#Bill is sorta implied to be here

[spirited-splashes]

(Click drawing for higher quality cause tumblr compressed the hell out of these) “EYE see you!” guess who just learnt how to draw lightning without it looking mushy

Bonus sixer for you

[teecupangel]

This is based on @zero-saito’s reply for this post

@teecupangel what if the day Desmond was born was a date that the sky turned green like that?

The sky turned green the day her son was born.

It lasted until he stopped crying.

Or so they say…

She had been too tired to care about such things, holding her son as he cried his heart out.

Her heart ached when he cried for so long.

As if lamenting his birth…

They said it was an auspicious sign.

She saw it as an omen of what was to come.

She had him because it was part of the contract she had with William Miles.

William Miles believed she would fall in love with him.

She doubted it the moment he agreed to her father’s proposal to ‘sell’ her off.

A child born of the Ibn-La'Ahad and the Auditore bloodline…

That was what her son was to her father.

To her husband?

He was just as fucked up as her. Unlike him, she never pretended to be normal.

He probably loved her son in his own way but he also saw him as the successor to such mighty bloodlines.

And this green sky that greeted her son’s birth.

It was only auspicious to them.

To her…

To her son…

It was a curse.

He hated the color green. He preferred the whites and reds that his mother usually wore.

He liked dark skies, of rain and storm…

He hated the word ‘auspicious’.

He hated his birth date.

But most of all…

He hated the Farm where the green sky appeared.

So he ran away.

And she stayed behind.

Screamed his name while standing at the opposite side of where she saw him run.

Swore she saw him run deep into the green forest, not towards the cliff that led to the blue waters that will carry him farther away from them faster than his legs could.

He ran away.

And she stayed.

Because she was not the mother he should have had.

But she was the distraction he needed that day.

.

When the entire sky was covered in the curtains of colors everyone found beautiful that early morning when the Solar Flare was supposed to hit the earth…

She saw the green curtains.

And did not think of it as auspicious at all.

She felt her phone vibrate but she didn’t need anyone to call her to know.

The world was saved.

But her son was cursed by this green sky once more.

She wondered if he knew why she wasn’t with him during his last moments.

Did he hate her?

That was fine.

She deserved it.

She was not a good mother.

But…

She was raised to be the perfect distraction by her own father.

So she took out her phone.

It was a message from William Miles.

[He’s dead.]

What an auspicious day for them all then.

They sacrificed her son for the world.

And she…

She never said goodbye.

No.

She doesn’t deserve a goodbye.

She closed the notification and pressed the volume up button on the side of her phone.

And watched as Abstergo’s Philadelphia branch explode.

It was unnecessary.

She had done her part pretending to be her son by appearing in CCTV the day prior but this…

This is her being petty.

What a bad mother she was.

William Miles was probably crying when he sent that message to her.

He probably managed to say something to her son before his death that would help him grieve.

But she had nothing.

She deserved nothing.

No tears fell from her eyes.

But her mouth moved.

And laughter burst forth.

Madness?

Hysteria?

She didn’t know anymore.

He hated the color green.

But he liked white.

Like the flash that appeared before an explosion.

He liked red.

Like the blood of the Templars that was caught up by the blast.

He liked dark skies.

Like the smoke that kissed the sky of the fire that was created afterwards.

She was a bad mother to her son.

But she was a good Assassin.

And perhaps…

That was all she needed to be to honor his memories.

[kale-of-the-forbidden-cities]

some relativity falls screenshot redraws!! in order of the ones i like most to the ones i like least

(but i still like all of them i just want you to see the good ones first)

and yes you get all my commentary on them

this is the most recent one i drew, i literally just finished it, but unlike the others, it took all day! more effort was put into it because i had to figure out the lighting, switch the pine tree for a six fingered hand, and replace the banner of Pacifica in the background (with fiddleford!)

this one is the second one i drew, and i think it's just so cute! i know it usually goes Mabel -> Stan and Dipper -> Ford but for me it really depends on the screenshot- this is the scene where they're watching the mystery shack after Gideon just took over, and I didn't really have to do much for the background, since there was a frame of these bushes before they popped out of them

This one I like not just because of them, but because of the background- see the parts i drew in? No? Good! That's the goal! But yeah Mabel's hair took up quite a bit of the background, as well as her sweater, so i had to make it blend in and look natural with what was already there.

This was the first one I did! This whole thing started because I'd just watched Sock Opera and i was being Normal about all of it, so here's a Bill-Ford and Stan! And the journal! Which i based off of the one from lost legends, sorta- I couldn't decide on a good color, and i'm not too good at color theory so yeah. Also, it's hard enough fitting one extra finger onto Dipper and Mabel's 4, but this stupid six fingered freak (/affectionate) made me cram two extra fingers on there.

also yes this implies that stan put on a puppet show or something. think The Duchess Approves fanfic

original scenes (plus the fiddleford banner thingy) under cut!

(this one doesn't have my username over it because much like fids i forgor but i trust that nobody's gonna steal it)

it could have been better, had i not combined the layers too early

[cherrys-muses]

you are now entering theatre 5!

NOW PLAYING; I’D COME BACK IF YOU CALLED.

order; pretzels & junior mints!

🎟️ ticket; stranger things

w; based after s3 close to s4, implied abuse from parent, mentions of bullying an; i wasn’t for sure where this was truly going, but hopefully where it went is good!!

The smell of fair food usually makes you happy — especially with the fall breeze that drifts your way, sending a wave of that sickeningly sweet cotton candy scent wafting towards your way. 

It doesn’t help that Steve is next to you, the smell of cashmere gently tickling under your nose. Your jaw clenches, arms folded over your chest. You’d been huffing a good part of the day — which, sure, it is childish for your age and you’re souring everyone’s mood (almost, Dustin or Robin will not let that happen). 

But, Steve is too! Making comments in passing, smart and sarcastic at anything you’d mentioned which made you stop speaking altogether. It’s just like when he doubted your idea close to a year ago — listen to Mike, you’d pleaded. You trusted the boy, they were all smart. He might be onto something. 

That, of course, started an argument. Then, lucky you, the sound of Billy Hargrove’s car revving up the Byers’ driveway had let you all know, tonight you were not only dealing with monsters who had rough flesh and drooled, you were dealing with one just outside the door. 

Safe to say — you went through with Mike’s idea after Max had injected Billy with something and you all worked together stuffing a bruised and battered Steve into the backseat. 

And maybe crashed into a mailbox or two. 

You weren’t sure what it was that made the presence of Steve Harrington crawl under your skin. He cared, in his own strange way mixed with slight sarcasm when something is obvious, and he wasn’t afraid to show that he did. 

But towards you…it was different, a bit more cold, off-putting. Maybe forced? He was someone who was so simple to figure out, yet difficult. It made you want to sit down, write out a bullet-point presentation to try and figure out some guy with good hair and wore Levi’s everyday almost. 

“Give me a dollar!” Dustin turns towards Steve, causing the group to stop, watching as Steve furrows his brows. 

“What? Give you a dollar? Am I made of money?” 

“Sorta.” Robin shrugs, bringing the neon green straw towards her lips, taking a long gulp of the sin that’s fair lemonade in a plastic cup. She grins when Steve gives her a look, already reaching into his pocket as he mumbles something under his breath. 

Glancing towards one of the food trucks, you distinctly smell something buttery — popcorn. “I’ll be back.” 

“You don’t have to announce that you’re leaving,” Steve says, voice tight as he slips his wallet back into his pocket, looking over at you with a tight smile. “No one would’ve noticed.” Robin rolls her eyes, groaning loudly as her head tilts backwards. Dustin frowns, staring at him with the dollar in his hand. 

“Not cool, man.” He shakes his head. He’s confused as to why Steve even acts bothered when you all share something in some way — even if Steve doesn’t want to admit it. 

Showing him no reaction is always the best thing to do — ignoring him. It really gets under his skin and you enjoy doing that. “Would you guys like anything?” You motion over your shoulder. “Dustin? You wanna save that dollar for something else?” You smile softly at the grin on his face. 

“Hey, wait. That was—” Steve begins, watching as Dustin stuffs the bill into his pocket. 

“Yeah, I’ll come with.” 

Robin snickers to herself, shaking her head. Your eyes glance towards the others, tilting your head. “You guys wanna come? Fresh popcorn…cotton candy…” 

Lucas is the next to follow behind Dustin, glancing over his shoulder at Max. She shakes her head, arms crossed. “I’m gonna stay here.” You frown, nodding at the girl. You know things have been rough for her. She’s been withdrawing herself from people. 

And though you hate forcing people to do something they don’t want to do, you made her come tonight. So, this time, you only nod. “If you change your mind, let me know, okay?” She only nods, eyes glancing away as she looks around at the people passing through. 

“I’ll stay here too. We’ll find somewhere to sit.” Robin nods. 

You nod, turning as you make your way towards the line of people, Lucas and Dustin not too far from you. “How’s Mike and everyone else? Have any of you heard from him?” 

“He likes California so far,” Dustin nods. “And Suzie is excellent.” 

You let out a small laugh, nodding as you move up with the line. “There’s so many people I hate here.” Lucas looks over, groaning slightly when he sees Erica. 

“What are you even doing here?” He motions towards her. “And you can’t just cut in line!” 

Erica gives him a look. “I’m here with my friends,” She motions over her shoulder. “But they don’t want to do anything.” 

You glance over at her, smiling a bit. “You want to stay with us? I’ll ride some things with you.” You shrug slightly. She looks at you, eyes lightening up just slightly. 

“Really?” You nod. “Alright. I like the big rides.” 

“Me too. They’re more exhilarating.” You step towards the window now, allowing Dustin, Lucas, and Erica to order before ordering for yourself and throwing in a couple more things for Robin and Max. 

Even Steve. 

Slipping the twenty, Dustin gives you a confused look when you step towards the side, waiting patiently. “Why did you get him anything when he’s always so rude to you?” 

You look at him, tilting your head. “Who? Steve?” The three of them nod and you let out a small laugh. “Well, believe it or not, I don’t hate Steve. He just hates me…for whatever reason. I just think it’s fun to get under his skin,” 

Erica lifts a brow at that while Dustin and Lucas share a passing glance. “And whenever I’m nice to him, that seems to bother him,” You shrug. You hear your order being called out. “Come on. Help out carrying this stuff.” 

Careful not to drop anything on your way towards the tables, you place your popcorn down first. “Alright. Cotton candy for you,” You place the bag down in front of Robin. “And, Max, I know you like candy apples. I went ahead and got you one.” 

The plastic crinkles slightly when you set it down, watching as she looks at it before looking up at you. “Thanks.” She gives you a small smile. Patting her shoulder softly, you reach across the table and place some fried oreos in front of Steve. 

“Asked for some extra sugar. Hopefully that’s okay,” You smile sweetly at him. He stares at the fried sweet, before looking up at you, jaw clenching. Victory, you think to yourself. “I know you like them.” 

Steve hums slightly, pushing the plate away from him slightly. Clenching your own jaw, your smile drops slightly. Grabbing your popcorn, you move towards the next table where Erica and Dustin sit, slipping next to Erica. 

Robin furrows her brows, punching his bicep. He quickly turns his head around, rubbing at the spot. “Ow! What was that for?” 

“You know exactly what it was for, dingus! God, you’re so irritating sometimes, I can’t believe you're one of my best friends.” 

“One of them? You have more?” 

“She tries to be nice to you! And all you do is just…act rude, for whatever reason,” Her head shakes. “I don’t understand why you do that. Especially since…well, you know.” 

He does know. After everything that you’ve both been through — monsters, injuries that fade slowly — some even last for a while — the night terrors that everyone collectively shares. Steve glances over at you, watching as your hand rubs over the side of your neck, eyes glancing around the fair, lingering slightly towards the area that’s almost dark, only muted, shadowy colors from flashing lights light up the area just enough. 

He sighs quietly, looking away. “I just…” He trails off, shrugging a shoulder. “I don’t know either.”  Maybe it’s from the time in middle school — where you both were once friends, the definition of two peas in a pod — something had happened with Carol and Tommy, he still wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but you’d blamed him for it happening. 

He had been confused when you had started to ignore him. It all blew up in his face when he had come to your home to ask you to the Snowball Dance. He remembers you yelling at him, telling him that you had never wanted to see him again — especially after what happened with Carol and Tommy H. 

You still never listened or allowed him to ‘prove his innocence’. It was embarrassing to him, a blow to his ego that he had started growing. And after trying to call you, come to talk to you, he finally gave up, giving you what you wished for. 

Never seeing you again. 

Until…Barbara Holland went missing, a bald kid was found in the woods, and Will Byers was found in the Quarry. 

“Well, at this point, it’s exhausting,” Lucas says, shaking his head. Steve looks at him, frowning. “Listening to you act that way over nothing.” 

“It’s not…like that,” His voice had begun to rise before he paused and lowered it. “Something had happened between us in middle school and that’s why things are like the way they are now. It’s not my fault either. It’s hers.” 

“I don’t believe that’s true.” Max says, playing with the small twist tie around the plastic that covers the candy apple. 

Steve opens his mouth to speak but Robin is quick to intervene. “I think you should maybe talk to her about it. Fix it now. In Middle School you’re still figuring out feelings, emotions, you're still a kid,” Her brows lift. “Whatever she said, whatever she felt, probably isn’t the way she feels now,” 

Steve purses his lips together, looking away. “We’re grown now.” He sighs at that, and Robin watches as he nods his head. 

“I guess…you’re right.” 

“I know I am.” 

Rolling his eyes, he looks over at Dustin and Erica’s table, brows pinching together. Standing from the table, he makes his way over. “Where did Y/N go?” He motions towards the empty seat. 

Dustin glances next to Erica, shrugging slightly. “She said she was going to the bathroom not too long ago.” Sighing, Steve rubs at his forehead, looking around the crowd of people. 

Despite not being on the best terms with you, he still cared even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. Not right now, not at the moment. Stepping away from the tables, he begins to look around the fair. And even if he doesn’t want to admit it, he knows you better than anyone else still. He knows the dejected look on your face — now a bit more soft, reserved, barely there versus the overly pouty teenage girl he remembered. 

No. Steve is definitely not observant with you. 

He’s slightly panicked when he doesn’t see you within three minutes of searching for you, calling out your name. He stops then, sighing as he notices you then. It’s a lone area, one that’s closer to the edge of the fair, one that has two swings and overlooks a small lake that stretches. Eyes darting around, he shakes out his hands before making his way over. 

Wrapping his fingers around the cold chain, he places himself down on the swing that squeaks slightly. You don’t say anything, you don’t look at him either. Your hands tighten around the chain, ignoring the pinch it gives to your palm. Steve’s eyes glance over slightly before looking away. 

“I don’t understand why you hate me,” You finally say. “Especially when I never did anything to you besides stick by you until you hurt me.” 

Steve looks at you fully this time. “I never did anything to you—”

“You expect me to believe that? You started hanging out with Carol and Tommy. I’m sure you knew why they kept saying stuff about me — you probably even started it so they would think you were cool.” 

Steve’s brows pinch together, frustration rising slowly. “I have no idea what you’re even talking about!” 

“Oh, come on, Steve! That I was a freak because of my dad!” He stares at you, mouth parting slightly as his head shakes. “Tricking me and locking me in the storage closet at school for half the day!” 

He says your name, softly, watching as you look away again. “I’d…I would never say anything about you like that. Do you think I really did that to you?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe. You knew how I felt about him and how I felt about tight spaces.” 

Steve shakes his head, standing from the swing and moving to squat in front of you. “I’d never use that against you — in a million years. If I would’ve wanted to, I would have already used it against you,” He’s being honest. But he’d never hurt you in that way. “Ever. You know me,” 

Your eyes leave your lap, slowly looking at Steve. Your eyes are glassy, shining just slightly from the stars. “I’m sorry they did that to you. But I wished you would’ve just…talked to me instead of shutting me out.”

You nod a bit. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t apologize. You were hurt. I just…” He trails off, eyes dropping to your hands in your lap, the scar on the top of your hand that he used to always trace over makes his heart ache slightly. “I wished you would’ve talked to me so I would’ve known,”

His hand finally finds your own, the pad of his thumb sliding slowly across the top of your hand. His lips pull into a small smile. “Still feels cool,” You let out an airy laugh, turning your head and wiping at the tear that had fallen down your cheek. He watches you silently for a moment, before speaking again. 

“You looked beautiful,” You quickly looked at him. “At the dance. You wore a royal blue dress with matching shoes. Your eyeshadow was a light purple too.” 

“How do you even know that?” 

“I was there. I just…was deep in the crowd. It wasn’t any fun,” Steve shrugs. “I’d gotten sick because Tommy stole some alcohol from his Dad — dared me to chug a whole beer,” You let out another small laugh, shaking your head. 

