#like nobody taught me to be evil...why did it happen. surely this means I am irrevocably tainted. yup i think so too

[skunkes]

having black and white thinking but for myself only like sorry, I was a terrible person when I was 12 years old so now I'm barred from ever being considered a good person for the rest of my life no matter how much nicer and better I am neow

#talkys #i keep trying to reassure self like well! its ok everyone is a terror in middle school ! #no I was Bad. #at least I wasn't 4chan nazi bad but still. #it keeps haunting me now that im better in the sense of like. idk. i hear accounts of other ppls childhoods and its like #how did u guys have an innate sense of Being Angels #like nobody taught me to be evil...why did it happen. surely this means I am irrevocably tainted. yup i think so too

[monstas1ut2]

1/3 (Eren Yeager)

(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Bitches is my sons, that's why I be like, "Chile"

Chile, chile, chile, chile, ch-i-i-i-chile

At the lowest volume, Nicki was spitting bars. The LED lights on the brightest red there's to come as the window was covered with black out curtains. It happened to be bright outside but who opens their curtains at 8 am in the morning..? People who are productive and that's not you.

"Don't spend hours in there, brat."

A pout came onto your face, almost sucking your teeth... it wasn't going to be long until you were finished. Nonetheless though, your father always thinks you take hours to get ready to go somewhere.

"Im not ,daddy... Ion even wear makeup no more.. so it won't take long.."

Leaning towards the mirror, and pressing the lipgloss tip against your soft lips, your thoughts came around to your father.

Levi Ackerman, he's a short male who is quite intimidating, he IS intimidating. Despite his height, he's always winning a battle, whether it's verbal or physical. Which is why you always fail to win an argument against him. This was noticeable when you moved to his house ten months ago.

Before living with Levi, you were living with Hange.

Hange co-parents with Levi, the two were never together but they kept you happy and they are both Mom and Dad to you. The two are so different though. Hange would let you skip school, get ready late, almost everything in the book. She had to stop you from getting a sugar daddy though-

Levi is strict, he doesn't want anyone or thing touching his pretty Princess. Yes you're not biologically his but he still is your father, the only one you'd ever had. He taught you things, showed you the great life. He tried to get you to speak a bit more proper but he just stopped, oddly enough, he wanted you to embrace everything you had to offer.

It was a pain learning about your background, Hange was bad at doing anything for you as well. In result of this, your hair has dreads. Watching YouTube videos was Levi's new thing when you were younger. He managed to skillfully put dreads in your hair and... now they look quite amazing. Very long and pretty on you.

That's something you embrace, those pretty dreads. Knowing that your father put them in first , is one reason as to never take them out.

"I'm done, and, Mom said stop ignorin her... she wanna have a picture of me.. since it's my last year I guess.. ion know.. but she blowin up my phone.."

A bit of a smile casting on your brown skinned face. Fiddling with the phone in your hand. Today you were wearing a Jean like skirt and a black top to go with. Your med-long nails being a mix of white and gold, it complimented the melanin of your skin.

Levi glared at his phone that was vibrating on the nearest table and he'd sighed inwardly. Hange was so excited for your last year, while Levi was not. He also hates the fact that you are now going to the same school that he works at... the only bad thing being... the men there are complete perverts and prudes.

"Tell that bratty friend of yours to do it-"

"Connie isn't a brat, he just a lil mental..."

A lot of bald guys seemed to be mental, or is that just... stereotypical to say? Eh, either way, your Connie was mental. The guy was hilarious, he always knows how to put a smile on your face. Even though you two used to be fairly seperated. You now go to his school so at least you'll have one friend to lean on.

"dad, can you at least be happy for me...? It's my last year of school, not my last year of me bein in ya house.. cuz ion know how to cook... or do adult stuff.." a sheepish smile came upon your face, just staring at your father who happened to be suppressing a smile. He eventually did not though, but... you are the only person who can make him smile..

"I know, you burned down a kitchen before.." An evil smirk cascaded on his pale face. He knew that would hit you where it hurts, considering you were now silent but squinting your eyes playfully. It definitely wasn't Levi's kitchen, it was Hange's kitchen.. she had to get it remodeled.

Honestly, Levi liked that you couldn't cook, that way, douche bag men will stay away from you and it'll prevent them from making you barefoot and pregnant in a kitchen... he overthinks okay?

(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Gripping your wrist ever so tightly, the two of you were walking towards the huge school. It was more of a modern taste, probably because the school was built only 6 years ago. The scale of the school had caused your body to overheat from anxiety. So actually, Levi was pulling you towards the school, no effort needed.

Once that door was open, it was all over. The main entrance had a pretty scenery. It was pictures and everything, though something that was odd was that black people were limited, looked like-

Okay okay, you're overthinking, but this school really doesn't have black people. If they do, they are in sports... which is why there was a man constantly talking on and on about female's basketball team...

You have to admit, you are a stallion.

"She doesn't want to be on the team... Shadis... stop yelling in her face.."

A bit of a concerned smile came upon your face as you glanced towards your father. Who only gave a soft look towards you. Levi may be insensitive at times but when it comes to you being nervous.. he's there.

"Where the hell is the principle..." Levi grumbled under his breath, he was quite late for his class.. but he had to make sure you were going to be fine.. like the worried father he is.

And Like on cue, a fine.. smexy blonde man came from the back door of the front office.. oooh.

His eyebrows were thick and he had this smile on his face. Like he knew who you were, though at the same time he probably already did. This man was in pictures at home, Levi knew him personally.

Apparently this man changed your diaper when you were little too.. so.. low chance of him seeing you any different..

Principal Smith... oohhh

"Levi, I told you yesterday, she'll be fine in my hands.. I can make sure she gets to every class. I'll also make sure nobody messes with her.." Erwin hummed out, knowing these words that came from Levi last week. His voice was deep and sincere, his pretty blue eyes glancing you over.. gawd oh mighty.

"And?" Levi's eyes squinted hard, his face quite serious about the last statement that Erwin seemed to pass by... or forgotten.. Man, someone would think Levi is the principal... and not Erwin.

"I'll make sure Yeager stays away from her.."

(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

The bell had rung oh so suddenly, the anxiety in you causing you to need to go to the bathroom but... your ancestors had to come down.

They whispered into your ear and explained that you are the baddest bitch in the world. Nobody can take that away from you, nor can the stupid anxiety.

"This is my daughter, (Y/n)... "

The baddest bitch with anxiety...

Every single eye was on you, in front of the class... it was obvious that most were just curious about you, mixed with shocked. When they heard the other day about getting a new student, they figured that it'll be someone... like them. At the same time though.. they could get used to the.. balance of the room.

The window across the room was beaming on your brown skin and it happened to make you look like a goddess. Your lipgloss sparkling as you glanced around, a soft smile on your face. Honestly, that only happened because of the fact that.. your bald friend was waving to you..

Connie...

The other day, a deal was made... Between you and your father. Who is also now your teacher for first period.

The deal was, you clean your room spotless and you get to sit next to Connie in class. Guess who succeeded?...

Your arms wrapped around male as he was blushing a tad. Being almost manhandled by you was everyone's dream at the moment. Especially a male who was behind you and Connie's table. He had this cool haircut, his face was long too but it fit his features.

"Why is she hugging the egg..."

"Jean you're just jealous.." the person who said this happened to be playing with their pencil. She had black hair and.. freckles.. it was cute. She looked mean though.

"Okay and..?"

Connie then began to of course, show off his best friend.. who happened to be you. Apparently what happened was that he told everyone about you one day. Nobody believed him, and Jean being the asshole he is.., he wanted answers so he -reluctantly- asked Levi if he had a daughter...

They weren't expecting someone like you...

Nor was.. this brown haired male who had his eye on you ever since you came in. His intimidating... blue, greenish looking eyes.. it's not something you failed to realize... but at the same time, you could feel your father's eyes as well.

"That's Eren over there, by Armin and Mikasa... he's a little coo-coo... so just talk to Armin and Mikasa.. then that's Bert , Annie, and Reiner, and Ymir, Jean, Sasha is the one eating and Historia.."

Honestly, you were never one to listen to someone when they say don't do something... Connie said don't talk to Eren... but some how... with the fluttering of your eyelashes.. you gave the long haired boy a wink. The wink sending him a burst of confidence that he already had..

it just got worse..

(๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ Masterlist 2

#black reader #poc reader #eren x black reader #three part #aot imagines #aot x black reader

[edenmemes]

uncharted sentence starters

❝ if you’re done lying to me, then you should stop lying to yourself. ❞ ❝ it’s not going to be easy, you know. ❞ ❝ well, it sounds like you’re working for a nutcase. ❞ ❝ make sure that you’re safe. ❞ ❝ look, i wanted to tell you! i wanted to! but how could i? ❞ ❝ see? i’m not just a pretty face. ❞ ❝ i’m sorry for what happened to you. ❞ ❝ i think i have a bit more experience with this thing than you do. ❞ ❝ wait, wait, wait. something about this feels kinda hinky. ❞ ❝ what a warm and homey place, huh? ❞ ❝ i’m willing to forgive and forget. for old time’s sake. ❞ ❝ looks like he was killed. ripped to shreds actually. ❞ ❝ these guys have been tailing me for weeks. thought i lost them. ❞ ❝ should i be flattered, or worried? ❞ ❝ so with our luck, what’s the odds this volcano is going to erupt on us? ❞ ❝ i hope i don’t go to hell for this. ❞ ❝ i can handle this. i’m tough. i grew up with nuns. ❞ ❝ fair warning, last person who betrayed me wound up dead. ❞ ❝ you told me you’d say out of trouble. ❞ ❝ how do i know you’re real? ❞ ❝ don’t ever point a gun at me again. ❞ ❝ make sure that you’re safe. ❞ ❝ i have made a lot of mistakes. a lot. i’m not a perfect man. ❞ ❝ i had a lousy father. lousy childhood. ❞ ❝ sounds terrible. check his wallet. ❞ ❝ let's not forget who walked out on whom. you don't get to be jealous.  ❞ ❝ progress demands sacrafice. ❞ ❝ shut up. i really thought you were gone this time. ❞ ❝ i can’t leave you alone for one minute, can i? ❞ ❝ on a scale of 1-10, how scared were you that i was gonna die? ❞ ❝ i can’t walk away. i’m tired of walking away. ❞ ❝ even an enemy must be fed and sheltered. are you my enemy? ❞ ❝ we can still stop him. i can help you. ❞ ❝ gotta say, you have a real knack for breaking things. ❞ ❝ do as i say not as i do. ❞ ❝ looks like hell spit you back out. ❞ ❝ what’s your story, anyway? ❞ ❝ i don’t take big risks without a good payday. ❞ ❝ i guess it runs in the family, huh? ❞ ❝ you can’t reform the villain and save the day. it’s just not done like that. ❞ ❝ sorry, i just need to get my head back in the game. ❞ ❝ this isn’t our fight. it’s my fight. ❞ ❝ i won’t let them hurt you. ❞ ❝ skip the mind games. you don’t know me. ❞ ❝ no offense, but your ancestor was a right asshole. ❞ ❝ you’re unusually quiet. what’s up your bum? ❞ ❝ that was my last cigarette. ❞ ❝ okay, well, why don’t you just walk away? ❞ ❝ why this obsession? i’m just worried. ❞ ❝ i can’t...i can’t breathe...i just...can’t breathe... ❞ ❝ don’t touch me. get away from me. ❞ ❝ if you let these bastards win - after this - i will never forgive you. ❞ ❝ you’ve got your pride all tangled up in this thing. it’s making you reckless. ❞ ❝ any trouble you shoot first and ask questions later. ❞ ❝ dangerous to be out so late.  ❞ ❝ easy now. look at me. ❞ ❝ my leg! don’t touch it! i know it’s broken! ❞ ❝ are you going to join me, darling? ❞ ❝ this is my gig. you want your share, you play by my rules. ❞ ❝ we don’t get to choose how we start in life. real greatness? it’s what you do with the hand you’re dealt. ❞ ❝ i always felt that we were destined for something great. ❞ ❝ you should relax. you’ll live longer. ❞ ❝ i taught you better than that. ❞ ❝ so that’s a no? felt like a no. ❞ ❝ quit acting like you’re gonna lie down and die, all right? ❞ ❝ i have a spare bed.  ❞ ❝ is there no bottom for your ignorance? ❞ ❝ even cornered dogs bite back.  ❞ ❝ that one is my favourite. it makes your eyes twinkle.  ❞ ❝ admit it. you’re gonna miss this ass.  ❞ ❝ you think i’m a monster, but you’re no different from me.  ❞ ❝ how many people have you killed? how many?  ❞ ❝ you will not stand in the way of destiny.  ❞ ❝ you stick with me, i’ll teach you a few things. ❞ ❝ well, if you’d like, i can tell you where to stick it. ❞ ❝ face it, genius, you’ve been played. ❞ ❝ yeah, keep smiling, asshole. ❞ ❝ i got nothing to prove. ❞ ❝ don’t hand it to me. i’ve had everything handed to me ❞ ❝ you don’t know when to give up, do you? ❞ ❝ you stick your neck out, you’re asking to lose your head. ❞ ❝ oh, and now you’re blushing. ❞ ❝ just so you know, it’s not my first lost city. ❞ ❝ are you always this clever? ❞ ❝ i was trying to rescue you, as a matter of fact. ❞ ❝ you know, at this point, i’ve run out of words. ❞ ❝ what do you say we really ruin this guy’s day? ❞ ❝ whether you die or not, i don’t really care. ❞ ❝ i thought you...i saw you get shot. ❞ ❝ it’s like a camera. you just...point and shoot, right? ❞ ❝ god, who’s being unprofessional now? ❞ ❝ i always knew you were gonna make something of yourself one day. ❞ ❝ let’s just pretend i skipped all of sunday school. ❞ ❝ oh no you didn’t do that. that’s not funny! ❞ ❝ save the world, triumph over evil. ❞ ❝ are you trying to kill me? ❞ ❝ know what i love about partying with a bunch of crooks? nobody cares that you smoke indoors. ❞ ❝ you gave me a goddamn heartattack. ❞ ❝ i’ll die a thousand deaths before i let you win.  ❞ ❝ i didn’t tell you because i was afraid...of losing you. ❞ ❝ what ever happened to just living a normal life? ❞ ❝ even if you think you’re protecting me, you don’t have a right to shut me out like that. ❞ ❝ i mean... thanks for saving me. ❞ ❝ en garde, dickhead. ❞ ❝ i love you. ❞ ❝ come on! we can get out of here together. ❞ ❝ everything i touch turns to shit. ❞ ❝ how did you find me anyway? ❞ ❝ i’ve got my eye on you. ❞ ❝ you were going to sell me out, weren’t you? ❞ ❝ love to know what you’re thinking. ❞ ❝ well, well, well. get it? ‘cause you know, it’s a well. ❞ ❝ it’s a shame we’re leaving empty handed though. ❞ ❝ okay...yeah...how do i look? ❞ ❝ thank me after we get out of this alive. ❞ ❝ you’re lucky that i found you when i did. ❞ ❝ they’re just saying that because it gets to you. ❞ ❝ look, if you’re into shady stuff it’s totally cool. ❞ ❝ ha. that’s my girl. ❞ ❝ i made a promise that i was done with this life. ❞ ❝ listen, sunshine, the world doesn’t care. ❞ ❝ well, that’s it. now you know everything. ❞ ❝ don’t even think about not coming back. ❞ ❝ you know, i shot the man who told me that. ❞ ❝ i thought that i’d be satisfied. instead, i’m left with this strange feeling of emptiness.  ❞  ❝ as thrilling as the next adventure may be, in the end, you’re always left with that same feeling. ❞ ❝ you know, i didn’t think i could trust you either. ❞ ❝ i almost lost you once before. i just can’t do that again. ❞ ❝ don’t even think about not coming back. ❞ ❝ that’s it! no compassion! no mercy! ❞ ❝ sentimentality in this line of work will get you killed. ❞ ❝ i need your help...and you need mine. ❞ ❝ i kept your tears in a jar. ❞ ❝ i expected you to have my back.  ❞ ❝ tell you what. when i get back, pizza’s on me. ❞ ❝ death. it smelled like death. ❞ ❝ so they have beaten you, eh? your quest’s over?  ❞ ❝ you listen to your mum, okay?  ❞ ❝ trust me - your ego will mend.  ❞ ❝ i hope i live to regret this.  ❞ ❝ these men were all shot.  ❞ ❝ be a lot easier just to let go.  ❞ ❝ what? no witty remark? nothing clever to say?  ❞ ❝ seems like i am always saving your ass. ❞ ❝ i never asked for any of your bloody heroics. ❞ ❝ the guys in prison used to say, ‘you can steal to eat or you can steal to get rich.’ i say, why not both?  ❞ ❝ you were never a chocolate and flower kinda girl.  ❞ ❝ i don’t have your luck. people like me know when to walk away from the table.  ❞ ❝ appreciate the update, captain obvious.  ❞ ❝ you made your choice.  ❞ ❝ don’t tell me you’re buying all into that supernatural nonsense.  ❞ ❝ i couldn’t sleep last time i saw that.  ❞ ❝ it’s actually nice working with a woman for a change. ❞ ❝ i’m lucky you’re on my side. ❞ ❝ do you really think all this really could be true?  ❞ ❝ you know, it’s kind of romantic down here.  ❞ ❝ just wish i’d brought something to read.  ❞ ❝ you can relax. we’re safe here. ��� ❝ i am surrounded by traitors and fools.  ❞ ❝ just don’t get us killed. ❞ ❝ what are you shaking for? ❞ ❝ parents must be worried about you. ❞ ❝ i wonder what you’re really scared of...not bullets, or blood, or broken bones... ❞ ❝ i don’t need your bullet-ridden-corpse on my conscience. let’s go. ❞ ❝ yeah, i’m fine. oh, but - you’re bleeding. ❞ ❝ i do seem to attract the scum of the earth. ah - no offense. ❞ ❝ all this grandeur, hidden away from the world.  ❞ ❝ if we don’t make it out here, i just want you to know - i hate your guts. ❞ ❝ i’ve got a bad feeling about this place. ❞ ❝ that’s my blood. that’s my blood. that’s a lot of my blood. ❞ ❝ you should play the hero more often. it suits you. ❞ ❝ eyes ahead, don’t look down. ❞ ❝ here - grab my hand. ❞ ❝ no matter what it is, you’re supposed to come to me so we can work it out together… as a team.  ❞  ❝ you know nothing is ever truly destroyed. just purified and reborn.  ❞ ❝ you just - totally crushed that moment. you know that, right?  ❞ ❝ you’re a selfish dickhead.  ❞ ❝ i do speak a little bit of ____, you know. wait, what did you say? ❞ ❝ i know you. you’re no hero.  ❞ ❝ i wish you could’ve been there. ❞ ❝ hey, are you happy? ❞ ❝ you’re not gonna pass out on me or nothing, are you? ❞ ❝ look, i...um....i’m not good with the whole people thing.  ❞ ❝ i’ve had worse nights, believe me.  ❞ ❝ let’s find somewhere a little more private. ❞ ❝ hey, take it easy. you’ve been out for almost half an hour.  ❞ ❝ to rule people, you first must sow chaos.  ❞ ❝ it’s not stealing if it was mine to begin with. ❞ ❝ take me with you. ❞ ❝ i’m left with this strange feeling of emptiness.  ❞  ❝ anyone ever tell you, you have a funny idea of romantic?  ❞  ❝ it’s nothing that years of therapy won’t fix.  ❞ ❝ no. it’s my turn to walk away.  ❞  ❝ nothing about our lives have been fair, but we’ve made it work. ❞ ❝ your people will beg me to save them.  ❞ ❝ we’re not on a first-name basis.  ❞ ❝ you know nothing about me.  ❞ ❝ do tell. maybe over some drinks?  ❞ ❝ we must keep to the shadows.  ❞ ❝ hey, you cool? ‘cause i need you to be cool.  ❞ ❝ you must be tired of these lectures. i know i’m tired of giving them. ❞ ❝ here, take this. you’ll catch a cold. ❞ ❝ is that a sin? i think that’s a sin. ❞

#rp meme #roleplay meme #roleplay starters #long post for ts / #this new dashboard is so gross ....................

[longitudinalwaveme]

Arkham Files: The Flash (Wally West)

Hugo Strange: From the patient files of Dr. Hugo Strange, director of Arkham Asylum. Patient: Wallace “Wally” West, also known as the Flash. Session One. So, Mr. West, how are you? 

Wally: Let’s go over the situation I’m in, shall we? My wife and I visit your creepy, Gothic asylum-perfectly legally, by the way- to make sure that Bruce Wayne is okay, and you get us arrested on bogus charges of trespassing. Then you pull strings to get me stuck in Arkham Asylum while I’m awaiting trial, and now you’re trying to have me declared legally insane so that you can lock me up in here for good. How the heck do you THINK I’m feeling? 

Hugo Strange: Your hostility is unnecessary, Mr. West. I am trying to help you. 

Wally: If this is your definition of ‘helping’ me, I’d hate to see what you do to people you want to hurt. Seriously, did you go to the Zoom Academy of Making Things “Beeetttteerrrr”? 

Hugo Strange: I am nothing like Mr. Zolomon, Mr. West. 

Wally: I’ll say you’re not. Hunter...he’s sick. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. But you? What’s your excuse? 

Hugo Strange: I do not need an excuse, Mr. West. You may not realize it yet, but you-and all the other costumed vigilantes-are doing more harm than good. 

Wally: What do you mean, more harm than good? I’ve had my powers since I was ten years old, and since then I’ve done my best to hold to the promise that I made to Uncle Barry: to use my speed only to help those in need, to combat evil-and never for my own personal gain. I haven’t been perfect at it-I’m not as selfless as Uncle Barry, and I’ve got quite a temper-but I’ve tried. I’ve really, really tried. 

Hugo Strange: Let’s talk about your Uncle Barry, shall we, Mr. West? 

Wally: Why? So you can twist my words and use them to make him out to be some sort of misguided lunatic? Not gonna happen. 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, I assure you I bear no ill will towards Mr. Allen. Obviously, you bear a great deal of affection for him. I simply wish to know why that is. 

