#i read the first two and immediately planned to say the first 2 were incredible and then they all were!!
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-AGNOSTHESIA Featuring Scaramouche
Part 2 Part 3
Meaning: The state of not knowing how you really feel about something, which forces you to sift through clues hidden in your behaviour, as if you were some other person
Word Count: 3.5k~
Description: A study session with Scaramouche gets spicy
Edited By: @pretty-princess-peach
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“Are you deaf or just stupid? I’ve been explaining this to you for over an hour. How do you not understand?!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! This class is just really hard, and I haven’t really been able to understand anything from the last few lectures. It's all just gotten so complicated.”
“Isn’t this supposed to be your major? Why did you pick something challenging if you’re too stupid to understand any of it?”
“I’m not too stupid! It’s just a challenging class!”
“Why did you beg me to tutor you if you were just going to waste my time?”
You didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t wrong, nearly every study session the two of you have had ended with an incredibly frustrated Scaramouche and an equally confused you. It’s not that you weren’t trying. You paid attention the best that you could in lectures, and you did all the readings. You even used up most of your free time studying! But regardless, you were still hopeless.
Of course, having Scaramouche as a tutor was supposed to make things easier; he was at the top of the class, after all. However, it almost made things more difficult, given the fact that during your study sessions you were constantly getting distracted by how pretty the man was and how close the two of you were to your bed. You probably enjoyed the insults he threw at you due to your lack of understanding just a bit too much too. But no way would you ever admit to that.
~♡~
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit. It was 1:45pm. Your class started at 1:00pm. This was not good. You burst through the doors, immediately drawing everyone's attention and making your professor stop mid sentence. You were mortified. On this particular occasion, you had spent all night studying before dragging yourself to your school's library to continue studying. You had planned to spend your morning studying before your lecture at 1:00pm. You had not planned to fall asleep until 1:25pm and have to run to a whole other building to get to your lecture. You had been spending all your time trying to keep up with your peers in your astrobiology course, but it appears that plan had backfired, as you had already missed half of your class and would need to beg someone for their notes, perhaps an explanation as well. You looked around for a seat, quickly realizing that the only easily accessible spot was near the back next to Scaramouche. Fuck. Scaramouche was the best student in the class, but he was also notoriously unapproachable and impossible to work with. You had been stuck doing a group project with him before, and he had been a controlling nightmare. Ever since then though, he had occasionally spoken to you if you came close enough to insult. You took a deep breath, swallowed your fear, and started up the stairs. The class had continued on in the moments since your interruption, so you didn’t expect Scaramouche to be staring directly at you when you glanced at him on your way to your spot beside him. You looked away and got to your seat as quickly as you could.
“Well, if it isn’t the smartest girl in class.”
You fought the urge to insult him back, but you knew that if you wanted to get any help from him, you couldn’t risk giving him a reason not to help you. You gave him the nicest smile you could muster; he rolled his eyes at your attempt to be nice. You sat down next to him and set up your computer to take notes for the rest of class. After another half hour had passed and you were hopelessly confused, you turned to Scaramouche to ask him for some help.
“Hey, uh, I’m pretty lost; do you think you could give me the notes you took for the first half of the class?”
“Do you really think that’ll help you? It’s not like you even understand the lectures you don’t miss.”
“I understand them!”
“Yeah, sure.”
He turned his attention back to the professor. That’s when you had an idea that might actually work.
“Hey, do you have any spare time that you could maybe use to help me with the work from this class?"
“Do you really think that I would willingly spend my free time tutoring you? Why on earth would I do that?”
You took a deep breath, silently praying that this would work.
“If you agree to tutor me, I’ll give you Kazuha’s number.”
“You’ll what?”
Yes! He was interested.
“I’ll give you Kazuha’s number, and I’ll put in a good word for you with him.”
“Kazuha? As in Kaedehara? Are you serious?”
He was just staring at you, looking very serious. Clearly, this was important to him.
“Yes, I promise.”
Scaramouche chuckled to himself a little before sighing.
“Okay. Text me where your dorm is. I’ll tutor you on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.”
“I uh…don’t have your number.”
“You don’t? I have yours.”
“Yeah that’s because I gave it to you. Just text me and I’ll send you my building and room number, okay?”
“Fine.”
You sighed. Why did he have to be gay?
A few moments later, you got a text that said, “Hey loser”. You sent him your dorm information and a list of what times on those days you were free. And just like that, you had a tutor.
When you eventually talked to Kazuha about Scaramouche and how you had given him his number, Kazuha seemed confused, but after an oddly long stare behind you and a glance at his phone, he seemed to understand what you were trying to tell him.
~♡~
“Are you really this stupid? Or do you just like it when I insult you?”
“I’m not stupid! And don’t pretend like you aren’t getting anything out of this!”
“Right, I get to have you meddling in my love life. How could I forget?”
“You agreed to this! I didn’t make you do anything!”
“No, you just gave me an opportunity to spend time with the person I have feelings for, but only if I spend all my free time trying to teach an idiot her major.”
“I’m not an idiot! Stop saying that!”
“You can’t expect me to sit here and watch you screw things up I didn’t think anyone could possibly screw up and not insult you. You’re practically begging for it.”
You huffed a frustrated sigh and went back to your work while your tutor sat there on his phone. How was all of this so easy for him when you could barely understand any of it? You were working so hard but had nothing to show for it except for low grades and a tutor who is the furthest thing from being into you, who also somehow kept getting you all worked up and needy. Part of you wanted to just tell him to stop coming over so you could get through a study session without getting sexually frustrated. However, you also didn’t want to stop spending time with him…because, uh, because Scaramouche was helping you improve! Not for any other reason. Oh nevermind, who were you trying to fool? You definitely had feelings for him, even though you knew they would never be reciprocated. It wasn’t long before you reached another question that stumped you.
“I’m confused.”
“What else is new?”
“Shut up. Can you help me?”
He stared at you and raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for something. You sighed.
“Please?”
“What’s the question?”
“What is a carbonaceous chondrite?”
“Have you been paying any attention in class? At all?”
“I-”
Scaramouche cut you off.
“Even if you aren’t paying attention in class, you have my notes, and you’ve been asking me endless questions. Wait, I forgot. You’re just an idiot.”
“I’m not an-!”
Once again, he cut you off.
“No, you are. At this point, I’m not even trying to insult you. It’s just a fact.”
“Why?! What did I do that was so dumb?!”
“Do you really want to know?”
“...Yes?”
“Do you remember how you convinced me to be your tutor? Of course you do. You gave me Kazuha’s number. Do you want to know why he was so confused when you told him that? Because I’ve known him since I was a kid; we’re best friends. He only went along with it because I had followed you and was a ways behind you trying to get him to check his messages because I had to send him a text explaining that the girl I have feelings for thinks I’m gay and in love with him, and since he knows how dumb you are, he went along with it for my sake. I honestly thought that you would have figured it out by how nice I’ve been to you ever since we did that project together.”
You couldn’t believe it. Scaramouche has a crush on you, maybe even for as long as you’d had a crush on him. And oh my god you were stupid; he was best friends with Kazuha? How had you missed that?! Oh god, that means Kazuha knew you were stupid too…how did you even make such a big mistake?
“You…like me…? And you’re best friends with Kazuha…? What do you mean you’ve been nice to me ever since our project? You insult me all the time! Even before you started tutoring me, you were mean to me!”
“I talked to you. As far as I’m concerned, that’s nice enough. Anyway, I guess I should be going now huh?”
“Wait uh, you don’t have to go.”
“Oh? Maybe you do like it when I insult you, hm?”
“That isn’t important. I just need you to stay because you promised to tutor me, and I still need help.”
That gave Scaramouche an idea.
“Huh, maybe you just need better motivation to learn…”
He smirked at you before standing up from his spot on your bed and closing the little distance there was from where he had been sitting and where you were seated at your desk. He turned your spinny chair to face him and leaned down so his face was in front of yours and flicked your forehead.
“Hey, dummy, want me to fuck you?”
He laughed quietly at your slack jawed reaction. He stood back to his full height and sat back down on your bed. He gestured for you to come sit on his lap. You stared at him blankly, confident that you had misinterpreted his action.
“Come on now. You’re not really this stupid, are you?”
That was enough confirmation for you. You stood up from your chair and were about to sit down on his lap when he stopped you.
“Take off your clothes.”
He didn’t exactly leave any room for argument, so, as embarrassed as you were, you started taking off your clothes while Scaramouche watched you. You got down to your underwear and stopped, unsure if he wanted you to continue.
“Go on.”
Okay then. You took off your bra and your underwear, now feeling awkward with your tutor sitting in front of you fully clothed. He motioned you forward again and you sat down on his lap. He moved a hand between your legs and ran a finger down your slit before laughing.
“You’re so wet already, I guess you liked those insults more than you let on.”
His comment somehow turned your face redder than it already was. You would have made some kind of argument, however, you suddenly became preoccupied with the feeling of him pushing two of his fingers inside of you and fucking you with them. You couldn’t help but let out a few moans at the feeling. He snickered at the sounds you were making, even going so far as to mock the sound of your moans.
“‘Mmf ah oh fuck mmm haah,’ you sound so pathetic.”
You tried to quiet the sounds you were making, but that only made him more upset.
“Don’t stop. I like hearing you whining like a bitch in heat.”
He pulled his fingers out of you then pushed them past your lips and into your mouth. While you cleaned off his fingers like a good little slut, he used his other hand to undo his pants and pull out his cock. He pulled his fingers from your mouth and lined you up over his cock before bringing you down onto it. You heard him suck in a breath and let out a chuckle.
“Hah, shit, you feel good.”
You could only let out a whine in response. He bottomed out inside of you. After you took a few moments to adjust, you tried to lift yourself up, but found you couldn’t move an inch with the tight grip your tutor had on your hips.
“Wha…?”
“You said that you needed me to stay to tutor you, so, I’m here to tutor you.”
Was he seriously going to try to tutor you while he had you sitting on his cock? No, this couldn’t actually be happening.
“But…but I can’t…”
“You will. I’m just giving you some extra motivation.”
He smirked at you once again.
“What role do supernovae play in the origin, evolution, and development of life?”
You couldn’t think. You were far too preoccupied with the feeling of his cock deep inside of you.
“I don’t… I don’t know, I can’t…”
“Come on, you answered this correctly last week.”
Had you? Part of you thought he was lying to you just to make you feel stupider.
“I don’t know it…”
Your response came out as a whine.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure!”
One of his hands moved away from your waist. For a moment you wondered what he was doing, but then you felt a hard slap come down on your ass.
“Ahh! What…? Why did you?”
“You need some consequence for your stupidity.”
You tried to clear your head for the next question.
“Why is it more likely that we will find prokaryotes rather than eukaryotes when we finally explore Europa, Enceladus, or Mars?”
“I don’t know Scara-”
Suddenly you felt a sharp pain in your cheek. Did he slap you?
“I don’t want my name in the mouth of a worthless slut like you.”
He paused for a second.
“Did you just get tighter? You really are slut.”
You blushed and looked away from him. You didn’t want to admit it, but you really were enjoying yourself. However, the fact that your tutor still wasn’t fucking you was driving you insane. You prayed that soon enough he would get bored tormenting you and finally fuck you.
“Instead of calling me by my name, why don’t you just call me master, hmm?”
“Okay…”
“Okay what?”
“Okay master…”
“Aw, so the slut can be good! Well, since you’re so stupid, I’ll give you an easy question next. What substances are emitted from cryovolcanoes?”
Oh thank god, you actually knew this one.
“Water, ice, ammonia, nitrogen, and methane…right?”
He just watched you for a moment with a little smile while doubt started to build in your mind.
“That’s correct. But it really was such an easy question, maybe I should continue teaching you…”
“Please Sca- master…”
“Oh? What are you asking for?”
“I want you to fuck me…please…”
He watched you for a few moments, contemplating his decision.
“Beg.”
“What?”
“Beg, and I’ll fuck you. I won’t ask again.”
There was no way you were going to beg Scaramouche to fuck you. That would be humiliating. But if it would get him to fuck you…no. You weren’t that desperate for him, were you? However, all of your reasoning flew out the window when Scaramouche lifted you up his cock and dropped you back down.
“Fuck please master, fuck me, I need it so bad, need to feel you wreck me, want you to use me however you want, please!”
“However I want, hmm?”
Before you could reply, he had lifted you off of his cock and moved you so you were on your hands and knees. He got up from his spot and knelt behind you.
“But master I wanna- mmf!”
Your tutor pushed your head into the pillows.
“Stupid little sluts don’t get to touch me or watch me fuck them.”
With that, he pushed his cock back into you. God, why did he feel so big? He’s short, so why does it feel like he’s in your fucking throat from this angle?
“And arch your fucking back, whore.”
You did as he asked, and all you got in response was him letting out a little laugh. He started fucking you slow but deep, and you couldn’t help the moans that were escaping your lips, but thankfully, they were muffled by the pillows, so he could barely hear them. Fuck, this felt so good. The fact that he tortured you before getting here didn’t even matter anymore, as long as he could make you feel like this.
Before too long, you could feel an orgasm approaching, and though you tried to let him know, the pillows obstructing your mouth caused your warning to come out as, “mhmhfm hm hmhm hmm!” and your tutor continued to ignore you. Eventually however, you felt yourself start to tip over the edge. You really did try to tell Scaramouche, but he just wouldn’t listen. He was far too wrapped up in the feeling of fucking you. When you finally tipped over the edge, Scaramouche stopped moving entirely, effectively giving you a very shitty orgasm. He grabbed your hair and hauled you up to him so he could talk to you without pillows getting in the way.
“Did you just fucking cum without asking, princess?”
His voice was sickeningly sweet, and you were terrified of what would come next. He twisted the hair he had grabbed making you cry out.
“Hmmm how should I punish you? Dumb sluts like getting spanked, don’t they?”
You shook your head the best you could with how he had your hair.
“Aw, of course they do.”
He pushed your face back into the pillows and let go of your hair. There was a moment of silence as you waited for what would come next. You felt a sharp pain as his hand came down on your ass. Was he this strong before? You were confident that there would be a red handprint on your ass now. He landed another smack, causing you to emit a little yelp. He continued your punishment until you were shaking and crying. Finally, he decided he was done and wrapped a hand around your throat before once again hauling you upright. He moved his lips next to your ear.
“Don’t try to act like you didn’t like that. I could feel how tight you were.”
You blushed, but before you could respond to him, he started fucking you again, this time hard and fast. Fuck, how did he feel even deeper in you now? He reached a hand around to play with your clit. Fuck, were you going to cum a second time?
“Can I cum? Please, need to so bad.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely.”
Instead of stopping like you had expected, he kept fucking you, and within a few seconds, he had you seeing stars. He kept going this time, fucking you through your orgasm. However, he didn’t stop when you were done. He kept going, looking to reach his own end.
“Do you want master to fill you up with his cum? Hmm? Is that what you want?”
“Fuck, yes please, please!”
Scaramouche leaned in to whisper in your ear.
“No.”
“What?”
Suddenly, he let go of you before pushing you back down and flipping you over before finishing on your stomach. Fuck, you were glad you got to see that at least.
“Worthless little whores don’t deserve to be filled with my cum.”
After he said that, some switch seemed to flip in his brain, and he got up to go search for a cloth to clean you up with. He returned and sat next to you on the bed, wiping the cum off of your stomach.
“Are you okay…?”
You were amazed. He looked like a concerned puppy. Was this really the same guy that was telling you how worthless you were a second ago?
“Uh, yeah, I’m alright.”
You stared back at him. But after your confirmation, he seemed to go back to his usual self.
“So uh, does this mean anything…?”
“What?”
“I understand if it doesn’t. It’s okay, I get it. I was just-”
He flicked your forehead.
“Did u miss the part where I told you I have feelings for you? Why would this mean nothing? God, you really are stupid.”
Yep, definitely back to his usual self.
“Wait, so does that mean you wanna like, date?”
He let out a big sigh.
“I suppose I’m willing to have an idiot for a girlfriend.”
“Fine, then I’m willing to have an asshole for a boyfriend!”
He rolled his eyes at you and let out a little laugh before laying down in bed next to you. You didn’t realize how tired you were until you had your head resting on Scaramouche’s chest, and before too long, you had fallen asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.
Tag List: @lilia-sspouse @but-a-peach @stannazuna @yourlocal-bunny @lordbugs @randomlycockroach @licensedsimp @leena-shi @cesimaaa @welpthisisfine @dainself-when-playable @fic-rebloga
morbific-or-felicific.