“Before the dance too. The lights were flashing and I had started getting a headache from the music mixed in with the flashing,” He winces slightly, almost like he remembers how bad the pounding against his temples was at the time. “But when it was that first slow song and the lights just kind of…stopped, and I saw you. It went away at that time,” 

“But then I saw you dancing with Jake Weaver — of all people. Then that sick feeling came rushing back way too quickly,” You frown, eyes soft as you stare at him. “I think after I finished puking that night at Starcourt and sat against the wall, it’d brought me back. Like deja vu almost,” 

“Then Robin asked me if I’d ever been in love with anyone,” His thumb had stopped tracing over the scar now. “I’d thought about Nance. But…I don’t think that was the first time I was ever in love with someone.”

He was still the same Steve you knew. A boy who feels too much emotion and doesn’t know how to handle it. A boy who cares. A boy who yearns. 

You stare at him silently for a moment before your eyes slowly lower to his hands. Twisting slightly to grip his palm, you bring it up towards your lips. Pressing a kiss to his knuckles, your eyes close slowly. 

He stays silent, watching quietly. His palm slides away from your lips and towards your cheek, his thumb now slides over your cheekbone. “I’m sorry for being angry.” 

Your eyes open and you shake your head. “You had every right. I should’ve just listened to you.” 

Steve stands then, legs tingling slightly. His fingers brush away the hair that presses against your temple, shaking his head. “Still.” 

Turning your head, you press a kiss against his palm before standing. You never thought you’d be standing this close to Steve — chest brushing against his, the toes of your shoes almost meeting his own, while it feels like the world behind you disappears. 

“We can talk more about it later, yeah?” You whisper softly. 

He stares at you for a moment longer before nodding. “Yeah…we can.” 

[theautismgoblin]

Dusk of Flatland Page 1

Okay so you remember when I said I was making a comic, WELL I kinda sorta maybe,

FINISHED THE FIRST PAGE!!!!

The second page isn't done, but I don't wanna wait to post this!! SO HERE IT IS!!!

Tw- Character death (both Implied and shown), Eye trauma and blood, racism, and ableism

Please read with caution!!! This is very heavy and dark..

--Lines spoken-- From each panel (Just so folks know where something is)

3

Yin-yang "Hello to all Denizens of Flatland"

4

Yin-yang "It has come to our attention many are frustrated"

Bill "Scuse me"

Yin-yang "With our rule"

5

Yin-yang "Especially with the recent "Clean-up"

Yin-yang "So we gather today with an offering"

6

Yin-yang "For the untimely demise of one "Liam"'

Yin-yang "We offer up one of our own"

7

Yin-yang "For execution"

Crowd- Murmers and whispers

8

Crowd "A defect?!" "They're an imperfect??" "Who knew?!" mixed with Murmers and whistles and a gasp

9

Bill "Wait defect, but?"

10

Bill -very quiet - "no"

11

Bill- gets louder "NO NO NO NOT THEM NO"

Crowd-"Hey" "Watch it"

12

Celeste - *Heavy breathing*

15

Yin-yang "An eye for an eye as they say"

18

Bill "STOP THE EXECUTION"

Crowd "What?" "Watch it" "HEY"

20

Bill "CELESTE"

Celeste's eye is impaled by the spear from behind.. Scattering out their blood.

21

Guard circle "Hey ya' ain't allowed up here TRIANGLE"

22

Bill "MOVE IT" and a shove

End of transcript

Click for better quality

Ooohhhh boi, this took too long to make.. And I STILL GOT ANOTHER PAGE to DO!!!

Also I am sorry to all Celeste lovers, it had to happen..

Part 2--- HERE

[spaceumbredoggos]

Kenz headcanons I put here.

Kenz struggles a lot with skin Picking Disorders.

They secretly wish that they were ten years old again and playing in the creek in an old campground. Ford sometimes finds them catching frogs, snakes, and lizards in the creek behind the mystery shack, covered in mud and channeling their inner Steve Irwin.

The only little kids show that they will tend to watch multiple times on occasion is Bluey. They will sometimes spend hours watching Bluey, but as soon as someone’s about to catch them, they turn it off and start watching something more typical of an emo kid.

They love spiders. They give them names, let them crawl all around them. Stan hates this because he’s terrified of spiders ever since roadside distraction.

Often hangs upside down to stim. It drives Ford nuts.

HC’s Involving Bill’s Interactions with Kenz.

Bill made the deal with Kenz when they changed his name in a dark room three times at the age of nine. He knew Kenz was emotionally unstable with their mother recently abandoning them, but he sensed that Kenz had been more so seeking the approval of their father and were convinced that their mother would come back one day. Bill offered them a proposal that their sisters would always have their mother in exchange for access to Kenz’s mind, body, and soul. Not knowing what it meant, Kenz made the deal.

Kenz would go into a lot of fits of rage when they were ten that would cause hospitalizations and lots and lots of therapy (abusive therapy with aversives and ABA.) Bill would be the main cause of these fits without anyone knowing.

All the damage Bill had done to Ford he had done to Kenz and then some. I am leaning away from the narrative of it being sexual in nature, but I’m not going to abandon this possibility. This is more implied than anything. Kenz has issues with a lot of things in their life, some were not even caused by Bill. Kenz is very unsure which parts were and which parts weren’t.

Bill had probably caused some damage to Kenz’s family’s mental health as well, most notably their father’s side. The details of such are extremely vague, but I can assure you that Kenz’s father may have made a deal with Bill as an attempt for him to stop. Probably in exchange for something Kenz related.

Hirsch said that Bill saw himself in Mabel. Thing is, how ever much Bill sees himself in Mabel, he sees himself a million times more in Kenz. Kenz has a lot of built up restraint, and has problems with feeling too much empathy. Kenz reminds Bill of a younger version of himself before he killed his parents and burned his own dimension, as someone who was failed by the system put in place just for existing. It’s down to a tee with abusive parents (I’ve never read flatminds in a flat world (I wanna read the book of Bill first, which will strengthen the narrative of this story.))

Kenz has a strange relationship with physical contact, partially due to Bill sorta being touchy and not giving them their own personal space. Bill gives them headpats, hugs, shoulder rubs (non-sexual stuff that Kenz usually sees as gestures of endearment. Mostly for manipulation, but also because Bill has no concept of personal space), and is generally touching them with his triangular form at all times.

Bill physically abuses Kenz regularly in their nightmares. Kenz has a phobia of wearing shock collars because Bill has used them on Kenz.

[dellerose]

is this anything

explanations under the cut

so for this sorta graph it's about rep that is intended as queer so queercoding doesn't count

word of god counts for the purposes of this graph, even retroactively. however retroactively calling your character gay when it has no impact, and then doing nothing in the future to act on it is Bad. so that's why dumbledore here is my first thought when it comes to confirmed, but bad, representation. not like homophobic rep but as in like despite being declared canonically gay it literally doesn't matter because it is not at all relevant to the narrative or good or impactful. plus rowling is a transphobic shitbag anyways but even beyond this it's just not good

the other bad example is FAR worse but not even called queer explicitly--in fact the source media REFUSES to call this character queer, and that's jame gumb ("buffalo bill") from silence of the lambs. despite the insistence that he's not a "real" transgender person, you can still TELL what they're going for. like. come on. we are not fucking stupid. the Implication is there and it's Bad

word of god isn't all bad which is why I put lilith clawthorne in the graph because despite the owl house never outright calling her aromantic asexual she's still good aroace rep (speaking as an aromantic greysexual person). the show was clearly written with it in mind, it fits her character, and even if it wasn't intended at first (which I believe it was) she's confirmed aroace and that's ok confirming it outside the show for me, because it's a lot more natural to SHOW a character being possibly queer and you don't always have to have a character stop and look at the camera and go "I am this". raine whispers is also a good example because they're clearly nonbinary even if not outright said, but I wanted to include lilith as a good example of when word of god can be used right, to just confirm what was apparent but couldn't be naturally stated within the source media

ford pines is interesting and what got me thinking about this. like normally I would not include him because even though he's queercoded as hell in the OG show he was not intended to be. but after the book of bill he most definitely is. and just to be clear no this is not my billford propaganda this is not me calling it the best ship ever before anyone gets their suspenders twist-tied, but ford clearly does have a deliberate implied narrative of being a possibly queer man who reaches acceptance by letting his family in and be accepted for his oddities not just as a person but also within his life choices and mistakes and growing from abuse in an atypical relationship he worried would cast him out if he was honest about it. it's a very new implication, but it's DEFINITELY deliberate and leaned into now. I love it a lot actually. and alex hirsch isn't gonna outright state ford's sexuality and leave it up to the viewer but I kinda like it that way. like confirmed rep is good, but I feel like it's also good to have rep that is also apparent without being outright stated. hence this spectrum. it's just overall well done and I like it. and I made this graph cause I found it funny that he's a better example of queer rep while implied meanwhile there is far worse confirmed rep.

thank you for coming to my ted talk

thinking about like making characters queer after their primary source media has ended. axis that's like "good representation/bad representation" and "outright canonically confirmed outside the main source media" whether that's word of god or just extra supplementary stuff and "not actually stated as canon but heavily implied"

what I'm saying is dumbledor is in the outright confirmed/bad quadrant and ford pines is in the heavily implied/good quadrant

if anyone wants to give other examples to fill the bad/implied and good/confirmed quadrants give me some. I was thinking of lilith clawthorne for good/confirmed cause she's confirmed aroace outside of the show and pretty good rep but I can't think of bad/implied so help me out y'all

[woos-lil-oreo]

Gunshot

Word Count: approximately 3.0k words

Pairing: Park Seong Hwa x Female!Reader

Warnings: THIS FIC IS NSFW!!!!! Themes of gunplay (ofc), cocky and soft dom!Seonghwa (if you squint hard enough), slight choking, swearing/cursing, sexual harassment, an aggressive best friend presence (nothing toxic, she's just loud for the most part), sorta/kinda implied Mafia!AU, fingering (female receiving), mentions of saliva, maybe two bad pick-up lines, Russian Roulette, slight mention of blood, Club!AU, slight alcohol consumption (it's a club)

Author's Note: This is my first fanfic. This was written out of pure simp. I don't plan on writing more but if I do, enjoy! Let me know if there is any warning that I missed. This is a work of fiction.

Intro and Masterlist ✨

~~~~

“Club Aurora. One of the hottest clubs around. The lines are always so long because everyone’s trying to get in. They own four clubs: Wonderland, Aurora, Mist, and Desire. I don’t understand what pulls them towards this club…

Maybe it’s because Yeosang is territorial of his girls. Perhaps it’s because Jongho flexes his strength, and they just flock to him like ants to a sugar hill.” You begin to ponder, but it has to take place later. Tonight is a big night because the bosses are here.

They just stride right past Jongho, who is decked out in a black velvet three-piece suit with black spit-shined oxfords on his feet with a light silver chain on his neck and a matching Cuban link on his wrist.

You noticed Hongjoong first because of the damn fur he loves to wear. Along with that, he is wearing a white dress shirt with black jeans and combat boots. This was pretty simple for the man, compared to other nights he has come.

Next to him… We got Seonghwa. Mr. Park himself in all of his glory. Seonghwa chose to wear a simple black suit with a velvet embossed tie paired with black platform Doc Martens. His hair was dyed a beautiful dirty blonde with highlights, and it sat over his left eye, slightly covering it.

Ahhhh yes, your favorite loudmouth, Kim Jae-Hee, also known as the Top Bitch™, and your best friend. Glitter, Cherry, other co-workers, and you turn to walk over to the 5’5”, now 5’11” with her favorite clear pleaser heels and dressed in a bedazzled two-piece with a couple $100 bills hanging off the strings, who is impatiently tapping the pump of the heel on the hardwood floor by the other side of the club by the stage.

They went over to the big black leather couch that sits in the middle of the stage. That chair has the best view that money can buy in Club Aurora.

As you prepare to go to their tables as you always do because they intimidate the other girls, you hear, “Okay bitches. Get your asses over here! Quick pep meeting, hoes!”

“Okay, as Y/N already mentioned, the bosses are here tonight. And as much as I would like to be bent over this stage by the Big Boss, or should I say, Little Boss tonight, Yeosang said that if we are on our best behavior tonight, we get to use the Black card to plan next week’s set. I don’t know about y’all, but Mama needs a couple new pairs of heels. We got this!” she said.

“Ummm… sweetie, didn’t you just get a new pair two days ago?” Cherry asked. “Yeah, but who could refuse a beautiful pair of pretty pumps that are free?” Ahhhh, classic Jae-Hee.

After her oh-so-encouraging pep talk, you went to go attend to your duties. As a crowd favorite because of your fantastic customer service and curves that you were a little insecure about, you bring in big dollars for the club.

This is also why you’re Yeosang’s favorite bottle girl.

You went to go attend to the bosses with an order notepad in hand and an artificial pep in your step.

“Good evening, gentleman. Welcome back to Club Aurora! Let’s start with getting something to drink tonight.” You say in a remarkably professional yet sensual tone.

“Ah Y/N. Such a refreshing face to see.” Hongjoong said. “It’s always refreshing when the bosses come in.” Refreshing, my ass. Yeosang turns to a military general to make sure y’all act right. Right, meaning that you won’t get promoted.

“How about a bottle of you?” Seonghwa boldly says. “Sorry, boss, I’m not on the menu. What about something top-shelf? Like some Don Julio. I’ll get that for you. I’ll be right back.” You turn around to take their order to the bar.

The clubs they own operate in a system of skill. Wonderland is where they bring the newbies in to show them the ropes.

Aurora is the tamer of the intermediate level; you can just get a drink here, and it’s a nice place for a Bachelor/Bachelorette Party.

Mist, on the other hand, is the more… risqué of the intermediate level. That club is more catered to those who want to find a person to take you downtown to Pound Town. If you know, you know.

Desire is Mist on steroids. Anything can happen in Club Desire. You can’t even walk into Desire; you have to know people to get in. The promotion process is pretty easy to get through, but it takes a certain amount of seasoning to get there. But nor here nor there…

“Seonghwa, I need you to-” Hongjoong tried to say, but Seonghwa was already charging like a bull seeing red in your direction.

“Really, Hwa? Do you have to try to get each bottle girl to try to work at Desire?” Hongjoong asked. “Well, I’m sorry, I like what I like. And at least I’m not like Woo. He would have brought out the works to get her back to Wonderland. Wait a minute…” Seonghwa looks over Hongjoong’s shoulder.

“What the hell is that?” Hongjoong turned around to see what had Seonghwa blowing steam out of his ears. He quickly whips his head back to Seonghwa.

“Can I get a bottle of Don Julio and a bowl of peanuts for Table 8?” You asked the bartender behind the bar.

“Well, well, well… Look what the storm rolled in.” You hear from about 10 feet from your left.

“What do you want, Carl?”

“Just wanted to see the owner’s favorite bottle girl.” A hand moved from his side to the small of your back. “Carlisle, get off of me.”

“Or what?”

By the time Seonghwa was in arm’s reach of you, he had witnessed Carlisle rub and squeeze his long, rugged fingers across the swell of your ass with you pushing away from him, clearly out of disgust.

Carlisle is one of Yeosang and Jongho’s most loyal employees. Carlisle is not a bad-looking dude; a tall 6’2” male with curly light brown hair with a physique that has women tripping over themselves to get his attention. He puts the club before everything else, and sometimes it’s a bit concerning like doesn’t this man have a life?

Everyone hates Carl mainly because he has an issue with not knowing what personal space is. With him being at the club all the time and Yeosang and Jongho having to sometimes club hop with Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and the rest of the kids, he’s in charge from time to time. Yeosang is here tonight, but he has to make sure the books are correct.

The club is more packed than usual, so Jongho’s helping out security, making Carl the floor manager for tonight.

“Carlisle, nice to meet you,” Seonghwa says with an undertone of malice. “Aye man, I don’t know- Oh Mr. Park, is it? Welcome to Club Aurora. I meant to welcome you i-”

“May I talk to you in private?” Seonghwa requests.

“Anything for the boss. Lead the way.” Seonghwa does so, with Carl tailing behind him with a lot less confidence from a few minutes ago.

You take the bottle to the table where Hongjoong is on the phone. “It’s Wooyoung.” He mouths, and you nod your head understandingly.

With that table handled for the moment, you think you can go and see what’s going to happen to Carlisle. You stop at the bar.

“Hey Cherry, you mind waiting Table 8 for me? I need to go get something from the back.”

“Yeah, sure. Be fast. You know how I feel about that table.” You nod and make your way towards the emergency exit and make a right, which leads down a tunnel that looks less spacious than it actually is.

You hear some mumbled arguing from a room on your left. You quietly crack open the door and watch.

“Do you respect yourself?” Seonghwa asks while putting a leather glove on his right hand and circling Carlisle, who is tied to a steel chair with his hands on his thighs.

“Yes, sir.” Seonghwa stops and looks at Carlisle. “Are you sure?” He asked tauntingly.

“I’m sure.” Carlisle shakily says.

“Then why do you think that it is appropriate to touch women who are disgusted with your touch? Have you even properly touched a woman?” He asks with malice.

“Yeah-”

“Really because I don’t believe you. If you did, you would know when a woman wants you to stop.” You see Seonghwa whip a blur of metal from behind his back, which you realize is a revolver-style gun, and point it at Carlisle.

You make a small gasp, which is surprisingly not audible enough for Seonghwa to hear. It wasn’t out of fear, though.

“Lie again. I dare you.” He spins the rotating cylinder.

“I’m not lying, I swear.” and shoots the wall and points the gun back at Carl. Luckily, your scream was hidden behind the bang of the bullet.

You hear Carlisle’s pathetic pleas for Seonghwa not to kill him. He shot the gun, but the chamber was empty. He spun the cylinder again, and the result was the same. Carl was crying to be let go.

Once again, Seonghwa spins the cylinder and points at Carl’s knee. He shoots, and the bullet grazes the top of his kneecap, only taking the top layer of skin.

Seonghwa spins the cylinder one last time, walks around, and points the gun to the back of Carlisle’s head.

You are so close to the door back into the club that you can practically taste it. Then you don’t because you feel a slight tug on your arm. You jump from the cool wall on your back that is exposed.

At this point, Carl is crying like a bitch with big crocodile tears down his cheeks. Seonghwa pulled the trigger, and at the same time, you let out a loud moan. The chamber was empty, and Carlisle was just a snotty mess, but Seonghwa isn’t worried about Carl. He makes eye contact with your dilated eyes by the door and utters two words to the three men who were in the room, “Handle that.”

Two of the men walk to collect Carlisle and take him God knows where. The last one went to Seonghwa to get the gun he used to play Russian Roulette with Carlisle.

Seonghwa power walks to the door, and this is where you thought it was time to leave the chat. You walk as fast as you can in your pleaser heels and without your very tight pencil skirt riding up to show the reason for your arousal why you are sprinting, and without having a nipple fall out with the top, you let Jae-Hee choose for you.

“Baby, where are you going?” Seonghwa is so close to you, you can practically smell the mint in the gum he was chewing earlier and feel the breath from his mouth.

“I have tables to wait for-” you try to say. “Ah-ah-ah,” Seonghwa tsks while he pulls another gun from behind his back and lightly drags it down your cheek. You like how the cool metal feels on your face, and it goes straight down your core.

“Did you see what happened in there?” The gun is sitting on your collarbone.

“No sir-” The barrel is back up your neck.

“You’re lying to me now?” he says, moving the barrel by the corner of your mouth.

“I swear, I didn’t see any-” The barrel is down your throat. You don’t really have a choice other than to suck the barrel.

“Really Y/N? I know my hearing is pretty good, and my sight is damn well impeccable. I’ll tell you what. I am going to say a couple facts I know. If there is any point where I am wrong, stop me. Can you do that for me, babygirl?” You can’t really say yes, so you do a subtle nod.

“You liked what you saw back there. Every time I spun the barrel, you squirmed a bit. Every time the chamber stopped, your hand wandered a little. When I shot the gun, no matter if it had a bullet or not, it felt like a pure electric shock down to your sex.”

You didn’t stop him because every word was right. Every syllable that fell from his soft pink lips you were staring at when your eyes were not closed was correct.

As Seonghwa moved the gun in and out of your mouth, you sucked the barrel of the gun like a Bomb Pop in the middle of July.

You were at such a point of bliss that your spit was starting to pool, and you didn’t care. Seonghwa pulled the gun from your mouth, and a long string of saliva connected you to the gun.

Seonghwa relished in how you looked right now. Pupils dilated from here to hell, saliva down your chin, cheeks flushed a slight shade of red, mascara pooling around the tear ducts of your eyes, your chest heaving to collect some of the air the gun deprived you of.

While you were catching your breath, he put two fingers in your mouth, and you coated them with your spit like it was the rim of a margarita glass getting covered in salt. He pulled them out swiftly and spun you around to face the wall. “Please don’t leave me ha-”

Seonghwa shoved your panties and placed two fingers into your sex, and the moan you let out almost scared San all the way at Club Desire.

He moved a little slower than he liked to give you a minute to adjust, but once your hips started to move to create friction between your core and his hand, all bets were off.

He moved his fingers so fast as if this was going to be the last thing he would do. The little whimpers you let out just gave him encouragement to go faster. He did as if that was even possible at this point.

You were on a fast but steady rise to a climax. You started to move your hand to your clit to give that little push to get that orgasm you were practically tasting. When he realized what you were doing, Seonghwa dropped the gun and pushed your hand away and said, “What are you doing, princess? You’re doing so good. Don’t ruin it. Hold out for me.”

You proceeded to place your hands on your wall to give yourself any type of leverage. You could feel your snatch just pulsing to release. Your orgasm is right there; you can practically touch it.

Once Seonghwa figured you had enough, he removed his hand and spun you around so you could look into his eyes. He put his fingers back in your core and placed his free hand around your neck and squeezed.

When you managed to collect yourself from the best orgasm you’ve experienced, he said, “That would go amazing with the Don Julio you brought to the table,” and left. By the time you realized he was gone, he was already on his way to the table with Hongjoong.

You were seeing stars and touching clouds with how hard your orgasm hit. Seonghwa had to hold you up on the wall because your legs were practically ramen noodles.

You felt your head start your spin, and you felt light. As Seonghwa held you up, his fingers slowed down dramatically but still kept moving to drag out your high.

Once you started to squirm from overstimulation, he pulled his fingers from you. He lightly caressed your cheek for you to open your eyes. When you opened your eyes, he sucked your essence clean from his fingers.

He savored the taste of your honeypot like it was a dessert he would never get the opportunity to try again. With a soft pop, he hummed in delight and kissed you.

As his tongue grazed yours, you moaned at the taste of yourself and him mixing together. He pulled away and rested his forehead against yours.

You left the hall Seonghwa left you in and went to find Cherry, but she found you first. “Y/N, where in the hell have you been? Luckily, Hongjoong wasn’t on any bullshit today. Seonghwa was having a meeting with Carl, and he just got back over there. He asked that you bring a bucket of ice for the table.”

All of what Cherry said just fell on deaf ears because thoughts just proceeded to bounce in your head like, “Why, tonight?” “They just had to stroll up in here like it’s all theirs, right?” Well, they do... but how do I manage to get myself in these situations?”

“Aye Y/N… Y/N. Y/N!” Cherry waved in your face.

“Oh, I’m sorry, what?”

“Table 8 asked for a bucket of ice. And please, for the love of God, don’t leave me with that table again. I love you, but I’m going to start taking tips from you every time it happens.” “It won’t happen again, babes, I promise.” You go to kiss her cheek like always but thought again and gave her a hug instead.

“Hey, lemme get a bucket of ice and a pair of tongs for Table 8.” The bartender gave you the bucket real fast, and you went to the table on slightly wobbly legs. “Here you guys go. Is there anything else I can get you?”

As you finish that, Fireworks blares through the club, and Seonghwa looks at and mouths the lyrics, “Think about that.”