Wally: Because he’s a hero! He’s brave and loyal and honest and kind and good. He cares about everybody. He uses his powers to protect the weak and help the poor and defend the helpless. He became friends with Albert Desmond when nobody else would’ve given him a chance and got him his job at S.T.A.R. Labs, and he’s tried to help Mick Rory get the treatment he needs for his pyromania, too. He’s raised billions of dollars for charities, and he’s helped to save the world more times than I can count. (Pause) And he does all that while also working for justice as a police scientist! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, the exploits of Mr. Allen are well-known. I was asking you why you, in particular, are so fond of him. 

Wally: Well, he did marry my favorite aunt. (Pause) More importantly, though...as a kid, I really needed a hero, and he….he was my hero. My parents barely knew I was alive, except when I did something that inconvenienced them. When that happened, my dad would call me names or hit me, and my mom would wail and cry and guilt-trip….and then they’d go right back to obsessing over their own problems or arguing with each other. I...I felt like I was all alone, except for Aunt Iris. She was the one person in my family who really seemed interested in me, and she also had this awesome job as a reporter in a big city. She was really cool, but because I lived two hours away from her, I didn’t get to see her very much. (Pause) When Uncle Barry first became the Flash, I didn’t know who he was...but I idolized him. I was his biggest fan! I was even the President of the Blue Valley Flash Fan Club. (Pause, laughs) President and only member. The other kids thought he was cool, but they weren’t as invested in him as I was. To me, he represented freedom. 

Hugo Strange: It sounds as though you were a rather lonely little boy, Mr. West. 

Wally: Yeah, I guess I was. (Pause) That’s why I was so excited when my folks sent me to live with Aunt Iris in Central City during the summer when I was ten. And that’s when I first met Uncle Barry. Like I said, I didn’t know he was the Flash yet, so at first I thought he was...well, honestly? Kind of a dweeb. But then he told me that he knew the Flash and could introduce me to him. I was so excited, I probably could’ve inhaled an entire shoe. Anyway, Uncle Barry used his super speed to change into the Flash and act like he’d been waiting for me to arrive, and that’s when I met the Flash. He was everything I’d dreamed he would be. Even though I had been a little bit of a brat to him as Barry Allen, he treated me with respect; like he was happy to meet me and have me around, and it put me over the moon. Eventually, he started to explain how he’d gotten his powers, and that’s when it happened: lightning struck twice. I was doused in the same chemicals he’d gotten his super speed from, and I gained access to the speed force. It was the best day of my entire life. Besides the day I married Linda, of course. I became his sidekick, and from that point on, he was like a second father to me. He laughed at my stupid jokes, got me ice cream, took me on field trips, played games with me….all the things I dreamed of having my dad do with me. Eventually, he told me his secret identity. It was shortly before he and Aunt Iris got married, and I was ecstatic to learn that my favorite aunt was going to marry my hero. I was the ring bearer at their wedding, and from that point on, Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris basically raised me. They helped me through my parents’ divorce. Uncle Barry taught me how to balance a checkbook and apply for college scholarships; Aunt Iris helped me get my driver’s license and taught me how to really notice when other people were in need. (Pause) If it hadn’t been for them, I...I don’t know what would’ve happened to me. Maybe I’d be one of Captain Cold’s strays right now. 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, let me posit a question to you. If your uncle loved you so much, why did he put you in a costume and allow you to fight dangerous criminals? You became the so-called Kid Flash at ten years old, and by the time you were eleven, you had already faced the Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, and the first Mirror Master-to say nothing of your garden-variety gangsters and thugs. Surely, a responsible adult would have ensured that you stayed far away from such violence...and yet Mr. Allen seemed to almost thrust you towards it. 

Wally: (Annoyed) Thrust me toward it? Are you kidding? If Uncle Barry hadn’t allowed me to be his sidekick, I’d have struck out and done superhero work on my own. I wanted to be just like him, remember? If anything, I thrust him into letting me fight criminals. (Pause) Besides, it wasn’t like he was just letting some random kid fight crime. I had super speed, remember? The chances of my getting shot were virtually nil. And the Rogues have a thing about not hurting kids. I wasn’t in any particular danger, especially not with Uncle Barry watching out for me. 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, you obviously are unaware of this, but your uncle is a very sick man. 

Wally: Have you been listening to anything I said? Uncle Barry is the best man in the world. If that makes him crazy...well, I don’t want to be sane! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, I understand that this is difficult for you, but you must face reality. Your uncle was a very eccentric, very lonely man. He had few friends; most of his life was absorbed in his work. He always wanted to be someone special, but he knew that slow, lazy Barry Allen was no one important. Like you, he idolized a superhero-in his case, the Mystery Man known as Jay Garrick, and, like you, he wished that he, like his hero, was special. When his metahuman powers were activated by the lightning strike, his mind, already fragile from years of being mocked and looked down upon by his peers, shattered. He decided to use his powers to emulate the hero he had read about and idolized as a child, so that he could finally be special. Eventually, his antics drew the attention of other, even more damaged individuals, thereby indirectly inspiring the debut of all the costumed oddities that both you and your uncle spend so much time playing cops and robbers with. And then he met you. Another lonely little boy who wanted to be special. When you got your powers, he saw a chance to expand his fantasy world; recklessly endangering you. He may have been deluded enough to call you a sidekick, but what you really were was a child soldier. No wonder your life was sent into such a tailspin when he was temporarily lost in the speed force five years ago. Without him around to help maintain the fantasy that he had indoctrinated you into, you were lost, and the only solution you could think of was to take up the role that he had once filled. You are not a hero, Mr. West. You are a sad, deluded child; just as your uncle is a sad, deluded man. But I will see that you get the help you need. 

Wally: (Furious) That’s a load of bunk, and you know it! I don’t know what your game is, Dr. Strange, but you’re not going to get away with dragging my uncle’s name through the mud! 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, your loyalty to your uncle is misguided. He is a dangerous vigilante, one who took advantage of your innocence and loneliness to turn you into yet another costumed freak. What he did to you was wrong, and it is my duty to make sure that you, and the rest of the world, realizes that fact. 

Wally: (Very loudly) Don’t you talk about Uncle Barry that way, you filthy liar! (Stands up rapidly; knocks over the chair he was sitting in) 

Hugo Strange: Mr. West, I would advise you to refrain from such open displays of hostility. Otherwise, I will have to recommend that your children not be allowed to visit you, for the sake of their own mental health. 

Wally: And how do you think it affected their mental health to have their parents locked up on phony charges, huh? 

Hugo Strange: Neither of you were fit guardians for them, Mr. West. I understand that having them separated from you was upsetting, but it is for their own good. You and your wife obviously love them, but you are too ill to properly care for them, and your wife was only enabling your behavior. It was simply not a safe environment for the children, so they have been removed from your home until such time as you have been cured and can properly care for them. Two generations of costumed vigilantes is quite….(Hugo Strange is frozen solid) 

Capt. Cold: And he’s got the nerve to call us crazy. Really, accusin’ you an’ your missus of being bad parents? I seen how you dote on those kids, West. Only a nutjob could think you were unsafe for ‘em. 

Wally: Captain Cold? 

Capt. Cold: The one and only. You ready to bust outta this joint, kid? 

Wally: Are you seriously asking me to help you escape prison? 

Capt. Cold: Sam got Lisa and all the guys out already, and I’ve pretty much already escaped, kid. Just figured I’d be nice and get you outta here, too-before the Doc decides to give you a lobotomy. (Freezes and breaks Wally’s metahuman power dampener) Besides, Central City is furious over what happened to you and your missus. They ain’t exactly gonna expedite you back here. 

Wally: All right...but as soon as Iron Heights gets rebuilt, I’m taking all of you Rogues straight back there. 

Capt. Cold: I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Pause) C’mon, kid. Let’s blow this popsicle stand.

#the flash #dr. hugo strange #wally west #captain cold #flash comics #dc comics #fanfic

[shadowfae]

We’re all pretty aware that the tumblr otherkin community is at a huge decline; I was wondering if you have any theories as to why that is?

American Protestantism, the decline of queer oppression in North America and the AIDS crisis, helicopter parenting, web 3.0, morality politics, and  Tumblr’s porn ban; roughly in that order and rolled up into one bombshell that was a few years in the coming but nobody really saw it and understood it until it was far too late.

That was a mouthful and probably only made sense if you follow current cyberpolitical theory. For some of you reading this, as with every other hot take I have this has a chance of being passed around, that alone is enough. But for others who had no idea what I just said and need the ELI5 version, let me explain that. Buckle up, this’ll be a long one, and will go into fandom history a bit as well because it is actually relevant.

As we know, tumblr is a very American-centric platform. Twitter is also this way, but less so, but tumblr has it bad. Now, I’m ‘lucky’ in the fact that I’m Canadian and a twenty minute drive from the American border, so that puts me in the ‘privileged’ majority. (I say privileged because I’m not really sure what else to call it. Most of the information going around about politics either directly affects me or indirectly affects me approximately one or two links of contact away. Someone who’s only influenced by American politics because it makes their sister’s online friends sad is not going to be privileged in that way.)

This means that American politics and their social climate overwhelmingly affects tumblr’s social climate. This also bleeds through into other fandom spaces, on twitter, instagram, and Pixiv to name a few places; but here’s where I spend the majority of my time so here’s what I’ve witnessed.

America’s main religion, as far as I understand (from the raised agnostic and currently neopagan view I have), is some weirdass capitalistic-Protestantism that is so many miles from what the actual Bible says that if I were a betting man and knew more about cults than I did, I’d say it’s some weird fucking cult and never set foot in the country again for any reason that isn’t gaming free shipping through a PO box. If you have no idea what I just said but are at least vaguely familiar with Christianity, this graphic explains it pretty well. So we can see there’s some glaring issues with that ideal.

The decline of queer oppression and the rise of queer rights in North America, which is to tenderly include my own country but we all know when people say ‘in NA’ they mean ‘America, and Canada where it applies because the right-wing Republicans are really good in the propaganda department to convince everyone that Mexico is a drug-lords-and-anarchy wasteland to the point where even I don’t actually know what’s down there other than bad drivers and heat’; means two things. One, it’s a good thing by a long shot and do not mistake this as me thinking queer oppression being lessened is a bad thing. But two, it means that thanks to the AIDS crisis, queer folks lost a lot of first-person sources as history.

The queer elders in NA who survived are typically either a) bitter anarchists who are often POC, probably still dirt poor and do recreational drugs or b) university-tenured TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists). Category A are the people who Republicans have deemed worthless in every way, because racism, queerphobia, ableism, and all the other ways to be wrong and different and Evil that they can’t handle, because Jeezus would never want them to actually learn to love someone who wasn’t just like them, and they don’t have the compassion to do better. Category B are the people who want to be different in just a teensie little bit, typically with TERFs they want to be lesbians, but they don’t want to challenge the status quo. They’re fine with the way things work, they just want to be on top oppressing others over ripping the whole damn thing down and building a more forgiving system.

Now, due to all those ‘isms and the cheerfully malicious aid of the Republicans, pun not intended but drives home the cruelty of it all, we also see the rise of helicopter parenting. The invention of the internet did not really help this. Basically what you’ve got is a whole bunch of parents who saw the civil rights movement, just got access to the internet and things going viral, know the world is changing, and like all parents, they’re scared for their children. Now instead of parents knowing one or two people in their classes who just went missing one day and everyone assumed they ran away, they hear about eight homicides in the city of kids going to parks at night and dying. The Satanic Panic was another event around this time that contributed to that, but I’ll let you research that one.

This means that all of these parents, instead of doing what their parents typically did and let their kids wander off for the day so long as they’re back by sundown, they can’t let their children out of their sight. There might be a freak accident where their child is decapitated on the playground swing! Their baby might get murdered by an evil Satanist walking home from school! Their dearest darling might go online and tell their address to someone who’s got a 100% chance of being a pedophile who will show up and kidnap them in the night!

…You get the idea. 

Combine those three things I just established, what we’ve got is a lot of queer kids who have a lot of internalized shame for being different and wrong, because they’re queer, and they can’t find spaces offline to be themselves, because all of the elders who would do that are dead and/or inaccessible and their parents won’t let them go to any clubs that aren’t school-related, which they’ll never find a GSA or queer club because Republicans, ‘isms, propaganda, and the war on Category A queer adults have all done their best to ensure that those spaces don’t exist.

So you have a generation of kids who I am the youngest of. The first generation on the internet. The late Web 1.0 (usenets and Geocities) and early Web 2.0 (livejournal was the big one, ff.net too, also 4chan but fuck those guys) generation. What we were taught was: trust nobody on the internet with your real info no matter how much you like them, this is a wilderness and any crimes that happen won’t be punished or seen so don’t put yourself in a position where you’re going to be the victim of one, and everything you put online is never getting taken down so don’t put anything up that you’re not willing to have on the front page of your local newspaper.

This worked out pretty well, actually! You had kids who knew that if they got in trouble, there was no backup coming to save them. Because the form that backup might take - parents and police - wasn’t going to help. Best case, they’d be banned from their friends and online support groups for being queer. Worst case, they’d be jailed and put in juvie and conversion therapy and turn to drugs and become evil Satanists just like everyone says they secretly are already. So they learned very quickly to take care of themselves. Nobody was going to save them, so they learned to not need saving.

And then, well, Web 2.0 shifted to Web 3.0. Livejournal died because parents - the Warriors for Innocence was the big name - went “gasp how horrible my children are being exposed to the evil pedos and homosexuals they’re going to do drugs and die of AIDS!”. Which is uh. It’s filled with a lot of bigotry, and I’m not excusing them - absolutely I am not - but you can kind of see where they’re coming from, if you tilt your head and squint.

Either way, LJ died, tumblr took its place, Facebook was fast taking off, and the fandom folks who had seen mailing lists go inactive, web admins take their fanfic sites down due to copyright, entire fandoms burnt to the ground in flame wars, said ‘fuck that we’re making our own place’ and that’s how AO3 got made.

That’s important. A lot of folks move to AO3, because well, the rules let them. The rules say ‘you can throw literally anything up here so long as it’s fan content and is not literally illegal, so we don’t get taken down’. It’s a swing for the first generation internet users, those kids who know this place is a wilderness and are carving out our own sanctuary.

But. The children under us. The children for whom AIDS is a nightmarish fairy tale, for whom the ghost stories are conversion therapy, for whom know they can’t really talk to their parents about being queer but can trust they probably won’t get kicked out over it. The children who haven’t spent ten seconds without supervision except online, and their reaction isn’t ‘oh thank god I’m finally free to express myself’ but ‘if I get in trouble, who will protect me?’.

And there’s nobody there. Because we went in knowing there was no backup. And that was fine. But now, the actual adults have figured out that hey uh, maybe we should make cyber laws? Maybe we should make revenge porn and grooming children over the internet crimes? And they grew up with that. They grew up learning that no, even if your parents are suffocating and controlling, they’re always be there for you! Some adult will always be there to protect you!

That isn’t the case. It’s not. But they expect it, because it’s always been done for them. They don’t really want to change the status quo, because that means doing it themselves. They can’t do that, because they don’t know how, they’ve been controlled for every single part of their lives thanks to helicopter parenting and without that control, they don’t know how to keep their lives together, and they demand someone come and control it for them, without restraining them.

Effectively, they want someone to ensure they never face the consequences of their actions. Helicopter parents will rescue you from whatever you did, because you’re their precious baby and it doesn’t matter if you punched a kid, you can do no wrong and the other kid clearly started it.

But being queer is doing wrong. Being queer is something Jeezus doesn’t approve of. So they want to make it something he could approve of! But if it’s too off what they consider to be okay, if it’s too different and weird and wrong and evil, that can’t do, that’s still bad, and they’re precious angels, and children, and minors, why are we the adults not protecting them and letting them see it? Why aren’t we being just like their parents  but queer-friendly, why aren’t we protecting the children?

The adults who taught us were the children of those who died as a result of AIDS. The eldest of my generation knew some of them personally. My therapist’s younger brother died at 20 of AIDS, and she told me what it was like. But they don’t have that. These kids of web 3.0, they don’t have that. What they have is over-controlling parents, and the expectation that someone will always be there to protect them but hopefully in ways that don’t hurt them this time, no real understanding of why Category A queer elders are the way they are, and so much internalized shame that they have to do some pretty fancy logic-leaping to keep them from collapsing entirely.

They can’t turn into Category A queer youngsters, because they don’t know how to unravel the system around them, because they’ve never had to actually make choices in their lives and live with the consequences, because they don’t have the example of how to do it. They can’t unravel their internalized shame because again, that’s hard and they don’t have their parents to take away the consequences and pain. It doesn’t come easy to them, so it may as well not come at all.

But, you ask, if Category A queer elders aren’t around to teach the kids, then how are they learning anything positive at all? Well, Category B, our university-tenured TERFs, who don’t want to change the status quo but want to just be at the top of it instead.

For a lot of kids who don’t know how to make hard choices but want to be queer, this is an extremely attractive option. But when they go online to queer spaces, a lot of them say fuck terfs, we don’t support your hate, and they go ‘yeah okay that makes sense’. They can say fuck terfs without ever actually questioning why terfs are bad. They’re Bad and Evil, just like drug addicts, just like fairytale nazis, just like the evil homophobes.

And we saw them say ‘yeah fuck terfs’ and we were like, ‘aight you got it’ and we never questioned if they actually understood us. They didn’t. They didn’t, and we didn’t do enough to fix it, because not enough of us realized the problem. So terfs got a little sneaky. They hid behind dogwhistles and easy little comments, hiding their rhetoric in queer theory that you’ll absolutely miss if you just memorize it and never actually question it and understand why that point is being made.

This goes back to America sucking, because their school system is far more focused on rote memorization over actual logic and understanding of the text. They’re engaging with queer theory the way they’ve been taught, which is memorize and don’t think, don’t question. Besides, questioning and understanding is hard. Being shown different points of view and asked what they think is not only hard but requires them to go against all of the conditioning that says to just listen and agree and never question it, which goes back to tearing the system and internalized shame down, and we’ve established they can’t do that so naturally they don’t do that.

This begets, then, the rise of exclusionary politics. They’re turning into Category B queer youngsters, because we told them ‘hey that’s a terf talking point what are you doing’ and they never questioned why. They learned you can do all sorts of things, just don’t say X, Y, or Z, because they never thought deeply about it.

The children who have grown on Web 3.0 do not want to do any heavy lifting to make things easier for themselves long-run. They want to do as little as possible and have things get better for them. There isn’t enough of us left in Category A, because Category B terfs are very good at recruiting young folks and Cat. A is overwhelming poor, dead, and easily dismissed in the system as evil and bad, so we can’t exactly convince the young folks to listen. If all of the young kids could agree to tear down the system, a lot more older folks might listen. Change always starts with the young, and there’s a reason for that.

But Republicans have figured out, if you get people fighting, they never put together a force that can actually stop you. TERFs, who want the exact same thing as Republicans but with themselves on top, are doing this to queer youth, and Cat. A elders can’t fight back because there isn’t enough of them and the odds are against them, and the young folk like me who follow their lead.

People can kinda handle gay people. It’s not so far from the acceptable normal that it’s impassable. But you want them to handle kinky people? Gay people of colour? Kinky gay people of colour? Trans people? Those are bridges too far to step across. The original idea was to get the foot in the door with marriage equality and inch our way through with racial equality, sex positivity, dismantling ableism and perisexism (forgive me if that isn’t the word for anti-intersex ‘ism), and see if we can’t patch up the system instead of inciting a civil war over this and have to tear down the system entirely.

Well, we might’ve managed that if not for AIDS being the perfect ‘Jeezus is killing all the evil gay people for being sinners’ propaganda machine. As it stands now, not a chance in hell. So long as Republicans and terfs keep everyone fighting, nobody has the power to dismantle their empire, and they stay in power.

So then, you ask me, “Lu what the fuck does that have to do with the decline of otherkinity on tumblr???” and now that you’ve got all that background knowledge, here is your answer.

Those children who want their experiences curated for them and the evil icky content they don’t like to be gone because it disgusts them and anything that disgusts them is clearly sinful problematic and should be destroyed, are what we call ‘antishippers’, or anti for short.

They like being progressive. Sort of. They learned what Republicans and terfs have honed to a fine talent: keep people fighting, hold them to a bar they have to constantly make or risk being ostracized, and harass the people who don’t play along into getting out of your sight forever. Sound familiar?

They learned of otherkinity, and particularly fictionkind, because web 3.0 means if something goes viral on one site, it doesn’t just go viral on that site, it makes it to worldwide newspapers and twitter and nobody ever, ever fucking forgets it. They realized the following: “Hey wait, if I’m this character for realsies, not only does it help me deal with the internalized shame I’ve done nothing to actually fix because that takes work, I can also tell these people who draw gross content I don’t like they’re hurting me personally, and that actually sounds credible, and I can shame them into stopping”.

If this is your first time here and that sounds sickening, it damn well should, and I am so, so sorry that any of us had to witness this, and I am more sorry I and everyone else who personally witnessed this didn’t realize what was going on and put a stop to it. I answer asks and browse the tags and clear up misinformation and it isn’t just a genuine desire to help. It’s damage control, and my own way of trying to deal with the guilt of not stopping this. I’m well aware I couldn’t have seen it coming, I was a teenager myself still learning and no one person has that much power. I still feel like I should have done more, and I’ll do what I can to fix what’s within my power to fix.

So back to the story. This all culminates around 2016 or so. Trump wins the election, and every queer person ever knows they’re fucked, and the younger generation’s only ever heard horror stories, never seen actual oppression that this could bring. We’re all scared. We all don’t know what to do. Nobody has any answers or any control over the situation.

So they lash out. They attack others for drawing things they don’t like, for challenging them in literally any way, for asking them to reconsider the vile shit they just said, for so much as defending themselves from the harassment they just got. And when challenged, they yell “But I’m a minor! A literal child! How dare you attack me, clearly you get off on this, you evil pedophile!” and they sling around every insult in the book until one sticks. Pedophile is a pretty good one, so is abuser, and sometimes zoophile works out too. Freak is great, everyone gets right pissed off about it.

