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roscgcld · 3 years

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HEADCANONS + GOJO SATOR || chubby s/o

request: can you please do jjk character reaction to you gaining weight? i feel so insecure about it and it would be good to read something like that.. i love ur headcanons :-)

hey again! it's me with the gaining weight request :( i forgot to say that i want gojo's reaction to it :( his reaction to you being insecure of gaining weight and trying to lose it. thank u in advance ily :]

note: excuse me *bops you on the head* you cannot be insecure about something as small as weight. you’re beautiful 😠😠 and if anyone else says otherwise i will start swinging. who doesn’t like a little fluff to hold onto when they cuddle???? you’re perfect, and a little extra weight is not that bad! and i am happy that you like my headcanons love - makes me super happy to hear it from time to time >< i love you and send you positive vibes uwu ~

pronouns: she/her - because it came naturally, but i still love my non-binary readers i send you love and kisses and an apology ><

because of your boyfriend’s wicked good looks and his naturally flirty personality, it is no surprise that he is surrounded by a lot of equally beautiful people in your eyes

and even though he entertains them with no more than a charming smile and a few nice comments, that doesn’t make you any less insecure about something as small as your weight

also adding into your insecurities is his title as a gojo - the strongest sorcerer of the generation, and the next in line to become the head of the gojo clan. his elders are expecting him to marry young and start popping out kids

the women that his elders had sent to him as ‘suitors’ did not help too - they were all what you viewed as the epidemy of a perfect woman. pretty face, amazing body, and a soft spoken and gentle personality; acting and looking almost too fake and doll-like

gojo usually turns them away by giving them some half ass excuse about why he can’t date them, slamming the door in their faces after he pulls you towards him to press a passionate kiss to your lips; hand obviously resting on your ass

and even though that makes you super embarrassed, you just giggle softly against his lips at the offended gasp coming from the door; to which gojo will grin lightly into the kiss before deepening it quite excitely

but that never shuts your demons away - and one day you just found yourself looking yourself over the full length mirror hanging in your shared closet; a frown marring your features

you had always pride yourself on keeping in somewhat shape, but with the constantly on the go lifestyle you live, and the stress that had started to mountain at work; it is natural for you to have gained a little

and recently, as if your mind had decided to spite you, you had realised that gojo is surrounded with more and more people around him - beautiful people around him, to be exact

whether they are fellow super fit sorcerers, another random suitor knocking at the door of your shared apartment, or even just random strangers on the street - you have started to realise that gojo just naturally attracts attractive people like that into his life

people who would look amazing together with him. someone who isn’t you

you were so consumed with your thoughts that you had not heard gojo, who came out from the shower with wet hair and a pair of fitted briefs, looking around your empty bedroom in confusion

tossing the towel he was using to dry up into the laundry basket, he had peeked into the closet of your shared room curiously; only to see you dressed in nothing but a cute white bra and a matching set of underwear

he was about to tease you about it, playfully asking if you ‘trying to make us late for our lunch with the others’ when he noticed the frown on your face as you scanned yourself over; hands resting on your stomach

wordlessly gojo made his way towards you, your eyes snapping towards his huge frame appearing in the mirror as his arms wrapped themselves around you immediately; bright blue eyes blinking at you from the mirror whilst he rests his chin on your shoulder

“what’s wrong, bunny? you have a frown on your face, and you know that i hate it when you’re frowning~”

at first you felt embarrass to admit what was plaguing your mind, knowing that he was going to tease you about being so insecure about something like this - but gojo is stubborn

he is going to coax it out of you one way or another, so you better fess up with whatever it is that is bothering you

it took some time for him to coax the question out of you, but eventually you gave in; awkwardly meeting his eyes through the mirror as he raises an eyebrow at you; silently coaxing for you to tell him

“I just...i’ve wanted to ask you for awhile now....am i fat?”

your question actually had gojo freeze as he made the most confused face ever, hand cupping up to gently squish your face between his fingers as he pulled away a little

“who said that? am i going to have to kill someone?” gojo asks too casually, to which you widen your eyes before you wrapped your hands around the wrist holding your face, shaking your head

“n-no! not at all!” you tried to calm him down as he turns your body to face him, an even more confused look appearing on his face - and you know that it’s genuine since he looked like a confused child

this just made things worse for you as you rubbed your warm cheeks, looking away from his all searching eyes. “i-it’s just...i feel like i’ve gained some...and you’re always around really good looking people...women..”

gojo was genuinely confused as he frowns, to which you just gave him an asperated face. yet before you can say anything he made a noise of confusion; arms wrapped around your waist loosely. “is it bad that i didn’t even notice?”

whatever you wanted to say dried up on your tongue as gojo looks over at you and gave you a soft but genuine smile, hands reaching over to cup your cheeks in his hands

“i didn’t date you because of something so artificial, bunny.” he hummed as he playfully squished your cheeks together. “to be honest, i didn’t notice about that until you brought it up.”

you made a face at him, as if silently asking if he was being serious as he pulled a face on you as well. “i am being serious here, bunny. i really didn’t notice at all.”

he just pulls you into his chest and hold you close, smushing your face into his firm chest as he coos at you. “you should know better then to think that i care about things as fickled as weight~ i’m dating you because you can make really good onigiri.”

“so you are dating me for my cooking?!” you gasped at him dramatically as you pulled your face away to glare at him, to which he just grinned before he leans forward to press kisses all over your face; your annoyance melting away immediately

after that it sort of just been left forgotten - but gojo never forgot. He can never forget something like that

even before you told him, he could tell that something was bothering you for some time now; but he wanted to wait for you to tell him yourself

and like he said, he really truly did not realise it until you pointed it out; he had never really care about things like physical appearance. since at the end of the day, he only cares about your chemistry together

i think that gojo, even though he is very vain, does not necessarily care about looks when he dates. for him, he wants someone who can handle all sides of him instead of being with him him for face value

so that is all he cares about - and you were perfect for him. so do forgive him for not giving two shits about something as small as appearance lol

yet he knew that you were still thinking about it - so he went out of his way to make sure that you’re not going to do something that might bring you more harm

when he realises you are eating smaller portions, he might whine and pout at you with puppy eyes; demanding for you to take a few more bites of your food

and no one can really say no to him whenever he shines his beautiful eyes at them; so he always end up getting his way

he always make sure to get the food you like and stock up on the snacks you enjoy to eat; and heck, he will even go out of his way to visit you during your lunch break at work to bring you out on lunch dates whenever he can

he’ll even become more touchy; even more so than he was before. but now he made sure to keep his touches at places where you are the most self conscious about

grabbing your thighs when you two seat together, resting his hands on your love handles whenever he wraps his arms around your waist, resting on your stomach whenever you two cuddle together

he’s always shown his affection through physical touches, since mans will end up insulting you by accident because of his inability to read the room - he might make a very unsavory joke that makes you want to hit him over the head

but he does really care for you, and always goes out of his way to make sure that you’re more than aware that he does care for you; even if it means feeding you food in the middle of a restaurant if you refuse to eat more

when you confront him about it, he just gave you a soft but genuine smile before he rests his hands on your shoulders to shake you gently; as if he is shaking you back into reality

“i just know you well, bunny. and i know that you’re going to try and loose weight because you think that’s what i want.” he sighs dramatically before he tossed his arms around you, pulling you into him with a pout. “but you should know better than to think that i am going to leave you because of your weight.”

his words caused you to pause as he pulls away a little to press a soft kiss on your forehead, soft lips resting against your hairline for a few more moments as he tightened his arms around you

“plus, i see it as a bonus honestly. more places to mark and more of you to love. also - your ass looks amazing in sweats.”

“i should have known the inner perv will wiggle his way out.” you grumbled shyly as you tried to push your grinning boyfriend away, who just grins in response as he you closer, catching your wrists in his hands. “you know i speak nothing but the truth love~”

and even though gojo adopted such a teasing tone, you knew that he was speaking nothing but the truth. it may not be enough to calm your whispering demons, but it did make you feel a little more confident in yourself

gojo also continued to shower you in more and more attention, making sure you never forget just how much he loves you. and that you should never care about something as small as your weight

he loves you no matter what, no matter what size you are - as long as you are there to welcome him home after a long day of work with the all love you hold for him, that’s all he needs

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fatesdeepdive · 3 years

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Entry 9: NO

Before doing anything else, I built a lottery house in the castle. The logistics of there being stores and gambling houses within my personal castle, that my soldiers work at, that don’t just give me whatever I want is kinda weird. The lottery gave me a radish I fed to Lilith.

Support: Hana/Subaki

C: Hana confronts Subaki about his tendency to refer to himself as perfect. He brushes it off, because he thinks that he genuinely is completely without fault. This angers Hana, who brings up a time Subaki fell off his horse and challenges him to a duel.

B: The duo begin their competition. Subaki, despite not actually having any sword skills, manages to defeat Hana by studying her fighting style over several months and messing with her head.

A: Hana takes the second round, beating Subaki in a horse race. Hana reveals that she doesn’t actually care about beating Subaki, just about serving Sakura, and the two decide to suspend their competition.

S: Subaki states that he hates when Hana brings up the time he fell off his horse because he embarrassed himself in front of Hana. Also the duo apparently love each other now.

Review: Decent set up, lackluster execution. I do like Hana’s feelings of inferiority in comparison to Subaki, and Subaki is wonderfully arrogant during this line, but the resolution comes from a revelation Hana had off screen and feels anti-climactic. I felt nothing during the marriage conversation.

Support: Hana/Sakura

C: Hana and Sakura discuss their childhood friendship and the fact that Hana has been protecting Sakura since even before she was a retainer. Sakura states that Hana’s stubbornness pairs nicely with her own introversion.

B: Hana reveals that Sakura’s kindness gave her a reason to dedicate herself to becoming a master samurai. Sakura reveals that she chose Hana as her retainer, in spite of her age and objections from others, because of...a reason explained in the next conversation. Gotta love cliffhangers.

A: Sakura chose Hana as her retainer because of all the times she protected her as a kid, so many times that Hana is covered in scars. Sakura feels guilty over Hana’s scars, but Hana brushes it off, stating that her scars are a badge of honor because they were earned protecting Sakura. Small character design note: Hana does not have any visible scars in this game. She does consistently have a scar in her arm in Heroes, and inconsistently has a scar on her left thigh, but neither of those scars are visible in game. Maybe the scars are hidden below her headband?

Review: First off, these two deserve an S-Rank conversation. They have more chemistry than most of the couples in this game. Setting that aside, I enjoy Hana and Sakura inspiring each other to be better. I love the idea of Hana protecting Sakura from feral dogs and Sakura repaying her by making her a retainer, going against royal officials to do so.

Support: Sakura/Subaki

C: Subaki yawns in front of Sakura then pretends it didn’t happen, because he is too perfect to get fatigued.

B: Subaki makes a tiny slip-up when filling out a form and has a complete meltdown, launching into a self-depreciating rant. Hana brings up that she’s seen him make mistakes before, which only makes things worse.

A: Sakura comforts Subaki and he reveals that his obsession with perfection stems from his childhood; his parents hammered in the idea that he must be perfect at all times as to not embarrass himself in front of royalty. He brings up the time he fell off his horse in front of Sakura right before she chose him as a retainer and reveals that he’s thought for years she chose him out of pity. Sakura comforts him, saying that he’s amazing and his slip-ups only make him more charming.

S: Subaki renews his vows as a retainer, promising to always fight for Sakura even if he cannot achieve total perfection. Sakura accepts, on the condition that Subaki marries her.

Review: I actually really enjoyed this one. The main gag with Subaki is that he’s arrogant and thinks of himself as perfect. This line deconstructs that, showing him fall apart at the idea that he isn’t good enough. It didn’t go fully into it, but this line suggests that Subaki may have some real mental health issues, possibly stemming from an abusive childhood. The romance isn’t perfect, but I do like the idea of Subaki ending up with Sakura because she helps him learn to accept himself. Also for all of Sakura’s supports I’m going to pretend that she isn’t like fourteen, because otherwise they’re all super creepy.

Support: Corrin/Sakura

C: Corrin asks if Sakura dislikes her and Sakura, who has never once visited any Fire Emblem or Smash Brothers forum, states that no one could ever dislike Corrin. Apparently, Sakura is awkward and shy around Corrin because she sucks at talking to people. Corrin offers to help her practice talking.

B: Corrin asks Sakura some basic questions and Sakura freezes up from anxiety and can’t answer anyone. Corrin theorizes that Sakura is easily intimidated by other people.

A: Sakura reveals that she’s always so anxious because she heard a rumor that Nohr actually wanted to kidnap her, not Nohr. This rumor was evidently false, because it makes absolutely no sense from a lore perspective. Also, I question the idea that this is the source of all of Sakura’s anxiety. Her anxiety around Corrin, maybe, but it’s odd that guilt over her sister’s kidnapping that she’s known for years wasn’t her fault would make her anxious around other people. I mean, it’s more pronounced around Corrin, but only in this support line. Whatever. Corrin swears to protect Sakura and I guess that means her anxiety is cured.

Review: This conversation is mediocre. Sakura getting anxiety because of something a maid said once is stupid, but Corrin trying to help her get over it is okay.

You’ll notice that I stopped this at the A rank. Well, you see, Corrin and Sakura only have three, conversations instead of four because, despite Corrin having a variable gender, Corrin and Sakura are siblings and Intelligent Systems would never include incest in a Fire Emblem game. They’d never do that because that would be terrible.

Wait. What’s that? Why does it say on the wiki that they have an S-Conversation? Surely this isn’t real.

Oh god it’s real.

No.

No no no.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

What the fuck, Intelligent Systems? Why did you include incestuous pedophilic marriage in your role-playing game? Seriously, what the actual fuck?

And, looking at Corrin’s support list, it’s not just Sakura. Every single Nohr and Hoshidan royal can date Corrin. I don’t know what’s worse, Corrin having sex with her stranger blood siblings or having sex with the people she thought were her blood siblings for years. Fine. Let’s just do the stupid conversation.

S: Sakura reveals that she’s been dreaming about the sibling she never knew for years, imagining what Corrin would grow up to be like. It’s actually a decent idea, albeit one hidden in the evil cursed S-Support that I hate. Corrin asks if they live up to expectations and Sakura states that they exceed them. Then Sakura says that she loves Corrin. Romantically. Corrin, being the sane person, objects, pointing out that they’re half-siblings. I don’t know where this half-sibling thing came from, as far as Corrin knows both of them are the children of Mikoto and Sumeragi. I mean, it is stated in Revelations that Mikoto isn’t actually the mother of anyone but Corrin, but Corrin doesn’t know that yet. Whatever. Sakura pulls out a letter from Mikoto that she only read a few minutes ago that says, psych! Corrin and Sakura aren’t actually related. At all. So it’s cool to bang. Corrin instantly gets over the whole “Don’t fuck your little sister” thing immediately and proposes to Sakura. What the actual fuck.

Review Continued: If ninety percent of the S-Rank conversation is convincing the audience that, no, this isn’t incest, you know it’s bad. And sure, it isn’t technically incest anymore, but who cares? Corrin and Sakura didn’t know that until ten seconds before they screwed each other. This is an incestuous marriage and it’s fucking gross. The writers clearly know it was gross, but they included it anyway.

And here’s the big problem with the Hoshidan sibling marriages: Birthright is built on the premise that this is Corrin’s real family, that Hoshido is her real home. It’s literally called Birthright. But if Corrin isn’t actually related to the Hoshidan Royals, all of that falls apart. They’re just strangers. The whole concept of the game doesn’t apply anymore. Because Intelligent Systems couldn’t release a game where the player insert doesn’t fuck literally every character. And, until we get to the point in Revelations where that is properly revealed, I’m going to pretend I don’t know it.

We got some new characters at the end of the last chapter, so let’s talk about them.

Silas

Silas is a cavalier who went turncloak for Corrin at the end of the last chapter because of a childhood friendship Corrin doesn’t remember. His personal skill makes him fight better when Corrin is injured. I’m starting to notice just how many of these skills specifically relate to Corrin, which makes sense but is still kinda weird. His design is fine, nothing objectionable there. I do think Silas’s forgotten childhood friend backstory is a bit odd, though. And I’m getting sick of characters who are obsessed with Corrin.

Saizo

Saizo is Kaze’s twin brother who looks like twenty years older than him. He’s the slower but tougher of the duo, judging from their stats. His personal skill Pyrotechnics is basically just him blowing shit up, which as far as I’m concerned is his solution to all problems. His mask is really weird looking, but at least he’s visually interesting. Personality wise, he seems like a dick, but in a good way. Our army needs some common sense and he brings it.

Orochi

Real talk: I forgot this character existed until she joined us. Orochi is a mage...er, diviner who has the personal skill Capture, which I’ll talk about later. Her design is decent; I like the sultry hair pulling in her portrait, it gives off a lot of personality. I don’t have much to say, I forgot she existed before the end of last chapter and have no clue what her personality will be.

Birthright Chapter 8: Fierce Winds

Team Corrin travels up the Eternal Staircase, a massive subterranean tunnel that leads to the Wind Tribe Village. Kaze notices that the group is being followed and a group of faceless pop out. Kaze and Corrin slaughter them with ease. Unfortunately, after the battle, the faceless turn into Wind Tribe civilians. Iago appears and explains that he disguised civilians as monsters using magic. He learned it from his favorite movie villain, the Joker from the Dark Knight, who Iago thinks is actually the good guy.

The gang reaches the Wind Tribe village. Corrin decides to just waltz in because sneaking past would be suspicious. Wind Tribe members attack. Not sure how they know about the whole slaughter thing. Maybe one of the fake faceless got away? Whatever.

Our three princesses apologize to the tribe members and they lead us to their chief, Fuga. Then the battle immediately begins. Guess negotiations didn’t go well.

Also here for some reason is Hinoka and her two retainers, Setsuna and Azama, both of whom are absolute morons. But, like, in a good way. Setsuna falls in quicksand, doesn’t care, and Azama immediately declares her dead. The fact that Hinoka has to basically babysit her two idiot bodyguards is amusing.

Setsuna

An Archer that works as Hinoka’s bodyguard. Her personal skill, Optimistic, makes her recover more when healed by a staff. A thing they do a lot in recent Fire Emblem games is to have characters that are based around specific gags or tropes. These are hit or miss, but Setsuna’s gag of constantly endangering herself and just not giving a shit sounds funny. The faced half-covered by hair initially makes her seem cool, but when paired with the dopey face and her personality it makes her look completely distracted. I like Setsuna, from what I’ve seen.

Azama

A monk who seems to be ridiculously optimistic and laid back. His personal skill, Divine Retribution, hurts opponents who attack him when he’s unarmed, which is a really cool idea. Azama doesn’t seem to be quite as funny as Setsuna, but still seems entertaining. I have mixed feelings on his design. I can’t tell if I like the closed eyes or not. The puffballs and wild hair are dumb though.

It’s worth noting that, because we move first, Corrin’s army attacks without provocation. Remember, they can’t see the red labels on enemies.

This map takes place in a desert. We can use the Dragon Veins to make it not a desert, which is good, because Fire Emblem deserts suck. Halfway through the battle, we finally talk to Fuga. He explains that we must earn the right to explain by killing all of his men. Bit of a dick move, chief.

We beat Fuga fairly easily. This chapter was fine, but just fine. Not bad, just unremarkable. Fuga explains that he was friends with Sumeragi and knows a lot about Yato. Apparently, us killing all of his men was a test to make us stronger so we can unlock Yato’s true power. Apparently, Yato can link something called the Sealed Flames and destroy the world. Neat.

Fuga accepts our explanation of the civilian murders. Which makes sense, it was kinda dumb. Actually, wait. Why did that have to be a plot point? Couldn’t this chapter just have been Fuga testing us?

Before we leave, Corrin and Azura discuss that there may be more blades like Yato out there. They don’t ask Fuga, because reasons. Also Fuga gives us his son. Neat.

#fire emblem fates #fe fates #fe 14 #corrin fe #sakura fe #corrin x sakura #setsuna fe #azama fe #subaki fe #sakura x subaki #subaki x hana #hana fe #silas f #saizo fe #orochi fe #fuga fe

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foxybananaaaz · 3 years

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I’m going to make a post, and it’s going to be one of those “Defending Nesta Archeron” posts. But I’m going to go about it in a way that will hopefully help the anti’s understand a bit more why the “Nesta Stans” feel she deserves better. But I’m not going to coddle her, and lift her on a pedestal either.

Also, this is going to be a REALLY LONG POST. Also also, I am NOT a Nesta Anti. Nesta is my favourite character and why will be explained at the end of this long post.

I’m going to start off by saying that, the anti’s are correct in stating that Nesta is not a “good” character in the fact thats she is a bitch. She isn’t nice, she has a lot to make up for and make right. But I feel like the arguments the anti’s use, they don’t try to understand why Nesta is the way she is.

I want to start in the first thing Nesta does in the series that gets hate. Letting Feyre, her younger sister, solely provide for the family. As well as having such anger at Feyre despite Feyre keeping her family alive.

This is the first reason of many, that would make the ACOTAR books so much better if it were not in first person, because we never fully get Nestas thought process and reasoning.

There is such a small amount to go off, to try and understand Nestas thought process. Feyre even flat out asked Nesta why, and Nesta was fully prepared to answer, before getting interrupted by (I think) the two ravens Hybern sent to capture Nesta.