~~~~

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed ✨

[willel]

Ok, English isn’t my native language so I’m not sure how to translate "the crawl" in the context of the show, I know it can mean different things. What was your first thought when you read this title? Thanks!

Oh hello anon. I was just thinking about putting a post together about "The Crawl". So I suppose I'll just put it on your question. Here is the definition

Notice item #4 is very interesting, "To spread by extending stems or tendrils".

For some extra context, here are some synonyms

If "The Crawl" is referencing the Upside Down, then "slither" would certainly fit the bill.

What I wanted to do is go back through the previous season episode titles and figure out what definition moment made them call it that. So let's go!

BELOW THE FOLDDDD

Season 1 Episode 1 : The Vanishing of Will Byers

Need I explain more? The defining moment of the episode happens in the first 10 minutes or less I think. Will is kidnapped into the Upside Down by an unknown monster and it's as though he just vanished.

Season 1 Episode 2 : Weirdo on Maple Street

I believe the episode is named this way because Mike likes on Maple Street and the episode centers around El being very weird in Mike's house.

Season 1 Episode 3 : Holly Jolly

I believe this one has double meanings. "Holly Jolly" is kinda associated with Christmas I think, which makes sense. Joyce covers her entire house in Christmas lights to contact Will. In addition to that, Holly visits the Byers house with her mom and is the first to notice the lights being weird. So it's all centered on the Christmas lights, a significant moment in the series to this day

Season 1 Episode 4 : The Body

This title fits the episode perfectly. It centers entirely around Will's fake body and Hopper confirming the body is indeed fake, meaning Will must be alive and the government is covering it up. Also Joyce literally sees Will on the other side.

Season 1 Episode 5 : The Flea and the Acrobat

This is the episode where the party learns exactly how the Upside Down gate works. Sorta. They learn that a gate must exist and that they can't enter the other side without a gate. I think this episode also implies that El, Will, and the Demogorgon are fleas.

Season 1 Episode 6 : The Monster

Bit of a double meaning. This is where we witness El coming in contact with the Demogorgon (a monster) for the first time. We also learn she blames herself for letting the monster in, thereby labeling herself as a monster (not a monster)

Season 1 Episode 7 : The Bathtub

Gosh. What an amazing episode with an amazing scene. The episode is centered entirely on El getting into a bathtub to finally meet with Will and IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. Very fitting name for the episode.

Season 1 Episode 8 : The Upside Down

Yet again, another fitting name. For the first time we are with the main characters (Joyce and Hopper) as they explore the Upside Down, the same place Will has been trapped in all alone for a week. They find Will in the Upside Down with a tendril in his body, but they somehow manage to revive him in that place.

Season 2 Episode 1 : MADMAX

Unlike season 1, I feel like this title focuses on a pretty small part of the episode, though I guess it is introducing a new character into the mix. It's named this way because Max makes her debut and is immediately crowned queen of gaming. Two party members instantly get a crush on her as well.

Season 2 Episode 2 : Trick or Treat, Freak

I feel like this is similar to S1E2. Will is the "freak" on Halloween. These are the exact words his bullies say to him as they harass him in the street, leading to another episode.

Season 2 Episode 3 : The Pollywog

The pollywog, or tadpole, is Dart. The episode centers almost entirely on him until the ending. Oof.

Season 2 Episode 4 : Will the Wise

In this episode, Will's connection to the Upside Down increases 10x fold, allowing him to somewhat understand what the Mind Flayer is doing and planning, at least abstractly. He creates an entire map of the Mind Flayer's tunnels that the cast will use for the rest of the season.

Season 2 Episode 5 : Dig Dug

Sort of a double meaning. Lucas has the arcade put an "out of order" sign on the Dig Dug machine, Max's favorite game, so that he can tell her everything that happened in season 1. The other side of this is Hopper exploring the tunnels the Mind Flayer has been creating for some time, almost like the HE is Dig Dug

Season 2 Episode 6 : The Spy

Of course, in reference to Will who has been playing a double agent for some time. By the time this episode hits though, the balance has shifted and Will is playing for the enemy team.

Season 2 Episode 7 : The Lost Sister

This episode centers on Kali, El's "sister" from the lab. They all seemed to call each other brother and sister in there. Kali is apparently one of the only ones to escape other than El herself.

Season 2 Episode 8 : The Mind Flayer

The first episode named after a bad guy, other than the Upside Down itself. The Mind Flayer in Stranger Things certainly has a lot of characterstics of the illithid society. Taking over their hosts body, kinda works like a hive mind, one big brain in the center of it all controlling things. So yeah, fitting name,

Season 2 Episode 9 : The Gate

It's called this because of course, Will tells them the only way to stop the Mind Flayer is to close the gate so El does. It ends with a big oomph as El uses two hands for the first time and even lifts off the ground because she uses so much power.

Season 3 Episode 1 : Suzie, Do you Copy?

Much like season 2, I think season 3's title card has little to do with the overall story. All it's referencing is Dustin's girlfriend over the radio. Like yeah it eventually leads to Dustin finding the russians, but eh.

Season 3 Episode 2 : The Mall Rats

I suppose this is in reference to the entire party. All of them are in the mall pretty much at the same time though they don't realize it. It does reference stuff happening in the episode but it's pretty... vague.

Season 3 Episode 3 : The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

Very relevant. El and Max discover something is up with Heather the lifeguard and go looking for her. And boy do they find her.

Season 3 Episode 4 : The Sauna Test

I think this title is more in line with the typical titles from season 1 and 2. The entire episode centers around coming up with a plan to sniff out the Mind Flayer and test out the next potential host. They come up with the sauna test. Fitting

Season 3 Episode 5 : The Flayed

Another title that is very relevant. Turns out it's not just one host, but an entire army. "The Flayed". I think this is mostly in reference to the end of the episode when we see Nancy and Jonathan's ex-bosses are also possessed and become a big goo monster.

Season 3 Episode 6 : E Plurbis whatever

Too lazy to type it out, but it's latin for something something all of us something something together something something. Anyway, the title fits. Like i mentioned before, it's an entire army.

Season 3 Episode 7 : The Bite

This title is more important in hind sight, but is still important now. El gets bitten by the Mind Flesher and it's gruesome. They spend much of the episode trying to fix it and at the end, she collapses in pain as they all realize it left something in her leg

Season 3 Episode 8 : The Battle of Starcourt

Not nearly as cool as "The Upside Down" or "The Gate", but it works I guess. There's a huge fireworks battle right there in the mall. There's also a bit of a mental battle at the very end of it. There's also a battle miles below as Joyce, Hopper, and Murray try to close the gate again.

Season 4 Episode 1 : The Hellfire Club

Following the pattern of season 2 and 3, I feel like in the grand scheme of things, the Hellfire Club itself wasn't that important to the plot. But like "Madmax", the name is tied to Eddie who was our newbie this season and unwillingly involved in much of it. I suppose other names would have been too on the nose. "The Dream" "The Nightmare" "The Visions", not very cool

Season 4 Episode 2 : Vecna's Curse

Very relevant name, we have the Hawkins crew being the first to notice something is wrong this season (usually it's Will or El or both. This time it was neither) They slap the name Vecna on Henry Creel. Recency bias since they just played his campaign.

Season 4 Episode 3 : The Monster and the Superhero

This is in reference to El. It's very similar to S1E6. She thinks herself a monster because of all that has transpired. It's in S1E6 that I believe Mike calls her a hero/superhero for the first time so it all stems from there. What was once a wholesome moment and phrase became tarnished in El's mind, at least for a while.

To be clear she thinks she's a monster because she hurt people so violently. Angela humiliated and tormented her, but technically it wasn't violent. So maybe El felt guilty for using violence in return, thus dubbing herself a monster. Plus the situation she was facing started stirring up memories she didn't want to remember of her past.

Season 4 Episode 4 : Dear Billy

A very important scene of the season, Max believing she was going to die trying to confront all her complicated feelings about Billy. This is quickly followed by Vecna poking holes in Max's final letter to him and her nearly being Vecna but is saved by Kate Bush, Lucas, Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Nancy.

Season 4 Episode 5 : The Nina Project

So begins the introduction to El's past and the California crew following they keyword "Nina" to save her. A fitting name for the episode.

Season 4 Episode 6 : The Dive

I dunno, I feel like this title is weak compared to the rest. It's in reference to the Hawkins teens jumping into the lake to find the gate and help Steve. I suppose the vagueness works here but... it's kinda boring to focus on this one thing, the lake itself doesn't seem important. But anyway.

Season 4 Episode 7 : The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

Fitting but on the nose title eh? The first massacre (that we know of) to happen at Hawkins lab thanks to Henry/Vecna. I suppose that massacre encompasses all of El's trauma with that place, like the essence of it all. Being trapped in there with a monster for years before and years after.

Season 4 Episode 8 : Papa

Brenner's send off. I'm glad he's gone and dusted, love the OST that plays when he's dying. Good cover of El's theme. I suppose after being an asshole all this time, getting 1 episode named after him while he's dying isn't too bad.

Season 4 Episode 9 : The Piggyback

And finally we're on the last episode. No one knew what this was talking about before the episode dropped but now it makes sense in hindsight. It's the term El used to help the others understand her plan, using Max to get to Vecna and protect her. A piggyback.

AND SO THAT BRINGS US, TO SEASON 5, "THE CRAWL"

So first of all, who knows if this is the final name of the episode. They literally change them right up to release sometimes. But we're going to assume it is the final title.

Second of all, upon reviewing all the previous 4 seasons, only season 1's title had anything to do with the MAIN main plot.

Season 2 was about Max. "MadMax" being a well known movie series at the time.

Season 3 was about Suzie and Dustin trying to copy her over the radio.

Season 4 was about Eddie the D&D club "Hellfire", which is also a reference to marvel comics.

None of those are directly part of the main plot, they just end up tying into if you know what I mean. Compared to S1E1, the Vanishing of Will Byers... it jump starts the entire show, or at least, the entire reason our main cast is aware of anything weird going on at all.

So... is "The Crawl" actually referencing the main plot? Like tendrils crawling and spreading through Hawkins? Or is it referencing and offshoot of something else that is tangentially related to the main plot?