The fact that Category A queer elders were called pedophiles and freaks is not a fact they know or care about. The fact that they are quickly making every fandom community super toxic is also not a fact they care about. The fact that the ‘kin community has words and terminology and they actually mean shit, and the fact that they’re spreading misinformation faster than we can keep up with, are not facts they care about.

So they come in, take our terms, make it impossible for us to find new folks. They realize our anger is easily a power trip, because we’re already made fun of, so they get off on the little power they can find and make fun of us too, and then when we get rightfully annoyed and pissed off, they can hide behind being minors.

Then tumblr implements their porn ban, because nobody’s stopping them, because it isn’t profitable to have porn on here. Considering most of the otherkin community, and most fandom communities, are full of adults who do occasionally talk about NSFW things, and the fact that they’re just banning everyone who so much as breathes wrong, this begins the start of a mass exodus, scattering already fragile communities to twitter, pillowfort, dreamwidth, and a few other places. Largely, twitter, where you can’t make a post longer than a snappy comeback and where the algorithm is literally designed to piss you off as much as possible.

So community elders have largely left, because they can’t stand the drama and the pain of what’s happened, and that’s if they didn’t get banned for being kinky furries who do talk about how their kintypes merge with their sexuality. Most community members have also left or stopped talking about being ‘kin, because they get associated with antishippers and toxicity and it’s just not worth it. Those of us who are left get drowned out by misinformation and trolls and wishkin and antishippers who appropriate our terminology because it supports them getting a power trip, and whenever we argue, we get called pedophiles and freaks and worse.

And now there isn’t much left. I hope we get to find a better place. Othercon was a good place to talk about it, I did a whole panel (it’s on Youtube!) about what we want to do about it. But I don’t really have any answers. 

But to sum it all up... America’s political climate ultimately culminated in destroying queer spaces, and we survived, and then people who wanted to destroy smaller communities to get on top showed up and we were all but defenseless against something we had never, ever dealt with before on this scale.

One of my twitter mutuals mentioned how kinning and otherkin are now completely separate communities. It’s really the best I can do to keep hoping that continues, until nobody realizes the words are at all connected to each other. It’s the best anyone can hope for, now. I hate it. I hate every part of this. But maybe we can salvage what’s left.

#luteia laments #otherkin #fictionkin #alth #alterhuman #asks #anonymous #long post // #discussions #on community history #on politics #on public relations #commentors feel free to add your own thoughts! #Anonymous

[unfortunatelyilikebnha]

Me making headcanons for friendships that get little to no screentime but I’m way too invested in anyways? More likely than you’d think 🥰 (it’s been a while since I’ve done a long ass headcanon post so let’s fuckin goooooooo)

Gonna start with the one I think about the most often (platonic shouchako):

After Midoriya and Iida become friends with Todoroki, obviously Uraraka wants to be his friend too since he’s important to her two closest friends

She starts inviting to him to do things with her, like joining lil competitions with classmates and baking and shit

Todoroki is confused why she’s suddenly inviting him to do all these things with her but he finds her to be pleasant company so he goes along with it

They actually make a good team, especially when they’re motivated (which since Uraraka is very competitive and Todoroki is fairly competitive himself, is often). They destroy their classmates at shit like class water gun fights and prank wars. They are a truly terrifying duo and the rest of the class is wary at best whenever they’re on the same team

One day Uraraka offhandedly refers to Todoroki as her friend and Todoroki’s like “??? You wanna be my friend?” and Uraraka’s like “uhh I already am your friend? What did you think I was doing all this time?” and Todoroki (who hasn’t really made friends outside of the context of fighting)’s like “oh. Thank you” and maybe smiles a little

Uraraka is overcome with the strong feeling that she would die for him (Iida and Midoriya are like “join the club”)

ANYWAYS they like training together since Uraraka specializes in close combat and Todoroki specializes in ranged combat, and they spar fairly often

They have a running bet over who will defeat the other in training more by the end of the year. It’s low stakes (the loser just has to make the winner their favorite food), but they like the competition

Uraraka learns that Todoroki has a sweet tooth, so she asks Sato to teach the two of them to bake, and baking together kinda becomes their thing, it’s relaxing and they enjoy it. They do it both for fun and when one of them has a bad day

Todoroki buys Uraraka little gifts, like he’ll see her favorite type of mochi at the store and get it for her or he gets her a Kirby plushy because “it looks like her” (Uraraka jokingly chases him around for that one)

They commiserate with Iida about Midoriya’s bone breaking habits and general self destructive tendencies and the three of them team up to try and get him to care for himself more. They also team up with Midoriya to get Iida to be less hard on himself. They are the Midoriya And Iida Support And Appreciation Squad.

Uraraka thinks Todoroki’s sense of humor is fucking HILARIOUS and Todoroki takes advantage of this to try to make her laugh at inopportune times (almost no one believes her when she complains about this because they’re like “Todoroki? Making jokes? Seems unlikely.” Uraraka has decided that he is the incarnation of evil). She swears revenge on him every time though the revenge is usually something silly like sneak attacking him to ruffle his hair so the colors are all messed up and it sticks up funny

She’s actually one of the people he texts most often, both while they’re at school and as pro heroes (while they both deeply care about their friends Todoroki is the type to accidentally fall out of contact if other people don’t initiate, and though busy Uraraka refuses to let that happen).

Sometimes he sends her weird ass memes at odd hours of the night & when she wakes up the next morning she’s like “what the fuck. Todoroki what does this mean.” He usually just sends her :) in return which explains absolutely nothing.

If anyone ever insults one of them within the other’s earshot, it’s on sight. Uraraka got detention for a week after punching a second year who said Todoroki’s scar was ugly, and Todoroki got detention for two weeks after icing someone who made fun of the state of Uraraka’s clothes. Neither one of them can bring themselves to regret it.

When Uraraka has a bad day, Todoroki is good at silently offering her support by being near her, sometimes giving off heat or cool if she’d benefit from it, and not asking her questions but being willing to listen to what she has to say if she wants to tell someone about what’s bothering her

When Todoroki has a bad day, Uraraka notices and gives him space but also reminds him that his friends love him and offers him an opportunity to talk about what’s bothering him if he wants to + says she’ll punch whoever made him sad (he has no doubt that if he wanted her to, she’d actually do it, no matter who it was that was bothering him, which is an oddly heartwarming thought)

Whenever Iida or Midoriya teases one of them, they playfully go “friendship ended with (Iida/Midoriya), (Uraraka/Todoroki) is my new best friend” then laugh (Uraraka) or look outwardly blank while hiding secret amusement (Todoroki) when Iida/Midoriya is thrown off guard and/or jokingly tries to “get their best friend back” (they r all best friends actually so this is of course all in good fun :’) )

Todoroki knows how to braid because Fuyumi and his mom taught him in an attempt to create some nice memories while Uraraka doesn’t know how since her hair has never really been long enough to braid. However there’s a period of time where Uraraka hasn’t been able to cut her hair for a while since she’s been so busy, and her front hair pieces have started blowing into her eyes. When she complains to Todoroki about this and says she’d braid it back if she knew how to, Todoroki offers to do it for her and teach her how. She enthusiastically accepts, and brags to the rest of the class how good Todoroki is at braiding (which may start a trend of class 1a asking Todoroki to braid their hair - even though most of them can do it themselves - but he doesn’t mind). Todoroki teaches her how to braid and at first she uses his hair for practice, but she picks it up quickly and now likes to braid Tsuyu’s hair for her. They still occasionally braid each other’s hair for fun though

When Uraraka discovers Todoroki’s kind of touch starved but actually seems to like physical affection from his friends, she makes it her mission to give him more of it by ruffling his hair and playfully nudging him and hugging him sometimes. The rest of the class picks up on this and starts joining in, to Uraraka’s (and Todoroki’s secret) delight

Todoroki can and will fall asleep everywhere, and once that starts including “on his friends”, Uraraka makes it her mission to make sure nobody wakes him up unless absolutely necessary bc he’s Tired and deserves a rest

Uraraka is hungry a lot, especially when she overuses her quirk, and though she tends to ignore it and say that she’s used to it, Todoroki starts carrying snacks around with him and slipping them into her bag/locker/pockets/onto her desk when she’s not looking. She’s sure he’s the one doing it but she’s never caught him and he denies it every time she asks him about it, so she can’t really do anything about it except eat the snacks

Todoroki helps Uraraka study sometimes because Iida is great but he’s not necessarily great at figuring out why she’s struggling with certain concepts and Midoriya is great but he tends to latch onto a small detail of the assignment and ramble about it while forgetting what he was originally trying to explain and Yaoyorozu’s great but her study group is already pretty big and Uraraka doesn’t necessarily want to add another person to her plate or be in such a big group since she’d get distracted, meanwhile Todoroki’s pretty decent at identifying the roots of problems and explaining them and he’s quiet enough otherwise that he makes for a pleasant study partner. Her class rank has actively improved because of this, and she made him soba to thank him for his help

I’ll probably add more in the future but when I tried to post this a few days ago tumblr acted like this didn’t exist and tried to convince me it was deleted or smth so I’m gonna post it now while I can actually see it anyways appreciate shouchako friendship!!

#uraraka ochako #todoroki shouto #did I cry over my own headcanons? ...perhaps #and yeah ik there’s a lot of Mido and Iida in here too but I love the izukrew 🥺 #I’m so mad I had more but tumblr crashed and I forgot some >://// #anyways PLEASE join me in my shouchako friendship brainrot I care them and I wish they got to be better friends in canon #oh btw this isn’t meant to be ship but I don’t particularly care if you want to tag it as such

[remmyswritings]

our secret pt. 2//regulus black x reader

Hello my beautiful Puffs!!! So I wrote this pretty early this morning, and while I just went over it again just now, please excuse any mistakes you find (dw @kashishwrites​ i did go back to sleep) Anyway I hope y’all like this <3 :) 

taglist: @willowbleedsonpaper​ @summer-writes​ @obsessedwithrandomthings​ @firewhisky-kisses​ @potterverseimagine​ @in-slytherin-we-trust​ @masterofthedarkness​ @imboredandneedalife​ @lila-lilakk​ @strawberriesonsummer​ @kalimagik​ @62442-am​ @nebulablakemurphy​ @curious-curios​ @jenniweaslee​ @cherrycolakxsses​ @peeves-a-legend​ @booksmusicteaandanimals​ @heart-of-tempered-steel​ @kashishwrites​ @siriusly-addicted-to-writing​ @redbulletxxxworld​ @pcseidcnsvoid​

part 1 

*Not my GIF, credit to creator*

It had been a year- a very long year- since that fateful day at Hogsmeade where you finally convinced Regulus to let his brother- and by extension his brother’s friends- help him stay alive. Of course with Regulus now working as a double agent for the Order it was getting harder and harder for the two of you to spend time together. He was a skilled enough Legilimens so that You Know Who wouldn’t have a clue but around you, everything went away. You were, and still are, his one weakness. That’s why sitting across from him after the Order meeting had ended, telling everyone about his plan to replace the horcrux you knew you had to act. 

“Reg,” you reached your hand out to him hoping the physical contact would make him look at you for the first time in weeks, “can we talk?”

He still wouldn’t look at you completely but he nodded, so you took that as an improvement. 

You pulled him aside hoping that nobody would disturb the two of you, “Mi amor, can you please look at me? Please?”

His eyes shifted down and caught yours and the second they did you realized why he hadn’t looked at you before- he was terrified and you were the only person he showed any emotion to. You threw yourself into his arms hoping that at least the physical comfort might help a bit. His body tensed slightly at first since it had been quite some time since the two of you had touched only to relax completely, as if his body were putty. One of his hands went to your lower back while the other ran itself through your hair, his face hiding in that little spot in your neck. You swore you felt something wet but honestly you didn’t care… you finally had Regulus in your arms.

“I love you so much Regulus. I hope you know that, and I’m so proud of you,” you started your little speech. “But please for the love of everything good in the world don’t push me away- not now. I need you, I need to feel your heartbeat in the morning and need to be able to run my hands through your hair. I need to hear you read poetry to me on the weekends and hear you sing those French songs in the shower. I need to see you lying next to me when I go to sleep at night and when I wake up again in the morning. Please stop doing this.”

He nodded again and his hold on you tightened even more, “I’m sorry my love. I’m sorry for pushing you away and for hurting you in the process. I just- I worry that someone will figure out who you are and what you mean to me. And if it weren’t for this war, we’d probably already be married and I’d have found us a beautiful flat to stay in and you would have an amazing job with the Ministry. And I want to have that with you, but I can’t- not until I finish this.”

“We can at least start it- our plans for the future,” you pulled away slightly so that you could look at him, “Let’s get married… tonight.”

Regulus at first look bewildered but understand where you were coming from. After all tomorrow he’d go on a mission where he could basically end up dead, so if anything were to happen (fingers crossed it doesn’t) then at least the two of you would be married.

“Ok, but who will officiate it?” You could see the light in his eyes that had dimmed over the past week, reignite itself.

“Um…” you looked around the room where you all were, “I think we can get Remus to do it, and we have enough people here as witnesses.”

Regulus nodded his head and turned around to face the others in the room. They had seen the two of you talk for quite some time now but out of respect had decided not to eavesdrop, although you had made it difficult for them to even try in the first place.

“We’ve decided we want to get married tonight,” the announcement was met with excitement. 

After a little bit of coordinating, you were whisked away by Lily and Sirius while Remus and James helped Regulus get ready. You were quite surprised when Sirius said he’d be with you but in his words “I want to finally spend some one-on-one time with my soon-to-be sister-in-law. Plus Regulus won’t let me touch his hair.”

Thankfully, you had a dress hidden away from several months ago when you were given the chance to go to muggle London. It wasn’t a white dress but that fact seemed to make it even more unique. You were soon helped into your dress and your hair put into a beautiful updo. You didn’t have any flowers to hold or a veil in your hair, but you still felt like you were a princess. 

When you were finally ready, and everyone else in the house was dressed up, you were led outside to the backyard. With just a little bit of magic, small lights filled the air between you and your love. Lily, who had become something of a sister to you since you arrived, walked you down the makeshift aisle. 

By the time you had met Regulus, tears had started to fall from your eyes and you could see that the same was happening with him. There was not a dry-eyed soul in the vicinity. 

After that, everything became a blur… at least until you got to the vows. When Regulus started to read his, you weren’t sure if you would be able to make it through yours.

My love,

Since the very first day we met I knew you would be someone important to me. Even at eleven years old, you were quite good at reminding me when I was acting like a pretentious ass, but I wouldn’t want anyone else in the world calling me out with the sass that you do.

I think we can all agree that you are my better half. Whenever I look at you all I see is light, absolute pure light. You make everything around me seem so much better and you’ve taught me what it means to be a good person. I don’t think I would even be here right now if it weren’t for you. 

You are everything I wish to be and more, my love.

Your hands trembled as you pulled out the paper with the vows you had written one day, with the plan for them to be used much much later.

Mi amor,

I can’t imagine a life where I wake up without you by my side. You’ve taught me what it means to be resilient and determined, especially in the face of fear and evil. And what love looks like. I mean to me you are the definition of true love. 

When I think of us and what we’ve been through I think of all those moments we had together, where it was just about us. There is no one else who I’d want to sass at some point in my day, and there is no one else who I would want by my side when I fight. 

You may think that I’m your better half, but to be quite honest it’s the opposite. Being your friend, and then your lover, you have taught me so much that I can’t possibly put it into words even though I tried. 

I can’t wait to start our future together, mi amor.

By the time you had finished, everyone had started to sob. That night as much as worry filled the air, so did love. When Remus finally said the words “you may kiss the bride” Regulus had almost swept you off your feet- not that you minded. 

The two of you were led back inside where your new marriage was celebrated with day old cake and some left over wine. You didn’t care though, all you felt was happiness and hope that tomorrow would turn out okay. 

For the first time in weeks, Regulus and you slept together in the same bed. You didn’t do anything that night except hold one another in your arms and whisper I love yous throughout the night. The next morning, you were thankful to have woken up first, being given the chance to see your husband look so peaceful was something that you loved. Your husband, there was something about even thinking those words that set a fire in you. 

When the time came, Regulus and you went down to the kitchen where you would wait with the others for his return. It was a nerve-wracking several hours, so much so that Sirius had to grab you by the shoulders to stop your pacing. 

Finally, Regulus appeared close to death and you weren’t sure whether to scream or cry. You rushed over to him, a mere heap on the floor, and with some struggle lifted him into the sofa. Your hands didn’t stop moving until every cut was sealed and no more blood was pouring out of him. By the end, you had to be dragged towards the bathroom and have your hands cleaned, not wanting to leave Regulus alone. 

5 days. 5. 

That’s how long it took for Regulus to wake up. By then every Order member knew not to bother you as you sat by your husband. Sirius would sit with you occasionally and would constantly make sure you ate and drank water… something about how his little brother would kill him if he found out that nobody had made sure you were okay. 

When those grey, stormy eyes opened, the tears that you had held back when he arrived broke through. 

“Sirius!” You called out, “Sirius! He’s awake.”

You had to hold yourself back from simultaneously tackling Regulus out of happiness now that he was awake and hitting him out of anger for almost dying.

The two brothers spoke in private as you were sent to go drink some water. You weren’t sure how long you stood there, leaning against the counter until you saw Regulus out of the corner of your eye holding himself up with the doorframe.

“What are you doing up?” You rushed over to him, “You should be lying down.”

“So this is the first thing I hear from my beautiful wife,” he smirked slightly.

“Oh- if you were expecting me to be mad, I am. I am very mad at you,” you cupped his cheeks with your hands, squeezing them slightly, “but I’m also very very happy that you’re alive and standing in front of me. So this is what you get.”

Regulus wrapped you in his arms and although he told you he was fully healed, the face he made told you otherwise. 

Some days later, Dumbledore stopped by and told you that it would be best for the two of you to flee. You Know Who has gotten word about a traitor in his midst and Regulus’ absence had made him a suspect. The two of you packed your things and then spent that night together with your little family that had formed in the past year. 

You all cried, laughed, and screamed one last time. Then Regulus picked up your bags and wrapped you up in his arms.

“One day,” he started, “when this is all over. We’ll come back. I promise my love.”

With a pop, the two of you disappeared into the night, heading to who knows where to start your new life together. 

#remmys writings #regulus black x reader #regulus black imagine #regulus black x y/n #regulus black #regulus x reader #harry potter imagine #harry potter x reader

[copperpieceharlot]

Bud I’m sorry to swing into your inbox uninvited like this but my soul is having an OOTS renaissance thanks to your content in the tag and did you say Leverage AU

haha holy SHIT this got Long. but yes. i’ve been. Thinking. (also literally Never feel like you have to apologize for sending me messages. i was Hoping someone would ask me about this. now i have an Excuse to share EVERYTHING ive written abt it :3)

Obviously, Roy is the leader/brains of the outfit. He grew up having some Strong Opinions abt what’s Legal versus what’s Right due to tragic backstory involving the death of his little brother which was definitely SOMEONE’S fault for negligence but since there technically wasn’t any illegal behavior, there were no consequences for it. Also he’s still angry at his dad bc he thinks his dad is also partly culpable (and also also just a dick). He’s the Moral Backbone of the team (alongside Durkon, more on that later) in basically the same way Nate was in og Leverage. He’s actually not the best at figuring out what people want (that’s Haley and, shockingly, occasionally Elan), but once he has that info, he is the absolute best at figuring out the ideal plan of attack to use in any given case.

Haley is still a thief. I mean she maps to Parker almost PERFECTLY. Her dad was a thief & a conman, her mom wasn’t but knew about it and mostly accepted it, but she died tragically in a mugging gone wrong or smth, which made Ian crank the paranoia WAY up and taught Haley to do the same in the name of “safety”. Let’s keep the “Ian is in Trouble and Haley needs money, Fast” which is why she signs on to the first job in the first place. She’s less acrobatic than Parker, tending towards finding (or making) weak spots in security, but she can still make a tumble check when she needs to.

Elan is the grifter who is somehow an Idiot but also not???? It baffles everyone. When he’s playing a part for a con, he’s FLAWLESS, but then the rest of the time he’s just. No Thoughts Head Empty. He probably gets lured in initially because he’s decided to try his hand at being part of a full team, rather than the two-man cons he’s been running that invariably end w his partner conning him as well and stealing half of his take. Also he likes the idea of being Crime Friends. He’s that tweet where it’s like, Roy: “after the heist is over, we split up and never communicate again” / Elan: [about to unveil his Crime Buddies Forever Friendship Quilt Puppets]: “never?”

Vaarsuvius is the hacker/gadget person. They have a Vaguely Snobby Yet Unidentifiable accent, dyed(?) purple hair (nobody has ever seen their roots) and nobody knows who they “really” are or where they came from, but they’re good at what they do so everyone just accepts the mystery. They probably got suckered into the team by their initial employer (who I’ll get to Eventually, lol) framing it as a challenge to their intellect, like, “oh, I see, you’re not smart enough to make this team work for you...” to which they were like Fucking Watch Me and also melted his computer. Anyways. They are joined (digitally) by their Intrepid Friend And Co-Conspirator (his words, not theirs), a fellow hacker known only as Blackwing, or, on certain forums, Blackwing_Bird. (In the first season, V only occasionally references him when saying they’re “calling in extra help” or smth for a particularly complex hack job. He starts showing up a little more in s2 and eventually by the start of s4 is a regular & established presence, but only appears as actions in a computer interface or output.) Elan is convinced he’s an AI, Belkar doesn’t think he actually exists, Haley pretends she doesn’t think he exists, and Durkon and Roy try not to think about it too hard, as long as B and V still get the job done.

Belkar is the hitter. He is on the team bc their initial employer got him out of jail for it. He doesn’t have a tragic backstory, he just likes doing violent crimes. As the series progresses, he grows some empathy & stuff, but really only for people who actually deserve it. Assholes still get decked. It’s all very touching. (Also he has dwarfism caused by achondroplasia. It doesn’t actually bother him and is useful in fights bc his opponents frequently have no fucking clue how to approach him, but he likes Pretending to take offense at stupid things just to see how far he can go with it.)