But what we DID get was that Nesta was waiting for their father to step up and provide for his children, keep his children alive, and waiting for him so long, that by the time Feyre finally took action, Nesta had so much hate for their father for not doing anything that she also resented Feyre for stepping in, and letting their father get off with doing nothing.

This isn’t a good enough reason to be a bitch to Feyre, and I understand that. But we don’t even know the whole story from Nestas side, because again, just as she was about to explain and answer Feyre, they got interrupted.

But even then, after a point, if, or when Nesta did come to, and realize that Feyre should NOT be the one to provide for the family, and put her foot down and stop Feyre, it would ultimately be worse for the Archeron family, because by then, Nesta has no survival skills, hunting skills, or any skills to provide for the family, so it would be more beneficial to let Feyre keep going out to provide and keep the family alive, which could be another reason Nesta comes off so bitchy at the start. Because she would know that there’s nothing she could do, and she needs to rely on letting her youngest sister go out. People also use this as a reason to hate Nesta, yet I don’t see people holding Elain with the same weight of this crime, as she ALSO let her younger sister go out to provide for the family. But this post isn’t about Elain. People also seem to gloss over the fact that Feyre herself starts the process of forgiving Nesta when Tamlin sends her back home in A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Nesta and Feyre end up talking.

Moving on to Nestas “sins” in A Court of Mist and Fury. This is another instance that shows that these books are lacking because of the first person limitations. Because being stuck in Feyre’s head, we know how crucial it is at this point that Feyre and the Inner Circle have that place in the Human Lands to meet with the Human Queens. We know what’s at stake. Nesta, does not.

And Nesta has every right to be cautious and wary of letting Feyre and the Inner Circle use her estate, because she grew up hearing the legends(albeit false) of the fae, and grew up hating the fae. Hell, even FEYRE grew up the same way, and we see this in just how long it takes for her to truly and fully open up and warm up to Tamlin and Lucien and the other fae in the Spring Court in the first book. Nesta, at that point, had every right to be hesitant.

Once this bump is passed over, Nesta even has her guests question her, and not kindly. Cassian at this point only knows what was told to him by Feyre and Rhys, and not the whole story, and jumps on Nesta the first chance presented for allowing Feyre to provide for the family.

Even with Wings and Embers, when, for the first time, we get to look through eyes that are not Feyre’s we see that it is Cassian instigating any tention between the two. While I love Wings and Embers, and the chemistry between Cassian and Nesta, you can’t say that Nesta starts any of their arguments. Though I may be wrong, but Nesta only ever responds to Cassian intently instigating her. She never comes to play nicely or fairly. But she only ever gives as good as she gets.

And Nestas hesitance, wariness, and caution against fae is proved, at the end of Mist and Fury, when her and Elain are kidnapped in the middle of the night, and forced into the cauldron, as a move against Feyre.

Moving on now to A Court of Wings and Ruin, you can’t deny that Nesta starts a redemption, albeit a small one, but it’s there. Just as the growth of forgiveness in Feyre’s heart.

You can’t deny it, especially when Nesta steps up, and actively helps, when she honestly has every reason to say no, and be done with it, and go on with her new Fae life. No one would have grounds to blame Nesta if she refused to help. But she didn’t. She agreed to train with Amren in figuring out her powers so she can find the hole in the wall, and close it. She agreed to go to the Court of Nightmares with Amren for this same reason. She came around and agreed to go to the meeting of the High Lords, and tell her story, after initially saying No. After the wall came down, she agreed to go with the Inner Circle to play her part in nullifying the cauldron. It was HER idea to lead the King of Hybern away from the cauldron so Feyre and Amren could do their thing with the cauldron. She is the one to cover Cassians body with her own against Hybern, despite Cassian telling her to run, she stays there, believing she will die. And when Elain stabs Hybern in the throat, Nesta is the one who ultimately finishes him off, cutting his head off all together.

You can not say that Nesta did not start her redemption in Wings and Ruin, because despite everything that’s happened, and having every viable reason to say no, and live her life, she does choose to help. Which is why reading about Nesta in Frost and Starlight is so heartbreaking and infuriating.

A Court of Frost and Starlight, I believe is the very book that so many people build their hate for Nesta on. She’s a bitch. She’s cold hearted. She’s distanced herself. She uses Rhys and Feyre’s money to feed her alcohol addiction. She has taken everything she’s built up towards in Wings and Ruin, and knocked it down.

To you I say, the reason is trauma. We learn in Wings and Embers that Nesta was sexually assaulted by Thomas. In Wings and Ruin, we learn that, because of the end of Mist and Fury, Nesta can’t take a normal bath because she’s brought back to the events of the Cauldron, and now in Frost and Starlight, we learn that Nesta can’t have a fire. She lives in the freezing cold in winter, because she can’t light a fire, because all she hears in the fire is her fathers neck being snapped right in front of her. This is not even mentioning the trauma of losing her mother at a young age, or having her father become a cripple and refuse to provide for his children. Nesta has so much trauma.

Nesta does not heal in the same way her sisters do. Nesta is pushing everyone away, because realistically, there’s no one who would stand by her side before anyone else’s. And why should Nesta keep the Inner Circle close when she is clearly the black sheep?

The only one to show Nesta any kind of respect is Amren, and that’s pushing it. And as much as I want to say Cassian does as well, I truly can’t, given that most, if not all, of their arguments were instigated by him. And to have him flat out tell her “Your sisters love you, but I don’t know why” or whatever the quote is, when all Nesta was doing was telling Cassian to go home, that she did not want his gift. This would also further show reason in her distancing herself.

Rhys makes no effort in hiding the fact that he doesn’t really like Nesta for letting Feyre be the one to provide for her family. Mor starts acting like a straight up bitch to Nesta in Wings and Ruin when Nesta actively starts showing concern and worry for Cassian. And you can say that it is because Mor is protective of Cassian and doesn’t want him hurt, but Mor goes out of her way to let her negative feelings towards Nesta known, even when Cassian isn’t around. Azriel and Feyre actually will use Nesta(and Cassian I guess) as the butt of the joke, when Azriel swoops in to “save” Feyre(for flight training) from Cassian and Nesta tension. Even Elain isn’t there to be a support for Nesta during Wings and Ruin, but I won’t blame her for it, because she’s also going through her own issues.

The reason I brought that all up, is to bring light to the fact that Nesta probably feels like she will be invalidated in her trauma with the Inner Circle. Nesta probably feels like they will not care, and thus pushes herself away, before that pain is added on. Nesta probably feels as if she truly has no one to turn to with her own traumas.

Nesta has trauma, and she’s dealing with it in her own ways. Are her ways the right ways to deal with trauma? Hell no. Not even close. And she probably knows this. She probably sees two paths of dealing before her. The right path, and the wrong path.

Here’s the thing though. Here’s the sad reality. So many people in our own world have so many traumas, and take that wrong path. So many people who have traumas, see the two paths before them, knowing which ones right and wrong, yet CHOOSE to take the wrong path to deal with their traumas because it’s easier. It’s not right. It’s easier. So many people, take their traumas and ALLOW it to shape them for the worse. Nesta Archeron, is one of those people.

The way Wings and Ruin ended left hope for Nesta to have a “happy” healing process. And I use the word “happy” extremely loosely there. Because Healing is not happy. It’s just made easier when you allow yourself to be surrounded by love and support. But SJM clearly didn’t choose that path for Nesta. The sneak peak at A Court of Silver Flames at the END of Frost and Starlight shows that SJM has a different healing path planned for Nesta and has from the beginning of Frost and Starlight I believe.

Nesta is my favourite character because the way she’s written, especially in Frost and Starlight, makes her one of the most realistic and human characters in the entire series, and the way she handles her trauma, proves that. I am excited to see her healing journey in A Court of Silver Flames.

Nesta is a bitch. She pushed everyone away. She let her trauma shape her for the worse. She has a whole lot to make up for, apologize for, and be held accountable to. But she needs to be given the chance to do so, before people write her off as an unforgivable character.

At the beginning of this post, I said it would be a long one, and it truly is. But despite everything I’ve said in this post, this next paragraph is where I will end this post. It is also the most important paragraph of the entire post, without question, so read it and understand it.

Trauma does NOT and should NEVER be an EXCUSE for shitty behaviour. There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to allow it to excuse shitty behaviour. That being said, it can, and often does EXPLAIN why said shitty behaviour is shitty. Excuse and Explain are two completely different words with very different meanings. So do not let the explanation of shitty behaviour EXCUSE said shitty behaviour.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading.

#nesta archeron #nesta acotar #a court of silver flames #acotar #cassian #nessian #nessian book #acosf

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justwritethatdown · 4 years

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Chapter 2 of my high school AU :D

Beca finds herself wanting to know more abou Chloe, but Chloe's friends - and her social anxiety - give her a hard time about that. Also some more insights of her relationship with Jesse, Amy and her family :)

Words Count: 3K

Rating: T

Warnings: Underage smoking and language

Read it on AO3 or under the cut ↓

I don't need much of anything, but suddenly…

“How does it feel to be / Different from me Are we the same / How does it feel?”

That night Beca fell asleep with the smell of Chloe on her pillow, which made her heart do funny things in her chest.

Maybe Chloe wasn’t that bad after all.

Nothing changed at school between them, Chloe didn’t talk to her the next day or the following couple of weeks – not that Beca tried to talk to Chloe but, you know – Beca told herself she wasn’t disappointed at that. They weren’t friends.

“Beca wait!" she heard Chloe call after her and immediately turned around to see the redhead running towards her in the schoolyard “hey! What’s up?” asked Beca unable to control her grin. Chloe offered her a pink ear bug, smiling brightly “I wanted to ask you what you think of this song, it came out yesterday I think".

Beca took the ear bug and put it in her ear, the song was already playing but she knew right away it was Airplanes by B.o.B. ft. Hayley Williams “you like Paramore, right?” Chloe checked and Beca was surprised that the girl not only recognized them from one of her playlists, but she knew them well enough to know Hayley Williams was the singer of the group.

Beca’s smile widened while she nodded “yes! And I think this song is really good" she answered looking at Chloe with surprise “what?” giggled the redhead “nothing...” said Beca looking at her feet “I didn’t think you liked this stuff" she admitted looking back at Chloe.

“And what stuff you thought I liked?” asked Chloe biting her lip “I don’t know... Britney Spears?” guessed Beca screwing up her nose and Chloe gasped “you don’t like Britney Spears?” she gasped in shock tugging at the ear bug wire to make it pop out of Beca’s ear “ouch! I didn’t say that...”

“Who else do you think I listen to? Let’s see" asked Chloe in somewhat of a teasing tone “I don’t know, I don’t want to get in worse trouble that I’m in already... just tell me you don’t listen to Mariah Carey please"

“Mariah Carey is the greatest singer of all times" stated an irritating voice interrupting them “Chloe, I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Who is that?” asked the blonde girl who joined them “hey Bree, she’s Beca... family friends” dismissed Chloe, putting her iPod away. Beca didn’t know why that statement stung so much, it was the truth after all, they only knew each other because their parents – not that she’ll ever consider Sheila family – were friends.

Aubrey – Chloe’s best friend, for what Beca could understand – looked at her from head to toe in disapproval, before turning back to her friend “come on, Stacie is waiting for us” she said walking away and dragging Chloe alongside with her.

“Bye...” Beca told to no one, since the girls were already gone. She went to class wondering if maybe she was wrong about Chloe and they could be more alike than she though, but even popular girls are allowed to like good music, right?

One thing was sure, Chloe wasn’t even remotely as mean as Aubrey was.

At lunch Beca was glad Jesse decided to sit with Benji for once, instead of bothering her, so she could make a playlist of songs she thought Chloe might listen to, and one of those she thought Chloe should listen to.

Amy slept in and skipped school that day – something she did almost every Tuesday – so Beca didn’t have to worry about her either.

“sorry if I stood you up at lunch" apologised Jesse wrapping an arm around her shoulders, knowing very well that Beca would have shrugged it off and be dramatic about him touching her. He giggled when she did just that “you weren’t at my table? I didn’t notice” declared Beca in a monotone voice and Jesse pushed her gently “stop iit" she complained pushing him back “Benji was upset about his chemistry test" he explained without Beca asking “but he got B+” argued Beca and the guy shrugged “it’s the lowest he ever got".

“Where’s Amy by the way? I saw she wasn’t with you at lunch either” he asked “are you going to walk me home?” queried Beca stopping on her tracks – it was a ten minute walk between her house and the school – Jesse shrugged again “if you don’t mind. I don’t have anything better to do anyway" and before Beca could answer, he added “I know you must have missed me today, so you’re welcome" which granted him another shove from the brunette.

“How come you're not wearing your headphones?” “my iPod died at lunch" “aw, because I wasn’t there to keep you company?” he teased “you’re an idiot.”

The truth was that Beca craved more moments with Chloe, she was intrigued by her. Even if she usually was a pretty good judge of character, she was wrong about Chloe the first time and she still couldn’t completely figure her out yet. At school Chloe was a completely different person than who she was at home, she was nice to everyone and always smiling. And then there was that moment they shared in Beca’s room, that was what confused Beca the most, making her second guess all her assumptions about the redhead.

She wanted to get to know her better, but whenever Beca saw the girl in the hallways with her stupid friends she didn’t have the guts to say hi to her and just focused very hard on her steps to avoid eye contact. Beca hated to interact with that kind of people – she hated to interact with any kind of people – they acted like they owned the school and even if Beca couldn’t care less about that, she didn’t want to waste her time feeling judged by them or worse, letting them make a fool out of her. She really didn’t know why Chloe liked them, but again, she didn’t know Chloe at all.

Another month passed by. Beca never showed Chloe the playlists. It wasn’t important and Chloe probably wouldn’t care about that anyway.

“Why is this playlist called ‘Chloe'?” asked Amy making Beca’s blood freeze “that- that’s nothing, why do you always touch my stuff?” she gasped struggling to take the device from Amy, who won the fight without any effort “Jonas Brothers? These songs are so not you" added the blonde confused “It’s just... stupid songs, so I gave it a common stupid girl name” she blurred out wincing at her own words.

Amy narrowed her brows “Isn’t Chloe the name of that redhead you met at those ‘fucking lame dinners' with your father and Sheila?” she inquired making the quote marks gesture while repeating Beca’s words “maybe... I don’t know” tried Beca but she knew she was screwed “Beca...” said Amy not buying it at all.

“Yes, it’s her, okay? I made a playlist of songs I thought she lik-" “you never made me a playlist” interrupted her the blonde “that’s different, she’s- that’s different” blurred out Beca. Amy finally decided to let it go with a shrug connecting her loudspeaker to Beca’s iPod, letting the music fill her bedroom.

“Ugh! Why can’t I just stay with mom?” growled Beca “a couple of weeks at the beach are going to be good for you Bec, why do you have to fight me over everything?” asked her father “I don’t wanna come, dad I wanna work on my mixes, why don’t you understand that?” she whined and ran to her room smashing the door closed behind her.

Her father just informed her that in July they were going on a two weeks’ vacation someplace in Florida with Chloe’s and other two families the Beale used to go on vacation with every year. Beca didn’t have the time to be thrilled about it that she heard the name Posen being mentioned by Sheila. She didn’t even register the other one because she was already spiralling.

Posen like Aubrey Posen. The high bitch in charge at her school, Aubrey Posen. Chloe’s best friend Aubrey Posen. That couldn’t be a coincidence and Beca wasn’t willing to spend a single minute with her, let alone two entire weeks.

“Why is she like this Robert?” she heard Sheila question “what kind of kid doesn’t want to spend time on the beach with her friends?” at the world ‘friends’ Beca felt rage build up inside her – why was Sheila so fucking naive? – but it didn’t last long, because she heard her father sigh defeated “I don’t know honey, I’m afraid I did something wrong with her".

Beca put her headphones on trying to push back the tears that started falling from her eyes.

“She doesn’t want me, does she?” mumbled Beca sitting on her bed, knees pushed tightly against her chest. Her father looked at her sympathetic, sitting at the edge of the bed “Your mom is...” he trailed off for a moment, struggling to find the right words “she is having a hard time and needs to be alone for a while" he tried his best to explain “but she loves you! More than anything” he rushed to add and Beca rolled her eyes.

Lately her father did nothing but take her mother’s side, funny thing is that when they were married, they couldn’t agree on anything. Ever. Beca supposed he felt guilty about her ‘midlife crisis’ since it started just when he asked for a divorce because he couldn’t keep going on like that – or maybe it was the fact that he was in a relationship with stupid Sheila for about a month before that.

Beca’s blood started boiling in her veins at the thought, it was his fault after all, he gave up on their family.

“I’m gonna go at Amy’s” she spat out jumping off the bed.

“Beca, I need you to tell me you’re coming to Florida” he repeated.

“Whatever” answered the girl before leaving the room. It’s not like she had a choice anyway, her dad was just trying not to feel guilty about yet another thing.

“So, you’re going?” asked Amy passing her the joint. They were laying on Amy’s bed listening to music, as always.

“I have to" sighed Beca before smoking “I wish my dad was like yours, he lets you do everything you want" she wined “yeah he's pretty cool" laughed the blonde “or too busy to care maybe" she scoffed carelessly “dude, this pot sucks by the way" growled Beca giving the joint back to her.

Amy took another smoke before agreeing “I know, but I bought it from Luke" she explained “ugh, that dude is an idiot! He wrote ‘Meghan’ on my fake ID” complained Beca. The blonde stared lamely at her for what felt like forever, before cracking up in a loud laugh “Beca all fake IDs have fake names" she gasped trying to stop laughing. Beca looked at her blinking quickly before starting to laugh too.

“Anyway, he is an idiot yes, but he’s hot, so I don’t care" stated Amy “okay but never buy his pot again" demanded the brunette taking back the joint.

“So how are things going with Jesse?” asked Amy out of the blue “what do you mean?” “I mean you have this thing going on for a while now, when are you going to make it official? If you know what I mean...” said Amy wiggling her eyebrows, Beca felt slightly nauseous at that.

“There’s nothing between Jesse and me" she said defensively “oh come on Beca, you two are always attached to the hip!” growled the blonde “you don’t have to hide it from me" she said more softly “he's always attached to my hip I've got nothing to do with that!" spat out Beca getting up “I know you, you wouldn’t let him near you if you didn’t want to" pointed out Amy.

Beca knew her friend was right, she never let anyone get too close to her, but for some reason she allowed Jesse to do that and she had to admit she liked having his invasive ass around – not to Amy anyway, she was never going to admit that to Amy.

“That’s none of your business” she cut off rising the volume on her iPod to end the discussion.

When Beca came back home she found a brand-new soundboard to connect to her computer – the one she’s been asking for and her dad always denied her – sitting on her desk.

It was the same way she got her headphones, she got into a fight with her dad about something concerning the divorce somehow, stormed out of the house and found them at her return. Robert knew it wasn’t the best way to deal with conflict, but he really didn’t know how to deal with a teenager in full rebellion mood, so expensive gifts were his go-to in these cases. It wasn’t enough for Beca, but she decided to take what she could from this situation. She didn’t like to deal with conflict either anyway.

The girl spent the whole night trying all the functions her new device offered while thinking about Chloe. She spent most nights thinking about Chloe recently. She thought about what it must be like being at the verge of the high school social ladder, having everyone’s eyes on you all the times – a kind of pressure Beca couldn’t be able to stand, for sure – how it felt to be respected, feared even, by the whole school and mostly how would it feel to be bossed around by Aubrey all the times.

Aubrey gave Beca chills. It wasn’t that Beca feared her – she didn’t fear anyone – but there was something about her that made her stomach clench, as if she was under examination. She knew Aubrey judged everybody from her high throne and Beca didn’t think enough of her to care about that, but what scared the brunette was that Aubrey’s stupid opinion could affect what Chloe thought of her.

By the time sun started creeping up from her window, she had decided that suffering through two weeks with Aubrey Posen was a small price to pay to get to know Chloe better. Her social anxiety will have to come to terms with that.

Beca threw herself on the bed, cursing her decision to staying up all night on a weekday. Her clock showed it was half past six and she briefly wondered if she could push it a little and try to gain a ‘you can skip school today’ too from the argument she and her father had, but she knew Professor Mitchell considered school the most important thing ever, even over the peaceful atmosphere he tried so hard to maintain in their home. She groaned and set her alarm to an hour later before falling asleep in her outside clothes.

Of course, she didn’t hear the alarm going off and now she was super late. As she fumed to gather all the things she needed for the day she jumped at the sight of Sheila’s head peeking from her not-closed-anymore bedroom door.

“You’re late" she stated with that irritating tone Beca really didn’t want to hear first thing in the morning.

“I know that, thanks” spat out the teenager.

“Let me drive you to school” offered the woman now fully standing in Beca’s room.

“Absolutely not" said Beca without looking at her, still busy looking for her maths' notes.

“You left a notebook in the kitchen the other day, maybe that’s what you’re looking for" told her Sheila before leaving the room.

After getting ready Beca went to the kitchen and found the notes. Sheila was sitting at the kitchen table, probably waiting for her. Beca groaned “okay let’s go" as if she was the one doing the woman a favour.

