time I did have an out-of-body experience). She swims her way over to the Hello Kitty suitcase and—irrationally—unzips it, but we’ll cut her some slack because she’s in some serious shock. As she tries to get the phone, it slips through her fingers and starts spiraling down to the bottom of the ocean. She dives after it.

Unfortunately, she quickly runs out of air and has to give up. She then spots Jeannette floating nearby, checks her out, judges her to be “just a little roughed up,” and then sees land and has a big oh-thank-fuck moment. Because we saw Gretchen’s team placing all of the girls, we know that Linh and Leah were the only two that were put out in the open water. The other girls were put in the beach, or, in Martha’s case, near the shore. This was probably done to quell some of Leah’s suspicions about the crash, but it does give me a couple questions about how they got the other girls wet—did they hose them all down? Pour a couple buckets over their heads? Bob each of them up and down a couple times in a big net like fries in a fryer??

Anyway, not important.

Next that we see, Leah has pulled Jeannette/Linh in from the water. (My Australian parents, who can never pass up an opportunity to give ocean safety tips, chimed in at this point in our first watch to say “See how she’s doing it! You always want to hold someone from behind and pull them in that way. Good job, well done.” So there’s some approval for you, Leah.) As Leah nears the shore, Dot and Toni come tearing in and they help pull the two of them out.

The rest of the episode after that really only concerns fresh water—Toni and Shelby set out in search of it, to no avail, and Nora helpfully plugs Diet Coke reminds us multiple times that sugar’s heavier than water, so “sugar sinks.” We do set up a goal for the next couple episodes, though: Rachel says, “I'm gonna swim out to the plane tomorrow. See if I can find anything,” and Leah volunteers to come with. Rachel gives her a nod of respect.

Moving on to episode two, we have Rachel and Leah’s (iconic) first real conversation. Rachel says she’s still going out to the wreckage. Leah looks out and looks back at her, incredulous, and says, “Rachel, the water’s insane.” Here’s a big recurring association—the water and “insanity.” (I use insanity here because that’s the language they use, along with psycho/crazy. In no way does that reflect my actual beliefs about their behavior nor am I condoning the way they use those words.) Leah points out the rip current (“well done,” said my mum), and explains her very brief stint as a norcal surfer. Rachel still looks set on going, but then Leah says:

Turns out, Leah can be as ripe with foreshadowing as Fatin. This marks the appearance of their second main association with the ocean—death. After she says this, Leah turns Rachel’s attention inland, and the two agree to climb a big hill to scope out their situation.

Episode two is also obviously Rachel’s episode, so we see a lot of her relationship with diving.

We see her plunge over and over and over again, drilling technique and form, but despite all her hard work, we learn her coach advised her to quit the team. Instead, Rachel throws herself in twice as hard, and ends up with an eating disorder. By the time the nationals come around, she’s too physically weak to dive safely, and she ends up hitting her head as she goes down. She surfaces in the pool with blood flowing around her.

She refuses to see that as the end of her diving career. She says she’s gonna “get back out there” and “be fucking great again” and she tells Nora at the end of the episode that she needs her to let her believe that.

In episode three, we finally see Leah and Rachel’s trip out to the plane! Nora comes along with them, her relationship with Rachel smoothed over after the events of ep two. “Nora’s a good swimmer,” Rachel explains as she invites her, “We were both water babies.” Water’s clearly been central to Nora and Rachel’s identities since they were really young.

The three of them make their escape from the rest of the girls as the topic of building a shelter comes up. “Not interested in putting down roots!” Rachel calls. In keeping with the elements theme, Rachel isn’t looking to be grounded. She climbs super high into the air and she dives deep into the water, but earth isn’t her thing. (See: the quicksand scene. Whoops.)

Anyway, the three of them paddle out into the water. Rachel dives down, scopes out the plane, tells Nora she doesn’t expect her to “fucking free dive in open water,” and then looks to Leah and asks if she’s ready. Leah reluctantly agrees.

We get our first shot Rachel swimming down into the ocean and our second shot of Leah (first the phone, second the plane). In the wreckage of the plane, they discover the black box, affixed to the wall. They keep trying to wrench it free, but it’s stuck, and Leah—who’s primary activity is, like, reading—keeps having to surface for air. Rachel gets frustrated and grabs her leg, holding her down.