Aaaand last but not least, Durkon is the least involved member of the team. He’s actually a career criminal and Roy’s mentor, and wasn’t a member of the initial team that [redacted, I’ll tell you later, PROMISE] put together for a couple of reasons, the main one being that he’s Officially retired in order to spend more time with his family, which consists of his mom, his friend (not girlfriend) Hilgya, baby Kudzu, and a truly stunning number of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Roy frequently calls or visits him for advice and he Occasionally shows up to help out on local jobs, but generally he avoids doing crime if he can (as part of a deal with Hilgya, who is also a career criminal; basically, they’ve both cut back on the crime in order to provide a more stable home environment for Kudzu. But sometimes, you gotta do a little crime, and in those cases, Sigdi enjoys spending time w her grandson.)

NOW. THE BIG REVEAL YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. Who got the team together in the first place?!

The answer: Lord Shojo (or whatever Normal Person Name you want to assign him). Now this is where it gets tricky: he had them do a thing that they thought was good, THEN they thought it was BAD, but then when they confronted him he revealed that it Appearing to be bad was actually a test of character and would they consider working as basically internal investigators for him? But then he had a heart attack, so, rip. But THEN it turned out that he’d left them a bunch of money anyway and they were all feeling kind of Inspired so they formed the Order of the Stick, LLC (which, no, i am not coming up with a new name, actually, because I just don’t care. someone else can come up w a justification for that name, tho, i’m sure it’s possible). Also Miko was there and was unhappy abt their actions, and also their general existence.

Moving on. Villains!

Redcloak is the Sterling replacement, because that DEEPLY amuses me.

Xykon is a season-long main villain, probably one that Redcloak finds himself working for but then “teams up with” (read: blackmails) the Order to bring him down bc even Redcloak finds Xykon distasteful. That’s season 3, let’s say.

Tarquin is another season villain, say season 2. Nale probably shows up pretty early in s1, actually, as another recurring antagonist like Sterling but uh. Less good at it. Anyways the s2 final 3 eps deal with them (accidentally) discovering that Tarquin runs some Evil Empire Company, then trying to outplay him and take him down. Idk if Nale still dies in this version tbh.

Tsukiko is a one-off s1 villain who returns briefly in s4 alongside Miko, who has gone well and truly off the rails.

Season 1 finale has to do w Roy finally getting Vengeance for his little brother.

The vampire squad is the s4 finale villain who do smth terrible to Durkon and then get the Mother Of All Revenge served up to them by the Order.

I envision the show as being 5 seasons (like og Leverage) but I’m not going to sketch out s5 because I think it should be based off whatever happens in the current story arc, possibly involving some legacy of the OotSquiggle.

Other stuff!

The Order of the Squiggle is a legendary criminal team from the 60s who stole a BUNCH of famous shit & then proceeded to legendarily implode. This has no bearing on the plot I’ve sketched out, I just think it’s fun.

The Sapphire Guard members should probably be reworked as FBI. I don’t care about most of them but I do think that Lien and O-Chul could be like, FBI agents who Choose to look the other way while the Order does their very-much-not-legal-but-still-fair Justice Crime, and maybe even help them out on occasion.

So, the Final season-by-season outline, based on everything I’ve written so far:

s1 e1: getting the team together, doing a con for Shojo, then at the end he dies and the gang is like “dang what now?" and intend to split up except then they Don’t.

mid-s1: Nale shows up and tries to trick the Order, but then gets beat like a drum.

late s1: Tsukiko is an underling of the Villain Of The Week, winds up in police custody. But She’ll Be Back.

s1 finale: Roy’s Vengeance: The Vengeaning. also we meet Redcloak as an antagonist.

s2 e1: the truth abt Haley’s father comes out

early s2: The Two Live Crews Job but it’s the Order vs the Linear Guild and the Linear Guild ARE all bad guys.

mid-s2: Redcloak returns. ugh.

late s2: the sapphire guard FBI makes its first appearance, hello O-Chul and Lien.

s2 pre-finale: once again they’re in conflict w Nale over smth, he spends the whole episodes making Cryptic Remarks, they basically beat him (like a drum!) but then the stinger at the end is that Tarquin reveals himself and Elan is like “Dad?!”, roll credits.

s2 finale, part 1: Elan is hanging out w Tarquin bc he’s DEEP in Denial, the Rest of the team tries to take Tarquin down, but it doesn’t work.

s2 finale, part 2: Elan finally gets a clue and they manage to beat Tarquin. still haven’t decided if Nale dies or not, but I’m leaning towards yes. also they rescue Haley’s dad.

s3 e1: fuck dude idk.

early s3: Redcloak shows up, AGAIN, everyone groans. he has blackmail on them, he wants them to take Xykon down.

mid s3: The Rashomon Job but it’s about stealing the Talisman of Dorukan and it turns out that Nale was there too (“oh!” Elan says. “I was wondering why I looked so weird in all those mirrors! But it wasn’t my reflection, it was Nale’s!” “Sweetie, that wasn’t Nale’s reflection,” says Haley. “Huh,” says Elan, “so the mirrors were broken?”, cue eye rolling from everyone else.), and the Successful thief was Hilgya, who’d nabbed it from the owner before it even went on display.

s3 finale: they beat Xykon, actually factually, because he deserves to get his ass Thoroughly kicked, even if only in AU form. Lien and O-Chul are there, so are some other less helpful FBI people. There’s a bit where O-Chul Exact Wordses his way out of telling his superiors about the Order’s less legal activities without technically lying. King shit.

s4 e1: doesn’t really matter. maybe smth to do w some legacy of Tarquin’s company to set up the drama w Malack & Durkon later.

early s4: Durkon gets SENT TO PRISON. Malack approaches the Order abt this because sure they have Different Ethics but they’re still Friends. (Roy is surprised and a little hurt that he’s never heard of Malack, but he ignores that in favor of Let’s Get Whatever Fuckers Did This To Our Friend.)

immediately after that: Miko and Tsukiko return as a Team, preventing the Order from working on the Durkon situation

mid s4: Redcloak makes another unexpected & unwelcome appearance but he’s maybe a little less of a dick? the Order collaborates with Malack & his Crime Buddies (hello, Vector Legion) to pull one over on him tho, because “less of a dick” does not mean “a pleasant or decent person”, and also he was mean abt Durkon being in jail, so he totally deserved it. he still gets whatever he wanted tho, just takes a blow to his pride. also prevents the Order from helping Durkon. they’re having a LOT of setbacks wonder why that could be, not to make sure the season fills its whole length or anything, no sirree

s4 finale: something something taking down the organization, headed by Hel (yes that’s her real name), which framed Durkon for their Big Crime. Durkon goes free and Extra Firmly retires, For Good, He Swears, but says he “met someone new” who might be an asset.

s5 e1: minrah joins the team! and the episode is set in like, somewhere really snowy. that’s all i got.

the rest of s5: don’t know, don’t care, it’s open-ended until the comic finishes up.

#mine #ask #corvidcorgi #order of the stick #oots #leverage #leverage au #oots au #au #outline #haha this thing clocks in at 1.9k words because i am LITERALLY incapable of shutting up #hope u enjoy it bc i spent Way Too Much Mental Effort mapping out how the OotS plotlines might play out in a leverage setting #and then promptly ignored Most of that in favor of making it funnier & dumber & more villain-of-the-week #(bc lbr the comic is Good but it's got an overarching plot form that the Leverage story style does Not jive with) #i'm not tagging all these characters lol

[wtffundiefamilies]

This is from 2013, but holy hell I hope Anna finds it.  Entirety of the post beneath the cut; it’s both long and not something people should read with no warning.  But I wanted to copypaste in case the link goes down one day.  It’s insane to me that these “little details” and “clues” are obvious and screaming red flags to people raised in a normal world.  (And no, looking at legal porn is not a “red flag” that someone is a child molester.  But, like...again, given the circumstances I’m not sure what we’d expect; we all saw what Jessa said.)  It’s part one of a series, and it’s amazing just how much this dude sounds like Josh.  And how much their “courtship” sounds like Josh and Anna’s.

Part of my mission, my purpose in life, is to educate others about child predators.  I’m not here to stir up some kind of crazy hype, but to present the facts and to give you a bit of insight as to what happened in my own life.  How was I so blinded to the fact that for forty years I was living with a practicing pedophile?  How did I not see the signs?  How did I not pick up on something being very wrong with the man I married?  

The truth is that I sensed something was wrong even before we got married, but I didn’t listen to my inner being.  I didn’t pay attention to those nudgings that something was wrong.  Why?  Because as a Christian it had been taught to me from little up that people who went to church were good, honest, moral people.  I was taught to trust people who said they believed in God and followed His teachings.  And, I did just that.  I was, unfortunately, one of the most trusting women who ever walked the face of the earth!

Pay attention to this, please!  Just because a person tells you that they walk by the teachings of God does not mean it’s true.  In fact, the word of God warns us against “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, and I learned first-hand just what that meant.  But, it would be years before my eyes were totally opened to this fact. As a bit of background information, I came from a broken home.  My parents divorced when I was fourteen, a sister of mine died when she was thirteen, my mother was an alcoholic, and my father was by today’s terms a “dead beat dad.”  Needless to say, I longed for a different life, and I prayed constantly that God would send a good, righteous, faithful Christian into my life so that I could build a home on godly principles and a firm foundation.

I worked hard all through high school so that I could go to college.  But, I didn’t want to go to just any college.  It had to be a Christian college because I sincerely believed that was the only place I would ever meet a Christian man to marry.  Because I worked so hard all through high school, I earned a four-year scholarship to a four-year state school.  BUT, you guessed it!  The idea of finding and marrying a Christian man was so ingrained in my heart and mind by now that I passed up the scholarship and instead went to a very small, two-year Christian College.  Little did I know that this one decision would lead to so much heartache for me and for those who are most special in my life — my children.  While it’s true that we can’t see around every bend in the road, there are signs and signals along the way.  I didn’t pay attention to anyone who tried to talk to me.  One thing was on my mind — finding a Christian mate!

Every person wants to feel special, and longs to be told that they stand out among all of the rest.  During the summer between my first and second year of college I met a young man who was articulate, bright, funny, witty, and who also told me that I stood out.  He was spending the summer at college and so was I.  A friendship developed, and even though I was engaged to marry someone else, this young man worked very hard every day to convince me that I was with the wrong person.  He pointed out all of the flaws of the man whose ring I was wearing until he finally convinced me to break off the engagement.  That’s a story in and of itself — maybe I’ll share that with you another day.

What was a bit strange to me was that the man I would soon marry had a quiet control over me like nobody ever had before.  Even though I had low self-esteem I was used to making my own decisions and being very independent.  For the first time in my life I found I was reporting my every move to this quiet, shy young man. He told me I was special.  He said out of all the girls on campus I was the only one that he thought was pretty and was a true Christian.  He told me just what I wanted to hear.  It was the word “Christian” that nailed me!  I knew he was the one I had been praying about since my youth!

One of the greatest stories my now ex-husband loved to tell was how he spotted me from across campus and said to his roommate, “See that girl?  I’m going to marry her.”  This was totally absurd because at the time he said that we had not even met!  He later told me he would hide and watch me — study me — and he knew my schedule, when I was going to eat, when I’d walk back to campus, when I would go to work.  He said, “I knew everything about you.  I knew where you were from morning until night. I knew I would marry you.”

Instead of being freaked out and thinking this guy was some kind of stalker psycho, I was flattered.  “He chose me.”  Out of all of the girls around, he chose me and that again was more evidence of answered prayers.  Deep inside, though, was a gnawing feeling that something wasn’t right.  He didn’t talk much.  And, for a man who said he loved God, he made fun of people in a mean way.  He mocked people’s insecurities.  Yes, you guessed it!  He mocked me on several occasions and I felt like a piece of dirt he had stepped on.  He made fun of the size of my nose.  He made fun of my feet calling them “hammer head toes.”  He made fun of the space I have between my teeth.  I cried myself to sleep many, many nights, but still……..he was a Christian man, and he was so nice when we were together in public.  He opened the car door for me (it was my car, by the way).  He paid the bill when we went out to eat and left a nice tip.  (It was my money that he used.)  He talked me into giving him my car (which I had since I was 16) and I found myself asking him for permission to use my own car.  This was really weird!

Why did I put up with it?  Why does anybody put up with abuse?  Because they’ve been so used to being beaten down that they think this is the norm. Please, please — if you’re in a situation like this run for your life!!!  This is NOT the way a good relationship works!  And, it’s a red flag indicator of many other problems — in my case, it was a big red flag that I was being masterfully manipulated.  Groomed to be the wife of a pedophile who was already deeply involved in porn and child sexual molestation!  

Learn to listen for “clues” that a decision you’re making might not be right.  I had BIG clues that I passed off as “odd”, “not making much sense”, “silly”, or “not that big of a deal.”

Clue 1:  For the last four months we dated, my fiance was in Israel doing overseas study.  We corresponded by letter only.  We were to get married less than one week after he arrived back in the states.  In his letters he would write to tell me how he would hide behind the grasses on the beach and watch girls changing out of their clothes and swimming nude.  He said he’d skip class and stay there all day.  In other words, he was openly telling me he was a “peeping Tom.”  This was a test of how far he could manipulate me and I passed with flying colors! I never questioned him about it.  Oh, I cried lots, but I never questioned him!

Clue 2:  He told me while we were dating that he and one of his cousins spent the summers together and they would steal cartons of cigarettes from stores and sneak out of the house at night and smoke the cigarettes and look at “porn” all night long.  Another test!  I looked at him quietly but never questioned him.  If you want to know the truth — I didn’t even know what porn was!!!!!  I had to ask my college roommates.  Again, I was being tested.  Could he get away with doing things right under my nose?  Sure he could. I’d never question a man of God!

Clue 3:  He was almost 21 and his favorite job was to “babysit all the little kids at church for free because he loved to give them baths and powder their little butts.”  I’m totally sick now as I write these words.  Why in heaven’s name didn’t I run from this man? There were so many clues that something was wrong, and I passed them off as being a little odd.  Nothing more — just a little bit odd. In fact, I actually thought this was kind of nice.  I never saw my father get involved in parenting like that, and I thought, “Wow!  This man will make a wonderful father!”    

Porn.  Lying.  Peeping Tom.  A young man who loves bathing and powdering little kids.  Masterfully manipulating.  Gaining the trust of adults. (Church people loved him babysitting their kids!)

I was another one of his victims.  I was being set up. I was being groomed  I would be the perfect alibi for his continued evil behavior.  He was calculating.  He studied me.  He used me.  He used my faith as a means to get what he wanted.  He knew what he was doing! His actions were no mistake.  He worked very hard to plan every detail.  

Listen up everyone!  Please don’t do as I did!  If your gut is telling you something is wrong, it probably is!!! Pay attention to the little details and the little voice that is whispering something is wrong!!!

This is just the beginning of my story.  I will share more in the weeks to come in hopes that others will not be blinded to the facts as I was.   We must get educated about child sexual molesters so that we can protect life’s most precious blessings — our children!

Why am I sharing the ugly, sad parts of my life?  That’s simple.  Because children are beautiful.  Children are precious.  Children deserve to be protected.  Statistics (according to information found here ) tell us that 1 in every 3 girls and 1 in every 6 boys are molested by the age of 18.  Please help me to stop this!  Let’s get educated!  Let’s do all we can to make it incredibly difficult for the molester!  Let’s be vigilant on behalf of our children — at all times!!!

Every child should have the ability to grow up feeling safe and loved and whole and pure!

It isn’t easy or comfortable for me to write about this, but I must.  I must take this terribleness and do something positive with it.  I must work for the safety of our children. Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to read this.  Thanks even more for making yourself more aware of what is going on right under our noses — in our schools, our churches, our camps, our homes.  Let’s do all we can to work together to make this a safe place for our children!  

Love, Clara

#clara hinton #sin in the camp

[andersunmenschlich]

"Was I Abused" game

Copied and pasted from this post by @furiousgoldfish (to save space since you can't reformat anything in posts you reblog).

Is it accurate? Who knows! My memories of childhood are incomplete! Besides, a lot of these things seem frankly normal to me and not abusive at all... which, if they are abusive, is probably an especially bad sign. Hm. Anyway, on to the game!

Reblog and bold the things your parents have done to you! Italicize if you're not sure. (copy paste it all and then bold)

Physical abuse

parent slapped me to prove their point / teach me a lesson (I don't remember. It would have been loss of temper anyhow, not point-proving or lesson-teaching.)

parent spanked me as a “punishment” saying it was for my own good (Hey, I was raised full-on Michael Pearl TTUAC-style. This is foundational.)

parent pulled on my hair to force me to move

parent threw things at me while angry, things heavy enough to hurt me (Kind of? She and my sister were on my bed, top bunk. I was cowering on the floor. But I dunno if she was angry.)

parent trapped me in a room/corner so I couldn’t escape them (I don't remember. But I do know, in my very bones, that there was no escape from them. You couldn't run. You couldn't hide. And trying would only make things worse.)

parent hit me when I wouldn’t obey them / tried to confront them (To Train Up A Child, people.)

parent used a twig / stick / belt to lash at my body (Again—this is the Pearl technique. My parents broke a lot of wooden paint mixing sticks on me before discovering this whippy plastic rod about the thickness of a pencil! You could sharpen the end in a pencil sharpener, too. They had a ton of those, it seemed like. And a short one for trips outside the house; it fit in Mom's purse.)

parent grabbed me to force me to pay attention to them

parent pinned me down and physically prevented me from escaping (...Yeah. Again, this is the Pearl technique.)

parent brought me into situations where I feared for my life (I—look, it's not like the fears were rational or anything. It's just that the world is terrifying when you're autistic and so much hurts. And have been taught your whole life that "the world" is a terrible, dangerous place that can kill you both physically and spiritually. Yeah.)

parent made it painfully obvious for me that I’ll obey them or suffer injuries (I mean. TTUAC.)

parent threatened to beat me if I wouldn’t do as they say (This was the most basic part of my childhood. Like air. Under what circumstances would this not be the case? Unimaginable.)

parent forcefully fed me something I refused to eat (Does not letting you eat between meals, and putting the same food in front of you at each meal—over and over again until you either eat it or it grows mold—count?)

parent made an attempt at strangling / drowning / burning me

parent banged my head / body into the wall / furniture (To be fair, I hit him first. And it's not like I broke the table when his punch sent me across the room: I didn't hit it that hard. Just busted open the back of my head a bit.)

parent forced me into sexual activities

Emotional abuse

parent called me derogatory names and slurs more than once (Frankly, I'm still reasonably convinced that I am a monster. And evil. And I am definitely a fool, at least biblically speaking. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no god,'" indeed.)

parent said my name mostly with hatred and scorn in their voice (To be fair, it was my name.)

parent degraded and humiliated me in front of others for fun

parent insulted and devalued something really important to me (I mean, in retrospect, it was dumb. Just a worthless paper model of a house, that's all. It wasn't even that great. I was a little kid, after all. So what if I'd spent all day on it? It was still garbage, really.)

parent deprived me of something that meant the world to me (I don't remember. I genuinely don't remember, but I still have trouble admitting that I care about anything because part of me is terrified that if anyone knows I like a thing they'll have a way to hurt me, and that fear has to have come from somewhere, right?)

parent yelled and swore at me in anger more than once

parent blamed me for things that were out of my control/not my fault (And they do feel bad about this now.)

parent shamed me for my physical appearance

parent guilt-tripped me for not pleasing them well enough (I mean, they tried. But good luck; I have no idea what guilt feels like. I bought a book about it because I was curious.)

parent regarded me as a burden, and shamed me for needing them at all (Hmm. I don't really do shame either. I was a burden, though.)

parent insisted I couldn’t take a joke after I was hurt by their insults

parent never comforted me / got angry if I reached for comfort (Again, to be fair: I'm autistic. I'm pretty sure they were just having trouble with my body language and facial expressions. Why else would they punish me for bad attitude when all I wanted was to be cooed at and fluttered over with the same concern they showed my siblings when they cried about their wounded knees?)

parent punished me for crying / showing fear / showing trauma symptoms

parent humiliated me for showing excitement and happiness

parent subtly let me know that my feelings and my problems don’t matter (They, uh. They don't. My feelings and problems are mine. Why should anyone else care? It's genuinely not their problem.)

parent got angry at me for feeling depressed / angry / tired / suicidal

parent blamed me for feeling depressed / angry / tired / suicidal (Who else's fault would it be? They're my feelings, produced by my body and brain, experienced only by me, in my own head. Dang if I see how anybody else could be to blame.)

parent compared me to cousins / other children to prove how I’m the worst (Dang you, Perfect Second Child. ... Although... in retrospect... that set-up wasn't great for you either, was it. Hm.)

parent decided for me how I feel when it was convenient for them

parent told me that I was crazy / delusional / need to be locked away (I don't remember. It sounds familiar. But I don't. I don't remember.)

parent threatened me with kicking me out / sending me away if I don’t change (Kind of? Does it count if you overhear your parents talking about it in their locked bedroom? Not their fault I was listening at the door, surely. They were genuinely considering it. I can't blame them. I was a terrible child.)

parent refused to accept my sexuality gender / tried to force it to change

parent required me to act normal to protect family’s reputation

parent isolated me from family activities they all enjoy (Nooo, haha, I did that all on my own.)

parent assured me that nobody will ever want me (I mean... "only a mother could love" is a saying for a reason. And if even my own mother couldn't love me, well! I don't remember whether anyone told me this outright. It just seemed... obvious.)

parent insisted that I was lucky and that I could have had it much worse (I could have!)

parent made me responsible for their well-being and made me the caretaker

parent insisted that their harmful acts were all done “out of love” (The subject of love was confusing. "I don't love you," "I hate you," "I have to love you because you're my child, so I love you—but I don't have to like you, and I don't, I don't like you at all" ...it was all very confusing.)

parent demanded I be available for their requests at any time (Well, yes, obviously. To Train Up A Child was very clear about this.)

parent punished me for trying to establish boundaries (Boundaries, boundaries. Hmm. Interesting concept....)

parent destroyed my belongings as a form of revenge (Revenge? I don't know. Consequences, I think it was. For keeping all my favorite toys on my bed, and nesting in them. So obviously they had to be thrown onto the floor. And at my head. Ahaha.)

parent made inappropriate sex jokes and comments in my presence

parent denied doing any of this and insists that all the blame is on me (I'm not sure they aren't right, honestly. As previously noted, I am a horrible person, and I was even more horrible as a child.)

