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arvinsescape · 3 years

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Fight the good fight

Summary: You’re doing an interview for an upcoming movie and get treated with less respect than your male co-stars and they aren’t having it.

W/C: 1.9K

Warnings: Mentions of stress eating and struggles with food.

A/N: Please note that i have in no way intended for this to come across in a negative way in terms of weight. I have struggled personally with stress eating and i understand the unhealthy relationship that you have with food in the end and that is what i am talking about. I think everyone is beautiful, no matter what size or shape you may be, it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

You’d been in the spotlight for a long time. You’d started your acting career at the age of seven and had a really successful career. You were 23 now and had naturally moved into more adult themed films. You’d been really lucky to be cast alongside Tom Holland and Timothée Chalamet in an upcoming thriller. You were playing Holland’s love interest who ends up getting stalked by Chalamet’s character. You were really lucky that you got on so well with the two, the theme of the film could be quite difficult, and it was good to be able to have a laugh with your co-stars afterwards. During filming you’d developed a special relationship with Tom, you’d had to do a lot of scenes together that required the two of you to spend a lot of time with each other and getting to know each other inside and out. You’d gotten closer and naturally a real-life love relationship happened.

You were doing press with your co-stars and you’d been in interviews all day. To say you were tired would be putting it lightly. The day hadn’t gone so bad, some interviews better than others. You’d gathered this as soon as you turned 18, the questions shifted from being about the film to being about you and tended to be quite sexist in nature. You’d learned to deal with it over the years and some interviewers weren’t so bad, you’d not put up with it too much today. You were hoping that this final interview would run smoothly, and you could get into bed, cuddle up with Tom and sleep the night away.

“I can’t wait for this last interview; I love my job, but press can be so tiring!” Timothée said as he stretched his arms over his head and yawned. You were all sat in position, waiting for the interview to start, you were situated in the middle of them.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get back to my hotel room.” You agreed.

“Do you guys wanna borrow some of my energy, I have loads spare.” Tom laughed; he was always the more energised of the three of you. This pulled a laugh from both of you as the interviewer started. He seemed nice enough, but you’d been sat there almost five minutes before he actually addressed you.

“So Y/N? How did you find getting to play alongside Tom Holland and Timothée Chalamet?” Here we go. Although you didn’t mind answering questions like this and they were quite tame in comparison to some questions, it was more the fact that at this point both Tom and Timothée had been asked more direct questions about their parts in the film and you hadn’t. You hoped this wasn’t going to go in the direction you thought it was.

“Yeah, it was amazing! They are both lovely guys, it was an honour.” You answered in a polite manner. Maybe you were tired and read too much into the question.

“So did you diet for the film Y/N?”

“Not really.” You laughed, not entirely sure were this was going.

“Did you work out at all?” Again, where was this going?

“Not really. Not more than I usually do.”

“Well I just thought maybe you had been doing. Your legs looked great!” Here we go. You cleared your throat before you answered.

“Is that what you took away from watching it?” You teased, trying to keep the interview light-hearted.

“Well no. But it certainly was a standout feature of yours.” The interviewer laughed. Tom and Timothée didn’t, they knew how much questions like this annoyed you and it made them feel uncomfortable. You were here to promote a movie.

“I’ll remember that for my next film. When the director says he’ll pay a load of money for a dialect coach, I’ll just tell them not to bother. People will be more interested in my legs than my acting!” You answered in a jokey manner, this pulled a laugh from your two male co-stars.

“No no! I mean your acting was amazing Y/N, don’t get me wrong! But I feel like a good body deserves a compliment, that’s all!” The interviewer tried to joke, this made you uncomfortable.

“Timothée your acting was amazing but maybe you should have worked out more with me, your arms looked smaller than mine.” Tom joked as he too tried to shift the attention away from talks of your body. Timothée quickly catching on as he feigned upset before laughing and flexing his arm.

“You wish Tom, you wish.”

The interview continued on and whilst you got no direct questions about your acting or your role the attention wasn’t on you or your body. Until it was.

“So Y/N? You’re 23 now, right? Have you thought about having a family?” You groaned at the question.

“Yeah, I want a family but when the time feels right.”

“Of course! You wouldn’t want to prematurely end your career I suppose?”

“Why would that end my career. Loads of actors have children and carry on acting.” You fired back. You really hated this question because you could guarantee that if either of the boys were asked this question, it would not be followed up with insinuations that it would be career ending.

“Well not many women.”

“If you believe that, I’ll assume you’ve not done much research.” You shot back. You were visibly annoyed now, which didn’t go unnoticed by the males either side of you.

“I don’t think Y/N has to answer that! She answered your question about a family so maybe we should leave it at that, yeah? It’s Y/N’s life and I think she should be left to live it as she wants.” Timothée defended you. The interviewer shrugged but left it at that. Tom had tensed slightly at the exchange but ultimately kept quiet. That wouldn’t last long as the interviewer brought up his next question.

“Y/N? You have had a struggle with food I’ve read?” The question threw you off guard, yes, you’d recently been open about your battle with stress eating and your unhealthy relationship with food, but you weren’t prepared for the question. Usually you were prepared beforehand, and the interviewer would tell you if they were bringing it up, it was sort of a requirement of yours. You glanced at your manager off screen who looked as shocked as you felt.

“I’m sorry I don’t understand the question. It’s not relevant to the film that I’m here promoting.” You answered carefully.

“No, no of course but you seem to be doing better now than you were a few years ago.” He pushed. Tom tensed further, he knew about your past struggles, and how much talking about it unprepared upset you. “There was a period of time where you were quite big.”

“Erm. I’m really sorry but do you have any questions about the film? I’m not comfortable talking about this.” You shuffled uncomfortably in your seat, Tom’s hand shot out to your thigh in comfort, he knew you were getting anxious.

“I was just wondering if you had a problem with that part of your life. You know being bigger?”

“Listen. It’s not that at all. I have no issue with people’s weight, if that’s where you’re trying to go. I’ve talked about this and I absolutely believe that people should be whatever size makes them happy, we are all beautiful just as we are, and I genuinely believe that. What I talked about is the dangers and struggles I had with food. Yes, I was bigger, but my issue was not with my weight, it was with my unhealthy relationship with food and what I was doing to myself through that.” You answered, you felt frustrated, uncomfortable and you were beyond tired now, just wanting to get out of the interview. You took a deep breath before you spoke. “Look, can we just move away from this?” You pleaded.

The interviewer threw his hands up in defence. “Alright, alright. I was just asking.”

“You weren’t, though were you?” Tom’s voice startled all of you. “You were trying to make it sound like she has an issue with bigger people, which as she has spoken about extensively, she doesn’t. You were pushing her into answering a question she didn’t want to answer. You brought her weight up for no plausible reason, I think it’s you who has the problem with bigger people, if I’m being honest. So what she was bigger? She looked as beautiful then as she does now, as all women do. It’s because of people like you that women struggle with body image and it’s not fair, it has to stop.” Tom ranted as his face went red, he was annoyed you could tell that much. Your heart soared that he was defending not just you, but all women.

“You have been consistently rude to her. I don’t think I’ve heard a single question directed at her that was to do with the film. I hate that men like you think it’s okay to ask women these sorts of questions. You commented on her diet and working out as well as her intentions for a family and if it would harm her career. Why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because she’s a woman and you think it’s okay, you seem to think that she doesn’t deserve the respect of being asked the same questions that men do. It’s not right and it needs to stop, she has worked just as hard as us to make sure this film is as good as it can be and she deserves the respect, as all women do.” He finished as he grabbed your hand, stood up and left the interview. You in tow, completely in awe of him.

“Yeah man. Do better.” Timothée said as he followed, leaving the interviewer shocked and humiliated.

Tom took you backstage. He dropped your hand and took a deep breath before turning around to face you.

“I’m sorry I jumped in like that. It’s not that I don’t think you can handle it, I’m just so sick of men like him. I know that you can handle people like that, but you shouldn’t have to and that was the point I was trying to make I guess.” He sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“It’s alright. I’m happy you did. Thank you. it’s nice to know that women don’t have to fight this fight alone and yes, I could’ve handled it but in a way I’m glad it annoys you as much as it does me. I think it will be important for the younger women in your fan base to know that you stick up for women and hold them equal to men. It’s an important message.” You said as you hugged him and kissed his chest. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“It just makes me sad that you have to put up with this kind of thing.”

“I know. But hopefully we can make a change. We need to keep fighting the good fight.”

You stayed like that for a while before pulling apart and making your way back to your hotel room. It’d been a long day, but you were glad you had your co-stars there to defend you. Glad to finally be snuggled up in bed with Tom.

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland x reader #tom holland fluff #tom holland angst #tom holland x y/n

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writerman · 4 years

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Psst. Write a hanahaki disease fic for Barduil where Thranduil has it. You gotta write it.

Hey, anon, remember when you requested this probably like a year ago? Yeah, me either...

Anyway, here is what you asked for. I wrote over 7000+ words in a day to finish this asap.

My thanks to @morticia-butler for all the help looking up Hanahaki disease headcanons and an iconic line I simply had to include.

This is a long one so some of it will be under a readmore BUT you can also read all my other Barduil prompts via this fancy schmancy LINK

On to the story!

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8:30am. Thursday. September 17th. Just petals.

The mirror reflected a pale and haunted image back at him while bright and vibrant yellow petals dusted the front of his pyjama t-shirt.

Daffodils.

His favourite. Thranduil, however, had come to detest the sight of them. The sunshine yellow flowers openly mocking him, their bobbing heads in the breeze seen as a gaggle of them laughing almost jovially at his situation.

No point thinking on it in-depth, not when he could temporarily abate the problem.

With such a thought in mind, Thranduil brushed the petals from his shirt into the sink and watched as they swirled in the water a moment before vanishing down the drain into the darkness.

But there would be more.

There was always more.

A soft knock at the bathroom door stilled his hand as he reached for his toothbrush and he turned to see Tauriel watching him with concern.

“I didn’t know you were visiting today, what are you doing here?” Thranduil’s voice was soft as he spoke, though, the lilting sound of surprise cracked his voice for a moment. “Had I known you planned to visit I’d have been ready by now. What are-” Thranduil watched as Tauriel leaned toward him, her hand brushed the fabric of his t-shirt as she plucked a petal still clinging to the fibres.

“Dad, you said this had stopped!” The words rushed out and they were so loud as she held the petal up between them. While it hadn’t meant to come out so accusing, he could hear the dismay that coloured her words, it still felt harsh and Thranduil braced himself for a barrage of instructions to get himself to a doctor.

“It was quelled for some time. The doctor gave me special inhalers that slow the spread but I’ve not had the time to contact the surgery for a refill.” He gestured to an empty inhaler laying innocently on its side by the sink. They had helped immeasurably and the majority of his family had believed the disease was done and gone.

But Hanahaki was not that easy to be rid of, he knew and deep down his family knew that too. It was easier to think he had been cured than to do consider the alternative…

“I dropped by because I wanted to know if you felt like grabbing breakfast?” Tauriel turned from the bathroom door and wandered into her dad’s bedroom, his clothes were laid out already, she paced past the bed and back out into the hallway. “I’ll be downstairs, let’s go out still.”

There was no time to respond and so Thranduil internally agreed to breakfast with his daughter. She and Legolas were the same in that they were strongwilled, always happy to make a decision and happy to make it for someone else too.

They definitely had gotten that trait from him, even if he had mellowed somewhat with age. It was easy to recall his younger days with clarity, he walked tall never a curve to his back because he bowed to no one.

He had been so headstrong and confident, even after his wife had died. People had come to him speaking softly with sincere condolences but Thranduil cast the sorrowful glances aside and carried on working.

That felt like aeons ago now, Thranduil was more in touch with his emotional and mental health now, gave and took the time of others as freely as he should have when he was younger. Thranduil found value in the world where once he would have shunned it.

Turning to look in the mirror, that pale and haunted face stared back but the eyes seemed less empty than they had earlier. Even with his disease there was still hope within him, it was choked and stuttering by the roots of the flowers in his chest and lungs but it was there.

“I can’t give up, not yet.” He whispered to himself.

They ended up heading to Tauriel’s favourite place for breakfast, it was a small family-run restaurant and the food was good. The cheery wait staff did not match the highly polished wood and marble of the place but it felt strangely homely all the same.

It was while Thranduil perused the menu that Tauriel brought up the subject, or rather, the object of his disease to him. A public place so he would not make a scene, perhaps, or rather, she hadn’t thought of the setting and only wanted to relinquish her hold on the burning question she had within for months.

“So, will you at least tell me who it is that did this to you?” Badly worded. No one had passed the disease onto him, that wasn’t how it worked and he knew Tauriel understood that. “Come on, dad. Do they know what they’ve done to you?” Of course, she was angry but why was she being angry with someone innocent in all of it?

While the majority of the time Thranduil was able to ignore these unnecessary outbursts from his children, there were ofttimes when his frustration got the better of him and one of those times was now.

With hands loosely balled into fists resting on the tabletop, Thranduil pinned his daughter with an icy glare that quashed whatever words she had left inside to say on the matter.

“I have told you time and time again, I will not tell you who it is. You know damned well that they are not to blame in this. You’ve seen the diagnosis, even though I’ve asked you to stay out of it, you’ve seen the words ‘ self-inflicted’ on the documents.” He voice was low but the chill in his words caused Tauriel to sit back in her seat and avert her gaze from his.

“I’m sorry-” She stopped when the waitress came over and set down their coffee and a rack of toast. There was time enough between the waitress approaching and leaving for Tauriel to regain her composure. “I’ve read so much about this over the past few months, it might now be onesided that’s all.” She was right but the percentage was low.

Hanahaki disease was such an odd illness to contract, the phenomenon of flowers growing in a person’s chest and lungs due to unrequited or onesided love. The agitation of yearning and pining watered the blooms until the lungs were completely full and the chest cavity would split open with leaves and stems and petals spilling out and killing a person instantly if they hadn’t already died from suffocation.

But that was only intense cases. There were ways to slow the spread and Thranduil was taking measures to ensure he could do such a thing.

Regular therapy was one. His therapist was a wonderful woman who guided him through the process of coming to terms with his unrequited love. They spoke of how to be honest and open with the feelings he experienced and how to provide his own closure.

Though, they had many hurdles to jump. Thranduil didn’t believe in closure per se, to him revisiting something traumatic and uncomfortable merely reopened wounds. They’d spent many sessions focussing on the death of his wife and while it had helped immensely in allowing a belated grieving it ultimately had not helped with his predicament.

But he was not to call it a predicament his therapist had said. To remove the seriousness of the disease was to remove the value of his own life. There were many times she had asked him to look from the outside in and speak on the issues in his life as though they affected another person. It had helped and when things looked bleak or if Thranduil began to brush off the seriousness of his illness he would remind himself that he would not allow someone else to do that to themselves.

The next most drastic step was surgery, but it was a temporary step and it slowed the spread of the disease. Researchers in the medical field studying Hanahaki always implied heavily that the physical manifestations of the disease were caused by the brain and thus Hanahaki was registered as a mental illness.

It was why doctors pressed so hard for those that suffered to seek therapy.

“I won’t be involving the person in this what so ever, Tauriel. Please, I ask again that you drop the subject.” How he had pleaded like this before and how it emotionally exhausted him to see the fear in her eyes every time she visited.

It was all because he knew that one day she feared she’d find him lying dead, a bouquet of blood-stained flowers adorning his chest in a beautiful and grotesque display of the love that had plagued him.

“I understand that you’re scared but I promise you I have no given up. I have an appointment with my therapist this afternoon and with my surgeon to discuss a date for surgery.”

His words seemed enough to placate her for now and she instead busied herself with buttering some toast.

3:00pm Thursday. September 17th. Just petals.

“We spoke about your wife again last week, I noted that you requested we move on from the subject. Why do you feel you need to leave that subject alone?” The room was shaded from the bright Autumn sunshine streaming in from the window.

Thranduil could see the glowing gold around the edges of the blinds and forgot where he was for a moment as he watched it flicker with the shadow of trees swaying the breeze. He couldn’t remember why he’d suggested they move on but it seemed the right course of action to him.

“I just feel we aren’t focussing on the real problem.” When he spoke he made a point to look at her. Maintaining eye contact seemed important at that moment, he didn’t want her to think he was ruled by indecision. “My wife has been dead for years and we have already confirmed that, as much as I miss her, I have come to terms with her death and grieved appropriately.” Too business-like. As soon as the words had come out of his mouth he knew.

The therapist merely ‘hmm’d’ in response and wrote something down. There was the internal battle to struggle with now, to explain himself to her or let her assume something of him that he would, personally, deem incorrect.

“What is it you would like to speak about instead?”

That was the problem, he didn’t really know. The only thing he wanted to ask was ‘How did you get over someone and quickly?’ but there wasn’t really much of an answer she would be able to give.

Magazines for years had offered ‘helpful tips to get over that person that doesn’t like you back!’ and Thranduil had put no stock in their, so called, wisdom. Now they didn’t publish these things, now they would ask you to seek help if you experienced any symptoms they listed on the page.

Distraction techniques had been offered by his family in droves at the beginning when his diagnosis had been revealed. Nothing had actually helped because his mind would often wander to the object of his affection when he was practising a new hobby.

“I think my need to rush these sessions is just because I’m scared of losing myself completely and if I do that, well, you know what happens.” Thranduil gave a half-hearted shrug, he barely lifted his shoulders but it was a shrug all the same and his therapist acknowledged it as so with a nod.

“Everyone is scared of dying, Thranduil. Perfectly healthy people, people who have terminal diseases. Do you want to talk about your fear of dying?”

He didn’t.

They, instead, spoke of newer experimental ideas that Thranduil might have been interested in trying. She wrote out the prescription for the refill on his inhaler and made another appointment for a week later.

It wasn’t often that Thranduil left the sessions more tightly wound than he had been when going in but he at least knew that he’d need something to talk about next week or they’d get back on the subject of his wife and he honestly didn’t think that was helpful.