Leah screams and fights, but Rachel doesn’t let go. We cut away, and when we see them again, they’ve emerged victorious (Rachel) and drowned as dogs after a bath (Leah and Nora) with the black box in hand. Later, Leah mutters the above line to Fatin, calling Rachel a “psychopath.” For those keeping score at home, here’s where we refer back to the association between water and “insanity.”

In episode four, the ocean benevolently bestows a bag of takis upon Nora, and we have our whole shelter-building shebang. It’s all very land-based until Leah and Fatin go head to head, which ends with Fatin smearing her blood all over Leah’s face. Leah, with her usual flair, strips off her clothes as she walks into the ocean. She stays down there, passively letting the water wash the blood from her face.

This shot parallels a couple things. First, the drifting blood visually parallels Rachel in the pool after her diving injury. Second, we have Rachel staring out at the water where Leah’s disappeared and going, “Man, that is some real Virginia Woolf-type shit.” Dot has no fucking clue what she means, so Fatin interprets: “It means that bitch is crazy. She said you were the psychopath of the group.” Now it’s Leah who’s done something in the water that’s been deemed insane. The water and “insanity;” the water and accusations of insanity within their relationship.

Those accusations pop up in episode five, but the episode is pretty focused on the inland search for Fatin, and revolves around fresh water, not salt water. (That could be a whole nother post lol.) It’s in episode six where we again see these two return to the ocean.

Rachel is diving in the ocean! For fun! She’s picking up pretty shells (which granted isn’t the safest thing to do in the pacific, cone snails are not our friends), and she’s grinning, and she’s generally enjoying herself. With the, uh, finale situation, we’re probably not gonna get to see her smile for a bit, which is sad, because she should get to do this more often! This shot visually echoes her diving for the plane and Leah diving for the phone, except she can be in a better mood because there is no end goal.

So she goes diving, ends up finding a bunch of mussels, gathers ‘em up, and brings ‘em back to camp. They all chow down, but wind up with serious food poisoning. Martha and Toni ring death’s doorbell a couple of times. Rachel blames herself—she’s the one that went swimming out there, she brought the mussels back. Again, we see that connection between the ocean and death.

And that association comes back bright an early in ep seven! The tide surges higher than they’ve ever seen, taking down their shelter and leaving them all scrambling.

While Leah convinces Fatin that her life is more important than her suitcase, Rachel is left with a decision: help Nora, screaming to her from where she’s clinging to a rock for dear life, or grab the black box. In a move that contrasts Toni’s immediate and unquestioning aid of Martha, Rachel picks the black box.

After, when they’re debriefing, Nora’s quick to bring it up. She doesn’t hide her hurt. “It happened so fast,” she says, “we all acted irrationally. Like Fatin, who jumped into a rip current to save her toothbrush. Or Rachel, who left me for fucking dead.” I think this counts as a double whammy for the “insanity” and death count—I think “acted irrationally” is as close as Nora gets to calling anyone crazy, and is honestly a better descriptor of all the other instances of “insanity” that we’ve seen, and the ocean was the source of the very real risk to Nora’s life.

(Honestly, I think Rachel thought she was making a rational choice here—just with some grim fucking calculus. Still, given that nobody’d responded to the black box by then, I think it was a decision fueled by the need to keep hold of hope more than actual rationality.) In a fun contrast to the rest of the episode, it’s Leah that keeps a level head in this situation.

The rest of the episode is low on water scenes, though Leah’s paranoia about Shelby is fueled by her sneaking off to the water, which could fall under the “insanity” category. It also marks where Nora begins to take an active role in breaking apart Rachel’s fantasy about diving again.

Ep eight has one of the best montages in a series of great montages, with the playing in the water scene! A plane has seen them, they’re gonna be saved, and they all get to get high and act like kids.

I have this lingering and probably irrational concern that the entire water play scene is choreographed and that it’s chock-full of foreshadowing. Like I know to some extent they likely were just like “yeah guys go goof off in the water,” but like...the wave pulling Rachel and Nora apart here...I mean.... (Rachel is probably gonna get more blood on Dot in the near future, too. ) That aside, their horseplay gets interrupted when Leah notices some blood on Dot, which Rachel realizes is her own period blood.