Psychological Abuse

parent kept pointing out my flaws as proofs that I won't achieve anything (Mmm... was it them, or was it me doing this? Seems like they were always telling me how intelligent I was, how talented, how much promise I had. The voices asking why wasn't I doing anything, why couldn't I use the gifts God had given me correctly, why was I wasting it all, I'm the stupidest smart person ever, garbage, can't do anything right, etc., seem to have always come from my own mind.)

parent called me stupid, incompetent, ignorant, while withholding information that I needed to know in order to complete tasks

parent would change their side of the agreement at a crucial moment and then pretend it was obvious from the start

parent stalked me / distrusted me without any reason / invaded my privacy (I'm really not sure. What privacy? A four-bedroom house with twelve people in it has very little room for privacy. And if you have nothing to hide....)

parent attacked my insecurities and vulnerabilities in any argument (Dad's always been very good at this. It's his emotional intelligence, I think. Never been much of a cryer, but he can do it to me every time!)

parent forced me into degrading actions while they watched

parent threatened to leave me

parent regularly accused me of behaving the way they did

parent never acknowledged, praised or approved of my actions

parent always demanded they be acknowledged as right without any proof / explanation (Sort of? They had explanations. It's just that those explanations were often terrible. Not that my parents were aware of that.)

parent insisted that they’re a great parent using financial support as proof

parent insisted that I should be grateful for how good they are to me (Keeping me safe from the world! The evil, dirty, disgusting world, full of immoral monsters! Oh, the horrible things that could happen to me without their protection! ...Which is not entirely untrue, I guess. But... I dunno....)

parent gaslit me and tried to make me believe my memories weren’t real if I confronted them with what they did

Neglect

parent didn’t notice I haven’t been eating properly (Frankly, I preferred that. I never much cared for being forced to eat things that made me feel sick.)

parent didn’t notice I was sick / didn’t care for me while I was sick

parent didn’t notice I was injured (Eh. After the first few years of my life, that suited me just fine.)

parent didn’t notice I didn’t have clothes / shoes I needed for school (I didn't go to school.)

parent didn’t notice I suffered from trauma (Look, it's—it's the autism again, okay? Living in a world that hurts you horribly at unpredictable moments is traumatic. I didn't know it was trauma. I just thought it was life. So how could they have known?)

parent didn’t notice I was anxious and stressed (Oh, they noticed that.)

parent didn’t notice I was depressed (Once again—I didn't realize. So how could they? I'm really not sure this counts.)

parent didn’t notice I was cutting myself (Whipping myself, actually. With tree branches. Until the skin broke. Hmm, that was when I was in my early teens, though—as a kid I used to turn a little wooden rocking chair upside down and throw myself into the sharp ends of the rockers. To be fair, they might have noticed. Just... who really cares? I was a rough and tumble kid. Scrapes and bruises and cuts and what-have-you were to be expected. Anyway, there was no cutting; I never cut myself.)

parent didn’t notice I was suicidal (I wasn't. I'm not. I won't be. Mind over matter. Ha.)

parent didn’t notice I was being sexually abused

parent didn’t notice I was being bullied

parent failed to get me medical attention when it was needed

parent failed to teach me the very basics of self care

parent didn’t seem to notice any of my needs and feelings except the absolute minimum I required to survive (Uh. Anything more than the absolute minimum you require to survive isn't a need. You need to survive. Do you really need anything else? I mean, it's nice, a definite plus, but....)

when I notified them of these things, they denied it, accused me of lying, decided it wasn’t happening and/or blamed me for it

Financial Abuse

parent made me feel ashamed for needing money

parent made me feel like I was a financial burden to them (But I was. Come on, now. There's no way honesty counts as abuse. ...Is there?)

parent only gave me minimal money to survive (I don't—there were kids out there getting money from their parents? I mean, they're giving you clothes, food, and shelter already. What for would you need money? I must be missing something.)

parent made sure I never have a decent amount of money on me (Again—I never had that much money. Quarters from the Tooth Fairy: that was it. Money from birthday cards or whatever went in the college fund under their bed. "For your future." And I raided that stash later to buy books anyhow.)

parent took the money I earned from me

parent used the money to blackmail me (if you continue this way let’s see who will pay for your bus ticket!)

parent insisted since they “pay for my stuff” they have the right to control my behaviour and actions (and attitudes. Is this, um. Is this not true?)

parent had enough money for luxury but kept me without anything

parent refused to get my medicine / get me medical attention because it’s too expensive while they got everything for themselves (Nah, they didn't visit the doctor either.)

parent would keep me anxious over if they would pay my expenses or not

parent would make me do as much work for them as possible before they would pay for a necessity

parent kept me in the dark over family finances even when I was of age (Was that them, though? Or was that me? It's difficult to know what's going on with your money when you can't go outside during the day—so no bank visits—and you don't have the password to your bank account because you never asked for it, so you can't do anything online. Which was just as well, because my laptop was... not great. Almost certainly terribly insecure.)

parent would make sure I never have enough money to escape them

If you bold more than 5 things, you have been through abuse. For some particular ones, even one true thing on this list means you’ve been badly harmed by your parents. Also this list is not complete, there are many more abusive behaviours not listed here, feel free to add!

#furiousgoldfish #'Was I Abused' game #child abuse #? #memories #Isaiah muses

[mst3kproject]

Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks

This movie has a real all-star cast as far as us MSTies are concerned.  There’s Rossano Brazzi, who was Phineas Prune in The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t; Edmund Purdom, whom we know as Griba from Ator, the Fighting Eagle; and Salvatore Baccaro, the leader of the cavemen in Starcrash.  The film itself is absolute, irredeemable trash and I love it like my own garbage child.

We begin out of nowhere with a bunch of peasants beating a caveman to death.  What?  Where are we?  When are we?  Who are these people?  Why is one of them a cavemen wearing a fur loincloth and the rest are just normal people in pants?  Why are they beating him?  Did he do something that pissed them off, or do they just hate him because they’re, like, anti-Neanderthal racists?  What the fuck is going on?  We will never really find out.  We just cut straight to Dr. Frankenstein hauling the troglocorpse into his lab.

That’s how this movie rolls.  Don’t bother asking questions, just try to keep up.

Count Frankenstein’s daughter Maria has returned to her childhood home, bringing along her fiancé Eric and her friend Krista, who has an unhealthy relationship with polka-dots.  Krista is immediately fascinated by the Count and his work, and he with her in turn.  It doesn’t take long for Krista to find out that Frankenstein is carrying on reanimation experiments in his basement, but that’s actually the least of the bullshit going on around here.  There are more cavemen out there, but there’re also rivalries and love triangles among the inevitable gaggle of deformed assistants, and the local villagers are angry about a spate of grave robbing and determined to run the Frankensteins out of town.  The ‘monster’ (I’m not sure it quite counts) is kind of an afterthought.

See, Hans the Butler hates Genz the Dwarf (even though it’s actually Kregan the hunchback who is fucking Hans’ wife) so he gets him fired, and Genz swears revenge on the whole Frankenstein household. Wandering in the woods, Genz meets and befriends a second caveman, naming him ‘Ook’ and teaching him how to rape women in the hopes that he will do violence to Maria Frankenstein.  Ook, however, kidnaps Krista instead.  At about the same time, Genz sneaks back into Castle Frankenstein to free the first caveman, Goliath, whom the Count has been keeping strapped to a table after bringing him back to life, and who has also fallen in love with Krista as the latter assists the Count with his work.  Goliath goes on a murderous rampage, then follows Genz back to the cave where Ook is keeping Krista.  Sure enough, this leads to a caveman-vs-caveman battle for the girl!

Man, I would love to see earlier drafts of this script, mostly because I’m dying to know whether some prior incarnation of it actually had anything to do with Mary Shelley’s book or even with previous Frankenstein movies.  I mean, it starts with the servants digging up a corpse, and ends with a torch-and-pitchfork mob destroying the Count’s creation… the beginning and end of a Frankenstein movie are present.  In between those, however, it wanders off on this bizarre tangent about the local cryptids. As it reached the screen, the only thing Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks seems to have in common with its source material is the threat to the Count’s girlfriend, which was issued by the Creature in the original story.  Technically, even the grave robbing and re-animating have nothing to do with Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus – the book never actually says how the Creature’s body was created. The idea of piecing it together from corpses originates with the Boris Karloff movie.

Let me describe some more of the stuff that goes on here, in order to give you the flavour of the experience.  For starters, Salvatore Baccaro, playing Ook the caveman, is credited as ‘Boris Lugosi’ in the opening credits.  The first time I saw this movie I snorted water up my nose when that popped on screen.

Later in the movie there’s a flashback to that first peasants-vs-caveman scene, and it answers none of the questions I listed above. Why are there cavemen in these woods? I dunno, there just are.  What did the cavemen do to piss off the locals?  I don’t know that, either… they may have been stealing livestock, I guess, but they don’t seem to have been a threat to the people until Genz taught them about rape.  Kind of makes one wonder what happened to the cavewomen, since we never meet one and these guys don’t seem to know what women are, as illustrated by Ook initially thinking their nubile young captive is going to be dinner. Also, although there are two cavemen, they don’t know each other.  Genz has to introduce them!

There’s a bit where Genz is hiding behind a clock to watch Maria and Eric have sex.  The butler comes along and chews him out for it, sends him to his room, and then he stands there and watches them for a while.

In another scene, Maria and Krista go skinny-dipping in a mineral spring, and the longer it goes on the more the dialogue sounds like it’s going to break into lesbian porn.  I am particularly fond of the exchange where Maria says, “don’t worry, this dress is designed to be easy to get out of,” and Krista, impressed, replies, “I’ll say it is!”

The subplot in which the butler’s wife is having an affair with the hunchback has no effect on the plot whatsoever.  The butler never even finds out about it.  There’s a scene in which they run off to the barn to slap each other and smooch, and then the movie forgets about it.  Astonishingly, the same is true of the corpse the servants dig up early on.  They exhume the body of a recently dead woman, Genz cops a feel and leaves some footprints at the scene so that the villagers can figure out who was responsible, and… that’s it.  She doesn’t even hang around as a gratuitous zombie like the grave-robbed girl in The Atomic Brain.

According to Wikipedia, nobody will admit to directing this movie.  Like many Italian films, the director used a pseudonym, and the cast apparently disagree on even such basics as his nationality.  Some of them think he was Spanish, but Simonetta Vitelli, who played Maria Frankenstein, insists he was an American.

At the end of the movie, Ook is the first of the cavemen to be killed, and we get to see Genz weeping over his friend’s dead body.  Then he and Krista hold each other as the mob closes in on Goliath.  This is supposed to be a tender moment but it looks a lot like Genz (who is, you must remember, around four feet tall) is enjoying his faceful of boobs.  Since all alternative love interests for Krista are now dead, maybe we’re supposed to think she ended up marrying Genz.

Finally, as Goliath’s body burns, Edmund Perdom intones, “there’s a bit of the monster in all of us, especially where there’s fear.”  I’ll drink to that, my dude.  ‘Twas beauty killed the beast.  He tampered in God’s domain.

That probably is supposed to be the movie’s point. The villagers are depicted as suspicious, fearful, and quick to violence, while the cavemen seem to have been relatively peaceful types until Genz taught them how to rape.  It’s very much the Homo sapiens who are the monsters there. Frankenstein’s servants are all assorted shades of horrible, from Genz the necrophile to the nasty cackling butler to the adulterous hunchback and cook.  Count Frankenstein himself isn’t quite so overtly evil but it’s clear that he’s not very interested in the moral dimension of his work.

Even if that’s an intentional theme rather than just a pithy closing line, I don’t think anybody thought about it very hard. The rest of Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks is too much of a mess.  There’s no real plot, no identifiable protagonist, it’s sleazy and incoherent and at times it’s horrifyingly abelist… and yet, for reasons I cannot explain, it’s weirdly entertaining.

Maybe it’s just that everything in the film is so damn ridiculous.  So much of what happens comes out of nothing and goes right back into it… a series of mind-boggling what the fuck moments that surprise the viewer over and over.  The impression is that the writers are throwing horror concepts at the screen to see what sticks, but nothing does.

Maybe it’s that this is another villain-centric piece.  You know I like those.  I guess maybe Krista is the heroine?  She seems to do the fewest horrible things over the course of the story, but she’s not a good person, either.  She’s totally into the Count’s creepy reanimation experiments, and makes only a token protest about the idea of informed consent.  Edmund Perdom’s Inspector character is one you’d expect to try and do something about these goings on, but he never does.  Maria and Eric are only in the movie so it can have a sex scene.

Whatever the reason, the result is inexplicably charming. Between the easily distracted plot, the gratuitous breasts, the bad dubbing, the complete failure to either frighten or titillate, and the fact that it tries to tie itself to a lucrative franchise it really has nothing to do with, Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks is almost the perfect example of a bad Italian horror flick from the 70’s.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #frankenstein's castle of freaks #tw: rape #tw: ableism #70s

[mimssides]

Never Met You

Chapter 9: Bittersweet

Sweetness turned bitter. It is happiness tilted with the knowledge that something can never happen again. 

Logan had never had to actively fight on a battlefield. They had prepared him during all his life for the moment when it would come so far. They had taught him to think quick, to act without remorse and to see the danger behind his back. Logan had been better at it than the rest of his unit. He had wielded his sword with skilful, analysed situations rapidly and accurately, and was willing to make the hard decisions.

None of his upper-ups had ever thought that he would become the one to sit on the throne. None of them had expected him to stand in the soldiers’ camps, on the wet and soaking soil in the robe of a king and a crown sitting on his head.

Logan had not expected so either. But here he was. The battle had begun and all he could do was wait. Nurses, a few elderly people, too old to fight but still wishing to fulfil their duty, had stayed back in the camps with him and were preparing for the incoming wounded. Janus was somewhere amongst them as well. He had insisted on staying with his king and was helping in the ways he could.

“I will go to the eastern gate. Maybe someone will need my help there,” Logan announced to Green who was putting down some boxes with various medical equipment in it.

The guard quickly placed them on the ground and made sure that the medics had seen it and ran over to Logan. It was not that Logan had requested him to stay by his side at all times, nor had Janus for that matter, but Green refused to leave Logan out of his sight even for a moment since they had left in the early morning.

Logan simply accepted his behaviour and they walked silently to the gate. Just one younger man was there as well, keeping his eyes out for the first soldiers to head back. There was nothing to be done there. Logan had known and so had Green. There was not much to be done here anyway.

They could see the battle. They heared orders being shouted and people screaming. Logan’s chest hurt from the sight. He lowered his gaze and turned it over to Green. He was staring at the horizon with a steely glare, his upper lip shivering with barely concealed rage.

“This is a tragedy,” Logan mumbled and Green’s eyes flickered over to him.

“It’s an outrage.”

Logan’s eyes went wide as he heard those words. Green was direct, was harsh if needed and could overexaggerate his words like no other but the pure anger in his voice was nothing like any of the things he had heard him say before.

“The audacity to not listen to reason, the audacity to fight for land which he isn’t even interested in. Just making a point by sacrificing the lives of the people he wanted to protect. I can’t believe him. I can’t believe that he let Jean talk him into this nonsense.”

Whistling. A static high note rang in Logan’s ears.

“What?”

Green didn’t look at him. He didn’t even seem to register Logan’s tone or his confusion. No, Green was wrapped up in his thoughts and forgot who he was speaking with for the first time since Logan had met him two and half months ago.

“George is hot-headed and proud but he’s not evil or cruel. He didn’t hate King Aneas and he knows that you are smarter than him. He could talk to you. He could confide in you as he did- He confided in all of us after- His brother is the most ludicrous thing that happened to him and now he is listening to a man who hungers for the power he chose to give up himself? What kind of move is this? How stupid has he gotten?”

“Green?”

He flinched and ripped his eyes away from the horizon and looked at Logan as if he had been slapped. His name had gotten him back to reality and out of his head.

“Why do you talk about King George as if you knew him? Who is we and what is the meaning of this?” Logan asked sharply and Green gulped.

Green stepped back. There was nothing around them that could serve him as a distraction. There was nothing he could do to dodge the question. And he didn’t want to. He so badly wanted to say what was going on, who he was and just fall in Logan’s arms and be held by him.

But that was not something he could have anymore.

“I can’t say, Your Majesty!” Green said pained and held up his hands defensively. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I – I apologize. All of this is driving me crazy, I – I must be losing my mind a little.”

Green chuckled weakly but Logan just glared. He glared not because he distrusted or was angry with Green but because there was something he didn’t know, something he felt like he should know and yet didn’t. He was frustrated with himself and with Green for not letting him help him.

“Who are you really?” Logan blurted and stepped closer to him before a shout stopped their conversation at once.

The shout was Logan’s title and it came from the young man, who was the only one in their proximity. And besides his title he also screamed a warning, Logan would never be able to recall. He turned around himself and faced a young man, almost still an adolescent, wearing the uniform of the Raganian army.

A sword was in his hand, eyes focused on Logan’s chest and he bolted forwards.

With a sword Logan knew exactly how to parry this hit.

With a shield he could have blocked it.

With his dagger in his boot, he could have done something as well.

But none of those things were available to him at the moment. All he could do was try simply dodge out of the way. And he was about to do so.

Green was quicker. Green shot in front of him, sword drawn almost in time. But his movement was stifled by surprise, the sword not able to parry the other blade.

Steel met his flesh just beneath the ribcage. There was much force in the young man’s panic, enough to send the sword through him. Green’s blade fell and blood soaked through his shirt. He looked down to the weapon in him, followed it to the hand which was holding it still. Followed the arm and the met the young man’s gaze.

He was mortified. Green smiled.

“Good hit, kid. It’s important to always … believe … in your strikes... It’s important to follow … through.”

He was on the ground, sword still in him. He hadn’t thought that it would hurt so badly.

 “SteP AWAY FROM HIM!”

Green’s sight was getting blurry. He was losing too much blood. He would die. He would bleed out. How his father and mother had bled out. He would die.

 Thud.

Pain. So much pain and faintness in his head.

 “Green?”

Something wonderful was resting on his arm. His sight focused. There was Logan. His Logan. Was this the last time he would see him?

“‘m scared... thought dying would feel … different” Green muttered.

Logan was smiling. He was smiling. Why was he smiling?

“The medics are almost here. They will do everything to safe you.”

Logan was crying. He was smiling but he was crying. He was being strong for Green.

“nobody … should have to be saved … Patton …”

Logan put his hand on his cheek.

“Don’t worry about him. I will make sure this ends now. None of my citizens should suffer like you. I will do it for them. I will do it for you.”

***

 “And there he is,” █████ said softly and leaned against the doorframe.

 Logan was sitting in front of his vanity, eyes glued on the mirror until his partner, now his husband, had called for him. With shining eyes Logan turned around and looked at █████ with wobbly lips. Quickly, █████ stepped inside and closed the door. He knew that despite it being their wedding day, Logan would not appreciate for everybody to see his more emotional side.

 Seven steps and █████ stood next to Logan, got on one knee besides his chair and draped his arm around Logan. Logan leaned into it and they let their heads meet gently as they looked in the mirror.

 “I am so lucky to have married the most beautiful man in the world,” █████ said and watched Logan’s cheeks turn red as a smug smile grew on his own lips.

 Logan leaned closer against him and mumbled: “I do not think that something like the most beautiful man exists in an objective sense but I appreciate the compliment. You look quite stunning yourself.”

 Gingerly, Logan touched █████’s bangs and pushed them back before he pressed a little peck on █████’s cheek. He then pulled back, so █████ could stand up. █████ did so only to sit down on Logan’s armrest and to stare at his husband in awe. Softly, he rested his head on Logan’s and smiled at their reflection. Logan’s smile did not quite match his pure enthusiasm as it was slightly subdued.

 “What is it, my lovely bug?” █████ asked.

 Logan rolled his eyes barely masking the fondness behind the motion.

 “Are you nervous for your coronation?”

 Logan’s gaze fell into his lap. Gently, █████ squeezed his shoulder and stood up to stand behind him. With no further ado he began to massage Logan’s shoulders and pressed a little kiss on top of his head.

 “I know that this is what I want,” Logan said after a few moments.

 █████ hummed agreeingly and Logan continued: “I have your blessing as well as your brother’s. The people seem to like me well enough and the fraction of people who are against me taking the throne next to you have never been so quiet. I just-”

 Through the mirror Logan caught █████’s look.

 “What if I cannot be the king the people deserve?”

 █████ halted. Within the blink of an eye, he straightened up and rose his chin just ever so slightly. The posture was perfect and regal. One of a king. Logan gulped. He knew that could never be him.

 “Do you think I am what the people deserve? Do you think I was not nervous before I officially got crowned, after having ruled for six years as a child ████? I was born to do this, Logan. I was trained and educated for it and yet I know I’m not the ████ the people deserve.”

 He took a deep breath, hands joined behind his back, voice clear and strong as he continued: “But I was all they had. It was not a choice for me or anyone else to make. And so, I gave my all to be enough for them.”

 Suddenly the stiffness was gone and █████ let his posture drop and all but draped himself over his husband’s shoulders.

 “But it’ll never be enough, my star. And it’s okay. I’m trying every day and they forgive me when I fail. And they will forgive you even more. Because you, my love, you are so much more qualified to do what I am doing. I have seen you attend my meetings, talk with my council and stand your ground with the nobility in such a masterful way. You have Roman’s diplomatic nature and are a greater strategist than I could ever wish to be. You were the first thing I dared to take for myself since my parents’ assassination and I have never regretted it ever since.”

 No, Logan did not cry. █████ did not wipe away his tears as he got in front of him and caressed his cheeks with his thumbs.