His next appointment was at the doctor's office, they wanted to schedule surgery but they had needed proof he was visiting his therapist before they would agree. It was a messy and an unfair condition but at least at the doctor's office he could get them to fill the prescription so it wasn’t too much of a wasted trip if they refused his surgery.

1:00pm Friday. September 18th Foliage.

The office was quiet now.

Everyone but Thranduil had packed up for the day and headed out to start their weekends. It was a perk Thranduil had implemented years ago and it had been appreciated, even if it had been created to benefit him more so than his employees at the time.

Nothing was waiting for him at home and there was plenty of paperwork to do so he poured himself a glass of water, took his inhaler and got comfortable at his desk reading through a brief for a new promotion.

So engrossed was he in his work that he failed to notice someone entering the office and only when a takeout coffee cup was set before him did he move his gaze from the files he had been reading to intently.

Looking up Thranduil ceased his movement almost instantly at the sight of his best friend Bard. The afternoon sunshine illuminated his handsome face with a soft golden glow, his brown eyes looked golden as he smiled down at him. His cheery countenance was always welcome and so was his gift of coffee but Thranduil could tell his friend was there with an agenda of sorts.

“Haven’t seen you lately, Thran. You’re not holding yourself up in this office every night until late again, are you?” The concern, it left a shaking and aching hole inside Thranduil and that hole soon became clogged with stems and leaves, give the disease an inch and, well, that old adage.

“No, I just had something to do here but it can wait. Did you need something?” To try and remain relaxed and carefree around Bard was increasingly difficult, more so when he had endeavoured to hide his disease from him as much as he could.

“Hm, well, I just had the feeling that you’ve been avoiding me for a while if I’m to be completely honest.” Straight to the point, no beating around the bush for Bard and he had every right to be concerned because he was correct.

Perhaps it was more obvious lately that he had been trying to avoid Bard for a few weeks. Avoidance was never going to be the answer but this man was why he had the disease, or rather, what exacerbated it. There would never be a time he would place sole or even partial blame on Bard for what he was going through.

“I’m sorry, I suppose I have been caught up in work recently. I’m absolutely not overworking myself before you ask. However, I’ve neglected my best friend and I think I owe you a drink, at least.”

“At least,” Bard repeated in agreement and he grinned, they didn’t move to get up.

Thranduil busied himself with taking a sip of his coffee, it was a blond roast from Michael’s he could tell without even looking at the logo on the side of the cup. All the while he inwardly cursed the tightness in his chest and new shoots began to sprout and buds began to burst into bloom.

There was no chance he could even begin to hazard a cough. It’d look like a cat had swallowed a canary. Or a man that had swallowed his feelings.

For a short while, they chatted idly about what they’d done recently. Bard talked of hating the empty nest syndrome he was suffering now that Tilda had moved out, leaving the family home nothing but a ‘mausoleum of family memories that were visited by a spectre that had helped create them’. It was a dramatic sentence and Thranduil laughed aloud before offering something vaguely sympathetic to soothe his friend.

“Can’t you clock out already, you own the business let’s get out while it’s still bright,” Bard complained as he rose from his seat and wandered toward the large window Thranduil sat with his back to. “The sun is still warm and we could probably walk to the pub instead of taking the car.”

“Walking to the pub suggests that you don’t wish to have a few drinks but one too many.” As much as he hoped he sounded wise, Thranduil knew Bard would have clearly taken it as a challenge. So they were absolutely going to get drunk that night and Thranduil couldn’t have been more terrified of that prospect.

“I haven’t seen you in ages, you’re my best friend and even if we both regret how bad we feel in the morning, age that does that to you, I want to get drunk with you, Thran!” Ah, old age hadn’t fully caught up with Bard yet, he was vibrant and energetic and hot. Gods above was that man gorgeous.

That was where it all began though, Bard had blazed into his life when they were in their early 30’s. Thranduil had just lost his wife and was trying to juggle a career and two grieving kids.

Bard and his wife Anya had helped him. They took the kids to school and picked them up and fed them so Thranduil could… do what? He couldn’t even remember now- he hadn’t grieved that was for sure!

With a 10 year and an 8-year-old broken over the loss of their mother and having no support from their emotionally unavailable father, Tauriel and Legolas had grown up to be quite well adjusted. Though, some of that might have been the therapy they’d gotten as suggested by their school.

It had happened only 2 years later, Bard lost Anya and he was thrown into a situation similar to Thranduil’s and the roles were reversed. Sigrid and Tauriel grew up like sisters and were still close because of how often they saw one another. They bonded strongly over what had happened to their mothers and became each other’s strength when they needed it.

The same happened with Bard and Thranduil, they became close friends. They took the children on holiday together, camping or water parks and spent their weekends finding activities for the kids that they too could take part in.

For a while, it had been just friendship, but then as the children grew up and wanted to spend less time with dad and more time with friends they found company in each other more often than not.

Then Tauriel and Legolas moved out for university, Sigrid and Bain left Bard for the same reason, Tilda was always adventuring with her friends and so when the empty house became too much they would go out.

Dinner, drinks, a walk in the park, catch a movie or two.

Innocent stuff, but Thranduil allowed himself to get comfortable and in letting his guard down he let feelings in that he had tried to avoid from the moment he met Bard.

The problem was when Anya died Bard told Thranduil he couldn’t ever see himself falling in love with another person again.

This was proven time and time again over the years, dates would happen once or not at all with people that could have been his perfect match, and eventually, Bard learned to ignore anyone that tried to flirt with him. A suggestive smile or even a compliment was brushed off as nothing more than friendly and the more unattainable he became the more Thranduil realised he was in love with him.

A terrible turn of events to be sure, and now he suffered daily for it with petals littering his pillows and flowers choking out his lungs.

“Are we going out then?” Bard’s voice cut through the memories Thranduil was replaying in his mind for the hundredth time and how thankful he was when he did. The blooming of the flowers in his chest increased with the thoughts of Bard.

To say no to the request would put a strain on their friendship. Bard had already noticed that he was being avoided and it would do them no good for Thranduil to continue that. So, with a nod, he got up from his seat and grabbed his jacket.

“It is a nice day, let’s walk to the pub then.” Intoxication was the last thing he needed but to keep up the charade that all was fine he’d need to at least try and play along. To play the role of a man in perfect health, body and mind, didn’t seem easy but he had to try.

He would try because he loved him.

10:45am Wednesday. September 30th. Bursting Blooms.

It was classed as routine surgery but Thranduil couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to slice someone open and remove flowers stamen to stem to root. Temporary as it was, he was thankful they had managed to organise it so quickly, his outing with Bard and the subsequent dinner the night after meant that his condition rapidly grew worse as time went by in the company of his best friend.

He’d woken to more petals on his pillow than he had ever seen before and his breathing laboured. Even coughing to free up space didn’t work and instead, he was gifted with near whole flower heads landing in his hands.

The kids were horrified as they watched this because of course, it would have happened while they visited. Which led to him having to listen to endless ‘You should go to the hospital right now.’ in a chorus from them both until he showed them the inhalers.

They sat either side of him in the waiting room now.

Legolas bounced his leg continuously looking around the waiting room for something to distract him. He’d taken time away from University to be there to help with recovery.

Tauriel chewed her nails and checked the time on her phone every couple of minutes as if time flowed differently in a hospital waiting room.

There was no cause for his anxiety to manifest when he was sat between two that were already doing all the work for him. Sadly, he had no words to calm them of their fears because he was just as afraid.

“Have people died from this surgery, dad?” Legolas piped up out of the blue, he sounded so young in that moment and Thranduil felt guilt course through his veins like ice for putting his children through something like this again.

When he didn’t answer Tauriel did for him and she shook her head even though Legolas was focussing more on a poster across the room than on anything else.

“No, because the surgery, while invasive to a degree, only removes some of the plants. They don’t fully remove everything because they simply can’t. Dad is going to be ok, more ok after this than he is now.” Her confidence only shaking by the tremor in her voice and Thranduil hoped Legolas couldn’t hear it.

“Hmm, ok.” Pensive now Legolas falls silent but his leg continuous to bounce but not as animatedly as before. He was not calmed but something in her words convinced him that the surgery would be fine.

Though, he didn’t understand why she would lie to him like that. His son was perfectly capable of looking up the survival rate on his phone, it was low just as low as the rate of people that were cured by expressing their feelings to their heart's desire.

They were approached by a nurse in scrubs.

“Mr Oropherion, if you would like to come this way.”

1:56pm Wednesday. September 30th. Roots.

Someone was gently squeezing his arm.

“Thranduil, you’ve just come out of surgery. Can you hear me?” The same nurse that took him in was now waking him. “We need you to respond to know you’re ok.”

Nothing felt real yet he managed to croak out something akin to an ‘I’m fine’ but that was it. The need for sleep and an excruciating pain rushed over him and he groaned hands gripping the sheets as he waited for it to subside.

“Out of 10, 10 being very painful and 1 being not painful at all how do you feel?” The nurse was holding a clipboard and a pen, they looked down at Thranduil with an expectant look and merely blinked blankly when Thranduil didn’t respond right away.

He needed more time than this to consider everything, on the one hand, he could breathe on the other the pain of being sliced open and stitched back together was awful.

“Ah… 8 maybe?” His whole body shook as he came out of the anaesthetic and all he wanted was to leave his body while it was in this state and return when he was at home comfortable in his own bed with a cup of tea.

His time in the recovery room was short and he was wheeled into a private room where he was greeted with the grim face of his best friend. Bard looked awful, pale and he seemed to have aged 10 years all with concern etched deep into his face.

“You were having important surgery and just elected not to tell me?” It was quiet, so quiet that Thranduil almost didn’t hear him speak. It wasn’t until they were fully alone after someone had administered strong painkillers, that Thranduil finally acknowledged what Bard had said to him.

“I didn’t need more people worrying about me than was necessary. I’m sorry, Bard. I should have told you but I didn’t want you to ask what the surgery was.” If he was honest, he still didn’t want Bard to know and if he asked him then and there he would outright refuse to tell him.

Even if keeping such secrets ended their friendship it would be safer then, the heartbreak of losing him as a friend was all the cure he needed and it would continue to protect Bard from the truth.

“If you had just told me that I could have been here for you from the beginning! Instead, I get a call from Tauriel asking me to come by and sit with Legs because she had to go grab something from home. I had no idea what she was talking about so you can probably expect a gushing apology from her later.” Bard dragged a hand through his dark hair, now laced with silver, as he started to pace.

It wasn’t fair.

Life wasn’t fair but this was kicking a man while he was down!

“I’m sorry, Thran. I didn’t mean to come in and just… yell at you. How are you feeling, are you ok?” Bard moved towards the bed and poured a glass of water out and handed it to Thran who took the offering gratefully and slowly sipped the cold water in trembling hands.

“Why can’t you tell me what the surgery was?” Bard pulled up the visitor chair so he was sad right by Thranduil’s bedside. For a moment he seemed indecisive in his actions until he, apparently, had a moment of clarity and took Thranduil’s hand in his. “Is it… cancer?” The words were uttered almost reverently as though he was afraid to speak the words any louder than a whisper.

Could he lie and say yes?

Oh, how disrespectful he would be to cancer survivors and those who had lost their battle. No, he could not lie and so he shook his head feeling more forlorn with each passing minute. The desperate need to wrench his hand from Bard’s was unbearable, the heat of the man’s hand seared into his skin and he couldn’t think straight wondering how it would be to hold his hand and know he loved him back.

Something inside him grew and already a new bloom began to sprout.

This was too dangerous.

Gods, he was dying and yet he still thought he had a chance with this man sat at his bedside holding his hand whispering words to him like a prayer.

Eventually, he knew he’d had to put an end to all of this.

How he wasn’t sure.

8:36pm Saturday. October 10th. Stems.

The children had just left, left with promises to be there again in the morning but Thranduil waved them away and told them it was not necessary to coddle him in such a way. The look on their faces told him he really had no say in the matter what so ever.

The surgery results were more temporary than he’d have liked, petals had started appearing again after a mere 10 days. With the inhalers they were few and far between but only 10 days of respite. His scars not yet healed from the procedure!

All in all, it seemed to have been a waste of time but at least he was still able to breathe with relative ease, though emotionally it seemed he was breathless. Legolas and Tauriel barely gave him a second alone and were hawks when it came to spotting petals.

At first, they’d been nigh hysterical but Thranduil had calmed them down and explained that these things happened and that he was still able to breathe well enough so there was nothing to worry about.

They hadn’t believed him. Not even for a second but they were distracted enough to come down from the height they’d been at in their worry.

The doorbell rang not even 5 minutes after the children had left and Thranduil assumed one of them must have left something behind, so when he opened the door to find Bard on the doorstep he was surprised but ushered him all the same.

“It’s late, what are you doing here?” Thranduil shivered and pulled the long misshapen and baldy knitted cardigan tightly around himself. It had been a gift from Tauriel, she had knitted it and then proceeded to never try knitting again yet Thranduil adored the huge thing that near drowned him. “Aren’t you coming inside?”

He noticed after a moment that Bard lingered a little too long at the door and seemed frozen by indecision. It wasn’t like him to be unsure of something so Thranduil prodded again.

“Are you coming in?” But Bard wasn’t looking at him, he was staring at the cardigan and feeling self-conscious Thranduil wrapped his arms around it trying to cover the large holes, but Bard kept staring until Thranduil actually become protective of the garment and snapped at him.

“What are you looking at?” Much like Tauriel had done before, Bard leaned forward and between his finger and thumb pulled a yellow petal away from Thranduil’s clothing, it seemed much brighter in the gloom of the autumn evening.

It seemed enough for Bard to piece together the truth and he looked dismayed, his shoulders dropped and his head dropped for a moment before he forced himself to look up at his friend.

“Is.. this why you had surgery?”

“Let’s not do this on the steps outside, come in and I promise I will answer all of your questions.” That seemed to put him in motion and with a short nod, Bard stepped into the warmth of the house and Thranduil shut the door.

“How long have you had this?”

Straight to the point, Thranduil had hoped he’d be given the chance to offer tea or something else before Bard started grilling him for answers. Honestly, though, he knew the question Bard wanted an answer to the most and Thranduil didn’t think he had it in him to tell him that, not yet at least.

“Hmm, a year now, maybe?” It had been so long since he had been without the cursed disease and he hadn’t exactly been counting, seeing it was more a count down to his death if he truly tried to rack up the days.

“Is there a cure, will you die from this?” The panic appeared from nowhere and Bard bit his lip as he tried to work out what he wanted to do next, he seemed to want to cross the room toward Thranduil and pace so to put a stop to either Thranduil made him sit down.

“I will make tea and answer those questions when I come back.” One of them had to remain calm, while he would have loved to have thrown away his composure and screamed to the Heavens that life wasn’t fair he didn’t think it would help his situation in the slightest.

When he returned with the tray Bard was stood again but this time by the fireplace looking at the family photos set out across the mantle. They were mostly of himself with the kids, one of is and Bard’s family all together on a camping trip and one of his wedding day.

“Hanahaki, huh?” He must have googled it while Thranduil was in the kitchen, that was fine but he probably knew more than Thranduil would have liked now. “So the surgery you had was to remove some of the flowers… ah, I can’t pretend like I’m not going to ask. Who is it that did this to you, Thran, who is the one that can’t or won’t love you back?” The tone seemed one of incredulity, as though Bard couldn’t quite believe there was anyone in the world who couldn’t love Thranduil.

But there was.

“Does it matter who and isn’t it better to see that I am trying to get better instead of giving up?” Deflect the question by asking a question, the only thing he could do as he poured tea and tried to stop his hands from trembling. “I am doing everything the doctors say I should.”

“Which is?”

“Haven’t you just checked the internet for all of this?”

“Well, yeah, but I want to hear you say it, that’s all.” The conversation was going nowhere because Bard clearly couldn’t stand not knowing who this person was that had captured Thranduil’s heart and refused to return it.

“I have therapy every week, I have inhalers to slow the spread of the blooms and recently I had surgery to remove the majority of the blockage but the roots are deep.” Such a drastic admission and so unfair to reveal his imminent death so casually.

Taking a sip of tea, Thranduil watched Bard’s face cycle through several emotions before settling on… nothing. Instead of responding Bard merely added some sugar to his tea before lifting it to his lips to drink.

“So, you were just planning on dying without telling me?” The words came out flat as though the conversation was casual yet boring. He had hurt his friend that much he was sure of but there wasn’t really much of anything he could say to soothe him now. Bard had been right, and what Thranduil had thought was caring and helpful turned out to be more selfish than anything else.

“No, I would never do that to you, Bard. I don’t want to keep these things from you but please see this from my perspective. This isn’t something I want to scream from the rooftops- ‘LOOK AT ME EVERYONE I AM DYING BECAUSE THE PERSON I LOVE DOESN’T LOVE ME BACK AND I AM NOT EMOTIONALLY STABLE ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THAT!’ why would I want to reveal my weakness to someone? If Legolas and Tauriel hadn’t found out I would not have told them either!” He didn’t like being weak like this, not after a life of being seen as an unshakable strength a rock that you could rely on. Everything was beginning to crumble why would he want to bare his soul now?

“Fine but don’t think I can just forgive you for hiding this from me. After everything we’ve been through together you just fail to tell me that, 1) you’re in love with someone, and 2) You’re dying because of it.” Bard set down his cup a little too hard and pushed himself to his feet and headed for the door. “I… I have to go, Thran. I’m sorry.”

He was on his feet in seconds following Bard to the door but the man was already in his car by the time he got out onto the steps to call him back.

“You don’t understand…” Thranduil whispered as he tugged at the cardigan pulling it tight around him against the chill. “I didn’t tell you to save you from the guilt that I know you’d feel.” Of course, the words merely dissipated into the cold night air and the vapours trailing each word rose into the sky before vanishing completely.

At least the universe heard his admission of the truth.

4:00pm Friday, December 11th. Nothing but a memory.

They had given him a clean bill of health.

No roots, stems, stamens, petals, not even a leaf remained. The flowers had wilted and withered to nothing and Thranduil took an easy deep breath as he left the doctor’s office. It was a chilly December evening and he was adjusting his scarf when Legolas nearly bowled him over running into him his arms thrown around his neck in a tight embrace.