#mae’s daily paper☕️*•̊ⴰ✧#scaramouche.❣︎•*✧ ̊ⴰ#mae.melts🧊*•̊ⴰ✧#this took a surprising amount of time to write the first half of but the second half was so fast so that was good#also i think the scaramouche x kazuha thing was really funny but im also an idiot so#longest fic yet babyyyyyyy#scaramouche x reader#scaramouche smut#genshin smut#genshin x you#afab reader#female reader
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I saw your writing recently, and I must say, I love,love love it! Do you think you could write something about kk3 Terry? The reader maybe training along with Daniel during that time. Him not being able to say no to keep the act up and genuinely training her on the side, a contrary to Daniel's 'classes'. Maybe they've been a little flirty here and there but as soon as she found out Terry's plans, she's been rather cold. She gets a little too 'friendly' with Daniel and Terry snaps with the immediate need to claim her *spicy spicy* , dragging her to his home that night to make her his! The little virgin gal...
I'm sorry I went on forever there, but my brain conjures up scenarios 100 miles a minute for this guy! Thank you in advance🤍🤭
I’m happy to give it a try, anon – this will be my first KK3 Terry request (though I do have an ongoing fic on AO3 with him right now!) This should be in 2 parts, so enjoy! (Part 2 | Oops, I lied. Part 3)
This now has a sequel that starts here!
---
Silver Seduction - Part 1
---
“Trust me, Y/N. Mr. Silver offered to train me, and since Mr. Miyagi won’t, I’ve got to take him up on it! I can’t let those guys knock me around, and if you’re going to be hanging out with me too, I need to be able to keep you safe!” Daniel LaRusso explained, walking with you through L.A. to a karate dojo. You had only known the boy for a week or so now, but he seemed to have latched onto you with the attentiveness of a puppy and a strong sense of chivalry.
Danny was a sweet boy, just shy of eighteen, but was entirely too sweet, not to mention young, for you. You had been introduced by your little sister, Jessica Andrews, who was planning on leaving L.A. to reunite with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, just as you had arrived to visit your aunt. You were on summer break from university and having just turned 21, were looking forward to a bit of independence in a city as big and important as L.A.
Before leaving, Jessica had filled you in on what had been going on with Daniel. A karate champion from last year’s All-Valley, Daniel had had several unpleasant run-ins with bullies trying to threaten him into competing in the tournament again, and was currently having a strained relationship with his mentor Mr. Miyagi, who he was living with for the summer. Your heart went out to him, imagining he must be quite lonely without any family or friends his own age to confide in, and you agreed to keep an eye on him while you were in L.A., as you didn’t have any friends here either.
“Settle down, Danny – no one has attacked me yet!” you point out, laughing good-naturedly at his enthusiasm for playing the knight in shining armour.
“And I won’t let it come to that,” he promised sagely, and you bite back a smile at his serious tone. “Okay, here we are!” he announced, pointing to the entrance with a grand gesture.
“Cobra Kai karate?” you say incredulously, reading the name above the door. “Isn’t this the place where the last bullies came from?” you ask, trying to keep things light, but unsure if the boy had thought things through.
“Yeah, but that was under the old sensei, Sensei Kreese! Mr. Silver said that he had died, and he’s done nothing but help me so far. He seems like a really nice, hard-working guy, and he doesn’t have any students right now since he’s fixing up the place.” Daniel explains. “Now come on, I don’t want Mr. Miyagi to find out we were here.”
Danny leads you into the dojo, and you walk in quietly to see a man training on his own. He moved through a series of punches and kicks; his kicks were especially amazing, especially for such a tall guy! After a moment or two, he bowed to his reflection in the mirror and turned to face the two of you, trotting over to greet you both. Uh-oh, busted.
“Hey hey, Danny!” he welcomes Daniel warmly, seeming excited, and you take a moment to look at him more closely. He was an incredibly handsome man, probably in his late-twenties or early-thirties, with long black hair tied back in a tight ponytail, stunning blue eyes, and a friendly smile. He seemed to be looking you over as well, his eyes twinkling as he takes you in. Maybe accompanying Daniel on his karate quest had been a good idea after all?
“Hi, Mr. Silver. Listen, I thought about your offer, and-”
“Now Danny, where are your manners? Don’t you think you’d better introduce me to your lovely friend here?” he interrupts. “C’mon, am I gonna need to teach you how to be a gentleman and karate?”
“Oh, uh, sorry, Mr. Silver, of course. This is Y/N Andrews, she’s visiting for the summer. Y/N, this is Terry Silver – he’s going to train me in a different kind of karate.”
Mr. Silver turns to you, bowing, and you blush lightly. “Y/N,” he repeats, savouring your name, “great to meet you.” He hasn’t turned any lights on in the dojo, and the light from the windows is fairly dim, which must explain why his eyes look like they’re glinting.
“Likewise, Mr. Silver,” you reply, smiling shyly. He looks like he’s about to say something else to you, but Danny cuts in.
“So yeah, Mr. Silver, if it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to take you up on your offer. Just short term, I mean…”
“Trouble? Are you kidding? It would be an honour!” He responds to Daniel with enthusiasm that seems genuine, but you think you may have seen a flash of annoyance on his face as he turned from you to the boy.
“How does Mr. Miyagi feel about it?”
Daniel hesitates. “Mr. Miyagi, he uhh… he doesn’t know about it.”
You give the two of them some space, stepping away to take a closer look at the dojo as the matter didn’t concern you. You had never been in a karate dojo before, but it felt a little familiar. You had taken gymnastics classes for years, while your sister had taken up rock-climbing, and you imagine that this was where the feeling of familiarity stemmed from. Based on the moves you’d just seen from Mr. Silver, karate sure looked like a lot fun. Maybe he could teach you too, you thought, half-serious.
“It’s not much yet,” Mr. Silver says, and you jump, not having heard him approach. He puts a hand on your shoulder to steady you, giving you an apologetic smile. “But it will be when I’m through with it!”
“I’m sure it’ll be great, Mr. Silver! Danny says you’ve been working really hard to fix it up,” you encourage. He smiles at you, taking a couple of steps closer and bending down to speak in your ear.
“Hey, c’mon, you’re not some kid I’m teaching. You can call me Terry when it’s just us!” he whispers conspiratorially. You find yourself smiling, pleased that he sees you on more equal footing with himself.
“Okay, Terry,” you emphasize, and he gives you a pleased smile. “Where’s Daniel?” He gestures down the hall to a closed door.
“Changing; I had a spare gi in the closet. He wants me to train him, and we’re not gonna waste any time!” he declares. You find it sweet of him to take Danny under his wing so immediately. “What are you doing with that kid, anyway? You his babysitter or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” you laugh. “My sister introduced me to him before she went back home, said he’s been dealing with some kids harassing him. I don’t really know anyone here, and he’s a nice kid, so I thought I’d keep an eye on him.”
“Hey, you know me now, so you can hang out with someone your own size!” he jokes, clearly referencing Daniel’s short stature. You take a step back, making a show of looking up at him to emphasize your height difference, and he laughs. “Well, someone who’s also an adult, then,” Terry concedes, smirking slightly and looking over your shoulder.
“I’m basically an adult!” you hear a voice from behind you, and turn to see Danny standing there, having changed into the uniform for training.
“Danny! Wow, you look great,” you say, gesturing to his gi. You hope you haven’t embarrassed him with your conversation. How long had he been standing there listening, anyway?
“Thanks, Y/N!” he says, beaming at you. He was so sweet and innocent, and it was so easy to make him happy. “Are you gonna stay and watch me train?” he asks hopefully, and you can tell he’s eager to show off. You look over at Terry.
“I’d love to, if it’s okay with Te- with Mr. Silver, of course,” you say, winking at him. He grins, giving you a once over, and you blush. “I mean, I’d love to learn a few moves myself. Oh, I know!” you exclaim, hopping up and down in your excitement. “You guys can use me to practice on!” Daniel balks at the idea immediately, but Terry considers you with a thoughtful expression.
“I don’t wanna hit you, Y/N!” Daniel protests, but you shake your head.
“No, nothing like that. But if Mr. Silver is going to show you how to flip someone or sweep their leg or something, you can practice on me! That way he can make sure you’re doing it properly. I won’t get hurt, I’ve done gymnastics for years and I know how to land safely! Please let me help?” you ask, looking at them both hopefully.
“I don’t know…” Danny hesitates, still seeming uncomfortable with the idea, so you turn to Terry, knowing that if you can convince him Daniel will have to go along with it.
“Oh, come on! I let you and Danny practice tossing me around, and I pick up a few moves in the process! It’s a win-win! Please?” you ask, eyes bright. You had told Jess that you would keep an eye on Danny, especially with the bullies that had been bothering the two of them lately, and this would give you a great opportunity. Plus, you really wanted to spend some more time with Terry. You’d had fun talking with him today, and he was more than easy on the eyes. Terry eyes you, sizing you up and clearly contemplating something.
“Alright, alright!” he gives in, raising his hands up and grinning. “I guess I could use the help. But you’re both gonna have to listen to me, alright?”
You and Danny both nod, excited to watch Daniel train and to learn from Mr. Silver – Terry – yourself.
---
You landed on the floor on your back as your legs were kicked out from under you, hitting the ground the way Terry taught you, and giggled breathlessly. That was fun!
“You like that, huh?” he asks, grinning down at you. You take his offered hand and hop to your feet, smiling back. You had had a great time, watching Terry put Daniel through the paces – you tried to follow along with the kata as best you could, trying to copy them but not wanting to take Terry’s attention away from Danny. He’s the one that really need to be trained, after all.
“See, Danny? I’m totally fine!” you point out to him, and he folds his arms and rolls his eyes, but gives you a smile.
“Fine, I guess it’s okay,” he concedes, and you and Terry share an amused look.
“I think that’s enough for today,” Terry says. “Why don’t you go get changed, Mr. LaRusso, and I’ll walk Y/N through another couple moves so that she can practice with you tomorrow?” Danny nods, heading back down the hall to get changed. Terry turns back to you, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
“You’re a pretty fast learner, Y/N,” he compliments. “I saw you trying to follow us through the kata, and you’re not bad. I bet I could really teach you a lot if I didn’t have to focus on the Karate Kid,” he says, pointing back to where Daniel was with his thumb. You blush at the praise.
“Thank you, Mr. Si- Terry,” you correct yourself, and he smiles wolfishly. “But Daniel only has a few days to train, so he should of course take priority.”
“So I’ll train you separately!” he proclaims, and you go to protest, but he cuts you off. “I was gonna have to train Danny without you anyways, to go over the stuff that you can’t help with, and he can’t train all day; he’ll wear himself out!”
“Won’t you wear yourself out, training both of us all the time?” you point out, raising an eyebrow at him.
“It takes a lot more than that to tire me out,” he says, winking at you, and you bite the inside of your cheek to keep you from smiling. Still, you hesitate, not wanting to take up too much of his time.
“The response you’re looking for is ‘Yes, Sir’,” he offers teasingly, quoting himself from an earlier conversation with Daniel, but his eyes are intense. You bite your bottom lip, and see that his eyes track the movement.
“Yes, Sir!” you concede, giving him a mocking salute. Terry beams at you.
---
And so it went. Terry would spend the next few days alternating between teaching you and Daniel together, going through the kata and using you to demonstrate moves, and then teaching you separately, Daniel visiting the dojo in the early afternoon and you coming by in the evening.
You were on your way to the dojo now for your evening class, and took the time during the walk over to think about all that had happened in the past week. You were definitely sore, and had more than your share of bruises, but from the way Daniel had been limping around (trying his best to hide it), you can tell that Terry was training him way harder.
Still, the training had been worth it – not only were you learning to be a decent fighter, and helping Daniel to improve, but getting to spend time with Terry, especially during your 1-on-1 sessions, was really fun. You had been getting more comfortable with one another, and had definitely been flirting throughout your private training with him. Did he get a little closer to you when correcting your form than he would need to, and did his touches linger as he adjusted your hips, adjusting your stance to land a proper punch? Most definitely, but you couldn’t find it in you to mind. Terry seemed genuinely pleased by your progress, and you loved the charming smile he gave you when you perfected a move. And yesterday, when you walked into the dojo, he had presented you with a beautiful flower, saying that he’d seen it on his drive over earlier that day and that he couldn’t resist picking it for you. You had accepted the gift, smiling shyly, and had reached up, pulling him down into a hug so you could place a quick kiss on his cheek.
He was just so wonderful, and you could definitely feel yourself falling for him. You were very inexperienced when it came to dating, having only had a couple of relationships in high school, and had been too focused on studying in college to waste your time with boys. But if Terry decided to ask you for a date, you knew you would be helpless to resist him.
Smiling at the thought, you turned the corner to the Cobra Kai dojo, but were startled out of your daydreaming by the sound of a panicked scream and laughter. The door banged open, and you quickly dashed into the bushes outside to hide. Daniel came running out, clutching his stomach, and you could see blood on his shirt and that he looked absolutely terrified. What on earth was going on?
You heard the door open again, and heard bare feet hitting the pavement at a run.
“Get back in there, LaRusso,” demanded a young boy in a white Cobra Kai gi.
“Leave me alone, Barnes! I’m not fighting anymore!” Still, he turned to face the boy as he said this, assuming a defensive stance and trying not to let the pain on his face. Barnes? Wasn’t that one of the kids that had been harassing him and Jessica? What was he doing here?
“Hey, we ain’t done with you yet!” yelled the boy, taking a threatening step towards Daniel.
“But he is now done with you.”
Mr. Miyagi stepped in between the boys, appearing from nowhere. Where had he come from? Had he seen you? You tried not to panic, pushing yourself further against the outer wall of the dojo to stay hidden.
“Was I talking to you, old man?” Barnes sneered dismissively.
Quick as a flash, Mr. Miyagi had picked up the boy and thrown him clean through the dojo door.
“You stay here, Daniel-san.” He ordered, walking in after the boy. Daniel hesitates, eyes wide, but after a moment or two sneaks in after him. You hear a scream, and the lights in the dojo go out. Turning, you try to see what’s going on through the window. Where was Terry? Was he alright? But you can’t see anything through the closed curtains, and can only hear the sound of fighting. Just how many of them were there? You couldn’t bear the thought of Mr. Miyagi going up against more than one person. You knew he was a good fighter, but he was so small.
Suddenly, you hear the now-familiar sound of Terry’s voice, but he doesn’t sound quite right. He sounds mean.
“You think this is the end of it, old man? I’m going to open Cobra Kai dojos all over this valley!” you hear him scream. Terry was fighting Mr. Miyagi?
“Hell, I might even teach for free! From now on when people say karate around here, all they’ll mean is Cobra Kai karate – John Kreese’s karate! You won’t even be a memory!” Kreese? Hadn’t Daniel said he died? What the hell was going on.
You hear Daniel’s voice, close to the entrance. “Yes he will! You won’t!” he cries passionately, and the door opens again, and you see Danny and Mr. Miyagi step out onto the street once more, both thankfully looking unharmed. As the door swings shut, you hear the sound of men laughing evilly, like hyenas, and it sends a chill up your spine.
“Now will you train me?” Danny asks desperately.
“Hai,” the man agrees, nodding sagely, and the two of them head down the street back home. But Daniel suddenly stops in his tracks, looking horrified.
“We gotta tell Y/N to stay away from them! She’s probably on her way for her lesson!” he exclaims, taking off down the road. Mr. Miyagi walks quickly after him, and you feel your heart warmed at the thought that they were looking out for you. But you were an adult, and you didn’t need others to take care of you, at least, not without you getting a word in first.
Steeling yourself, you take a deep breath and walk into the dojo. Immediately, you take in the mess of broken glass and paint, and are immediately relieved that Danny and Mr. Miyagi appeared to walk out unharmed. Stepping quietly into the dojo, you see the younger boy, Mike Barnes, on the ground, looking bewildered with his head in his hands. Terry – covered in paint, for some reason – is talking in a low, angry voice, to a shorter yet still very intimidating-looking man, who you recognized from signs in the dojo as John Kreese. So, not dead then, you realize, and your heart immediately clenches at the realization that Terry had been in on it from the beginning. How could you have been so stupid?