So I've decided to search for "The Crawl" in reference to the 1980's and here's what I found:

I found a song called "The Crawl" by Johnny Winter released in 1980. Finding the lyrics was... difficult. But needless to say after finding them, I doubt this has any relevance to ST

Found another song called "The Crawl" by Mickey Tucker. It's jazz and ST has no culture so I doubt this is relevant

I found a movie called The Crawling Hand released in 1961. Might not be relevant, but sounds pretty funny. I have no patience to watch it though. Here is the synopsis: An astronaut, coming in for a crash landing, makes odd statements over the radio, including "my hand… makes me do things…. kill…. kill!" Strangely, by then, ground control was under the belief that he was already out of oxygen. Later, a naive young med student, Paul, discovers a disembodied hand near the crash site and takes it home as a grisly souvenir. He is not aware that the hand is possessed by a strange, murderous alien. First, the hand murders Paul's landlady. The police, led by a sheriff played by Alan Hale, begin to suspect Paul, especially as he begins to act more and more strangely as the hand begins to have more and more influence over him. The fictional federal agency responsible for space flight is called to the small town because fingerprints found at the first crime scene match the missing, dead astronaut. Paul, now under control of the arm, attacks other people around the town, including his own beloved girlfriend. Horrified at what he's been doing, Paul attempts to take the arm to the beach to destroy it, but he's confronted by the authorities. The arm, now wounded, is held down by some cats who try to eat it. Authorities collect the arm, and Paul, recovering in the hospital, appears to be forgiven. The orderlies charged with transporting the captured arm to the airport for transport to the federal agency open the box containing the arm, and the film ends with a quick zoom to the inside of the box and the sound of a scream as the words "the end" appear on black.

Well, needless to say, that's really all I can get from that. So we can safely say I think that "The Crawl" is probably not a pop culture reference like season 2 or season 4.

I think it will be more like season 3's opening where the main cast is doing some innocuous thing, like crawling somewhere specific, thereby naming the episode "The Crawl".

OR, maybe the townspeople and the news/government begin noticing the Upside Down encroaching into the real world, tendrils and all, thus they dub the phenomenon "The Crawl". Kinda like "The Sickness" or "The Disease". Sounds like something you'd hear on the news right?

"It seems 'The Crawl' has expanded 10 inches just from last week. And now to Peter for our evening weather report."

The Duffers and Noah Schnapp have used "spreading" as a keyword in the past so I think "The Crawl" will be related to that.

Or hey, maybe it has a double meaning like they sometimes do. Not only is it referencing the Upside Down spreading, but our main cast will have to crawl somewhere for some reason. Avoiding being spotted, seen or caught, since crawling implies sneaking around and being careful.

[luxshine]

Moon Knight Primer Part 1

Moon Knight (1980) #1 – 4, and the “Official” origin of Moon Knight, Hulk Magazine #12 - #20, Marvel Preview Moon Knight.

Prologue

Ok, so now that Moon Knight was established as a superhero (Rookie one at that, according to Ben Grimm), he had the chance to shine in his OWN series, so it was time to give a more rounded origin than “Merc got a silver suit from the Mob, now wants to do good with it. Also, he kinda sorta has too many identities for just one person”.

See, Marvel had a tiny issue with Marc as he had been written so far: People were comparing him to Batman. And not in a good way, especially after the new artist, Bill Sienkiewicz, had started getting a lot of Neal Adams (Rest in Power)’s influence in how he drew Moon Knight so it was important to distinguish THEIR millionaire night vigilante from DC’s millionaire night vigilante and Dennis O’Neil, who was the editor of Moon Knight, suggested to add some extra supernatural stuff by adding Khonshu to the mythos. Well, sorta.

(Warning, this is going to get image HEAVY)

The first 13 pages gives us a very fast montage of Moon Knight’s origin. We meet Marc first, when he’s still a Merc, under the command of a very terrifying stereotype of a man named Bushman. This establishes one thing that, unfortunately, MANY writers have ignored for what I assume is a bit of a classist issue and a lot of an ableist issue: Marc is NOT a nice person, he is very capable of violence, and he DID murder people who were probably innocent, not just as a soldier (And a CIA Agent, let’s not forget that), but also as a mercenary. In fact, while he does get second thoughts -with his friend Frenchy, who was right along him even back then-  it does sound a lot like that old meme of “Are we the baddies” meme because yes, Marc and Frenchie, if you work for a man who tattooed his face into a skull and exchanged all his teeth for steel fangs? You are probably the bad guys!

Under Bushman’s orders, they go to a town called Selima since there was a new Pharaoh tomb discovered nearby and Bushman wants the gold. There, Marc saves Bushman from getting killed by an old archeologist (Marlene’s father! And Marlene is there too, so we find out when they meet and one very important thing: While Marlene calls Marc Steven, and is in fact Steven’s girlfriend? She KNEW Marc first), and Bushman responds by tearing the poor man’s throat out with his teeth in front of Marc. Which is NOT enough to make Marc quit, by the way. He does let Marlene escape, by claiming HE killed her father, but he still stays at Bushman side until Bushman massacres the rest of the village’s inhabitants.

So yeah, as we established in the prologue? Marc is NOT a good person. He can be, he will grow to be one, but in his first appearances he was not the “good” hero to Jake’s “bad”. (This is not to say that Marc was the “bad” alter. One very important thing about Moon Knight as a system is that there is NO “evil” alter. Each of them is a complex person on their own, with good sides and bad sides. It’s just that we met Marc in his Lowest point in the morality scale. Once again, I fear that the current status quo where Jake is tagged as the most violent of the alters comes from a bit of classism since he is the less educated and refined of the alters and that is a nasty thing to realize, but something that a good writer can undo by, you know, not implying that the violence scale of the alters’ actions is so tied to their apparent class rung of the ladder with Steven, the millionaire, being the less violent, and Jake, the cabbie, the most violent one, but I digress)

Because Marc saved Bushman’s life, Bushman doesn’t kill him right away for his betrayal, but leaves him unconscious in the middle of the desert to die after Marc tries to fight him for killing the villagers.

And here is where Moon Knight gets WEIRD.

He is found by some workers at the Pharaoh Seti tomb (yes, the one Bushman was looking for) and declared DEAD.  Not “almost dead”, but DEAD.  Not, like in the TV series, ready to die out of guilt, alone in the tomb, but dead. Like, about five different people including Marlene, who happened to be there, declare him DEAD.

Until he is not anymore. He wakes up, scares the hell out of Marlene, and immediately asks the ONE question that would pretty much define him as a character forever from then on:

“WHO am I?”

Thing is… we don’t get to see if he has amnesia or what,  as he immediately rebukes the idea that he was dead, by pointing out that “HE” is not dead either, pointing at Khonshu’s statue, and correctly recognizing him as “One of the Gods of the Moon, the Taker of Vengeance, a Figure of Terror”, and then  grabs a robe that was on top of the statue, and declares that He is a “Spectre of the moon” and since he wants vengeance, he goes immediately after Bushman. And when he finds him? He immediately admits that yeah, he is Marc Spector, and he wants revenge and then OBVIOULSY he has no amnesia, and we go back to his original question when he revived.

Or got revived by Khonshu. Did you all notice how the narration of the image DOESN’T say one way or the other if it WAS divine intervention? Because this is going to be something constant in this first Volume of the comic: Khonshu NEVER speaks, not where readers can see it. This is the first hint of the System’s mental health’ issues: that in a world where we know gods to be real, like Thor and company? No one can tell if Khonshu is a real being or if the Moon System just made him up (At FIRST. We will get to see our favorite mummified Pigeon in time). This doesn’t explain why the hell five people were sure that Marc was dead, but hey, comics!

Bushman escapes when Frenchie accidentally startles Marlene, who was following Marc, and, in the weirdest change of mind ever, decides she believes Marc when he says he didn’t kill her father, and she is happy Marc is safe.

And then we meet Steven and Jake again.  Sorta.

See, this is how the comic introduces them:

And here’s where, even if the book doesn’t spell it completely, we start seeing the Alters AS Alters and not just identities on paper: Steven talks about Moon Knight in the third person, same as he talks about Jake -and we see him change clothes from Steven elegant suit to Jake’s more street appropriate clothes AND talks about Jake’s cab as a Jake’s. Not “the cab” as he would if he considered the taxi his -and well, he probably bought it- but  Lockley’s cab.

I mean, just in this page, the same page that introduces the concept to those who didn’t read the original appearances in the 70’s? We see THREE people refer to the System by the different names: Marlene calls them Steven, as she has always done despite knowing Marc, Frenchie calls them Marc -at a point we can believe Steven is fronting given how he acts- and later, we can even SEE the difference between Steven and Jake in how they treat Marlene One LITERAL panel later.

Not only that, we see that everyone, except MAYBE Frenchie, does consider the System three distinct people, no matter if they share a body. In fact, Marlene even hints that Moon Knight himself is a fourth alter.

(Samuels appears again too, and he also treats “Mr.Grant” differently from how he treats “Mr. Lockley”. I Honestly ADORE Samuels and hate that given Steven’s salary in the tv series, he just can’t be there)

Marlene also stops Moon Knight from killing Bushman in revenge -calling him Steven, but again, we have no idea who was fronting under the cowl- and thus, Moon Knight decides not to kill anymore.

Now, in these early issues? There’s not much difference between Marc and Steven, personality wise. Steven doesn’t really like Marc -and we will talk about that in a bit- but he has all the same training, abilities and memories as far as we readers know. The outlier, the alter who we can really identify as different? Is Jake. And NOT -sorry to keep hammering on this- because of his violent tendencies, but because of his empathy.

Also, just because the System wants to mess with us and Marlene? Steven starts talking about Moon Knight as if he were a FOURTH Alter, different from him, Jake and Marc (by the way, for all those who insist on blaming Jake for all the bad stuff? Check this panel here where Steven points out that the most violent, the most used to see death? Is MARC)

This is also when we get confirmed that somehow (probably very illegally) they brought the Khonshu statue from Egypt. And that Marlene doesn’t like Khonshu very much even if, again, at this point Khonshu is a non-entity.

Another point where we see Jake as the most empathic one is when, in the second issue, he brings both Crawley and Gena to Grant mansion -granted, after Gena’s kids followed him there- and, rather than give excuses as to why a millionaire like Grant would “slum” it like a cabbie, promptly tells them all about Moon Knight, AND offers them a job as part of the team. Gena doesn’t accept but allows her kids to work for him (And one of them would later become the back up pilot to Frenchie) but Crawley is eager to accept the extra money that would help him keep his head over the water a little bit. We also find out that previous to this, Jake would commonly leave HIS breakfast at Gena paid for Crawley, and the few times we see him working as a cabbie? He is incredibly polite and people call him “The last nice cab driver in New York”. And you want me to believe that he’s the “bad” one?!

Ahem.

Also, again, although these early issues do not broach the subject directly, there are constant mentions in the narration and in dialogue that the relationship between Steven and Jake is not just merely a change of names. Jake talks about Steven in third person, the narration uses not only “changes into” but also “reverts to” when changing perspectives, and, as Steven says himself “Each personality (alter) has a place”.

No one in the comic mentions anything about this except for two people: Samuels, who feels a bit frazzled about how to work around Mr. Grant and Mr. Lockley, and Marlene, who is the one who makes comments about Steven’s mental health (Even at one point “lovingly” calling him schyzo). Later, Nedda, the cook at Grant Mansion will join the group worried about Moon Knight’s mental health, but in general, everyone else who KNOWS about it just… goes with it.

Around issue 4 of Moon Knight is where we can find the actual Hulk Magazine issues that reverted the System to “Bored millionaire Ex Merc who moonlights (ha!) as a vigilante”, and would be completely  unremarkable except they also introduce two more villains that will be important later: Lupine -another werewolf, only that this one commits suicide by Moon Knight- and The Hatchet Man, a serial killer who kills nurses and also happens to be Randall Spector.

Yep. Ro-ro here was NOT a nice sweet little boy who drowned, but a merciless mercenary who worked WITH Marc until he decided to betray his brother for money, kill Marc’s then girlfriend Lisa and later, after recovering from the injuries he sustained when Marc chased him, went insane and became a serial killer, dying in a final confrontation with Marc (Well “dying” because Marvel, but you get the gist)

Back then, Moon Knight mostly faced normal threats. While the subject of him having super strength would come and go depending on the writer (Always under the excuse “he might have been bitten by a werewolf”), despite being named “The Macabre Moon Knight” and while I think I’ve shown that without actually SAYING that the Moon System is, well, a System, or calling every one of the guys an Alter, the writers actually treated them as one.

Still, at the time, the guys had it mostly under control. As I said, Steven fronted pretty much 70% of the time, Jake took care of the rest and Marc… well, we can assume Marc fronted in the confrontation with Randall, and half the time he was Moon Knight (At least, he didn’t complain when Frenchie called him Marc), and no one who didn’t live with him really knew how different Steven and Jake really were (Again, Marc, unfortunately, had no personality besides “Past Merc who did very, very, very bad things) so absolutely no one called him “Crazy”. So when did that change?

Well, join me in for part 2 as soon as I finish re-reading the next issues!

[charrators]

i have some Thoughts on webby being referred to as a “queen in white”

queen is a higher title than lord, implying that she’s older than her brothers, even though the web i spin for you (which seemed to be about her being betrayed by a mentor figure, presumably older than her) very heavily features the five dolls, implying she’s singing about them.

however. back around s1, i had a theory that the character that betrayed webby was a father of some sort (mainly based on the line “daddy’s gonna get you” from the theme song). while, notably, there is an episode called daddy, fatherhood also seems to be a general theme in the hatchetfield series. the metzger boys all refer to bob as “daddy”, and we have two major characters, bill and tom, who are both fathers on questionable terms with their children.

and in killer track, the black book is stated to contain an image of a family tree of eldritch monsters. wouldn’t be much of a tree if there were just the six siblings, would it?

i sorta gave up on that theory a while ago, but i think it may still have some ground here.

as for why webby is referred to as a queen: maybe their parents died, leaving her as the technical ruler of the black and white, but her brothers outnumbered her and they all sided with wiggly. or maybe their parents are still alive, but the black and white is divided into two and webby is the first (or maybe only) inhabitant of the latter (remember, it’s referred to as the black and white, but wiggly’s domain is a pitch black void) (then again, her being the ruler of the other half of this void by process of elimination could still mean she’s younger). or maybe the brothers lang just thought it sounded cool and none of this means anything idk

[lorablackmane]

Hey about your child of miligula au

I was wondering how did the agents get Raz away from gristol.

And what is his relationship like with the agents and his sister afterwards.

The only reason they caught Raz is because Gristol's an idiot. He sent his body to HQ before Raz could take the Luctopus key from his body, so once Raz recognized the Psychonauts were at the casino he naturally had to get rid of the evidence; but that's hard to do when you don't know how many agents have infiltrated the building. And he can't just leave it there because the Psychonauts could use it in their search. This Raz doesn't have the acrobatic skills canon Raz does - he's got some, but most are rusty due to most of his time being devoted to what Gristol wants, helping plan, and practicing his psychic powers so Maligula will even give him a chance (as Gristol believes Maligula wouldn't give someone weak any attention), so he can't just escape from the balcony with it.

So naturally he decides the best course of action burn the evidence (which he totally blames on the Psychonauts as they pass by the main door. Hollis is not happy bout that bill).

His relationship with the Psychonauts is one filled with quiet vitriol during most of the game. His position is constantly changing as the agents pass him off to one another because he's messing with their work in a way they can't prove is him; so they can't punish him - he's clearly trained in some capacity, and it's well known Nick wasn't a psychic so someone had to teach him right? Which means there's still a mole running around, and if that's the case you don't want to punish a 10 y/o for something he didn't do. They won't get any info that way, so instead they try to convince him to talk to them (which... doesn't work at all).

They also can't just go into his mind to find anything out either, as not only is he 10; but he quietly implies that even if they tried he's been prepared for that sort of thing - turning around and lifting his hat just enough to reveal... a stapled scar on the back of his skull. they already knew about it, since Loboto was only told not to talk about his Boss - no one said anything about the child - but he implies that Loboto's augmentations aren't the only ones he has (this is a bluff though. Raz has only had... whatever Loboto did to him to make it hard; but probably not impossible to mess with his mind. The same one Crispin has that causes this to appear in the 1st game)

And if they even try to enter they'll be trapped in there with him, and they wouldn't want that while a mole is running around, would they?

So they hit an impasse, which is exactly what Raz intended. He isn't stronger then these adults, he knows this, so all he can do is stall them until his boss' plan is complete.

I'll probably explore what unique dialogue and what happens in each place he goes to, but in order he goes to: Sasha -> Milla -> Hollis.

After the game though he's really eaten up inside about how badly he messed up, being quiet for a different reason now, and is willing to do anything to gain these people's trust now that he's sorta lost. Milla immediately has to fight Otto and Sasha off bc they're all too willing to forgive him if y'know... he just nicely steps over here - yes next to the hole in the brain tumbler-

Now for Frazie... he honestly doesn't recognize her at first. It's been 5 years now, and his memories of before Gristol are... hazy at best, non-existent at worst. Once he does though he does show her emotions, gently trying to convince her to escape as like I said in the 1st clairvoyance post he thinks the Psychonauts are villains since he's been living with Gristol and only hearing propaganda for 5 years. He thinks they've tricked her and the other interns, and tries to get them to listen to him and escape with him, convinced if they don't they'll become victims of the Psychonauts too. Most of the interns just sorta ignore him, but Norma tries to act like she's interested until he says something she can't help but sarcastically respond to and he zips up.