Fatin then chimes in with her ever-gleeful foreshadowing: “Shark week for Rachel.” So while this whole encounter with the water actually seems mostly good for a change, it’s colored by the tie-in to what we know is coming.

In ep nine, reality has set in that rescue isn’t imminent. Everyone’s starving, Leah has started to spiral, and Rachel’s unusually skittish. By the tide’s edge, Nora asks for her help fishing, but Rachel refuses, saying that she’s weak. Nora flicks water at her, and Rachel flinches, clearly scared.

Starvation seems to have triggered Rachel’s trauma around the water leftover from her diving accident. In response, Nora reaches out a hand and says, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Meanwhile, Leah’s spiral has reached critical. She starts ranting about the ocean and the water and pushes past Dot, sprinting into the waves:

And so she’s taken to heart the way they think Jeannette’s body “escaped” the island—the tide—and it’s been spun like cotton candy in her head. She’s right, technically—Jeanette/Linh’s body was moved off the island by boat, and there’s definitely an argument that if they really did all swim out Gretchen’s team would save them, or at least try to. This is also a very real suicide attempt. So it’s kind of a culmination of the threats of death and mental health issues that’ve been wrapped up in the ocean since the start.

On Rachel’s end, Nora has taken her up to a cliff. Rachel calls the whole thing “borderline insane,” walking up when they’re so low on energy, but Nora tells her she needs to make a truce between herself and the water.

“You’re afraid of it now,” she says, and Rachel replies that, “All it ever did was make me sick.” Nora immediately surges forward to say “That’s not true!” Rachel, incredulous, says, “Isn't this what you want? For me to hang it up? For me to forget the whole fucking diving game?” Nora says, “No. I don't know. I don't want you to forget you.” She then tells Rachel she should dive off the end of the cliff, that she marked it to make sure it’s safe. Rachel says she can’t.

There’s a lot here. First, there’s the first time we’ve seen of Rachel explicitly call herself sick. In episode two, even in a treatment center, she still denies it, says she’s just an athlete who knows what it takes. But now she’s reached a place where she acknowledges her eating disorder—and also probably her recent illness with the mussels—and ties it directly to the water. It’s the reason she’s sick.

Nora’s fear that Rachel will forget herself also just hammers home how central the water has always been to Rachel’s identity. Cutting herself off from the water would be cutting off a core part of herself. (...whoops) And we’ve seen that it does bring her actual joy, when she’s allowed to relax with it, but she’s had such traumatic associations rolled up into it now. Nora doesn’t want Rachel to do diving as a sport anymore, because of how badly it’s hurt her, but she does want Rachel to keep diving and swimming as like, a form of unevaluated personal expression.

At the moment that Rachel’s refusing to jump, she and Nora hear shouts from the mainland. They see Fatin and Dot screaming after Leah. Confused, Nora asks, “Where is she going?” but Rachel understands immediately, with absolute certainty, without needing to be told—“To fucking drown to death.” Seven episodes after Leah called heading into the water a death wish, she’s finally proving it true. Rachel squares her shoulders, takes a few deep breaths, and sprints into a dive.

Unlike all her other dives high altitude dives we’ve seen her do, this dive isn’t qualified based on aesthetics. This dive matters because of what it will do, not on how it looks. And what it does do is bring her into the ocean, where she needs to be for her friend. So with strong strokes, she swims out towards Leah.

When she reaches her, she takes hold of her, pulls her into her chest from behind. She begins to swim with her back to shore. This rescue directly parallels Leah’s rescue of Linh that we talked about above. It also, as the Out in the Wilds podcast insightfully pointed out, really calls Rachel and Leah’s relationship back to the beginning. Whereas Rachel had initially held Leah down in the water, putting her in danger of drowning, Rachel here pulls her out of the water, saving her from drowning. Together, they make it all the way back to the shore.

Finally (and, like, if you’ve made it all the way down here? bless you. thank you), we have episode ten. The ocean doesn’t really figure into episode ten until the very end. Rachel has had a long episode of healing—she’s happy to be full and she’s in a good place with her sister and things seem to be going pretty okay. She decides to heal her relationship with the water, too. She heads out, telling Nora that she’s “Just gonna float, Nor. Just float.”