Beca was sure it was a trap, so she rushed to put her headphones on to avoid any unwanted discussion about her weird behaviour or whatever. Surprisingly Sheila didn’t try to talk to her at all and when she stopped in front of Beca’s school she even offered the girl a sweet smile “have a good day”.

“Yeah...” murmured Beca under her breath before leaving the car.

It was a shitty day, like if she was under a heavy cloud; she forgot to charge her phone, her head was killing her and Jesse didn’t shut up for one second all morning, not to mention math class – which was always a nightmare. Beca was about to commit murder when suddenly Chloe approached her at her locker.

“Hey" breathed out cheerfully the redhead and Beca found her breath catching in her lungs “I’ve heard you’re coming to Florida with us this year” she continued with her classic bright smile. Beca’s heart started racing and she was positive her face was red “I- yes, we- uh...” she rambled focusing, on nothing in particular, inside her locker. “I’m glad you’re coming" at that Beca forced herself to look at Chloe and try to mirror her smile.

“Hey babe" she heard Tom call from the other side of the hallway. Chloe turned towards him with heart eyes and accepted his kiss when he reached them. Beca felt nauseous watching that – she hated pda and cheesy happy couples.

When they parted Tom friendly nodded at Beca “hi, I’m Tom" “Beca" she said shaking the hand he offered her. Beca tried to smile at him, she really did, but all she could manage was a grimace. The girl was never so glad to hear Jesse’s “Beccaaawww" approaching her.

“Uhm, sorry, I have to go. It was nice meeting you Tom. Bye Chloe" se excused herself locking the metallic door and walking to Jesse. It was the first time she’d ever said Chloe’s name to her face and was still marvelling at the sensation it gave her, when Jesse started to throw a million words at her again, but she couldn’t focus on him at all. For some reason she kept replaying that stupid kiss in her brain over and over again.

“Earth to Beca?” called her Jesse snapping his fingers in front of her “what happened to you? You’ve been weird the whole day" he asked in a somewhat of a worried tone “I didn’t sleep" she told him “why not? You can talk to me you know” he assured her, but behind him Beca spot Amy in the distance shamelessly gesturing at her with her index finger entering a ring she was making with the other hand “gross...” whispered Beca glaring at her.

“What?” asked the guy confused “dude you need to leave me alone okay? You’re not my fucking boyfriend” she snapped making some students turn to look at them. Jesse was staring at her with a hurt expression and she regretted right away snapping at him – it was Amy’s fault not his.

“All right” he said raising his hands and turning no leave. Beca wanted to stop him, but she was too proud to apologise.

“Troubles in paradise?” asked Amy joining her “Amy fuck off!” “geez somebody woke up on the wrong side of life today" she exclaimed rolling her eyes and walking away, she knew it was best to leave Beca alone when she was like that.

#bechloe #high school au #beca mitchell #chloe beale

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like-the-wings-of-butterflies · 5 years

Text

Keep Me Warm (Roger Taylor x Reader)

Summary: Cold winters call for desperate measures

Warnings: Nothing but sweet and innocent fluff

Word Count: 987

A/N: I finally updated! Although my blog is pretty much irrelevant now (I’m honestly not sure if there’s still a large following for the Queen/BoRhap fandom??) I got around to finishing off this little piece. I know my friends on the other side of the globe are feeling the warmer months at the moment but when I’m from in Australia it’s freezing! Nonetheless, this is basically me projecting, wishing I had someone to snuggle with and only heightening my obsession for the ‘friends-to-lovers’ trope. I also think Roger is reeaallyyy out of character here but I’m hoping it’s still somewhat enjoyable. Thank you for your patience and your kind words, your feedback is always appreciated! ♡

As sun began to set and dusk enveloped the walls of your homey, though admittedly tainted apartment. You found your body longed for the quiet; the softness of good night’s rest. Random images floated aimlessly through the pool of your thoughts, reflecting on the day and it’s events.

Like almost every Saturday, you’d spent the day with Roger. The winter chill had become increasingly worse in recent weeks, so the pair of you found yourselves staying in, dwelling in day-to-day domestic life as best you could with both of your endless schedules.

That was the thing about you and Roger, you could have as much fun doing absolutely nothing as you could on your elaborate, pre-planned outings. You shared a different kind of bond, never questioning that ‘status’ between you, seeing your partnership as ‘nothing more then being friends’. Mutually, you felt that if necessary, you’d discuss it when a situation arose. Of course Freddie, John, Brian and all of your other friends saw the dynamic between you and the obvious chemistry that went far past the platonic boundary. But even then, you both decided to turn your heads and act oblivious to what was undeniably there.

Roger found himself staying the night, as he often did when Brian had company at their shared flat; retiring to his usual residence in the spare room of your apartment. You wished each other goodnight and had swiftly jumped into your respective beds. Falling into the mountain of pillows with a quiet ‘thud’, you felt your stresses melt away, your eyes drooping the moment you laid down, sending you into a blissful rest.

Somewhere during the bitter winter’s night, when the glass of the window pane had fogged over and frost decorated the delicate spiderwebs strewn between the branches outside; the loud creaking of your bedroom door followed by a pair of footsteps stirred you from your sleep with a quiet groan.

“(Y/N), hey.” Rogers silhouette waved faintly from the doorway, the warmth of the hallways light illuminating his figure.

“Hey Rog, what’s up?” You whispered, your eyes remained partially closed and your voice was laced heavily with sleep, far from being fully conscious.

“I’m sorry for waking you but would you happen to have any spare blankets lying around? I had a look through the dresser but couldn’t find anything; it’s fucking freezing.” He murmured, a slight shiver present in his voice as he scratched the back of his neck.

After a few moments of silence, you attempted to collect your thoughts. Coming to the realisation that the space heater that usually occupied the spare room had come to the end of it’s life, you sighed inwardly. In your only semi-conscious state, you barely realised that it was you that lifted the right side of your bedsheets; not fully processing your actions and inviting the doe-eyed blonde to lay with you.

Upon seeing your body scoot over to the left side of the bed and your arm raised in the air, Roger froze in his place at your bedroom doorway, thankful that the darkness of your bedroom hid the dusting of pink that climbed up his neck and across his cheeks.

“You can’t be serious.”

This certainly wasn’t the response he was expecting, but he couldn’t lie and say it was something he was apposed to. Secretly, he’d been harbouring feelings for the longest time but was too afraid his confession would damage the bond you already had. Everyday he’d fall further and further in love with you. Taking pride in seeing all the quirks that made you so unique, when many went unnoticed by everyone else.

He didn’t realise how much time had passed until your voice groaned out from the darkness.

“Rog,” You whined, “You’re letting all the warm out.”

Snapping from his trance, he quietly made his way over to your bed, his heart beating painfully in his ears with each step.

It was easy enough to deduce that Roger was anxious, despite how out of character it was. Mainly from the fact that he hadn’t spoken for a good moment, but also due to the subtle twitches that could be seen appearing in his left hand: something that usually happened before a show.

He took the covers from your hand and slid in beside you, being careful not to shift the bed as he did so.

“And here you were thinking I’d be the one crawling into bed with you.” You murmured humorously, hoping to ease his mind.

“Oh shut it (Y/N).” He blushed, a small smile forming on his face.

“Not a chance, Taylor.”

Feeling brave, he slipped an arm around your waist and pulled you slightly closer to him. It began awkward and uncomfortable, taking you both a while to completely settle and ease into each other’s embraces. However once you had, you found yourself feeling more safe and relaxed then ever before. Quiet chatter began between the pair of you despite your slightly distracted conscience, only realising then just how long you’d wanted this. Your hands mindlessly trailed across the cold skin of his chest, swirling invisible patterns with your fingertips.

“You know you might of been a bit warmer if you actually wore a shirt to bed.”

A low rumble of laughter creeped it’s way up Roger’s throat in response: “Oh we both know you love it.” He teased, wrapping his arms closer around you and burrowing his head into your neck.

“Mmhm,” You hummed.

“Plus what difference does it make now? We have each other to keep warm.” You whispered as you pressed chaste kiss against the crown of his head, when only a few seconds later a similar kiss found its place lingering on your collarbone. It was then you both realised, pressed tightly against each other, hands twirling strands of the other’s hair; that the term ‘friends’ had long been inaccurate.

#bohemian rhapsody x reader #borhap x reader #queen x reader #roger taylor x reader #ben hardy x reader #x reader #queen imagines #queen #borhap #fluff #roger taylor #bohemian rhapsody #ben hardy #friends to lovers #fanfic #fanfiction

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i-do-unimportant-things · 4 years

Text

I have a Frozen 2 review

The story is great, they picked a more mature plot to have the target audience to be the kids that watched the first movie 6 years ago, and it was a good call, the more mature theme made it enjoyable for both adults and kids. Olaf wasn’t that good, in the first movie he was able to be funny even when he was quiet, but in this one, he’s just loud. The songs were better than the first one, nothing to really say there.

In the start, I kinda just liked seeing tune characters hanging out, like in house of mouse, that ‘we are in the future’ song was a nice reintroduction to everything. I liked the charades bit, into the unknown gives off Elsa’s passion and while show yourself wasn’t as good a song, it was a powerful scene story-wise.Kristof’s early 2000s boy band song was filler, to say the least, the songs weren’t amazing, but it wasn’t fixer-upper bad. We get to see Elsa on a self-discovery journey, and her relationship with Anna is way better, but with that said, every other character got worse. Kristof’s role was Guy who keeps trying to propose but always gets stopped, and then they wrote him out of the second half of the movie entirely, in fact they do that with all the new characters. They all get like five minutes of screen time and then Anna and Elsa leaves them to go follow the plot and that sucksI like the general guy, I like the girl Elsa was talking to, I like the reindeer loving guy who had way more chemistry with Kristof than Anna did.

Anyway yeah the movie had no idea what to do with anyone other than Elsa and Anna. Anna isn’t nearly as spunky or funny as in the last movie, but, she’s fine, not derailed or anything. And Elsa is a little more interesting I don’t hate any of her decisions for the first half of the movie and I think she had a lot more emotion and motivation than the first movie.Olaf getting thanos snapped wasn’t that sad. Elsa apparently has her powers because they were a gift from the spirits, but do they actually benefit anyone, and did her powers actually lead to anything good other than hardship and struggle for all the characters, so thanks spirits!

But she does use her powers to figure out that they need to break the dam to... fix the spirit world? Good thing those ice statues were able to tell her that... I don’t know the conflict of this movie feels a little made us as they go along like hey this huge dam that you spent millions of taxpayer dollars making over the course of a Long period of time is hurting people? And also the spirits are really mad about this whole thing but they didn’t do anything about it for like 50 years. So they need to blow up the dam, but Anna wasn’t doing anything, so Elsa literally freezes so that Anna can have a bigger role in the movie. Honestly the climax was kinda anti-climatic, like Anna just lead the big rock dudes to the dam and they throw more rocks at it. And Anna almost dies but the screenwriters remember that Kristof is a character in this movie so he saves her. And the general guy blocks Anna from the dam making you think he was gonna be the twist villain for like 15 seconds. And after the dam is broken Elsa unfreezes and boom, conflict over.

I was hoping that arendille was going to be destroyed. Like excuse me for not being invested in a kingdom that was ruled by an evil murder man that passed the Kingdom on to a dude that traumatised his two daughters because of the request of some pebbles. And the Kingdom being destroyed would have actually put some consequence on the characters actions, I’m Glad it didn’t have a twist villain, because twist villain plus Disney equal’s bad. And I think I’ve found a new trend in Disney and Pixar films. Splitting up the main characters at the end of the movie. Toy story 4, wreck it Ralph 2 and frozen 2 all have endings where a character moves to explore new horizons or dreams or love or whatever. And the more times a movie ends like this, the less impact it had. Toy story 4 did it best. Ralph breaks the Internet handled or okay, even though it contradicts the entire premise of the first movie. But frozen 2 does or the worst. The idea that Elsa wants to live in the forest was so poorly set up, they barley explore the idea that she wants to love in the woods. Out comes right out of nowhere and Anna didn’t even react to the fact that she was queen now. So that’s frozen 2, a nice expansion, but not an amazing way to progress the narrative, so, I don’t know 6/10?

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theonyxpath · 4 years

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One of the mechanics in They Came from Beneath the Sea! that people really seem to love is the Quips. Here’s a section on Quips and a small selection of them, as written by Larry Blamire for the core rulebook. You’ll be able to buy these on cards or make your own once the game is released!

The Art of the Quip

“It’s not just what words you say… it’s when you say them… and how you say them… Also what words you say… I’ve said before… you can take away my armaments. You can take away my freedom. You can take away this neat hook thing I use. But nothing can touch my quips…. Nothing…”

— Clain Hoake, veteran canner, troubleshooter, and quipper

There is no handier weapon at the monster or alien fighter’s disposal than the Quip. Also a gun. And a ray, some kind of ray. Plus speed, agility. Hiding is good, if you hide from something, so you can organize later, maybe regroup. Punching, also handy.

But Quips, they are something special, because all they take is some presence, some wit, some wherewithal, and a little bit of imagination. And, before a wave of slime can engulf, before a razor-toothed mouth snaps, or a clutch of allies panic, those words are out of your mouth and no one or no thing can ever put them back. It’s often believed a Quip turned the tide for the Scots at Stirling Bridge, though its actual words are lost to history.

Quip Mechanics

There are six decks of Quips in They Came from Beneath the Sea!, from which you will be drawing your character’s pithy one-liners. If you don’t own the official decks, that’s fine. Appendix One (p. XX) lists each deck’s contents so you can create your own.

Vows, Defiance, and Tough Talk

These are the Quips that express your steadfastness, dedication, or resolve. They can boost those around you, but they can also boost you. Often, it’s a show of grim determination, a pledge of alliance, or a vow to not give in to fear. These are the Quips we all need from time to time.

Quip Your Griping

Quips aren’t always about cocky bravado or quick cleverness. They can also express displeasure, a bit of wiseass attitude, often jaded, towards how things are progressing, perhaps even as a criticism of their fellows. This is especially true of hardened veterans who are just not happy with things, the newbie who’s been thrown into more than they bargained for, or the hotshot who wants some action, pronto. These can be sneered, bitten off, and spit out or dropped like that sour note no one wants to hear. Sarcasm often works nicely here.

And Before You Pull That Switch

There will come a time in fighting thaumocs that you are just about to deliver something of consequence. It might be as small as a single punch that carries symbolic weight. Or perhaps an attack that could have great impact, an escape that could turn things around, sometimes a jump from a high place. Often times it means throwing a switch, pushing a button, or pulling a lever that could have devastating effect.

It is practically a prewritten rule that this be punctuated by something pithy and punchy, usually just beforehand. This Quip carries perhaps less weight than the others. It’s just so satisfying…

Please Enjoy This Great Portent

Nothing freezes a room full of brass or lab coats like an ominous ton of bricks plopped in their midst by a mere twist of tongue. It reverberates in the air like aftershock, earning the respect and admiration of any doubters, but also as a wakeup call, a rally to go and kick some alien ass.

No matter what your role in the battle against Things from the Sea, your true mettle is shown when you utter a portentous foreshadowing. Often, it can be an ultimatum. Sometimes… it’s an ultimatum to yourself…

These can be perceived as being negative but often it’s a harsh truth that must be faced. A reality check of sorts. As if to say: This is it. Now or never. We have to buckle down or we are done for. In this way, it somewhat overlaps the Vow. But it can also be a grave and heroic pronouncement after a perceived victory, even a minor one.

Why So Glib?

Glibness is crucial to a large portion of well-delivered Quips. It is the humorous heart of the snappy remark. Nothing raises morale in the face of a scaly goggle-eyed horror from the deep more than a brash display of amusement.

Of course, people on screen have been laughing at danger since the days of Errol Flynn and, before him, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (most effectively recreated in The Princess Bride).

It can be that devilish rejoinder against all odds as a slimy dripping appendage closes in on your face. Or, most popularly, the triumphant punctuation just prior to pressing that button or pulling that switch or whatever the coup de grâce may be that dispatches one or more horrifying aquatepillars. Again, understatement is key. It implies confidence, coolness, lack of effort. It says, despite your exertion, despite the grueling effort it took to get here, the rising fear you constantly tamp down like so much mud… please accept this wisecrack…

The Flirtation

Finally, nothing spices up a growing attraction or old movie chemistry like a playful Quip. A string of these can become the light verbal fencing that takes place even in the midst of conjuring the necessary science to battle aquatic nightmares. Slight smirks are welcome.

Vows, Defiance, and Tough Talk

If being right works when I go to bed… it still works at breakfast…

I’ll make my final move if it’s the last thing I do…

Like the math whiz said, count me in.

It’s time we taught them a little human know-how as well as some neat engineering tricks, also knot-tying…

Just get this through your little hive mind…

Sorry if I parted your scales too close…

It’s time we put the “I” in survival…

We’ll cross those T’s when we come to them…

I’ve spit in the eyes of hurricanes bigger than you…

If you’re going through me, you’ll have to go through me to do it…

I have one rule: If I can eat it, I can kill it…

I don’t know much about science or monsters but… I’m willing to learn…

Just one question… Which garnish?

I’d sooner wear commie clothes than give up my humanity…

Mister, that won’t buy you a half stick of gum at the Half Stick of Gum Store…

Maybe I’m just not comfortable with the phrase “aquatic alien overlords.”

If I’d known you were coming I would’ve baked a sweetbread…

I’ve smoked worse things in my pipe…

Hope I didn’t ruin your little fondue club reunion…

#Onyx Path Publishing

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voiceofreader · 5 years

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Hello , could you please do a oneshot with shinsou where the reader is heartbroken over a boy (preferably midorya but if not that’s okay) and he comforts her? Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes!

I should really just made a Shinsou x oc fic just because whenever I get a request for him, I ignore all other asks and then write a whole 8 page long story. I just love him so much ❤❤

Hitoshi Shinsou x Reader (fluff)

Reader is locked away in her room, trying to get over a crush, when a wild Shinsou appears and asks her to go get ice cream with him during a rain storm.

A new school year, a new you. Well that’s what you always said every year. You were going into the second month of the first term of second year.

Usually every new school term you had a determination to dominate all your goals, challenges and overall try to become a new improved you.

But for once this year, you kind of brushed it all off. Call it seasonal depression.

But this cold weather, rainy day, dark and dreary early spring. It didn’t help that rain cloud that had been over your head since first year ended.

For you were dealing with heartbreak. You had the biggest crush on Izuku Midoriya. And you broke your own heart when you realized that it would never happen between you two.

You first liked him when you saw him during the Sports Festival. Well, there was some stray feelings from the very beginning when he was so nice and cheery, even with you.

Your mind must’ve thought his kindness was a way of him flirting? You didn’t know how you really fell for him. He was such a dork. But he always made you smile, always brought your spirits up with his own determination to be a pro-hero.

But he acted this way with almost everyone.

You noticed his close friendship with your other fellow classmate, Ochako Uraraka. They became friends during the entrance exam, so Uraraka had the upper hand.

But they had been great friends ever since then. You couldn’t deny their chemistry. And when it was so painfully obvious that Uraraka had a crush on Izuku and vice versa.

It’d be pointless to try to pry them apart and take your chance. It wasn’t your place anyway.

Besides, you two weren’t really that close of friends.

You somehow became part of the “bakusquad”. Your friendship with Mina and Kaminari gave you a sure spot in the gang. Although, with your crush known within your group of friends, to no surprise, Bakugou was annoyed with you the most. He didn’t understand how someone could like that “damn Deku”.

You weren’t remotely in the “deku squad”.

Everyone in that group was nice and friendly with you, but your personalities just didn’t seem to match up enough to make you real friends.

It just seemed like destiny was against your love for Izuku Midoriya.

And that all just crashed down on you at the end of the year when Izuku accidentally called you the wrong name.

It wasn’t too off from your name, but you then realized how little of an impression you made on him.

Sure, he had soon realized his mistake and apologized profusely, and you knew he didn’t really mean it, but the damage had been done.

Here you were faced with the heartbreak, alone. You weren’t going to get any sympathy from your friends with Bakugou around because he would probably threaten your life and say you get what you deserve.

You didn’t really need that right now.

Here you were, secluded in your dorm room, trying to work on homework, but you couldn’t focus. Either it be your train of thought running off course because of your aching heart, or the loud rain hitting your window.

It was a Saturday and instead of hanging out with everyone in the common room, you didn’t want to chance seeing Izuku yet. You knew you weren’t ready to see his smile or his bright eyes. You had to alleviate some of the hurt before you could interact with him.

A knock on the door made you jump. You weren’t expecting company. Mina knew about your slump and let you have some space, even if it seemed out of character for her, she promised to let you be for a few days.

She most likely passed that on to Denki as well.

So who would be at your door?

You unraveled yourself from the blankets you had wrapped around you and made it over to your door. Opening the door you were greeted by the newest student of Class 1-A. His disheveled purple hair, dark eyes, uninterested expression. He was wearing a dark ash purple hoodie with a acid washed grey denim jacket over it. Black jeans, and sneakers. He looked like he was going out.

“Hey.” He nodded, looking down at you. You looked at him confused, but you tried to fake a smile. Not that you didn’t like him, in fact, you two got along great. It was just he didn’t ever reach out to you first. “Hey.” You repeated him.