After the game... the interns are mixed. Frazie is just happy to have him back, but understands that unlike Nona, who has trauma too but has tools and people to help with hers, Raz has years of trauma he has to figure out right now but doesn't have those safety nets currently. It'll take him awhile to unlearn the things Gristol instilled within him, and to trust others in a way that isn't just following them and listening to their orders, but she's here to help when he's ready for her. Sam is completely neutral, as is Lizzie, while Gisu and Adam try to get the kid to sorta come out of his shell. Morris sometimes lets him be part of his pirate radio, as he's good at making songs that worm their way into people's heads, but not too often because he's pretty sure if they play the songs Raz comes up with too often people will go nuts. Norma doesn't trust him, but doesn't antagonize him either. It's clear the agents are trying to rehabilitate the kid, and she doesn't want to get in trouble by messing that up by trying to haze him or something.

[eldragon-x]

okayy I'm gonna get into some other hcs I have regarding facets of Ford's identity because she's that tweet thats like "(looking at character) well you may not be [x] but you have a sense of alienation and thats close enough" to me and I heart projection. sorry this became a huge tangent.

Also I'm putting this explanation alongside the context of me basically genderbending Bill for funsies bc both of them are character archetypes that are improved by making them women to me. Also I enjoy thinking about them as foils and this is sorta relevant here.

Anyway in my beautiful mind Ford's aroace, see her talking about wanting to impress girls in J3 yet both the journal and the Book of Bill very much indicate that she Does Not give a fuck about romance and finds it utterly baffling. Also see how in TBoB Bill jokes abt her being "plansexual" because she only seems to be attracted to formulas and such which I will claim for my objectum Ford hc.

But I don't think she thinks about most of All That prior to living in Gravity Falls. Like At Most, Ford does have a line in J3 about being attracted to the strange and implying in TBoB that she's attracted to dangerous things, so I can picture pre-GF she might've had a thing for supernatural creatures but once she was actually In The Town, Surrounded By Paranormal Beings, the attraction just fell off. due to being aroace. And she didn't rlly worry about that part anymore atp because she was living alone in a paranormal town in the woods doing her research.

Then Ford's in her whole situation with Bill and of course there's a lot of layers to that and her admiration for Bill. But for the sake of This post I'm gonna say one of the layers is that she wants to "be like her". Which is the species + gender envy speaking. And maybe there's smth here with Ford being objectum and Bill's abstract appearance, but I think if there was attraction between them it was more from Bill's side while Ford was dealing with a cocktail of issues + not fully understanding aspects of her identity + Bill manipulating her.

I think during paranoia + portal era she mostly just Did Not Think About Anything She Had Going On due to the everything. And that kiiinda carried over into the show's canon era but being not actively in mortal danger or a suicide mission Does allow her to think a bit about how she feels about herself. Because she did spent 30 years in the multiverse which is a lot more diverse than just the earth not to mention societal norms. So she kinda knows she has Something going on regarding how she sees herself as a person.

So TBoB already dealt with the idea of like, giving Ford closure re: Bill and setting in stone that she's not an aspect of the Pines family's life anymore, putting her behind them and all that. And it's not that Ford Didn't have complex feelings about allegedly being a human man before meeting Bill, but there is a degree of worry because Ford used to look up to her and Bill did have an impact on her life. But I think she can come to terms w that her identity can exist seperately from Bill and she can just allow herself to be happy without suppressing aspects of herself just because Bill might've prompted her to think about them.

I also think maybe Ford wouldn't neccessarily be otherkin? Like maybe she thinks she'd want to be another species but once she comes to terms w being a woman it'd generally help her unpack things and alterhuman would be a more appropriate descriptor. Either way she just has a weird relationship with her humanity. Also Mabel would be ecstatic about finding out that Ford is her great aunt lol

gary i need to talk abt my transfem ford headcanons

[jimmygibbsjrrr]

I have a lot of thoughts about the Slaters

namely, I've been wonderin why the Fairfield Survivors got thrown off the boat in Death Toll

in this panel of The Sacrifice comic, Francis confirms the fates of three of the rescue vehicles:

Image ID:

A panel from The Sacrifice: Part 1. Francis is sat in the rescue vehicle from Blood Harvest, speaking to Louis. His dialogue is as follows:

"Louis, I hate to be the one to break this to ya, but we been heading to the safe zone four times now. Helicopter: crashed. Plane: crashed. Boat: kicked us out and left us to die."

/end ID

the chopper from No Mercy was confirmed crashed in Crash Course, and as for the plane from Dead Air, it was pretty easy to guess (and would have been confirmed in the cut campaign Dam It).

but the part about the boat? that's the Slaters' boat from Death Toll. this is the first time we learn this information.

so...why? what happened?

(more under the cut, ended up writing wayyyy more than I expected over these past few days and don't wanna clog people's dashes lol)

so. let's take a quick dive into the last chapter of Death Toll, to see what we can discern about the Slaters from their dialogue.

the rescue vehicle in Death Toll is a civilian boat, Saint Lidia II, owned by John and Amanda Slater, a married couple. Amanda is never heard in-game, but John's reactions to her can be heard over the radio.

the Slaters are explicitly looking for "anyone out there with firearms". John later adds that "once you get on this boat? Your job is keeping our asses alive". it appears that their motivation for saving the Survivors is selfish from the get-go.

this is undoubtedly true in Amanda's case, however, some of John's lines betray a more selfless attitude. he will berate Amanda for not "think[ing] about the little guy". he will ask, "So what, then? We leave 'em to die? I can't do that, Amanda." whilst Amanda is thinking purely of their own survival, John still feels compassionate towards his fellow survivors. despite this, he says that "I don't want our first act of kindness to be our last", acknowledging the conflict between his compassion and his self-preservation.

so. these are the Survivor's saviours in Death Toll. a conflicted married couple looking for bodyguards, offering to take the Survivors upriver to a military safe zone in exchange for protection.

as for why they get thrown off the boat...well, the easiest explanation would be Amanda.

but, stay with me here, because I think it's a little more complicated than that.

this boat? fulla tension. there's the obvious tension between the Slaters, who we've established seem to fight and disagree regularly. then there's the inevitable tension between them and the Survivors. I reckon Louis, with his generally positive and friendly attitude, wouldn't have much of a problem with them, might even attempt some friendly conversation or something. however, he's about the only one.

the comic fully establishes Bill as caring about nobody except the Fairfield Survivors - the most obvious evidence of this being the words he lives and dies by, "we look after our own". he isn't particularly interested in other people, unless they can help the group out. and he'd likely recognise the unstable and conditional nature of their rescue. while I'm sure he'd try and keep the peace, in any reasonable disagreement or fight Bill's likely to take his friends' side, and if anyone's getting thrown off the boat Bill is going with them. this goes for the whole group, to be honest; I don't think they'd want to split up at this point.

Francis hates boats, hates water, and can't swim, so (and I'm getting a little speculate-y here) would probably be in an even sourer mood than usual on the journey. being as abrasive as he is, plus this additional stress, it's fully possible he could piss off the Slaters enough to get himself (or all of them) thrown off the boat.

as for Zoey? well, I don't imagine a married couple who constantly argues is gonna sit well with her, considering her backstory. similarly to Francis, the situation they're in would make her far more stressed, making it more likely for her to lash out.

Amanda didn't want to save the Survivors in the first place, so while I think that John wouldn't throw them off the boat without reason, I reckon she could persuade him to throw them off if they 'caused trouble' - and they would get into an argument with her far easier than they would with John.

in short: yeah, I can see them getting thrown off the boat by the Slaters after some huge fight or disagreement. I think that's a reasonable interpretation of canon, and definitely an interesting concept.

...however, I do wonder if this tension would really be enough to destabilise their mutual need, after everything they went through to come together.

which is why I'm going to bring up The Last Stand!

I gotta quickly address something before this segment: yeah, I'm totally aware this campaign isn't canon. this evidence works with the fact that it exists in an 'alternate timeline'. also, I am missing a few citations for this section - if anyone can provide them I'd really appreciate it, but just a disclaimer that I currently can't prove some of the things the wiki claims members of the Last Stand Community Update Team have said. here and here are the wiki pages where I got this information. in short - the above explanation is simpler and more canon compliant, the conclusion I draw at the end of this post is backed by shakier evidence but I believe is more interesting, and you can make of all that what you will.

allegedly, members of the Last Stand Community Update Team confirmed a strongly-suspected fan theory about The Last Stand: that it branches off from Death Toll in some way, in a non-canon alternative timeline. as well as this, they allegedly confirmed that in this alternative timeline, the Survivors still end up in Newburg for Dead Air. even without the confirmation, this remains a solid fan theory, due to the constant references to Riverside and re-use of many of Death Toll's assets.

who rescues the Survivors in The Last Stand? John Slater. no Amanda - just John. despite her lack of voice actress, if she was still present John would give some indication of this at some point. it can be speculated that whatever happened to her contributed to the lack of rescue at the boathouse that forced the Survivors to take an alternative route. either way, he ends up at the lighthouse when the Survivors call for rescue, alone, and picks them up.

and then later...throws them off the boat. into Newburg.

what reason would John have to do that? without Amanda, surely he wouldn't have that push, as he wanted to rescue the Survivors for multiple reasons in the first place. without his constant arguments with Amanda, Zoey wouldn't be nearly as stressed. and between the three of them I'm sure the other Fairfield Survivors would stop Francis from pissing John off enough to get them thrown off the boat. in short, less Amanda = less tension, and no reason for the Survivors getting chucked off the boat.

...right?

I'd like to remind you that a symptom of the Infection is paranoia.

what if, in both The Last Stand and Death Toll, John and Amanda are infected by the Survivors on the way to the military safe zone? after all, the virus is confirmed to occasionally be airborne, and I doubt two civilians have completely effective, sustained protection against that. likely the only reason they hadn't already been Infected is because they got out on the water early on in the pandemic, and hadn't come into contact with anyone else since. it's unlikely that one of them is immune, and even more unlikely that they're both immune (especially considering those with XX chromosomes may be genetically less likely to be carriers). wouldn't Francis have mentioned it if their rescuers turned or were obviously Infected? yes, but it's possible that the airborne strain works slower as well, meaning that the Survivors are thrown off of the boat after the symptoms kick in but before the Slaters fully turn. even Church Guy had at least an hour from being Infected to turning, and he was bitten. Newburg isn't too far from where the Survivors are rescued in Death Toll anyway (the burning city in the background of the finale is Newburg), so the Survivors clearly didn't last long on the boat anyway. as a result, the Survivors wouldn't realise it was the Infection intensifying the Slaters' paranoia - they'd just think the Slaters were being dicks. Francis also explicitly mentions that they were "left to die", implying negativity or even hostility from the Slaters as the Survivors were being thrown off.

so yeah. that's why I think they got thrown off of the boat in Death Toll - a combination of the intense tension between the two parties, and the Slaters falling victim to Infection-induced paranoia. but an explanation minus the Infection is equally as plausible. it all depends on what you find most interesting, I suppose, and both feel like they fit pretty well into the world.

lord this is a long chunk o text. I know most fandoms prefer art and fanfic over this sorta thing, so please let me know in replies or something if you're interested in more stuff like this. also if any of this makes sense because I like to ramble.

oh and if you'd like to use any of my interpretations in fanworks like art or fic, I'd love to see it :)

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales: Terror of the Terra-Firmians!  (Lena Retrospective) (Commission by WeirdKev27): Launchpad Looses his Last Brain Cell and I Loose My Patience

Welcome back Weblena Warriors to the second part of my look at everyone’s favorite Emo Teen Shadow Lesbian Duck... and probably the only one but hey, semantics, Shadow Into Light, which was made possible by viewers like you, the ultra humanite and a commission from WeirdKev27. Picking up where we left off, we have our first episode that has a different intended order than airing order. 

As most of you probably remember, but some of you who joined later might not be aware of the broadcast order for the first half of season one is, in the academic sense, pretty fucked. It’s not Darkwing Duck’s entirely fucked by a web of badger spiders and a queen snake on top to make it some sort of train situation, but by just sorta airing whatever episodes they wanted to, Disney messed with the character balance so Huey got less focus, not that he got a ton of focus this season but still, as well as leaning into the episodes focusing more on the kids with less involvement from the adults which gave the wrong impression about the series. While it IS very focused on the triplets and webby, the show isn’t entirely about them, but as Frank has mentioned a few times, Disney Channel apparently has this WEIRD thing where they assume kids won’t like stories starring the adult characters. 

Yeah I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while. Mostly how it’s so dumb I could swear Pauly Shore was an exec at Disney Channel. And he might be I don’t know what he’s doing these days and i’d like to keep it that way. For starters, the Scooge comics, while barely published in the US these days, are still popular globally and have appealed to kids and adults for generations and are mostly focused on him, with the kids in a supporting role and Ducktales, you know the thing your directly remaking here, was also mostly about him with the triplets supporting, if a bit less than the comics. Most of the Disney Afternoon was about adult characters, with any kids in side roles in the main cast. And it comes off entirely hypocritical of them to say this when the MCU is easily marvel’s biggest cash cow at the moment, and marvel properties have appealed to both kids and adults, like the duck comics, for decades. And if it’s because the marvel cartoons weren’t doing well , I’ll let you in on a little secret: Those didn’t do well because they looked bland and from what I’ve seen of them felt kind of bland, though I haven’t seen enough to fully judge. Kids LIKE adult characters as much as kid characters, and also like teen characters despite not being teens. Focusing on either is valid and while I LIKED Disney’s youth starring shows I also want another X-Men cartoon before I turn 50, and I bet kids would like that too, with the last one only failing because you bailed on it because you were throwing a hissy fit over fox having the movie rights, and do not get me started on that. Point is this argument is horse shit and should stay in the stables. 

So yeah I do think this episode came too soon and it’s placement effected it at the time and as such it dosen’t have the best rep with the fandom aside from the Lena bits and that includes me. The fact it was very early in the series and the characterizations hadn’t yet sunk in really hurt this episode in places but is it really that bad? Join me under the cut to find out

We open at the movies! Which scrooge apparently hasn’t been too since the 1930′s or seen any on video despite Della existing and being really stubborn. 

A rant for another episode. But the kids just got out of a Mole Monster movie, along with Lena, Beakly and Launchpad. Their reactions are as follows: Lena, Webby and Dewey really enjoyed it, Huey found it unrealistic... says the boy whose uncle fought a dragon made of gold a month or two back but we’ll get to that, and Louie was bored and felt it didn’t have enough of the ultra violence, kids these days it’s not about the gore it’s about the tension. And Beakly.. is just pissed Lena tricked them into seeing this and said it was educational. And the more I think about it the more this sounds like BEAKLYS fault than Lena’s. BEAKLY is the one who likely bought the tickets, who saw it was likely an r or pg-13 and who as we’ve seen HAS A PHONE, and ulnike scrooge probably isn’t so stingy she wouldn’t spring for a smart phone, so she could’ve just googled it, or whatever bird related pun is in this version.. gandered it.. yeah let’s go with that, gandered it, and SEEEN it wasn’t appropriate or walked htem out of the theater and ate the cost if she was that bothered by it. Sitting through a Horror Movie you didn’t research, didn’t pull the kids out of and dind’t bother to even check the poster for or use basic common sense is YOUR fault. And this could’ve worked fine, had Lena talk the kids into begging for it or had launchpad take them and have Beakly find out after, having driven to pick them up as she didn’t trust launchpad to take them home. Instead it makes the former super spy look REALLY stupid and feels really out of character for a SPY to not to do research. And it wasn’t like they decided on this later, Bentina being a spy was part of the character’s backstory from day one and its made clear as early as episode 2 in both airing orders. This is just lazy writing to justify the episode and I expect better from this crew. 

But an argument errupts between Huey and Webby over the Terra-Firmians, a hidden race of rock people living in Duckburg’s discontinued sewer system, allegedlys. So Lena suggest simply going down which gets a disapproving look from Beakly, despite you know this being their bread and butter, and the fact that if she had a problem with Scrooge not being involved.. she could just call him. Exploring fabled rock people is something he’d be into. I mean there’s a low profit margin but it also costs him almost nothing to walk to the theater or have launchpad swing around and pick him up. Just gas which given how much he pays for jet fuel isn’t a big ask. But Beakly soon gets distracted by Launchpad whose convinced the film is real and is attacking the poster a grim sign of things to come as while Beakly annoyed me in this one on rewatch, especially after realizing the above... Launchpad annoyed me both times and for VERY good reason we’ll get into. This provides a distraction and allows the trio to escape. Cue titles. 

After the title sequence, our heroes head deeper underground, there’s too much panic in this town... I mean props to Donald for trying something new but he really needs to rethink his cologne choices. Sex Panther is just.. not a good smell on.. anyone. 

So our heroes journey through the depths of the subway system, and we find out part of why Huey’s so skeptical, as he finds anything that isn’t in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook to not exist, though the cracks in this already show as he’s added anything that does. We’ll get back to this later but as you can tell the basic dynamic for 24 minutes is Webby being a wholehearted True Believer and Huey being a Skeptical Sally. And Lena is just sorta “Eh gives me an excuse for shenanigans” about it. We also get a peak into webby’s mind as we see her notes .. which really just come off as Terra-Firmian fanfiction involving a war of succession between two sides, the terra’s and the firmies, something based on previous media, and also some doodles of a fictional candy called webby-dings and herself as a superhero, both things I want to see. 