“Terry?” you call out to him, hating how your voice comes out weak and shaky, but your anger has caught you so off-guard it isn’t able to burst out of you quite yet. Barnes jumps to his feet and immediately takes a fighting stance, but Terry waves him off with a hand. The three of them move to approach you, with Terry in the centre, eyes wild with excitement.
“Hey hey, beautiful!” he greets boisterously, clapping his hands. You’d think he’d be a bit less exuberant, covered in paint and having had his ass kicked by a man twice his age and half his size. He lopes over to you, grabbing you by the arm and pulling you over to the others, and you’re in such shock by his lack of awareness that you let him.
“Johnny, this is Y/N! Ain’t she something?” he asks, standing behind you with his hands on your shoulders and looking to Kreese for approval. The older man looks you up and down, and you feel dirty.
“When you told me to enjoy myself in Tahiti, Terry, I felt bad enjoying the company of those women you’d provided. It would’ve cleared my conscience to know you had found yourself a girl stateside!” Kreese joked, leering at you. The pair share a laugh that sounds more than a little cruel, and you feel yourself start to tear up. But the feeling of devastation is quickly overwhelmed by your anger.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” you yell at him, wrenching yourself out of his grip. “What did you do to Danny?” he crosses his arms, looking down on you like he’s disappointed that you’re even asking, and shakes his head.
“Don’t worry about it, baby girl,” he croons, reaching for you, but you swat his hand away, and a flash of anger crosses his face. “That little prick ruined the name of this dojo, my dojo, and I needed to teach him a lesson!”
“What are you talking about? I saw him come out of here bloody and hurt! He’s just a kid!” you exclaim, and he laughs under his breath, smirking. Who was this guy, and where the hell had the sweet, kind Terry you’d gotten to know gone? “You… you lied to me.” You hear your voice shaking, and you’re close to tears. You hate how weak you must look in front of these men, these monsters, who would jump a kid just for winning a karate tournament.
“Hey, I didn’t lie to you,” Terry says smoothly, and you try to interrupt him, but he continues. “I lied to him, and you just happened to be there.”
You’re shocked at how cold and callous he’s being, your mouth falling open, and he comes towards you once more. You feel yourself shrink back in fear.
“Come on, doll. This doesn’t have to get in the way of you and me,” he croons, reaching towards your face. Without thinking, you reel back and punch him in the face, causing him to stumble back, more from the surprise than the force.
“Don’t you ever come near me again, do you hear me? I’m fucking done with you!”
Kreese looks shocked, but doesn’t make a move towards you, standing his ground with his arms crossed and surveying the situation, but Barnes comes towards you again, fists clenched. Terry, one hand clutching his bleeding nose, reaches out with the other to stop the boy.
“Leave it,” is all he says, and Barnes obeys like a well-trained dog. You back out of the dojo, staring at Terry through your tears, and as soon as your back hits the door you turn, running off into the night.
#terry silver#karate kid#kk3#thomas ian griffith#one-sided daniel larusso x reader#terry silver x reader#cobra kai
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Revered Deity, Unknown Hero (6/10)
Read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Find it on AO3 here!
Game of Fire
It was a rare reprieve week for the heroes. They had been dropped into a Hyrule between eras, allowing them to finally rest and recuperate without worrying about monster attacks.
This, of course, came with side effects- the more energetic heroes got incredibly restless. With no monsters to fight, dungeons to traipse through, or destination to arrive at, they needed some way to deplete all of the energy.
Clearly, playing with fire was the answer.
“Steer clear of the small forest, and keep yourselves to the open field. We don’t need to cause forest fires.” Time had a knowing look on his face. Wind and Wild whooped, dashing further into the open area, the two were practically vibrating with the energy. Legend and Hyrule trailed behind with Warriors bringing up the rear- he claimed to be there for supervision, but the others knew better.
Between the five of them, they had a fairly sizable repertoire of weapons, which spelled chaos (read fun). It would not only burn their energy, but satiate their want to use and play with fire.
A swirl of blue revealed that Wild had started taking out any of his fire weapons. Wind watched over his shoulder as he swiped through the slate, if the steadily growing orange glow by their feet was anything to go by, there were a lot.
“Do you guys need any weapons to play with?” Wild knew they probably didn’t, but it wouldn’t be fair if someone had to miss out on the fun. A chorus of ‘no’ answered him, so he put his slate back in place. Turning around revealed his fellow heroes holding their own fire weapons, except for Hyrule, who had a small flame flickering in his palm.
“What’s the plan exactly, champion?” Legend was leaning on his fire rod, and while his voice seemed uninterested, the veteran’s face gave it away.
Wild had not planned that far. But, on the fly improvisation was something he was good at. Taking his slate back out, he raced around and dropped bundles of wood in a shape that vaguely represented an upside-down triangle.
“Who can light up all ten wood bundles within thirty seconds!”
He didn’t like the smirks Legend and Hyrule had, and definitely not the one Warriors wore.
“Sounds like a plan. Who’s going first?” Wind jumped at the opportunity, darting to where Wild had marked the line the ranged weapon users couldn’t cross. He nocked his first arrow, and Wild gave the countdown.
Arrows were shot and nocked in no time from years of muscle memory. The younger hero was a good shot, only missing a few of the farther ones, unable to get the correct angle to do so.
“Aaand… time!” The sailor had managed to light up seven bundles. A short round of applause burst from the onlooking heroes.
“Who’s next?” Warriors sauntered up to the line, turning to face Legend with a cocky stance. The veteran raised an eyebrow in return.
“Fifty rupees say I light them all immediately.” Legend scoffed.
“You’re on, pretty boy.”
Warriors had a smug look as he turned to face the newly placed bundles of wood. Wild skidded to a stop a little ways behind, readying the timer on his slate.
“On your mark, get set… go!”
The captain let out a cry, planting the end of his weapon on the ground, angling it and himself. Wild watched in awe as the fire rod transformed and grew, a spiraling pillar of flames rising from the large, ruby red core. He felt his jaw drop open as a serpentine dragon of fire came barreling through, lighting all of the wood bundles in a split second. Wind, Legend, and Hyrule were in similar situations, and if Wild weren’t still awestruck, he would’ve laughed at the look on the veteran’s face- the expression of a man now fifty rupees poorer.
Clearly, Warriors had all the right to be so self-assured with this, as he had swept anyone’s chance of winning away with his dragon of fire.
“That was awesome!!” Wind broke out of his shock first, and barreled into the captain, causing the man to stumble and let out an ‘oof’. Hyrule and Wild snapped out of their awe next, appropriately clapping and congratulating the clear victor of their game. Warriors bowed dramatically, leaving the three to laugh at the theatrics.
Legend still had his jaw open, staring at the ten lit campfires, blinking slowly, but not yet snapped out of his awe. Ever the gracious winner, Warriors made his way over, and shut the veteran’s jaw with a finger.
“Don’t want you catching any flies, Ledge.” Wild howled, doubling over in laughter with his brothers. Legend snapped out of it then, and started chasing Warriors, screaming at him as the other laughed, taunting him about the bet.
Wild gasped for breath. Legend should know to never bet against a dragon- especially when it’s one made of fire magic.
#linked universe#linked universe chain#lu chain#lu warriors#lu sky#lu time#lu twilight#lu legend#lu wind#lu wild#lu four#lu hyrule#god of war warriors#mars writes#cross posted on ao3#lu fanfiction#linked universe fanfic#lu fic#linked universe fic#revered deity unknown hero
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Every week I think, yep, Big Dragon - favourite show right there. But then the next episode is even better than the last one and here I am, with five gifsets in one evening and ideas for about a dozen more. I'm truly living my best life, even if my version of photoshop is waging a constant war against Windows 11 🥲
But on to this week’s episode review:
This episode is aptly titled Good Old Days, and there’s so many flashbacks and memories and little stories being told. It’s all woven together so well. It even comes with its own red thread of fate.
It all starts with a flashback of a flashback and we learn two things almost immediately: Mangkorn’s really close to his mum and she knows about her son’s crush. Being the amazing mother that she is, she approves.
Her son has his eyes on the Moon of Business Administration, after all (what a catch!).
That his crush goes back to their first year of uni didn’t really shock me because the reveal is pretty much the same as in the book (which has even more of an enemies to lovers vibe - honey, stop punching your future boyfriend just so you can be near him). I’m actually really happy that they kept this part in because I really liked the “plot twist” (hey, it counts as a plot twist if there’s hardly any plot). They even hinted at their whole rivalry only being a thing because Mangkorn kept hanging out at Yai’s Faculty and everyone thought he was there to “steal” girls (when in reality he was there to make heart eyes at Yai).
Mangkorn fell first AND he fell harder. This is it, this is the whole show.
Well, a big part of it anyway.
And speaking of Big.
I’m definitely not immune to older characters kneeling down to tend to their lover’s shoes/feet. There’s just something almost reverent about it. An unwritten rule that is broken because someone just cares so very deeply.
If only Nine knew about the colour-coding in Big Dragon, then he’d realise that Yai's wearing a red jacket and that’s Mangkorn’s colour. He never stood a chance.
But I loved this repeat of a similar shot in episode 2, when Mangkorn and Yai meet in the hospital:
Nine is even wearing the same kind of shoes that Yai usually prefers. He truly is the embodiment of Yai’s comfort zone - which makes Nine’s metaphor about well-worn, comfortable shoes so fitting. Only that Yai is very direct in saying that he sees Nine as an older brother only.
Which is why I don’t get why he’s kissing Nine back for a full minute in slow motion and several different camera angles, but hey, it’s Big Thanakorn. I don’t blame him (Star Hunter, I beg you, give this man his own show! It’s been 84 years etc).
Maybe this is why Nine refuses to read the room even after Yai tells him to never do it again.
Enter the yin & yang pendant Yai conveniently loses as a kid while playing with - gasp! - Mangkorn (negl I’m not a fan of the whole “I’ve loved you since we were children” trope but I get why they included it here).
But the red thread of fate it’s hanging from is even more obvious, and it weaves its way through the entire episode, thereby connecting the past and the present - and binding together Mangkorn and Yai.
Meanwhile, in the present, Mangkorn contemplates doing his Master’s abroad - something he obviously didn’t plan for as long as he thought he had Yai in his life (no, really, was he like “no, I can’t go to New York. There’s this crush I fight every day at his Faculty building. Clearly I can’t go!”).
Oh, and apparently he’s told everyone - and I mean everyone! - about his crush on Yai. He’s told his Mum. He’s told Ajo. He’s told Hong. They’re all rooting for him! At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he told his professors, too (which will come in handy once he withdraws from the program). This is just so damn adorable.
Too bad Yai won’t have any of it.
This scene is incredible in so many different ways, though.
It’s set in an empty room, one side red, the other a murky green, all strict vertical lines that can’t be crossed. The room is a piece of their past, a (messed up) memory that Yai wants to destroy, while Mangkorn (as part of his job as an intern) wants to preserve it. He clings to “their story” in the same way.
But Yai has a different story to tell. It’s shown through a mirror and it’s really unnerving, the way it makes Yai almost irrecognisable (and this is all Mangkorn gets to see - he doesn’t see how much Yai struggles with his emotions, too).
If only Yai knew how close he is to the truth, though. Mangkorn has wanted to get close to Yai for years, even though it hurt him. And now Yai is telling him to “stop fighting”. Ouch.
It’s the little nod he gives right at the end that absolutely kills me dead. And even before that, the whole scene is so different from every other conversation they’ve had so far. There’s no argument, no back and forth, not even any kind of miscommunication.
It’s the way Mangkorn is literally fading into the background.
Good thing there’s still the red thread of fate.
And it’s interesting how Mangkorn is shown approaching the cruel mirrored version of Yai to return it to him - like he’s breaking through his barriers.
Yai, through the power of instant flashback, understands immediately.
And I love how later, when he lashes out at his father and his father’s girlfriend, the camera lingers on their reactions even after Yai has already left. He’s literally blind to the hurt he’s causing in his own distress. He’s accusing his family of being cold without his mum, but of course it is. That’s what grief does. That’s what it turns into when it isn’t shared.
Because of course his father has already visited his late wive’s grave first thing in the morning. But what good is that to Yai when he’s never seen his father grieve? No wonder he thinks him cold.
And now it’s Mangkorn’s turn to wear green as he makes up his mind (good thing he’s told everyone about his love life - that certainly makes it easier to seek advice).
While Yai, surrounded by red, is allowed to heal:
And the red thread comes full circle.
And maybe I’ve cried for ten minutes straight after I’watched this scene.
Anyway.
Nine. You’ve talked about this. How is this brotherly? What are you even doing here?
Now it’s Hong’s turn to give advice (good thing Mangkorn has told everyone) and maybe she and Nadear won’t have to elope to the UK after all, like they did in the book (but Star Hunter, consider this: it’d be very cute), because looks like they’re going to tell the dads to get with the times. Oh, yes, and Mangkorn looks very pretty as he finally dares to choose:
Also, finally someone who’s not completely oblivious to their students talking loudly in class. NatureBL is healing.
The green jacket! The soft lighting! The red brick and green leaves!
And I wonder how many times Mangkorn has daydreamed about this exact scenario🥺
I’ll leave you with this brand new reaction image because you deserve it after reading through all of this. Thank you Jame, thank you Jet, thank you unknown third guy who I’ve never seen before.
#big dragon#big dragon the series#jane watches stuff#this was supposd to be shorter than last week#clown shoes squeaking tbh#i should give these reviews their own tag#bd meta
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Opinions on Max’s moms being ronance in the same way that Steve and Eddie are/were father figures to Dustin ? And if you like do you have any favorite headcanons of them?
Oh! Oh! I love Ronance being Max’s moms!!! I think about them so much
Robin:
I like to think it probably started with Max going to Robin for advice—and not in the sense of a sexuality crisis like everyone loves with Steve. Rather, Max is an incredibly smart young woman, and I just know she figured out her bisexuality pretty easily on her own, and she saw Robin and immediately went “oh, that’s a homosexual.” I could see her going to Robin, pretending to be chill about it, to get some gay mentoring, like just general survival tips for being queer in Indiana.
They absolutely bond over their shared snarkiness (not that they’d ever admit it) and terrorize Steve on a daily basis. Max takes to calling him dingus with Robin. Steve just goes “oh god there’s two of them”
When Robin and Nancy starts dating, Max shows up and slams her hands down on the counter and basically grills Robin on how the hell she bagged Wheeler. She disguises it as teasing and banter, but Robin knows it’s because Max has a huge crush on El and doesn’t know the first thing about flirting with girls.
Nancy:
Nancy and Max are a little different. Max isn’t one to admit any sort of affection for anyone, but if you think Nancy isn’t her hero, you and I did not watch the same show. She probably thought Nancy was a huge priss at first, but then she watched her immediately take the rifle in season 2, then play chicken with a car in season 3. Before she even sees Nancy saw off the barrel of a shotgun, she decides Nancy is one of her idols.
Max and Nancy probably don’t talk as much to begin with because they’re so different—but I like the idea that maybe Nancy likes Wonder Woman too, so they find a shared interest there. And if they shit talk Mike and how he treats El, well, that’s their business.
After Ronance occurs, and after Max talks to Robin, she goes to Nancy instead. Robin has some game, but we all know who wears the pants in the relationship, and Max figures it out pretty quickly. Nancy probably helps her put together a plan to ask El out, takes her to get flowers, drives her to El’s house, etc.
Ronance:
We all know Max is a skater girl, and that comes with a myriad of injuries. Usually it’s just a skinned knee or a couple of bruises, but once she manages to fully break her arm. Instead of her mom or Steve or whoever else, Max’s first call is to Nancy. She naturally shows up with Robin and they bring her to the hospital. They both sign her cast and Nancy drives her home.
Nancy and Robin get more calls after that, usually involving Max’s mom being drunk again and her not wanting to be home. She never admits this, but Nancy can read people, and she knows. Nancy will pick up Max, and often Robin too, and they’ll spend the night in Nancy’s bedroom, painting each other’s nails and watching movies. El gets invited too, once Max asks her out.
Both Robin and Nancy are so excited for Max when El and her start dating. Nancy drives them to dates occasionally. Max and Robin sit and talk about their girlfriends all the time (but no one else gets to hear it from Max).
They probably help Max to open up a bit, to relax a little. She remains her snarky self, but it’s softer and she’s less afraid to be affectionate with her found family. Nancy especially I think would recognize a little of herself in Max with her issues with saying “I love you.” I think that would be a very interesting conversation for them to have.