“You look worse than me.” He commented, not a hint of amusement on his face. You frowned. You hadn’t taken time to notice your appearance yet that day, so you only guessed you had dark circles under your eyes, and messy hair.

“Thanks, Shinsou. Anyways, so same time tomorrow? Great. Bye.” You tried to close your door on him.

“Hey,” he kept your door open a sliver, with his foot in between the door and the frame. “I’m going out. You wanna come with?”

“Where? Why?” You wondered, either way, disinterested. Especially in this rain.

“I want to go get ice cream and Kaminari told me to drag you with me. Something about getting you out to cheer you up. I don’t care either way though.” He rolled his eyes, sighing. It made you warm inside knowing Denki was thinking of you.

But you weren’t in the mood to leave your room. “I’m not interested. Thanks though.” You smiled as bright as you could, but your face felt heavy from your constantly crying, so you knew whatever your face looked like, it must’ve seemed pathetic.

“Isn’t it common practice to eat ice cream when girls get their hearts broke?” Shinsou replied in his normal deep voice.

Your face heated up in embarrassment.

So Shinsou did know about your crush on Izuku. That was another person too many.

“Yeah, well…shut up,” You muttered, at a loss of words. You didn’t have anything to say to defend yourself.

“So get dressed, or brush your hair. Do something at least. And hurry up. I’ll be waiting down at the doors.” Shinsou walked off, not giving you a chance to decline.

You were too nice to leave him hanging, so you felt compelled to listen.

For the first time that day, you looked yourself in the mirror. You now understood what he meant. The ponytail you put your hair in the day before had moved to the upper side of your head and half your hair was out of it. Your eyes were dark and puffy from both overwhelming emotion and sleep deprivation. You did in fact look like a mess.

After fixing your hair into a neat pulled back style, washing your face and putting on a new outfit, you once again checked yourself out. It was a bit of an improvement, but your face would only improve with sleep and time, which you didn’t get to have.

You pulled your hood up to shade your eyes from light to hide the state you were in.

Sighing and glancing out the window, you shivered mentally, realizing you would have to go out in the freezing rain.

“Welcome back to the living, y/n!” Mina welcomed as she looked at you from the couch in front of the T.V.

Stray hellos were said from other classmates, and a grumble from Bakugou, probably about threatening someone’s life.

“Good afternoon, y/n!” Uraraka greeted with a smile, from the love seat at the square table not too far from the T.V. You noticed she was sitting next to Izuku. They were playing some kind of board game with Iida, Momo, and Tsu.

Izuku looked up from the table and smiled at you. “Good afternoon, y/n! Do you want to play with us?” He asked from across the room.

“Maybe later.” You lied. You felt a sharp pain in your chest, when you saw his attention quickly taken by Uraraka saying something.

You might as well have said nothing because he wouldn’t be paying any attention to you, too wrapped up in Uraraka’s pretty eyes and warm smile.

“Hey. You ready?” Shinsou called to you from the threshold of the main entrance. You nodded and hurried over to him.

“Hey, while you’re out, get me some monaka?” Denki requested. Before you could reply, Shinsou beat you to it. “Ice cream is for people who go out. I’m not a delivery service.”

“Let’s go before it gets even colder.”

You nodded, letting him lead the way.

You two got off the bus, at the stop in the shopping district. A waft of savory noodle dishes came from the nearby restaurant, with it, your stomach growled. Shinsou looked over at you. “Have you ate today?”

“No?” You said, although it sounded more like a question rather a statement, only because you could sense the annoyance in his voice. “So you were going to have ice cream as your first meal of the day?”

You recognized the stern tone.

“Yes.” You lowered your head, a bit shamed by his “mom” attitude.

There was a moment of silence. “Where do you wanna go eat?” Shinsou asked in a grumble.

“No! I’m fine! Let’s get that ice cream!” You declined feverishly, shaking your head wildly. “You’re not going to just eat ice cream. In this cold weather, soup sounds good. I suppose that noodle shop right there will do. Come on.” He decided for you. You begrudgingly followed behind him.

Sitting down together, you, pouting, didn’t say anything, and let the awkward tension take over.

It wasn’t until you two paid for your meals and were leaving, conversation picked up once more.

“You really gotta take care of yourself better. You’ll get sick if you don’t.” Shinsou advised, slowing down his pace to walk side by side with you.

“I know. I’m usually not like this.” You mumbled, looking down at the sidewalk, watching the rain hit the ground and the shallow waves the impact made on the water already on the sidewalk, and then the water flying from your shoes with every step you made. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. You’re much more social and annoying. But you shouldn’t let Midoriya get you down like that.”

You hated how just the mention of his name made your heart beat faster. You had to find a way to calm yourself so you could get over him.

“So you knew it was him, huh?” You wondered. “Kaminari just told me you were dealing with a crush. But just as we were leaving the dorms, the way you acted when Midoriya talked to you told me everything I needed to know.”

You frowned more. You didn’t realize you were that obvious. You didn’t reply. You didn’t know what to even say. Though, what was there to say?

“Though, I gotta say, it was a bit surprising finding out it was him you were hung up over.”

“Everyone says that when they find out.” You commented. “Well yeah, you and him are way different. He’s all innocent and determined and whatever. You’re more- well different. Besides, I thought it was common knowledge that him and Uraraka like each other.” Shinsou shoved his hands into his pants pockets.

You chest felt heavy, like it always did when you were reminded by the undeniable facts. “Just because a person likes someone doesn’t make them unlikable by anyone else.” You argued in a grumble. “I know that. I just figured when two people are so undeniably into each other, that it would ward off anyone else.” He shrugged. “They’re not that so obviously into each other. They’re just really good friends.” You felt it pathetic to even defend your crush at this point, but you couldn’t help your headstrong nature.

Shinsou laughed. “Really? They’re always so flustered around each other and they both can’t get a full sentence out without stuttering.”

You bit your lip and sucked in a breath of air.

“Sorry. I’m not really helping, huh?” Shinsou noticed the hurt expression on your face. “I’m not good at the whole comforting thing. I haven’t really had the chance to do it either.”

“Well, I’m not asking you to comfort me. I only agreed to go because I needed a break.” You half lied.

“Yeah, sure. I know what it’s like to have a crush on someone and them not liking you back.”

“Doesn’t everyone at some point?”

“Yeah, I suppose. But even if that’s true, it doesn’t make it hurt any less. You feel like you won’t ever find love like them, or you’re not good enough. Sometimes the feelings you have for them is so overwhelming you get your hopes up and you start imagining what it’d be like to be with them and it all comes crashing down when reality finally kicks in. It sucks, but you gotta keep going.”

“Yeah, I know. This isn’t the first time I liked someone. I just thought… Maybe this time it’d be different.” You shrugged.

“Don’t we all?… Well here we are. The best ice cream in this whole city for the best price. You can’t go wrong.” Shinsou stopped in front of a store.

“What do they have?” You asked, walking in, as Shinsou opened the door for you. “Lots of things. I come here for their kinako topping on vanilla soft serve.”

“I gotta say, you picked a weird day to get ice cream.” You relished in the warmth, once fully inside. You felt bad about dripping water all over the store.

“What can I say? I’m a weird guy. What do you want? I’ll order and you pick us somewhere to sit.”

“Mochi?” You asked. “Yeah. Flavor?”

“Green tea, or if they don’t have it, strawberry.”

“So, does Midoriya know?” Shinsou once again reopened the wound, after a delightful conversation about types of cats you both like and arguing which breed was more superior.

There came back your figurative rain cloud. “No. I mean, if I’m as obvious with my crush, then maybe he figured it out. I was scared to ever say anything because even I know that he has feelings for Uraraka and even though I was kinda in denial about it, I still didn’t want to intrude into what they have going on.”

“Yeah, I get that. It’s refreshing seeing two innocent and naive people so obviously in love with each other, and everyone but them see it. It’s kind of amusing.” Shinsou replied, nodding along with what you were saying.

You had to admit, it was quite enjoyable to have someone so actively listening to you. Your squad was filled with people who got off track so easily, and then one person who couldn’t stand listening to you just because of your crush on his rival.

Having someone keep focus on you and showing that they’re interested in what you’re saying. It was charming. That’s what you liked about Shinsou. He was a great listener.

“But, I suppose I tried to give him hints, but I guess if he didn’t get them, then that means he’s just not interested, right?” You shrugged, trying to lighten your mood. “Yeah, but Midoriya is the type of guy to completely not comprehend when a pretty girl is trying to flirt with him. He probably thought you were just being a nice friend. You’ll have to really spell it out to him, but even then, when someone so obviously out of his league is confessing their feelings to him, he’ll try to talk himself out of the reality of it. He wouldn’t understand how incredibly lucky he was and it wouldn’t be until it was too late that he’d realize he should’ve shut up and just taken the opportunity he was handed.”

You were completely in awe. Did Shinsou not only call you pretty but also say you were out of Izuku’s league?

You shrugged away the tugging in your head that demanded you dwell on the compliments. “It’s funny, Shinsou. You said you weren’t good at comforting others. But it seems like you’re doing a pretty good job.” You looked him in the eyes, and smiled sincerely.

Shinsou’s cheeks were a faint pink. He seemed surprised by your words. “I, uh, I’m not-… I’m freezing. We should head back soon. It sounds like the rain isn’t letting up anytime soon. It’s going to get darker as it gets later.” Shinsou got up and headed straight to the door.

You two had finished your ice creams a while ago, you just were waiting to see if the rain would let up at all.

“I agree. We’ll both get sick at this rate. So let’s hurry.” You caught up to him at the door, bracing yourself for the cold wind. “You want my jacket or something? I know it’s just as soaked and cold as the rest of your clothes, but it might help.” Shinsou offered, hand on the door handle.

“What? And let you get sick and then I’d feel guilty and have to take care of you? No way.” you declined. “Whatever, but if you get sick now you’re not getting any sympathy from me, since you don’t want to take care of me.” Shinsou grumbled, opening the door and you skipped out. “I’m just saying I don’t wanna take care of you just because then I’ll end up getting sick.” You defended yourself, crossing your arms over your chest tightly to get some warmth.

“Seems like you’re gonna get sick either way. So pick your poison.”

“All right, if I get sick and you agree to take care of me, then I’ll also do the same for you when you do, or vice versa, deal?” You turned to look at him as you both sped to the bus stop.

“It seems either way I’m getting screwed.” “Wow, I’ve just decided I like hanging out with Bakugou more than you now.” You pouted, jokingly. “All right, fine by me if you wanna be around someone who is probably planning your death. Be my guest.”

You both decided to run to the bus stop to 1. Produce warmth by physical activity, and 2. To prove who was faster. You were the winner, but there was no prize for winning, only being out of breath and still being cold. Although, you got to the stop faster and got out of the rain sooner.

You giggled as Shinsou arrived quite a few seconds after you. “Can’t keep up, huh?” You teased. He frowned at you, although, he was breathing hard. His breath visible in the cold weather. “I’ve been in a general studies course for a year.” He excused.

You scoffed at his answer, smirking at him. “You think I got this fit just by being in the hero course? This is all from hard work! Though, I suppose your assumption that I’m just naturally fit is a compliment.”

“I wasn’t complimenting you. You’re getting back to your normal annoying self. So I’d like you to be quiet all the way back to the dorms.” Shinsou gave you a look.

You supposed that you in a better mood, therefore, acting more like yourself, although, if Shinsou didn’t like how you usually were, it kind of hurt. Though, it was better than dwelling on the real reason you were upset in the first place.

“I was joking. If you didn’t know.” Shinsou added. You were pouting, “that wasn’t a good joke. If you didn’t know.” You replied. “I suppose that’s two things I’m not good at. Comforting others, and making jokes.” He shrugged.

“One of those things, yes. But you really made me feel better. So, you know, thanks, Shinsou.” You shyly looked over at him. He quickly turned to face away from you. “It was whatever.”

The bus arrived, and you two got on and made your way back home.

Anywho, if there’s any grammatical mistakes, or any typos, I’m sorry. I’m kinda out of it. (as always, just a bit worse than usual) I tried my best to edit, because I can’t write for shit today.

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou x reader #voiceofreader

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edwardianbookwhore · 5 years

Text

Heathers UK: A Review by an OG Heathers Fan

Some of you may know this already, but the Heathers UK Cast Recording came out recently. I have been a fan of Heathers since the original Off-Broadway version in 2014 and after listening to this new cast recording, I have some OPINIONS. If you are an original Heathers fan then you probably remember how weird it was to go from almost everyone knowing what Heathers is (pre-Hamilton) to no one knowing anything about it (during Hamilton) to having a whole new ‘generation’ of people who love Heathers (post-Hamilton). In this review I will be breaking down each individual song and character portrayal in the new-ish version of Heathers and giving my overall opinion at the end.

Beautiful

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 9/10

Now, of course, the original song is iconic. Not just because it introduces each individual character and future concept, but also because it has the iconic line “September 1, 1989.” It’s filled with laughs and relatable lines galore. We start by feeling bad for this main character while at the same time being intrigued by what is going on in her life. I feel like the West End does a great job at respecting the original song while at the same time giving their own flare. My only complaints are, of course, some of the language used. Not only is it painfully obvious that Heather Chandler can’t do an American accent for shit, but it’s also slowly revealed to us that they have changed some of the lyrics. Now, of course, it is expected, given that this is a whole new production, it’s just that some of the lyrics that they chose to change make no sense. It’s a great song, and I love Carrie Hope Fletcher’s energy toward the end, but it does not in any way compare to Barrett’s original performance.

Candy Store

OOBC: 9.5/10

UK: 7.5/10

Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the original Candy Store, I just believe��that in some ways, it could be improved (VERY minor). However, the West End’s rendition of this song is frankly not great. This is the first song where the Heathers really get to shine, and I feel like they’re more a little dull in this song. The belts aren’t great, the American accents are very noticeable, and let’s be honest, Jessica, Alice, and Elle are the best Heathers ever. A very minor complaint that I had that you cannot even see in the cast recording is that they switched Duke and McNamara. It really messed me up while looking through pictures of this production. I appreciate the drama and energy put into this song, but it’s just not as strong as the original.

Fight for Me

OOBC: 8/10

UK: 7.5/10

Personally, I never really enjoyed the original version of this song. It’s a great song, but it doesn’t really stand out amongst all of the other songs in this musical. To me, it seems just like some kind of love-sick song that doesn’t really mean anything in the end. The West End does a great job of mimicking the original song, however, the arrangement of the music is not that great compared to the off-broadway production.

Freeze Your Brain

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 6.5/10

I freaking LOVE Ryan McCartan’s original production of this song. No matter how many JD’s I watch perform this song, no one is as good as Ryan. When looking at a picture of Jamie Muscato, he seems like the kind of guy who would be perfect for the role of JD. In other words, he ticks all of the boxes, almost like an off-brand Ken doll. However, his rendition of this song is absolutely terrible. He sounds like he’s trying, he really is, but he just BARELY has the range for this song. This ultimately translates into him sounding more like a weird theatre kid and less like a mentally ill teenager. I appreciate the effort, but the payout is not great.

Big Fun

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 7/10

When thinking about all of the obligatory ‘party’ songs in theatre (Halloween, The Dual, Revenge Party) ‘Big Fun’ almost always turns out to be my favorite. The energy, the craziness, the feeling of no regrets coming off of these teenagers. I just love every minute of the original song. However, this version does not in any way feel like the original. It starts off with the chords from the original that we all know and love, but they are being sung by the cast. Instead of just having the orchestra play them like a normal musical, they have the cast practically scream them at the top of their lungs. Although most of the original dirty jokes are still in the song, the high voices coming out of the cast through the entire 3 minutes and 42 seconds sound like they tried to make a Kidz Bop version. They really did try to create a good song, but it does not convey well at all.

Dead Girl Walking

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 6/10

I love, love, love Carrie Hope Fletcher, but this was nowhere near her best song in this musical. She tried to do her best, but it’s really not a good song. They changed several of the lyrics from the original song, which are very awkward for the energy of the song. Jamie Muscato does a terrible job at acting like a teenage boy who just a (kind of) random girl bust into his room through the window. The harmonies are almost ear-shattering and compared to Barrett and Ryan’s original chemistry, these two have close to none. This song was not as bad as it could have been, but I just had very high hopes going into this song.

The Me Inside of Me

OOBC: 8.5/10

UK: 8.5/10

Believe it or not, I don’t particularly love the original version of this song. It’s a good song, I just don’t find it to be one of my top favorite in the musical. In my opinion, the West End production does a great job of keeping true to the original song. There was nothing that really stood out to me as being worse than the original song. It was pretty much the same as the original.

You’re Welcome/Blue

OOBC: 2/10

UK: 9/10

I know this may not be the most popular of opinions, but I absolutely LOATH ‘Blue’. Frankly, it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable, and it doesn’t really add much to the story in the long run. The West End version replaced the dumpster fire of a song with a little number called ‘You’re Welcome’. Now I LOVE this song. It’s a perfect replacement for the original song, and it does an amazing job of showing the personalities of Veronica, Kurt, and Ram. I fell in love with Veronica’s new diary entries, and I believe that they did a great job of making it clear that Kurt and Ram are just two dumb white men. This song is the first in the musical that they completely replaced/added and it shows that maybe they should have just replaced the entire musical. The musical style is vastly different than all of the previous songs and, while the original musical is a classic, this song is absolutely amazing.

Never Shut Up Again

UK: 8/10

This is the first song in the musical that is completely new. It’s a glorious number that really truly shows Heather Duke. Now, I don’t particularly love the casting choice for Heather Duke; T’Shan Williams’s voice is not what I imagine for Heather Duke, but I do love the energy she puts into her performance. I love how this song gives Heather Duke a small spotlight for a moment and really puts a light on her opinions about her friendship dynamic. I also love how in this song we also get to see Veronica’s slow descent from her short moment of fame. Another thing that I noticed is that the style of this song is very similar to that of ‘You’re Welcome’, which just further proves my point about maybe just completely re-writing the musical. The style is similar to that of another West End musical ‘Six’, which I’m not complaining about, given how good that musical is.

Our Love is God

OOBC: 9/10

UK: 7.5/10

How much do I have to say this? I DO NOT LIKE JAMIE MUSCATO. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he’s a great guy, but I cannot stand his performance as JD. He tries his best, he really does, but Ryan McCartan is just 100 times better. The original song leaves you with a feeling of, ‘oh shit, what’s gonna happen next?’, but this version just kinda makes you think ’huh, cool’. It’s not completely terrible, but I just wish it were a little bit better.

My Dead Gay Son

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 9.5/10

This song is actually surprisingly really good. It just feels kind of awkward in some parts, but it’s pretty dang good compared to the original, despite the massive lyric change.

Seventeen

OOBC: 9/10

UK: 9.15/10

Yup, you read that right. I actually think this one is better than the original. Even though I absolutely adore Barrett Wilbert Weed and think that she is still the best Veronica of all time, Carrie Hope Fletcher makes this song just slightly better than the original. The passion and energy she throws into her performance makes Muscato’s performance bearable and is even better than the original. I don’t particularly love this song, given how boring it is in some ways, but this song made me truly believe in Veronica’s view on everything that had been going on. Carrie made me want to just help these poor teenagers and take them out of this terrible situation before it gets worse. Now, if Ryan McCartan were in this instead, I might consider making the rating a 10 (MIGHT).

Shine a Light

OOBC: 8/10

UK: 6.5/10

I don’t really like this song in the first place. It’s kind of awkward and makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. However, this does not mean that I don’t have some small part of my heart saved for this song. The West End took this song, completely ruined the arrangement, and added an actor who does a slightly okay job at playing an awkward high school teacher. This song kinda made me hate this song more than I already did.

Lifeboat

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 2/10

I had to listen to this song on repeat for like 10 minutes and I honestly don’t feel that great about that. I LOVE the original of this song; it shows that not all of the Heathers were completely terrible, and it’s absolutely beautiful in the long-run. I could listen to the original for hours, but I could barely listen to this song once. Sophie Isaacs’ rendition of Heather McNamara is really bad, and I’ll talk about that later, but I just really hate how she did this song. Heather McNamara is supposed to be the quiet, unsuspecting one, but Sophie Isaacs tries to make a big show of this character’s personality. I loved how in the original song, you could feel just how lonely Heather M felt, and in this version, felt none of that.

Shine a Light (Reprise)

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 5/10

I absolutely LOVE the original. It’s perfect in showing just how far Heather Duke has gone, and while this song does certainly show that, I just do not like this rendition at all. There’s something OFF about it that I don’t really like, and I really wish that they didn’t ruin this song. I mean, how do you ruin a 40 SECOND song?

I Say No

UK: 10/10

I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG!!!! I’ve been listening to this song ever since they released the single weeks ago, and it’s absolutely perfect. I love how it shows Veronica’s personality, it gives her a voice, and it is just a REALLY good song. I love Carrie Hope Fletcher’s voice. I love the beat. I love the lyrics. Everything about this song is perfect for the story being told in this musical. I could listen to this for forever, and that’s not an exaggeration. This is yet another song that was added to the musical and is somehow perfect in every aspect.