 “I love you beyond words,” Logan said quietly and watched █████’s face light up like a million stars.

 “Oh, and I love you eternally, my beautiful, beautiful husband,” █████ said and they kissed.

 It tasted a little bit salty. Maybe █████ was a little bit emotional as well.

 “You will do great for them, Lo. I know it.”

 Logan tilted his head to the side and pulled █████ onto his lap. With a yelp and a laugh, he complied and let Logan give him an uncharacteristically firm hug. █████ hugged back and waited for Logan to let go. He didn’t. Not for a long time.

 Gingerly, █████ tapped Logan’s shoulder and hummed: “What is there still, my bug?”

 Logan squeezed █████ close to his chest.

 “I will be good for you. No matter what you think, but I know this world has never seen a ████ as kind and as grateful as you and I will make you see that. I will make you realize that you are far more that the people ever deserved.”

 No, █████ did not cry. Logan did not wipe away his tears as he stood up with his husband and got ready for his coronation.

***

A rush of warmth ran through Green and the fear was gone. He didn’t manage to focus on Logan anymore but he didn’t need to. He knew he was there. He knew he would follow through. He closed his eyes with a smile.

***

Logan knelt next to Green’s body. There was a red patch of blood on his knee. He swallowed thickly and lifted his hands up to his head. Graciously, he took of his crown and put it down above Green’s head. Then he rose from the ground and shot a look to the young man who had tried to warn him.

“Your sword and then get the medics,” Logan said and without question was handed the sword.

The man ran and shouted for help immediately and Logan turned towards the one who had tried to stab him. With barely any effort he slapped the sword out of his hand and grabbed him by the back of his neck, twisted him around and held him against his chest, sword tickling his throat.

And then Logan walked. He walked towards the battlefield; his heartbeat steady but slow. The young man in his grip was trembling but Logan didn’t care. He would soon be where the fight was and nothing would stop him anymore. Not Janus’s calls for him to wait, not the sight of a battle.

Nothing could stop him now, as he stood behind his men with an enemy pressed against him and crippling grief in his chest.

Logan stood still and took a breath. And then he screamed from the bottom of his soul. He screamed out in terror, in anger and in misery. And the soldiers in front of him stopped. They stopped and watched their king step forward with a young trembling man in his grip. They watched as he moved further and further until he stood in midst of the battlefield, enemies as well as allies stopped to move around him.

“What are you doing?” Logan called out to the soldiers around him.

No one moved.

“This solider just injured a man fatally. A man who did nothing but protect me. A man who wanted to go home to a child he cares very much about. And this soldier is young too. He will have to live with what he has done for the rest of his life.”

Logan lowered his sword and pushed the man away from his chest, hand still tightly holding onto the back of his neck.

“You all will have to live with what you are doing here right now. You will kill each other in the name of a crown I am not willing to wear anymore. Not if I can’t stand with you. Because I am one of you. I am a soldier. I was trained as one, lived as one in my youth and expected to die as one. But I did not, and that is not for I am smarter, richer or more powerful than you, but it is because my prince was kind. My prince believes that my wish for peace and prosperity for all people is the only way to rule and so do I.”

He let go of the man and the man turned to look at him. In shock he watched Logan Rayne’s tears fall.

“You are the people. You are those who fight our fights. You are more than your generals and your kings. You are what makes your homes your homes. You can end this war now before anything worse happens. You can lay down your weapons and go home. Go home to your families, your animals and your houses and do what you want to do instead of injuring and killing strangers.”

And then Logan dropped his sword to the ground. He looked around the crowd with his chin held high, despite the tears running down his cheeks. He watched his own soldiers lower their weapons. A moment or two passed and the “enemy” did so as well.

Logan lowered his head. A whimper shook his body but he caught himself and looked over the soldiers again.

Weaker but still clear Logan said: “Whoever is hurt may go back to the camps. We will treat anyone who needs help. That includes Raganian solider too.”

A few of his soldiers confirmed and Logan nodded at them. Slowly, he folded his hands behind his back and began to walk towards the camp. Soldiers began to follow him. The closer he got to the camp, the closer he got to the little group of people gathered around the eastern entrance, the more his legs started to feel faint. Someone caught him when he tumbled and he put his hand over his mouth as he spotted the stretcher which was put beside Green’s body.

“Your Majesty?”

Logan looked to the soldier who had caught him. She looked concerned and he tried to regain his balance.

“Excuse me,” Logan said and shot her a half-hearted smile, “today seems not to be my day.”

She just nodded and stayed by his side. They got closer to the entrance and Logan watched as several people lifted Green on the stretcher. People were talking and orders were thrown around hastily as they carried him away and Logan regained a bit more composure and told the soldier that she could go. He would be fine.

“Logan!!!”

But apparently Janus wasn’t.

Agitated Logan looked around until he finally spotted the Royal Advisor running towards him from the entrance. He almost tumbled over his own feet and Logan found himself unnerved but at the same time relieved. He wasn’t the only one to struggle with everything that was happening.

Just before Logan Janus stopped and finally Logan realized that Janus was holding his crown and had red eyes. He felt his stomach sink and his eyes automatically flickered towards the medic who disappeared in a tent with Green.

“Why are they all coming back? What did you do?” Janus asked and his fingers clenched around the golden object in his hands.

Logan inhaled and exhaled slowly. He knew the smile on his lips didn’t reach his eyes.

“I advised them to stop. And they did. This battle is over,” he said easily and put his hands on Janus’s.

Janus gulped. There was nothing of his usual composure left, nothing of his snark or his silver tongue. Logan had to take matters in his own hands. Quickly he ordered a few soldiers who were unharmed to spread the news, inform Roman of what had happened. He asked around if anyone needed more help and designated someone to be in charge of the camp for the time being, as he retreated in his tent together with Janus.

Logan soon took a seat on the makeshift bench they had put in the middle and tapped on the spot next to him. Janus sat down. He was fiddling with his fingers, visibly shaken and Logan gave him a minute to collect himself.

Minutes passed and Logan expected Janus to talk but nothing came. He was just unnerved and fearful and Logan decided to put his and on Janus’s knee and waited for his friend to look at him. It took him merely a moment and he met his king’s gaze.

“What is on your mind?” Logan asked kindly his throat feeling dry from the words he had shouted earlier.

In front of him, Janus grabbed the edge of the bench, his knuckles turning white and his shoulders began to shake. And for the first time ever Logan watched Janus begin to cry. He watched as his body shook and his lips refused to stay pressed together and wails and sobs escaped his lips. And despite his own pain, despite his own regret and guilt, Logan sat closer and took Janus in the arm. He knew he was no Roman whose hugs seemed to be able to cure every sadness in the world, but he had to be enough for the moment. And Janus didn’t recoil. He let Logan hold him, buried his head against his chest and gave into the soft pats Logan drew on his back.

And between his wails and tears Janus muttered something. Logan heard it.

“I thought it was Roman. I thought I saw Roman on the ground. Then I thought it was Aneas. I saw his corpse again. I saw it.”

***

Noon and the afternoon passed. Some of the tents were already gone and a few soldiers had already returned to the castle. Logan and Janus would stay here until the next morning when they would get back with the rest of the injured soldiers. They would be treated close to the castle. Green would be one of them, if he survived the day. It wasn’t clear yet.

It was around six in the afternoon when two horses approached the camp, one black and one white with Virgil and Roman on them respectively. Roman had dealt with the first people to come back from the battlefront and had given all the instructions which had been needed in these first moments, before he had put himself on a horse and rode straight towards the battle himself. Because these messages hadn’t been sent by Janus and he needed to know why it hadn’t been Janus who had asked for him.

When he got down from his horse, Virgil close to him, he soon found out why. Janus came running for him, cradled his face the second he reached him and looked his eyes. He was dishevelled and no word formed as he opened his mouth to say something. Anything really.

Roman took him in his arms. He felt his heartbeat speed up and shot a look to Virgil who looked just as alarmed as Roman did. Quickly they tried to figure out where Logan was to get some answers but the king was faster than they were. Logan walked towards them, shot a quick look around and motioned them to follow him into his tent. Janus clung to Roman on the whole way and Virgil ended up patting the Royal Advisors back out of worry for his companion.

The second they were out of earshot from the rest of the camp inside the tent, Roman asked: “Okay, what on earth is going on? The messenger told me that you simply stopped the war with a speech? What happened and what did you say?”

Logan told them to sit down and he retold what had gone down these past few hours. He left out who had protected him and at first it seemed that neither Roman nor Virgil questioned the absence of Green. But there came the point where Roman noticed and finally asked the question.

“Where is Green helping actually? I haven’t seen him yet.”

Logan paused too long. Virgil was the first to realize and shot up from the ground in front of Janus’s feet. Roman looked at him confused and the realisation didn’t come until a few moments later when Virgil began to speak.

“In what condition is he?” Virgil asked.

Roman’s eyes grew wide. His ears were filled with white noise and suddenly everything went black.

***

The one good thing that came out of Roman fainting was that Janus finally snapped out of his state of panic and started to function again. Quickly he had placed the prince on Logan’s bed with Virgil’s help and they left him with Logan in favour of making sure that everything was running smoothly in the camp.

The atmosphere was calm and very little had been heavily injured. And yet Virgil felt how a thick fog of uneasiness was laying about them all. The voices of the people were hushed as they spoke and for once he could tell that it was not because he was close but because of something different. It took a moment for Virgil to catch on but soon he found that the closer they got to the tent where Green was treated the quieter everything had gotten. He asked Janus about it and he told him that everyone, even those who hadn’t known Green before this day, had reacted strongly to seeing him hurt. A few had even started crying despite themselves.

Without saying both men knew that this was not only odd but had to be related to with whatever spell had been put over Green. Yet all of that speculation would be for naught if Green would die of his injuries and as of now none of the medics treating him had come out to tell them anything about his state.

And so, the evening came. Logan and Roman rested in the tent, both feeling rather emotional over what had happened today. Janus, while still unnerved, was now taking care of the organisation and left Virgil to keep an eye on their royals. It was not much that Virgil could do but make sure that both Logan and Roman took their meal, which turned out to be rather difficult in Logan’s case ash he had trouble to keep his food down and decided to only eat a few spoons of the soup they had been given.

After dinner, Logan was lying on his bed, Roman’s head on his lap, as Virgil sat next to the entrance and listened to what was happening on the outside. This form of closeness was not something Logan let himself have all too often and yet he could not imagine how he would do if he didn’t have Roman around. The comfort of the prince’s presence was enormous and was the only thing what kept Logan going at this point.

“We’ll have to find out who he is, after we get back.”

Logan lifted his head and glimpsed to Roman. The vibrant green eyes caught Logan’s mismatched ones and Roman nodded his head for empathise.

“He’s not just someone and we both know it. Our reactions should not be as extreme as they are, Logan.”

Logan bit his lips. Could it not be that all of this was just because they were under such immense stress? That he was this emotional because the air of a war was still occupying the atmosphere? It had to be this and not some weird conspiracy, correct?

“I can’t agree,” Logan said stricter than he felt. “The situation is extreme and we should not make assumptions on several oddly placed coincidences.”

Before Roman could answer, Virgil stood up. Both royals sat up and watched as Virgil opened the tent for Janus to enter. From the outside they heard a few people talk with each other.

The fabric of the opening closed and Janus looked over the two and then to Virgil. There was a short twitch on his lips and he turned back to look at Logan and Roman. Subconsciously, both of them held their breath.

“I just got news from the medics who are treating Green,” Janus said and put his left hand over his heart. “They told me he was in stable condition and can be-”

He didn’t get to say the rest as Logan dissolved in tears of relief. Janus was soon by his side, holding him from the side as Virgil brought him some water. Roman was crying himself but a smile kept itself steady on his lips.

He had been right and now not even Logan could disagree with him anymore.

___

Link for AO3, Taglist, Masterlist, and next Chapters are in my first reblog!  

#intrulogical #remus sanders #logan sanders #janus sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #background romantic anaroceit #fatal injury #stabbing #blood #fainting #crying #sobbing #angst #happy end #fantasy au #Never Met You #eir writes #please reblog

[scribomaniac]

Something Wicca This Way Comes Ch 12

l Emma l

The silence in the attic was thick and heavy. Liam was still in her face, his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed as he digested Tink’s words. A part of Emma wanted to punch him straight in his stupid, square jaw, but another part, the part that had kept her alive these past twenty-eight years, cautioned her not to.

“Now that the cat’s out of the bag,” Tink said slowly as she tugged on Liam’s arm, trying to get him to move away from Emma. “Why don’t we all just calm down, yes? Have a cup of tea, maybe?”

Will groaned, pulling himself up into a sitting position, “I could definitely go for some hot chocolate right now.”

Emma’s brow rose. She’d just killed the Source’s son, and they wanted to relax with some hot drinks?

“Come on, boys,” Tink corralled the Charmed Ones towards the stairs, “Let’s get out of their hair for a moment, hmm? We can discuss everything else later, hmm?”

Emma watched them go, barely catching Killian’s blue eyes as he let himself be guided from the room. Then, before she knew what was happening, two pairs of arms were around her, holding her tightly.

“Oh, Emma,” Mary Margaret—her mother—said softly, her voice wobbling in a way that warned Emma of oncoming tears.

Gritting her teeth, Emma tried her best not to stiffen in their embrace. She hadn’t been held like this since—well, she couldn’t ever remember being hugged like this. The Underworld wasn’t very big on hugging, and while hugging Killian had been nice, it had felt more like a manipulation tactic than a genuine show of affection.

Eventually though, Emma reached her limit. “Right,” she stepped away from David and Mary Margaret. “I really—we don’t have to do this. We can just—”

“Emma,” Mary Margaret smiled and stepped closer to take Emma’s hands, “look at you—you’re,” her eyes began to water. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Come on,” David—her father—wrapped one arm around Emma and another around his wife, “let’s sit down and talk.”

“No,” Emma pulled her hands from Mary Margaret and slid out from David’ arm. “I mean, I don’t really want to talk—”

“Well I do,” Mary Margaret interrupted while taking a seat and looking expectantly at Emma and David to do the same. “Okay? Evil can wait—I can’t.”

David took a seat beside his wife.

Taking in a deep, shaky breath, Mary Margaret continued, “You’re my daughter and,” she smiled wide, sincerity shining through her teeth, “I want to talk to you.”

Swallowing dryly, Emma hoped this awkwardness would be over soon and took a seat across from her parents. “Alright,” she shrugged uncomfortably, “let’s talk.”

“We just,” David started, then stopped to rub the back of his neck, “I just want you to know that we looked for you. We never stopped looking for you.” His blue eyes poured into hers and the anguish there made Emma’s chest hurt. “”I’m so sorry, Emma.”

Mary Margaret nodded, “I know your life couldn’t have been easy, but I want you to know how much we love you and—”

“Okay, that’s enough for now.” Emma stood suddenly and immediately headed for the door. Listening to them talk, seeing them cry, it was all too much. She felt like she was being buried alive under their guilt and regret. “I need some air.”

She heard David and Mary Margaret call for her as she bolted down the stairs and steadfastly ignored them. And of course, because she’d never had any crumb of good luck, she ran straight into the Charmed Ones. They were seated in their living room with their delicate little cups of China in their hands, each steaming with some sort of relaxing liquid.

“Swan?” Killian asked, his brows raised and concern etched all over his face.

Grimacing, Emma shook her head and stormed off towards the kitchen, hoping nobody would follow her. Why did everyone have to care so much? And so obviously, too? Didn’t they know how vulnerable that made them? How easy that concern could be manipulated?

Turning on the kitchen faucet, Emma splashed water into her face, hoping to relieve the heat that had begun to burn against her skin. It helped a little, but not enough. She needed to find a release.

Before today, she would’ve known exactly what to do. She’d either take a swig of tonic or released a burst of fire. Now, she had no idea. The tonic was poison and her fire was gone. It’d be replaced with a bright light that she barely understood and didn’t know how to summon. Tink, that white-lighter, had said she’d help, but so far all she’d done was leave her alone with two overbearing strangers.

“Do I need to remind you that those strangers are your parents?” Tink asked, suddenly at Emma’s side.

Forcing herself not to jump in surprise, Emma asked, “Isn’t it rude to read people’s minds?”

The white-lighter shrugged, “Maybe. It does come in handy though, whenever I have a particularly cagey charge.” When Emma didn’t respond and simply turned the sink off, Tink nudged the other woman in the side, “Come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”

Emma grimaced, “They almost cried.”

Tink laughed, “I’m surprised waterfalls weren’t pouring from their eyes! They love you, Emma, what’s so wrong about that?”

Lots of things, Emma thought. She’d been taught from day one that love was a weakness. Yes, that lesson had been taught by demons, and she recognized that it was probably flawed, but those lessons had kept her alive. Just because she finally knew the truth about where she came from—that she was wanted—didn’t change any of that.

“I don’t know what to do,” Emma admitted quietly. “I don’t know what you all want from me.”

It was so easy, in the Underworld. All anyone ever wanted down there was power. Up here it was so much more complex.

When Tink didn’t immediately respond with some generic platitude, Emma knew something was up. Looking at the blonde white-lighter, she saw Tink’s lips had pursed, as if she were trying to decide how to say something difficult.

Emma groaned, “What—just say it.”

“Well,” Tink said slowly, her eyes sliding to the kitchen’s entrance, making sure no one was about to walk in. “I hadn’t want to mention this so soon—I wanted you to have more time with your parents; Killian, even, but . . .”

“Just say it.”

“It’s about your destiny.”

Brows raising, Emma asked, “My destiny? What, like that stuff’s real?”

Tink nodded, still not looking at Emma. “Every witch has one, you see. Some are simple, like undoing a curse, and some are a bit harder to complete.” Taking a deep breath, Tink gestured towards the rest of the house. “Mary Margaret didn’t know this, but her destiny was to have you—the Savior. The Charmed Ones—their destiny was to restore the balance between good and evil.”

Pushing hair out of her face, Emma caught the use of past tense and asked, “Was?”

Tink nodded, “They completed it. Last night.” She finally returned her gaze to Emma’s. “When you saved them by using your powers—your real ones. By becoming the Savior properly.”

“Okay,” Emma’s brows furrowed. “Then what’s my destiny?”

Taking a deep breath, Tink looked away again and said, “To defeat the Source.”

“What?”

“I know—”

“No,” Emma interrupted. “You don’t know. How the hell am I supposed to defeat Rumpelstiltskin?” Pushing away from the sink and from her white-lighter, Emma thought of the scaled demon and shuddered. “He’s been around for almost a thousand years. No one’s been able to even come close to overthrowing him.”

There’d been hundreds of coups against the Source’s life, and no one ever lived to talk about it. Once Rumpelstiltskin had destroyed single every upper level demon based off the faintest of rumors that there was an uprising stirring. He’d rather raze the entirety of the Underworld than lose an ounce of his power. What the hell was she supposed to do against something like that?

“God,” she spat, glaring at Tink, “your side no different than theirs! No, you’re actually worse!” She was yelling now, but she didn’t care. Let them all hear what she thought of the “good” side. “At least with demons you know you’re being manipulated. You all just cover up your own manipulation with a shitty bow called destiny.”

Footsteps were quickly approaching the kitchen. She didn’t dare look at who they belonged to. No, Emma kept her eyes right on Tink and her ever shrinking form.

“Well screw this and screw you! If you want the Source dead then do it yourselves. I didn’t sign up for this—for any of this—and I’m not going to go on a suicide mission just because you and your Elders say it’s my destiny. It’s not destiny—it’s bullshit!”

This—listening to Tink, returning to the manor, becoming the Savior—was a mistake. She wanted out of here. Now. Emma tried to shimmer, forgetting that power was lost to her, and almost screamed in her frustration. Turning towards the kitchen’s only exit, she found it blocked by the Charmed Ones, each of them staring at her with looks of pity, contempt, and concern. None of which Emma could stand at the moment. That left her with one option—the basement.

Slamming the door behind her, Emma fled down the rickety old stairs into the darkness. She didn’t care about finding a light source. Darkness was an old friend to her from the days before she could consistently start a fire. It comforted her, even now. Finding the darkest corner that she could, Emma sat on the cold ground with her knees pulled into her chest.

The cold felt nice against her too hot skin. Deciding she’d find her way out of the house once she began to shiver, Emma settled in for a long wait and hoped, once again, that no one would come down to join her. She didn’t know what she would do if someone tried to reason with her right now. If Tink were the one to try it, if she even tried to read her mind again, Emma would breathe fire at her, powers gone or not.

If it were Killian . . . Emma honestly didn’t know what she’d do. Tightening her hold around her legs, she tried to sort out the tangled mess of feelings that always found its way into her chest whenever she thought of him. She knew he hated her. He had to, after everything, and she was alright with that. Hate she could understand.

But then why did he always look so concerned when he looked at her? That made no sense. Perhaps he pitied her? But that didn’t feel right. Emma had seen pity, had felt it, and that wasn’t what Killian was expressing.

And then there was how she felt towards him. Everything that had happened between them had been fake, a ruse, a way to manipulate him and his brothers. But, had it been? When they’d been together she’d felt . . . happy? Was that the right word? Emma couldn’t be sure, but she knew it was the closest to happy she’d ever been.

And then there was that other feeling. The one that reminded her so much of lust she sometimes explained it away as such. But it wasn’t lust. She’d felt lust for Baelfire, once upon a time, and this was so much more. Whatever this was, it never left her feeling empty or ashamed. It was delicate and small, and yet not easily pushed to the side or forgotten. Part of Emma wanted to know exactly what this feeling was, but another part told her not to look at it too closely.

Shaking her head, Emma told herself firmly that it didn’t matter. Feelings didn’t matter. What did matter was her survival, and the best way to do that was to get as far away from this house and its inhabitants as possible.

But, of course, before Emma could even properly think of an escape plan, the door to the basement opened, and someone turned on the light. The floors creaked as someone walked down them. Their steps were light and resolute, and soon enough Emma found Mary Margaret standing in front of her.

“Hello,” the dark haired woman greeted a bit awkwardly. “Ah—do you mind if I—” she gestured to the spot next to Emma.