“I heard the news! You’re better now for good?!” The excitement in his son’s voice brought genuine tears to Thranduil’s eyes and he buried his face in Legolas’ golden hair for a long month savouring the warmth his son gave.

When they broke apart Tauriel was stood by her car, the engine still running. They must have just arrived as he was leaving. She gave him a cheery wave before climbing into the car to shut off the engine.

Thranduil hadn’t confessed his feelings to Bard and Bard had not confessed his to him. Instead, he had worked hard to understand that sometimes your feelings just were not reciprocated and that was ok.

Platonic love was just as good as romantic love, sadly, he hadn’t been able to speak to Bard since he’d walked out on him all those weeks ago. While he would always love Bard he understood that what he had done was hurtful and if he’d been given the chance he wished he could apologise.

It had never been his intention to hurt his best friend but he had been so caught up in his own pain he had forgotten to consider those nearest and dearest to him. How had it been fair to hide such a horrible problem from those he held dear?

“Have you heard from… him?” Tauriel knew everything now, she’d gotten it out of him not long ago, he was at his lowest and needed someone who might understand. It was not his proudest moment, leaning on his daughter emotionally for support, but she had been steadfast in her support of him that it seemed so easy to tell her everything.

Thankfully, Tauriel didn’t hold the reaction Bard had against him.

“I had been angry just like him too, remember?”

Oh, she had, she had screamed murder in his home, right in the centre of the living room, when she had realised and didn’t speak to Thranduil for days. It was the longest she had ever gone without talking to him before, a whole 6 days until she came around and they talked about what it meant for the family.

But now they were fine, life could resume. Thranduil could live with seeing them without the soft concerned glances Tauriel and Legolas would exchange when his chest grew tight and he wheezed as he tried to grasp a full breath.

If only he could repair his relationship with Bard. There weren’t many he shared his life with and losing someone was extremely noticeable when that someone was fully apart of his daily life.

Even visiting his usual haunts proved useless. There didn’t seem to be a trace of him anywhere and Thranduil was much too much of a coward to walk right up to his door and demand to be let in.

Yet, none of his calls were returned or his texts answered. When Tauriel asked Sigrid if her dad was ok she just shrugged and said he wasn’t doing anything unusual of late, but he had been grabbing a drink with workmates more often.

That wasn’t a cause for concern as Bard had always been the friendly and sociable type.

Whatever was going through his friend's mind he sincerely hoped he would take the time to consider contacting him so they could talk. There were only so many text messages he could send without looking incredibly desperate.

5:30am Tuesday, December 24th. Easy breathing.

A shrieking doorbell and the sound of continuous banging on the door jolted Thranduil awake and he swore loudly as he tumbled out of bed and shuffled wearily down the stairs. Whoever it was had better have a fantastic reason as to why they had to get him up at stupid o'clock in the morning!!

When he pulled the door open to see a rather dishevelled Bard using the door frame to hold himself up the air in Thranduil’s lungs seemed to vanish. He stood motionless for a good 30 seconds before helping Bard inside.

“You absolutely reek of alcohol. What are you doing here?”

There was silence proceeding his question and, at first, Thranduil thought the man had fallen asleep on the sofa where he had collapsed but it appeared he was just thinking of the best response.

“I had to see you.” Surprisingly he didn’t sound drunk and Thranduil considered that the cold must have sobered him up. For his own mental health, he decided against asking him what he meant about having to see him.

“I don’t know about you but the larks aren’t even up yet and I am tired. Let me make some coffee for the both of us and we can see if I can’t get some sense out of you.” As he turned to move Bard’s hand shot out and his fingers curled around Thranduil’s wrist tugging him backwards with ease.

“No, let me speak to you, hasn’t it been long enough already?” A sleep-deprived gravelled tone did not suit Bard and Thranduil could see dark circles around his eyes. Whatever had been on Bard’s mind of late must have had him up around the clock.

“You were the one that decided you’d had enough of me, remember?”

Those words caused the man before him to relinquish his grip on Thranduil’s wrist and he just gave a nod but when Thranduil didn’t move he took a deep breath and began to speak.

“I’m sorry that I made it about me. There wasn’t even a second where I considered how scared you must have been to know that any day could have been your last.”

“Yes, well, thankfully those days are behind me now.”

Like a shock of electricity had gone through him Bard jumped to his feet looking this way and that before having the decency to look genuinely apologetic.

“Did I interrupt your sleep with them?” In the light of the living room, Thranduil got a better look at him and something inside him clicked into place and he had to withhold a groan when he realised he had definitely, once again, fallen in love with his best friend.

“There is no one, the person I was in love with, I’m not in love with them now. It took a long time to come to terms with the fact they did not care for me the way I wanted but I am better because I started to love me more.” Oh, what a liar he was. Yes, he did care for himself a lot more but he was falling right back into the rut he had been not 8 weeks ago.

The second he started spitting petals he was going to wring Bard’s neck. There was no way he was going through all that again!

“There’s no one, ah, good. That means I have a sliver of a chance to ask you out on a date then.”

No, no he wasn’t doing any of this without coffee. As much as he wanted to address every single word the man had just uttered he wasn’t doing this without caffeine and maybe some toast.

Without a word he walked off into the kitchen and, like a lost puppy, Bard obediently trotted in behind him trying to get his attention. No, no, no, he was going to fill the machine with coffee beans and put bread in the toaster then he was going to get the toaster and throw it at Bard’s head!

Whipping round to face him, Thranduil grabs a fistful of Bard’s shirt and pulls him close enough that they are nearly nose to nose.

“You’re telling me that you have developed feelings for me in the past 3 months I have been in recovery?”

Fear was the only emotion in Bard’s eyes and they were wide to the point the whites almost exceeded the iris. It would have been funny if Thranduil hadn’t wanted to throttle the man where he stood.

“Well, I wanted to tell you I loved you as soon as you opened the door but you’re so scary when you’ve just woken up. You’re scary now, please don’t kill me. I love you!”

That was it.

“You LOVE me? Is that so Mr I Will Never Love Again? IS that so?!” There was a mixed bag of emotions stirring up inside him but mostly the murderous intent was winning out. Killing Bard wasn’t really on the cards but he wasn’t going to let the man get away with nearly killing him for over a year even if he had no idea it was his fault.

“You are very, very, very lucky that I just so happen to love you, too.” The iron grip on Bard’s shirt relaxed and he tried his best to smooth the deep wrinkles but it was not to be. Regardless, he had Bard looking at him with a sappy grin plastered over his pale face like he’d been told he’d won the lottery and not the affections of a highly problematic male.

“R-really?”

“As much as it now pains me to say this, yes, I do love you so very much. So much so that my heart could burst if I tried to contain it any longer.” The thumping of his heart was so hard in his chest that he was sure Bard could have heard it if he’d tried. Somehow things were falling into place now with such little effort.

There had been a chance Thranduil would have found himself bitter about the whole thing and shunned Bard’s advances. Revenge should have been high on his list with the grinning idiot before him but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything other than lean in and press a kiss to his Bard’s lips.

“Really, really.”

#Barduil #Bard the Bowman #Thranduil #Hanahaki disease #The Hobbit #AU #Anonymous

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anangelicday-mrwolf · 3 years

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Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 54 – The Night of Horror

“Tao, duck!”

Screamed M-21, to which Tao responded by promptly letting an imaginary hand wrench his entire torso towards his feet.

Not a second after, a human body thrust its way through the exact spot where his head used to be.

Wham!

“Krrrgh!”

“Kraah!”

The agent M-21 just wrestle-flung collided with a man in a lab coat, reaping from them grunts close to beastly snarls.

They shared one thing in common – nothing about their appearances suggested they are Homo sapiens, with discolored skin reminiscent of corpses, nails and teeth jutting out in a vicious manner, and eyes seemingly brimming with blood.

And these were not exclusive to the two pseudo-zombies giving Tao and M-21 a challenge like nothing before.

Of course, it would take less than a minute and feel like less than 10 seconds for Tao and M-21 to make sure their opponents will never again disrupt them.

Alas, they could not position themselves appropriately, let alone pull out a weapon or shift into battle forms, because they happened to be facing the staff of KSA.

“Looks like that gas was combined with the technology on... What was it again? Rapid body modification?”

“Yup. Damn, I didn’t think it would be so effective.”

The two men lamented upon witnessing how employees and agents wobbled back to their feet; they could swear they did more than a proper job of hitting their vital points to knock them out.

They even twisted the ankles, solemnly swearing to get upon their knees for forgiveness once the storm is gone; however, their plan was made null by the healing power that naturally comes with body modification.

“...I don’t think we’ll be getting out of this situation, unless we pry out their limbs or a rib or spine or two.”

“...How I hate the fact that I can’t help but agree with you there.”

The outcome was beyond Tao and M-21’s expectation, probably because of Yuhyung’s adjustment.

Nevertheless, they presumed the healing power that surfaced within the victims would be below average.

After all, the project on which their modification was based off was classified as failure and ultimately canceled.

So just like M-21 said, the victims would not be able to recover the loss of a limb or skeletal structure.

Nonetheless, Tao and M-21 could not dare harm them; the only thing they have done wrong, if they have done anything wrong, was staying overnight to fully dedicate themselves to their duties.

It was not the question of post-measurements, already guaranteed by KSA and Frankenstein; it was the question of morals.

M-21’s and Tao’s faces stiffened as the victims dragged their feet towards them, the two men cornered in the room.

Just then, one of the agents bumped shoulders with a researcher closest to him, from which the situation took a precipitous downfall.

Slash!

Chomp!

The agent made a violent lash at the researcher’s face, and the researcher countered by rooting his teeth into the agent’s shoulder with full power.

Which served as a cue for the rest of the victims to tackle and thwack and open their mouths wide at one another.

Tao and M-21 turned pale as they watched how a scene from fratricidal zombie movie was being played live, their minds becoming numb with shock as the floor being slowly freed from gas was now being plastered with victims’ blood.

They threw themselves in the middle to separate the victims from each other, and that was when their communicators finally vibrated with life.

<Tao! M-21! Do you copy?!>

“Takio? Where are you? What in the world is keeping you? And why did you have to wait to...”

Tao and M-21 met each other in the eyes for a moment at how alarmed Takio sounded.

Then their memories rang the bell for them – the corridors of KSA were not the only area under the effect of Yuhyung’s gas.

“Don’t tell me... Are there people whose body went through modification? Shoot, I was hoping it’d take time for the gas to spread!”

<It’s not far from KSA’s HQ, but what on earth is going on? And what do you mean, body modification? I’m sure these people are civilians!>

“We’ll talk about this later! First, get over here! We could really use a hand or two right now!”

Knowing Takio, they anticipated him to fly over on the double, although they ended up acting individually, a rare occasion to begin and to continue.

Notwithstanding, there was a reason why Murphy’s law was ever coined.

<Uh... I’m afraid as of now I’m... Ugh!>

Swoosh!

Pow!

Their ears whirring upon the sonic boom so very tangible despite the distance secured by the communicators, Tao and M-21 gaped each other with their eyes trembling.

“Takio? What’s going on?!”

“Are you also under the civilian attack?”

<No! It’s the Union! I ran into two of them on my way. One of them happens to be that big guy we saw in the footage we pieced back together from the security camera outside the safehouse that was destroyed. And the other one is a woman with...>

“...Orange hair and cerulean eyes?”

<H-how did you know?>

“Takio, that’s the one!”

“That’s the woman Miss Lunark mistook for Kespar! The one who plotted against Frankenstein in joint with the 3rd Elder!”

“Hang in there. We’re coming in...!”

M-21 and Tao stomped their legs in a halt, in the middle of their sprint carrying the violently struggling people, partitioned with their arms and shoulders.

As soon as they turned the last corner connected to the nearest lab, they saw how the tiles were barely visible due to countless people with abnormal builds.

“Impossible! There’s no way such number would be remaining at this hour!”

“Tao, look at them.”

M-21 directed Tao’s eyes towards the side, where three men and women were yanking each other with their mouths like hyenas that fasted for a month.

“Look what they’re wearing. They’re no agents. Or employees.”

“Are they civilians...? Did some of them trespass?!”

Tao bellowed in dismay, which unfastened the door that was keeping the avalanche of trouble from stampeding towards them.

“Grrr...”

“Krr...”

The blood-shot eyes of people who were busy taking a bite or grab out of anyone within their reach darted glances towards M-21 and Tao.

Not long after, the artificially modified humans lunged towards the two RK’s like a pack of rabid dogs that have spotted a target, a phenomenon propagating outside KSA.

“W-what the hell?!”

“Argh! Mommy!”

“H-help me! Somebody please he... Aaaah!!!”

People who have never consented to their monstrous changes spread out from the street housing KSA’s headquarter, to hunt down innocent citizens, paving the streets with blood and gore.

Which Yuhyung was watching through his device, via the cameras attached upon interior and exterior of the KSA building.

His hands gripping the device quaked, and he hurriedly pulled out a communicative device he would keep asleep unless he has to talk to Helga.

<Oh, hey. So how’s the plan go...>

“What the heck is going on?!?!”

Yuhyung shrieked, as if he were forcing his guts out through his throat, as soon as Helga’s pointed-as-always voice hit his eardrums.

And her response successfully blew up his half-powdered mind.

<What’s the yelling for? Is there a problem?>

She sounded so very placid, whereas her voice was toned up and down deliberately, as if she had seen this coming.

“Problem? Problem is an understatement!!! You know what is... I mean, you are seeing and hearing what is going on! You said you’ll make your way to KSA, so you should know very well what’s...”

<Oh, yes. I know. Of course I do. In fact, I’ve known it for quite long.>

“...What...?!”

Yuhyung’s quivering voice listlessly scattered into thin air, like a ball of dirt caught in the wind.

<I’ve never told you, have I? I mean the reason why this project the data I gave you came from was labeled as failure and canceled. Well, you were too excited to get your hands on the data and didn’t even bother to ask.>

Helga did mention that the project has a side effect, but he heeded not much, since the way she spoke of the side effect gave impression that it is no big deal.

Still, like she said, he was so thrilled back then to at last gain the Union data he had been thirsting for.

His thoroughness, a must-have value for anyone affiliated with investigation, was discarded temporarily, as he was too occupied with letting his elation jingle his entire universe, like popping champagne open.

And when he later examined the data, he could not find anything in particular in terms of side effect, so he had forgotten about it, until now.

<That’s right. What you’re seeing as we speak is the side effect of this project. The subjects that experience rapid body modification lose the ability to tell their friends from foes. Whenever they see something living and moving, they will first and foremost react by driving their teeth and nails into flesh. And if they are devoid of lifeform around them, they will slash and masticate and take apart their own bodies.>

Instantly, Yuhyung felt as if the entire world spun right into his chest; the entire world turned into a stone of immeasurable size and unimaginable weight, smashing his heart into pieces and plummeting towards his core.

Helga snickered, stage-choking herself.

<Anyways, congratulations. You made your wish come true – turning non-modified into modified. And now, you’d get to collect as much data as you’d want, like picking apples under the falling leaves!>

Helga sneered as she smiled in vile entertainment and sinister glee, and Yuhyung could only make out his mind escaping far away from him as he watched her.

And the horror spreading throughout Seoul, delivered to his device in divided screens, did not stop assaulting his calm.

No...

This isn’t what I wanted......

I’ve never asked for something like this......!

After peeking at something that was not accessible for sight from Yuhyung’s side, Helga cut off the signal, to restrain Kornel once more.

“I’d thought I told you to be prudent!”

“Oh, come on! Can’t you stop stopping me now?! We’re going to kill him anyways!”

“I would have let you, if it were someone else. But that’s Takio we’re facing – the one Sol told us. Takio of DA-5.”

“What? That’s him?”

“Precisely. We assumed it’d take a miracle for him to stand against Aris, let alone beat her. But he not only deleted her existence but also decided to put himself against us. Do I have to explain what we could achieve if we manage to apply the secret of his growth to us?”

“Okay, okay. I got it. Geez. But you don’t mind me beating him up just enough to leave him battered but breathing, do you?”

“Actually, that’d be more than welcome. There’s no telling what will unfold if we don’t go that far to capture him.”

This was certainly not a pleasant situation for Takio, about to battle two Union agents when immediately surrounding him was a scene from a common disaster movie.

His fingers poised upon the triggers, waiting for his order, were strained with pressure.

(next chapter)

So in summary, there are 3 battles taking place at the same time: (1) Takio (ft. Tao & M-21) vs Helga and Kornel, (2) Rael vs Deneb (with Yuhyung), and (3) Lunark vs Dark Spear. As I am posting this chapter, I finished composing part 1 of this battle. And once I’m done with the remaining parts, I’ll finally move on to the finale of this fic. I already know what I’m going to write, and I can’t wait to reach there lol. I’ll do my best as I take this fic to its ending!

#korean webcomic #korean webtoon #fanfic #noblesse #frankenstein #lunark #frankensteinxlunark #lunarkxfrankenstein #wolfsbane #Mr.Wolf #AnAngelicDay

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quickspinner · 4 years

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⭐️star⭐️ Oooooorrr Hey gorgeous. Honestly one of my favorite lukanette stories of all time. Whichever you prefer 😊

Ask for director’s commentary

All right I’ve got another star in my inbox so we’ll go with Hey Gorgeous since that’s probably my most popular piece to date. So, how about a little bit of background, a couple of the issues I had writing it, and a deleted scene? I’m gonna go ahead and put a cut here because, as we all know: I’m wordy.

HG was totally an accident; I had no idea how it was going to blow up either in size or popularity. It’s also a fic that wouldn’t have happened, or at least wouldn’t have been nearly as big, if I hadn’t gotten such a great reaction to the beginning, so just know: Your feedback matters. If you like something, tell the author, because you never know what might happen (but it’s almost always more fic in some way or another).