And if you ship Elumax (which I do, because why decide between two amazing ships when polyamory exists, plausibility be damned), Nancy probably scolds Max when she’s being mean to Lucas. “That boy loves you, be nice to him,” when she threatens to dump his ass for the third time that month. Nancy is also the only one Max goes to for boy troubles, given that Robin probably immediately went “ew, I’m not talking to you about boys, ask your other mom.”
Max calls one of them mom on accident once. She never lives it down, but she also slips into it a bit more as their relationship grows. She finds that while they’re more like big sisters, they’re more moms to her than Susan (if I’m remembering the name right) has ever been. So she starts to actually refer to them as her moms, but always in a snarky way as an attempt to keep her cool reputation, but Robin visibly melts and Nancy adores it, even if she doesn’t show it.
Monster Hunter au:
Seeing as this is happening soon, I’ll include a little tease
Max is a werewolf, but in the “lore” I’m using (for lack of a better word), werewolves don’t change until their 16th birthday. Naturally this means she already knows Robin, and Robin is there to help her through it.
Robin shows her the ropes, basically how to control certain aspects of their shared lycanthropy (ie; making fangs appear at will), how to make the full moon a little easier, the safest places to go, etc.
She also introduces Max to Chrissy, who helps with a little magic that makes the shift less painful and easier to control.
Nancy actually doesn’t clock her immediately, and Robin protects her from the monster hunters as long as possible. I have a idea for a little reveal where Max is actually the one to protect Robin though 👀
I might have gotten carried away. I love them so much. Thank you so much for the ask, anon!
#ronance#robin buckley#nancy wheeler#robin x nancy#stranger things#max mayfield#Lo rambles#Ronance are Max’s moms#you can pry this hc from my cold dead hands
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Sicktember Day 14: "I shouldn't be worried about you, but for some reason I am"
Fandom: Ace Attorney
Characters: Damon Gant, Manfred von Karma
Notes: It is Old Man Hours™. I am Not Sorry™. It may or may not Happen Again™. Manfred does not need friends; they disappoint him. Do not concern yourself with the mere possibility he may have looked on in envy when overhearing a discussion between two friendly attorneys in the office lobby. Do not even think about the potential feeling he may have that something is off when entering his office doesn’t immediately spawn a visit from Damon Gant, who is not his friend. Set in 1999 for the very important reason of Franziska being born and also The Phantom Menace is in theaters. Yes, both are very important to this entry. The elder von Karma sister is finally named because I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer: Adelaide. I was holding off until I finished a PWKM with her that’s been long on hiatus, but I grew impatient with myself.
@vonpharma, please enjoy the sillies.
Damon Gant, Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles district police department, was a nuisance. This was obvious. Anyone who had shared a room’s oxygen with the man would most likely agree. At least, Manfred von Karma thought so.
If anything, a morning without being loudly greeted by the man ought to be considered a most welcome change. At least, Manfred von Karma used to think so.
It wasn’t that Manfred was lonely. No, not at all. Even if his attempts at calling to check on the status of his wife and newborn second daughter were frequently shot down by the servants who answered the phone, he was not at all lonely! In fact, this morning, he listened to the conversation between a younger prosecutor and his bothersome defense attorney friend. It was beyond Manfred’s comprehension why such intermingling would even be desired in the first place, but he listened.
He even bothered to remember the topic of the conversation, however dull it was, being the release of some ridiculous science fiction movie. The defense attorney had seen it already with his son and was inviting this prosecutor to see it with his family a second time. It was quite comical! Two grown men being so openly fond of their childish interests! Not to mention a father exposing his child to lowbrow, newfangled computer animation-aided drivel passed off as cinema these days, and twice at that! That was not at all anything Manfred would ever want to waste his valuable time doing.
Yes, his time was incredibly valuable. He already spent so much of it reviewing case files he had read and reread several times this morning, which was highly important; as was the time he set aside to enjoy a cup of tea served by his secretary, imagining the framed picture of his firstborn daughter on his desk was the girl’s actual presence savoring the moment with him. The lack of interruptions made the ongoing day perfect and not at all concerning once he considered the notable absence of a certain deputy police chief.
He was especially not concerned once that absence was minimized into a mere tardiness, with a hacking cough from Gant replacing a typical, obnoxious greeting at Manfred’s office doorway.
“Manny!” Gant finally called out to him.
Somehow, this version of Gant calling out to him with a significant lack of familiar energy managed to bother Manfred even more than usual.
“Damon Gant.” Manfred addressed him as he typically did, a subtle attempt at correcting Gant’s informality that never truly succeeded. Whether Gant continued using nicknames out of spite or simply because he could not get the hint was a mystery. “You’re late.”
“Late?” Gant shook his head. “I’d say it’s more that you’re early!”
“It is nearly 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”
“Early for a man I expected to have at the very least planned a trip back home!” Gant amended with a shrug.
“Why would I do that when there is still so much to be done here?”
Gant perused through the collection of family pictures on the prosecutor’s desk, provoking a scowl from Manfred each time he left one out of its original place.
“Because a little birdy told me you’ll be adding to this collection, soon enough!”
Manfred furiously and meticulously placed each framed photo back into their original positions. Inconsiderate didn’t even begin to describe Gant’s carelessness, especially as he soon started coughing over Manfred’s head with what can hardly even be called an attempt to cover.
“Yes, I am awaiting Adelaide’s school award ceremony pictures to be developed. She’s set a new record for her age group in how many accolades she’s won this year alone.”
“No, Manny! Your new family member!” Gant shot a disappointed look at Manfred. “For shame, not being present to see your own baby.”
“Tell our family’s midwife who won’t let anyone besides a select few servants enter the entire east wing of the home.” Manfred responded glumly. “She’s far more overbearing than the one we had when Adelaide was born.”
“I see now!” Gant clapped his hands together. “You’re drowning those sorrows in your work, then! Typical Manny!” He let out his trademark jovial laughter, at least until that cough overtook him yet again.
“Would you please stop drowning me in whatever illness has you in its grasp? In fact, why not take leave for the day to avoid the risk of infecting everyone else?”
“You worry too much, Manny! I’ve…” Gant stared into space mid-sentence. “I’ve taken a reasonable amount of medicine to lessen all those infectious symptoms.” Either he was lying, or neglected to realize that coughing all over another man’s desk was infectious in its own right.
“Define ‘reasonable.’”
“Of course!” The deputy police chief rummaged through his conveniently large suit pockets and pulled out a bottle of what Manfred recalled to be absolutely sickeningly syrupy blue-green liquid. Gant then went on rambling about how effective it was, before suddenly trailing off-topic into a tangent Manfred couldn’t bother to try understanding.
Manfred couldn’t help but notice the large letters advising how the medicine should be used: “TAKE BEFORE BED,” “DO NOT DRIVE OR OPERATE HEAVY MACHINERY,” and of course “FOR NIGHTTIME.”
Not only was Damon Gant a nuisance, but now Manfred was suspicious that Gant was unable to read. It was almost 2 o'clock in the afternoon and Gant had proudly announced what was either impatience or incompetence when it came to taking cold medicine.
Manfred was now presented with the choice of either taking matters into his own hand to prevent the disastrous results of allowing Gant to stay at the office and eventually drive himself home or allow said disastrous results to occur.
“That’s it.” Manfred stood up and inhaled deeply. He may have just taken in thousands of germs in doing so, but his exasperation was too much to go without expressing. “I am escorting you home.”
“Aw, you’re worried about me, Manny?” The way Gant cooed was all the confirmation Manfred needed that he was far too overmedicated to be either out and about or driving home.
“I shouldn’t be worried about you.” After all, Gant was merely another cog in the Los Angeles legal district machine. “But,” Manfred added quietly, “for some reason, I am.”
Gant let himself fall over to be propped up by Manfred, who couldn’t tell if this was intentional or merely an effect of the nighttime medication.
“You’re a good friend, Manny.”
No, no. Manfred von Karma did not need friends.
He did, however hard it was to admit, need Gant.
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My Bad Faith Media Recs:
(In which a thing i like a great deal is incredibly flawed/morally questionable/contains harmful themes & views/a combination of these)
Post-Shift 2 (Not morally bankrupt, just a powerful case study on how not to introduce players to new mechanics)
Clocktower 2: Ghost Head/The Struggle Within (IS morally bankrupt & does some absolute fuck-shit on NOT portraying DID, while also portraying things around it that are harmful. Plus, it's just bad to play, the only way you can get through this puzzle game is legit by using a walkthrough (because exploration gets you killed, & trial-&-error Do Not Work), + the endings are unsatisfactory & not worth your time to see)
Elfen Lied (maybe the worst piece of media I wish I could recommend more often, but will not due to how absolutely awful the content is. You NEED to look at the unconsenting media page before you touch this thing with a 100ft pole. It portrays some of the most abhorrent human behaviors, lays bare victims, showcasing their trauma for mere spectacle to keep an audience entertained. It repeatedly victimizes every single female member of the cast, either at an attempt at ""comedy,"" or to villain shorthand the villains while raising up the victims as sad characters you should heap sympathy upon, just so the protags can look like saints when they swoop in & help out. This is a constant re-iteration through an endless series of showcasing really heavy topics, with little to no care in how these topics are portrayed -- something that discusses a heavy subject but will never "handle it well." It's also kind of cathartic, for reasons I would need more paragraphs to explain. I watched it out of spite, & it instantly popped up to my favorite anime, & one of my favorite pieces of media, perhaps, before I got to the graveyard scene & went, "What the fuck?" & Had to stop watching, for a few weeks, only to come back & immediately adore it some more. It's so bad.)
Bendy & the Ink Machine (If you ever have interest in this series, your best way to experience it is by getting the sparx notes on the first game, then playing Bendy & the Dark Revival instead, which rehashes & references the first in a way I find derivative, but it ultimately a much better game to play. I think the first game is more interesting to talk about than it ever was to play, beyond maybe the first chapter -- but only if you treat it as a proof of concept, rather than the first of 5 entries in a single game. I cannot stress how shite it is to release your game in hacked up chunks that all need to be purchased, as basically paid dlc, & I also need to say that going back & making those previous versions unobtainable by mashing it all into one game that can instead be bought all at once does not erase what you were doing for years before that moment. I also need to say the devs are fucking awful for what they put their employees through -- that shit is dire. Also, the chapters are not at all cohesive, & do not "blend." At the end of one, you are teleported to the other, & the connective tissue is weak. The only 2 chapters that feel like they were planned together are 4 & 5, two chapters i speculate were likely originally intended to be 3 chapters, but were squashed into 2 when the devs inserted a new chapter for a character they previously had zero plans for after fans became incredibly interested in her. The series relies upon you reading alternative media like the novels & sequel to justify the first game & its ending. It's bad. It's so bad, & it makes me so angry that I have debated on getting into video essays exclusively to lay bare all the ways I despise this. It is my favorite game.)
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hey its time for episode 2! lets hope tumblr doesnt decide to randomly flag my rewatch post like it did for episode 1 (which i sent for re-review and still no answer lol)
insane this seemingly throwaway line was probably about the calibarn and not the lfrith as you're led to assume in the beginning episodes. and then shaddiq just outright asking rouji if its an ochs earth suit. knowing now that he had been working for the SAL/ochs earth, i wonder if he and they both started looking into aerial and shin sei separately.
i always assumed feng and guston were ordered to look into shin sei because of delling style anti-gundam fuckery but seems pretty obvious it was just ochs earth people within the SAL being like where the fuck did this possible gundam we don't have under our watch come from
wow the op sure hits different knowing this didnt turn out to be MEGAFRIENDSHIP and these little gaybies are actually in love, your honor
so technically suletta is a delinquent character, right? right? i mean she's been arrested.
honestly enjoying keeping an eye on sarius during this rewatch
again, i just gotta wonder the extent of how shitty all these people have treated miorine for years. like yea cool, shes witty and smart enough to lash back out verbally like she does initially here about guel but man, is like all her dirt out in the open? that's a low blow and felsi knows it
miorine rembran, you're not beating the homosexual allegations. her reaction here to finding out suletta might end up expelled because of trying to stand up for her is Very Good™
we never really did get an explicit answer for how elnora was able to turn the lfrith into aerial. before notrette ended up being a big bag of nothing, her involvement seemed to have been the fan favorite for secret backer. i read some theory like in the last week saying that maybe it was delling all along and then he was unhappy that she sent aerial to asticassia and suletta ended up engaged to miorine hence the entirety of episode 2 and him trying to get the gundam away from miorine. not really sure i buy it but you could argue that later on when she tells him to call her elnora samaya while theyre talking about quiet zero that it's possible she had been collaborating with him under the prospera mercury moniker
space covid
yeah so i guess delling sending a message to miorine that she's being pulled from school and he'd choose a suitor is all because he knows prospera used his plan against him and knows aerial is a gundam, at least that is according to that delling as long time prospera financial backer theory.
second theory time: even if he wasn't prospera's backer until well after the grassley duel when aerial is actually taken to plant quetta for repairs on delling's dime, IF there was any chance aerial could be a gundam, he'd know from experience that a gundam would blow through any and all duelists, so he's being pragmatic here just in case it is a gundam
mio just so happens to get the chance to get to earth again, but we are practically a day or two into suletta's time as asticassia and this girl is so down bad that she's throwing her who knows how long plan to escape down the drain already. her immediate hesitation is once again Very Good™
it's also incredible how in your face this show is with its imagery that it really shocks me how even then so many things fly over people's heads lol
so like she definitely had just off the bat asked them to take her to the benerit group instead of earth.
oh, i love her. vim you stood no chance.
yeah, delling, she's just gonna say why yes of course i am mr rembran.
it is so unbelievably wild to me that there were speedwatchers who coming up on episode 23 or something were JUST realizing prospera is elnora. like 1. this scene right here was your tip off 2. she fucking says it herself in like episode 10 or 11 or whatever ep that is lmao
there really is like virtually no fan service in this show for which i'm very much grateful for but lmao the first few episodes they really just cannot hold back from the mio leg shots, huh?
spoken like a true sick hypercapitalist fuck. fuck you, delling.
i also hate how he's basically forced miorine into a position where her trying to fight for her own autonomy is seen as acting out or throwing a tantrum. just another notch in a series of things she's spent her life being made fun of for
she really gave away her plan from the beginning eh?
i really am such a sucker for girl who upends her whole life for the first person to show her kindness thing. looking at you homura.
really though, miorine could have just said fuck it and left to earth, like she JUST met this girl, but at the end of the day miorine rembran is a good girl and there's no way she was going to extinguish the first sign of light shes had thrown her way probably since her mother died
i guess not really much to say about this episode lol and nothing really that made me go "oh wow they did allude this this back in x".
will probaby watch ep 3 later tonight, now lets hit post and hope tumblr doesnt hate me and tries to flag another of my rewatch posts
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S R E E D I E
can someone (god if you’re out there) please tell me why I saw you responding to ao3 comments which is USUALLY my tip off that you’re about to drop another chapter, and instead of heeding that warning I just… Forgot about it. ANYWAYS onto the live reaction of my reading there is very little actual in depth analysis or contribution of value here to enjoy the screaming into the abyss <3
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FI-
I just- I just love bato so much dude. like… yeah. he’s so conscious of zuko relying on his right side and accomodating for that and I just love him okay???
ah bato, sneaky sneaky sneaky but also SMART man, what would the water tribe do without you to get zuko responding with more than 4 syllables
lmao blushy zuko hours <3
“forbidden one-bed conversation” oh sreedie, the comedian that you are
okay but it’s so sad that hakoda doesn’t understand teenagers despite having 2 of them and it just goes to show that war takes things from you in every aspect of life not just physically because people have to leave to fight or they die and really, isn’t that the lasting trauma?? you can heal from things that have hurt you but how do you mourn for things that were taken from you before you ever had them
yay sokka pushing him and zuko out of their comfort zone!! I’m so glad he’s making an effort to heal right before you rip their lives to shreds again sreedie, I’m absolutely thrilled truly
drunk sokka you’re really in for it now goddamnit
oh noooo not zuko alone in the dark thinkinggggg that never ends well
zuko the bad liar is once again foiled in his plans to lie
YAY ZUKKA KISSES I’m so happy you’re allowing them some nice moments before you destroy their lives for the nth time!!!
wait shit zuko is 100% overcompensating bc he’s jealous about suki isn’t he and this is going to end in flames (haha literally maybe I’m so funny) and-
y e a h I fucking called it sreedie do I get an award for being so incredibly perceptive bc I think I should honestly
I cannot believe you’re doing this to me sreedie, the first time zuko says more than two sentences AND ITS TO HAVE THE ANGSTIEST FIGHT WITH SOKKA IMAGINABLE YOURE SO CRUEL (but also fucking finally the only way for things to get better is for them to get worse so hit me bitch)
WAITWAITWAIT IF ZUKO LEAVES THEN HES IRONICALLY SAFE FROM LONG FENG AND THEREFORE AZULA WAIT SREEDIE IS THIS YOURE PLAN
zuko: *is making a stupid fucking decision bc he’s terrified and super duper traumatised*
sokka: I’ll beat you the fuck up punk
oh shit sokka abandonment issues
BATO PLS HELP THESE CLUSTERFUCKING MESSED UP TEENAGERS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAKODA DO WHAT HE SAYS
is hakoda finally realising that gay people exist
lol not hakoda finding out zuko threatened to kill his mum in order to capture and lose a 13yo
rEally hakoda??? you finally get it through your sense fuxking skull that sokka might be a lil fruity and you IMMEDIATELY decide to be homophobic?? fuck that (ikik it’s not that simple but jesus crispy yk)
w o w. hakoda you’re really nailing this conversation aren’t you. bato baby, you deserve better
fuck YEAJ bato is the real mvp of this fic let’s goooo
so in conclusion, we got some Quality zukka spice, some Intense zukka angst, and a very ominous sense of foreboding permeating throughout the entire chapter! all in all, some excellent work done by the one and only sreedie my ex-wusband (I am aware that the gender neutral word ‘spouse’ exists but it reminds me of the afrikaans word ‘gespuis’ which means like.. kinda the equivalent to the aussie bogan idk how else to describe it, but it’s NOT something I wish to associate with you my lovely divorced sreedie)
love you to bits and pieces :))
This is me just responded super late because we are divorced and I don’t owe you shit.