But yeah the first third of the episode is pretty simple, just them journeying, the occasional shift in the firmament, and it’s not bad, and there are a few great bits: Huey nerds out about rocks, and finds them way more interesting than a possible rock monster.

Which leads to the best gag of the episode as when Huey tries to pick up a big sample Webby, annoyed at his hyperfixation on the JWG, asks him to ask his book for help.. which he does by reading it and actually manages to pick the large rock up. This is halted though when Lena screams.. though she really just did it to draw them to an abandoned subway car full of glomgold posters for glomgold products because of course a failed subway project has his name plastered over it. You can’t spell glomgold without failure.. the failure is silent. Glomgold is not. 

The fun is interuptted though by a livid Beakly who had realized they were missing in an earlier scene, after telling the Manager that McDuck Industries would pay for the poster.. and then found out Launchpad also destroyed the toilets “They come up thorugh the sewers!”. Launchpad that’s CHUDS, Ninja Turtles and Rats who raised Ninja Turtles like their own sons, mole people dig or use old mineshafts. It’s basic mole science. Also Beakly really shouldn’t sweat it, I just assumed the city has had a runnig bill witht he company for “McDuck Family and Employee Related Accidents, Mayhem and Shenanigans”. I mean he’s had Gyro on his payroll for at least a decade and a half by the series start, Gyro has leveled whole sections of city in an afternoon more than most giant monsters. Of which several have destroyed Duckburg. It got better. 

Point is she’s livid about them sneaking off with Lena pointing out their some sort of adventure family and Beakly.. saying she won’t see them again, or at least implying it hard. I’ll put a pin in this, as the train buckles and a bit of seismic, or rock men, activity means their stuck. So they divide into teams: Beakly will go try and unhook the train car from the busted cars so they can ride out, Launchpad will go try and fix it, and we get this lovely exxchange as a result

Launchpad: Cool never crashed a train before Beakly: Can’t you try driving it without crashing it? Launchpad: Wha? 

His face in that scene is priceless. He takes Dewey along. More on that in a second. Webby, Huey and Louie are told to stay put with Beakly only bringing Lena along because she dosen’t trust her. So since we have three split plots for a second... let’s split up gang, starting with the most aggrivating, middling with what you all came here for and why this is part of the retrsopective, and ending with the plot that directly heads into the final part of the episode. 

Launchpad and Dewey: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Okay starting with the most infamous plot and easily the worst part of this episode, probably the worst plot in any Ducktales 2017 episode. That’s not hyperbole it’s really that bad and really pissed people off, as fans of the original launchpad felt they made him overly stupid. This is where the airing order’s a problem as putting an episode with a subplot where one of your characters is obnoxiously dumb right up front means they assume this is his charcter and not just one poorly written chapter in a very dumb but very loveable characters life, likely because the writers hadn’t figured out how to properly scale his stupidity with comptience. 

So as a result we get a good 3-4 mintutes if not agonizingly more of Launchpad assuming something he saw in a fucking movie film was real. That.. that’s his actual plot. Need I remind you, he’s in his late 20′s early 30′s. He’s not much older than me. While other episodes have him as dim this one claims he CAN’T TELL FACT FROM FICTION. 

There are lines you have to keep with your characters to keep the audience from hating them. They crossed it about 80 times with this plot and make Launchpad into a gibbering dunderhead who can’t do anything right versus a regular dunderhead whose good at one or two things and loveable enough for us to like him and not care about his numerous safey violations and child endagerment charges. Thankfully this is the ONLY episode that gets this bad and they clearly learned from this, but it dosen’t make it any less of a tough sit. 

Dewey spends most of the subplot with a look on his face that just screams that he’s as done with this bullshit as we are, as Launchpad assumes he’s a mole person and brought along a pipe to presumibly bludgeon him, because wanting to cave his best friends skull in over stupidity is a GREAT look> Thankfuly he does not. And when the lights come back on Launchpad.. assumes he’s a monster because of bright light, GAH, and locks him out before they end up outside and the plto resolves itself by Dewey pointing out by Launchpad’s utterly baffling logic that he could be a mole monster, so Launchpad.. assumes he is. 

The subplot’s later buttoned up as he claims “I love being a mole monster”, again diffrent subteranian creature launchpad, she says he’s not and my suffering is thankfully at an end. This plot just sucks, it’s bad, overly stupid and dosen’t work with an adult character. Someone like say Ed from Ed, Edd N Eddy, or someone who belivies in weird conspiracy stuff like Dale Gribble or Stan Pines. with either of them this plot would’ve been fucking great. I could buy it from Dale and it just comes off as his normal paranoid weirdness. With Launchpad it comes off like he seriously needs help because the episode frames it as if he can’t tell ficton from reality, and his splotlight episode later would directly contridct this and make this episode even more aggrivating, as he’s a fan of Darkwing Duck, and KNOWS it’s acted out by an actor, so why wouldn’t he get this? It’s just....

It sucks, it sucks and I thankfully get to move on to a better subplot

Beakly and Lena: What You Are in the Dark

Beakly tells Lena she’ll never see Webby again after this.. then chastises her when she won’t help despite you know having just said she’s going to force their friendship apart, which Lena points out. She then gets mad at Lena making a sarcastic comment at her. Okay she’s lived with Louie for at least a week in airing order and a month or two in actual order. She has to be used to this by now. She’s insolent.. because you show her no respect, blame her for something that while sure she talked you into, you should’ve known better, and top it off by saying you want to keep her from the kids because they have bright futures and come from good familes and asks who rasied her and her face.. well.

Yeah wheras Launchpad and Huey, more on that in a second, were hurt by this being some of their earliest big roles, Bentina wasn’t.. until later when we found out just HOW bad Magica is to Lena and how much she dosen’t care about her other than as a tool to use. At this point we didn’t know just how much Lena was playing webby, how much she was only manipulating her, and even with her heroic act here we didn’t know if she only saw Webby as her way to break free. The next episode makes it clear she dosen’t and genuinely does care, 100%, so in hindsight it makes Bentina come off as ghoulsih for horribly asssuming about a girl she dosen’t know, and even if she did know about Magica wouldn’t know the full story, just like us, and then BERATING her after already saying she’s going to rip her away from Webby, which itself is PRETTY bad as she’s the only friend the girl has and sh’es doing so on... talking them into a horror movie, which as I outlined was more Bentina’s fault than Lena’s, and leading the kids into a dangerous place whicha gain, Lena pointed out is something she lets Scrooge do. And trust me i know that she actually knows Scrooge, and we later find out, as we’ll cover next month, that she isn’t ware HOW dangerous things are with Scrooge. It dosen’t change the fact she knows they do dangerous stuff to a point and that Lena may just be acting out. It also dosen’t change the fact she drove three children, yes including launchpad, down here with her instead of sending them home with Launchpad.. granted that option isn’t the safest but it’s safer than taking her with them thena cting like it’s ALL lena’s fault when three of the children, again including launchpad, are down there because of HER. Not Lena, HER. I’m harder on her because she’s older, wiser and was “raised properly” apparently. Though given the way she treats a random teen off the street she again knows nothing about and dind’t bother to ask... it begs the question. 

IT’s a good question. I could see the classism coming from being raised in 40′s and 50′s britain, judging by the timeline.. but even then she’s seen the world, and while her nature is supscious, the classit bullshit makes no sense after presumibly working with, and later spymastering for, various agents of various backgrounds. How has she not dropped this in decades. Scrooge very clearly dropped the racisim and homophobia of his time, so it still stands  on her for not dropping this. And Lena’s hurt shows under hte mask for the first time, that beneath the snark and secrecy.. is just an abused teenager with nowhere else to go and no way out being bullied by an older woman whose cutting off the only light at the end of the tunnel nto for good reason but out of classist, overprotective mallice.  My issues, which to be fair probably were intentional in the episode but sitll are a bit overblown, aside we do get an absoluttley tremendous moment later as a car falls on top of Beakly.. and Magica, speaking once more urges Lena to leave her, let her die and let their plans progress. And while that iself is.. dumb, what if someone finds her or her corpse later, especially since Scrooge would likely perosnally want to retrive the body to give her a proper burial as she’s his only friend at this point, or the rest of the family questoin the story?, it fits Magica’s lack of foresight we see throughout the season. But Lena... saves her. While she later gives an explination, and a valid one at that, it’s clear from her expressoin, her actoins and how she does it... that this is her. Part of it is defiance, as she glares at Magica before doing it, her own stubborn nature mixed with her hatred of her “aunt”, meaning Magica just made it all too easy for her to do this. But the real reason is clear: It’s the right thing to do. While pissing off her aunt and getting away with it is the cherry on top.. the real reason is that unlike Magica.. Lena is not a killer, not a monster, and not a heartless vacum ofa person. Even if she doesn’t like Beakly, for good reason.. she can’t, she WON’T leave her to die and leave Webby an orphan again. She loves Webby too much to do that to her and while she may deny it.. she’s too good a person to leave someone to die for something so petty. Even if she never sees webby again and the plans ruined. It’s better than the weight of knowing she let someone who wasn’t trying to harm her and whose actions, while terrible, were out of misguided protection of her granddaughter, die like this. She saves her. And as we’ll see it pays off.. but before that. 

Huey, Webby and Louie: Into the Unknown This plot’s a bit shorter, as Webby and Huey continue their argument, with Louie eventually making it clear, and not even hiding it when directly asked by Huey, that he’s playing both sides with a delighted expression on his face as the movie was boring but this, this is interesting. Which it is. But it’s interupted by dings on the roof and while Huey assumes i’ts just a regular rock, it moves while their not lookiung.. and soon red eyed, horrifying beasts look out at them and the kids flee back to the car. This dosen’t pan out as the car starts to shake and is clearly going to collapse.. and while Webby and Louie are prepared to flee, rock monsters or no, Huey, in an utterly heart shattering image.. stays in place, terrified of moving. 

This is where this plot goes from mildly aggrivating, as Huey’s Skeptic shenanigans can get on the nerves.. to BRILLIANT. See at the time this was more annoying because it was assumed the skepticsim would be a part of Huey’s character and we’d get more episodes of him being annoying only to be proven wrong, as he semeingly dosen’t learn his lesson at this point, looging the terrafrimians in the guide book. But on rewatch.. this plot is amazing.  For starters the plot subtly introduced the defening characteristic of Huey’s personality, one that’s become more prounounced in Season 3: His need for Order. He needs things to make sense: He solves stuff because he likes there to be order in the world and something he can understand, he can put in a box in his head. Like a lot of neurotypical people, myself included, he struggles horribly when the clearly defined boxes of his life and things he undestand have wrinkles or complexities he can’t get. I for instnace easily got it when I was introduced to the concept of trans people or being non binary.. they just make sense in hindsight: given how our brains are messya nd complicated it makes sense some people would be born in the wrong ones, and tht with all the science and medicine we have to correct that, should be allowed to transition if they so choose. It makes equal sense that some people just don’t have a gender or are gender fluid, being both or neither. Despite struggling with non binary prounouns due to force of habit.. I get the concept with no real difficulty. But when it comes to accepting I don’t have to apologize for everything and that everyone is not angry or that anger is natural and people sometimes get mad and you can’t and shouldnt’ fix it.. it’s something I STRUGGLE with even knowing it’s not right, because my brain is just wired that way. 

That’s how Huey’s struggle comes off here.. he reveals he’s willing to stay and die.. because he’s SO scared of the unknown, that the idea of dying from something he at least knows what it is versus something he dosen’t.., so paralizyed by his own brain he can’t figure out the obvious.. it takes Webby reaching out to him figuratively and literally, to show him that sometimes you have to face the unknown. The unknown is fucking terrifying.. but it can be good and it’s better than sitting there, scared and unable to move. You have to try, to grow and take that risk that things may not go well to really LIVE. 

So he does.. and they reunite with the rest of the group.. and soon find the terrafirmains.. who as it turns out once we get some light on them... are actually just goofy looking,  brightly colored, each one matching one of the kids, kids themselves, and Huey reaches out and touches one, which by ET logic means their friends now, and the terrafirmians help them get out. And this lesson sticks. While sure Huey catalogues it and it seems it didn’t.. he’s never this skeptical again. This douchey skepticsim was only for one episode, his fear of the uknown replcaed with boundless curosity and from here on he’s CURIOUS about new stuff as long as it’s not trying to kill him. He loves taking in new experinces, maybe not to webby levels but he does actually try them and study them instead of just fearing them. 

Before we wrap things up, obviously we need to talk about the JWG not having entries on a lot of stuff. This would be corrected next season as it returns to being a big book of everything, but dosen’t completely contridct this as Timephoon! shows there’s stillcgaps.. which i’m fine with. While it knowing EVERYTHING was fine for the original series here, with things being slightly more groudned, it’d just be an obvious plothole if Huey didn’t use it every single time they ran into something and that’d get boring. Instead it’s simply that it dosen’t know everything, and really in the comics at times it didn’t and the triplets found out new things. It knew almost everything mind you, but having some gaps for dramatic tnesion is fine with me and Seasons 2 and 3 decided on that instead of just having it being a scouting manual which wa sfor the best. And even by later in the season hit has guides to getting a small buisness loan, so they already course corrected. 

So everything’s wrapped up and while Magica berates Lena for disobeying her.. Beakly interputps, thankfully not seeing magica and admits she was wrong and invites Lena for pancakes, even taking a crack about if their actually pancakes or english muffins with syrup, which sounds like my own living hell, in stride, having clearly grown. And Lena explains to Magica that this was the better approach: now she’s got the in theyw anted, and is above suspcison for now. Still not so much that an obvious act won’t be detected but enough that she dosen’t ahve to work actively around her anymore. Magica scoffs.. and while part of it is probably rage.. part of it is deep down both of them know she did it out of defiance.. and only Lena knows that she did it for the right reasons... she just dosen’t get why. She probably justifies it as playing the long game.. but deep down she knows something’s changing about her.. and she’s not sure if that’s a godo thing or not. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is as you can tell a mixed bag. It’s 2/3 of a good episode, with the Lena plot, my issues aside, being excellent and the Terra-Firmian plot likewise fun, even if Huey can get grating the payoff is worth it, and the jokes are really high quality. It’s just bogged down by that fucking launchpad plot that just crushed my soul in it’s palms every time it came back. I went on at length why i hated that one but boy oh boy was the hate of that subplot warranted and I stand by calling it the worst plot of the series. It is: it’s not funny, it makes no goddamn sense, and it drags down what’s otherwise a pretty solid epsiode.

Next Time on Lena: Jaws the shark, lurking in the dark, in the depths of the bin one day of a lark decides to get rowdy, get real violent takes a vacay out to Duckburg er.. Island.. also Scrooge faces his greatest Nemesis.. a PR Tour to clean up his image after an unfortunate giant Beanstalk Incident. Be there and be hip to be square. 

Next Time on This Blog: I Tackle a DCOM for the first time for another commissioned review as we take a look at racisim, specifically Apartheid and breaking indoctrination, with The Color of Friendship. See you next Rainbow. 

[weasleysprincess]

New Flame chapter 2

A/N: I had writer’s block for a good week or so and worked last weekend. But finally I did it, 6k+ word fic! feels like 12k after editing and prof reading. Hope you enjoy and I’m already writing chapter 3! 

Warnings: Cussing, drinking and implied smut(not Y/n and Bill, it’s coming thou), arguing, a tiny bit of fighting. Hopefully that covers everything, if not I’m sorry I didn’t catch it.  

The first task was going to start on Saturday and just about everyone was pissed at Harry for putting his name in the goblet.  It’s odd, Harry is just 14 and the twins are closer to 17 then Harry is.  Something doesn't sit with me about his situation.  It was getting closer to the end of the day, my prefect duty was tonight.  Sorta worried I’ll run into Cedric tonight, but then again I’m not worried, Charlie wrote me and said Bill was coming too.  

I looked at Hufflepuff’s robe and saw a pin  “CEDRIC DIGGORY, THE TRUE HOGWARTS’ CHAMPION'' She grinned, showing the Slytherin girl.  “That’s great, I love it,”  I looked again. “POTTER STINKS” I rolled my eyes and walked along.   “I don’t give a damn about your father, Malfoy!”, Harry yelled across the courtyard.  “Harry”, I sighed.  I walked out, getting a better look.  Suddenly Malfoy was turned into a white ferret.  “Oh my god”, I snickered along with the crowd. Cedric winked at me.  Harry was sitting with Hermoine at dinner,  “Harry”, I said sitting next to the boy.  “What happened with Malfoy?”, I asked.  Harry rolled his eyes.  “I’m not gonna report you, besides Malfoy an annoying git”, I rubbed his back.  “You answered it'', Harry said, with a huff.  I stood up, “Hey, good luck Saturday. I’m pulling for you”  Harry blushed, “Uhrm, thanks Y/n” George pulled me next to him, “Hi George'', I giggled.   Ron had a Cedric pin, I rolled my eyes. “Molly, would be ashamed”, I thought.  Professor McGongall gave me my instructions for tonight, it was 10 not long before I was off duty.  I made the corner and was face to face with a certain Hufflepuff, “You’re joking”, I sighed.  “Sorry”, Cedric backed up a little.  I moved past him, but grabbed my hand.  “Can we talk? Please just hear me out” I looked at his eyes, the ones who charmed me for years.  “Fine, five minutes and I’m out of here”, I rolled my eyes.  “I know last spring, I fucked up hard. You didn’t deserve any of that, I wish I had just talked to you instead. Y/n, you are a wonderful, amazing girl and I treated you like shit. I’m sorry, truly. The next person who gets you is one lucky person and again I’m sorry for how I treated you and did you in the end”, Cedric had tears in his eyes. 