I wrote the original 8 or 9 pieces mostly in one go; I did a little filling out and polishing before I posted each piece, and then when the feedback was so positive I started thinking about how I could continue and expand it, and I just jotted down the scenes as they came to me. That was really the fun thing about HG, aside from all the flirting which was fun to write--I didn’t worry about the things that usually stall me a bit. Because of the way I was writing it I didn’t worry about connecting scenes or flow. Usually, when I write a story, I have a bunch of really vivid scenes in my mind that I write first, and then I have to go back and connect them and smooth everything into a flow, but I didn’t bother with that with HG and that gave the story a really unique energy. Since it didn’t have a serious, plot-heavy narrative arc, I could just hit the high points of the relationship and that made it a lot of fun.

I struggled a lot sometimes with whether Luka was really in character; HG Luka had a little less reserve and a little more sass than canon Luka. I tried to keep the things I see really essential to his character; his music (obviously), his empathy and sensitivity, his relationship with Juleka, his tendency to be a helper/caretaker and a problem solver. I admit I get salty with people who think there’s nothing to Luka; I think that the show gives us a lot of implied information and it’s not hard to extrapolate from there (if you actually care enough to think about it for five minutes instead of just dismissing his entire character because you don’t like the competition), but there’s also kind of a lot of wiggle room with him, because he gets so little screen time, and since I was working with an older Luka, I tried to sort of run with a direction I felt was plausible, even if it was a little more extreme than what we’d seen from him so far. That’s another reason why the feedback was so important in making this story continue; when I started to question what I was doing, I would look at the reactions and think, well, I must be doing something right, so here goes.

With that said, there were times where I started second guessing and got a little bit stuck. One of those spots was the moment where Luka sat down and talked to Marinette about the future. I didn’t want it to turn into a spontaneous proposal (because I already had the proposal scene planned) but I did feel like it was an important discussion to have. I also felt like I should show some conflict in their relationship, and that seemed like kind of a good point, but in the end...I just didn’t want to write it. I didn’t want to write them fighting! Because I didn’t want to it was next to impossible to actually do it, so finally I said the hell with it, I don’t care if it makes them look too perfect, I’m not dealing with that. But in the process of thinking through all of that I wrote this version of the scene, thinking maybe I could handle the argument in flashback, but ultimately, I decided it didn’t fit the tone of the story, and resigned myself to the fact that they would just stay too perfect. I can’t say I regret it, honestly. (Also I don’t know why there was so much cursing in this version of the scene, but it might have to do with the way I was winding myself up over getting it right, lol.)

***

Toni’s words weighed on his mind, but he couldn’t quite find the courage, or the words, or the right opening.

Luka was overthinking it, he knew. Blunt, raw honesty had gotten him this far. They’d done the meet the parents thing, they lived together, and he was honestly being fucking ridiculous. It wasn’t as if he was asking her for any kind of commitment.

So why was he so fucking terrified that asking her about the future was crossing a line? That it would somehow make her really look at the idea of a life with him and cause her to freak the fuck out.

He’d seen her freak out, a few months ago when she’d had deadlines stacked up and it was clearly physically impossible for her to meet them all. It wasn’t pretty. It was messy and tearful and honestly a little bit traumatizing, giving him flashbacks to Juleka’s darkest days. Seeing Marinette like that scared him literally sick, and the fight they’d had afterwards gave him chills to think about.

He’d been quietly furious that she had let things get so bad, but he had held it in until her deadlines were past and he’d thought she had recovered enough to talk about it...but she hadn’t, and it turned out neither had he. She’d fled livid and crying to Alya and he’d sobbed in Juleka’s lap, and in the end, after they’d both been talked down enough to deal with each other again, they’d agreed that Marinette had overextended herself to the point of endangering her health and sanity, and that Luka could find ways to confront her about it that didn’t involve projecting all the emotional trauma of his childhood into a situation that, while bad, wasn’t nearly dire enough to warrant his level of reaction.

Luka hated himself for weeks afterward, even more so because Juleka felt guilty that her past problems had been a contributing factor. He probably owed her therapist a gift basket.

He jumped as he felt Marinette’s hands on his shoulders. “Hey, Gorgeous.”

“Y-you’re t-tense t-today,” she said, leaning over the back of the couch. “Are y-you r-r-r—” She closed her eyes, and Luka reached up to squeeze her hand and sighed. He’d freaked her out, and now she was nervous. Her stutter was hardly ever that bad at home unless she was stressed out. “Sssorry,” she sighed.

“It’s fine, I know I’ve been weird. Come on over here, I’ve been trying to figure out how to bring this up and I guess I might as well just blurt it out. It’s not bad stuff, just...well, I don’t know how you’re going to feel about it.”

Marinette came around the side of the couch and sat down next to him. Luka gave into the impulse to pull her into his lap. She wriggled around until she was snuggled against him but could still see his face. “You know I met with my agent the other day,” he said, figuring that was the best place to start. “She’s not happy about some of the choices I’ve been making, about the work I’ll take. She thinks I’m not thinking long term enough, and I…” He paused, and bit his lip, squeezing her thigh nervously. “I guess...I don’t know how to think long term without talking to you first. And I would never, ever want to pressure you into anything and I’m not asking you for any kind of commitment or—” Marinette put her fingers over his lips lightly to stop him.

“J-just t-tell mmme what you w-want,” she said softly.

Luka smiled. “I just wanna stay with you, babe, that’s all. I can do what I do anywhere. Toni thinks I should be willing to travel more, make more contacts now with people that will be big later. It all makes sense, I guess, except…” he shrugged. “I just don’t care. I’m not out to get famous or rich, I just want to be comfortable, and happy, and right now I’m all of those here with you.”

Marinette’s lips thinned slightly, and one finger tapped lightly on his arm in a nervous tic that meant she was thinking hard. Luka waited as patiently as he could, though his whole body felt tense and nervous. Marinette’s mind was a thing of wonder, and it was probably racing along paths of possibility he hadn’t even considered.

When her focus returned to him, she didn’t speak immediately, and suddenly Luka found himself asking, “Does it bother you, that I don’t care about all that stuff? Is it...is it too much for me to want to always be here? Am I too much?”

“No,” she said clearly. “I don’t think you c-could b-be as...as you if that w-was what you wwwanted. And y-you’re n-not t-too mmmuch.” She turned pink. “Y-you’re mmy s-safe p-place, L-luka. Y-you always b-back off when I n-need ssspace, usually even b-before I h-have to ask. I w-want you to b-be here.”

His shoulders must’ve lowered two inches in relief. Marinette giggled, patting his cheek. “I w-want you t-to be h-happy. I’m h-happy y-you asked mme, b-but I t-trust you to manage your c-career your own w-way.”

#quickanswers #director's commentary #hey gorgeous 2 #hey gorgeous

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the-original-hybrid-niklaus · 4 years

Text

It was supposed to be a senior prank. No one is supposed to die. Or at least that’s what the students of Seaside High planned in the beginning.

It all started when six seniors from Seaside High decided to play a prank on the tyrant who’s been terrorizing the students with his typical wicked teacher antics, Mr. Jelly. The plan is simple—kidnap Mr. Jelly and bring him to Vivian’s family’s cabin near Fox Forest for a weekend and scare him hard enough so that he would give in to their demands as seniors in high school who wants to experience senior promenade before they graduate high school.

And they did. This plan sounded like a perfect plan to Rex, Andrew, Cassie, and Vivian when Jason and Brenda presented it to them.

“That’s perfect. I’m gonna make sure that the lodge is prepared this weekend.” Vivian said sitting on her boyfriend, Andrew’s lap. The others agreed that they should do this plan, not aware of the millions ways this whole operation can go wrong.

Friday came. Everybody is anxious to execute the plan they all agreed on doing tonight. Every tick of the clock feels like a drum pounding inside of their chests. The world spins so fast it makes them feel nauseous but there’s no turning back now. As it was mentioned before, the plan is simple. Wait for Mr. Jelly to end his work at 9 o’clock in the evening like he always do everyday based in Brenda’s observation and take him to the lodge.

When night casted its dark drapes in the sky, the anxiety tripled. Everybody is trying to calm themselves down and waited patiently for the tyrannous principal to come out of his office. When he finally did, the gang cornered him. Just to be sure that no one will know their identities, the students are wearing hideous bunny masks.

“Well, be on your way and you won’t get punished for coming to me like that.” Mr. Jelly said, looking at the students standing in front of him, making a guess on who are behind those hideous masks. None of them spoke a word. Acting based on the plan, Rex and Andrew knocked the principal off, covering his head with a black bag and tying him up. The rest of them helped in carrying Mr. Jelly’s helpless body to the trunk of Rex’s car and they all drove to the lodge where they will hold him captive for the weekend.

Somehow, relief washed over all of them, having executed the plan perfectly and with so far no problems. After an hour of drive, they reached Fox Forest where Vivian Lake’s family cabin is located. The girls prepared the room where they will imprison Mr. Jelly while the boys are carrying Mr. Jelly inside the property, carefully setting him down on the chair and tying him up.

“And now what?” Andrew asked removing his mask while Rex is removing the cloth covering Mr. Jelly’s head off.

“Put it back on Andrew. You’re messing this up!” Jason said, walking around the room frantically.

“Do you guys realize what we just did?” Jason asked the gang. Conscience seems to be catching up on him. Although he is one of the architects of this plan, he can’t help but feel like something is ultimately wrong with this. Honestly, he didn’t even know why he agreed to help Brenda make a plan that will ruin their lives for them.

“W-we’re criminals! That’s what we are now and our lives are ruined—“ he looked at the tyrannous principal and noticed that something his missing. “Where are his glasses?” He asked Rex and Andrew.

“I don’t know, it must’ve fallen off while we’re taking him here.” Rex answered, bending over and trying to look for the principal’s glasses on the floor. But it wasn’t it the room. Andrew and Vivian went out to look in the trunk of the car where he was placed earlier and it wasn’t there either.

“So those stupid glasses are going to mess things up for us.” Jason said, still frantic. Brenda, Jason’s girlfriend, tried to calm him down.

“Calm down, Jason. We’re not gonna do anything bad to Mr. Jelly. We’re just going to scare him. That’s all.” She assured him and herself. She can’t let this ruin their lives. Things should go as planned.

Their hostage started to regain consciousness. He looked around them but all he can see are the blurry and colorful images.

“Where are my glasses?” Mr. Jelly asked weakly, trying to keep his eyes open. His head is aching badly due to being knocked out by his students earlier. He have a pretty good hunch on who’s behind this ridiculous scheme.

“I know who you all are. I’m surprised that Mr. Andrew Thompson are with you tonight.” The hostage spoke as if he isn’t tied to a chair and there aren’t any masked goons in front of him.

“How did you know it’s us?” Andrew did a stupid thing. He took his mask off and somehow confirmed the theory in Mr. Jelly’s mind.

“Well, I didn’t but you confirmed it for me.”

“What the hell, Andrew?” Cassie Blake also took her mask off, looking at Andrew and started on yelling at him for being stupid and blowing their cover. For minutes, it went on like that. Cassie and the others blaming Andrew for exposing their identities to their helpless hostage. All of them except for Jason who is starting to feel guilty and really wants to let Mr. Jelly go.

“Enough. We all played a part in this. It’s not entirely Andrew’s fault.” said Vivian in defense of her red-haired boyfriend. All of their masks are off their head and before they forget the main agenda of this kidnapping they orchestrated, Brenda began negotiating with the principal.

“We want you to not cancel prom this year and allow all of the students you barred from the prom to come at the event, and your word that you won’t punish us. It’s a magical night for us and we want to be a part of that before graduation,.” Brenda started, looking at the man sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. “Record a video of you giving your statement and we will free you. Or we can do this all weekend.”

“I have an alternative.” Mr. Jelly began weakly, his head still hurting from the blow he received from Rex or Andrew earlier. “Let me go, you will be punish accordingly but I will not tell the police about this shenanigan.”

Everyone fell silent for a moment, considering what their principal just said. But the silence was broken by Cassie’s hearty laugh.

“How about, no. You must know by now that I don’t back down from a fight, Mr. Jelly. Give us what we want and we’ll let you go. It’s a win-win situation.” The red-haired girl stated before going out of the room, followed by Vivian, Brenda, and Rex, leaving Jason and Andrew inside the room.

“Just give us what we want, Mr. Jelly.” Jason pleaded, he’s fighting the urge to cut those zip ties off and let their hostage go but he knows that the other won’t agree with him.

Mr. Jelly ignored Jason’s plea and spoke, “I was wondering what your dad will say about this, Mr. Thompson. I’m sure he won’t be proud to see his son be a criminal. You’re a disgrace to your family.” He was trying to get into Andrew’s head, using his father—who’s now dead—to maybe make Andrew feel ashamed of what he did and let him go. It’s pretty hopeful to just think about that and wish it would work. But instead of cutting the zip ties binding him to the chair, Andrew punched his face repeatedly. His father is still a touchy subject for him and the tyrannous principal even talking about him makes his feel angry although he has a point. Jason desperately tried to get Andrew away from Mr. Jelly but the raven haired boy is weaker than the redheaded one. Fortunately, Rex heard the commotion and he hurriedly came to Mr. Jelly’s rescue.

“Hey! Stop it, man.” Rex immediately grabbed Andrew’s arms and yanked him away from the now bloody principal.

After the event earlier that evening, Vivian is still trying her best to dissuade the feelings of anger Andrew is feeling before he does something he’s gonna regret. Cassie is up for the first shift of keeping an eye on their helpless hostage. Mr. Jelly tried to talk some sense into Cassie and even attempted on negotiating with her on his terms but as usual, Cassie isn’t swayed by Mr. Jelly. She remained unbothered through the entirety of her shift.

The night grew older as the hours go by. It’s time they all went to bed to rest and think about a plan to persuade Mr. Jelly to giving in to their demands. Everyone except for Jason is fine with keeping Mr. Jelly here for the weekend. Tonight, as they all sleep soundly in their beds, he plans to free their hostage out of guilt. After a few more moments, he felt that everyone is already dozing off and so the act of redemption begins. The raven haired boy sneaked from his and Brenda’s room and went to the room where Mr. Jelly is being kept but he heard voices coming from the area. Curiosity took over Jason and he listened to the hushed voices talking in room.

“They all want to let you out after this but I don’t think so.” said the voice which belongs to Rex Reynolds. The next thing he heard is Mr. Jelly’s low chuckle before he spoke weakly.

“Don’t tell me you’re still angry about that incident.”

“What the hell is he talking about?” Jason thought to himself as he continued to listen. Secrets are being spilled right now. A punch landed on Mr. Jelly’s face but it made him laugh some more, seeing that his words are getting to Rex’s head. Rex is nothing but disgusted and angry at this man. He always has been since the night that something dirty happened between them. All because of his love for football but this tyrant won’t allow him to play anymore due to bad grades. He felt dirty and molested. He had been for months now. He’s angry at this man who took advantage of his love for the said sport and angry at himself for letting this vile man defile him in such way.

Before words could spill out of the principal’s lips, Rex took the bag they used earlier to cover his head and used it once again to inhibit the air from coming inside Mr. Jelly’s lungs. He did not stop until he stopped struggling and moving. And there he sat, lifeless.

After the events that happened before his eyes, Jason sneaked back to his and Brenda’s room, tears are falling in his eyes. Regret is taking over him. They shouldn’t have kidnapped their principal. It’s wrong on every angle and now it can never be taken back. The fact that Mr. Jelly is now dead scared him and unsettled him, but the fact that one of his friends are capable of such thing is more frightening. Those thoughts kept Jason up all night. It wasn’t until 7:34 am when everyone was awake due to Cassie’s scream. They all rushed to the room where their hostage is being kept and they found them there, dead, colorless, and cold.

Naturally, the blame falls on Andrew who was in a heated moment of rage with their principal earlier. Only Jason and Rex knows the truth.

“Maybe we should go to the police.” Jason suggested. All of them turned on him with looks of disbelief evident on their faces.

“And tell them what, hobo? It’s going to ruin our lives. I don’t plan on spending the next twenty years behind bars.” Cassie snapped, she shifted her gaze on the lifeless body before them once again.

“We need to bury his body.” Brenda suggested and they all went to work. Jason is still ridden with guilt but he obliged in fear that the body count will increase by one.

Weeks have past and no one has found the body of their victim yet. They began to feel safe, even Jason began to feel safe—although the nightmares about that night still bugged him. Just when they thought it’s officially over, a group of campers found a pair of glasses that might’ve belonged to the tyrannous principal and the anxiety kicked in again.

“I don’t care what you’re all going to say, I’m going to tell the police.” Jason said, taking his bag and marching to the door of the club room where they were meeting, but Andrew and Brenda pulled him back.

“No, Jason. You will do no such thing. You will not ruin our lives, our future. I’m still going to Yale.” Cassie placed her hands on her waist and looked sternly at Jason, trying to intimidate him but it’s not going to work.

“Can we all just think clearly here? No one is going to the police.” Vivian began. “No one’s life will be ruined and no one will be going to jail.”

“We are monsters, Vivian.” Jason answered, he cannot believe that he’s hearing about this and nobody seems to care that Mr. Jelly is dead.

“Yes, and we can be monsters in college or monsters in jail. I prefer the former, Jace.” Brenda tried knocking some sense in her boyfriend.

Their meeting ended and they finally persuaded Jason to calm down and not go to the police. He didn’t tell anyone about the things he witnessed and heard that night. But his actions made Rex feel unsafe. He needed to stop Jason before he says something to anyone and to solve their problem. And so he sneaked off from a class and cut Jason’s brakes.

That day, Brenda decided to hang out with the girls and she didn’t ride with her boyfriend. Jason, unaware of the things before him started the engine and drove back to their house. On the way home, Jason hit a ten-wheeler truck and died on the way to the hospital and their secrets died with him.