Jk I’m still in love with you and I’m playing hard to get.
Bato is the MVP of RIA fuck off Morrak.
There were two beds, just to be clear, it’s not my fault Sokka combined them.
Hakoda: I’m not homophobic my best friend is gay.
Zuko over compensating? In this economy? Nope, you get no extra points.
Everyone: waiting for Zuko to get hurt
Zuko: *runs away*
Everyone: damn it
Love ya to death leekie.
#haha this is super funny#no one knows what is going on#Hakoda says I think I can make this worse#bato scrambling to fix things#Zuko systematically ruining everyone’s efforts#Sokka deciding when words don’t work punch someone#Jet just not joining the party this time#Reho was eaten by an ostrich horse#it’s just the usual#Ha ha haaaaaaaaaa#the exciting conclusion in like 2 months haha#maybe actually#I suck at writing#GOOD DAY LEEKIE MY BELOVEDDDDDD#leekie tag#leeks for short#liab#ria#ask
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HAPPY FRIDAY NIRI I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOUR NEW AU!!! could I request some Blackwall/Cullen/Thalia (with Pravin questioning Thalia's life choices) + “Time for my favorite pastime.” “Which is?” “Drowning my problems in ridiculous amounts booze!”?
OMG HI this was an incredible prompt. I'm so glad I finally had a chance to fill it.
Two notes: 1) Part of this fic was inspired by me yelling about the political implications of Blackwall's crimes to my bestie which in turn was inspired by modern Russian politics, look at me using my degree lmfao 2) bestie and I have outlined an alternate version of the "underworld connections" option to springing Blackwall from prison, which supposes Pravin was directly involved in the escape and convinced Blackwall to shave off his beard in the process. I loved that idea and ran with it for this scene.
As always, Pravin aka "Fidencio Frye" belongs to the lovely @monocytogenes
For @dadrunkwriting
WC: 2105
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Pravin liked the Herald’s Rest tavern because it had good food, excellent drink, mediocre entertainment, and a fascinating cross-section of civilization upon which to eavesdrop. Leliana’s intelligence reports were all well and good, but sometimes it served a bard to simply go amongst the people and see what he could learn.
He spied his cousin first, her distinctive auburn hair standing out amidst a crowd of soldiers in still-donned helms and Orlesian visitors in shiny masks. She sat at a long wooden table, back to the door. (How many times did he have to warn her not to do that? It wasn’t safe.) Across from her was a man with long black hair and recently shorn whiskers. Without the beard to hide behind, Thom Rainier became painfully easy to read. The redness to his complexion suggested he was already deep in his cups, and the sneer on his handsome lips as he spoke indicated he was hurling an insult. Even though the din and distance prevented Pravin from hearing exactly what was spoken, the stiffening of Thalia’s shoulders proved it landed as intended. She turned and launched herself off the bench, fleeing.
Fury boiled in Pravin’s stomach. Thalia, blinded by emotion, did not see him standing there, and tried to push past him to the door. He caught her elbow. “Hey, hey. What’s wrong?”
Thalia looked at him, startled. Her eyelids held a sheen of tears, which she blinked against furiously. “What? Oh, Pravin, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” She ignored his question.
“What did he say to you?”
“Nothing.” She wiped at her eye with a knuckle.
This only stoked Pravin’s anger. “It didn’t look like nothing.”
“Pravin, please. Just leave it alone.”
Thalia tried to pull away, a move Pravin expertly redirected, turning her around.
“Hey, look who just came in.” He pointed to the far corner of the room, where Commander Cullen sat with a giant stack of reports for company. The Maker himself couldn’t have planned it better. “Why don’t you go say hi?”
Thalia shot her cousin a scathing look. “He looks busy.”
“Are you kidding? He looks like he’s dying for someone to give him an excuse to stop working. Here.” Pravin guided Thalia to the bar, where he fished out a handful of coins and slapped them in front of Cabot. “I’ll take two of your best ales.”
When the barkeep set them down firmly on the countertop, Pravin grabbed them and shoved them into Thalia’s hands. “One for you, one for the Commander.”
Thalia’s eyes widened. “You want me to go over there and just—?”
“Hand him one, yes,” Pravin cut her off emphatically. “Trust me on this.”
Thalia glanced dubiously at the frothing steins, but inhaled deeply and nodded. “All right, fine.”
She marched to the Commander’s alcove with straight posture and clear determination. She was nothing if not tenacious, his little cousin.
Pravin waited until she reached Cullen and said hello, noted the way he looked up immediately at her approach, the smile that slid involuntarily onto his face when he saw her. Satisfied, Pravin turned back to Cabot. “I’ll have two more, please.”
“You got it,” the dwarf replied, heading to the same large barrel behind the bar. Upon his return, Pravin gave a generous tip and asked, “What’s the mood out there?”
“Restless.” Cabot swept the coins from the counter into his pocket.
Pravin had always appreciated Cabot’s laconic yet honest attitude. They’d had a bit of an understanding since Cabot had come to Skyhold: Pravin ridiculously overpaid for his service, and Cabot reciprocated with a little extra information. Pravin inclined his head toward Rainier’s table. “That one been giving you any trouble?”
Cabot squinted. “Him? Nah. Always pays his tab and keeps to himself, mostly. Been here a lot lately, but can’t say I blame him on that score.”
Pravin thought he caught a twinge of sympathy in Cabot’s voice, which surprised him. “And there haven’t been any incidents since— you know?”
“Not really.” Cabot shrugged. “There’s been whispers, of course. Few Orlesian soldiers got drunk and taunted him, but he just left. Got no reason not to serve him.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you stop serving him,” Pravin said quickly.
“Good,” Cabot grunted. “‘Cause if I had to cut off every bastard around here who may have committed a crime, I’d go out of business.”
“I think we’re a little past may with Rainier, Cabot,” Pravin said drily.
Cabot gave him a hard look. “Only because Celene’s still Empress, my bardic friend.”
Pravin sighed. “Point taken, Cabot. You have a good night.”
“Always do,” Cabot deadpanned, polishing a glass.
Pravin retrieved the ale and strode over to the table where Rainier sat, staring at the bottom of his stein like he might be able to divine his future in there. It was, as Pravin had suspected, empty.
“This seat taken?” Pravin asked, but didn’t wait for an answer before sitting.
Rainier glanced up, his eyes narrowing. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Fidencio fucking Frye,” he slurred in a dangerously nasty tone.
Being drunk had the extraordinary effect of somehow making the man’s Marcher accent even thicker. Pravin tried not to grimace. He’d heard similar voices on fools in stage productions, playing up the peasant inflection for comedic affect. Thomas Rainier was a walking self-parody. What the hell did Thalia see in this lout?
“What are you doing?” Pravin asked, exasperated.
“Engaging in my favorite pastime,” Rainier sneered. “Drowning my problems in ridiculous amounts of booze.”
Pravin stifled another sigh. This was going to be more difficult than he’d hoped. “Well then, let me top you off.” He slid one of the steins over to Rainier’s side of the table. Strictly speaking, it was probably a bad idea to give him more alcohol, but Rainier was a big man. It would take a lot to knock him down entirely.
Rainier eyed the new glass suspiciously. Pravin remembered his little tantrum at his judgment all too well, when Rainier had gone on about hidden arrows taking him out if he refused to pledge allegiance to the Inquisition. Pravin had found it a touch melodramatic, but the small bit of color that had remained in Thalia’s face drained entirely when he said it.
“It isn’t poisoned, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Pravin commented, raising his own stein and taking a hearty sip.
Rainier grunted, but picked up the ale all the same. How easy might it be to poison him? No, no, Thalia would never forgive Pravin for that. He had to try a less direct approach.
“You need to leave her alone,” he warned, his tone light but firm.
Rainier’s grey eyes flashed at him over the rim of the metal stein. “Me? She’s the one who keeps putting herself in my way.”
“And whose fault is that, eh? Maybe you should have thought twice before pursuing a woman half your own age.”
Rainier’s meaty hand formed a fist and pounded the tabletop. “I told her, dammit! I told her half a hundred times it was a bad idea, it would never work—”
“Yet you did nothing to stop it from happening,” Pravin said quietly.
“Oh, I did plenty. Except a bloody bard had to appear outside my jail cell and muck it all up.”
They held each other’s gaze. Pravin could sense the rage simmering beneath his exterior, which incited his own. He had no desire to revisit the series of events that had taken Thom Rainier from the prison in Val Royeaux to Skyhold. He had risked much and more to return this shit stain to Thalia, and so far Pravin had seen no return on the investment. They had barely maintained plausible deniability with the Orlesian crown, and this was the first of Thalia’s calls as Inquisitor that people questioned. Restless, Cabot said, confirming a suspicion Pravin had harbored for some weeks. Many at Skyhold held the opinion that Rainier should not be walking around free, and his continued presence among them made things precarious for Thalia — all because Rainier had to go and make a big spectacle about his crimes.
“You know,” Pravin said, his stomach churning with the venom he felt, “it’s not so much the treason I mind, but the stupidity.”
“Excuse me?” Rainier looked so affronted that Pravin wanted to punch him in the face, the one that looked all too familiar now that he’d shorn away the beard. Pravin remembered the fight that had been, once he’d smuggled Rainier out of the prison, as if losing the facial hair meant losing his very soul. But the authorities were looking for a bearded man, not a clean-shaven one, and at last he’d relented. When he’d emerged from the privy in the safe house bare-faced, Pravin had recognized him immediately.
That he’d existed under Pravin’s nose for months, a man he’d remembered from their time spent in certain libertine circles, infuriated him.
“You heard me,” Pravin said. “So you took coin to betray your country. So what? Traitors like you are a copper a dozen, Rainier. It’s that you’d got away with it, scot free, even had a convincing new identity you wore so well. And then you threw it all away, and created a giant mess the rest of us had to clean up — for what?”
“For honor,” Rainier snapped.
“Honor means horse shit when you’re dead,” Pravin countered. “And you don’t even have the common sense to be grateful.”
Silence fell between them. Rainier took a slow breath and raised his drink to his mouth; Pravin could tell he’d rattled him.
“Typical,” Rainier muttered into his drink. “What would a man like you know about honor?”
“More than you might think,” Pravin said, sneaking a glance over his shoulder. Thalia sat with Cullen, going over reports with him as the two chatted. Pravin even spotted a grin on Thalia’s face. That warmed his heart, despite the terrible company he currently kept.
“Adopted country,” Rainier mumbled.
Pravin faced front again, raising an eyebrow. “What did you say?”
“You said I took coin to betray my country. Orlais was never my country, not really.” Rainier set down his stein with the precision of one drunk enough he worried he might drop it. He stared at it, refusing to meet Pravin’s eyes. “I’m sure that was part of their calculus.”
Pravin frowned, inclining his head. “How so?”
“Oh, you know how it works, Frye. You want to usurp the ruler, yet maintain a respectable distance. So you hire someone. Then he hires someone — a foreigner, gone too far above his station, too ambitious for his own good. Someone they can trace the crime to quickly and point fingers at. Because he’s just a degenerate, not even one of us — of course it was him, got the whole family, the kiddies too. Depraved, perverse, but not surprising. What do we even expect, when we let people like that in?”
Pravin watched Rainier in unsettled silence. Perhaps the man was quicker than Pravin had given him credit for.
“I was always supposed to get caught,” Rainier said softly. “I was blind not to see it. But that’s what greed does to you. You think you can stay one step ahead, beat ‘em at their own game.” He raised his gaze at last, steading it on Pravin. “But you know as well as I do, don’t you? You can’t beat the Orlesians at their own game.”
Slowly, throat tight, Pravin nodded.
“Call it stupidity, or honor, or fuck all, I don’t care.” Rainier took the stein and drained the last of his ale, grimacing as he swallowed. “I owed my men some dignity. I owed Thalia some dignity. I had to balance the bloody scales.”
In the quiet that followed, Pravin leaned back in his seat and nursed his ale. Rainier swayed a little in his seat, but did not try to stand. Pravin had a feeling he’d be the one Rainier would lean on while stumbling back to the stables later. I ought to leave him in the bushes, he thought, but his heart was no longer in it.
Rainier propped his chin up under one hand, his eyes glazed and wandering. Pravin did not turn to follow it, but the way Rainier’s expression softened, Pravin knew what he’d found.
“She looks happy,” he murmured.
“Mmhm,” Pravin agreed.
Rainier scrubbed his hand down his face, scratched at the dark stubble covering his jaw. “She deserves to be happy,” he said, miserably.
“Mmhm.”
The mediocre minstrel queued up one of her breathy songs, and Pravin considered ordering another round.
#pravinquisition#thalia trevelyan#pravin talavera#blackwall#blackwall x trevelyan#cullen x trevelyan#the love triangle that never ends#cabot makes a cameo and i'm into it#fics#dragon age drunk writing circle#dragon age inquisition
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Why do you hate Versailles so much? I haven't seen it, but from the point-of-view of someone who knows fuck all about the plot, it looks fine - at the very least, nothing to inspire the kind of violent hatred I have for Maria Theresia. I even considered watching it at one point, but there was always something better on TV or Netflix, so I never got to it. So I guess I just want to be forewarned before possibly throwing myself into it?
Speaking about bad period drama - have you seen that Maria Theresia show that premiered on RTL in 2017? Because for me, it's what Versailles is for you. Except I don't know how much you like Louis XIV., but for all her flaws Maria Theresia is an icon of the former Habsburg monarchy, so I kinda took this show personally.
Hi! Well, that's the thing: Versailles looks fine. I like watching period dramas in general so I had it on my radar, and since I had mostly seen positive reviews of it I went into it with the impression that it was a good historical series. Not good as in "is trashy but in a fun, good way!", not good as in "inaccurate but in a self aware, entertaining good way!". But in an actually good way. So I was almost shocked when I watched the pilot because it is legit one of the worst pilots I've ever seen, like I cannot believe they actually green-lighted the series after that. I kept watching because many series I love have mediocre to bad first episodes so I didn't want it to judge it solely on that, and since it did got better (not hard to achieve, since they touched rock-bottom with that pilot) I ended up watching the whole season. Which in defense of the series, was ok. But season 2 wasn't ok, and I had to force myself to finish season 3 (which I regret, I should've just dropped it).
Ultimately if I had to boil down my dislikeness to one thing it would be that it's just very badly written series, period. When you're watching it you feel as if the series had over fifty screenwriters who never read each other's writings. There is an incredible disconnection between episodes, so many plotlines are introduced to never be properly explored and eventually abandoned only episodes later. Every season felt like a soft reboot of the previous one (season 1 finishes in a HUGE CLIFHANGER... that is immediately solved five minutes into season 2 and then never mentioned again. This was the moment I realized I was watching truly bad TV), the original characters dragged the story and stole the screentime that the historical characters painfully needed, and SA was used for nothing more than shock value more than once (not to Outlander extremes, but still felt very unnecessary).