Kindergarten Boyfriend

OOBC: 8.5/10

UK: 8.5/10

Frankly, I don’t really love the original version of this song. I don’t really have anything against it, it’s just kind of boring. Jenny O’Leary does a really good job at mimicking the original song, while also making it her own. The arrangement for the music is a great tribute to the original as well. To me, it doesn’t really seem all that different from the original.

Yo Girl

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 7.5/10

WHY??? WHY DID THEY REPLACE ‘MISERABLY’?? What was the point of that??? The original line is pretty freaking iconic and does an amazing job at lowering Heather Duke’s voice and staying within the original language. That lyric replacement was so random. The song overall feels kind of like a joke compared to the original. Even though it still gives the same feel as the original, I believe that the original feels a little creepier. It isn’t a great rendition, and honestly, the original is MUCH better.

Meant to be Yours

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 5.5/10

Have I mentioned how much I hate the UK’s JD??? This was actually my favorite song when I was listening to the original cast recording, and this version is just so bad in comparison. Muscato is really trying to seem creepy, but it feels really forced. If anyone in this goddamn song could act for two seconds, then maybe I would take it a bit more seriously, but it’s so bad.

Dead Girl Walking (Reprise)

OOBC: 10/10

UK: 7/10

What the heck, Carrie? I had so much trust in you! I’m sure a lot of other people feel this way, but the original version of this song is amazing. It does a great job at conveying just how frantic and vital Veronica’s actions are. I love Barrett’s original performance, and I also really love Carrie’s previous performances, but this is not her best. At all. I’m not even completely sure what’s wrong with it. It’s almost if the entire song is flat.

I Am Damaged

OOBC: 9/10

UK: 8/10

I’m really confused about all of the lyric changes in this song?? None of them make any sense whatsoever. The song isn’t all that much different than the original other than the fact that I still hate UK JD.

Seventeen (Reprise)

OOBC: 8.5/10

UK: 8/10

Eh, it’s not that bad. I don’t really like the original in the first place, just because I’m not usually a fan of the final songs in musicals, but the UK version isn’t that different from the original. It was fine, but not really what I expected. It’s a pretty fitting ending for this musical production.

Characters

Alright, so now I’m going to give my opinion on each individual character. This is not necessarily a criticism as much as it is a criticism of the way this production portrayed this character. This is assuming that all of the original characters are a 10/10.

Veronica: 9.5/10

JD: 3.5/10

Heather C: 8/10

Heather D: 7.5/10

Heather M: 5/10

Kurt: 8.5/10

Ram: 8.5/10

Mrs. Sawyer: 6.5/10

Final Verdict

8/10

While I did not really like this production, I did appreciate all of the time and effort they obviously put into its outcome. Just from watching their social media, you can tell that the entire cast does have some kind of chemistry. The new songs may even be better than the originals. This does not, however, excuse the fact that the original is still much better. Nothing can every replace Barrett and Ryan’s chemistry on stage or Jessica, Alice, and Elle’s perfect comedic timing. As much as I’d like to say that this production did a great job at honoring the original, it was in and of itself its own thing. And that’s not really a bad thing. It just gives the production a weird feeling at the end. I enjoyed revisiting this musical and seeing just how much my opinions have changed on some of these subjects. Overall, this entire cast recording is one major bit of nostalgia for the original fans and something to scream over for the newer fans.

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makeste · 5 years

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the good, the bad, and the basement

so @caliginouscarpacian asked me a while back if I could post my thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of the Overhaul/Yakuza/Internship Arc once I finished up. so this is my post about that, now that I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect. I decided to do one of those alternating good/bad list things, so we’ll see how that goes.

this is quite a long post, so it’s under a cut. and just to be clear, this post is chock full of spoilers up through the end of the Internship Arc (chapter 161).

the good: the villains

okay, I’m starting with this one because truthfully, it’s my favorite thing about the whole arc. the League of Villains finally came into their own, and it was everything I could have hoped for. they are competent but not too overpowered. they are smart and willing to be patient and bide their time for the sake of cool plot twists. THERE’S A FUCKING CAR CHASE. there is character development! these guys actually care about each other! holy shit. there’s actual chemistry between them. they trust one another and they trust Tomura, and he shows for the first time that he might just actually be worthy of that trust. unlike some other villains I can name. anyways. these guys are amazing, and if this arc did nothing else, it firmly established them as serious, in-it-for-the-long-haul adversaries who are cool and interesting and can hold their own on-screen and whose lives and relationships I’m actually invested in. and like, they’re still evil. just to be clear. but they’re also cool and compelling and a genuine delight whenever they make an appearance, and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans they get up to next.

the bad: the villains

hahaha. okay, so I’m not even gonna talk about Overhaul yet -- he gets his own little mini-rant all to himself. but let’s talk about the Eight Precepts for a moment. I was so let down by these guys it’s not even funny. YOU ASSHOLES WERE SUPPOSED TO BE COOL. you’re the fucking yakuza for fuck’s sake! but instead they’re just boring. not one of them felt even remotely threatening, and it was just obnoxious to watch the good guys struggling against some of them. none of them had interesting personalities or backstories. a few of them did have interesting quirks (thinking specifically of the Thief quirk and the truth serum confession quirk), but they go to waste since they’re used in decidedly uninteresting ways. (seriously though, that is such a mind-blowing waste of a truth serum quirk that it’s painful to think about. it could have been used for character development, interrogations... any number of plot uses. and what does this asshole do instead? HE TRIES TO MAKE MIRIO SAD. come the fuck on.)

and arguably worse than that is the fact that they all wear the same mask. that was such a bad move on Horikoshi’s part. it means there’s no way for any of them to stand out. if their quirks or personalities weren’t going to cut it, their appearances were the only thing left, and he goes and designs them all to essentially have the same fucking face. why would you do that. as if they didn’t all blend together enough to start with.

and lastly, the blind, ferocious loyalty they all have to Overhaul is completely absurd and makes no fucking sense. like, several of them were literally like, “oh I was treated like shit all my life, and then this guy came along who also treats me like shit, but ~with him I have a place~.” the truth serum guy IIRC liked Overhaul simply because he was honest. at least Chance the Rappa had a decent reason for liking him which was that he was freakishly strong and he just wanted to defeat him. meanwhile his monk friend supposedly doesn’t like violence, and yet here he is loyally serving a man who offs his own subordinates at the drop of a hat, and whose master plan hinges on the perpetual torture of a kindergartner.

just. they all suck so much.

the good: Sir Nighteye

Nighteye had such a great arc. I’m not the biggest fan of how it ended, because that was a perfectly good heart of mine that they ripped out and stomped all over, but aside from that, yeah. he starts out as this cold, disdainful pencil of a man, only for it to gradually be revealed that he’s really just a broken shell of himself, afraid to use his own quirk because he’s scared of whatever horrors he might see that he’ll be helpless to do anything about. he supports Mirio over Deku because he loves Mirio and genuinely thinks he’ll be the better successor, and because he loves All Might, and he’s desperate to stop his premonition from six years ago from actually coming true. it didn’t really surprise me that he became a more likable character in the end, but the degree to which it happened really caught me off guard. I was not expecting to end up loving him so much. and also I just really love the idea of the foresight quirk being as mentally damaging as it turns out to be, because it makes perfect sense, and it’s the perfect way to put such a potentially overpowered quirk in check. just, well done on every aspect of Nighteye’s character and his story arc.

the bad: Overhaul

Overhaul started out with so much potential and it all just went to shit. I’ll start with the good stuff first: his quirk is cool and terrifying, I like his character design, and I like the little touch with him being a germaphobe, even if they didn’t really do much with it in the end.

now the bad. I think my main complaint about Overhaul is that as a rule of thumb, I think that good villains should be written as though they genuinely believe they’re the heroes of their own story. this goes for all types of villains. even sociopaths take pride in being smart enough to take advantage of what they view as the stupidity and weakness of others. meanwhile, righteous villains justify their heinous acts as being for the sake of the greater good. and those villains who are in-between may feel some guilt about some of the things they’ve done, but they justify those acts as being something they had to do, or something the victim deserved, or something they themselves deserved after all of their own pain and suffering. (Tomura is a good example of this type of villain.) then you’ve got anarchist villains who are just in it for the lulz and figure there’s no real purpose to life, so they might as well enjoy themselves. all of these are valid villain personalities and motivations.

the problem with Overhaul is that he acts like a sociopath, and yet supposedly he’s doing all of this in order to somehow pay back his boss for his kindness. and that just doesn’t track. he has not demonstrated himself to be even remotely capable of empathy, so that level of loyalty from him feels forced and entirely unbelievable. I would have much preferred if instead he’d just gone full sociopath. maybe even have it turn out that he was making a power play all along and that he in fact was the one who caused the previous boss’s medical issues in order to seize power. that would have at least made sense with his level of evilness. but instead we have a guy who does shit without remorse that no one with even the barest hint of a functional empathy switch should be able to consider. his boss even tells him on multiple occasions, “hey that’s fucked up, don’t do that.” and he completely fucking ignores him, and we’re supposed to believe that in the end this is his way of trying to show his gratitude? there’s just no internal logic to it at all, and it makes me completely unable to take Overhaul seriously as a character, and so in the end he’s just annoying.

the good: Kirishima

Kirishima is definitely a highlight of this arc. having sneaked up on everyone to become the surprise 5th most popular character, I guess Horikoshi took that as a sign that it was time to give him more development. and it’s such good development. it’s so unexpected to see middle school Kirishima -- brave, sturdy, loyal-to-a-fault Kirishima -- freezing up in the face of danger and panicking and not being able to do anything when others are in peril. and then we learn that he actually has massive self-esteem issues and has no real confidence in his own “boring” quirk, and despite his dream, he finds it difficult to see himself as worthy of being a hero. and yet he managed to overcome that and become the Kirishima we know today, who’s determined to become the manly hero he’s always wanted to be, even if he has to fake it till he makes it. it’s just good stuff, and it was great to see him get the spotlight.

the bad: Kirishima

lol. but having said that, I’m going to be real here: as much as I love him, there’s just no denying the fact that Kiri, when you get down to it, Only Does One Thing. he makes his body harder. that’s it. yes, it’s a very strong and powerful quirk, and he’s absolutely worthy of being in U.A. and will make a great hero one day for sure. but that said, one-on-one Kirishima fights are just not that interesting to watch. Horikoshi has yet to find a way to mix things up and do anything remotely surprising with his quirk. Kiri just makes himself as hard as possible and tries to hold out against whoever he’s fighting until he can either knock them out, or they tire themselves out, or he gets backup, or he loses. so I’ll go ahead and say this here: there was absolutely no fucking reason to give him two multi-chapter fights in this arc. it makes no sense. just combine the two. or at the very least shorten one of them if you absolutely must have him fight twice for whatever reason. but just. I don’t know why we had to sit through so many chapters of him just standing there getting hit by bad guys. jesus christ. and meanwhile neither Ochako or Tsuyu ended up seeing any onscreen action at all, which is fucking ridiculous. they’re both just as deserving of fight time as Kiri is, and Tsuyu in particular has never had her own one-on-one fight and it would have kicked ass. you can’t tell me it wouldn’t have. so yeah. this was definitely a misstep IMO.

the good: the overall dark mood of the arc

this arc was craaaaaaazy dark. like yikes!dark. guns. drugs. the fucking mob. child abuse. depression. anxiety. prophecies of death. lost powers. dead mentors. just, holy shit. it does what it set out to do, which IMO was to introduce the dark side of the hero world, and all the horrors that the job can lead to. this is what you guys are signing up for. this is the reality of what you’ll be facing at times. it’s brutal, but it sure is realistic.

the bad: apparently there is such a thing as too much angst

yeah. who knew? and look, okay, I fucking love angst. love it. but at some point it just gets to be too much. this isn’t fucking Breaking Bad. you’ve gotta throw us a bone here every so often. we need some humor sprinkled here and there, and the occasional moment of triumph and hope. you know it’s bad when somehow we end up having to rely on the villains for both of those things. and yet that’s what happened here, and Toga and Twice basically saved the arc when it was reaching its most frustrating point, and injected some much-needed life back into it.

and speaking of dark, while I was mostly speaking figuratively, I do also mean that quite literally as well. this arc was too dark. lesson learned: never set your 20-chapters-long climax in a fucking basement. chapter after chapter of drab gray settings. no background variation whatsoever. just, god. why would you fucking do that.

the good: girl power

I got so excited when I realized that for the first time ever, the arc was going to feature precisely two female and two male class 1-A students. a fucking 1:1 ratio. 50/50. and this was in addition to Hadou and Ryuukyuu (Ryuukyuu being the very first female top ten ranked hero we’d been introduced to). all in all I was fucking pumped.

the bad: ...but not really

so fucking go figure that right off the bat, they get attacked on the way in and ALL OF THE GIRL CHARACTERS STAY OUTSIDE while the guys go on to continue the arc. except for Bubble, but she gets left behind barely pages later. and then we don’t see any of the ladies again until the very fucking end. fucking travesty tbh.

honestly, none of the girls has really gotten any spotlight action since Ochako fought Bakugou all the way back in the sports festival arc, and it’s getting tired at this point. this is probably one of the reasons why Toga has climbed so high on my favorite character list. because at least we still get to see her fighting, and it’s always entertaining. but I need more ladies kicking ass goddammit.

anyways, this is getting quite long and my will to rant is waning, so I’ll just list the rest of the pros and cons I can think of real quick.

the good: Mirio (such a good boy); the quirk-be-gone and trigger drugs; Eri (who is so sweet and precious and I honestly love her quirk, even if it’s ridiculously overpowered. that’s why they gave it to a six-year-old lol. I don’t think we have to worry about it becoming too broken for a long time); the prophecy and all related angst; and of course, that ending which ripped my heart out and also made me cheer so hard when Overhaul got his comeuppance.

the bad: the basement (yes, I mentioned it before, but honestly it deserves another mention); Overhaul’s lack of an actual master plan (such a letdown, smdh); lack of all of our other faves for like 30 chapters. Bakugou. Todoroki. Momo. Kaminari. Mina. Iida. Sero. god but I missed them so, so much.

final verdict: all in all, this was an excellent arc for world-building, and it set up a few things which I think will have a lasting impact on the story (Nighteye’s premonition; Eri; the whole concept of internships; and last but not least Tomura getting hold of the quirk-erasing drug). it also gave us some decent character development on the heroes’ side, and some frankly excellent character development for nearly every last member of the League of Villains. I am very appreciative of that last in particular, and if I ever go back to reread any parts of the arc once I’m done with the recaps, it will probably be those chapters.

having said that, this arc marked the first time that the series, to me, has ever felt dragged-out and dull, and for multiple chapters in a row at that. I was seriously getting concerned at some points, because it felt nothing at all like the fast-paced series I’d grown accustomed to for the first 120 chapters, with most arcs being resolved in a dozen chapters or less, and moving right along to the next arc. I hate the feeling of having to force myself to read something, and that was the case for quite a few chapters in this arc, which sucks. and there was no reason for it, really. it was just bad writing.

probably the best example of this is coming up in just a few chapters in the recaps. I am referring to chapter 138, which is probably my least favorite chapter in the series to date. this chapter begins with the heroes gathered outside of Overhaul’s house getting ready to enter. it ends with the heroes still outside the fucking house, still having not entered. they literally spend an entire chapter, 19 full pages, trying to go inside a house. the pacing is abysmal. hardly anything interesting happens aside from that really big guy busting through the front gate, and Ryuukyuu turning into her dragon form to stop him. that’s basically it. it’s just boring as fuck. this chapter basically sums up all of the problems I have with this arc in one go.

was it an important arc for the story? yes. would I read it again? probably not, LoV antics aside. basically those are my feelings in a nutshell.

anyways, I’m curious what everyone else’s thoughts are on this arc if anyone else feels like sharing! now that I’m finished with it, it’s a lot more fun to talk about. some things are just more enjoyable in hindsight, when you have finally moved on past them and can joke about them from a safe distance lol.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #overhaul (bnha)#kirishima eijirou #sir nighteye #shigaraki tomura #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #essay #bnha essay #how many pages does it take to enter a building #the answer may surprise you #bnha meta

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niennavalier · 5 years

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Okay I wasn’t planning on doing a DS9 rant post but here it is, under the cut in case I get annoying about DS9 and romance and Julian in particular

Okay, so I swear, the writers went into the show with this idea that Julian Bashir was gonna be this fresh-out-of-med-school brilliant, attractive doctor with charm to spare and something like this ladies’ man kinda attitude. Maybe (hopefully) not that sleazy, but still. And then it didn’t really work in season 1 in regards to Jadzia, so they dropped that storyline (thank fuck).

But then it’s so weird when I think they’re trying to kinda keep it alive through the show, except it literally never really works quite right? Even though the DS9 writers are legitimately good with writing the other romances on the show?? Kira and Odo? Absolutely adorable, I would die for them. Jadzia and Worf? Who would’ve that that’d work? Not me! But I’d die for them too!

(Yes, all of these characters have other romantic interests at times, some good - like Lenara Kahn - and others less so - Bareil is really boring and Lwaxana Troi DID NOT need to be there - but they also get these fantastic long-term stories)

Meanwhile, for my favorite doctor? I might be missing some but here’s what I could think of whilst typing: Melora was...sorta forgettable (I forgot about the episode until I was just scrolling through all of them). Technically fine but...forgettable. Leeta...honestly I never understood this pairing. I legitimately don’t remember ever seeing them get together on screen; best I recall, they were just together one day and we were supposed to just accept it. Which...whatever, I’m not a fan, and this pairing did nothing for either of them. Serena, I actually liked; they were cute together in that one episode, but at the same time I’m torn because I truly believe the writers made the right choice in that she had to experience the world for herself. For all the cuteness, I much prefer her discovering her own self-worth and think that’s better for her as her own character.

And then. There’s Dax. The first couple seasons? Awkward as fuck. No thanks. But then him and Jadzia become like, best science buddies! And he painfully third-wheels for her date with Lenara in Rejoined! And it’s like “wow now that’s true friendship right there”. And I loved that relationship so much! We watched Julian grow up a lot since the pilot, and honestly, him becoming best friends with Jadzia matched that change really well. Going from this kinda juvenile crush and strange persistence to a much more mature friendship. I mean, there’s one episode (which I can’t place at the moment) where there’s some crisis on the station and they’re hiding somewhere, she’s hurt, and they’re both freezing. And he’s holding her, and she makes some comment on how past-him would’ve used this as an opportunity to try and spark something between them. But present-him isn’t like that anymore, and watching as the audience, there truly isn’t weird romantic tension between them. It’s intimacy and familiarity and comfort without the weight of romance. And it’s perfect.

But then all of a sudden, the back half of season 6 starts happening, and apparently he’s always loved her? And it’s like...where did this come from?? You were doing so well, writers, what happened?? It just...suddenly brought back all the awkwardness of season 1, except at least this time, he’s not acting on it. So instead it’s just weirdly angsty and 100% out of left field. (Also Quark loves her, which is random but less concerning to me cause at least it wasn’t reviving an abandoned plot point, like with Julian) (The Quark point isn’t relevant, but I just felt like saying it)

And that whole thing just put the biggest pit in my stomach, cause I knew about Ezri joining them in season 7 and I was just like “nooo pleeeease don’t get him together with Ezri”

Apparently I just live to be disappointed.

Full disclosure, I actually haven’t fully watched the scene where they get together, but my roommate did end up coming upon a scene of them together in bed, and I’m not that stupid. Bonus: I’m about 6 away from the end, and that in itself is kinda concerning, because now I’m double concerned that it’s gonna be rushed even worse than I thought it would. Because, as of now, she has had barely any contact with Julian, outside of just being part of the senior staff (aka being a main character). I can honestly only actively remember them having one conversation, which just existed for her to say that if Worf hadn’t shown up, then Jadzia would’ve chosen Julian. Which...okay...what now? Worf didn’t show up until season 5, wtf is this about? If Jadzia was actually in love with Julian, she would’ve done something about it. Jadzia Dax is NOT passive about what she wants, and it’s what makes her such a joy to watch. She’s even willing to act against her own culture out of her love for Lenara, despite hesitation because yeah, that’s a lot of risk. She’s willing to leave her friends to be with the dude she met in that weird world that blipped between universes. She acts with her heart and without fear, even in situations where there are barriers stopping her from doing what she wants. There was never such a barrier with her and Julian, so yeah, no, if she’d wanted him - truly wanted him - she would’ve gone for it.

The scene only exists for them to try and justify putting him together with Ezri, and it SUCKS on every conceivable level.

(Also yes, I know they have some other, normal conversations, but they’re never particularly interesting or impactful, so I don’t remember them, and that probably says something in and of itself)

For one, their lack of conversation and just...general shared screentime is so small that I can’t buy the idea that the two of them actually know each other that well. Even if they did bond off-screen, thus far, the show itself never actually gives any evidence of that while they ARE on screen. They have the same level of chemistry that Julian and Kira should have (although, strangely, the characters have much better chemistry than their screentime would seem to indicate but...well they were married IRL so...yeah). Friendly colleagues, but that’s really it. And yet, he’s gonna fall in love with her?

I don’t think so.