Just floating. After all the times we saw her plunging into the water, purposefully, with frustration, with drive, with so much to prove and with so much sacrifice and self-abuse to prove it with, Rachel finally just wants to float. She wants to let herself relax. She wants to let the water carry her.

Of course, that means there has to be, like, a massive marine carnivore waiting to mistake her for a seal.

Visually, this shot really parallels the opening shot of Leah on the fragment of plane. Instead of being face-down, though, she’s face-up, and she’s conscious, just not of the threat from below.

The shark bites.

In a horrible parallel to Leah’s Virginia Woolf moment and Rachel’s diving accident, we see blood pool in the water. Rachel is pulled under. The girls on the land start screaming and running toward her. We know Rachel doesn’t die, but this is still a near-death experience, one that probably cost her her arm. Leah, covered in dirt and her own blood after crawling out of the pit Nora led her into, can only stand and watch, shocked and horrified.

So that got! Way longer than I meant it to! And honestly most of this was condensed into very concise tags in a post I made a few days ago! But if you made it all the way down here, you’ve now seen everything I wanted to fit into that gifset but couldn’t. Thanks for sticking with me, friend <3

#the wilds #rachel reid #leah rilke #the wilds meta #this got away from me a bit lol #there was absolutely no proofreading on this so if something doesn't make sense...oops #leah x rachel

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darling-i-read-it · 3 years

Text

Drink

Dale Cooper x reader

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: tension, its all tension, intense making out, drinking, gambaling, leading to smut and insituation to smut

Author’s Note: Not this being way longer than I intended it to be. Blame it on the fact that I was watching Euphoria and it filled me with inspiration because that show slaps. I got a little carried away so it’s probably a little ooc toward the end but I hope you like it lmao

Requested: by anon, You posted that gifset of dale cooper with the suit and glasses yesterday and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since so maybe you should write a fic inspired by it 👀? Like reader goes undercover with him and he’s taken aback by how beautiful she looks and there’s sexual tension between them the entire night until afterwards where he pulls her aside for a steamy make out session. Might be ooc but I’m thirsty so 🤷‍♀️

Summary: the request

Genre: tension? Almost smut but not quite?

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director

(not my gif) (the gif that inspired it all by @/myellenficent)

“You’re prepared for tonight?” Dale asked. You crossed your arms to protect from the chill in the air. You nodded stiffly.

“I am.”

“Remember, something fancy that isn’t too flashy. I’m sure you’ll be fine though,” he promised. You nodded again.

“I’ll throw something together. You don’t be too flashy though huh?” you teased. The two of you stopped in the hallway you were walking down. You were standing in front of each other's hotel rooms, which were separate.

“I’ll try my best,” he digressed. You nodded and leaned against your doorway before turning around and opening it, slipping inside.

You and Dale were new partners. You had been friends for ages but only in passing. It wasn’t until your partner died that you were able to actually work together. You had done a few cases together but this was the first one you had to go undercover for. It was odd, seeing Dale in this kind of setting. He was very good at what he did and you were very good at what you did. You should have been paired together years ago.

You looked through your suitcase for something to wear. You were going to go and try and seek out one of the murderers of Laura Palmer. Dale had a theory that he would be there tonight and you weren’t about to question him when he really got going.

The plan was to gamble, act natural, fend off any woman and get the information you needed. You weren’t that worried.

You picked out a dress that you had been saving for a special occasion. Just your style and the fit of it always made you feel good. You were kind of excited to wear something that wasn’t casual. You were also excited to hang out with Dale. You knew the other local police force would be there but you figured this was the closest you were going to get to a night out with Dale.

There was a knock on your door five minutes before you were supposed to meet everyone in the lobby. You ran your hands over your hair one more time, checked yourself out in the mirror and then opened the door.

Dale was wearing a fancier suit than usual, his hair slicked back and a pair of fake glasses over his eyes. You smiled, raising your hands to his bowtie to fix it as it was kind of crooked.

“You clean up nice Coop,” you admitted. “Not that you aren’t already clean most of the time,” you joked.

Dale was awe struck. He had thought he might have feelings for you but only in passing, never in actuality. But you stood in front of him, wearing that fancy dress, your hair done up all nice. He couldn’t help but feel his emotions come forward in full force.

“Cooper?” you said as he hadn’t answered you.

“You look absolutely stunning,” he admitted. You smiled and looked down at your outfit like you weren’t even aware you had been wearing it.