It is also very historically inaccurate, and I wouldn't mind it (I've read one book related to Louis XIV in my entire life, I don't care much about him as a historical figure) if it wasn't the worst type of historical inaccurate: the lazy type. Inaccuracies not because we think that the real history is boring and needs to be more bold and sexy *looking at all the recent Sisi adaptations*, but because we were just too lazy to research beyond the very basis and thus we accidentally end up creating dozens of plot-holes. Exemple: Philippe Duke of Orléans (Louis XIV's brother) was married to Henriette of England and they had two daughters. During season 1 the daughters are never EVER mentioned, not even once. Henriette even gets pregnant at one point and everyone acts as if this were her first child. So I thought the daughters had been written out of the series (terrible move if they were planning to reach to the point in history where Louis XIV married off his niece to Carlos II of Spain). BUT THEN in the first episode of season 2 when Philippe's second wife is introduced she says something along the lines of "I brought presents for Marie Louise and Anne Marie", the two daughters who had never been introduced to the audience up to that point!! Which is just a terrible way to revel that the two most important supporting characters of season 1, whose relationship had been a key plotline, had had children all along and was just never brought up. At the end the series did reach to the point Louis XIV arranged his niece's marriage so Marie Louise make an appearance, and it showed that never properly writing her into the series before was a terrible move, because suddenly a sixteen-years-old girl popped out in the middle of season 3 and we just had to accept that we had never seen her until that point because her father didn't remember she existed?? Don't you just love how well researched and written this series is??
Versailles is just personally frustrating to me. I've watched The Spanish Princess, which is probably one of the worse if not the worst period drama ever written, and it doesn't make as angry as Versailles. Because with TSP we all agree that it's bad, but with Versailles I feel that I watched a different series that the one everyone else saw because it cannot be that no one else noticed how goddamn bad it is.
And I haven't watched the Maria Theresia series but I probably will, solely because there's not that much Habsburg related media out there. You spoiled me something about it and I remember I actually said WHAT out loud when I read it because I couldn't believe they would get her SO wrong. I'm glad you told me because if I had gone into the series without knowing it would've punched me in the face lol.
#sorry I ended up rambling!! i just think versailles is a bad series and i'm tired of pretending it isn't#asks
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XQc says he knows how to ‘save FaZe’ as org struggles through massive changes
As FaZe Clan’s future remains a heavy topic of discussion amidst internal strife and huge monetary loss, many members of the community are weighing in and pitching just how they’d shape the future of the organization.
The topic was hotly debated in a livestream on June 2, featuring xQc, Ludwig, and TheStockGuy—and when xQc was asked how he’d “save” FaZe, he was blunt in his response.
“Tighten up the ship,” he said, outlining a plan that would see the bulk of the existing leadership and content team out of a job immediately. Also in xQc’s firing line would be the esports division of FaZe, likely including the CS:GO and Call of Duty teams. “Esports is dead.”
“In all esports orgs, everybody got wedged into this spot where nobody knows who to hire, who’s the expert, what the exact value is. When venture capital and funding then came in, everyone went ‘fuck it, let’s get from point A to point B’ without thinking first.”
The esports division of FaZe has come under fire following the release of figures suggesting the organization is losing millions of dollars a year in running just one of their esports teams in VALORANT.
In its place? The popular streamer would pivot the organization into a content team similar to that of YouTube sensations Sidemen, with a group of “titans” at the streaming and YouTube forefront. From there, he’d work his way down, building back the core structure of the org.
“The king of all of the internet is content,” said xQc, detailing that as long as a person or group is producing content people would want to consume, they would still find success. He would use this point to work his way back to the current content team, agreeing with Ludwig that starting anew might not yield results, noting the formula for success was still at FaZe, and a select few could keep the flame alight.
“I still feel like you’re working with so much oil on the ground, and all you need is a spark,” said xQc. “I think FaZe is still one of the only orgs that has pierced the sphere outside of gaming, and you don’t know if anyone else is going to hit that mark.”
But when Ludwig asked if xQc would work with “the FaZe OGs”, referring to the likes of FaZe Rain, xQc would rather see the group gone—even if it meant losing a core portion of the fanbase who were still sticking by the creators.
At the same time, the three hosts agreed certain members of the original group were “lovers scorned” by the change in FaZe’s strategy over the years, particularly FaZe Rain.
Rain garnered support from FaZe diehards and casual observers alike in response to a FaZe statement regarding the conflict between the organization’s co-founder and newest creator Grace Van Dien.
In the two-hour discussion between the three streamers, incredibly, the stock price of the publicly-traded organization would fluctuate by as much as 10 percent.
The future of FaZe Clan remains up in the air, and while the idea of xQc owning a content or esports organization is interesting given a number of his peers have already made such investments, buying out FaZe might not be something to expect in the short-term.
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State of the Union | Spring 2023
I do A LOT of deckbuilding and evaluation. Every once in a while it probably makes sense to check in on the overall status of my collection and deck library. Things move pretty fast these days. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
I plan on doing this semi-regularly throughout the year, looking back on the same set of questions.
What decks do I currently have built?
I am currently sitting on 14 decks.
Pako & Haldan | Play from Exile
Vadrik, Astral Archmage | Spell reduction and copy
Daryl, Hunter of Walkers | Draw all the cards, Gruul Enchantress
Reyhan & Jeska | +1/+1 Counter and Sac
Hopper and Lucas | Affinty for Artifacts
Inquisitor Greyfax | Tappers and Fliers
Kelsien the Plague | Political Experience Matters
Obeka, Brute Chronologist | Tokens and EOT Shenanigans
Jaheira Feywild Visitor | Token Ramp
Mike & Max | Naya Value Train
Falco Sparra | Top Deck Matters
Tymna & Anara | Life gain and card draw
Belbe | Play all YOUR cards
Mimeoplasm | Rogue Mill
14 is too many decks, but some of these are permanent locks.
What s my current favorite deck?
Usually, I’d say Pako & Haldan because it is aggressive, while still giving you plenty of interaction and random decisions. But right now, I am very into Reyhan & Jeska. It is the most aggressive deck I have, but with all the good value pieces you get from Jund. It gets to play with some of the great old Jund cards, but in a way that feels modern.
What is my newest deck?
I just built up Obeka. It’s still a little rough. There aren’t any extra turn spells, but you get to play with crazy cards like Zilarian of the Claw and Sneak Attack. I expected it to be a high value-driven deck (which it is), but it also has the ability to be incredibly explosive.
What decks have been recently retired?
Flamewar was the most recently retired deck. I liked her a lot. Rakdos artifacts with a heavy necron theme. Unfortunately, there were two issues that sent her off to the “farm upstate”
1. She competed on theme with Hopper & Lucas - which is a more fun artifact deck.
2. She did really fun things with discard and sacrifice abilities, but it was hard to build up an interactive board when you we playing with trinkets.
I do think there is a very strong deck there, I just don’t see me reaching for her all that often.
The other big retirement this time around is “Sliverless” Overlord. I really liked having a 5-color deck, and the creature type matters theme was unique. But the game play loops were very controlling and inevitable. No one really like playing against it - no matter how clever it was.
What are my favorite new card?
After being pretty down on sets for about a year, there are a ton of new (and or new to me cards) that I’m really excited about.
Firemane Commando is an immediate slam dunk for me. She’s adding a really nice, evasive source of card advantage that fits directly into decks like Kelsien and Inquisitor Greyfax.
Meeting of Minds is a sleeper uncommon. If you read a post below, you’ll see I’m very high on cheap card draw. A potentially free, instant-speed draw 2 fits in a ton of decks.
Defabricate is a nice utility piece. I think you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll want this effect to blank something terrible your opponent is about to do.
Halo Forager is probably the best uncommon in years.
Suspend was a sleeper card from Modern Horizons 2. I think in most games, this is equal to, if not better than Path to Exile.
Ancient Runes is excellent, old-school anti treasure tech.
What cards do I really want to find a home for?
I’m doing a pretty good job getting the cards I want to play into decks right now, but there are always a handful that get cut for slots, or that just don’t have a home right now:
Phantom Steed
Null Brooch
Sword of Hearth and Home
Jabari’s Influence
Eldrazi Displacer
Vhati il-dal
What have I learned about myself or the format recently?
First off, I’m starting to dial in my deckbuilding to create games that I think are fun. I currently only have one deck that contains a Propaganda or a Rhystic Study. I really want to be pushing the game forward. I don’t like going all out aggression and leaving myself open, but I don’t mind being the problem at the table. I’m not only trying to out-value the table.
Next, I’m pretty down on ramp in most decks - especially signets and talismans. There are some decks that want it, but I don’t think it should be default to put 10 ramp sources in every deck. Instead, I want a TON of fast card draw.
Similarly, I think people have forgotten how important Wraths are in the game. We’ll discuss more of that later.
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Sticky Notes - Tom Hiddleston x Reader
It all started on the set of Ragnarok. They hadn’t even started filming yet. Table reads, choreography, costume fittings, set development…The cast, crew, and even Taika started finding little notes.
Some were specifically to certain people…
“Your laugh is contagious. Thank you for making this set so down to earth and inviting.” You slipped that into Taika’s (the director’s) fanny pack when he left it on his director’s chair.
“I know how hard you’ve been working on your fight choreography, and I just wanted to let you know you absolutely killed it today!” You left that stuck to Tessa’s (Valkyrie’s) water bottle.
Some you posted for everyone, like “I know that you all put such amazing effort and time into bringing this movie to life and I just want you all to know that it doesn’t go unnoticed.” That note was posted above a table full of ‘easy to grab’ snacks you laid out such as protein bars, fruit snacks, pretzels, and dried fruit.
This continued well into filming. Everyone had tried to figure out who was leaving these little daily encouragements. It got to the point that Taika started calling you Casper, as in “Casper the Friendly Ghost.” Every day at the start of filming he would say. “Come on guys. Let’s make Casper proud.”
Everyone had a theory. Most thought that it was actually Taika just trying to keep morale up. Taika accused Tom but took it back after some comment about the notes not sounding very British.
Your job on set was to cast extras. While you were present daily, you honestly only had to meet with Taika once or twice a day to make sure the next day’s cast extras were ready. You two fell into an easy rhythm working together and he started asking for your opinion on some other aspects of the set. One late afternoon, after an incredibly chaotic day of filming, Taika decided that he was going to scrap the entire scene and start it over.
He pulled out his phone and sent a text to you, Tom, and Chris. “Today can suck it. I’ve just watched the dailies, and something just isn’t right about that scene. Meet at mine in 30 so we can get ahead of it.” A few seconds later he added, “And for the love of God, someone bring some tequila.”
You laughed at his text, jogging to the trailer you shared with the other casting director. You changed into a pair of shorts and a baggy t-shirt and grabbed your keys and wallet. You jumped in your car so you could make a quick trip to the Starbucks down the street since it appeared it was going to be a long night.
“One Venti iced coffee with milk and 1 sugar, one Grande Americano hot with cream and 2 sugars, one Venti hot latte with vanilla, and one Venti hot water with two earl gray tea bags and four sugars on the side. Can I also get one of the small kid’s milk boxes?” You heard the barista repeat your order back and pulled forward and paid.
When you got to Taika’s trailer, Tom and Chris were already there.
“Oh, bless you” Taika thanked you, taking the Latte from you.
“You’re the best” Chris said, taking the lid off of the Americano so it would cool off a bit.
“Tom, I grabbed you tea.” You handed him the hot water and two tea bags, setting the sugars and milk next to him so he could make it to his liking.
“You’re too kind” Tom graciously took the hot water from you, noting that you grabbed his favorite kind of tea.
In Taika’s trailer there was a table with a bench on each side. Chris and Tom were sat on one side, leaving a space for you to sit next to Taika.
“Anyone grab the tequila?” you laughed, dropping your keys and wallet on Taika’s counter and sitting at the table with your iced coffee.
Taika grabbed the bottle and sat it down in front of you. “You’re already two swigs behind, love.”
“Bullshit” you laughed. “Prove it. Where are the shot glasses?”
“I said swigs, not shots” Taika smirked. “We don’t have shot glasses.”
“Look at how much is missing from that bottle. I just bought it.” Hemsworth backed Taika up.
You looked at Tom, knowing he would be honest with you.
“Hey, you trust Tom more than me?” Taika pretended to be offended.
“Tom always looks out for everybody. I don’t think he’d let me get two shots drunker than you fools.” You teased Taika, poking his side and sticking your tongue out at him.
“Watch” Taika said, putting his arm around your shoulders and looking towards Tom. “How many swigs did we all take?”
Tom laughed, “I’m sorry darling, but he’s telling you the truth.”
“Fine, fine.” You opened the bottle and took three swigs, handing it to Taika. “Catch up, then.”
Tom started thinking about the compliment you had given him as he took his third swig of Tequila. He felt flattered that you felt that way, but it also reminded him of one of the notes he had found stuck to his trailer door.
“Okay, we need to re-block this whole scene. It just did not translate from script to screen…” The four of you worked on a few line changes and mapped out a better way to execute the scene for over two hours.
There was a bit of dialogue that Taika felt was getting lost that he really just didn’t want to let go of. “We may just have to mess with this tomorrow while we’re filming.”
“Or you could have Loki say it instead of Thor.” You suggested.
“Could do.” You could tell that Taika was thinking it over.
“Here you have Thor immediately going into another hard-hitting line” you explained. “If that line comes from Loki, it makes it less likely to get lost.”
“I think that will fix this problem too” Chris started underlining other parts of the dialogue.
“What do you think?” Taika looked at Tom.
“I mean, I personally think Loki has already evolved enough at that point in the script that it suits him quite nicely.” Tom explained in a way only Tom can explain.
“I agree” you said. “You guys make Loki grow quite a bit in this film and as usual, Tom is hitting it out of the park. I’m 100% confident he will have conveyed that message to the audience by this point.”
“Thank you for your vote of confidence.” Again, Tom was flattered. However, he was growing more and more suspicious that you were Casper.
“Always” you replied, smiling at Tom as you finished your coffee.
“Let me type this up and we can table read it.” Taika grabbed the papers and went to the other side of the trailer where his computer was set up.
“While you do that, I’m going to steal your restroom for a moment.” Chris stood, throwing his empty coffee cup away and closing the bathroom door. Chris joined Taika a moment later.
“Y/n?” Tom said, kind of quietly.
“What’s up?” Your elbows were resting on the table with your chin sat on your hands.
“Can I ask you something?” Tom didn’t want to bring it up in front of anyone. He didn’t want the notes to stop, but he had to know.
Tom looked a bit serious, but you didn’t know why. “Of course.”
“Are you…” He stopped, reaching his hand into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet. “Is this you?”
Your eyes went wide as Tom pulled a small stack of pink sticky notes out of his wallet, laying them down next to each other. There must have been 10 of them in total. You were touched that he actually kept them. Sometimes you felt silly leaving them for people not knowing if they appreciated them. You tried to play it off, laughing. “I thought those were from Taika?”
He pointed at one of them, reading it quietly. “I tried the tea you always drink. I don’t think it could ever replace my love of coffee, but I wanted you to know it pairs well with a good book.” He pointed to another note. “I know you paid for everyone to Uber home after our last night out. I just wanted to tell you I appreciate you. Thank you for always looking out for us.” You could feel his eyes on you as he moved his hand to a third note. “I envy your ability to capture a room. You’ve got an amazing knack for making those watching you feel whatever emotion you’re trying to convey.” When Tom’s hand moved to the fourth note, you heard Taika’s printer turn on.
“Put them away” you said, trying to stack them quickly. Chris started walking towards you and you grabbed the small stack you had gathered and put them in your pocket.
Tom put the rest back in his wallet. “What do you think?” he asked Taika about the changes he had made.
“I think tomorrow is going to be a lot fuckin’ better.” He passed the printed copies around after joining the two of you back at the table.
Tom’s line went over great, and the dialogue flowed much more smoothly. All of the other changes made the scene feel more natural. When Taika called it a night, Chris laid down on the couch refusing to go back to his own trailer.
“Can I walk you to yours?” Tom asked as you stepped out of Taika’s trailer.