#short story #abduction #riverdale

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okaybutlikeimagine · 5 years

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I need brother!billy to be protective of Johnathan bc hey that's his brother now Tyvm and only he can mess w/him 👀 and Johnathan is just Exasperated™️

I. LOVE. THIS. AND I COULDN’T AGREE MORE.

{TW: Q-slur used once}

Kay so i really just am so interested in how Billy and Jonathan’s relationship would work. I’ve talked about this before but i absolutely headcanon them as smoking weed together like, weekly at least. They just enjoy the energy of the other and the virtual silence that they’re able to slip into comfortably (i also kind of headcanon Jonathan as being an empath who probably doesn’t know it.)(so like, he’s super affected by different energies)(we don’t have to get into this though)

They don’t really hang out often, but they talk every now and then when they’re at the other’s house and it’s always amicable enough and surprisingly far from awkward. Billy never fucks with Jonathan at school and Jonathan enjoys being invisible for the most part, so he very much appreciates it. Jonathan used to get SUPER nervous about playing music too loud when Billy was over at their house bc he knows the boy is a music fanatic too and doesn’t want to hear any more shitty opinions on his music taste (even though he has some choice words about Billy’s own taste in music). this doesn’t stop Billy from giving Jonathan shit about it though whenever he hears his music playing.

and as they get closer to each other and talk more, Billy gets brattier and more mouthy. He swipes at Jonathan’s hair in front of his face and calls him “Beatle” and asks if he can see through “that curtain”. He taps the boy’s back and tells him to straighten his back out bc “you’re already short enough, you’re losing some valuable inches standing like that.” The first time Billy hears about the extent of the fight he got into w/ Steve (Steve and Jonathan and Nancy are all on good terms at this point, Steve just mentions it in passing as a joke), Billy puts Jonathan in a headlock and ruffles his hair and asks about the “fighter” in him.

but Billy is never hard w/ Jonathan, necessarily, bc he knows Jonathan has dealt w/ shit. Jonathan doesn’t have a dad around. Will nearly died and in fact was said to have died like, less than 2 years ago. They had a fucking funeral for him and everything. He had to watch a crazy as fuck monster possess his brother. Their family is poor and struggling and Jonathan works hard as fuck, way harder than a teenager should, so Billy knows the boy is tired and doesn’t need to be given more reasons to be. Plus, Jonathan is pretty damn passive during every encounter of theirs; he just takes it and gives Billy a tired but ultimately amused huff.

When Joyce and Hop get married and Jonathan and Billy officially become brothers, they get even closer. They smoke and talk more. They share similar music tastes like Bowie and Queen. they talk about relationships and sexuality and little siblings and shitty parents and… pretty great ones. They have long talks out in the woods around their house and they sit in the cold and smoke joints and Billy puts Jonathan in a headlock like, once a week with the excuse of “keeping you on your toes, John Boy!” When Jonathan is feeling a little less passive, he’ll pull at a curl on Billy’s head that’s noticeably longer than the others and say “Your mullet has a tail” or “your mullet’s tail is looking a little ragged, I think you missed it w/ your hairspray”

They make weird jokes that aren’t funny to anyone else and they laugh muted quiet laughs that would probably confuse anyone other than them and then Jonathan’s car breaks down and Billy drives him to school while they’re trying to figure out what’s up with it.

It’s then that Billy notices people fucking w/ Jonathan.

Bc he just doesn’t hang out w/ Jonathan at school. They leave each other alone bc that’s what they prefer from each other. That’s just the relationship they have.

But as Billy is waiting in his car, singing along to Zeppelin, he sees Jonathan walking up, followed by a few guys he’s never seen before. He figures it’s just Jonathan’s friends when he notices one of the boys reach out to grab at Jonathan’s bag strap. Another one tries to knock the books out of his hands. Billy flares up immediately bc who the fuck are these guys and what are they doing to his brother?

He gets out of the car, walking around to greet the group right as they’re talking about Jonathan being a “drugged out freakazoid” who’s “probably queer and just using Nancy as a beard.”

Billy leans up against the Camaro and clears his throat, fully ready to throw hands.

“Hey, assholes. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

And the boys are very clearly freaked, but they try to keep it cool.

“Oh, you need Hargrove to come to your rescue-?”

“Hey.” Billy demands, smacking his gum in the most intimidating manner possible. “It’s Hopper, dipshit. And either you shut the fuck up or I kick your teeth in. Your choice.”

The boys grumble, and nearly run away. Jonathan has his head down, trying to slink his way into the Camaro while Billy asks:

“Do they always fuck with you like that?”

“C’mon, as if you didn’t know-”

Billy doesn’t like that answer. He grabs Jonathan’s wrist before he can open the door and gives him a serious as hell look.

“Hey. I didn’t.”

Jonathan pauses for a second before rolling his eyes w/ a small sigh and getting into the car, but the conversation is far from over.

“I’m serious, how many dickwads are saying that shit to you?”

“It doesn’t matter?” Jonathan says it like a question.

“Except it does. They shouldn’t be doing that-”

“I know you think you care but-”

“Shut the fuck up, Jonathan.” Billy is adamant but not harsh. “You’re my brother now, alright? We’re family. And that means I’m not letting dick wipes like that treat you that way. You don’t deserve that shit.”

Jonathan doesn’t know what to say but he gives out another sigh and looks out the window and thinks about when Billy didn’t care to get involved w/ Jonathan’s life and how much simpler it was then. but how this feels a tiny bit warm so maybe it’s fine.

And the following day at school, and for the rest of the week, and then the rest of the month, and then the rest of the year, Billy starts hanging out with Jonathan at school. When Jonathan isn’t w/ Nancy, of course, bc no one fucks w/ Jonathan when Nancy is around. But sometimes she can’t be there, so Billy takes her place in those times.

And at first it kinda feels like a duty; like he’s Jonathan’s body guard and Jonathan hates it. It feels like even more of a target on his back. Billy fucking walks him to class and to his locker and to his car and to lunch and will even sit w/ him at lunch if Nancy can’t. like, just imagine Billy strutting down the hall next to quiet, small Jonathan, fucking snarling at anyone who dares to give Jonathan a mean look. It’s just???? Weird and exhausting and Jonathan wants to be left alone.

But eventually, it becomes a lot more normal. Bc eventually, they become actual friends. They’re talking about concerts they wish they could see and the homework from last night and that new music video that was on MTV over the weekend. They talk about books and good weed and even better alcohol that Billy is always trying to convince Jonathan to try but that Jonathan keeps refusing bc he doesn’t really drink.

And Billy used to leave when Nancy would come by, but he’s started talking to her more and more and now they talk about the books they had to read for class and really, it’s just Nancy giving Billy the plot bc Billy was too anxious to sit and read it. But Nancy eventually ends up forcing Billy to read his own books and they actually have pretty in depth debates on the ethics of the characters. And then, when Tommy and Carol are being dicks, Billy will find a home at Nancy and Jonathan’s table for lunch where they talk about what the next John Hughes movie might be or how that episode of Family Ties was last week and what the new one will be tomorrow and no one fucks w/ Jonathan again and if they try to Billy growls at them and Jonathan is T i r e d but he’s tired w/ a smile and that’s all Billy needs.

Bc now he doesn’t feel bad about flicking Jonathan’s arm and goading him to “work out, you look like a twig.” with that smarmy smirk that makes Jonathan so exhausted

#billy hargrove #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #the most unlikely of frieeeeends!#bratty billy #♥#love that bratty bitch #i know it's kind of a weird friendship #but i'm a big ball of fluff who is 110% serious about this #Billy becomes friends w/ all of them #Jonathan is Billy's brother #Nancy is Billy's brother's girlfriend #he gets on good terms w/ them bc he wants/needs to #stranger things #ask #anonymous

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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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For a show that pretends to care about the balance/coexistence between humans and Humagears, they went the completely wrong way when it came to Aruto's last form. Zero-Two should've been developed by Yua and Horobi, or by Aruto and Jin. What good does it that it were Aruto and Izu (who is blindly devoted to Aruto just like a good lil pet and never had any agency on her own outside of serving him)?

I feel like I could go on for a long time about how I feel like Izu’s characterisation was wasted as a, at the risk of sounding harsh, ‘device’ to serve Aruto.

Like, def at the start, they seemed to be trying to set something up w/ her (esp w/ her and Yua)? But in the end…

To me, Izu should have been a balance about how freedom for HumaGear can also look like them choosing to work w/ humans. She could have been a cool angle of the Wonder Woman thing—someone who is able to show and prove that there is good in humans, a reasonable bridge between the two. I agree w/ a Jpn fan’s analysis that she wouldn’t make a good ‘HumaGear representative’ bc she had it too cushy, but she could have been a negotiator. Something where she comes to recognise that humans can be cruel but is able to genuinely argue for their goodness. And the potential of what could happen w/ HumaGear and humans working together is probably what they were going for w/ Zero-Two? And tbh, I think that ‘balance’ is what they were trying to do.

Except…

They kinda sneezed at giving her a more balanced character a few times, but all in all, like I said, to put it in very basic terms, she felt mostly like a device to serve Aruto. She had a bit of stuff w/ Wazu, but even then it was all about it being totally okay that they can permanently die for human interests, that they exist to serve humans. Even when he was sacrificing himself to save her, the justification was ‘no one can support Aruto like you,’ not ‘this is for the greater good, but I want my younger sister to live.’ Or something. It’s just… She didn’t really feel like a character, or a person. She felt like an example of the ‘teach them to be happy in their cage.’ Her announcement that she wants to keep working w/ Aruto didn’t really have any meaning to it bc she feels like she never had any development outside of it. There were starts and stops, but it never felt like she was choosing anything, she never felt like… Like a person? She just… Revolves around Aruto completely. Even her ‘dreams’ are all about serving him. And then, at the end… The way she talks about Aruto makes me very uncomfortable. Honestly, it’s not just her, Jin got effected w/ it too in ep 41, but it feels very ‘idol worship’ and ‘messiah’y and it’s… For a human to be treated like that by HumaGear when the point is allegedly recognising them as people and not as mere tools… Like… It’s just uncomfortable. And that she’s lauded as the pinnacle of HumaGear goodness bc of that? That her idol worship of Aruto and insistence on the ‘good’ of humans is the ‘right’ view and Horobi’s experience w/ their negativity is ‘wrong’ when really it should again be the Wonder Woman thing of them being both, that neither are wrong.

I feel like it’s a mixture of the way KR treats female characters and the very… Inconstant treatment of AI in the show. For one thing, the ‘main’ heroine is supposed be the passive one who exclusively supports the mc—case in point, all the shit Tsukuyomi got for doubting Sougo, though I do feel like it wasn’t a very nuanced in actual writing, it did have enough natural progression to it, but she got hell for it, called an ungrateful bitch, etc. etc. Meanwhile Izu… To be really cynical, Izu feels like she’s popular partially bc she’s sweet and cute and bubbly and completely devoted to Aruto. Now, I know for a fact there are people who like her and see more to her than that, but I struggle to find anything concrete that went anywhere. It feels like she had some false starts and they kind leaned in that direction a few times, but ultimately wanted to play it ‘safe.’ I don’t know. But yes, it does kinda poison my feelings toward her and the situation. I don’t blame her anymore then I blame the other characters, not exactly. I blame the writers being inconstant and not following through. For instance, my issues w/ Aruto’s character are more about them not following through w/ character development and painting him as a saint when he wasn’t. And I guess it was made to make this whole thing more ‘shocking’ but instead it just felt… Stupid? Not exactly the right word, but… It didn’t make it shocking, it just made it progressively harder for me to like Aruto to the point that I find it really hard to have sympathy for him now, esp w/ how this ep went.

In terms of Zero-Two, I don’t really object to Izu being the one involved in it’s creation (though I do take issue w/ a certain thing they tried to equate w/ it in 44… bc, you know, at leats Aruto and Izu had a real, developed relationship of some kind) bc Aruto and Izu have an actual relationship, they could have been a thing about the possibilities when humans and AI come together. So… Like… I see what they were trying to do, but the lack of nuance in the writing and inability to follow through made it hard to feel emotionally invested.

If… Any of that made sense.

#Anonymous #Asks #Firebird Salt #Firebird Opinions #Spoilers #I'm very tired and burned out #so I don't know if this made sense #I am…#I'm pretending the nonsense of that thing they tried to equate Zero-Two w/ didn't happen bc I'm sorry #what #why #did you forget one shot you in the face w/out remorse #what.#you've hardly spoken #you have no #okay okay that's not what this is about #but… I think I understand what you're trying to say #and I will say I am disappointed w/ how Izu's character was treated

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dogcopter · 4 years

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[novantinuum tumblr com post 611767607081713664/][novantinuum tumblr com post 611764379084636160/]

first link has: “she was on the road to redemption in my mind. I believe redemption is a journey with no endpoint. There’s no day where you wake up and are 100% redeemed. It’s something you work at every day, trying your hardest to be the best possible version of yourself you can be at every moment you exist. She cannot continue that journey now, because of her choice to make Steven- and in many ways, that’s pretty tragic.”

second link is that fanart w has a tag: “ i don't believe rose as a character is incapable of redemption theoretically but as she is DEAD- yeah she's unable to be redeemed. unable to continue that redemption i mean”

Ok this will be MUCH MUCH longer than you likely want but let’s take a minute to talk about this. Because this aspect of Rose meta is a huge part of the conclusion of Steven Universe, and the other half of Steven’s story I’m most excited for.

Responding to this question of Rose being unable to change is implicit to the Rose is Lion theory and it’s really at the heart of the story. I genuinely don’t read a better or more consistent explanation for the pieces right now, so I operate under the assumption Rose is Lion and we are headed for the legendary impossible Rose redemption arc - the conversation changes if she’s really gone, so we’ll get there if that’s the case, but I also think that tragedy was honored quite beautifully in Steven Universe. I think the note Future will end on is instead, it’s never too late to change (Rose), it’s ok to not be sure what’s next (Steven), but you will be ok if you have love in your life and work towards the future. Unfridging the absent mom character is a big cartoon trope flip too.

I agree with the OP regarding SU’s idea of redemption. An SU “redemption arc” means the character reaching some kind of catalyst to choosing a change. They change some behavior that has caused them and/or others pain. They want to more fully express themselves and to be connected to those around them, and through some process or journey have understood no one is all-bad or all-good, but each action is a choice and each of us has impact on others.

This is what my url and the “Rosedemption” 2020 tag refers to as I anticipate it - not “redemption” in the sense that she’s bad and becomes good or that her mistakes are overwritten or we get a perfect everything’s OK happy ending. SU does hope and does cartoon anime fanservice and the power of love, but it doesn’t do that. Agree or disagree with whichever individual story choices and character decisions you feel a way about, but I think we can all acknowledge that SU doesn’t try to simplify interpersonal relationships to black-and-white.

So rosedemption is redemption only in the sense that she is understood and chooses to take a step forward. Like how “Peridemption” describes the process of Peridot trying to learn, coming to love the Earth and embrace her personality. At the end of Steven’s story, Rose, like the others in the cast who have a place in his life, will join them in having the potential to be herself, have her innate capacity to be good recognized like everyone else, and have the chance to break a pattern of behavior she has become trapped in as well. She won’t be absolved of all her mistakes.

When pursuing the theory it was like a daisy chain of if-then. The explanation for Lion’s behavior and knowledge that makes the most sense is Lion being Rose. Fact. The next question is then: -> Is that possible given the mechanics of the universe? Yes - Steven demonstrates every power necessary, including going into other people’s bodies. Next question. -> If Rose is in fact astral projecting into Lion’s body, it’s possible she’s also responsible for the dream weirdness, is it also possible she’s in other bodies (melons)? Yes - all still in Steven’s moveset. (The thing that turned me on to the idea was that scene in Escapism, so I worked backwards a bit - but it makes sense, because we only get certain information later that illuminates pieces from earlier) -> But if Rose isn’t dead, where is the story going?

IMO this is why people don’t entertain the idea so much, things have changed a lot, and it upends things we thought were settled. In theory terms I expect her to come forward because it’s the logical conclusion to her arc - she gets to choose to stop running and hiding, which was borne of her past, and if she’s back she can lift responsibility for her legacy from Steven’s shoulders.

It doesn’t erase what happened, though; Steven and Rose may be able to say they love each other, but maybe he’s not ready for a relationship after this void in the shape of her characterized his upbringing. Having her today doesn’t change the childhood he spent without her, and often, very lonely. Knowing she was looking over him in the way she thought would hurt him the least, doesn’t make finding out she was by his side caring for him as Lion & co. any less painful a truth to learn after childhood has already ended. Those feelings are going to come out on Steven’s end, but all they have to reach by the end of the series is a hopeful starting point that maybe someday they’ll both be in a better place. And maybe some things will never heal, you know - that’s OK - and not all of this will necessarily be explicit onscreen, we will have fanwork and meta to cover many of those infinite possibilities.

The whole first series was devoted to the CGs dealing with her death and growing after the loss of her. Does Rose coming back cheapen that? I don’t think so - what happened happened. Those things the first series went through were real. In fact, giving up her physical form and then being Lion are additional decisions made with best of intentions but enormous fallout for others, the crux of Rose’s struggle to be better when continuously she hurt people too. SU is always committed to showing how people are people and in part respond to their circumstances and the systems of society and family they were born into. As far as condemning or glorifying her actions, I don’t think SU asks either of us because of this very framing, but of course any viewer has the right to. Will I ever forgive her for what she did to Bismuth? I don’t have to - Bismuth doesn’t have to - Steven doesn’t have to. All we’ll be asked is to understand her, which is all we’ve been asked all along. Each character has this aspect to them.

That’s not to say any story is perfect, it’s told by people as imperfect as the characters they create. And different perspectives are not only valid but expected. Some folks will always hate Rose, or Lapis, or Pearl, or the Diamonds, some will love all of the above. Sometimes your favorite character is your favorite because something they felt spoke to something you’ve felt, sometimes you hate a character because of their actions or just because you wouldn’t get along with them socially. The people who respond to things that they think SU fell short on, will make more art and cartoons that continue that conversation. Can you weigh the good influences she had on Steven’s life against the bad and come out with a mathematical judgment of binary goodness/badness, or is it more like real life where they have to accept what’s happened and move forward from there? Do you reject that and write the fic of the story you prefer?