“You think?”

“I know.” His voice had a low grumble to it that you didn’t recognize. It made you let out a stiff shortness of breath. You had to look away from his face.

“Well we should probably go, Harry and everyone will be waiting.” He seemed to snap out of it then. He cleared his throat.

“You’re right. You have your gamabling cash?” he questioned.

“I can’t gamble. I figured I’d just be your arm candy,” you admitted through a laugh. He put his hand on his hip, creating an arm holder for you. You wrapped your arm around his arm and smiled, walking next to him.

Harry and Ed stood in the lobby. They eyed the two of you, especially Harry who had been hearing the end of both of your emotions.

“You look real good,” Ed said, eyeing your outfit. Dale almost got defensive but he held it down.

“Thank you very much Ed.”

The night started swiftly enough. You managed to strip away from Dale for a moment and walk around the room, eyeing the area as he started to play a card game. You watched him from afar and navigated through the room. Harry hung back and grabbed your arm gently, pulling you aside.

“If you don’t make a move tonight I’m going to lose my goddamn mind,” he said. You laughed gently.

“We’re on a case, Sheriff Truman,” you whispered. He raised an eyebrow.

“Fine. Look over at Cooper right now and tell me what you’re feeling about this case.” You rolled your eyes and looked back over at Dale. There was a girl on his lap, whispering in his ear. You couldn’t see his expression because she was blocking but you had to give it to Harry. It got to you.

“Just focus Harry,” you muttered.

“Only if you do.”

You walked back to the other side of the room and the girl was off Dale’s lap. You pushed it out of your head. You didn’t want to think about it.

Dale however, was only looking at you. He was trying so hard to focus on the task at hand but he felt the tension in the air. It wrapped around him like a present waiting to be opened. His eyes were always flashing back to you and you were always watching him until you weren’t.

Harry’s hand wrapped around your arm as he pulled you aside. Whispers between the two of you. His chest started to rise and fall and he was going to lose this game of cards and then there was a woman on his lap and he had to tell her to leave because he was only focused on you and he should have been focused on the case.

Eventually though he was able to talk to a man who knew more about Laura's death. He was able to get information he came for. And the second that conversation ended he walked up to Harry.

“I need a drin-“

“Cooper,” you called, standing beside the two of them.

“Hold on a second, I want a-”

“Coop,” you repeated.

“Y/N I-”

“Dale,” you hissed. You had his full attention. His eyes were back on you now and everything he had just been about to say was gone. “Please tell us what happened to Laura.” Harry raised his finger.

“Will you write it down in the report?” Dale nodded and let out a harsh breath.

“I’m going to talk to Ed,” you said and gave Harry a look. You walked over there and let Dale spit out whatever it was that he wasn’t able to say in one sentence. Harry seemed to appreciate it and he understood more about what happened to Laura.

“What are you doing over here?” Ed asked.

“Getting Dale a drink before he passes out from whatevers bothering him,” you muttered. You raised your hand and quickly ordered Dale’s regular.

“I think it’s you,” Ed muttered.

“Huh?”

“Listen, speaking as a man, I think it’s you,” he repeated. You furrowed your brows. Before you could ask for more clarification Dale grabbed your arm which surprised you. You were holding his drink in your hand.

“This is for-” you started and he took the drink, handed it to Ed and dragged you away. You had barely gotten out of view before his lips were on yours. He pressed you flush against the wall of one of the off rooms in the lodge he had managed to find. You pulled away to breath and he looked at you. You had never seen his eyes look like that. Filled with want.

You kissed him again with more fire behind your own lips and he took that happily. He picked up your leg and hiked it up on his side. You let him. After a few moments of the most intense make out session you had ever had you had to pull away.

“We have to go and follow up on the information you got from that guy,” you whispered. You fixed his glasses and he fixed your dress. He let out a long sigh and nodded, pulling himself together. He knew you were right.

“Later,” he promised. You walked back into the main room and grabbed Dale’s drink from Ed to hand to him.

“Drink up. I’m going to talk to Harry.” Dale watched you go and then quickly followed, taking a drink of the one you had gotten for him.

#dale cooper x reader #agent dale cooper x reader #dale cooper imagines #agent dale cooper imagines #special agent dale cooper x reader #twin peaks imagines

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