The two of you walked back to your trailer in comfortable silence, tired and a little drunk. When you got to the door, you turned around and pulled the pink notes out of your pocket.
“Please don’t tell anyone?” You placed the notes in Tom’s hand.
“I didn’t plan on it” he replied, tucking them neatly back into his wallet.
“I feel silly now that someone knows it was me. Why did you keep them?” You had to ask. You assumed, at most, that people read them, smiled, and threw them away.
“Hmm…” Tom laughed humorlessly, his eyes focused on his wallet. “I think you’re doing a lot more than you realize when you leave your ‘silly’ little notes.”
His response caught you off guard. He almost sounded…sad? Serious?
“Y/n, I’ve had to work with actors and crew that have made filming a project miserable. Whether they were rude or critical or just an absolute diva, there is always someone to bring the room down.” He put his wallet away and looked you in the eyes. “I wish you knew how many of us have kept these notes. Taika has them in the glovebox of his car. The catwalk above the set is covered in notes you’ve left the crew. They’re stuck all over the mirrors in the make-up trailer so that the cast sees them first thing in the morning.”
Your eyes went wide. “What?”
Tom put his hands on each of your arms as if to ensure you were paying attention. “An encouraging word or a genuine compliment can change someone’s entire day, y/n. You have no way of knowing what life has dealt any of these people. They could be depressed or stressed out or wishing they hadn’t woken up that morning…and all of a sudden they receive a tiny bit of kindness from someone and it makes it that much easier to get through another day. Maybe even with a smile on their face.”
Tom wore a soft smile and even though you felt a bit overwhelmed, you couldn’t help but smile back. “Thank you for telling me that.” You moved towards him, pulling him into a tight hug.
“Please don’t forget it.” Tom pulled back a bit and pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. “I hope you get a good night’s sleep.”
“You, too.” You watched Tom walk away before slipping into your shared trailer.
Over the next few weeks, Tom had left you multiple green sticky notes with compliments written on them.
“You looked stunning yesterday”
“Thank you for still being a good listener when I go on rants about things you couldn’t care less about”
“Taika was bragging about you to someone on the phone. I just wanted you to know. I know sometimes you hesitate to suggest your ideas, but you shouldn’t.”
“I appreciate how much time you spend making this a better set to work on.”
“You are an incredible friend.”
You’d find at least one note a day and for every note he left you, you’d leave one for him. The two of you got quite a bit closer after he found out about your secret. You’d spend breaks on set together and often times wound up back in Taika’s trailer with him and Chris. You cuddled and flirted and shared more than a few loving glances, but you never went any further. It felt like it was turning into something more, but Tom was such a gentleman you couldn’t tell.
The note you found this morning, however, completely caught you off guard. The filming was almost done and everyone’s time on set was almost over. You had just sat down next to the director’s chair and opened your laptop. There, stuck to the screen, was a green sticky note. “Darling, would you please be mine?”
You looked up at Tom on stage only to find him already looking at you. He lifted his brow and tilted his head, waiting for your response. You couldn’t help but smile as you nodded ‘yes’.
Taika looked between you, noticing the interaction and intentionally teasing you. “Oi, what’s this then?”
Tom turned, trying to hide his grin by talking to Chris. You closed your laptop to hide the sticky note.
“Nah, I saw you two. Don’t pretend like I’m crazy.” Taika was still looking back and forth between you and Tom.
“Maybe you’re still drunk from last night” you teased, putting your laptop in its bag so you could retrieve the note later.
“Oh, sure.” He dropped it, knowing he’d bring it up tonight when you all gathered in his trailer.
The rest of the filming flew by crazy fast. You and Tom had decided that you would go stay with him in New York until the press junkets and interviews started. When the premier rolled around, you two were already publicly dating so you got to escort him down the red carpet. It had been just over a year since the two of you had started dating.
As the credits for the film started rolling, you felt like you were walking down memory lane. So many people go into making movies of this scale and watching all of the names roll by, one by one, really puts that into perspective. You’d met almost all of these people and worked closely with quite a few of them. As the credits came to an end, you saw that Taika had added an extra credit.
The last few “SPECIAL THANKS” credits were in order as listed…
“The filmmakers acknowledge the assistance of the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Grant”
“The filmmakers would like to acknowledge the Yugambeh and Bundjalung Peoples of Australia”
“The director would like to thank ‘Casper’, Ragnarok’s own personal friendly ghost”
It had been a year since you’d written one of those notes and it caught you off guard. Tom put his arm around your shoulders, pressing a kiss to your temple. “I told you.”
You and Tom mingled amongst your friends at the after party. Taika was flying. He was so happy with how it turned out and grateful for such a positive response. Everyone in the cast was telling stories from filming and catching up with their friends. By the time you two got back to your hotel room, you were blissfully tipsy and exhausted. You slipped out of your dress and threw on a baggy t-shirt before washing your face and getting ready for bed. When you left the bathroom, you saw Tom sitting on the edge of the bed in his pajamas with a soft, warm smile gracing his beautiful face. He was wearing his glasses and his hair was a mess and he could not have been more attractive if he tried.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, pulling you to stand between his legs.
“Pretty good. How about yourself?” you put your arms around his neck and pressed your lips to his.
“I think there’s only one thing that could make me happier in this moment.” He answered.
You thought he was being a bit cheeky, so you replied with, “oh, yeah? I wonder what that could be.”
Tom reached behind him on the bed and pulled out a small box with a worn, green sticky note on top of it. He didn’t say anything, letting you read it. It was the same note he had left stuck to your laptop screen. “Darling, would you please be mine?” Only now the word “forever” was written at the bottom.
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What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?
If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.
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1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.
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2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.
Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.
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3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.
However, here are the rules you must follow:
-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.
-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.
-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)
-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.
... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.
That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...
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4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.
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5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.
Here’s how I cheat that:
Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.
Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.
Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.
Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.
And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.
You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...
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6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.
“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”
You won’t.
Write it down.
Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.
And then, once you have it written down somewhere...
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7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.
Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.
Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.
(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)
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8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.
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9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.
But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.
Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”
Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.
Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”
This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.
If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.
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10) You don’t have to write in order.
Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.
But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.
Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.
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11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.
If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.
If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.
When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.
This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery.
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12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.
Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.
Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.
Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.
Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.
They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.
Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.
Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.
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13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.
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14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.
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15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.
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16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.
I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”
And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.
Here are the things you must know about your character:
a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?
And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.
b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?
Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story.
It also informs character behavior and personality.
Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.
Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.
These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.
Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.
In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.
Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.
Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.
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I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.
Best of luck!
Edit: I forgot an important one:
17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.
What do I mean by that?
If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”
Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.
Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.
#asks#anon#writing advice#writing tips#writing#fanfic writing#fanfiction#character creation#plot development#character development#my advice#original writing
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SEQUEL TO “don’t forget it”
SYNOPSIS: One week after accidentally blowing you off on your date, Bakugou Katsuki seeks your forgiveness.
pairing: bakugou katsuki x fem!reader
genre: fluff, very little angst
word count: 5.4k+
warnings: none really accept maybe a character sustaining an injury
author’s note: hellooooo this is a very very very late part 2 of my don’t forget it drabble that many people asked for! i hope this lived up to your expectations and was worth the wait!
Since the events that led you to leave Bakugou’s room in a fit of bitterness after attempting to penetrate that thick head of his, he hadn’t been able to speak to you for a week.
It goes without saying he did his best to chase you down the hallway from his room and toward the elevator the moment he realized his faults. But at the stink eye you shot him through the minimizing slit of the elevator doors sliding into place, he knew he had no right to reconcile with you after pulling a stunt like that. Nor did he think you’d want to spare him any more words to begin with. It was clear you were done arguing with him.
“C’mon man, it’s probably best to let her cool down before you try to make up with her,” was the advice Kirishima offered when Bakugou returned to his room, disgruntled as he heavily fell back into his seat next to the desk. He did the bare minimum to acknowledge his friend’s words with a grunt before resuming tutoring the redhead, his method of teaching suddenly harsher than how it began thanks to his soured mood. He lapsed the day away by pounding Kirishima with problems upon problems against that hard noggin of his, both literally and figuratively.
At the very least, Kirishima earned himself a passing grade on their exam as a result of his hard work and their rigorous tutoring sessions. But what followed Bakugou’s and your relationship was still undetermined.
Days later and you were relentless in giving him the cold shoulder.
Bakugou was met with nothing but empty glances and blatant disinterest whenever he crossed your path. It felt like the wall you slotted between him grew another layer at each encounter, your defenses so impenetrable, it could give Kirishima’s quirk a run for its money. He couldn’t so much as utter a word in your direction without you effectively dodging every possible interaction in favor of joining another conversation nearby.
At first, Bakugou shrugged it off, calling your “childish attitude” unwarranted for something he thought was incredibly trivial. In his eyes, it was just an ordinary date at some run-of-the-mill restaurant he just happened to suggest to you because he took a liking to their spicy food. Not like it was some fancy dinner reservation serving caviar on dry toast beside a pretty, city night skyline. To him, it was nothing special.
However, as the week continued to roll by, it became clear to him how much he hurt you due to his selfishness. In a hangout with the Bakusquad, he learned that you apparently told Mina, along with the rest of the girls, everything during one of your girls’ nights. Which included the events prior to your heated argument in Bakugou’s dorm. And Mina, being just as peeved as you were at how Bakugou stood you up that day, had to let the blond know of the damage he’d done.
.
.
“I swear, Bakugou Katsuki, I know you can be an asshole sometimes—”
“Make that all the time,” Sero quietly adds in the middle of Mina’s rant while he lounges backward on Kaminari’s bed. If it wasn’t for his current dilemma, Bakugou would have elbowed him in the back of the head.
“—but this is crossing the line!” she finishes. Her arms are thrown exaggeratedly over her chest. The amber surrounded by the black scleras of her eyes points a beady look at the ash-blond crisscrossed on the floor between Kirishima and Kaminari.
“Poor girl sat there for hours waiting for you, only to find out she got blown off because you couldn’t even properly check your reminders!” She paces back and forth in the room, feet excessively stepping across the floor as she’s engulfed by the emotions she feels for her friend. “What’s worse? She comes back and finds out you’ve been doing your own thing with Kirishima the whole time!”
“Hey! It’s not like we were playing around! We were actually having a very serious study grind, thank you very much,” the redhead immediately clarifies. Though his explanation doesn’t alleviate Bakugou’s case in the slightest, who pounds his palms against the surface of the table they’ve gathered around.
“Look. I fucking get it, Ashido. I screwed up, okay?! Now what the fuck do you want me to do about it?!” he exclaims, anger overpowering his voice, but it does little to deter Mina.
“Fix it, obviously!” she quips back with equal fierceness, leaning in eye level with Bakugou.
“And how do you propose I do that, Raccoon Eyes? Hah?” Repositioning his elbow to rest on the table, he leans his cheek against his hand. “Y/n won’t even let me within five fucking feet in front of her and you still expect me ‘fix this’?”
Despite the situation weighing heavily on his shoulders, no immediate answer is bestowed upon him. That is, except the obnoxiously loud crinkle of a chip bag popping open next to Bakugou that cleaves into the scene like a record scratch. As if unable to read the mood in his own room, Kaminari fishes a chip to throw in his mouth, stirring the awkward silence into tension.
“Wow, Bakugou. I know you’re bad with girls and all, but you really messed up this time,” he remarks. His voice is slightly muffled as he munches his chips, continuing to wrinkle the bag for more. It incites a vein to swell on Bakugou’s forehead. He amasses all the willpower within him not to blast the bag of chips to ash, and the boy alongside it.
“If you dunce faces are just gonna sit here and throw salt in my wound then I’m outta here.”
“No, wait!” Kirishima catches Bakugou’s wrist before he fully lifts himself off the floor. “Come on, Bakugou, I’m sure we can think of something! We just need to put our heads together! Right, guys?” he assures. Finding it hard to deny his friend’s hardened conviction, Bakugou gives Kirishima the benefit of the doubt, albeit with slumped shoulders and a tentative raise of his brow as he slowly sits back down.
“Right! Everyone, let’s get some brainstorming done!” Mina yells encouragingly.
The atmosphere of Kaminari’s room is consumed by moderately thoughtful silence for the next ensuing minutes. A few hums pass, followed by an exchange of contemplative looks as four of the five rack their heads together to uncover a solution. The one in need of help only hunches in his seat, waiting with mild disinterest.
“Oh hey, don’t we have hero training with All Might tomorrow?” Sero is the first to comment, scooting to the edge of the blond’s bed.
“Yeah. So?”
“He said we were going to work on group exercises this time around. You know, teamwork and stuff,” he explains further.
At that, Mina snaps her fingers, the work of a brilliant idea flickering in her head. “Sero, that’s it! Tomorrow, during training, we’ll just form a group together with Y/n! After all, she’ll have to talk to Bakugou if you two are on the same team!” She claps her hands in front of her, her enthusiasm rippling through her body and shown energetically with each raise of her voice. “Then, while the rest of us ‘split up’ to cover more ground, that will be your chance to make everything better with Y/n! It’s genius!”
“You missed one fucking crucial detail, Pinky,” Bakugou gruffs. “That will only work if Y/n doesn’t join another group. The moment she sees I’m on yours, she’s not even going to hesitate making a u-turn.”
“Worry not~ I’ll just text all the girls except Y/n about the plan later and ask them to help sort everyone out!” She solves the problem with relative ease—quick as a click of her phone lighting up and finger sliding open to her messages.
“Uh, another thing though.” Kirishima raises his hand to spare his concern. “All Might says we’ll be splitting into groups of five at most, but there’s already five of us here.”
There’s a brief moment of deadpanning until Mina speaks casually. “Oh, that’s right. Kaminari. Take one for the team and make sure to join another group, ‘kay?” She settles without batting a lash.
Kaminari almost chokes on a mouthful of chips. “H-Huh?! What?! Why me?!!” he sputters.
“Because you’ve been eating chips this entire time and haven’t contributed to anything.”
“Hey, I offered the room, didn’t I?!” He tries justifying but is inevitably rejected by Mina’s wagging finger.
“Ah-ah, no complaints! Besides, it’s only one day of training. If we want this dilemma between Bakugou and Y/n fixed then we all have to play our part, got it?” Mina finalizes with a firm point of her finger nearly grazing the tip of the blond’s nose as he leans back to avoid it, eyebrows scrunched in discontent at the role he’s been reduced to.
“Alllllright!” Kirishima springs from his seat with outstretched arms and tightened fists. “Operation: Get Y/n to Forgive Explosion Boy is underway!”
“Dude, that’s a terrible name!” Sero laughs but rises from the bed to join the redhead’s cheer alongside Mina, the group already in high spirits.
Despite rolling his eyes at their swell of confidence, Bakugou does not object to the state of things. As crazy as it sounds, one could almost decipher the cusp of a grin pulling the seams of his lips as a possible sign he’s actually all for this extravagant little plan. Quite a first for Bakugou, but then again, there’s not much else he can do in this situation except rely on his pack of chumps.
Meanwhile, Kaminari grumbles something beneath the salty grit between his teeth.
“Alright, can you all get out of my room now?”
.
.
The scowl etched on your face carries a strong air of disdain that dampens the mood around your teammates considerably. Well, no one should be surprised. With Bakugou standing across from you, staring into the void of your expression, it’s to be expected that you wouldn’t be happy with this outcome.
No, “unhappy” doesn’t quite do your circumstance justice. You are beyond livid.
You feel your eyebrow twitch as you try quivering your lips to form a tinge of a smile. Unfortunately, all that quickly falls apart when you suddenly recall the disaster of last week, triggered by an accidental glance at Bakugou’s mug.
Trying to simmer down, you release a mental sigh amidst the turmoil boiling inside you.
Okay, maybe you’re over-exaggerating. Maybe you’re still just a bit too bitter for your own good and letting your emotions get to you. But in a class of twenty or some students, how did you end up in a group with the one person you were actively trying to avoid?
The moment All Might gave everyone the go-ahead to form their teams for today’s training exercise, you swiftly made a beeline toward two particular star students. Midoriya and Todoroki.
It was simple really. Your experiences throughout the school year told you Bakugou planned on staying away from his rivals when it came to teamwork, regardless of whether you’re there or not. He’s a competitive ass whose goal is to beat anyone he deems a threat in his climb to be the number one hero. It’s only logical you partner with people he adamantly dislikes to evade him.
Yet it seems fate has other plans for you today. By the time you found yourself pacing over to the two students you had in mind, they’d already gone and picked their own group members, forming teams before you could even ask.