“Ced, thank you for realizing what you did and I appreciate the honesty. Just promise me, you’ll treat Cho better than you did me. I know you two are a thing, don’t lie.  Oh and I guess good luck this weekend”, I said.  Cedric smiled, “Thanks, she’s pretty cool. I’m thinking about asking her to the ball, you have a date?”  “Uh no, haven’t really been thinking about the ball”, I played with my ring on my finger.  Cedric nodded, “Night, Y/n” “Uh night Cedric”, I swallowed.  I came back into the common room, there was a single lamp on.  “Really? We don’t know how to turn a damn lamp off”, I walked over to turn it off when suddenly, a pair of big hands grabbed my waist, pulling me towards them.  I was fixing to scream until their scent filled my nostrils,  “Bill?”, I asked.  “Hi Princess. Miss me?”, Bill kissed my cheek.  “You have no idea”, I smiled, turning to hug him properly.  

I woke up in Bill’s arms around my waist,  “Mhm, I gotta get up”, I mumbled.  “Stay a bit longer”, Bill whined in the pillow.  I smiled at him. His long ginger hair was sprawled across my pillows, freckled toned chest rose with each breath, the warm heat off his body. “I gotta, Billy. If it makes you feel any better, I have a half day today”, I grinned.  Bill had one eye open and a curious look on his face, “Maybe so. What time?”  “I’m free after lunch”, I finally got loose from his grip.  “Meet me at Hagrid’s hut, don’t wear your uniform. I’m helping Charlie, this afternoon”, Bill laid on his elbows, propped up some.  “Y/n, wake your lazy ass up!”, Fred yelled from the other side. “I’m zipping up my skirt, chill”, I said back.  I walked to my nightstand to grab my wand, Bill grabbed my waist.  “Are you mad? Let me go”, I pushed his chest.  Bill smirked, “Just wanted a few kisses, love”  I kissed him, but knew Fred was standing out there.  “I gotta go now,” Bill pouted. I opened the door, “Finally”, Fred sighed.  The curtain facing the door was pulled, no way he could his brother in my bed.  “Morning Georgie”, I smiled.  “Morning, what’s got you in such a good mood?”, George asked.  “Nothing particular, Weasley”, I said, grabbing a piece of toast.   “I’m gonna find out why, you’re usually hateful in the mornings”, George said.  “Oh, you’ll be surprised for sure”, I giggled.  “Who is it?”, Lee asked, wiggling his eyebrows.  “Mind your own, Jordan”, I giggled.  “Freddie, hold me I’m scared”, George hid in Fred’s shoulder.  “Would you knock it off, git”, Fred pushed his younger twin away.  I was coming from Flitwick’s class, when someone pulled aside.  “What is it now, George? Oh Adrian, hi”, I smiled.  “Hi love, how are you doing?”, Adrian asked.  “Pretty good and you?”, I asked, smiling.  “Do you have a date to the ball? I know it’s early but it never hurt to be early”, Adrian grinned, laying his hand beside my head by the wall.  “No, I don’t actually”, I replied.  “Well, how would you like to be my date to the ball?”, Adrian smiled.  Couldn’t deny he wasn’t handsome, because I would be lying or blind.  It isn’t like I can bring Bill, surly he won’t mind. “A slytherin asking a gryffindor to a ball, isn’t gonna cause a scandal, Pucey?”, I smirked.  “I think I'll be forgiven because of your beauty, love. So what do you say?”, Adrian ran his hand through my hair.  “My dress is silver, your dress robes should be able to match”, I smiled.  “Perfect, darling. See ya around”, Adrian smiled, running his thumb over my cheek.  “Bye”, I smiled.  I walked towards the great hall, but decided to go meet Bill and Charlie.  “What do you wear to see dragons?”, I asked, throwing my sweater off.  “No, Y/n! What are you thinking?”, I threw off the yellow sweater.  Finally I decided on, pair of light washed jeans, black sweater and maroon combat boots. “Uh jewelry” a silver ring and my first initial necklace and my ring that always stays on my other hand.  I had to sneak out with a professor or one of the Weasley kids finding me.  “Bill, who are you waiting for? Fred and George are still in class like the rest of them”, I heard Charlie sigh.  “Go see what Hagrid wanted with you”, Bill said.  Charlie stalked off, mumbling something about Bill.  Bill was watching Charlie, “Hi Handsome”, I smiled.  “Well hi there, baby. How’s classes?”, Bill kissed me.  “Alright, thanks for making my bed back”, I smiled.  “You’re welcome, baby. Just habit”, Bill smiled.  “Hello Y/n'', Hagrid stood behind Bill with Charlie, whose mouth was hanging open.  “Hi Hagrid, nice seeing you Charles'', I looked behind Hagrid.  Charlie rushed over,  “When? How? Why? She's still in school”  Bill and I rolled our eyes, “The summer” Bill said.  “It just happened and nobody broke it off before school started”, I finished for Bill.  “Does anyone else now? What about the twins?”, Charlie asked.  “I’m planning on it”, I said, holding Bill’s hand.  Charlie looked at us and our hands, “Bill, you’re my brother and I love you. But if you break her heart or hurt her feelings, I’m kicking your ass”  I smiled, letting go of Bill’s hand.  “I knew you would approve”, I giggled as I hugged his torso.  “Charlie!”, Someone yelled for the tall ginger.  “Do you want people knowing?”, Bill asked. “Yes, I do but not until you’re ready”, I replied back.  “I’m staying until the new year, maybe before christmas?”, Bill asked. “Up to you, love”, I smiled, grabbing his forearm as we walked.  “Have you ever seen a dragon?”, Bill asked.  “No, you?”,I asked.  “Unfortunately, they sent me to Greece for a job. Guy that was also there, we went into a cave, accidentally ran into one. Don’t think I’ve ever ran so fast in life or needed Charlie so bad either?”, Bill grinned.  “I won’t be surprised if Charlie has pictures of the dragons he has raised in his wallet”, I giggled.  It was a couple hours, until the other Weasley children came to find their older brothers.  “Y/n, what are you doing here?”, Ron asked.  “I invited her like I did you guys”, Charlie answered his little brother.  Fred looked like he was trying to piece everything together.  “Can we see a dragon now? You promised”, Ginny asked, looking up at Charlie.  “I promised you, Gin. Boys don’t play around, you’ll scare them”, Charlie said.  Ron and the twins nodded, “Okay come on”, Charlie said, picking Ginny up as he took his siblings.  I followed behind but Bill caught my wrist, “what is it?”, I asked.  Bill leaned down and kissed me, “I needed another kiss”  “Act like we didn’t make out earlier”, I sassed him.  Bill grinned, “Don’t act you don’t like it”  “Whatever, loverboy”, I grinned, walking behind Fred.  Fred looked down at me, furrowing his brows, but he looked back at Charlie.  Charlie had Ginny on his shoulders, letting her pet the Green Welsh’s neck. 

Bill pulled me aside as the kids started leaving with Charlie,  “I haven’t taken you on a proper date, I was thinking dinner”  I smiled, “Sure, why not?” Bill grinned as Fred and I locked eyes for a moment.  I changed into a skirt and switched my boots to black heeled boots.  The twins and Ginny were walking to the portrait hole when Ginny gasped.  “Y/n, why are you all dressed up for? It’s dinner in the Great Hall”, Ginny looked me up and down.  “For you guys it is, me. I have a date with someone”, I smiled back as I threw my black peacoat on.  “Who?”, George asked.  “You don’t know them, they’re already out of school”, I said naturally.  “Okay, come back in a decent time and don’t be drunk. Tomorrow's the first task and we need your help”, George said.  “I promise, Fabian. Go eat before Ron takes everything”, I said, kissing George’s cheek.  I snuck down to Hogsmeade where Bill said he would be waiting.  POV change- The twins followed Y/n bc they’re nosey.  “Hogsmeade? Bill is at Honeydukes”, George said watching Y/n walk towards Honeydukes.  “It can’t be Bill, they barely know each other”, Fred scoffed.  “They did disappear a lot back home, I did hear him walk her back to Ginny’s room one night”, George said.  “Bill’s six years older than her”, Fred ran a hand through his ginger locks.  “Let’s go”, George said walking towards Hogsmeade.  Fred tucked the map in his coat pocket and followed his twin.  3rd pov-  Bill was smiling at the girl, who told him about the niffler she had as a little girl. Y/n’s back was at the entrance, anyone who walked in couldn’t recognise until they got closer.  “Fred! He’s on a date with some brunette”, George yelled, making his twin stop. Fred pulled out the map to see who was with his oldest brother.  “Well who is it, Freddie?”, George asked, peering into the window. “Y/n Brooks, I knew it! They were too cuddly this afternoon, she lied”, Fred furrowed his brows in anger.  “Let’s get out of here, George”  “George! George! Georgie, come on”, Fred grabbed his twin’s hand.  “Why are you mad?”, George asked.  “She lied to us, Geo! Hell, I thought it was with Cedric at first, but Bill”, Fred growled.  “What’s so bad about our brother? It’s just dinner”, George asked.  “He’s twenty-four, she’s a child”, Fred yelled as Bill and Y/n walked out of the three broomsticks.  George smacked a hand on Fred’s mouth and pushed them into an alley.  “Thanks for the dinner, Bill”, Y/n said.  “You’re welcome, princess. Did you get enough to eat?”, Bill asked the girl.  “More than enough”, She giggled. The twins watched as their brother and best friend walked by, Y/n was holding Bill’s arm, looking up at him like he hung the moon just for her.  The couple turned down a different way as the twins walked out of the alley.  “Fred, George! You know you’re not supposed to be down here at this hour!”, a shopkeeper yelled. 

The twins were hiding in the common room as they heard Y/n and Bill talking.  “Come on, I’ll sneak up on you again, Billy”, Y/n whined.  “I can’t, Charlie got suspicious and asked. I’m sorry, love”, Bill said, brushing the girl’s hair back.  Y/n knew she was risking Professor McGongall bursting and finding the pair wrapped up together.  “Alright not tonight. I had a really good time, Billy. Thank you again”, Y/n smiled.  “I’m glad you had a good time now, go get some sleep, princess”, Bill kissed her cheek.  “Okay, goodnight, Weasley”, Y/n caught his lips with hers.  The portrait hole closed behind Y/n as she snuck towards the girls’ dorms.  Fred scooped her up into his arms, throwing her on the couch as George sat on her legs.  “Fred, George! What is the matter with you?”, Y/n yelped.  “How was your date? With our brother”, Fred asked.  “Great actually, How do you know it was with your brother?”, Y/n tried to sit up but Fred’s weight was on her stomach.  “The map and we saw you at Three broomsticks”, Fred said.  “No input from you, George?”, Y/n asked.  “No, just want answers”, George grinned.  “Fine, Godric I hate you guys! Bill asked me to dinner tonight, happy now? Let me go”, Y/n broke down.  Fred and George looked at each other for a minute.  “If you don’t let go now, I’ll scream my head off”, Y/n said.  “Are you sure, Princess? Just dinner with Billy”, Fred smirked.  “Hermione!!”, Y/n screamed, making Fred smack a hand over her mouth.  Y/n bit Fred’s finger, “Oww, you bitch. Okay okay go to bed”, Fred snapped his finger out of Y/n’s mouth.  The twins got off of her,  “Thank you boys, nice working with you”, Y/n smirked as she walked upstairs.  Pov change- Y/n’s 

My date with Bill was perfect last night besides the twins and their nosey selves. Sure, this was our first official date and we’ve only made out a few times. I feel something with Bill unlike another partner. “Y/n, you ready?”, Hermoine asked through my door.  “No just woke up, come in though”, I replied back.  The young curly headed girl walked in,  “Morning” “Morning Moine. Sleep good?”, I asked, climbing out of bed.  Hermione only nodded her head.  “Ginny said you had a date last night” “She was right, I did”, I said slipping a green sweater on.  “With whom I may ask?”Moine smiled, cheeky like.  “You can’t tell anyone, especially any Weasley child, okay? Promise?” I sighed.  “I promise to stay quiet”, Hermoine held her pinky up. I linked my pinky with hers, “Oh Merlin, Bill took me to dinner last night. We’ve been messing around for a couple months” Hermoine looked at me as the gears turned in her head.  “That means you’ve been doing him since the death eater attack in the summer. You lied to me that morning when I asked where you were ``''Moine, look I didn’t know what it meant with him. I would have looked like an idiot, if I told you we were together that morning. I don’t know what we are now, sure he took me to dinner and we’ve made out a few times. Charlie knows that we’re something oh the twins caught me sneaking back in last night. I’m sorry for not letting you know but-“ “It’s okay, I understand. Since I’m here can you give me advice?”, Moine held my hand.  “Of course what’s up?”, I asked.  Hermoine was smiling and blushing, “Um I like Victor Krum and I don’t know how to talk to him. You’re older and have had boyfriends before” I smiled, “The Bulgarian player? The one Ron has a boy crush on? Well, just say hello, I’m Hermione Granger. Wanna go study or something, you don’t even have to start anything just say hi. It worked with Cedric”, I said to the younger witch, on my bed.  Hermoine nodded, “Thank you, Y/n. I’ll keep you updated, cole we’re not gonna have good seats” I couldn’t sneak away for Bill like I wanted to.  Standing next to the twins and Ginny, the crowd cheered as Krum entered.  I looked over to my left and saw a certain redhead, I smiled.  He grinned back and waved, making me blush.  Krum had got his egg after a transfiguration spell.  “Let’s go Cedric!!”, a Hufflepuff student yelled beside Lee Jordan.  

Cedric and Fleur had got their egg and it was time for Harry to come out. My nerves were high, I was pulling for Harry and didn’t want him hurt. He was Sirius’ other god child besides me, Sirius wanted me to update him on Harry since he was still hiding.  “Come on Harry, make Sirius proud”, I whispered.  The dragon tried to burn Harry as Harry flew around the stands.  “Come on, Potter don’t fuck up now!”, Fred groaned. Suddenly, I could smell George’s cologne and the warm smell of cinnamon like Bill. I was hiding in George’s chest as the dragon flew up, tearing some stands as it flew after Harry.  “Well done, Dragon!!”, I heard one of the twins cheered.  “Y/n, you okay? Dragon is gone nowGeorge asked, lifting my head out of his chest.  “Yeah, Yeahh I’m good. Sorry George”, I stepped aside from him a bit.  “It’s okay, love” George smiled, before talking to Fred. Harry finally got his egg and everyone was heading to the common room.  “Hey Brooks!” Draco yelled. “What is it, Malfoy?”, I rolled my eyes.  “Did Adrian tell you?”, Malfoy sneered.  “No, tell me what?”, I walked closer to the boy.  Draco pulled me into his chest, “He asked you out to the ball as a joke, well Cassius betted he wouldn’t ask a gryffindor to the ball”  “Adrian asked me two days ago and hasn’t spoken to me since. Stop being a brat Malfoy and mind your own!”, I rolled my eyes. His hands dropped to my ass, “Get your slimy snotty hands off of my ass or you won’t have them anymore!”, I grabbed Draco’s hand, bending his backwards.  “Owww let go!!”, Draco whined.  “Why? Don’t like being touched somewhere you don’t want to be? Huh?”, I yelled.  “I’m sorry just let go, I still need my hands”, Draco cried. “Get the hell of my sight, Malfoy and don’t go whining to daddy about this!”, I pushed Draco to the ground, kicking dirt near his face.  I got to the courtyard and saw Adrian with Theo.  “Pucey!”, I yelled.  “Oh hi Y/n”, Adrian smiled.  “Wipe that smile off of your face before I do it myself! Am I a joke to you or hell even a bet? Malfoy told me that Cassius made you ask me to the ball as best, I’m guessing you would have been a pussy to ask a gryffindor if you didn’t!”  “Brooks, Draco is being well Draco”, Theo said.  “I’m not talking to you, Nott!”, I spat.  “So did you or did you not ask me out as a bet? I’m only asking once before I whoop your ass”, I stood tall and got in his face. “Cassius did make a bet with me but I’ve liked you since my 2nd year. After you helped me after a quidditch game when an older gryffindor pushed me. We had won that year”, Adrian admitted.  “So you genuinely asked me because you like me or something? I don’t appreciate being a stupid bet”, I asked.  “I want to go because I think you’re pretty, smart and you seem like you know how to have a good time”, Adrian said.  “I’m sorry for being a bitch and amusing what Malfoy said was true. Do you still want to be my date?”, I asked, feeling like a complete jackass.  “Yeah, I do. I’m sorry for being distant and everything”, Adrian smiled. “It’s okay, I’ve been busy”, I said.  “You said your dress was black right?”, Adrian asked. Theo had left by now and it was just us. I laughed, shaking my head, “No Silly, my dress is silver. I told you that last week, pucey” “Okay silver! A black dress robe okay? I can have dad send me a different color”, Adrian asked.  “No black is fine, Adrian. Hey, the common room is probably chaos right now and I need to get back. See ya around okay?”, I said.  “See ya later, gorgeous”, Adrian kissed my cheek.  