He’s in love with Jadzia (apparently. but that’s a different complaint, seen above). He’s in love with a past life of the Dax symbiont. That past life just happens to be contained now within Ezri, and it’s the only conceivable reason I have for why he’s interested in her at all. Realistically, had Ezri Tegan never become Ezri Dax, I doubt Julian would’ve had the same thoughts about her. Granted, people can meet by circumstance and fall in love - I’m not shitting on that idea - and I’m not implying that Julian is a dick by any means, but the show itself doesn’t give us any reason that he would fall for her. Like...what traits of Ezri does Julian find himself attracted to, aside from the fact she was once Jadzia? I don’t think the show ever actually gives any answer to that question. She may carry some shades of Jadzia’s habits and idiosyncrasies and such, because that’s how joined Trill work, but she’s also very much still Ezri. And, for the sake of her character, that should be really important? So, frankly, it’s actually just...really insulting to Ezri? That she’s not loved for who she is, but who the Dax host was. And that’s honestly just awful.

And I actually just thought of this while writing this post and complaining about that one conversation, but it also sucks for Julian a bit, too? Like, the way Ezri phrases that one line - “If Worf hadn’t come along, it would’ve been you” - it feels to me like he was very much the second choice. And...would that not feel awful to be told that? Basically that you were someone else’s back-up plan. I mean, I can’t speak from experience, but I can’t imagine that feels good. And plus, now he knows that Jadzia apparently had those feelings for him, which Ezri now carries with her. Which...wouldn’t something about that just feel wrong? These aren’t Ezri’s feelings exactly; she’s just stuck with them. And Julian is fundamentally a good person who has some idea of how the Trill work; wouldn’t this be a little like he’s...not quite using her, but allowing her to act on feelings that aren’t actually, truly hers? So the situation ends up being that she might not really love him, not as Ezri, and that would really suck for both of them.

Granted, that’s not to say she couldn’t decide that on her own; she totally could, but the show hasn’t laid the groundwork for that. And it’s also not to discredit feelings that linger from past hosts. Jadzia and Lenara are drawn to each other because of Torias and Neilani, but they also do legitimately fall in love with the people they are now and bond over their shared interests in their present forms. Honestly, the show even makes this distinction? When Ezri and Worf are stuck together, they definitely sleep together, but the show makes it fairly clear that it’s pent up tension from the two of them not talking, combined with the fact he and Jadzia were newly married. I’m pretty sure they decide it’s not really something to pursue; it was just what happened out of old instincts, not out of actual love between the two people actually involved.

Mostly, I take issue because of the first sentence of that last paragraph. The show just never sets it up. If it showed her and Julian having chemistry, I’d have far fewer complaints about this. (For fuck’s sake, I think she had a deeper conversation with JORAN. THE MURDERER. Than she really did with Julian. Now that’s a problem)

Long story short: they really shouldn’t have kept trying to shoe-horn romance in for Julian. All of his stories work better without, particularly in the long-term. The chemistry is just...never there with his long-term potential partners the writers throw at him. He really does have the best chemistry with Miles and Garak. That’s all fantastic.

(Which is to also say: I get that it was the 90s but I really wish we could’ve gotten our disaster bi doctor and his lizard spy boyfriend. Just saying)

#from the mind of niennavalier #ds9 #did this turn into a long way to justify julian and garak?#a little #but im also annoyed #oh and to clarify #i dont speak from experience comes from the fact im very much not in a relationship #and never have been #just wanted to make sure im not coming off like im so perfect or something #im not #im the biggest dumbass i know and its fun #oh also i just thought of this but dont wanna reformat my rant #but the scene where ezris like #oh my god im in love with julian #and its such a surprise to her #its like #same #im also surprised #where is this coming from #tbh id think it was ironic if not for the fact she and julian are apparently gonna sleep together #also fun fact #my brother wanted to start a podcast of the two of us talking about random shit #with side series we do separated about whatever we want #he wants to do cars #and im like what do i do?#tv reactions??#and decided maybe i will #record my reaction to the two of them together #which will probably just be eternal screaming #but still

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green-eyeddragonfanfiction · 6 years

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Winter’s War: Chapter 1

Summary: You’re best friends with Peggy Carter. You met her shortly after she arrived in the states and, through her, you met Howard Stark. You were already gifted when it came to technology, but working with Stark was a dream come true (if you could deal with mountains of sarcasm). You simply want to make it through the blasted war, but fate (and a ragtag group of idiot soldiers) seems to want to make that as difficult as possible for you. No, the Howling Commandos don’t make your life easy… especially not that reckless Sergeant Bucky Barnes.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader (eventually)

Warnings: language, death, blood, violence

Word Count: ~3,468

A/N: Sorry, no Bucky yet. I wanted to focus on your relationship with the other characters first. He’ll show up soon, I promise.

Masterlist // Next Chapter

Camp Lehigh. Wheaton, New Jersey 1941

“Peggy!” you yelled, making a beeline for the military jeep, the mud from the recent rainstorms splashing everywhere as you went. You cringed as the freezing stuff made its way into your boots, a noise of disgust leaving your lips.

To your relief, the Jeep screeched to a halt and Peggy turned to look at you, surprised.

“(Y/N)! Done with Stark already?” she asked, smirking knowingly at you once you were within earshot.

You groaned and hopped into the back seat, not bothering to open the door. You gave the soldier driving it a courteous nod. “If the man wasn’t such a genius I’d sock him in his stupid face,” you said bitterly. The Jeep lurched forward, towards the center of the military base.

“I’ll trade you. You can go into the meetings with Colonel Phillips instead,” she said, grinning over her shoulder at you.

“Oh, pass. He always yells at me when I fall asleep in the middle of his briefings,” you said, grimacing at the thought.

“He does tend to drone, doesn’t he?” Peggy asked over the roar of the engine, a wide smile on her face.

You nodded, eyes rolling dangerously far back in your head. “And we both know you would actually punch Stark if you had to be around him as much as I do,” you said, leaning forward to rest your arms on the back of her seat.

“If he asks me out for fondue one more time I just might,” she said darkly.

You laughed at that. “He asked you out again?” you asked incredulously. That must be the... sixth time? This week?

She nodded solemnly. “Could be worse, though. It could be Colonel Phillips asking me out,” she said, throwing you a conspiratory wink as the Jeep came to a halt. You hopped out a half second later, wincing at the feeling of the mud in your boots.

“What do we have lined up today, boss?” you asked, falling into step beside her.

“I told you not to call me that,” she said, rolling her eyes at you as she pulled out her notebook.

She was your boss on paper only. In reality, the two of you were best friends but her claiming that you were her invaluable assistant was the only way she could get you onto the base. She knew your value; you were smart enough to keep up with Stark, after all, and whenever she trained with you, you picked up any techniques quickly.

But Peggy could have passed all of those things up because the one that mattered was that you were a good person. You cared about people. You were fierce and loyal and, like Peggy, you didn’t back down just because you were a woman. You knew your value and fought hard to make others acknowledge it.

It was why Peggy considered you to be her best friend.

“I don’t know, I kind of like it. Gives you an authoritative air, don’tcha think?” you said, giving her a lopsided grin.

Peggy ignored your comments with a huff, quickly reading over her schedule for the day.

“New batch of recruits. Seems I’ve been assigned to look them over. Care to join me?” she asked, raising a meticulously manicured eyebrow at you.

“Depends. You been told off for punching the cheeky ones yet?” you asked, sly grin on your face.

“No, it seems Colonel Phillips actually likes it when I do that,” she said, chuckling softly.

“The looks on their face are priceless,” you agreed, feeling a small surge of respect for the Colonel.

“He seemed quite adamant about today’s recruits. Something must have-”

Peggy’s voice died in her throat as the two of you rounded the corner. Although there was the usual cluster of cavemen-esque men, one of them stood out from the others... by being over a head shorter and about half the weight.

The two of you glanced at each other, confusion clear in your face. “Abraham told me that he was bringing in a recruit, but... I didn’t expect this,” you whispered as you and Peggy approached the group of recruits, most of whom were generally being loud nuisances.

“Well, let’s not be too hasty in our judgement,” Peggy said, eyes scanning the group critically. “Recruits! Attention!” she yelled at them. You grabbed the box of clipboards from the soldier that had arrived to assist Peggy, waving him off dismissively when he protested. You wanted a front row seat to this one.

Although the men snapped to attention instantly, they immediately began studying Peggy. You handed out the clipboards and forms to the recruits as you passed, barely sparing each one a glance.

“Gentleman, I’m Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division,” she said formally. You passed the little guy, taking note of his slender frame that was even smaller up close; surely you were just as tall as him. You gave him a small smile as you handed him the clipboard which he returned shyly. Man, those were some blue eyes.

“What’s with the accent, Queen Victoria?”

Peggy stopped walking down the line and turned to face the recruit who’d spoken out. If he was smart he’d just shut up, but-

“I thought I was signing up for the U.S. Army,” he said, smirking down his nose at her. Your blood boiled, but you knew that steely glint in her eyes all too well.

“What’s your name, Soldier?” she asked, taking a small step towards him.

“Gilmore Hodge, your majesty,” he said snidely, his New York accent clear. You were wearing a shit-eating grin that the little guy noticed, blue eyes flicking between you, Peggy, and Private Hodge in curiosity.

“Step forward, Hodge,” Peggy ordered, surprisingly calm. You relocated the giant box of clipboards to your hip, grin not faltering for a moment. Hodge smirked, glancing back at the other recruits, and stepped forward, a swagger in his step.

“Put your right foot forward,” Peggy said, tone neutral.

He did as she asked, but a sleazy grin on his face told you this wasn’t over yet. “Ooh, we gonna wrassle?” he asked, grinning salaciously at Peggy. “’Cause I got a few moves I know you’ll like,” he said, tone leaving little room for interpretation of his meaning.

You had to fight back a laugh. Oh, he’d just made a huge mistake.

In the blink of an eye, Peggy threw her arm back and let her fist fly, connecting to Private Hodge’s face with the most satisfying smack you’d ever heard. Hodge let out a pathetic grunt and fell to the ground immediately, clutching at his face.

Peggy stared down at him as though he was a particularly annoying gnat and you let out a quiet chuckle. You noticed the little guy was also holding back a laugh, broad grin on his face. You continued handing out clipboards, throwing Hodge’s on top of his writhing form as you passed.

“Agent Carter!” came a gruff voice from behind Peggy. Colonel Phillips exited the Jeep and walked over to the line of recruits.

“Colonel Phillips!” Peggy said somewhat stiffly, turning to face the Colonel.

“I see you’re breaking in the new candidates! That’s good,” he said, with what was as close to happiness as you thought he was capable of. He turned his eyes on Hodge, who was still lying on the ground. You handed a clipboard to the last recruit and returned the box to the nearby truck, not missing the Colonel’s next words. “Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand on that line at attention ‘till somebody comes and tells you what to do,” he said darkly, glaring at Hodge.

“Yes, sir!” Hodge said, sniffing as he practically jumped up. You were happy to see a little bit of blood trickling down from his nose. You weren’t sure if it was Peggy’s punch or the fact that it was a grizzled-looking old white man in front of him, but Hodge suddenly seemed very respectful. You hoped it was the former.

Unsurprisingly, Doctor Abraham Erskine had arrived with the Colonel, although you hadn’t seen him at first. It made sense that he’d arrived to assess his candidates in person. You sidled up next to him and he glanced at you, reading your confused expression in an instant. He leaned down to whisper in your ear, thick German accent coloring his words. “I will tell you more about it later. Just trust me and keep an eye on him for now, yes?” he asked, gaze beseeching.

You let out a long sigh and nodded. “Whatever you say, Doc,” you muttered resignedly. You barely understood Abraham’s serum; biology wasn’t your specialty, much less the advanced organic chemistry he knew. You resolved to do something even you could do: observe all the candidates with a scientist’s scrupulous eye while they went through training.

No matter what Peggy said, Private Rogers was everything you thought he’d be (at least physically). As much as you hated some of the other men in the group of recruits, they easily outpaced and outlasted Steve at every turn.

You felt more than saw Erskine appear next to you. “Are you going to explain why you brought him onto this base?” you asked as you watched Steve fail miserably at climbing a rope ladder.

“Because he is the clear choice,” Abraham said confidently. You looked from Steve, who’d just managed to untangle himself, to the German scientist in disbelief.

“Abe, I know he’s a good kid, but-”

He laughed at that. “Good kid? He’s only a couple years younger than you,” he said, smiling.

You frowned at that. He was so small you sometimes forgot he was an adult. You turned your scowl on him. “Doesn’t mean there aren’t other candidates who are more physically suitable and also happen to be good men. I know Phillips has his eye on Hodge, but he’s an ass, so he’s out of the running” you said bitterly.

Erskine laughed in earnest at that. “You always have quite the mouth! You’re not wrong, though. There are undoubtedly other good men here,” he said, smiling down at you.

“Then why...?” you asked, gesturing vaguely at Rogers, who was struggling in the mud under some barbed wire. One of the other recruits, presumably Hodge, had knocked one of the posts out, pinning him in the mud.

“We have enough big, strong men fighting this war. I think what we need now is a little guy,” Abraham said, smiling at Steve who seemed to be refusing to give up.

You sighed and ran a hand through your hair. “He’s tenacious, I’ll give him that much,” you said, crossing your arms as you watched his dogged progress.

“He is a good man. He is the only option,” Abraham said firmly.

You rolled your eyes. “You’ve already made up your mind, eh?” you asked, turning your head to look up at him, resignation on your face.

He looked down at you, his smile almost blinding. “But of course!”

You groaned, wiping a hand down your face. “Fine. I have to go see Stark. He’s been yelling about a breakthrough all morning. I’ve already had at least two poor privates deliver me very urgent, harried messages from him. If I keep him waiting any longer he’ll be insufferable,” you said, shoving your notebook full of observations into his hands. He flipped through it as you walked away, smile growing as he read your report.

“I’m glad you agree with me!” he said cheerfully. You didn’t bother to turn around and simply rolled your eyes at him as you headed toward’s Stark’s lab.

“(Y/N)! Where have you been? I’ve been asking after you all morning!” Howard said the moment you stepped into his makeshift lab. He popped out from under the hood of the ghastly red monstrosity he called a car, grease on nearly every inch of his body. He looked oddly bug-like with his protective goggles on.

“I was performing observations for Doctor Erskine. You know that, Howard,” you said, patience already wearing thin.

“Oh, right. I forgot he asked you to help out with that!” Howard said as he pulled his goggles onto his forehead. “Now, I’ve gotten really close to perfecting the reversion technology-”

“Howard, we’re less than a week away from Project Rebirth, and you’re messin’ with your car?” you asked, upset yet not surprised.

“Wait, that’s this week?” he asked, eyes wide.

“Yes, Howard! Five days from now, in fact!” you said, throwing your hands up in defeat. How did this man ever get anything done on time?

He looked stricken and your hands flew to your temples, trying to massage away the oncoming headache.

“Please tell me you at least worked out the balance issues in the pod?” you asked, glaring up at him through your eyelashes.

When he didn’t meet your eye and began stuttering out excuses, you let out a deep sigh.

“What about the microinjection apparatus? Did you finish calibrating it?” you asked, tone tight.

“Well, I, uh-”

“The Vita-Ray machine? Have you started implementing the fail-safes?”

“You see, I-”

“Howard Stark!” you yelled, causing a few of the lab techs to freeze and look at the scene in front of them, eyes wide with apprehension. “If you don’t start working on that technology immediately, I swear I’ll take a wrench to every inch of that damned car!” you threatened, eyes wide in anger.

Howard gulped, looking taken aback. You were usually pretty quiet, albeit stubborn. This was a new side he hadn’t seen yet.

“We’re going to New York. We don’t have time to go back and forth between sites anymore,” you said angrily. “Pack anything you might need. We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

“You can’t tell me-”

“Howard, we’re behind! Do you want to be the one to tell Phillips we can’t do the experiment on time?” you asked, crossing your arms as you glared at him.

Stark groaned, running a hand over his face. “Alright, alright... You win. We’ll go to New York tomorrow. But... before that, can you help me-”

“If you ask me to help you work on that infernal car I swear I’ll show you firsthand the techniques Peggy’s been teaching me,” you said darkly.

Stark gulped, choosing to not talk anymore, and hurriedly began gathering his things up.

You sighed, tension leaving your body. You hated getting angry like that, but you refused to let this project go sideways. You had just as much invested in it as Stark and Erskine.

You turned and left Stark’s lab. You had to let Erskine and Peggy know what was going on... and probably let Colonel Phillips know that you and Stark were leaving the base for New York early (though you’d leave out why).

SSR Base. New York, New York 1941

“(Y/N)!” came a voice from behind you.

You spun, white lab coat billowing around you. “Peggy!” you said excitedly, throwing your arms around her. “Glad you made it safely!” you said, giving her a gentle squeeze which she returned. She released you, giving you a questioning look. “Just feeling a bit nervous is all, I suppose,” you explained, ducking your head a little bit in embarrassment.

You noticed the tuft of blond hair behind her and leaned to peek over her shoulder. Sure enough, Steve Rogers stood behind her, looking confused but determined.

“Private Rogers,” you greeted warmly, holding a hand out to him.

His blue eyes snapped to you, recognition flashing in them. You didn’t speak to Rogers often, but you were around the candidates enough that he recognized you easily. “Ma’am,” he said formally, taking your hand in his own. You weren’t surprised to find it was clammy; he was probably more nervous than you were.

You dropped each others hands and stood there awkwardly, unsure of how to proceed. Luckily, Peggy came to the rescue.

“This is (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” Peggy said helpfully, smiling at both of you. “You’re lucky she’s here. She’s a tech genius in her own right and has the most difficult task in this endeavor: keeping Mr. Stark on task,” she said, winking at you.

“Hey, credit where credit is due, Pegs. I helped bring half of Stark’s crazy ideas to life, too,” you said, pouting at her.

“A beautiful dame like you helped create all this?” Steve piped up, looking around the room with renewed awe. You raised an eyebrow at him and he seemed to realize he put his foot in his mouth because he froze a second later and began spewing apologies.

“I- I mean. A beautiful woman- Uh, a capable, intelligent woman-”

You laughed at his stuttering. Even Peggy was smiling along, shaking her head slightly. “It’s alright, Rogers. I don’t think you meant anything by it. If you’re ready, you can take off your shirt. Doctor Erskine will be here in a moment,” you said, smiling at him. He’d gone a truly impressive shade of red and seemed reluctant to take his shirt off in front of you and Peggy until Abraham came over and told him to do the same.

“Peggy?” you asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She was staring at Steve worriedly as he laid down on the table in the huge Vita Ray Pod.

“Hmm?” she asked absently, tearing her gaze away from Steve. You filed her curious reaction away for later study, focusing on the task at hand.

“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in the booth?” you asked, throwing her a smirk as you jerked your thumb up at the glass-paneled booth above both of your heads.

“Oh, right! Yes! Of Course!” she said hurriedly, the slightest shade of pink dusting her cheeks.

You watched her quickly climb the stairs, watching her retreating form with interest. You looked over your shoulder at Steve (who just happened to be looking at Peggy), then back at her.

Interesting.

Erskine tapped insistently at the microphone and just like that, the experiment was beginning.

The lab was a wreck. Peggy and Steve were gone, chasing after the man who’d stolen the vial of serum and fled after blowing up half the room and shooting Doctor Erskine.

By the time you’d gotten to him, your mentor and friend was dead, eyes staring at nothing. People around you were battered and bleeding, and everyone was reeling from the blast. You were pretty sure one of your eardrums had been blown out and the other was ringing, letting you hear little to nothing.

You didn’t realize you were crying until your tears dripped onto his labcoat and your hands as they clutched the blood-stained fabric.

You wanted to scream and rage at the world. You wanted to shake him until he woke up, but you knew none of it would be of any use.

Why did he have to die, right when his greatest project succeeded? Where was the justice in that? The answer was that there wasn’t any. You kept crying on the floor of the lab room long after they’d removed Abraham’s body.

It was only once Stark placed a hand gently on your shoulder then picked you up bridal style that you realized how much time had passed.

“Come on, sweetheart. I miss the Doctor too, but we have some important information to decipher and even more important decisions to make,” Howard said, sadly, carrying you towards the meeting room that was a few doors down.

“You should let her be, Howard. You don’t know much he meant to her,” came a soft, chastising voice next to you. You tilted your head back to look at Peggy, who was looking at you sadly.

“You’re back,” you murmured, the corner of your lips twitching upwards. The small smile slipped off of your face, though, when you noticed she was a little banged up. “What happened?” you asked concern lacing your voice.

Peggy gave you a sad smile. “I’ll tell you later, love, after you’ve-”

“No, I want to hear what happened now,” you said, voice making you sound stronger than you felt.

Peggy sighed, glancing up at Howard, who shrugged minutely, jostling you slightly in his arms.

“Put me down, please, Howard. I can stand,” you said quietly, willing yourself to be brave.

He seemed reluctant, but did as you asked, hands hovering next to your arms to catch you if your legs gave out.

“Steve’s about to give his report of what happened. We should grab some seats before it starts,” Peggy said, holding her hand out for you to take. You did, welcoming its comfort.

Howard opened the door to the room and you took a deep, calming breath. You would find out who killed your mentor and why... and you would make them pay.

Next Chapter

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If you’d like to be tagged in this series, like this post!