Emma shrugged, feeling too tired to deter her.

“Thanks.” Mary Margaret sat down and shivered. “Sure is cold down here, huh?” She shook her head but didn’t say anything else.

They stayed like that for a while, sitting beside one another quietly. Emma could feel the other woman shiver, could hear the quiet chattering of her teeth, but still she didn’t complain or leave to be more comfortable.

Some more time passed, and then some more, and eventually Emma realized Mary Margaret wasn’t going to leave, and she wasn’t going to pressure Emma into talking. And that somehow made things easier.

Slowly, Emma relaxed her grip around her knees and leaned back against the basement’s wall. The cold of it made her skin prickle with goosebumps.  

“Where’s David?” Emma found herself asking.

“He got called into work.” Mary Margaret waved the phone in her hand, “It sounded important so I promised I’d keep him updated if anything happened.”

Emma huffed out a laugh and looked up at the ceiling, “Anything like me running off again?”

Mary Margaret shrugged, “Or if the Elders try to pick a fight, anything like that.”

“Do they do that often? Pick fights?”

Another shrug, “They can be a little bossy every now and then, but do you want to know why they always lose?”

Emma raised a brow.

“Because of free will.” Giving Emma an impish smile, Mary Margaret ducked her head away and continued, “They can’t force us to do anything we don’t want to, you know. So even when they say things like ‘destiny’, it doesn’t mean much unless you want it to.”

Emma hummed suspiciously, but didn’t comment.

“They were pretty mad at me, you know,” Mary Margaret said, playing with her wedding ring, “when I quit practicing magic. It was before I had you, and they were worried that I—I don’t know.” She shook her head, “But they even had the Angel of Fate come down to try and talk me out of it. In the end though, it was still my decision to make, and they had to accept it.”

There was a pause, and then Emma asked, “Why did you quit?”

Looking up at her daughter, Mary Margaret smiled sadly, “I killed an Innocent. I wonder,” her brows furrowed, but then she shook her head. “He stepped in the way for a demon he loved, and that,” she rubbed at her eyes, “it almost destroyed me.”

Mary Margaret took a deep breath, then added, “I thought that would be penance for my crime. I thought that if I gave up magic, then that would be the end of it. The price for my crime, but,” her voice turned thick, “then you were taken from me. You know, I’d only held you once before you were stolen.” She sniffed, obviously trying hard to keep the tears at bay.

Emma thought about how Mary Margaret had hugged her earlier, how Emma had pulled herself free not long after. Her stomach sank and before Emma fully processed what she was doing, she found her arm reaching around the other woman’s shoulders. I’m sorry, she wanted to say. I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry no one protected you. I’m sorry we didn’t have more time. But the words became stuck in Emma’s throat.

Mary Margaret’s hand found Emma’s and gave it a firm squeeze. Sobbing out a laugh, Mary Margaret used her other hand to brush away some tears, “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. I know it makes you uncomfortable.”

Brows raising, Emma felt her heart tighten. “It’s okay,” she said, “It doesn’t—I don’t mind.”

Mary Margaret laughed again, and this time it was less watery, “Thanks.” Dabbing her eyes with the edge of her shirt sleeve, Mary Margaret then turned to get a good look at her daughter. “Emma, I’m so glad that you’re back, that we found each other again.” She gave Emma’s hand another squeeze, “And I’m glad because you’re back, do you understand? Not as the Savior, or for anything related to magic, but because you’re my daughter and I love you. I always have. And if you want to leave this all behind, then we will. Just say the word and your father and I will take you far away from here.”

Letting out a deep breath, Emma let the stress bleed out from her shoulders and settled more comfortably against Mary Margaret. She still had no idea what to do next, but as Emma took a deep breath, smelling roses and almonds, she knew that whatever she did, she wouldn’t have to do it alone.

#charmed au #charmed #ouat #captain swan #killian jones #emma swan #mary margaret #david nolan #killian x emma #magic #something wicca this way comes #idk why the font is so big #and im too tired to care

[ninja-go-to-therapy]

Whumptober 27: Okay, Who Had Natural Disasters On Their 2020 Bingo Card?

Earthquake

This one was an absolute delight to write. I just love this type of fic. Thanks to LovelyStressedPrincess for feeding me ideas and writing a couple of the paragraphs.

Summary: MK wakes up to an earthquake. At first he writes it off as paranoia, but as the day progresses, he can't help but feel like he's been here before.

Trigger Warnings: serious injury, mild self harm

2537 words

MK woke up to the world shaking. Books were thrown from his shelves, various trinkets going everywhere.

Oh shit, was this an — earthquake. The word left a gross sense of deja vu. 

The earthquake stopped almost as quickly as it started.

Warily, he dressed himself, praying there wouldn’t be another one. This had been rather tame for an earthquake.

He hurried downstairs, not wanting to be late for work.

When he saw that the shop, too, was a complete and total mess, he couldn’t help but be a little bit relieved. 

In the calabash, nobody but him had been affected by the “earthquakes”. This meant that it had actually been real.

Thank god.

“Kid, are you okay?” Pigsy asked.

MK snapped out of his thoughts. “What?”

“The earthquake, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.

Pigsy seemed satisfied. “Good. Let’s get started on cleaning this mess. I won’t have customers thinking we’re slobs!”

MK laughed breathlessly. Yeah, that was definitely Pigsy. There was absolutely nothing to worry about! Everything was all good.

An hour later, the shop was totally spick and span. Luckily, the earthquake hadn’t done too much damage.

From there, MK went on with his job, delivering noodles to people all across town. Rush hour had traffic, and there were no free samples.

Still, the earthquake had him on edge. But there was nothing to worry about. He was sure there was nothing to worry about.

The day proceeded to be almost painstakingly average. No horrible demons attacked, and he didn’t have to deal with any Karens at work. It was just… normal.

Almost suspiciously so.

At the end of his shift, Mei showed up. That was odd, wasn’t she supposed to have been busy? He could have sworn she was doing something today.

“Are you ready?” She asked, bouncing on her heels.

“Uh… ready for what?”

Mei laughed. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“Forgot…?”

“That event the arcade is holding? You know, the one we’ve been talking about for weeks?”

MK’s blood went cold.

There was no event. He’d never made plans with Mei. He was sure of it.

He would have remembered if he had, which meant… no, no, this was the only strange thing that had happened, it didn’t mean anything…

But what if it did?

What if he was trapped again? What if this was all fake? The earthquake, the complete and total perfect normalcy of the day… 

Okay. Alright okay, there was an easy way to figure this out. He just needed to check for his staff.

Mei watched, looking somewhat concerned, as he reached for the staff. Only… it wasn’t there.

“Where’s the staff?” He asked, panic beginning to set in. 

“Locking away DBK,” Mr. Tang supplied from across the room as he slurped down his noodles. “Are you feeling alright, MK? You look a little… ill.”

He had never done that. He’d never defeated DBK, not for real. It wasn’t true. They were lying to him, none of this was real.

“I’m fine,” he squeaked, backing away very, very slowly. 

“Kid?”

He snapped around, coming face-to-face with Pigsy, who looked just as concerned as the other two.

Oh god, he was being boxed in, they were going to hurt him, they wouldn’t want to let him leave.

He forced his breathing to slow, and he gave the most natural smile he could muster. If he could convince them that he wasn’t onto them, he could buy himself some time.

“Everything’s good!” He said. “Sorry, I dunno what got into me! Anyways, I should probably make this last noodle delivery! I’ll be back soon for our thing, Mei!”

“If you’re sure…” Mei finally said, looking unconvinced.

“Please, I’ll be as quick as a bunny! You know how great I am at noodle deliveries, after all,” he said, as if he thought the concern was him not making it back in time. If he just kept playing dumb, everything would be fine. He just needed to get away.

He grabbed the bag of food, getting into his cart as calmly as possible. 

Almost there almost there almost there.

Finally, he deemed himself a good distance from them. He didn’t know to what extent the demons had control over this… realm? Pocket dimension? Illusion? But he had to figure this out quick, before they realized he knew what was up.

Still, he couldn’t stop the panic from growing. Everything was so much more natural than last time. Had he not been here before, he probably would have just written it all off as a bump on the head.

But he knew better. He wasn’t stupid.

He came to a stop on the side of the road, putting his head on the steering wheel.

He needed to go. But he needed to stop. Why was he freaking out so much? He’d been here before, this would be a piece of cake. 

But his breathing refused to calm, and he was pretty sure he was going to vomit.

Deep breaths, he demanded of himself. Deep. Breaths.

“MK?”

He looked up, his knuckles going white from how hard he was gripping the wheel. 

“Monkey King,” he greeted stiffly, swallowing down his fear.

“Well that’s a little formal,” he laughed.

MK just looked at him, ignoring his comment in favor of trying to determine what to do. Fake or not, Monkey King was too strong for him to fight. Especially without his staff.

Monkey King frowned. “You seem—”

Agitated, MK thought with a growing sense of dread. He was going to say that. Jin and Yin were just taunting him, they were playing with him, they were letting him know—

“Worried.”

Instead of comforting him, MK only felt the sense of nausea swirling in his stomach get worse. They had gotten smarter.

That wasn't good.

“Mhmm,” he agreed, not trusting himself to speak.

“Did something happen?”

Besides being trapped in an evil artifact again? Besides the fact that the world around him was completely and utterly fake? Besides knowing that everyone here was nothing but a lie?

“Nope!” He forced out. “Just had a long night!”

He needed to get his staff he needed to get out he needed to run.

“Anyway, I’vegottodeliverthesenoodlesbye.” He didn’t give Monkey King a chance to stop him, speeding off in his cart as fast as it would take him. By the grace of the heavens, he didn’t follow him.

Okay. Tang had said his staff was on the mountain. He found it a little odd that the demons would put it right back where it had been last time, but hopefully that would make it easier for him. If last time’s experience had taught him anything, it was that he would have to be fast.

He didn’t know how quickly Jin and Yin would send his “friends” after him. He glared at the street. Friends. They were nothing but empty shells, puppets on strings. That may have been the most cruel part of all. Trying to make him believe that the people he loved were real.

Focus MK. Just get to the mountain.

He could do this.

He continued to drive, trying hard to force all other thoughts out of his head. It was hard to not think about things when you were thinking about not thinking about them.

It was hard not to focus on the fact that he was trapped in a tiny world controlled by two people who were intent on destroying him, who were holding his life in their hands, who were manipulating and playing with it like putty, who wanted him to suffer and not know it until the very last moment.

Tears pushed at his eyes. It wouldn’t be like last time. He’d figured it out way faster, and now he was going to put an end to it.

This didn’t help to calm the panic.

Jin and Yin had done a better job this time. They were smarter. This could only mean horrible things for him if he let it go on any further.

He pulled to a stop again, squeezing his eyes shut. He just needed a minute. He just needed a quick minute. Everything was gonna be fine.

He covered his eyes with his hand, as if it would block the tears. It really only served to make his hand wet.

Shakily, he ran his other hand through his hair, flinching when a sharp burst of pain came from it. 

Carefully, he touched that spot again. There was a large, really fucking painful bump. When had that happened? He didn’t remember hitting his head… 

Whatever, he could worry about it later. Right now, he needed to pull himself together and get the hell to the mountain before he was caught.

He couldn’t manage to stop crying, but the tears had at least slowed enough that he felt he could drive again. His vision was only slightly blurry.

Just as he pulled up to the construction site, his phone rang.

“Um… hello?” he asked, cursing himself when he choked up. Fuck, now they would know he’d been crying.

“Kid? You okay?” Pigsy asked from the other end of the line.

“I’m—” so scared “fine.” He forced down a bitter laugh. They really had gotten smarter. A worried phone call instead of all his friends randomly showing up to stop him from taking back his staff, yeah, that was clever. But he wasn’t stupid. He was going to get out of here, and he was going to go home.

“Okay, great, care to tell me why this tracker app says you’re hanging around at that construction site instead of doing your job?” Pigsy asked, sounding somewhat annoyed.

“I’m not stupid!” MK yelled, unable to hold himself back. He all but flung himself into the elevator, directing it down. “You can’t keep me in here this time!”

“What?”

“You can’t trick me that easily again!”

“Kid, hold on, I’ll be right there—”

“Don’t even try it!”

He hung up, glaring at his dark phone screen as the elevator continued to descend.

And then, out of nowhere, it stopped.

“Come on, you stupid piece of junk!” he begged, “Work!”

Oh god. He’d given himself away, and if he didn’t get to the ground in time, they’d catch up with him. Fuck fuck fuck, he was so stupid, why had he done that?

He looked down, weighing his options. He couldn’t jump, not without his staff. He’d break something for sure.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. He kicked the wall of the elevator as if that would do something. 

He was a sitting duck. For a few, dreadful minutes, he sat there, contemplating his options. He was going to throw up.

“MK?” he heard.

No.

“Are you here? Pigsy sent me since I was already nearby.”

No no no, he wasn’t letting not-Mei ruin everything.

“MK?”

He covered his mouth, hoping it would quiet down his breathing. He couldn’t make a sound.

He heard Mei fiddling with the lever of the elevator. “Move, you stupid…” she gave it a kick, and then it started to move. Up.

No!

He didn’t have a choice. He forced the gate open, tumbling out and to the ground. 

The resounding crack echoed loudly.

“MK, oh my god!”

He scrambled to his feet, whimpering through the pain, limping frantically for the staff. Almost there, almost there—

“Kid, stop! What is he doing?”

“He’s going crazy, he just jumped from this thing!”

“Holy shit, MK, stop!”

He tuned out their words, forcing back the tears and the pain. Almost there. Just a little closer—

Someone grabbed him.

“No!” he screamed, wrenching himself from their grip. They only grabbed him again.

“MK, bud, take a deep breath. Can you do that?”

Monkey King was here why was Monkey King here he wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t all fake. 

“Let me go!” he screamed, twisting out of his mentor’s hold once more, barely making it two steps before he fell to the ground.

His not-friends were surrounding him.

He couldn’t breathe, they weren’t going to let him get to that staff, he could barely even think through the pain, he needed to move, but he couldn’t.

“Give him some air!” Pigsy demanded, pushing Monkey King to the side as he kneeled beside MK. “Kid, look at me.”

MK squeezed his eyes shut tight. “You c-can’t trick me, not again,” he whispered.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb! I know! I told you I know! Give it up already!” he sobbed, clutching his leg.

They were trying so hard to save this, it was almost pathetic. They’d gotten Pigsy just right this time, too.

He loosened his grip on his leg, slowly sitting up.

“Hey, hey, be careful—”

He bolted. He shot to his feet and ran for the staff, holding back every scream and every sob. He could hurt when he was free.

His fingers brushed against the staff—

He was yanked back.

Mei was there, holding her blade. “We can’t let you do this,” she whispered.

“You can’t stop me this time!”

He threw a punch, actually managing to land a hit on her. She looked shocked and horrified and scared all rolled into one.

“MK,” Tang said, approaching him with his hands up, as if to show that he wasn’t a threat. “You need to calm down so we can look at your leg.”

MK had to give the demons props. Tang really did look scared. 

“Stay. Away from me!”

Mei put a hand on his shoulder. “We just want to help,” she insisted.

Without thinking, he kicked her with his bad leg, nearly falling to the ground himself with the pain. Still, he scrambled for the staff once more.

Monkey King forced him to the ground. “Enough!” he shouted.

MK didn’t listen to him, crying so hard from the pain that he couldn’t see straight. He kicked, and screamed, and fought, but Monkey King, real or not, was so much stronger than him. He was helpless.

“Just kill me!” he sobbed, thrashing in Monkey King’s grip. “Just kill me!” he begged again. “I know that’s what you want! Just do it!”

Monkey King recoiled. “Where would you even get that idea? Kid, it’s me. I would never want you to be hurt. But you’re hurting yourself by doing this.”

MK thrashed harder, his sobs making his whole body shake and tremble. His leg twisted in the wrong way.

He screamed, the sound ripping from his throat painfully. His breathing picked up, he was hyperventilating again, get off him get off him get off him he needed to get out please let him go he wanted to go home he wanted to be in reality again.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” Tang said, from somewhere to his right.

“Mei, call an ambulance,” Pigsy said, looking over MK worriedly.

“No!” he sobbed, weakly fighting back. It hurt so much. He was beginning to get tired. “Let me go, kill me, please…”

“Help is on the way, bud,” Monkey King said.

In one last attempt, MK reached weakly for the staff, even as darkness began to overtake his vision.

He had been so close.

#whumptober2020 #no.27 #earthquake #monkie kid #fic #tw serious injury #tw mild self harm #serious injury #mild self harm #kat writes #monkie kid fanfiction #angst #whump #calabash part 2: electric boogaloo #if someone tags this as ship I'll break your spine #:) #anyway here's MK and his many many fathers trying to get through to him #poor boy is too far gone to care tho #whump the baby #pigsy pushing past wukong is like my favorite part of this actually #wukong can move tf over this is HIS kid #now remember kids this is a transaction #a back alley deal if you will #I give you the goods and all I ask for it #is the screams of the innocent #or you know #other fun comments and reviews #just give me feedback man it makes all this hard work worth it

[jcmorrigan]

001 - Kingdom Hearts

Favorite character: On the villain side: VEXEN IS BEST ORGANIZATION XIII MEMBER. Shoulda stayed evil, though. I like it when he complains and screams about everything and hates everyone. He's one of my favorite villains, just, like...in general. So fun to write. Also attached to Demyx, but I actually liked him more in III than II because it reminded me of my rawr lolspeek weeb days when I f/o'd him without knowing what f/o'ing was and then transitioned this to shipping VexDem like heck. On the hero side: MY GIRL KAIRI! But honorable mentions go to Sora, Riku, Aqua, Ven, Terra, Xion, Roxas, Lea, Ienzo, any Disney character I loved beforehand (this is way too fuckin many to list), Merlin (OKAY I WILL SINGLE HIM OUT), Yen Sid (I'LL SINGLE HIM OUT TOO), you know what let's also single out the Mickey+Donald+Goofy power trio...just...any KH hero who isn't part of the Yozora stuff or the KHUX stuff. ...Except I also LOVE Strelitzia, and she is the only KHUX-exclusive kiddo I care about but I care about her MANY. (Oh, and there's a least fave I have who's a "hero" but that's a debatable label). I would go on about why I love all of them but...that's too many characters to elaborate on

Least Favorite character: See, I think the real answer is Yozora, but the thing is I just tend to forget about him or not care (unless I'm doing a weird AU where he's Noctis' bratty Nobody, don't ask). He kinda represents the Shark Jump and I don't like watching that scene where he literally petrifies Sora for not being strong enough. But again, I can just kinda forget about him if he's not fed to me through a social-media unit. The one I LOVE TO HATE is Master Eraqus. The man actually triggered me back in the day. He is purity culture. He is the overbearing parent who will not accept you unless you are perfect. He is by and large the reason VAT didn't communicate with each other properly. He was the one who taught Aqua to think in absolutes. He lied to Ventus for years and then insisted to kill him was the only option, and then, when Terra tried to defend his brother figure/friend without knowing WHY Eraqus was doing such a thing, Eraqus didn't offer an explanation and instead switched targets to Terra citing that the problem was Terra's lack of OBEDIENCE. Eraqus is just very "my way or the highway" and uses his moral high horse to justify doing things that utterly lack compassion in any regard, which is something that GETS to me on a deep level, and let me tell you, I hated him for so long until I realized he was actually a super fuckin fun guy to imagine as a Bigger Bad in AUs that either have the KH protags teaming up or have villain protags needing a "greater good lawful evil" figure. And I just have found too many good memes about him cheating at chess and killing children. I have to laugh. Making fun of him is fun. He's a ridiculous character. That said, this recent trend of "erase everything bad he ever did and paint him as the ultimate hero of the saga" makes me raise eyebrows for SEVERAL reasons

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): VexDem, SoRiku, Kairi x Jaune Arc (RWBY), Aqua x Rosalina (Super Mario Galaxy) x Bayonetta, IsaLea, Ventus x Papyrus (Undertale), that was six but they all needed to be mentioned

Character I find most attractive: Ienzo. HOO BABY he is adorable. I saw someone make a Valentine's Day gifset of KH and FF characters shortly after III dropped and seeing his smiling face paired with a romance quote made my heart FLUTTER

Character I would marry: Probably Ienzo, see above. He's also a very kind guy. Favorite redemption in the modern era.

Character I would be best friends with: I hope the Destiny Trio would adopt me into their friend circle the way they've tended to do with every other inter-world denizen they've come across. I would love to have them as my positivity squad. Or, y'know, two positivities and one "it's okay to screw up" guy. Just. I would love to hang out with them. I often worry that I'm unlikable to my faves, but even though I would usually prefer to hang with the villains, I can pretty much guarantee these three would be open-minded about me. (Do I kiiiiinda wanna be friends with Vexen though? Of course I do. He'd hate me but maaaayyyyybe he would see me as one of his pet idiots who makes him look smarter, and we could bond over our fragile egos?)

a random thought: You ever think about that one NPC lady in Traverse Town who refused to tell you where she was from because it was none of her business? You ever wonder where she WAS from? What her world was like? How she ended up being the survivor of the Ansem Apocalypse when it hit her? All I know is that when I read her lines out loud (I used to read KH speech balloons out loud all the time), I gave her a Southern accent for no discernible reason and I stand by it. That woman has a twang.