So to me the Rose redemption arc raises all the hard questions Steven Universe has been porting over. Who are you to others and yourself? How do you know? Where do you go after you aren’t playing a role to someone else? When do you take responsibility for your actions? What’s the point at which you’re too late? Is there? How do you face the family who harmed you, when you’re so frightened you’d rather stop existing to escape them? How do you face the people you’ve harmed, even after they understand you? When you didn’t intend to? When you did? How do you move forward when a paradigm shift upends the narrative of your life, as Steven has been forced to do wrt Rose repeatedly? Does everyone get a chance to change? And why do you do what you do? Why fear? How to face it? Can you love yourself and love others? Does love win?

That’s something I find so exciting about this possibility. It changes the entire conversation, because both those who adore Rose and those who despise her have their reasoning, but the conversation is so oriented around her inability to change like everyone else. The conversation I’m most looking forward to goes past that stopgap. When it’s not the case that she can’t change, how do we see her now? After living through the consequences of her choices and coming to understand her better alongside Steven and the family, the thought is very personal, as it will be for Steven. That’s what enchants me about the signs pointing to Rose’s return. It’s complicated and messy, but ultimately hopeful!

If the signs were not pointing to that but something else, I’m excited for that meta too, but we’ll talk as the month unfolds and destroys us.

#rosedemption 2020 #rose is lion 2020 #i KNOW how few people really believe this theory but #between the big ideas and the little details i really don't commit to it out of nowhere. Itis a very SU conclusion to SU #and to the intertwined character arcs of rose and steven that we have journeyed with for all this time.#imho feel free to disagree

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trainwreck-in-glitter · 5 years

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WHAT EUPHORIA GETS RIGHT ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS:

the high fucking highs: EG (“when I feel good I think it’ll last forever, but it doesn’t” at the Halloween party when rues attempted to kiss jules who rejects her again) I can’t relate to rues manic episode, since I don’t have bipolar but her jittery display of chain-smoking, obsessive thoughts, sleep deprivation, numbing the pain with coffee and taking more steps than she needs to captured the obsessive side of OCD very well, as well as the: COUNTING. I’ve had to repeat numbers in my head over and over and watching rue just start hysterically crying as a child during trying to complete that compulsion fucken’ sent me because I’d never seen an accurate nuanced way of this shown on television. I loved that her OCD wasn’t reduced to cleaning obsessively (EX’ Emma from Glee) even though many people struggle with OCD compulsions of that kind it’s a bit of an overused trope almost like a laughing track in sitcoms, and usually doesn’t serve the characters development in any purpose having their OCD solely exist for neurotypical characters to make sarcastic jokes about.

the l-o-w fucking lows: EX’ rue being glued to her bed for two days unable to engage with anyone or even get up to fucking piss resulting in a painful difficult to watch ¿UTI¿ scene. At a time I experienced severe intrusive thoughts I neglected taking care of myself so much that my hair formed dreadlocks and took hours to brush knots all out.

pushing everyone away: EX’ (I mean just look at the first gif, as well as how rue loses it at Lexi when she tries to check in on her.) while people struggling with any kind of mental illness have a tendency to isolate (espesh in cases of severe depression/mood disorders) however it’s not always aggressive sometimes it’s quiet silence in your room for a week and a half feeling completely immobilised (like with Jules during rues own depressive, she unknowningky sinks into one herself to the extent where her dad is concerned).

feeling like a burden: whether it’s because of your mental illness, low self image or like rue your addiction issues impacting those around you, rue confesses this to Lexi who in true Howard fashion holds her and tries to affirm that she’s nothing like that. Often feeling like your own problems are too heavy for anyone to bear or understand adds to the hopelessness and potentially it could be one of the biggest roadblocks to anyone’s recovery particularly Rue’s

being heavily affected by external factors, more so than normal: like social aspects of your life EX’ (Rue’s codependency on Jules, and Jules’ search for affirmation in sexual relationships, Rue’s nerves upon returning to school particularly hit me (I had a three week hospitalisation and received treatment that kept me off school frequently, and the responses from peers was right on). when noticed again Maddy tells Rue herself she thought she was dead and another friend in her car shouts for rue to “get in Casper!”. Things like school, relationships, daily tasks and functioning can feel a million time harder when you’re battling your own head, the way Euphoria demonstrates this is so raw and realistic it really hit home for me. This becomes even more heightened when people are dealing with trauma/grief ex’ (rue still carrying the grief of her dad and wearing his hoodie frequently and maddy going on a bender taking molly at the carnival forgetting to eat for two days after nate assaults her resulting in her having to be rushed into emergency where they find the marks).

addiction and the feeling of needing to escape your own head: rue will take around about any drug just to temporarily forget her own anxieties, she’s willing to lie (in drug tests by using her sober friends pee), and fight tooth and nail even if it’s against the people she loves/cares about eg: her family, fezco, etc). her addictive personality is made apparent by her obsessive behaviours, codependency with Jules, hyperfixations (watching 22 hours of love island straight) and then again in her drug use. zendaya does an amazing job at selling this all, the way her face slowly sinks from the depths of depression into what looks like she’s gotten a relieving breath of air conveys what exactly she’s getting out of this. with any addiction whether it’s substance abuse, sex addiction, eating disorders, skin picking disorders, etc there’s a need to escape but there’s also a sense of safety/reprieve from what’s making you need that escape. for Rue who is heavily characterised by her own self-blame eg: being scared of people she loves being mad at her like in that scene with Jules, the way she cried when she saw her mother and sister sleeping beside her in hospital when she woke up from her overdose, and in one of earliest narrations where she states “if I could be a different person I would, not because I want it but because they want it” and even asks Jules after she admits to being in love with her if she wishes she was different and Jules responded in the negative. she seems to want to dissociate herself because she feels the weight of her as a whole is too much for anyone and will only be disappointing. it’s sordidly relatable for anyone with low self esteem and as a rue stan the candidness can make the scenes hard to watch.

to recover or sink: rue says herself in narration that after rehab she had no intention of staying clean and for the first few episodes or so she was using to the point where she almost had an overdose in front of very traumatised Jules who then sets an ultimatum that in order for them to maintain their “friendship” rue needs to stop using and rue agrees almost immediately. the look of guilt and shame on her face as she cuddles into Jules who is still shocked and upset saying to rue “I’ve had enough traumatic shit in my life, I’m not trying to be best friends with someone who’s trying to kill themselves”. rue remains sober but clings to Jules almost in replacement, most of rues innocent crush was well innocent and very high school realistic in the way that everything feels heightened. and for a while rue is at her happiest, her best friend since childhood even saying to Jules “it’s because of you” which fairly overwhelms her because being somebody’s sole reason for recovery isn’t long term manageable OR healthy for either party. expanding on this the blame Jules gets for Rue’s relapse is a way we’re perpetuating that their codependent dynamic wasn’t detrimental to either of them, which is wrong. Jules felt immense pressure which in turn tainted her relationship with Rue, and Rue was readily giving more to a relationship where the other person wasn’t ready to reciprocate. Jules and Rue ultimately have a beautiful dynamic together and I’d love to see more of them in season 2 but I’d like it to be in some time when they’ve both explored and identified what they’re both wanting. Because I refusE to settle for anything less than #Kethan after the finale. anywho this all meant Rues hinted relapse in the finale had an inevitable quality to it, because she wasn’t changing because she wanted it but because they did. I feel that one line perfectly captures exactly what would have led to that relapse, from personal experience I tried to actively recover from an eating disorder to please my family but quickly relapsed because ultimately challenging thoughts that have been in your head for so long JUST FOR other people stops being rewarding too quickly because as much as they may want to be an active support system they don’t have the access to rewire your brain. I challenged my meal plan but not the thoughts telling me I was disgusting. Rue still felt like a burden, she never challenged that only the drug use. it would be amazing to see Rue in therapy or even just actively attempting self care and explaining how and why that might feel so hard to someone struggling. I think Euphoria this season has set up a perfect segway for the second season, and so far they have managed to portray the complexities of being a teenager with a mental illness in glitter while keeping it relatable and not being exploitative. I think after seeing Rues chronic struggle it would be really cool to see a character representing what recovery actually looks like when it comes from the right place, having that positive representation of trying to be proactive while struggling and still having questions would be a new arc for Rue and it would really show her growth however after the city incident only time will tell 😪

#euphoria hbo #euphoria #mentally ill #ocd tw #substance use disorder #rue bennett icons #jules x rue #rue bennett #zendaya #hunter schafer #seratonin #fuckoffiknowtheresamillionspellingmistakesbutimonarant

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paperclipninja · 5 years

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Younger post-ep ramble 6x11

I may be on holiday but if you think that’s going to stop me offloading some thoughts and feelings about this week’s episode of Younger, ‘Holding Out for a SHero’, then you’d be sorely mistaken (any chance to over-think and over-analyse my fave fake reality). In saying that, this will be a briefer version of my usual post-ep ramble, what I shall refer to as Ramble Lite™. There were parts of this episode I really liked and parts I felt disappointed with, but it largely played out in a way that I expected, with the exception of that twist at the end! Hats off to Joe Murphy for that fab misdirection, I may have gasped.

This episode opened with Maggie in her tomato garden looking radiant and Liza filling her in on the decision not to see Josh anymore because it’s complicated and feelings and that undeniable thing called chemistry (or something like that). I applaud Maggie’s consistent use of Chaz (I really hope we get to hear her say it to his face at some point) and Liza stating out loud that she chooses Charles, but this scene also delivered one of the two big moments of disappointment I had in this ep. If anything was ever going to be out of character on this show it would be Liza, a writer and editor, being unable to come up with decent adjectives to describe the man she is supposedly in love with. Yet here she is describing Charles as ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’ as reasons for choosing to be with him. For real? I understand the effort to paint him as the sensible choice vs. the less sensible, the head vs. heart, in this triangle that’s been resurrected. This particular way of describing men has always served a clear purpose in the Youngerverse and ngl, my alarm bells went off in episode 7 when Michelle referred to Charles as ‘appropriate’. Liza uses this exact term to describe Richard, the horrendous man Michelle sets her up with in S1E2 who starts reading emails at the dinner table on their date, he’s ‘age appropriate’. She also described Jay as nice, viable, legitimate prospect, sure, but she also sobbed on his shoulder because she was so in love with Charles that her heart was aching at the thought of missing the chance to be with him.

It feels so painfully deliberate, Charles has gone from intellectually invigorating and romantic and been relegated to safe and ‘appropriate’. My disappointment comes from the fact that if this triangle must remain in play, there can be two men who are vibrant and compelling and really different, without painting one as ‘boring’ and one as ‘fun’. Knowing the way Liza talks about the important people in her life, with such admiration and affection, I feel she would at least say Charles is intelligent and romantic or kind or thoughtful or SOMETHING better than being ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’. I do believe that as viewers we often form our own interpretations of characters and when they don’t behave the way we imagine we are disappointed, but in this case it’s the disappointment that Liza’s entire reason for being attracted to Charles is being reduced to the idea that it’s sensible when we have been shown this is simply not the case. Phew, glad I got that off my chest (and so much for Ramble Lite™ lol).

Once in the office Liza is running Diana through the wedding planning, which frankly I cannot wait to see all come together. I love that Liza’s already secretly planned a bachelorette party and really does know Diana well enough to know she’ll want one (so many lols @ Diana’s, ‘yes that’s why I was bringing it up, because I don’t want one’ and could Liza look any more pleased with herself that she’s managed to pull the wool over her eyes? Adorbs). Charles arrives looking for Kelsey and is wanting to see how she would like to break the news that he is once again publisher, because that’s how they work now that they’re the dynamic duo and have I mentioned this week how much I LOVED seeing their dynamic last week? Kelsey proves that she has indeed kept her head and announces that Millennial secured a new investor and that Charles is once again in the boss seat and I am once again extremely impressed with Kelsey this season, as is Diana (and honestly if you have the D.Trout stamp of approval, what more do you need?). I will also never tire of seeing Diana, Kelsey and Liza as true peers and now friends, it’s undoubtedly a highlight of season 6.

The book pitch of the week is extremely timely (as always), a manners for millennials piece that aims to counteract the generation’s greatest shortcomings, such as ghosting exes and not RSVPing to weddings. This episode really did have some stellar lines and the fact that Liza can now drop jokes in meetings, such as her ‘neither was I’ response to the author’s ‘I am not proud to be a millennial’, is the kind of goodness I am here for since the lie is no longer a thing. Naturally Liza and Diana are both very interested in finding out more about these topics and it turns out the best way to get some finality with the ex is to write a good ol’ fashioned Dear John letter (best way to get those RSVP’s -unknown). This is reinforced nicely in Charles’ office, when Liza leaps off Charles’ desk as though she and Charles were caught christening the damn thing (which would’ve been very ok by me and at this point you should know I’m not at all sorry) by Diana bearing flowers and note from Alice the author letting them know she will not be publishing her book with Millennial (so no Charles, the flowers are not for you). All this talk of how good letters are leads to Liza penning her Dear Josh letter that night, which we only catch a tantalizing glimpse of initially, before the narration and accompanying montage when Josh actually receives it.

While it was only brief, Charles asking Liza how she feels about him being back as publisher and her answering honestly, she just wishes Kelsey hadn’t been unceremoniously stripped of the title, is yet another lovely insight into their relationship. Charles continuing with, ‘what about you, always thinking of others, how do you feel?’, excuse me while I clutch my heart at the sweetness of it all and seriously, does ANYONE ever ask Liza this? The family picture on Charles’ desk is noted and it’s great but I also can’t help but feel it’s somewhat ominous so I’m putting my gush on pause (v. open to being proven wrong on this).

Kelsey and Zane continue to be all over the place, I have so little investment in them as a pairing and I really think it’s because I have simply not seen enough of them together to know whether I care, though I have enjoyed a number of their interactions recently. It also doesn’t help that Zane has been many shades of douche this season. Since professing their love for one another, he is being caring at the start of this week’s ep, apologising and saying he feels partly responsible for Kelsey’s demotion and trying to allay Kelsey’s self-doubt. It is Kelsey who says that she doesn’t know how to do this with Zane and that one of them always loses (the old editors-who-were-peers-and-then-one-became-the-boss-but-now-they’re-peers-again curse), which returns Zane to Douchetown in time for the staff meeting.

I felt for Kelsey, it would be so hard sitting in that first meeting with Charles at the helm again, though him going through all the acquisitions and saying these are a credit to Kelsey’s impeccable instincts was great and necessary. But then Charles brings up the Arabian Seas book and the ‘we’ enters the conversation, along with a list of books that sound like they belong on the bargain shelf because yawn and yes it’s fine that Charles has his own instincts, but Zane in this meeting is awful. Kelsey calls him out, she is clearly and rightfully angry about the unfairness of her entire situation and she warns Charles to, ‘pay attention…and you too Liza. I didn’t have any boundaries at work and look what happened’. I have no idea if this is foreshadowing but I feel like it could be juicy if it was so let’s keep abreast of any future developments (yes that is a boob pun and you’re welcome).

Highlight of this whole scene of course is Liza ripping into the guy and the whole office when Kelsey walks out of the meeting and can hear that her meme has been made into a banger of a tune. We get fearsome Liza schooling the entire room on the fact that Kelsey did get the money, ‘that’s why we all have a job, she’s a goddamn hero’. YESSSSSS Liza *praise hands*. Kelsey in turn agrees to speak at the girls school event that Lauren put to her earlier (yes it IS ok to be angry and Kelsey no longer distancing herself from her social media mistake but using it as a platform to empower others and be a role model…where do I sign?).

Lauren was in ultimate PR and friend mode for Kelsey this week, trying to figure out how to spin Boobgate and trying to see the positive side of all the invitation cancellations. I always say it, I know, but Lauren’s unrelenting advocacy for her friends is absolutely one of her best qualities and her line, ‘you are an example of a woman who made a very simple mistake and the patriarchy seizing that opportunity to tear you down’, was fantastic. She also very much latched onto the SHero theme and I appreciated her use of the word at any given opportunity.

It is as Lauren and Josh are leaving to catch an Uber to Inkburg Midtown that we discover this means he is very relieved Claire doesn’t have to move to LA now. I really don’t get this. I said last week that Josh is far too woke to expect the mother of his child to bail on her career aspiration just so he doesn’t have to move to LA, especially considering he knows the struggle Liza faced in her own career journey after having Caitlin (who you may remember is her daughter…or was. Current status unknown). If we’d seen in their conversation Claire saying that she really doesn’t want to move but she can’t see another way to give Gemma the life she hopes, then ok, Josh finding a way to up his income is ace. So I do hope we find out at some point this was the case, because Josh deciding he’ll get more money so Claire and Gemma can stay for his convenience, it’s just nope.

Though I do have to say that the biggest benefit of Josh securing the Infinitely 21 partnership is getting to see more Shelly because omfg I cannot with her. The way she talks about paint colours, giving her personal number, the line I could not believe I heard, ‘but seriously, Josh, unload on me’ ( I love that this season has seemed censored af compared to previous ones – I don’t love this but you know what I mean- yet lines like this get dropped in. Too good), I am in awe of her complete and unabashed lust for him.

It is between picking paint colours that Josh finds the letter from Liza and it is heart wrenching. And beautiful. The emotion really is palpable as Josh leaves the store to find somewhere to read it once he realises what it is. The flashback montage is certainly something that hasn’t been utilized in the show and it really leaves such an impression. Coupled with the narration of the letter, it really captures the impact of Josh on Liza’s life and Liza’s genuine commitment to make her relationship with Charles work. If this show was wanting to move these characters past this old relationship it would have been a poignant and perfect way to do it. However it plays out in the long run, I thought it was really well done.