Marvel Taglist: @feelmyroarrrr @in-winchester-we-trust @breezy1415 @thewonderfulworldofafangirl @starkspangledbarnes @aligatorinavest @acacheofstrange @stilliwait @drakkatz @weenie-butt @badassbaker @4theluvofall @dani-si @lostinspace33 @aberrant-annie @lostinthoughtsandfeelings @geeksareunique @ldyhawkeye @riviewolf @smollyssa @kelly96q @fatalcrossbow @ipaintmelodies @1-fighting-dreamer @verdonafrost @ek823 @sammyissassy @lovingcoldheart @wildefire @lordsexmachine

Bucky x Reader Taglist: @the-observant-fangirl @missrufflewaffles @epicbooklove @lucyvaughan-omg- @siriusleeblack22 @sophs-the-name @38leticia @timeladylaurel @kytty27 @santa-crew @nontimebomaladeusmeus @dragia @mlb4evah @hello-sweetie-get-the-salt @creideamhgradochas @slender--spirit

Winter’s War Taglist: @littlemessyjessi @chook007 @titty-teetee @mavelfanatic

#bucky barnes x reader #peggy carter #howard stark #marvel fanfiction #steve rogers #abraham erskine #colonel phillips

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wordsinwinters · 7 years

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Then Again, P3 Peter Parker x Reader

Author’s Note: Thank you again to everyone who liked Part 1 and Part 2! Each notification I get makes me embarrassingly happy - it really means a lot. I appreciate your notes more than I can say! (and if you want to leave a review, that’s super appreciated as well!)

About the story: I am so excited for the next chapter update! It’s awful writing Peter being as rude as he seems during this section, but upcoming chapters will fluctuate between his P.O.V. and the reader’s. Hopefully, that’ll clear things up and he'll seem more in character. I really love writing his chapters, they’re my favorites.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11

Anyway, here we go!

Then Again, Part 3:

(Word count: 1,813)

Aside from Peter’s obtrusive moodiness, the dinner ends up better than I imagined. We try to avoid too much debating - to save our brainpower for the coming tournament... and, though no one says it, to avoid being kicked out of the restaurant because Peter was getting way too loud while arguing with Flash.

Instead, we go a different route. We breathe life back into a handful of school memories, the kind I hope we always remember, even when we’re eighty. A personal favorite of mine is the time the captain of our baseball team misheard “shoe string” as “g-string” during the “Lost and Found” pep assembly game and, without hesitation, reached into his pocket and threw one down to Mr. Harrington (whose face was appropriately horrified). Or, a favorite of everyone’s, the time Abe spilled saline on Flash in Chemistry. Most of us were there when Flash pulled the emergency shower and started stripping in the middle of class because he assumed the liquid was acid and Abe was laughing too hard to tell him otherwise.

“Seriously? That’s so old!” (It was only two months ago.) Flash can’t let that story slip without protesting, yet he has to force his own laughter down. His mouth might be running, but I can tell he’s mostly amused, partly embarrassed. For once, he doesn’t seem like such an asshole. “And you shouldn’t laugh, Y/N, given what you did in first grade!”

I raise an eyebrow.

“Me? What about first grade?” I ask. He raises an eyebrow back to me as I squint, trying to recall. After a long pause, I remember. “Oh.... That about first grade.”

Of course he remembers. My face is changing colors, I know it is.

“Are you blushing?” Ned asks, astonished and intrigued.

I try to stifle the laughter rising in my throat. It bursts out anyway. I really can’t believe I forgot about this. If Flash hadn’t mentioned it, maybe by the grace of God, it would never have crossed my mind again. Damn you, Flash.

Peter shifts in his seat. His arm brushes mine as Flash begins to boast; he pulls it back. It makes me jump, just barely, from the warmth.

“Miss Goodie Goodie Two Shoes dragged me,” Flash says, “an innocent young boy, under the slide - during recess - to kiss me. And boy did she.”

Flash leans back in his chair, arms crossed, with an I won smirk that he directs at me, then Peter.

Screw you, Flash.

“You did not,” Michelle says in disbelief. “You kissed Flash?! And never mentioned it?”

“Hold on!” I say. Side conversations have halted for this piece of old gossip and there is no way Flash gets to bring me that low with something from a decade ago. “Back then, he was little, brainy Genie. And to be fair, he had a gumball machine delivered to my house. Yeah, Flash, don’t think I won’t bring up the fact you liked me, not the other way around. I assumed he was a rich prince and that if I kissed him, he would turn into a frog and I could steal his money from his locker and his desk. It wasn’t like I got naked in front of twenty-eight students and my teacher two months ago!”

“That’s so not how the fairytales go, Y/N,” Ned mutters. “Was your childhood okay?”

“You thought he was a frog?” Peter asks, speaking to me for the first time tonight. He crosses his arms.

“Yes, Peter Parker. I thought I could rob a magic frog prince. It borders on childhood criminal fantasy, but the point is: I was a child. You can’t make fun of me for something I did at six years old.”

“Oh, really? And what does frog taste like?”

His shoulder nudges mine as he leans in close, his eyes flickering to my lips for emphasis. My heartbeat is pulsing at the tips of my ears. I untuck my hair from them in case they turn red. I never thought he would look at me like this. Even if that look is for the wrong reason, it’s like a finger curling around my collar bone building pressure as it pulls downward. My breathing verges on painful.

What was the kiss like?

I pause.

“Dirt,” I say. Make this funny again. “Even as I dragged him to the slide, his hands were stuffing his mouth with dirt.”

Laughter erupts again. Thank God. Soon, Abe is almost in tears over it, clapping Flash on the back as Flash stammers to defend his choice of lunch ten years ago.

Peter goes silent again, eyes on the floor. Against my will, I can picture a tiny Peter Parker sulking inside my brain picking at the loose threads of my mental Perfect Day tapestry. My optimism is coming completely undone. Frustration or anxiety or both are pushing me off of my little “today” high.

We exit the restaurant at 10:27. Goodbyes and “See you in the morning!”’s pass between everyone in a jumble of half-conversations. I eavesdrop on Ned and Betty, both leaning against the window, cloaked in neon red glow with taxi headlights gliding over their kneecaps.

“So lame that Mr. Harrington won’t let us bring non-team members,” Ned’s saying. “He’s always being such a stick in the mud. Somebody should just... I don’t know.” He stumbles for words. “Like, kill him or something.”

Betty lets out an awkward chuckle.

“You know,” he hurries, “as, like, a prank.”

She snorts, covering her mouth as she doubles over.

“Totally. I’ll write the Morning Announcement piece on it and everything. See you in Psych in a few days?”

“Yeah! If I’m not in jail for murder, you know?”

Now they’re both laughing. Little stars of excitement bloom in my chest. I’m so glad Betty came. I’m thinking about all the future excuses I can muster up to force them to work with one another in class. My daydream dissolves as Michelle hip checks me back into the present.

“I hope you’re ready to lose a seventh hour buddy,” she whispers.

“Nah. I’ll stay on that love train as a third wheel. Gotta make sure the conductor doesn’t wreck it.”

“Trains have like, 8 wheels per segment.”

“Per car, you mean.”

“Exactly. I think Ned can handle it.”

“This must be a new record for us derailing a metaphor because I don’t follow the tracks you’re laying down.”

“Those are terrible puns and you know it.”

I shake my head and roll my eyes. The phrase I love my friends should be etched into the bone of each of my ribs. The phrase repeats itself so often in my head I like to visualize it that way.

As Cindy, Abe, Sally, and Betty wave goodbye, I turn to Ned. He’s waving back at them, a grin sprawled across his face. Eventually I catch his eye and smirk.

“You saw what you saw,” he mouths, jerking his head slightly to where Betty had been standing and giving me his best “cool guy” attitude.

Before I can respond, Flash finishes his conversation with Peter (which... though tense, didn’t seem hostile for once), and addresses the remaining four of us.

“You know, I thought this dinner thing was a joke at first, but it was actually... not the worse idea in the history of Midtown Tech. It gets an official Flash rating of Not Totally Lame.”

Michelle raises her eyebrows. Ned and Peter look vaguely annoyed. Personally, I’m not that surprised. (I’m kind of surprised - that he vocalized it.)

“You’re wel-”

“Yeah, dude, well, you were only invited a few hours ago,” Peter says. He scratches the bridge of his nose and rubs his eyebrow before making eye contact with Flash again. “And the rest of us planned this last month. Like, ages ago.”

Everyone freezes.

“Cool,” Flash says. “Bye guys. Fuck you, Penis Parker.”

Peter doesn’t speak a word as we walk back to his and May’s apartment. His behavior is so foreign, so drastically cold even compared to how he’s been all week, that Ned, Michelle, and I keep our mouths shut too. Until we reach the door.

Peter unlocks it and turns around.

“You guys staying here tonight?”

“Yeah,” says Ned with the tone of obviously.

“Do you want us to go home?” I ask.

He looks at the ground as he shrugs. He seems almost as shy as the first time I met him, years ago.

What is going on in Spider Town?

“Just thought you guys might sleep better in beds. I know that couch sucks.”

“The couch is fine,” I say, wondering if he needs the reassurance of us wanting to be there. “MJ is what sucks. She pushed me off in her sleep half a dozen times. This time, she gets to sleep on the edge.”

Michelle nods. “But if you try to spoon me even once, I’m going to roll over and crush you.”

Peter stops listening and pushes the door open.

I fight the urge to kick at his heel while I follow. Peter Parker has always been the sweetest person in this city. Right now, though, he’s genuinely pissing me off. He’s acted worse than Flash has tonight, completely unlike himself. If anything, he’s making Flash look like a better friend.

After faces are washed, teeth brushed, and retainers stuck into place (everyone but Michelle - her teeth are naturally perfect), we turn off the lights and head to our usual sleeping stations. Michelle and I on the couch, Peter and Ned in the bunk beds. I lie on the couch for fifteen minutes, itching my index finger.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. Don’t steal my spot.”

Because of my retainers, it sounds more like, “Don’t thteal my thpot.” I take them out.

Maybe I can end this on a good note.

I stumble in the dark for a few steps until I find the hallway with my hands. I reach Peter’s door and turn the knob. A quiet conversation stops.

“Ned,” I whisper from the doorway. “Before I go to bed, I just need to clarify: if you do murder Mr. Harrington, legally I’ll have to testify against you. And I don’t want to see you behind bars. Try a different way to impress her, maybe?”

“Oh my goddd,” Ned groans. “I.... I still have no idea why I said that.”

I imagine Peter smiling on his bunk. He probably isn’t. If he were in a good mood, he would laugh and ask what we were talking about. If he were in a better mood at all, he would know by now.

“I know,” I say. “Goodnight!”

As I pop back out of the room, I hear Ned’s reply and Peter’s quiet, “Yeah.”

Who says “Yeah” to a “Goodnight”?

Peter Parker, apparently.

Tomorrow, I’m either going to hug him or kill him.

Part 4

Next update: Saturday 7.

Or Friday 6 - whichever day you guys prefer.

I hope you guys enjoyed this! Let me know what you think!

P.S. I apologize for my awful frog jokes in P2 and P3.

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker imagine #spider-man x reader #spider-man x you #spider-man fanfiction #spider-man fanfic #tom holland x reader #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland #tom holland imagine #spiderman homecoming #spider-man homecoming #smh #peter parker #avengers #avengers fanfiction #spider-man #part 3

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authorloremipsum · 7 years

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Burn

A “The Glass Scientists” fanfiction

Characters - Mr. Sinnett, Dr. Jekyll, Sinnett’s landlady, a lot of fire

Words - 4160

Summary - Phantom pains are annoying, flashbacks are even worse, unfortunately they usually come hand in hand. Dangerous science is not without consequence, and Sinnett learned this by trading flesh for clockwork. Trade, might not be the best word though.

TW: lots of fire, a man loses his hand and it’s not described in detail but it hurts him

It’s hard to describe phantom pain to someone who’d never experienced it. For all intents and purposes, it’s as if the limb remains, as if it still exists and can feel the air on its skin. The logical mind protests, insisting desperately that the limb is in fact gone, trying to convince the rest of the body that it’s still gone. Doesn’t make it hurt any less, of course, trying to convince oneself that the burning pain doesn’t exist because it couldn’t.

The conscious mind could argue all day, and the subconscious would ignore.

It typically started in his hand, Sinnett found, like a small ache or a paper cut, which didn’t make much sense because that hand in particular was made of metal panels and ticking clockwork. The feeling would be a little confusing, and he’d ignore it, continuing to work as it slowly spread from the palm into the fingers, growing in intensity by the second. It would become hard to move after too long, as if something had gummed up the clockwork when in truth nothing was preventing it from moving.

Still, he’d try to keep working, ignore it while the tremor in his right hand would begin to act up too. The ache would continue to spread, growing in ferocity and heat, going from putting one’s hand on a hot sidewalk to the mouth of a fireplace, and it still grew. It’d grow and spread up his forearm, which too would become gummed up with the fictional stopping force. It would impossibly hard to work like this, neither grip functioning well enough to hold a pencil or tools, until Sinnett would be forced to abandon the lab and retreat to his room.

Once locked behind the door, he’d disengage the clockwork and pull what was left of his arm out from the clockwork hand. Still the ache would remain, extending from the stump as he hid it under his sleeve and waited for the pain to pass. It was normal, and he’d almost become used to it after almost a year, but there were some days that were worse than other.

And more often than not, it was the worst because someone had done something, whether they realized it or not, particularly Luckett.

As often as the two worked together and as good friends as they were, Luckett somehow consistently managed to forget Sinnett had an issue with large explosions, particularly if he were close to them. Sudden blasts would spook him and it’d be alright, and if he had a warning, he’d be fine. But if some large fire flared up in front of him with a concussive blast, well, it’d be hard to snap him out of the resulting daze.

Though, it wasn’t even an explosion that dazed him once, it was something far simpler.

Something someone had said in passing conversation, something about Luckett and the chemistry lab, “Everything will go up in smoke!” and Sinnett stopped walking.

The words echoed in his ears, tugging him back into memory, quieting the noise of the waking world. The ache began again in his false hand, the ticking of the clockwork mechanisms within ringing with the words in the pyrologist’s mind. “Go up in smoke. Up in smoke.”

That’s what his landlady had said, wasn’t it? She’d bloody smiled when she said it, laughed even, unaware that she’d be going up with it. God she hadn’t even known he was a mad, no, rogue scientist, she’d just thought he had a lot of candles and often used the fireplace, her warning had been after she spotted a burned spot on the floor.

Such a kind woman, she’d fed a stray cat and brought him tea from time to time, thought his candlemaking was absolutely delightful and he’d killed her.

He’d brought the house down on top of them both.

She’d brought him tea that night, noticing him staying up late, and struck up conversation concerning the burn.

“Dropped a match,” he’d lied, holding up his right hand to display how it shook. “It’s bad tonight.”

“You going to be alright Mister Sinnett?” she asked politely, taking his hand and feeling the tremor herself. “You try lighting more matches like this, the floor won’t be the only thing with scorch marks!” She laughed at this, patting his hand in a motherly manner, and he’d laughed as well.

“I do intend to be careful Mrs-” his words became fuzzy, had he forgotten her name? No, no he couldn’t have! He had to remember her, no one else would, her name was- “Mrs. Stacy, and I won’t be up for much later. Just one last thing to finish tonight.”

“That’s good at least. And, say, would you do me a favor and fix that squeaky window tomorrow?” she asked, frowning hopefully. Sinnett grinned and cracked his knuckles, flourishing his hands a little, “I’ll take a look at it, but I’m no carpenter.”

“I don’t need a carpenter, just another set of hands,” Mrs. Stacy said chipperly. She clapped her hands, “Anyhoo, keep it down will you? I’m turning in.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And don’t light any more candles!” she chortled, turning and walking to the door, “With your hand shaking like that, the whole house will go up in smoke!”

“Goodnight Mrs. Stacy,” Sinnett called to her, rolling his eyes.

As soon as the door was shut, he turned back to his desk and shoved aside the stack of books he’d placed there to hide the majority of the metal contraption that took up the deskspace. It had a handle, a tank, a nozzle, and a box on the end of it. The box, with one side made of glass, was meant to observe what went on within the small copper chamber. He slid open the glass window and gently measured out some ash, placing it within the chamber and closing it.

With a hand held pump, he began to turn the small box into a vacuum, successfully coating the interior with the fine white ash. When satisfied with the emptiness of the box, Sinnett slid on his goggles, followed by his protective gloves, and took one end of his contraption, turning a valve just above the tank.

The tank was full of painfully siphoned phlogiston, and when combined with the ash in the small vacuum box, it would return the ash to whatever it had been before it was burned. Ribbon, in this case.

Small flames began to flicker upon the ash and he moved over, leaning in close to peer inside the chamber, mumbling under his breath and praying it worked. As Sinnett watched with bated breath, bits of the ash began to turn the blue that it had been before he’d burned it, turning back into a ribbon! He gasped in awe and threw his hands in the air with a shout of joy, it was working!

Slowly of course, but it was working!

Until, it slowed to a stop, leaving small scraps of blue in the ash, nothing concrete. Sinnett frowned and turned the valve, allowing more phlogiston to escape into the chamber, and still nothing. He opened it all the way, emptying the tank on that end and moving again to peer into the chamber. Still no reaction!

But, was something happening to the single glass side? Did his eyes deceive him or was it bulging?

He shifted to the side and picked up a metal mixing rod, reaching out to poke the almost glass bubble with a curious frown. The glass stuck to the rod, as if it were molten, and barely a second passed for him to consider it when it burst.

Sinnett scrambled back as molten glass shot out, landing and clattering on the floor with a tinkling sound, watching with horror as the dangerous chemical he so painstakingly worked to collect plumed into the room and ignited. Every flammable surface, the floor, the roof his bedsheets igniting in a second.

Panic struck his heart and he ran for the bed, grabbing a blanket and desperately beginning to beat at the flames, but he could not smother it. Much like the Greek Fire of legend, the blaze would not die. He saw fire creeping up his notes and shouted, running to snatch his notebook from the flames before it could be consumed. He had to tell Mrs. Stacy to leave, before the fire reached her and-

The floor creaked ominously as the fire continued to grow around him, successfully blocking off the door and window as it spread. Sinnett backed away, searching frantically for a way out, searching for some way to get through the fire but, he was trapped.

It shouldn’t have been burning this fierce, but he was certain the Phlogiston was working as an accelerant, fueling the fire as more and more of it was freed, the temperature of the room continuing to climb. It became hard to breathe, what air there was bore heavy with smoke, Sinnett couldn’t stop coughing as his head began to spin from lack of clean air.

Another groan, from the ceiling above as fire licked at it hungrily, blackening the wood until- CRACK!

Sinnett barely had a chance to look up before the beam, already weak and creaky from years and years of weight on the floor above, began to buckle as embers burned upon it. He screamed as it cracked in half, splintering and falling, crashing through the floor and causing the fire to flare.

The floor buckled and began to follow it down to the floor below. Sinnet slipped as the floor pitched and the house creaked, unnatural fire spreading quickly to every flammable surface and then some. The pyrologist fell, tumbling forward, clutching his notes to his chest with his right hand, pinning them safely to shirt as he crashed through onto the bottom floor, falling flat on his back.

His head spun upon landing and he coughed hard, putting a hand over his mouth before laying there, trying to catch his breath. He held his book to his chest and allowed his free arm to lay out to the side. He watched the fire flicker overhead, only then realizing that Mrs. Stacy was probably hurt in the collapse.

He started to stand only to freeze, watching the floor overhead buckle in the middle and come crashing down, down, down.

On top of him.

And then darkness.

Sinnett woke in agony, lungs on fire, body freezing, pain racing up to his left shoulder with only the slightest of movements. Something was wrapped around his eyes, preventing them from opening, but of all the pain in his body, his eyes did not hurt! But his throat did, when he tried to speak it came out raspy and painful.

And then, water, a splash on his face that made him splutter, followed by a short apology. The person helped him into a sitting position, the agony in his arm not lessening from the movement. “They told me to make you drink.” He nodded obediently and drank this time when he felt the cup in his mouth.

What had happened? Were his notes alright? Mrs. Stacy, was she alive? Please God let her have made it out okay.

His throat no longer burning, he tried to speak. “My eyes, they don’t, they’re okay.”

“Oh! They just dropped you in here with them on,” a startled voice said, and shaking hands untied the bandage. Sinnett was met with darkness, shadow, a poorly lit room that was scantily furnished and absolutely filthy. His helper, a kid in a worn outfit, smirked a little. “You’re okay then?”

“My arm, bloody hurts,” he answered raspily, looking around the room, heart sinking at the sight of the jail cell door locking them in. “Oh god where are we?”

“Some police station,” the kid said, pouting a little. “Harrington Lane I think, it’s the dead middle of night an’ they just dragged you in. All wrapped up, half burned and missin’ a hand.” Sinnett froze, slowly turning to look at the kid, tears pricking at his eyes from the pain in his arm as its source became obvious, despite how he would swear to the high heavens he could still feel his hand. “What?”

“You dense? You’ve only got half your left arm!” the kid said, pointing.