An unpopular opinion: I don't want KHUX to be canon because I feel it's smaller-scale and takes a lot of mystery out of the worldbuilding. I always assume that the KHverse just includes ALL worlds in fiction, and that includes their thousand-year histories, meaning the Age of Fairy Tales should've happened long long long LONG LONG LONG ago and not five generations. And whatever screwed up the world should've been more than just five people having a fight, and whatever saved it should've been more than just five people getting along, and Daybreak Town really suffers from having to stick to mobile-friendly graphics and therefore is the least aesthetically attractive KH town ever, and I don't like that Lauriam and Elrena used to be such selfless people. I do still love Strelitzia because she's shy and relatable and quirky (sitting on the roof) and she questions authority and if you go with shipping subtext she's probably bi (or pan?), but I don't like the "Lauriam's dead sister for his arc's drama" bit. I liked when Marluxia was angry because he wanted to run Organization XIII but it was in the hands of an idiot who wasn't him. And more than anything I just like imagining that the Age of Fairy Tales was something bigger, further in the past, and more mysterious than something designed for a mobile game. Scala ad Caelum, however, I like a lot better because there IS a lot of mystery there and also it's a very pretty town with an amazing design.

my canon OTP: I really only count the Disney couples as the "canon" ones, so this is a question of picking my favorite Disney couple that shows up onscreen. I hope I'm not forgetting an important one, but I think the title has to go to Aladdin/Jasmine, which is always perfect in everything. (This would be an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORY if KH had ever adapted Treasure Planet, and if it ever gets the mind to adapt Treasure Planet then even if I don't care about that game I will immediately declare that Amelia/Doppler takes the KH canon OTP crown. *taps watch* Get on it Squenix)

Non-canon OTP: SoRiku, which I counted as "basically canon" after DDD until III decided it wasn't sure. But I'm just a sucker for how DDD is the two of them all "HE'S GOT MY BACK AND I'VE GOT HIS AND I'D DO ANYTHING FOR HIM SO LONG AS HE'S HAPPY." It's just the best kind of Friends-to-Lovers, except when you take all canon into account it's Friends-to-Rivals-to-Enemies-to-Friends-to-Lovers and that's a very juicy dynamic. BUT ALSO: VexDem, which is a nostalgia ship SO STRONG I had to accept that it eclipsed my former Vexen ships by a mile and I wanted to go back to my roots. That one, I have a much longer essay about that I'll just have you refer to so I don't repeat myself for pages. To make a long story short, their scene in III was JUST DELICIOUS.

most badass character: OOF THEY'RE ALL BADASS but in the end it's between Sora and Aqua, because Sora gets the widest RANGE of abilities across the series that he masters while Aqua gets the most POWERFUL abilities due to her Mastery (Command Styles seem like they'd be the most OP things ever in-universe and I'm here for it because flashy battle moves make brain go brr).

pairing I am not a fan of: SOKAI, Xehaqus, RikuNami, Vanitas/anyone not evil

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): OH BOY. KAIRI THE MOST. YOU ALL KNOW WHY: lack of screen time, Fridging for drama, forced romance to invite death flags (they really wanted to milk that death to get people talking didn't they?), giving Alyson Stoner ZERO direction to actually follow up on Hayden Panettiere's performance. But then I remember that they made Vexen redeem and lose his entire personality and I just...uuugghhhh. I can't believe he died twice in this series. And then Demyx is FUN but also I know he's flipped sides as well, which means he won't be fun much longer! Xehanort seems to switch motivations to whatever makes him the biggest threat (and several of Eraqus' old flaws seem to be mysteriously glued onto him), Sora isn't a motormouth anymore, Riku just doesn't get anyone who cares about him anymore because everyone's distracted by Sora and Kairi, IS ANYBODY GOING TO ADDRESS THE ACTUAL ISSUES THAT DROVE THE WAYFINDER TRIO APART, oh God Marluxia and Larxene you're good guys now what have they done to you

favourite friendship: I really like each of the trios. But you know what's even BETTER than the trios? If you put...all of the trios together...meaning Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Terra, Ven, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Hayner, Pence, Olette...and then you added Isa back in there...and you gave them Ienzo...and you brought back Naminé...and you say that Subject X is Strelitzia and you have her turn back up so she can have justice done...AND YOU HAVE AN ULTRA KEYBLADE GROUP OF FRIENDS. As for Vexen, any purely platonic relationship I have for him is a crossover but trust me I have many crossover pals for he

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: See everyone I listed above in the friendship question. They can either mentor me or let me be their big sis/mom. But also, I will GLADLY be Merlin or Yen Sid's daughter. (But also would I kiiiiinda wanna be a VexDem daughter? This is the worst idea. Still wanna try)

#kingdom hearts

[gemma-lemma]

Flaming Hearts - A Nalu Fanfiction

Chapter two

When Lucy left her room the next morning, Natsu was leaning on the opposite wall already.

“Mornin’ princess.” He greeted and pushed himself off, casting a quick glance down her body while she did the same. While Lucy was wearing a navy-blue skirt and a white turtleneck, combined with white boots and a dark blue backpack, Natsu wore black jeans and a black sweater beneath his black leather jacket. Did he not know any other colours than those depressing tones?

“Good morning, Natsu.” She purred and started walking down the hall. “Were you standing there all night?”

Natsu chuckled and admitted. “No, I slept in a very comfortable bed in another wing of the estate.”

Lucy gave him a surprised look. Did that mean..? “But before you make any false assumptions, my partner was guarding your room at night, so don’t try anything in the future.” He crushed her hopes and gave her a wicked grin. He knew exactly what Lucy was thinking, and it irked her.

“Will you have breakfast with me, then?” She asked, trying to conceal her hopes by sounding as if she were up to something. She hated eating alone.

“Sadly, no. I’ve already eaten.” He said and glanced towards her as she stared strictly forward, lips pressed to a thin line. He wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret that reaction, but she gave him no further room to speculate.

“Then I will see you when I depart from the estate.” She pressed with a smile and turned around to face him one last time before entering the dining room and slamming the door behind her. Natsu looked at it baffled. Had he offended her?

During breakfast Lucy took out her phone and decided to check the Fairy Tail group chat.

 Levy: What??! New bodyguards? Again?

Erza: How many more of those is your dad going to hire until he realizes that you’re able to get rid of them all?

Juvia: Lucy, be nice! Those poor guys don’t know yet what they’re dealing with.

Lucy: Then it’s time they found out, don’t you think?

 The answer was almost immediate.

 Juvia: But be a little nicer than you were with that Hibiscus guy from the Unicorn agency!

Levy: You mean Hibiki from Blue Pegasus?

Juvia: Yes, that one. How am I supposed to remember all their names? There were so many.

Erza: And there will be many more, so you better start remembering.

Lucy: Uhm, maybe not…

Levy: What do you mean?

Lucy: The new agency? They’re Strauss and Co. I met their boss, Mirajane Strauss, yesterday.

Erza: Strauss and Co.? Those are said to be the best! Mirajane is my absolute idol!

Juvia: What’s so interesting about her?

Erza: She was in the military before she started the agency, and from what I’ve heard the woman’s a beast! There was no mission she didn’t complete excellently, and she received loads of medals.

Levy: When she was such a great soldier, why’d she stop just to become a babysitter?

Erza: I’m not sure, they never really dropped the details. All I know is that her sister Lisanna was somehow involved, and that since Mirajane left the military, nobody has ever seen Lisanna again.

Lucy: You think she died?

Erza: I’m don’t know, but at this point I think it’s probable. But that was years ago.

Juvia: But Lucy, why did you say that maybe there wouldn’t come any more agencies?

Lucy: I’m hoping that if I just get Strauss and Co. to fail as spectacularly as possible, my father will realize that it’s useless and stop hiring bodyguards. They’re said to be the best, after all.

Levy: That sounds wicked.

Levy: You got a plan already or need some help?

Lucy: As a starter, I’m gonna start sneaking out and running away from them, beginning with Sting’s party. Oh, and I’ve got to introduce someone to you once we’re at the University.

Erza: That sounds interesting.

 With a smile, Lucy put her phone away and stood up from the table. Just like before, Natsu was waiting right outside the room she was in, this time leaning next to the door.

“You ready?” He asked, and Lucy nodded. Together they walked out to the car and got in the backseat.

“We’re ready, Gajeel.” Natsu called and the driver, a man with long black hair, started the car.

“What happened to my usual driver?” Lucy asked curiously and watched Natsu lean back in his seat.

“We decided that it would be better if someone of our team would drive.” He said and watched out the window.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” Lucy smiled sweetly and scooted closer to the pink haired man.

“What can you tell me about your friends?” He asked instead of answering her question and pretended not to notice how she got closer still. Of course, he knew all about her friends, but maybe this would distract her from asking further questions he didn’t want her to know the answer to. Her previous driver had turned out to be in close contact with several very intrusive paparazzi.

“Well, there’s Levy, for one. Levy McGarden.” Lucy began listing them up and he was surprised about how willing to help she seemed. “She’s a total bookworm, we often exchange books that we liked reading. She’s really sweet, but also a bit of a shark. Once she finds something interesting, she will go beyond herself to find out everything about it.”

Levy McGarden was the daughter of a very famous publisher and a slightly less famous Instagram celebrity. She was in all probability as harmless as her babyface made her look. Her and Lucy had known each other since kindergarten.

“Then there’s Erza Scarlet. She’s been one of my best friends since middle school, and she loves strawberry cake. Probably would kill for a slice. She’s the mom friend of the group, and really nice.”

Natsu frowned. Erza Scarlet was the heir to Scarlet Inc., a company that sold cars. It seemed that her parents were, just like Lucy’s father, more interested in building an empire than raising their daughter, who early on started to rebel against their plans for her. She was versed in all kinds of fighting sports and taught self-defence via videos on social media. Natsu wasn’t all too sure if she was actually as sweet as Lucy said.

“And last but not least we have Juvia Lockser. Her Mother has this great fashion label, Loxar, and she herself wants nothing more than to become a designer like her one day. She’s really cool, like the friend you can go on rollercoasters with.” Lucy concluded, and Natsu raised his brows at the odd comparison.

Juvia Lockser had transferred to Lucy’s high school in eleventh grade, and they had spent the year as sworn enemies. Apparently because of some boy they had both had a thing for, but nothing had ever been confirmed. All he knew was that they ended eleventh grade with catfight and started twelfth grade as best friends.

“Are you telling me something about your team too or will I have to figure out everything by myself?” Lucy asked, now so close that their bodies were touching, and Natsu made the mistake of turning his head to look at her. Their faces were only centimetres apart anymore and she glanced seducingly down towards his lips, before her big brown eyes met his again. For the first time Lucy realized that his eyes were not just really dark but seemed to be actually black.

Natsu cleared his throat and tried to move closer to the door, but he was already pressed against it. There was no escape from Lucy’s attempts to…yeah, what was she even doing? Trying to seduce him? Yeah, that had to be it. He wasn’t entirely sure why she was trying to in the first place, though. Was she hoping for him to make a mistake because he was distracted or to give in to her advances and get fired for it?

“Well, uh,” He stammered and cleared his throat again. “Mirajane you already met. Then there’s Gajeel, our driver.”

“What’s Gajeel’s last name?” Lucy interrupted, and he gave her a startled look.

“His last name’s Redfox. My partner, who’s guarding your room at night, is called Gray Fullbuster, then there’s Cana Alberona, who takes care that extern locations are secure. You happy ‘bout that answer, princess?”

Lucy hummed while thinking it through. Little did Natsu know that those names would wander directly to Levy, who would crack her knuckles twice and then find out everything about the team there was to know.

“What’s your last name, Natsu?”

“Dragneel.”

“Natsu…Dragneel.” She repeated slowly, and a shiver ran down Natsu’s spine. He had to give it to her: She knew the game she was playing very well.

Suddenly, Lucy retreated back to her seat, and just as Natsu gave her a puzzled look, he saw that they were right in front of the University.

“You ready, love?” She asked and looked at him through her lashes. Natsu swallowed and nodded, shaking off all the insecurity she brought up in him. Two could play the game she was playing, and it was time for him to step onto the field.

“Ready when you are, princess.” He retorted and watched, as Gajeel opened her door for her before getting out himself and walking around the car. Lucy hadn’t bothered waiting up for him, but Gajeel still stood there smirking.

“Good luck with that one, Salamander. Seems like she’s got you by the balls.”

“Fuck you, Metalhead. At least I don’t have to play the driver.” He muttered and followed after his fake girlfriend, who just at that moment reached her friends in front of the stairs.

 “The pink haired one?” Levy asked curiously, and Lucy nodded.

“He’s actually my bodyguard, but he’s acting like he’s my boyfriend in public, so it doesn’t seem that obvious that I’m protected.” She whispered and watched him approach. He even had a backpack slung over his shoulder that she hadn’t noticed before.

When he reached them, he laid an arm over Lucy’s shoulder and she smiled up at him sweetly.

“Guys, that’s Natsu, my boyfriend.” She introduced him and he raised his hand in a small wave.

“Nice to meet you, girls. Lucy’s told me already so much about you.”

“And those are Erza,” the red haired one who gave him the evil eye, “Juvia,” the one with the dark blue hair who just eyed him curiously, “And Levy.” The one with the light blue hair and the glasses, who gifted him an honest smile.

“So, Natsu,” Erza spoke and Lucy tried to push down her grin. “Where did you two meet?”

“At the bookstore. We were reaching for the same book and that’s when we first noticed each other.” He chuckled and scratched his neck, and the girls almost melted into his smile. That was actually a very sweet idea, Lucy thought, but they didn’t give up so soon. After all, her friends enjoyed playing Lucy’s games at least as much as she did.

“Oh, you like to read? What genres?” Levy questioned with shining eyes. If there was anyone in the world who loved reading more than Lucy, then it was Levy. Natsu feigned thinking for a second, when he was probably actually wondering what game the girls were playing. He was pretty sure that Lucy had told them the truth already.

“I think my favourite’s probably action, though I really like YA and Romance too. The book we reached for was romance, if I remember it right. Wasn’t it, Lucy?” He thought aloud and glanced down towards the blonde who gave a slight nod.

“Yeah, it was.”

“You know, I’ve gotta say, you’re kinda pretty. I’m sure I would’ve noticed you by now.” Juvia stated and smiled wickedly. “You don’t go to this University, do you?”

They were trying to corner him, Natsu realised. They were trying to make him make a mistake, and suddenly he was very thankful for Mirajane, who always insisted that he learned every last detail of his faux background story by heart and even practiced answering questions about it.

“Well, I’ve been going to this Uni for quite a while now, but I chose to attend via online lessons. I’ve always found those more practical anyways. But since I met Lucy I want to spend as much time with her as I can, and thus am going to come to Uni in person.” He smiled just as sweetly back and could see the exact moment Juvia decided to test his limits.

Lucy snuck her arm around his waist and said: “It’s pretty late already, I think we should go inside.”

The girls agreed, and so everyone went to their lessons.

Lucy took a seat at the back of the classroom and neatly laid out her laptop, a notebook and a biro pen in front of her. Natsu simply put his backpack to his feet and slouched back in his chair.

“Are you even going to pay attention?” Lucy asked curiously and propped her chin on her hand. Natsu nodded.

“Of course I am. Just not to your chemistry lesson.”

“It’s physics, actually.” Lucy gave him a sly smile.

“Ain’t gonna pay attention to that either.” He retorted and tried not to let his embarrassment show. He should have known that.

“Of course not.” Lucy teased and directed her attention to her professor.

During the lesson Natsu kept watching the students surrounding them like an eagle. He was aware of every movement, every glance in their direction.

When Lucy turned her attention back to him, at first, he didn’t even notice, too busy glaring down a fellow student who seemed to have a little crush on the blonde beauty. Determined to focus his attention back on her, Lucy inconspicuously pushed a pen towards the edge of the table. Natsu noticed it the moment it rolled off the edge of the table but was too slow to catch it.

“Whoopsie.” Lucy feigned surprise before leaning down to get the pen that had rolled under Natsu’s seat, knowingly invading his space. Startled, he tried to scoot a little away, but there was only so far he could go before falling off his chair.

“Found it.” Lucy looked up to him with a smile, still bowed over his lap, providing a great view of her cleavage. In that moment Natsu understood perfectly how Lucy had gotten rid of all her previous bodyguards. Either they quit because the teasing was too much, or they were fired because they had given in and walked right into her trap. And if they were actually professional enough to not be affected by how she acted, she would have found a way to prove them incompetent.

“Great.” Natsu pressed and let out a breath when she sat back up again. He needed to find a way to make her give up.

 When they finally left the classroom, Lucy snuck her hand into Natsu’s and leaned into his side.

“Did you find the lesson interesting, love?” She purred and batted her lashes.

“Yes, it was quite the entertainment, princess. What did you like best?” He answered, smile dripping poison. Lucy sported a smug expression.

“The part where I dropped my pen.” She bit her lip, and Natsu finally had enough. He started walking faster, trailing Lucy after him by her hand. She almost stumbled, but as quickly as he had started, he pushed her into a janitor’s room and closed the door behind them.

“What-?” Lucy stuttered, but he immediately shut her up by pressing her against a wall. There was only a little red lamp that barely lighted the room, but she could see his glowing dark eyes clear as day.

“Listen up now, princess.” He growled, one arm propped to the wall above her head, leaning down right beside her ear. “I know exactly what you’re trying to do, and I don’t like it.”

“Oh, is that was dislike looks like, love?” She interrupted, having quickly recovered from the surprise. Natsu got closer, pressing a leg between hers, hoping to wipe some of that smugness off her face. He knew it failed tremendously the moment she put a hand on his chest.

“Yes, that’s what dislike looks like. I won’t fall for your games. I’ve read your files. I know exactly how you got rid of all those before me and let me tell you that I won’t follow them. The only way you’re getting rid of me is if someone puts a bullet in my head.” With the tiniest bit of self-satisfaction, he felt Lucy’s body react to his. She wasn’t as immune as she would have liked him to think, after all. Little goosebumps appeared on her neck and went down her spine, and instead of drawing circles with her fingers like before she grabbed his sweater as her breathing got heavier. Natsu leaned back a little, just enough to look her in the widened eyes. She looked at him like a deer in headlights.

But then she grabbed his sweater tighter, and though still breathing heavily, she bit her lip and smirked. “I know where daddy keeps the guns, love.”

Natsu narrowed his eyes, trying not to let his exasperation show. How the fuck could he intimidate her if not like that?

Letting out an irritated breath, he retreated from her, and watched how she almost slipped down the wall. Looked like someone had gotten weak knees, huh?

Natsu rolled his eyes and grabbed her by the hand as soon as her knees seemed steady enough to carry her again and pulled her out of the room and to her next class.

 SATURDAY

 Lucy was humming while putting on her make up. She hadn’t managed to get another reaction out of Natsu for the entire week and was now determined to not let this evening flop. She had eaten about two hours before and had officially already gone to bed. It worried her a little that Natsu had known about her sneaking out in the past but she calmed her nerves by reminding herself that, in fact, everyone knew about it. That had been the whole point – to be seen and get rid of another useless team of bodyguards.

When her lipstick finally seemed to have the perfect angle, she thoughtfully eyed the cylindrical box that sat on the counter next to the sink. It was opened, and in it there was a bright pink wig Lucy usually used to sneak out and be unseen. She was still debating with herself whether or not to wear it. Did she want to be unseen or did she want to let people know she was there right away?

Carefully taking the wig out she chose the first option, thinking about remaining incognito until later at night so that her bodyguards couldn’t have a chance to crash the party earlier than she wanted them to.

When everything was finally at the right place, she picked up her phone and threw a last checking look in the mirror. The black dress she was wearing barely reached to her mid-thighs, and the v-neckline was quite revealing too. Her high heels would already have killed her feet by the time they reached the club, but she didn’t care. All Lucy cared about was that she looked smoking hot and hardly recognizable with the hot pink wig that reached straight to her shoulders. It even had bangs.

 Levy: We’ll be there in ten, Lu. Same spot as always?

Lucy: Of course. See you.

 To climb out the window, Lucy took her shoes off again, not wanting to fall and break her neck, and as she snuck her way through a small passage in the garden and then through that part of the bushes, knowing no one from the estate would be able to see her, she kept them dangling from her fingers. Last but not least she finally reached the gate for the delivery men and snuck through it with a security card she had stolen some time ago while seducing one.

Finally taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the fresh night air.

“Man, how I love being right.” A raspy voice broke her out of her peace, and she jolted around to see Natsu leaning on the wall, grinning cockily.

“How- how did you know?” Lucy stuttered, trying to register what was happening just now. Damn it! Natsu pushed himself off the wall and slowly started walking towards her.

“As I said before, I know about how you got rid of all the others. Doing the necessary research about what way you could get off the property so easily made me genuinely worried about the laziness of your previous bodyguards.” He explained and stood still right in front of her. Lucy swallowed hard and watch as he raised a hand to twirl a pink lock around his finger. “Nice wig, by the way. I was already wondering if you went out to just get some fun, too.”

Trying to recollect her thoughts, Lucy pushed his hand off and bowed down to put her shoes back on. She didn’t see how Natsu averted his eyes from her very revealing pose, but she sure hoped he did. When she stood back upright, she was almost as tall as him.

“So, what’s the plan now, love?” She asked and narrowed her eyes at him.

He sent her a knowing smirk. “I’m gonna bring ya back to your room and save mine and Mira’s asses. You are gonna come with me without a fight and nicely go to sleep as you announced almost three hours ago you would.”

Lucy scoffed. “And what if I won’t come with you?”

“I have no problem picking you up and carrying you, princess.”

Debating her chances of getting away from him in that kind of situation, Lucy frowned. Eventually, she raised her hands in defeat. “I don’t wanna go back. I still want to have a night out with my friends.”

“Hah, no. You’re going home.” Natsu said coldly.

“Please, I can never have some fun! And they’re already on their way here.” She pleaded and watched as his cold façade slowly started to melt.

“No, no fucking way. You’re not going to some party just because you don’t like your life, princess. Out of the question, your friends are gonna have to turn around.”

“Please, Natsu! Let me go and I swear that I’ll be nice. Don’t take this away from me too.” Lucy boldly laid her hands on top of his crossed arms and he glanced down for only a moment before sending her a warning glare.

“You’re gonna stay by my side, you hear me? The first time I can’t see you for more than three seconds will be the moment we go home.” He instructed gruffly and opened up his arms so her hands would fall off. Instead, she darted forward and threw her arms around his neck to embrace him in a tight hug.

“Thanks, Natsu! You’re the greatest!” She cheered, genuinely grateful but none the less already thinking of some kind of plan B.

#lucy heartfilia #Juvia Lockser #natsu dragneel #Mirajane Strauss #Levy McGarden #gajeel redfox #cana alberona #fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #bodyguardau #erza scarlett