The hands down highlight of this entire episode for me was Diana’s bachelorette party. Lauren running at an unsuspecting Diana screaming, ‘get in the Hummer bitch’ is one of the funniest moments of the series, I will be laughing for eternity. Liza reminding Diana that, ‘I get you’, yes she does and I just love everything about seeing these women, all the Younger women, out together. I feel like the focus of this episode really got pulled to the other drama but this is the first time we’ve ever seen every female character of this show together in a room and I feel like THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Maggie schooling Diana on how strip clubs work and SO many brilliant lines, as Diana waves her money in the air only to tell the first stripper, ‘You’re a lot, no thank you’, then ‘Hi, little one’ as she flags another. The hilarity does not stop with Diana, Lauren’s, ‘here’s a fiver, you should smile more’ is every kind of YES (I sense a whiff of Liz Lemon in that line and I approve). As Liza and Kelsey talk about men and work and blah, Diana tries to bring them back to the purpose of the evening, ‘ladies, there are bulging crotches in your faces, can you focus?’. Listen to the Queen people. Yet another Diana wedding related event in which she ends up asking, ‘how did tonight become all about you?’ and I was thinking the same Diva. *Eyeroll*

The Hummer ends up at Inkburg because Lauren wants to help Diana fulfil her wish of doing something she’ll regret for the rest of her life (and obviously the reason they all need to be there is so Liza and Josh can have their post-letter confrontation). They are all so drunk, it’s hilarious and I would watch an entire feature film about the antics of this group while inebriated. Seriously, take my money. From Lauren’s, ‘Get out of the hummer Doana’ to Maggie’s, ‘I forgot we were in a car’, they cover the entire drunk person spectrum. On top of that we have Diana’s penis balloon hat position which just cracks me up because I am 10 but my fave is Diana saying to Josh, ‘John, just something small, tasteful and literary’ and then as she’s leaving, ‘it was nice to meet you Jake’. Obvs a wise choice not to go through with the tat but I’d love to know what Diana would have ended up with.

Josh calling Liza out on writing the letter and trying to walk away never talking to him was completely fair enough. Him reminding her that she said she would always be there for him, be Gemma’s aunt Liza, he’s not wrong and his hurt and confusion are understandable. But it is so nice to finally hear Liza making a choice and sticking to it (whether she does or not in the future). Josh saying that he gets it, she’s scared of what they were, they still are, it’s powerful and her defensiveness of Charles when he says that she’s making the safe choice is exactly the right response if she really means she has chosen him. And not because I love Charles and Liza together, but because Liza is standing up for her choice and her ‘don’t you tell me what I feel’ retort is so charged and fierce and I love it. ‘I know this is hard to accept Josh, but we were a moment in time. But the time has passed’ - this whole scene is wonderfully acted, the chemistry between these characters has always been strong and this is no exception. And obviously I agree that they need to move on. However my second big disappointment for this episode is the, ‘you forget Liza, I know you. I know when you’re lying (a couple of seasons of thinking she was 26 might contradict that but ok), especially to yourself.’

I absolutely understand the sentiment and I completely appreciate the setup for the zinger, ‘you wrote a letter to the wrong guy’ (though I do take issue with that line in general considering Liza has just said she’s made her choice. Even a simple, ‘I think’ in front of it would’ve made it less arrogant), but if this setup is leading to a Josh and Liza reunion down the track, then I would have preferred the execution be different because to me, this is not insightful or romantic, it’s Josh once again questioning Liza’s understanding of herself and her needs (I know it’s meant to be him trying to get her to ‘be real’ but it just doesn’t land like that for me). I have no doubt lots of fans are jubilant but it feels manipulative and is not a tactic that compels me to think they might have something worth revisiting. If after Liza said, ‘I love him more’ Josh had looked at her with that heartbreak in his eyes he can convey so well and said, ‘well then I hope he loves you the way you deserve’ or something and walked away, then THAT would show growth and make the possibility of him being an option again (which is clearly where this is all heading) far more compelling IMO.

So in one of the best bait and switch moments this show has delivered, Liza returns to the loft and has a good hard look at the gala photo with Charles and Michelle and Tom (and in my head she’s thinking about how good it is she and Charles promised each other they won’t go to things like that anymore) before we see another letter starting, Dear Charles. And just when all the Team Charles Stans were going to have a collective meltdown, it turns out it’s Kelsey writing her resignation letter and we all exhaled but then didn’t because Kelsey, what are you doing??? So. Much. DRAH-MAH, so little time.

Ramble Lite™, that was a good joke wasn’t it? Can’t believe we’ve reached the finale but I am also very ready because WE GET TO GO TO A WEDDING!!!! Better get my neckwear sorted…

#youngertv #younger tv #ramble #6x11 #younger season 6 #liza miller #charles brooks #diana trout #kelsey peters #maggie amato #liza x charles #team charles #review

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inkjackets · 5 years

Text

To Save a Loved One Ch2

So this story was supposed to be a one shot, but it ended up expanding lol

Also uh you might want to say goodbye to fluff...

AO3

Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 Ch5 Ch6 Ch7 Ch8

~~~

A week had passed since Ladybug had first visited Adrien and she’d visited him nearly every night since. They’d have fun, play games, and ultimately end up cuddled on the couch. She loved hanging out with him. It was so easy to make him smile and it warmed her heart to see him happy. However, the light in his eyes always faded when she had to leave. And it worried her. It had gotten to the point where she’d sit on the rooftop opposite his room and wait until she was certain he was asleep before going home and collapsing into bed. Despite her precautions though, there had been another three akuma encounters. It was pure luck that she’d been around and managed to catch them in time.

It was evident his father’s words were still severely affecting him. But she honestly didn’t know how long she could keep this up.

It was exhausting being constantly vigilant. And it was starting to affect her civilian life…

THUMP

‘Ow!’ Marinette rubbed her head and glared at Alya, ‘What’d you do that for?’

‘I called your name like five times! What planet were you on, Mari?’

Marinette groaned and rubbed her eyes. She forced them wide open, ‘I’m sorry, I’m back. What were you saying?’

Alya crossed her arms and looked at her friend suspiciously. ‘It’s not like you to be so out of it during one of Adrien’s photoshoots,’ she said.

Marinette turned her attention back to the photoshoot that was taking place in the park. ‘Just tired is all. Been sleeping badly,’ she said.

Alya looked at her a moment longer but let it go.

Marinette sighed. It was a beautiful afternoon but she was too shattered to appreciate it. The brightness of the sun only added to the ache in her eyes, and the chaos of the set added to the pounding in her head.

Her eyes fell on Adrien. He looked gorgeous. He was all made up and modelling the latest Agreste clothing line. Butterflies stirred in Marinette’s stomach but even they were lethargic. She closed her eyes. As much as she loved Adrien, she wanted nothing more than to be curled up in bed right now. But she just couldn’t risk him getting akumatised. She didn’t want to admit it, but it was looking more and more like Adrien was being targeted by Hawkmoth. She rubbed her temples.

‘You look like you need some caffeine,’ Alya said. ‘Wanna go grab a coffee?’

Marinette’s eyes flicked back to Adrien before nodding. She could leave him for a bit.

Having her hands wrapped around a warm cup of coffee made Marinette feel much better. She eagerly sipped at the drink, letting the caffeine work its way through her veins as she and Alya made their way back to the park. Her eyes darted around but she relaxed when she spotted Adrien once more. He was taking a break and talking on the phone. Her eyes narrowed. Was it just her imagination or was he looking tense?

‘So when do you think you’re gonna ask him out?’

Marinette spat out her coffee. ‘W-What?’ she sputtered as Alya laughed.

‘Girl, you’re looking at him with such intensity! And not just today either, you’ve been staring at him all week.’ She smirked. ‘What’re you planning?’

‘Planning?’ Marinette grew flustered, ‘I’m not planning anything! I don’t plan - I mean, I plan, but not for- I mean I can’t just ask…’ She trailed off as Alya’s laughter cut through her rambling. Marinette pouted and glared at her friend over the top of her coffee, but she couldn’t help but smile.

Once Alya’s laughter died down she turned back to her friend. ‘Alright, tell me what’s really up.’ Her tone was serious this time.

Marinette didn’t answer straight away. She took another sip of her drink as she watched Adrien. His break was over and he was modelling once more, but she couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t as natural as before.

‘I’m worried about Adrien,’ she said. ‘He’s been kinda down recently.’

‘Something’s definitely wrong,’ Alya agreed, ‘what with all those akuma’s chasing him.’

Marinette choked, ‘You know about them?’

Alya looked at her strangely, ‘Girl, I run the Ladyblog. It’s my job to know about them. What do you even mean by that? You know I-‘

They both jumped as a scream pierced the air. It sent shivers down Marinette’s spine.

‘What the-’ Alya was alert and had already pulled her phone out to record.

‘Akuma!’ somebody shrieked.

Chaos ensued. People ran in all directions to avoid the black butterfly, knocking over equipment and running into each other as they did so.

‘Shit,’ Marinette stumbled forwards and dropped her coffee as she looked for a hiding place, but there were too many people about. She ran out of the park, ignoring Alya’s yells, and ducked into an alleyway.

‘Marinette?’ Tikki flew out her bag, eyes wide with concern.

‘Adrien’s in trouble!’ She paused as some people ran by the alleyway. ‘Tikki, Spots On!’ Her fatigue washed away as Tikki’s magic enveloped her. Within seconds she was swinging up onto a nearby rooftop, overlooking the park. Her eyes scanned the thinning crowd. ‘Come on, come on,’ she muttered as she struggled to find the akuma. Where was it?

Her eyes landed on Adrien. He was oddly still. She frowned, why wasn’t he running? Then it hit her. Crap. The akuma was already in him. She swung down into the park and prayed that she’d get there before he agreed to Hawkmoth’s terms. She landed in front of him. His eyes were glazed over. She looked at him wildly. She had no idea where the akuma was. She made a wild guess and shot out her yoyo, pulling his phone out his hand. She threw it on the ground and smashed it with her heel. Nothing flew out. Panic rising, she tried again, this time grabbing his hat. But again, nothing. She tried one more time, this time ripping the scarf from his throat and tore it in two. She practically sank to the ground with relief as a black butterfly flew out. She swiftly purified it and summoned a swarm of ladybugs to repair everything as Adrien’s eyes blinked back into focus.

‘Ladybug?’ he said.

Her blood froze as she met Adrien’s gaze. His usual sparkling eyes had turned cold, as if the life had been sucked out of them.

‘Adrien,’ she ran over to him, ‘what’s wrong?’

‘I-I…’ His eyes widened as he struggled to breathe. He started to panic. ‘Hawkmoth, he-’ He slammed his hand to his mouth, his eyes filled with horror.

Ladybug placed her hands on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. ‘It’s alright, he didn’t get you.’

Adrien shook his head, 'Oh God, no, no, I can’t.’ His words were muffled by his hand.

‘Breathe, Adrien,’ Ladybug tried to soothe him.

But Adrien didn’t seem to hear. ‘Ladybug, I can’t! No, no, no,’ Desperation clawed its way out of him. ‘I can’t!’ Tears rose in his eyes. ‘Ladybug, please!’ The terror in his voice was ice down her spine. ‘I can’t, no, no, NO!’

‘Adrien!’ Ladybug cried as the boy fell to his knees. Tears started flowing down his cheeks and over his hands. She started to panic. She had no idea what was wrong with him. Akumatised victims had never acted like this before.

Adrien raised his head and looked at her, but didn’t say anything. She sucked in her breath. His eyes…

Ladybug was shoved to the side as paramedics rushed forward to make sure Adrien was all right. The moment was broken. She took out her yoyo and swung away before anyone could question her. She de-transformed and found Alya.

‘Girl, are you okay?’

Marinette’s hands shook. No, she was not okay.

‘Yes,’ she whispered.

She looked over to where the paramedics were wrapping Adrien in a blanket. He was numbly complying. His expression empty and ashen. She shivered. Even from here she could still see his harrowed eyes. They were haunting.

~~~

The beautiful day had turned overcast by the time Ladybug leapt off her balcony into the evening air. The sky was grey and it was drizzling. The only colour came from the city lights, casting a dull yellow glow on the world.

Ladybug spotted Chat Noir at their rendezvous point and landed softly behind him. The raindrops collecting on his suit reflected the bright lights.

Ladybug didn’t know whether it was just because of the rain, but Chat Noir looked oddly solemn. However, he smiled like usual when she walked up to him.

‘My Lady,’ he gave a small bow, ‘how are you this fine evening?’ His brilliant green eyes contrasted vividly with the world around them, but even still, there was a lifelessness about them.

Ladybug raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s cold and raining,’ she said.

‘Well, I’m feline fine now that you’re here.’ He grinned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Ladybug put her hand on her hip. ‘You’ve used that one before.’

Chat’s smile faltered. He stood up straight and dropped the humour from his posture. ‘Yeah, I’ve been struggling to come up with new ones.’ He leant back against a chimney wall and stared out over the city.

Ladybug felt a twist of unease in her gut. ‘Are you alright, Chat?’

He didn’t look at her. He crossed his arms and gave a small shrug. ‘I don’t know.’ His expression was blank.

Ladybug rubbed her temples. She was worried about Chat, but she had bigger problems right now.

‘Listen, there’s something serious we need to discuss.’

Chat turned to face her and became business-like, became more normal.

‘What is it?’

‘Do you know Adrien Agreste?’

Chat’s eyes flicked to the side, ‘I know of him, yes.’

‘Well…’ Ladybug took a deep breath in and braced herself to reveal the knowledge she’d been denying for a while. ‘He’s been targeted by Hawkmoth. He’s almost been akumatised seven times now. But, uh, I happen to be around him a lot so I’ve always managed to get there in time before he actually, you know, gets akumatised.’

Chat looked at her a moment. Suddenly a glint appeared in his eye. He smirked, ‘A bit of a fan of the Adrien Agreste, are we now?’ he teased. ‘If you’re into blonds then I guess I do stand a chance after all.’

Ladybug snorted and pushed him away. ‘It’s just luck that I managed to be there every time,’ she said, falling back into serious mode, ‘but it’s only a matter of time before he does get akumatised.’

Chat’s smile fell. He leant his head back against the wall, ‘You seriously reckon it’s only a matter of time?’ His tone was oddly subdued.

Ladybug nodded. ‘He almost got akumatised today. I almost didn’t make it in time and I was right there. I was with him.’ She pulled at one of her damp bunches as panic rose in her gut at the memory.

Chat remained silent; staring out at the grey world, lost in thought. The rain had started to pick up and there was now a faint pattering on the rooftops

She looked at him, ‘Could you help…?’

She trailed off as Chat shook his head. His expression pained. ‘I’m sorry, there’s no way I’d be able to help you tail Adrien.’

‘Oh.’

They both lapsed into silence. Ladybug was at a loss. She didn’t know what to do. She ran her hands through her fringe and closed her eyes. And she was tired. Even as Ladybug, she was starting to feel the familiar ache behind her eyes.

‘Why?’ Chat exclaimed.

Ladybug jumped at his sudden outburst.

‘Why Adrien? Why did Hawkmoth have to choose him?’ Chat’s voice had an edge of desperation in it. ‘He’s just some model! He’s nobody important!’

Ladybug narrowed her eyes. ‘He’s important to a lot of people out there,’ she said.

Chat eyed her for a moment. His sudden anger faded. ‘You know what I mean.’

‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘I wish I knew too.’

Silence swirled around them once more as the rain fell. Being in the suit meant she wasn’t cold but it still wasn’t pleasant. Her wet hair stuck to the back of her neck and she could feel drops trickle down her back. She wiped her dripping fringe out her eyes and leant against the wall.

‘Hey, L-B?’

Ladybug was pulled from her mind as Chat��s worried voice called her.

‘Yes?’ Ladybug looked at him. He was tense and hunched over.

He hesitated. ‘If Adrien gets akumatised… I can’t promise I’ll be there to help.’

Ladybug furrowed her brow. ‘What do you mean?’

Chat ran his hands through his wet hair. ‘Something’s come up recently, I guess. And it means you can’t rely on me coming to help.’

‘What do you mean? You’re my partner, of course I can rely on you!’

Chat shook his head, he looked up at Ladybug with eyes full of pain and sorrow.