Sinnett couldn’t bring himself to look, instead hiding his eyes with his good hand, covered with soot, feeling tears slip out. The kid sounded insulted, “You’re so upset about your hand, you should be scared of the fact they’re ready to lock you up for the rest of your life for arson! They found a bunch of weird machines in the house you burned down, real mad scientist kind of stuff, and considering your goggles and gear-”

“Shut up,” Sinnett snapped, moving his hand from his eyes and glaring at the delinquent, unabashedly crying at this point. The kid looked startled, raising their hands in defense and backing up, “Wow so-rry. You’re a sensitive one.”

“I lost my arm you brat!” Sinnett shouted, feeling his voice tear at his throat as sadness and rage bubbled out all in one shout. He scrubbed at his face, mumbling weak apologies as he tried desperately to pull himself together, but it wasn’t working.

He’d ruined everything hadn’t he? And he’d paid for it in blood and bone for his unholy sciences. Just another mad scientist, put to death before they could kill anyone else after destroying home and hearth with their foolish dreams and ideals. No longer did he even have both hands with which he could wipe his tears with, what was left hurt so badly he could not bear to move it from where it lay at his side.

And all of it was because he’d missed something.

Some small mistake that’d cost his freedom, his hand, and likely the life of Mrs. Stacy, why hadn’t he been more careful damnit!?

Sinnett cried long into the night, horribly annoying his cellmate who’d retreated to the opposite corner to pick at the bricks on the wall. Once, a man in dignified clothes entered the cell to change the bandages on Sinnett’s stump, and the rogue scientist couldn’t even bear to watch, eyes squeezed shut as every touch sent bolts of agony into his shoulder. But, the fresh gauze felt better, so he thanked the doctor, despite how his voice caught.

The stranger just gave him a sympathetic look, eyes full of pity. Silently he was saying: “Oh you poor soul, you sought that fountain of youth and found a bottomless pit from which your suffering has been drawn. If only you had turned back like the rest of us.”

Sinnett looked away from those eyes, arm and, half arm, folded protectively over his chest as the doctor left. The weight of sorrow in there was heavy, like solid metal, molten and dripping into his stomach were it set flames of fear ablaze, bringing new tears every few minutes that Sinnet tried desperately to wipe away.

He was probably going to die from infection, his amputated stump and squalor conditions in the cell providing a perfect breeding ground for any number of festering bacteria. And if he didn’t die, he would go to prison, where he would die for setting a house on fire and further endangering the populace with mad science. And if he didn’t go to prison they’d lock him up in an asylum where he’d rot in a padded cell and lose his mind alongside the truly insane until he was the perfect Mad Scientist.

But it wasn’t mad! He’d learned from this! Phlogisten needed some mix of air to function, for without it it just, stopped working! Like fire, when contained, it couldn’t react, something to note but it would never even matter now because he was going to prison!

Or worst of all, he would be hanged.

The public would want him dead, institutionalized, kept as far away from their realm of understanding as possible so he didn’t endanger them like the legendary Frankenstein and Doctor Moreau. God if only he’d been a little more careful!

If only he’d been more careful.

After the tears had run dry, after the heavy feeling and flames it brought had been numbed, time passed slowly. Sinnett just sat there, lost in thought, was it even thought? He felt empty, waiting, just waiting for the next thing to happen so he wouldn’t have to be afraid of so uncertain a future.

This numbness lasted and eventually changed into sleep, allowing Siinnet to drift off into a restless sleep in the cold, nightmares of fire and shattering bones plaguing his psyche as he tried to rest. It was late morning when he finally woke, finding the cell empty, but the door being opened.

Two men stood there, one with a more portly silhouette and a voice that suggested he had a moustache. “Frankly doctor, this man is an arsonist, plain and simple, he must be institutionalized to protect the populace.”

“And I assure you, no arsonist clever enough to build a er, bomb, like that and protect their notes the way he did wouldn’t have gotten out before the building burned. Not to mention, he’s missing an arm and needs proper medical attention,” said another voice, cool, collected, familiar somehow.

“The building was burned to ashes faster than my men could stop it, a woman was burned to death and-” Sinnett choked down a sob and began to cry once more, God he had killed Mrs. Stacy! It was his fault she was dead because he hadn’t been bloody careful enough!

There was another brief exchange and footsteps, someone sat near Sinnett on the metal cot he sat upon, head in his hand, sobbing. Something touched his good shoulder but he didn’t look up.

“That woman, you knew here didn’t you?” said that voice, the one that’d defended him. Sinnett scrubbed his eyes and forced himself to look up, and his heart stopped.

He was almost certain the man sitting before him was an angel, bright brown eyes that were looking at him softly with worry, fine and sharp features, brown hair that fell over one eye in an array of curls and locks like something an artist would paint. He wore a finely made tophat, his cloak looked expensive, what was he doing here of all places? The officer had called him a doctor, why was he here?

“You knew the woman who died, what was her name?” he asked again, the gloved hand on Sinnett’s good shoulder squeezing gently. Sinnett nodded, utterly stunned, his mind slowly coming back to him.

And then all at once- “I didn’t want to hurt her! I never meant to hurt anyone! It was an accident a stupid mistake and I’ve already paid for it! Please I don’t, I don’t belong in, I don’t want to die!” Tears bubbled from his eyes and dripped down his cheeks as he begged this cloaked stranger to help him. “Please, it was an accident, I didn’t want anyone to die because of my stupid science.”

He dropped his head and choked down a sob, hand covering his mouth.

The stranger stared and sighed, “So those notes they found you with, they were yours?” He nodded weakly, “They should’ve burned, no one can know what I found, it’s, God it’s so dangerous.”

He heard the sound of flipping pages and looked up, sucking in a breath as the stranger flicked through Sinnett’s leather journal, only slightly singed. “No…”

“It’s quite brilliant, really,” this stranger said, examining some of the sketches. He turned the book to Sinnett, “Was this device what started the fire?”

A weak nod. “I didn’t, I didn’t realize the chamber was over pressured, or that the glass couldn’t, handle the heat,” he mumbled, sitting up normally on the cot, rubbing his aching bicep, head bowed.

“I think the design is brilliant!” the stranger said with a warm, charming smile. Sinnett felt his tired heart skip a beat, and he sat up a little straighter. “Re, really?”

“Indeed! I think your only problem was that you didn’t have a properly insulated chamber to examine the reaction,” he continued, examining the notebook. “Quite a simple fix really, we’ll have more than enough materials to fix it once we get you out of here.”

“Out of here?”

“Of course! Can’t have a brilliant mind like yours rotting in a jail cell,” he said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Sinnett felt himself smiling, only for it to be squashed by the pain in his arm. “But, I killed a woman, burned a house down, wouldn’t it be safer if I were behind bars?”

“That is what I was saying to the dear doctor,” the officer said, hands folded and mouth scowling beneath his bushy moustache. The doctor stood, “Captain Brokenshire I assure you, whatever machines this gentleman constructs will be in a safe environment, there will not be another fire.”

“And if there is?”

“He will answer to me, sir.” The stranger undid the clasps of his cloak and draped it protectively around Sinnett’s singed shoulders before striding up to the captain. Sinnett pulled the warm cloak closer, the warmth bringing him comfort and the smell of peppermint. The doctor was tall and thin, his gloved hands clasped in front of him, every detail of his outfit precise and neat. “You have my word, he will not cause another fire.”

“If he does start one, I’ll have him incarcerated, as he should be,” Brokenshire said sharply, turning on his heel and walking off. The doctor nodded slowly and turned to face Sinnett, “Sorry about that, I’ve been fighting tooth and claw all morning to get you out of here.”

“Am I, really worth that much?” he asked weakly, breaking into sudden coughs. The doctor gasped and moved closer, putting a hand on his back, “You must’ve inhaled a lot of smoke. Brokenshire said they had to cut you out of the debris, but I’m sure you knew that.”

“I, had guessed,” Sinnett coughed, allowing this stranger to help him stand on shaking legs. Sinnett drew himself to his full height, holding his injured arm against his chest, shoulders hunched in pain. He was nearly the same height as this stranger, which seemed to surprise him.

The pyrologist cleared his throat, “Before, before I thank you for everything, can I know your name?”

The smile that the doctor gave him made Sinnett’s heart skip again, “My name is Doctor Henry Jekyll, at your service mister-”

“Sinnett, Anthony Sinnett,” he answered, smiling a tiny bit. He started to reach to shake, only to switch hands with an awkward smile. Jekyll sighed, “Well, once we get to the Society we’ll work on patching you up and then see if a few friends of mine can’t do something about that hand of yours, or lack thereof.”

He reached out, gently pushing aside the cloak to peer at the bloodied bandages, frowning a little.

And then suddenly, they weren’t in the cell, they were in the Society, at the bottom of a staircase, Jekyll holding his shoulders, eyes wide with fear. He was saying something, his name.

“Sinnett? Anthony? Can you hear me?” he asked in a soft, worried voice. Sinnett blinked, his mind returning to the present. “I, what happened? What’s going on?”

A sigh from nearby, and a look revealed Dr. Maijabi standing nearby. He nodded to the pyrologist, “Saw you take a fall down the staircase, looked like you were off in your own head. Helped you onto your feet, made sure you weren’t goin’ anywhere, then went to get the other doctor.”

“I, I’m fine,” Sinnett said slowly, realizing there was an ache in his knees, probably from his fall. The phantom ache persisted in his hand, but not as horrible as before, perhaps it was because of the very real and very warm touches on his shoulders.

Jekyll looked relieved to see Sinnett back in the waking world, but he did not smile. “Were you, there? In the past?”

The pyrologist nodded, a bit out of breath all of a sudden, “I, I don’t mean to be a bother. I’m sorry sir.”

“What for? Your trauma is nothing to be sorry for.” Jekyll helped him to stand and then smiled, “Perhaps you should turn in for the afternoon, gather your thoughts before going back to working with fire yes?” A warm sort of feeling bubbled up in Sinnett’s chest as he nodded, not wanting Jekyll to take the hand on his shoulder.

But take he did, and with a relieved nod he turned and walked off to, somewhere. Sinnett couldn’t help but smile, a bit of a pink tint in his cheeks. As much as the past haunted him, reality, the present was pretty sweet, literally and figuratively.

#the glass scientists #my writing

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julianspancakes · 7 years

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Kitty Fic Recommendations ➸ 1

So, I read a lot of fics and I wanted to share some (!) of them throughout my time here. The fics listed below can be old or fairly new, so this has no timeline. Neither an order of preference.

Part 2 Part 3

Behind Closed Doors by The Purple Warlock

Summary : Ty manages to get Kit out of his room and to get to know people better.

Understanding by The Purple Warlock

Summary : Kit and Ty think they understand themselves and their worlds, but life decides to shake everything up, meaning that they no longer understand what they used to. They need each other to work out where they need each other to ease their confusion. Friendships and relationships follow.

Pressure by writeyourheart100

Summary : (LOS SPOILERS!) Kit wanders into Ty’s room at night, feeling the need to fulfill an unspoken promise to Livvy.

The Lights of the Los Angeles Institute by mrsjulianblackthorn13

Summary : It starts out with Kit and Ty training together. Soon they realize their feelings for each other. This is my interpretation of how they would end up together. Events take place after Lady Midnight.

Quiet All Away by DAIrinchan

Summary : Kit does his best to hide from the Shadowhunters in their own Institute. Ty wants to meet him properly.

Mortal Melody by DAIrinchan

Summary : Drabble. Kit finds out what Ty’s been listening to.

Vast Formless Things by DAIrinchan

Summary : AU? Maybe? Drabble. Sometimes all you have is the people you care about.

Attack Bear by DAIrinchan

Summary : AU. Which is worse, a school shooting or a school bear attack? Warning: Flippant treatment of serious issues.

Pacified Psyche by DAIrinchan

Summary : The story of Ty and Kit’s first (and second) kiss. Posted for Autism Awareness Month in April.

Chemistry and Physics by teamfreewill82

Summary : He was suddenly the first person, in that way, that Ty could look at with true interest, wonderment. He’d never, ever experienced anything like it.

Closed Doors by shadowhunter167

Summary : Kit hasn’t come out if that room since he went in. He’s stubborn, but Ty knows he can wait him out.

See the World by Aaron Quinn

Summary : He didn’t talk like his family. Hell he didn’t even look people in the eyes. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; he looked into Kit’s eyes. Kit Rook. The one person he felt close to.. It was a sense of familiarity and recognition. It was something he didn’t know how to explain. Nonetheless, he knew one thing for sure and that was that he could see the world in Kit’s eyes.

Sadness and Stims by AAThanatos

Summary : Spoilers from LOS so if you haven’t read it skip this! Kit does his best to comfort Ty after tragedy strikes.

Grey Eyes by Storytelling Penguin

Summary : A tale of an unlikely friendship that grew into something more. Kit Rook and Ty Blackthorn.

Just Hold Me by the Beauty of Nightmares

Summary : (SPOILERS FOR LORD OF SHADOWS) Ty isn’t dealing well with his sister’s death, but maybe Kit knows a way he can help. Sad, kinda fluffy one-shot for Kitty.

The Stars Belong In Your Eyes by Malecislifee

Summary : Kit and Tiberius. Discovery of new feelings, adventure and romance and drama. All about Kit and Ty but not only that, Kit forms bonds with other characters, including Livvy.

Hurricane Boy by Malecislifee

Summary : KITxTY Fluff. It’s been a month and Ty is always sitting outside Kit’s door. One day he asks him inside and Ty seems to have found some comfort in this new boy. And Kit is trying to figure out what’s going on in his head, and he can’t help but find the Blackthorn boy very intriguing.

There Are Snowflakes In The Sky by Black Rose White Fire

Summary : Ty took a deep breath. “Okay. Well. If you don’t want a book, I understand that too. Sometimes I just want to listen to music. I don’t know what kind of music you like, but I was looking for songs that talked about people who stayed in their rooms, and other people who missed them and wanted them to come out.”

Too Much by teamfreewill82

Summary : Friends noticed these things about one another, sure, but they didn’t agonize over them in detail as the last thought before sleep.

True North by teamfreewill82

Summary : Traveling is harder to do when you have someone you don’t want to leave behind.

Hurt Hands and Salved Sandwiches by teamfreewill82

Summary : Kit supposed he could have refused to accept the offer, the way he had when Julian had suggesting healing him in the car. But he didn’t.

Bees, High School and Autism by 0010001

Summary : Ty is starting a new school and is worried that he isn’t going to make any friends and that he will get bullied. Luckily he has Livvy with him.

Challenge the Default by elliptical

Summary : "I’m not normal,“ Ty told him a month later, as the pair of them tried to catch frogs outside. He said it with the casual air of someone discussing the weather, or pointing out that a shoelace was untied.

Kit blinked. "Obviously,” he said.

Blues and Purples by tsukkisdinos

Summary : When Ty realises that he and his sister both like the same guy, things get complicated.

Kitty’s First Kiss by ShadowHunterOfArtemis

Summary : Just three different perspectives on Kit and Ty’s first kiss. Going into a battle is a perfect time for rash decisions, right?

Waltz Of The Flowers by Fandom_girl21

Summary : A bunch of firsts in Ty’s and Kit’s friendship/relationship.

Confessions ( Beginning Of Something Beautiful ) by darkartificies

Summary : Throughout the past month, he learned many things about Shadowhunters, but three things stood clear: One was that Mark and Emma were definitely in a relationship. Two was that he was getting pretty good at being a Shadowhunter, though he’d never admit it. And the third was Tiberius Blackthorn.

A World In Grey and Blue by TheRedKing

Summary : Soulmate AU where you can’t see the color of your soulmate’s eyes until you see them. or, the one where Kit can’t see grey until a pair of stormy eyes allow him to see the shining steel of the knife pressed against his throat.

Feels So Right by StarGirl06

Summary : Tiberius Blackthorn and Kit Rook have each been harboring some feelings for one another, but keeping them to themselves. Eventually, it has to all come bursting out.

“Ty didn’t laugh very often, and Kit had learned over the past few months of being at the Institute that his smiles needed to be cherished. Kit felt his heart warm at the sight of laughter in Ty’s normally stormy eyes.”

you make it easy by thankyouforexisting

Summary : Kit feels lost without the dark-haired shadowhunter beside him (and when had that happened, that he’d gotten used to his steady presence? He hasn’t even been here for a whole day!), but the girl bites her lip, “I was just joking,” she hesitates, and then turns a beaming smile at Kit, “I’m Livvy, Ty’s twin sister.” She goes on pointing around the table, “And those are Tavvy,” the smallest of them all, a quiet boy who seems to be clinging to - “Dru,” -a short girl who’s hugging him, “and that’s Perfect Diego, who’s a Centurion.”

‘Perfect Diego’ sighs, “Please, I beg you all, stop calling me that.”

Livvy laughs, “Right! Anyway, Kit, you’re welcome to sit down wherever you want and have breakfast; you’re one of us, now.”

“I’m not a Shadowhunter,” he grunts, but quietly, “I just want to eat.”

“Don’t we all,” Julian agrees easily.

something brewing between us by thankyouforexisting

Summary : “You know,” an amused voice says, and Ty freezes, slowly looking up to meet irresistible blue eyes, “I make my coffee hot, but you may just be hotter.”

From his left, there’s the sound of Livvy choking and dropping a spoon.

He flushes, gritting his teeth, “What would you like to order?”

“A cup of you, to go, please, no sugar, you’re sweet enough,” Kit smirks, and Livvy’s giggling now, not even trying to hide it, “And I would also appreciate if you stopped stalking my coffee shop. It just isn’t good to keep meeting like that.”

Ty narrows his eyes, “This war isn’t over until I say it’s over, you truant. One coffee, black like your soul, coming up.” // The Blackthorns have a coffee shop. There’s competition in town. Detective Ty is on the case.

How Beautiful by TheRedKing

Summary : Livvy grinned wide, and Kit was suddenly struck with how the smile of one twin could feel so different from that of the other. Livvy’s was bigger and brighter, but it just didn’t hold that spark that made his chest feel warm, and full of light. - Kit is now living at the Institute, begrudgingly training to become a Shadowhunter. He would have left already, but his father was dead, and he has no other place to go. His only solace was a dark haired boy who understands the troubles of being an outsider. Kit wasn’t even looking friendship with the Shadowhunters, but he thinks he may have found that and more.

not all of them are so bad by Nitonami

Summary : Kit definitely doesn’t want to be at the Institute, and he definitely didn’t want the Shadowhunter that stayed outside his door after everyone else had left…

…At first, anyway.

Always Back To You by Kitty_trash

Summary : Ty leaned forward, touching Kit’s hand. Kit’s eyes shot up, looking into Ty’s eyes. “Where do you go?” Ty asked under his breath. To you, always to you, Kit thought.

The Lovelace Bonds by benjaminrussell

Summary : Ty and Kit carry out a theft and watch a movie.

‘This isn’t what it looks like!’ by MidnightMew

Summary : Just a pointless little kitty drabble.

Rain and Glass by MidnightMew

Summary : ( LOS- SPOILERS ) Those were simpler times. Times when his parents were still alive. Times when he had no idea that Mark and Helen were different from the rest of his siblings in any way apart from the fact they were older. Times when he didn’t know he was different either, when he still dreamed of the scholomance. Times when he still had his sister, when he still had Livvy.

A long awaited conversation by MidnightMew

Summary : Ty finally comes out.

A flame in the pitch black night by MidnightMew

Summary : Just a pointless little kitty drabble.

Snow Angels by keiththepaladin

Summary : In which Kit and Ty are in London and there is bickering and snowball fighting.

Ty and Kit’s First Kiss by olivemartini

Summary : Exactly what the title says.

Windows by olivemartini

Summary : Some people say that eyes are the window to the soul. And for once, Ty has to agree.

Apologies by olivemartini

Summary : Ty apologizes to Kit for holding a knife to his throat when they first meet.

Kit’s Explorations of the Institues, With the Help of Ty by olivemartini

From the Shadow Summary : Kit’s trying to leave his bedroom for the first time since he’s gotten to the Institute and realizes he has no clue where to go. Thankfully, Ty is there to help him.

Pancake Day Summary : It’s Pancake Day at the Blackthorns, and Kit doesn’t get the whole “family meal” thing.

The Weapons Room Summary : Kit picks out his weapon.

Training Summary : Kit and Ty in the training room. Kit learns how to throw knives.

On the Rooftop Summary : There’s not much left that scares Kit, but seeing Ty standing on the edge of the roof and staring down at the ground below has quickly skipped ahead on his list of terrible things.

Melting Wings Summary : Icarus got too close to things he wanted most in the world, and it killed him. Ty kind of knows how it felt.

Cuddling Summary : Ty doesn’t really know what to do, but Kit’s fallen asleep on his shoulder and no one’s here to watch, so he might as well just stay put.

Hypotheticals Summary : They sleep in the same room sometimes. Not together. Just… near each other. It’s easier that way.

Uncle Arthur Summary : Kit had never met Uncle Arthur, but he had gotten the gist of the situation from Ty’s uneasiness and Julian’s hushed explanations. And yet, despite all the whispered warnings, he still did not expect to come face to face with raving lunatic.-or-The story of how Kit saves Ty from Uncle Arthur.

#kitty #kit herondale #ty blackthorn #tda #the dark artifices #fanfic #fanfiction #lady midnight #lord of shadows #los spoilers #tiberius blackthorn #kit rook #christopher herondale #the lost herondale #julianspancakesficrecs #fic recs

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