Little to Y/n’s knowledge Bill and Charlie saw the whole thing between the young students.  “Bill, it isn’t like she could have brought you”, Charlie said. “I know and we’ve not put labels on it either”, Bill sighed.  “You better go say your goodbyes, Mum is expecting us”, Charlie said.  

I walked into my dorm, Bill was standing at the window looking out. The tournament was finished and an English rainstorm started.  I wrapped my arms around his torso and laid my head on his back, “Missed you” Bill tensed up but relaxed again, “I’m gonna miss you” I frowned, “I’ll miss you too, Weasley”  After some convincing and bringing out my puppy dog eyes, I got Bill to cuddle with me in bed. The rain smacked the window at a peaceful pace, Bill’s heartbeat and body heat was perfect.  “Y/n! Y/nn, wake up!!”, I gasped for air, “Uh what is it? Oh Gin, it’s you!” “Yeah, it’s dinner time. You okay?”, Ginny asked.  “Oh yeah, just a deep sleep and the rain you know”, I sighed, the side where Bill laid propped up was cold.  I followed the younger redhead to the Great Hall.  “Hey sleepyhead”, Fred smirked.  “Y/n”, George said where I was with Ginny.  “Yeah?” “Charlie wanted me to give you a birthday present from last year. Said he found it a year after he left here. You know Charlie is too busy to come home”, George handed me a medium sized box that was wrapped in purple paper with a silver bow on top.  “Thanks Georgie, I’ll write him a thank you later.” Dinner was over and thankfully I didn’t have perfect duty tonight.  “Y/n?”, someone spoke behind me.  “Who’s asking now?”, I sighed, I met the eyes of Draco Malfoy.  “What could you possibly need to say now? Thank you for lying about Adrian”, I rolled my eyes. Draco looked down at his shoes, “I’m not lying, Brooks! He’s really pulling your leg, you're being lied to. Cassius and Adrian were laughing about it in the hall tonight.”, Draco said softly. The first time, he had spoken to me or any other Gryffindor with kindness. 

I looked at Draco for a second, he had an emphatic look and biting his lip.  “I’m not being mean to you either” Adrian and Cassius came out of the hall laughing, “She actually thinks me Slytherin wants to take her to the ball. My parents would hang me by my toes if I took a Gryffindor to a dance”, Adrian snared.  Cassius’ eyes were wide as he stopped beside Draco, “Cass, what are you doing? Y/n, hey! How much did you hear of that?”, Adrian’s face dropped and he gulped.  “You lied to me twice and you actually had me convinced you put the house rivalry away. I thought Draco was being his rude arrogant self when he told last week. I’m sorry Draco for not believing you both times, Cassius you can jump off the astronomy tower for all I care!” I yelled.  People were standing around, gasping, pointing.  “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe a Slytherin actually liked me for me”, I shook my head, gripping my nails in my hand.  “Y/n, I’m sorry honestly”, Adrian tried to stand closer.  I saw red as the boy got closer, I felt my fist on his nose. “Fuck you! You’re nothing but a stupid prick”, I screamed.  “Alright alright! Show is over!”  Fred yelled.  Cassius pulled Adrian away as the crowd started to leave.  “Y/n, it’s okay”, George said.  “No, it’s not! I’m gonna be the biggest laughing stock in all of Hogwarts history. Just leave me alone, the both of you!”, I pushed between the twins as I ran up the tower stairs.  The common room was busy, a party was going to start for Harry and today’s match.  I slammed my door open and locked it before jumping on my bed. 

I cried in the sheets, my hand ran over some soft material.  Pulling it out from my pillow, the one Bill laid today.  “Oh Billy, you sweet sweet boy! I really need you right now”, I cried, holding his black hoodie.  Bill’s scent flooded my senses instantly, sorta calming me down.  “Just want this year over with, so I can run away with you Bill Weasley!”, I laid the hoodie on the pillow, before laying on it.  The sun was coming up, shining through the window. My head was pounding, not for the reasons the older Gryffindors’ heads are.  Bill’s hoodie laid out on the sheets, I traced tiny shapes on the material.  “I love you”, I whispered, part of me hoped William had heard it at the Burrow.  “Y/n! You up?”, George knocked.  “Yeah, just a minute”, I shot up, throwing Bill’s hoodie in my trunk.  “Come in”, I shut the trunk. “How are you feeling? Your hand okay?”, George asked, gently shutting my door.  “Heads pounding, crying all night feels like. Kinda sorta but nothing I can’t handle”, I smiled. “I’m sorry Adrian’s a prick. You are more than some stupid bet a Slytherin made. Nobody should be a bet, you’re too gorgeous to be'', George said.  “Yeah sure, I was embarrassed in front of the student body and people from two other schools. Don’t forget that, Godric that’s icing on the cake!”, I scoffed. “I bet everyone has forgotten about it! Breakfast?”, George smiled.  “I’m not showing my face not today, Georgie”, I rolled my eyes. The thought of trying to eat while everyone stared and gossiped about my misfortune wasn’t ever appetizing.  George frowned, “Okay so not the day. What do you want? I’ll sneak you some food” I smiled at the tall red head.  “Is there something on my face?”, George rubbed his stubble.  “No, just thinking is all, Georgie”, I said. “I’ll bring your favorites, now go take a shower okay?”, George smiled.  “Okay Georgie'', I grinned. “Love you, Brooks” “Love you too, you big lug”, I smiled as the younger boy walked out.  

Four days until the ball, everyone had let go of the fact Adrian asked me out on a bet. Cedric even put his two cents to Adrian and asked if I was okay.  At this point, thinking about skipping the ball and heading home early.  Great Aunt Sophie, sent the finished dress. It was beautiful but why go to the biggest dance without a date. Nobody dared to ask me to go with them, probably thought it was poor taste or didn’t want to die on the spot.  Fred had asked Angelina, Hermoine got asked by Krum, Adrian and Pansy were flirting so they were probably going together.  I was in the library with George helping him study for potions.  “Y/n, can I ask you something?”, George looked at me across the table.  “Sure Geo”, I decided to revert my eyes from the textbook.  “I know you’re thinking about skipping the ball, don’t lie. You’re in your last year and the Yule ball isn’t an annual thing. I was thinking if you want I could take you. Y/n, would you want to be my date?”, George asked, while holding my hand.  What would Bill think if his younger brother took me? Is it wrong? George is my best friend, who said it wasn’t more than friends?   “You don’t have a date? That’s hard to believe, Weasley'', I laughed it off.  “Y/n, I’m serious. We don’t even have to miss at the end of the night. I don’t want you to miss the chance of something fun and magical”, George said in a serious tone. “Oh wow, you’re not joking. Ah what the hell why not? Sure I’ll go with you George Weasley'', I smiled. George had moved to the seat next to me, “Of course, I’m not joking” “This better not be a pity date, Fabian! One Weasley asking out of pitty is enough'', I said.  “He’s a git!”, George brushed a piece of hair out of my face.  “Definitely git worthy” 

I snapped the last clip in my hair, now I was done.  The dress fit me to a tee, the jewelry mom had sent was perfect! Hopefully George would like it.  Walking down the stairs to the ball, a couple Ravenclaw boys stopped to look.  Cedric looked for a moment,  “Wow” Angelina tapped George’s shoulder, Fred looked with his twin. “Is that Y/n?”   George held out his hand as I got to the bottom, “You look absolutely gorgeous, Y/n!” “Thanks George! You look handsome, see that you and Fred do know to clean up”, I grinned, while holding his hand.  “Come on, McGonagall is making us lineup for the champions' ', George pulled me with him.  “How are you and my dear brother doing?”, George asked.  I bit my lip, “Fine” George’s eyebrows furrowed,  “Just fine? I’ll kick his ass for you”  I giggled,  “We’re good, I’m assuming. We haven’t talked about what we are, you know?” George nodded,  “You can always marry me or Charlie if you really want to be a Weasley”, George smirked.  “If you don’t step on my feet like you did in practice, I might consider you as my husband”, I smirked back at the younger redhead.  “You were going too fast and who said you could lead?”, George playfully hit my arm.  “I was tired and wanted to go to bed”, I giggled.  “Are you still complaining about Brooks trying to lead?”, Fred groaned with Angelina by his side.  “I’m giving him another chance to see if I’ll consider marrying him later in life”, I replied back.  “Did you and Billy break up?”, Fred furrowed his brows. Angelina turned her head in curiosity.  “No! How can you break up if you don’t have labels on it, Frederick?”, I scoffed.  The doors to the Great Hall opened and the champions and their dates entered.  I smiled at Hermione as she passed us with Victor.  The weird sisters were in between sets, I excused myself for a drink.  

“Hey”, Cedric said beside me.  “Hey”, I slightly smiled and got my cup.  “You look beautiful, Y/n”, Cedric said with his famous smile. The one that used to get weak in the knees and sick to my stomach. “Thanks Cedric, you don’t look too bad yourself”, I replied back.  Cedric smiled, “Who’s your date?”  “Uh George, just friends though”, I looked away for a second.  “I’m sorry about  the Adrian situation”, Cedric grabbed my hand.  I looked at our linked hands,  “Uh yeah”, I sighed.  “There you are Cedric! Oh hi Y/n”, Cho grabbed Cedric’s arm.  “Hi Cho, bye Cedric”, I passed Cho.  I noticed Harry and Ron sitting at a table, “Why are we sulking at a Ball that doesn’t happen yearly?”, I stood in front of them.  Ron looked at me with a sad smile and his eyes fell to Hermione and Victor.  “Bands usually start with a fast song, so come on join the crowd for a couple songs”, I stuck my hand out for one of them to take.  They both looked at my hand like it was rotting off the bone.  Harry stood up and took my hand, “Come on, Ron. She has a point” The drummer counted in as Harry and I joined the crowd, “There you are”, George smiled, pulling me closer to him as the singer aparted on the stage.   A couple songs later and a crowd interaction, a slow song started.  “Are you sure?”, George asked as couples started spacing out.  “Yes Georgie, come on”, I wrapped my arms around his neck.  People were slowly starting to leave but there were couples still dancing. I laid my head on George’s chest as he held my back.  “Not to disturb your nap, but wanna get out of here?”, George whispered.  My heels were digging my toes and my feet started to cramp,  “If you do, sure”, I snuggled my head into his chest.  George held my hand as we exited the hall to see Hermione and Ron arguing.  “Next time don’t ask me as a last resort!”, Hermione yelled with tears streaming down her cheeks.  George and I looked at each other,  “He doesn't know girls at all”, George sighed.  “He’s fourteen, George. You and Fred weren’t into girls that much yet either”, I said as we walked up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.  “He’s a git either way”, George held the portrait open for me.  “Most fourteen year old boys are”, I giggled. Fred and Angelina were on the couch making out with a bottle of firewhiskey on the floor.  “I’ll walk you”, George said.  “You think Fred and Angelina might become anything?”, I asked as we stood outside my dorm.  “Maybe, if Freddie plays his cards right and doesn't embarrass himself tonight”, George smirked.  “And if you leave the alone. Thank you for tonight, you were right too”, I smiled.  “Me? Right about what?”, George asked.  “That I shouldn’t have been stuck up here while everyone had a good time at the ball”, I said.  George nodded, “So are my chances of becoming Ms. Brooks still stands pretty good, huh?” I giggled,  “Better than Fred. Now go get some sleep okay?”  “Okay, I will. Night Y/n”, He lent down and kissed my cheek.  “Night Weasley”, I said, letting his hand go. 

I changed out of my dress and headed to Hermione’s room, “Mione? You still up?”, I asked outside her door.  I heard shuffling of feet, “Boys are stupid”, Hermoine opened her door in her pj’s and ruffled hair.  “Yeah they are at this age. Can I come in?”, I asked.  Moine jumped on her bed and started crying again, “Oh love, it’s okay”, I pulled her on my chest and petted her hair.  Hermione cried even more, “Is this just over Ron?”, I asked.  “What kind of person asks someone as a last resort? I expected him to ask me but as a last option, I’m his best friend”, Hermione jumped out of bed and started pacing.  “Some people don’t realise what’s in front of them no matter how hard you show it to them. Ron’s fourteen and it’s an awkward phase for boys. Girls mature way faster than boys, that’s why we’re smarter and more rational”, I said. Hermione sighed, “When do they finally notice?”  I sighed, “Not sure. I thought Bill would see it but he hasn’t and he’s twenty-four for Merlin’s sake”  Hermoine shuffled her feet, “Can you unzip me?”  “Come here”  “Why hasn’t Bill asked you to be his girlfriend officially?”, Moine asked. “Hell if I know, we made out all summer and he took me to dinner. Which I amused was a date, you know? We walked around Hogsmeade and the night before he snuck into my dorm. He left last Saturday without saying bye or he would owl me. Maybe it was just fling”, I fell back on Hermoine’s bed.  “He snuck into your dorm? How, I thought the stairs were charmed to turn into a slide?”, Hermoine asked as she changed into her lounge shorts.  “Oh Hermoine, my sweet Moine! That’s been uncharmed for years now, it knows the reason for a boy to be up here. George walked me tonight and he didn’t bust his face”, I grinned. “Are all the houses’ stairs like that?”, She asked.  “Uh, just know about ours and Hufflepuff’s from personal experience. Your guess is good as mine”, I said back.   Hermione crawled into her bed, “Want me to leave?”, I asked. “No stay and cuddle?”, Hermione mumbled.  “Course”, I pulled her to my chest as she got under the blanket.  Ginny tried to sneak in, I looked at Moine and grinned.  “Do you know what time it is, Ginevera Weasley?” Ginny squeaked, “I’m sorry please don’t report me or tell Fred and George” “Gin, I’m not like Percy as a prefect. Get some sleep, okay?”, I said calmly to her.  “I hate you” “Loves you too, Gin Gin”, I snorted in Hermoine’s hair as she giggled too.  “Night girls”

Sun was shining through the windows, Hermoine and Ginny were still sleeping pretty good. I decided to sneak out and get some food.  After, throwing some light washed jeans and George’s old quidditch sweater on, I headed downstairs.  Fred was sitting on the couch in some flannel pajama pants, “Morning Freddie. Have a good time last night?”, I asked.  “Y/nn not so loud”, Fred winced and rubbed his eyes.  “Sorry, I’ll bring some food up for you. Go to bed”, I said as Lee walked in with a tray of food.  “Here, a greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray. Just what the man ordered”, Lee grinned.  “Stop being so damn loud, Jordan”, Fred groaned as I walked out.  I reached the Great Hall and Draco appeared in front of me, “Good morning, Brooks. Have a good time last night?”, Draco smiled.  “Are you still drunk, Malfoy?”, I had a confused look on my face.  “No, just being friendly is all”, Draco replied.  “Oh well then, yes I did have a good time. Did you?”, I walked past him.  “I did, my date was actually nice” “Who did you take? Parkinson?”, I asked him.  “Oh a Beauxton girl, Georgia” I nodded, “Nice talking to you, Draco. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to eat”  “Why was Draco talking to you?”, Angelina asked.  “No clue, he’s been doing that more lately. What time did you go to bed?”, I asked.  She looked down and smirked.  “Not exactly, my bed but about two am”  “Room of requirements?”, I smirked.  She blushed, “I’m not that kind of girl, but Fred and I spent the night there”  “Explains the hickeys on his collarbone and shoulders. Pass me the waffles please?”, I grinned.  “Y/n”, Katie asked. “Yeah Katie?”, I asked as an owl went by.  “Letter for you”, she handed me the envelope.   

 Bill Weasley- the Burrow,  Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon, England

The prettiest girl, I ever met in life (a small heart was drawn)

I excused myself and sat on a step,  “You better explain yourself, Weasley”

 Dear Y/n, 

I’m sorry for leaving without telling you goodbye, Charlie was admitted about being on time to return back home.  I know I’ve been awkward about what is going on between us.  You’re probably rolling your eyes and saying something smart about me. Yes, I’ve never had feelings for anyone like I do for you. You’re an amazing girl, also gorgeous as can be! Your parents did good with you, why lie? So will you be my girlfriend, Y/n? 

P.s. Hi, it’s Charlie. Bill left this out in the open, but please say yes to being his girl. He won’t shut up about you to me and pretty positive Dad has heard all about you too. Poor lad’s ear probably hurts.  My brother won’t stop talking about you, I get it you’re pretty but I need to sleep at 3am.  Have a good holiday, kiddo and keep the twins in line.