‘Not this time, my lady. I’m sorry.’

~~~

The rain was pouring down by the time Ladybug left for Adrien’s. She had stayed on that rooftop for a while, wondering about what to do. But she’d come up with nothing. She’d originally thought her and Chat would be able to come up with a plan together, but he had been more than unhelpful. He had muttered something about meeting someone and scampered off early before she could protest. And then there was what he had said before. What did he mean he couldn’t help? And ‘something’s come up’? What sort of an excuse was that? She let out a groan of frustration.

She tried to remove Chat from her mind as she drew closer to Adrien’s house. She really didn’t want to tell him he was being targeted. She just wanted to hang out and play games. She sighed. Tiredness was definitely settling in her bones.

When she reached the Agreste mansion she swiftly dropped in through the window Adrien had left open. She glanced around the room but he wasn’t there. There were, however, a couple of towels on the side. Ladybug smiled as warmth started to blossom within her once more. He truly was a thoughtful boy. She grabbed a towel and patted her suit dry. She was just squeezing the water from her bunches when Adrien walked out of the bathroom in his pyjamas, towel drying his hair. His eyes lit up at the sight of her.

‘You found the towels then,’ he smiled.

‘Yes, thank you.’ She was glad to see he had some life back in his being. She’d been afraid she’d find him as she’d left him. She shivered at the memory of his eyes.

Adrien walked over to a chest of drawers and pulled out a hoodie. He slipped it over his head before pulling out another and offering it to Ladybug.

‘Oh, I’m not cold,’ she said quickly, ‘the suit's good like that.’

‘I know, but it’s a miserable night out there, which means we need to be cosy in here.’

Ladybug hesitated before taking the hoodie and pulling it over her head. She shoved her hands in the pockets. It was cosy. She caught Adrien’s eye. They both blushed. She looked away wide-eyed, both mortified and pleased. She was wearing Adrien’s hoodie. She was wearing Adrien’s hoodie!

Ladybug looked back up when Adrien cleared his throat. He was bright red. ‘So uh, what do you want to do tonight?’

Ladybug wrung her hands inside the hoodie pockets. She’d originally planned on just coming to talk tonight. She couldn’t put off this conversation any longer. But when she looked Adrien, at his expectant expression, her heart sank. She couldn’t do it. Not yet.

Ladybug glanced around the room. Over the past week, they’d done everything from rock climbing to basketball, foosball, and gaming. All very competition heavy games. Tonight, however, she wanted to stay away from adrenaline.

‘Let’s just stick a movie on.’

They put a rubbish action film on. They had both wanted something easy to watch which they didn’t need to take seriously. However, it wasn’t doing its job distracting Ladybug from her mind. She glanced at Adrien. His eyes were glazed over. Apparently it wasn’t distracting him either.

About half an hour into the movie, Ladybug couldn’t take it any longer. She picked up the remote and paused the movie.

‘Adrien, I’m sorry but we need to talk.’

‘Yeah, I was wondering when you were going to say that,’ he said listlessly.

Ladybug clenched her fists in her lap to stop herself from fidgeting.

‘Hawkmoth is targeting you.’

He tensed and averted his gaze. ‘I know.’

Ladybug blinked. ‘You do?’

‘Today was the seventh akuma. I’m honestly a little surprised you didn’t tell me sooner,’ he gave a hollow smile.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I didn’t want to believe it.’

‘Me neither.’

Ladybug fell silent. She felt her gut twist inside her. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

Adrien sniffed. Ladybug looked up and was dismayed to see tears fall down his cheeks. ‘It’s bad enough that my father’s mad at me,’ he said, wiping the tears away, ‘but now Hawkmoth is trying to akumatise me.' Adrien laughed. The sound made Ladybug’s blood run cold. ‘It’s like, I’m not even allowed to be angry! Not even a little bit, or guess what? I’m gonna hurt all my friends and destroy the person I love!’

Ladybug’s heart stopped. Adrien froze when he realised what he’d said.

Ladybug placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s okay,’ she said.

He dropped the tension from his body. ‘I just… I just don’t know…’ He fell silent.

Ladybug felt sick. What had Adrien done to deserve this?

She rubbed his back gently. ‘We’ll get through this. Everything will be alright in the end.’

For a moment, the only sound was the pattering of rain on the windows.

‘You don’t know that.’ Adrien’s voice was low and biting.

Ladybug tensed. She took her hand off of his back and placed it back in her lap.

Adrien sighed, ‘I’m sorry Ladybug, I didn’t mean it like that, I just-‘

Ladybug shook her head, cutting him off. ‘No, it’s okay. You’ve been through a lot today.’

He looked away, but Ladybug could still see the stress and exhaustion eating away at him.

‘Tell me, Ladybug,’ he hesitated, ‘do you think Hawkmoth is truly all that bad?’

Ladybug jerked her head to look at him. He was curled in on himself and looking at the ground.

‘He turns people into villains to try and steal my and Chat Noir’s miraculous,’ she said carefully. ‘Of course he’s bad.’

There was a moment of silence before Adrien spoke again. ‘He has a reason you know.’ His voice was soft but rang clear.

Ladybug sat up straight. ‘What?’

‘Today, when the akuma entered my scarf,’ his hand involuntarily rubbed his neck, ‘I spoke with Hawkmoth and… he told me…’ Adrien swallowed, ‘He told me he was doing this to save the one he loved.’

‘Oh Adrien,’ Ladybug looked at him with sympathy, ‘He was probably just saying that to get you on his side.’

Adrien shook his head fiercely, ‘No, he was telling the truth, I could tell.’ He clenched the edges of the sofa, turning his knuckles white. ‘But then he mentioned my mother.’ Adrien turned his head and looked up at her, tears welled in his eyes. ‘He asked me, how far I’d be willing to go to save her. And… that question haunts me because, if I could get a hold of some power to bring her back…’ Ladybug stiffened as that cold, haunting look returned to his eyes. His voice dropped to a whisper.

‘I don’t know if I could say no.’

Next Chapter

#a ladrien story #ml #miraculous ladybug #ladybug #adrien agreste #marinette #chat noir #my writing #to save a loved one

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harryseyebrows · 6 years

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Talk to me about this young single dad au. Does he meet someone at his child’s pre-k/daycare? Or perhaps in a support group? Do they live in a teeny apartment? What’s Harry’s relationship to his own family? Is it mpreg or does the relationship w/ the kids mom not work? I love this concept

oh i have Lots of varying directions for this concept.

a) non-mpreg. he’s young and careful and safe with his girlfriend at the time, but its one of those weird off-chance things and she ends up getting pregnant, isn’t crazy about the idea of having/raising a baby, but ultimately decides to carry it to term before handing over all parental rights to harry. his mother isnt thrilled, and makes sure that he’s the one thats responsible for the baby’s care, but still lets him live with her and helps out a bit. of course, over time anne softens to the baby when she realizes that harry is serious about being a good dad, and things are dandy. harry struggles a bit, but he finishes school, and even applies to couple universities. dating really isnt on the forefront of his mind, but perhaps a childhood best friend sticks with him through everything, and over time, they realize they have feelings for each other. its not an immediate thing, and the central tension could be harry’s reluctance to act on anything because he doesnt want to ruin the friendship, thinking that they were just ~playing house~ and that he’ll get bored of harry and the baby eventually. of course, it all works out in the end.

b) gay crisis, non-mpreg. again, he’s young and trying to figure himself out. he loses his virginity to one of his close girl friends (who might also be questioning her sexuality), and perhaps the condom breaks or something, and they dont know until she finds out she’s pregnant, and its just a whole mess. harry freaks out, because talk about some classical conditioning; the first time he ever has sex and he knocks someone up. things pan out in a similar fashion to option a, but maybe he meets someone totally new when he goes to university. maybe he doesnt even tell them that he has a kid, though the custody agreement is a bit different, and thats the main conflict, that his new almost-boyfriend is upset that harry withheld info that wouldn’t have made a difference in how he felt; he just wanted harry to be honest. lots of emoness and angst, with the added layer of Baby Gay Antics

c) MPREG. *rubs my little hands together* okay bear with me. he’s 18/19, fresh into university, and he starts casually hooking up with a professor’s assistant or someone like that. so it has to be kept very hush hush. when harry finds out he’s pregnant, he panics. doesnt tell anyone. just carries around this incredible amount of anxiety, feeling like his hands are tied. he’s afraid to tell his mother, afraid to tell his friends, and afraid to tell the other father. i think it would be interesting to think about whether or not he would ever tell him; on one hand, he could keep it a secret, tell them that they cant see each other anymore for obvious reasons, and when they ask if its theirs, harry lies and tells them its someone elses. or, harry could tell them and they could freak out a bit, tell harry to deal with it himself, whatever that might mean. either way, harry doesnt end up with the baby daddy. he meets someone else down the line, or maybe reconnects with someone he lost touch with

d) also mpreg. similar to a and b, he’s still living at home and not in uni yet when he gets knocked up. its pretty much the biggest village scandal in years. anne is ready to go to war for him, when she hears whispers at the grocery store or in line for coffee. but at the same time, she also wants to throttle harry a bit, even though she knows that it wasn’t intentional. no parent wants to confront that their child is sexually active, though, so forgive her. this could go many ways; the other dad could want nothing to do with harry or the baby after the news; they could freak out at first but eventually come to agree on terms where they’ll raise the baby together, just not as a couple; or they could try to make it work with each other, as parents who are in a relationship but it eventually crumbles. harry could try uni for a bit, but ultimately decide its not for him, and then his new life path eventually leads him to this new person who comes to love him and the baby. happily ever after, etc etc

#Anonymous

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whippedkoalas · 6 years

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I totally agree with your analysis in William. You made really good points such as we never saw him properly drunk. Also maybe the role of being a leader of the Penetrators was a shield for William not showing his true self to people. Both him and Noora are afraid to let people close, but when they did, they became different people. William is so soft when he is with Noora, something people who only knew him as school king may have difficulty to believe, this may also apply to their friends. 1/2

2/2 I was so impressed how he handled Noora’s anxiety. Made her feel safe and made sure she knew there was nothing to be shamed about, he just stayed there and kept her close. It was a beautiful scene. I believe they will be fine, they have both changed so much, matured so much and trust on each other and their relationship. I would love to read you analysis on Noora as well. Thank you for the short stories!

Thank you!On William - basically, yes. Look, I have to say this first. A lot of people despise Penetrators’ behaviors/fuckboy tendencies, I personally, don’t. In my opinion, they’re teenagers who have a lot of (consensual) sex. Great for them. Should they be more careful? Yes. (The girls too, might I add). They got hoodies with their names on it. Is it dumb? The dumbest idea ever. Should they make sure the girls know it’s just a one night stand? Maybe but even Vilde tells N she knew what to expect. Should they give those hoodies to the girls they had sex with? I may be alone to think that but why not? Nobody is pressuring girls to wear that hoodie. Sara hooked up with Chris and William at least and we never saw her in the hoodie, same with Eva and Iben. Like, to me, if a girl wants to wear a hoodie where it’s written clearly that she had sex with a boy, I don’t see the problem. If someone at Nissen wanted to get ALL the hoodie and wear a different one each day of the week, I mean, why not? Everyone at school knows what it means - so what? Go, girl. So, I don’t think the Penetrators are the smartest cookies out there and I think they do questionable things but from what we saw about them, I don’t think they’re terrible.The thing is - I’m pretty sure William’s reputation doesn’t come from him but from Niko. He’s treated like he’s just like his older brother. So I think his status in school was earned pretty quickly, he just had to shag a few girls to keep his reputation. (In s1, when Eva tries to talk with the older girls one of them says something about William being the reason there was a chlamydia epidemic in their first year, but their boss says that it wasn’t William. And, like, what does Chris says her sister tells her about Niko in Stockholm? Ding Ding. Whether the story about W is true or not, it shows he’s the center of a lot of rumors and that people expect the two brothers to be alike - which sounds like a nightmare for W, imo. )So, yeah I think being the Penetrators boss is just … easy. It’s exactly what people expect from him. Throwing epic parties, shagging a girl or two, organizing Russ, rinse, repeat. Enters Noora, who doesn’t give a shit if he’s popular or not and calls him out and he falls in love instantly. I would even say that he was waiting for someone to do that. He shows her the real William and this is why she has a bit of trouble at first, too. Penetrator!William is not the William she knows. About Noora’s anxiety, oh man. If only we knew why he knew what to do! Either he’s got anxiety himself, or someone he knows has got anxiety (my bet is that Niko used to scare Amalie and she was subjected to anxiety attacks but.…) or he’s just very good at reading people but… We’ll never know.Yeah, they changed a lot. The “William” clip where it shows how peaceful they are is too cute.

About Noora.

I admit that I don’t understand her sometimes. I think that I see the world more like W does than her. (For example, I agree with violence solving a lot of problems in the world. I won’t do a philosophical essay about that here, but I understand what he meant by that.)

I hate the way she treats Vilde, for example. So I spent a lot of the first two seasons rolling my eyes at her, to be honest. Her whole speech about the hoodie, that leads Vilde to give it back to William? I find it terrible. The idea of those hoodies is bad/dumb whatever. but the way she talks about the girls that are wearing a hoodie etc rubs me the wrong way. So, keep in my mind that I’ve never thought N was the greatest character ever like some people seem to have. So in terms of characters analysis, I think there is a lot to say. Her childhood/early life - She emphasizes to W that she’s unplanned. I mean, this is not really something you say when someone asks you about your family. She seems to want to dissociate herself from her family totally. (She doesn’t hook up regularly for example when she said to Jonas she has seen her parents having sex and says that her parents are like obsessed with each other and their sex life). She tells W that her hometown is shit and that she flew to Madrid at 15. That’s extremely young to flee your country but her parents let her. She didn’t cut them off her life completely because she speaks to them every month. Bare minimum, but still.Her image/character - She says that her parents never loved her, which is extremely harsh in a sense, still, she doesn’t want William to call his mom a cunt, you know? Like, she seems to *always* put the blame on her (my parents never loved ME (when W says that his mom is the problem) - SHE shouldn’t be in love with W - She says “I don’t know” to W when he asked her what happens, like she should know, like not having given clear and expressive consent at all isn’t enough etc) so I would say that the strong independent woman is something she wants to be and not really what she is - it is a goal. We see her kind of this way in s1 because Eva sees her that way. When we’re in her head, though, she struggles a lot and has been for quite some time apparently. She escaped Norway just a few months ago. She was sick - an eating disorder probably. She got back on track, but I don’t think she was ever in the greatest place.She seems (to me, of course) to want to be perfect. We don’t hear her cursing a lot, she’s a feminist (and Vilde should act like one, too. Like I don’t mean it in a bad way, though. Vilde should educate herself more but N is the only one to notice), stands up for herself and the others, do not care about men - she doesn’t need them and Vilde shouldn’t need them - she doesn’t drink. She’s honestly, the perfect girl next door. A bit more badass maybe, but she’s perfect. She tries hard to be, at least. She is a control freak, imo. She has an eating disorder that used to be more important than now, from what we know. Eating disorders are usually about having control on your body. She probably had anorexia or something similar. She’s healthy, now but she still controls what she eats. (She even snaps at Eskild because she can’t have what she wanted). She wants everyone to see the world as she does. She can’t be with W because of the bottle accident, she rolls her eyes at Vilde for things that seem a bit meh to her (like the kiss auction). She doesn’t seem to struggle very hard with her body image but she has a style™ that probably helps her feel “safe”.

3. Sex - We know she has an ex - a boy she lost her virginity to at 13. He acted like a prick and left her soon after they had sex. She was raised by a sexologist and a psychologist, says she has seen her parents in a compromising position, talks about orgasms with Vilde. She doesn’t date and doesn’t hook up, to the point where Vilde think she might not be interested in men. It can also be tight to want control - over her body. When she meets William and accepts that she’s attracted to him, she doesn’t shy from affection. I’ll talk about W later but when she decides to have sex with him, it’s because she let herself go and be more carefree than before.I might add that the way she talks about other people sex lives/being open about having sex has an underlying judging tone that I dislike. Especially with Vilde. I guess it’s showing her discomfort but hmm.. yeah.4. Friends - As I said, Vilde and Noora’s friendship is not my favorite. Vilde acts like a mirror for Noora. The girl who is rejected by her first boy after she lost her virginity? That’s Noora three years ago. Vilde also has an eating problem/disorder, like Noora. I get that she wants to protect Vilde from making the same mistakes she made a few years back but she doesn’t succeed because you can’t shield people from everything. There are a few scenes that are cute, but I’m not a fan on the whole “Listen to Noora” vibe of everything. She also does not realize that Vilde is not her and it leads to awkward situations. It’s Noora’s speech about the hoodies that leads Vilde to confront William. (Unpopular opinion ahead) Vilde could never have won this battle because ultimately, the hoodies are not important to W - or the Penetrators. What N suggests is just to give him back the sweater but Vilde wants to be popular so she takes the chance to try to call him out publicly. William would never allow his reputation to be ruined for a stupid sweater.N stands up for V. She gives a beautiful little speech. Does she talk about W? To W? Honestly I’m not sure, I think she’s talking to the fuckboy she was never able to face in the past. Her speech has little to do with what W tells V. She just went on a rant about the hoodies and do not mention them. She tries to call out William shouting at him every insecurity he could have and is quite spot on. I do not think you defend someone who was insulted by insults, but well. It works.Then she lies to Vilde about the reason why William apologized. William tells her he doesn’t think it was a smart idea - even if he doesn’t care. Then she is caught in a kind of crossroad. She wants to protect Vilde and has to “hate” W, but she is attracted to him. She uses Vilde as an excuse to see William, then as an excuse to keep their relationship a secret because she doesn’t see Vilde as a ‘strong’ woman who can handle her friend having a reciprocal crush on a boy she had a one night stand with.Even early, when Noora decides to go to W party because Vilde is crying, she stays with him and does not try to see if her friend is okay or not. So, even if those two have sweet moments, I’m not a fan of their friendship. With the other girls? she’s an alright friend.

5. William - In season 1, she seems to have little interest in love/sex etc. She opens up a bit in season 2, and we can see how she fights her growing feelings for him. She doesn’t want to cave in, but she loves the attention he gives her and craves it. Then when he is clear with her and tells her that he’s done, she gives up. Noora’s problem with William (I’m only talking about her) is that she doesn’t trust him. She has her guards up because she doesn’t want to get hurt so she never believes him. She doesn’t believe him when they’re on the bench, she believes Vilde and Chris when they talk about his brother even though he told her a different story. She believes his brother almost instantly because what he is telling her “proves” that the preconceived image she has of William is true. She is heartbroken and drinks to forget. Then she realizes (throughout ep. 9) that William was telling her the truth - that there was a reason why he didn’t want to introduce his brother to her. She feels guilty because she trusted and listen to Niko. She wants to tell him everything but he opens up more and then she can’t tell him because… what if he kills Niko? The scene where she’s about to tell him is (imo) the moment Noora knew that she could not live without him. She has strong morals and doesn’t want to tell him and then watch him kill his own brother. So, she trusts their legal system. She doesn’t think that Niko could twist what happened and tell William but he does. She feels guilty of everything so when he confronts her she is lost. She knows that it’s a lost battle. I think, personally, that she understands William’s reaction and that she knows that it’s a tricky situation for both of them because, after that, she asks him to talk. She doesn’t let him the choice, in fact. She goes into Warrior mode like when she defended Vilde. When they’re talking she tries to be sweet and show him she loves him but it doesn’t work so she does the same and calls him out. However, she doesn’t say anything about him being mad at the possible encounter between N and Niko. she says “because your girl lied to you” and I think that it’s Noora acknowledging that William knows and understands that N didn’t consent to anything. She knows that the problem is a matter of trust. He doesn’t handle Noora’s trust issues well. So, I think that Noora getting back together and deciding to take the next step with William in episode 12 is in character. She has to trust him more and tries to show him that she does trust him.Then in s3, she comes back heartbroken but she stood up for herself. She thinks that he will come back for her so it takes time to process that no, maybe he won’t because she taught him that no is no (I guess, that is why Julie wrote it that way). She hides the real reason to everyone and maybe to herself. Then in s4, at first she doesn’t want to admit that there’s no W/N anymore and is crushed to know that W has possibly moved on. (I don’t think he did. If he had a girlfriend like Eva said, he wouldn’t have come back at all, imo)At the end, we see that she is back with him, happy but that she has learned from the past and that they are going slower than before.

Let me know if I forgot to talk about something. Sorry for the delay!

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