Your nose wrinkles like you’ve taken a whiff of something rancid. Or, to be more specific, something fishy. Hooking an arm around Mina’s elbow, you drag the pink-haired girl off to a corner somewhere while tilting your head back at the three other boys.
“Ex. Cuse. Us.” Your words sound as stiff as cardboard. It comes out in practically a hiss when your eyes cross Bakugou. Once you’re positive you’re out of earshot, you whip your head at Mina.
“Mina, what the hell? When you dragged me over here to form a group with you you didn’t tell me he’d be there,” you groan. Childish and petty as you may sound, you just couldn’t fathom the idea of confronting the boy so soon.
Mina holds her hands out, ready to rationalize the whole ordeal. “C’mon Y/n, this is actually an advantage for us! With us four plus you on our team, we’re sure to knock the rest of the other guys out during training today! I mean we showed pretty good teamwork together at the sports festival, didn’t we?”
Steadying your gaze, you hold a finger below your chin as you slowly buy into the explanation. The reasoning is there. It’s hard to argue against a case like that, fully aware that being on the same team as explosion boy will easily snag good results for you and your party. ‘Cause as much of an arrogant jerk as he is, you have to admit Bakugou Katsuki knows his way around hero action like the back of his grenade gauntlets.
“Besides it’s not like you could avoid him for the entire school year. I mean, you two are in the same class. It was only a matter of time before you had to—”
“I know, Mina,” you interject, not wanting the rest of her sentence about the inevitable fall to your ear. “I just… Agh, you know what I mean!” You ruffle your hands through your hair in confliction, unsure how to piece your thoughts together.
Tilting your head over Mina’s shoulder, you sneak a glimpse at Bakugou, watching him as he’s cast to the side with the others. He’s fending himself from Kirishima and Sero’s combined jokes, that usual look on his face sending glares at the two and yelling something you could almost pick up on if you honed your ears a bit more. Surprisingly, when his eyes meet yours for a split second, he stands there looking nonchalant again. Both of you immediately avert your gazes.
Mina pats your shoulder, bringing you back to the conversation at hand. “I know, I know, but after this, I’m sure you can go back to ignoring his ass. After all, it’s just one training exercise, right?” she says. As her words deliver some relief to your ill-timed situation, you give in with a sigh.
Unbeknownst to you, turning your back to Mina and striding toward the rest of your teammates again, you miss the small glint in her yellow eyes, along with the subtle gestures she aims at the three boys, waving her pointed thumbs over your head secretively.
“So I take it you’re on the team with us, Y/n?” Sero asks when the two of you return. You nod in reply and the boy flashes his pearly whites in a wide grin that Kirishima mirrors. He nudges Bakugou at his sides which you subtly catch in the far corner of your eye.
You raise a brow suspiciously at their fidgeting, wondering why having you on their team warrants such enthusiasm, but you’re thankful for their energy at least. Someone has to lift the atmosphere for this not to be a complete drag and Bakugou surely isn’t going to be the mood maker of the group.
The blond scoffs. “Yeah, well, if you dumbasses are going to form a team with me, you’ll follow under my leadership, got it?”
The three readily agree. Though you roll your eyes, you don’t challenge his position, considering no one else is that much up to the task as he is. You’ll simply have to deal with the fact that you’re forced to tread through the day under his leadership. So with no objections, the five of you walk back to the class, gathering around the entrance of today’s battlefield.
Jumping into the activity, All Might goes about explaining today’s lesson to the four sets of teams—consisting of a group exercise to heighten teamwork. The name of the game? Capture the flag.
In short, each team will be split off into different sections of the labyrinth where their assigned flag is stationed. The objective is to not only protect your flag from being stolen but also try and steal an opposing team’s flag from their base and escort it safely to your home field. Nice and simple.
Not long after All Might’s explanation, the gate to the training grounds opens and you all scatter off into your teams, navigating through the twists of the maze to locate your flags. Once your group situated themselves onto your home base, you assemble in a huddle to devise a strategy before the game starts.
“So what’s the plan?” Kirishima asks, eyes darting around his teammates until they rest on Bakugou—the team leader. The ash-blond crosses his arms, a confident sneer plastered on his face as he’s already thought of his plan of action the moment All Might announced the mission.
“Easy. I’m going straight to the front-lines to swipe one of those dumbasses’ flags. You lot are gonna stay here and guard ours until I come back.” He delivers the strategy in a matter-of-fact tone that you quickly don’t take a liking to. Your fist curls in irritation.
“What kind of a plan is that?” you question audaciously, your voice louder than you intended. “So you’re just going to do all the work while we sit around and wait for you?”
Bakugou grits his teeth, leaning further into the huddle to direct his senseless logic. “Look, it’s the fastest and most surefire way to snag our victory without sacrificing anyone,” he says. Playing over his words again, he finds it surprising he even chooses to offer his reasoning. Because if it were anyone other than you he was arguing with, he’s certain he’d leave it at that.
Knowing the current tension between you was a result of his misjudgment, it feels only right for Bakugou to make an effort in communication. He ignores the antsy expressions belonging to the others who signal from behind you to follow along with their original plan.
You don’t seem to catch the hint, nor do you buy into his ridiculous strategy. “Oh, so you’re that confident you won’t get taken out by the other team then?” you quip. As a result, Bakugou’s brows tighten at your noncompliance.
“I know how to take care of myself. You of all people should realize by now that no other nerd in this whole damn class can outmatch me.”
“And what about an ambush? How do you know they simply won’t anticipate your strategy and see you coming?” You fire another counterargument and the boy purses his lips, beginning to find this quarrel spiraling into a headache rather than a step in the direction of reconciliation.
While Sero and Kirishima stand there, shifting their heads back and forth throughout the fiery exchange, Mina speedily reacts. The gears of that cunning mind of hers click into place again.
“You know what, Y/n’s right. Why don’t you two go together then?” she proposes boldly. Her suggestion catches you by complete surprise. You veer in her direction with an incredulous look blown in your eyes.
Before you can open your mouth to protest, the two boys standing beside her immediately back her up.
“Hm, Mina has a point. The chances of you falling into a trap wouldn’t be much if you two work together,” Sero remarks.
Kirishima follows, “Yeah, you guys can watch each other’s backs while going to collect the flag! It’s safer to go in a pair than by yourselves I’d say.”
The three seem adamant about the idea, sharing equally content expressions, and with all that said, you find it hard to dig yourself out of this situation. In a way, you practically volunteered yourself after questioning Bakugou’s plan and doubting his abilities. The group only feels it’s right you come along as his support since you clearly must be worried about his well-being.
Pushing your objections down your throat, you reluctantly agree to tag along with the blond. What you find exceptionally shocking is how Bakugou doesn’t oppose these new conditions. Given his hard-headed temperament, you thought he would’ve scoffed and turned his back at being paired without notice, but no such things were happening here.
...Odd.
“Tch, whatever. Let’s get going then,” is all he gives, starting in the direction into the urban area of the training course.
You trail behind him. “Coming, Boom-Boy…” you mutter the last bit but don’t suppress the urge to let your words be known. Bakugou turns his head and gives you a look akin to an uptight six-year-old you just offended at your local playground. You shrug in response, a corner of your lip pinched upward. He doesn’t pick a fight over the nickname, but his eyebrows remain fiercely slanted, and coupled with his heavy steps and the excessive swinging of his gauntlet-clad arms, it tells you of his emotional constipation plain as day.
.
.
The journey toward the other teams’ flags is cloaked in strained silence and the physical gap between you two does not encourage any of you to speak up. At this point, both of your levels of annoyance for each other have mellowed out. Now it just feels... awkward—strange. You don’t see his expression, nor does he see yours. It feels like you’re being left in the dark, having only the back of Bakugou’s head to stare at the entirety of the way, and though you supposedly have his back, Bakugou feels precarious in this state as he trudges along at the front, not daring to turn his head to cross your eyes.
The ambiance is reminiscent of the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Where Bakugou walks through the depths of the underworld, seeking you out in hopes you’d join his side once again. If he turns around now and spills his thoughts to you too soon, he fears that your forgiveness would be whisked away, thoroughly beyond his reach, and replaced with your promises of retribution.
That was the eloquent version of the situation anyway. To put it bluntly, Bakugou was just impatient as hell to say something to you. The silence suffocates him to the point where the words are nearly about to be squeezed out of his throat, but he bites his lip to snuff out the urges.
The more he keeps them in, the more fidgety he becomes, hands itchy and mouth trembling with grit between his teeth. The idea of not letting his voice be heard was something Bakugou detested. Mainly because it was already such a challenge to even keep his mouth shut, given his fiery attitude and lack of patience.
Man, what the hell am I hesitating for? he asks himself, that outspoken side of him spurring him on.
Ah, screw the uncertainty, he thinks. If he doesn’t say anything now, then he won’t get to say anything ever.
Bakugou stops in his tracks, turning his head. Here goes nothing,
“Hey, Y/n, I–”
“Katsuki–”
Words collide into each other, jumbled and incoherent, which take you two by surprise as you meet each other’s furrowed gazes. It’s quiet as you both piece your way through this, eyes trained like you haven’t seen each other in months when the reality is that a week of bitterness has somehow made you act like strangers. The bewildered look crossing his features is foreign to you; you’ve never quite seen Bakugou as taken aback as he is now.
“You first,” you grant before Bakugou could mix up your words again. Even being given permission, the blond still isn’t sure what to say, his thoughts lost on him the moment his voice clashed with yours. He takes a deep breath, calming his senses and steadying his mind for what he wants to convey.
“Look, Y/n, I don’t know how to put this as nicely as I can,” he begins, tone consistent yet wary, assessing your expression, “but I know I fucked up and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you there all by yourself. I shouldn’t… have blown you off like that and forgotten about you.” He delivers this bluntly—honestly—as open as a boy of his nature can muster with arms spread out, willingly exposing him to his faults and your reprisals.
Looking at you, he finds your eyes are cast to the floor, assuming to be reflecting on his words carefully. After some deliberation, you come across the vermillion in his eyes.
“Frankly, I haven’t entirely forgiven you just yet. But I will say that despite how I’ve been acting, I’m not as mad at you as you think,” is what you give, and Bakugou would be lying to himself if he didn’t achieve relief at your statement. He mentally releases a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding throughout the exchange. However, you aren’t done yet.
“I just want you to understand what moments like those mean to me. It’s during that time where I can share my feelings and learn more about you—understand who you are,” you say. Bakugou latches onto every word. “And it goes both ways, you know. It’s hard to want to stay in a relationship with someone who doesn’t make an effort to make time for you.” It’s obvious you aim that comment at him as Bakugou’s eyes soften slightly hearing it. His calloused, glove-clad hands wrap into his palms. Man, he really was a jerk.
“Still… I know you’re making an effort to be sincere and that you’re genuinely sorry for what happened, especially considering how the others seem to have set this whole conversation up, right?” Bakugou winces over the Bakusquad’s ploy coming to light and makes a note not to follow along next time unless those dummies can scrape up a more elaborate plan.
Despite that, he presses on, “So, what does this mean?” A smile settles on the curve of your lips, sensing his impatience as his voice hastens you along.
“Well…” you begin, speech drawn out in anticipation as you step toward him to where Bakugou follows your movements. That is until he catches a few shadowy figures shifting around atop the small building behind you. Before you can open your mouth to continue, his instincts flare to life.
“Hey, look out!” he exclaims, already acting on his warnings by lunging forward to push you out of the way. Your breaths draw back into your lungs, your body thrust abruptly into the opposite direction. Landing on your butt, you wince at both the shock and the pain, but your whines desist when you witness Bakugou taking a force to the head as a result of coming to your aid.
“Katsuki!” you yell, immediately getting off the ground to rush to his side, but he can’t find it in himself to respond. Afflicted with a substantial blow to the crown of his head, his whole being throbs and his vision spins.
Fuck, is Y/n, okay? is the first thing on his mind, ignoring the liquid trickling down his forehead. His question is answered upon turning his head to meet your anxious expression—your eyes wide and lips quivering as they move to say words he can’t exactly make out beneath the pounding sensations consuming his mind. As he feels a set of arms wrap around him, he tries discerning his surroundings to form a reply, but can only capture bits and pieces.
“—tsuki! ...old… n!”
“...god—! I’m so dead!”
A sputter of words tangling together is the last he hears before his vision fades to black.
.
.
The next time Bakugou awakes, his eyes slowly sever open to come face-to-face with a blurry white ceiling. The lights assault his vision as his senses take time to adjust, unraveling the environment to realize he’s laying on a bed—a hospital bed to be precise.
He attempts lifting himself but is met with retaliation in the form of his pulsating head which he immediately flinches at. His hand goes to rub his scalp to soothe the ache and he finds bandages wrapped tightly around him. “What the hell happened?” The last he remembers is traversing the urban area with you for the capture the flag mission before finally confronting the subject that had been plaguing your minds for a week now. After that, he caught sight of some object descending toward you and before he had even realized it, his feet had moved on their own. Next thing he knows, he’s waking up in the nurse’s office with a headache from hell.
Wait, what about you? Were you okay? Surely, he had to have pushed you out of the way in time, right?
His head moves quicker than it should’ve, revealing the other hospital bed in the room to be unoccupied, vacant. He sighs and his relief is further bolstered by the door to the nurse’s room opening to unveil you unharmed with only your heavy look of concern troubling him.
“Katsuki, oh thank god, you’re okay!” you say, quickly pacing over to his side with a glass of water in hand. You leave it at his bedside, sitting before him. Gauging your appearance up and down, Bakugou tries making out even the smallest details.
“You aren’t hurt?”
You’re appalled he would ask this despite clearly being the one patched up in a hospital bed right now, and likely sporting some serious head trauma.
“Of course I am, you’re the one that lunged forward to protect me,” you tell him. Bakugou looks down at his lap, figuring that was what happened, but hearing it from you comforted him more than he thought. However, his comfort is wretched from him by the intense pressure persisting in his skull. Seeing him in pain, you urge him to lay down and rest.
“How the hell did I end up here anyway?”
You fidget with your fingers, hesitating on answering. At that, the blond lifts a brow, suspicious.
“Mineta… accidentally dropped a rock on your head.”
“...You gotta be joking, right?”
Bakugou leers hard, finding the reason he was out of commission to be a damn pebble hitting his head a detriment to his pride. And because of Mineta of all fucking people. Still, if he hadn’t acted as quickly as he did, you would’ve been the one to meet his fate instead, and he weighed this outcome to better than the former.
Then you explain how the teachers had temporarily intervened to bring his unconscious body to the nurse’s, where the old lady went about tending to his injury. Said she did her job and all he needed was to rest and let her quirk take fuller effect within that time.
“So did we win the game?” He switches the topic to today’s mission of capture the flag that was cut short on his end.
You shake your head, but at least grant him the benefit of knowing Mineta’s team ended up placing last. At that, his eyelids shut and he crosses his arms behind his bandaged head. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t my intention to win anyway.”
You give him a look. “...Liar.”
Bakugou cracks an eye open at you. “Hah? What do you mean I’m a fucking liar?”
“I know you, Katsuki. I dated you, after all. And the Katsuki that I dated is an arrogant, competitive jerk who thinks of being the best above all else.” Bakugou scrunches his nose, wondering what you’re implying through your... overly frank descriptions. “Still… he’s sweet and caring at times… and reliable when he needs to be,” you continue, tone softening that draws Bakugou in, “And the kind of guy I want to give a second chance to.”
Absorbing your words, Bakugou blinks. “S-Seriously?” He doesn’t mean to stutter, but the offer catches him off-guard. He replays what you just said. That’s what he heard, right? A second chance?
You giggle at how uncharacteristically astonished he sounds. “Yes, seriously.”
“Does that mean you forgive me for what happened last week?”
You hum between pursed lips in playful contemplation. “Well, maybe you can redeem yourself by going on another date with me then?”
Hearing your proposal, a wide grin arcs his lips, edging into a smirk.
“That’s it? Well, I can definitely fucking do that,” he states, confidence rejuvenating his body at the new, hopeful chance before him.
“Oh, just one more thing though,” you suddenly add.
“What?”
“We are not going to that Chinese Restaurant again.”
#bnha x reader#mha x reader#bakugou x reader#bakugo x reader#bakugou katuski x reader#bakugo katsuki x reader#katsuki x reader#bnha imagine#mha imagine#bakugou fic#bakugo fic#bnha fic
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