#and Crystal is allowed to be angry and lash out

[gravity-knight]

Charles the pure soul he is, has many eyes on him. I was afraid I’d fall for the Edwin x Charles stuff and then thought they’d wouldn’t even go that route

Glad that Edwin is getting some attention, though. He loves Charles and Edwin loves him and no one can tell me otherwise.

Ep 5 definitely made me cry. Ofcourse, those that smile the brightest are often the most hurt. They keep up the guise so no one worries.

But Charles…he smiles to be a pillar. And when he broke and said he was so so angry by not only what happened to him but that he feels hurt by what’s happening with Crystal and the guilt of what secret Edwin feels he needs to keep from him. Their pain being his pain…😭

[marilynthornhilllover]

Hi! Can I have a request on "mommy!marilyn x Reader"? like when Marilyn teaches reader how to drive but R messed up and Marilyn get angry and decided to spank r at the back at the car trunk and f***k r until r know what she did was wrong? (NFSW, spanking, and strap-on)

Kinktober fanfic #1

Was it casual then?

Mommy Marilyn T. X Fem!Reader

Warning: NSFW smut, praise kink, degradation kink, mommy kink, spanking, use of strap, fingering, jealousy,cliffhanger, moms friend, etc.

The bell rang announcing the end of another boring school day. As students rushed out of their class rooms and into the hallway to exit the building you could feel the relief of not having to worry about anymore crazy assignments and the urge towards wanting to punch people’s children because they weren’t pulling their weight in group projects creeping in. You walked quickly towards your locker to empty your book bag, you had plans for tonight and you didn’t want anything holding you back.

“ hey girl, you’re coming to the new club downtown tonight right?” You may have turned around too quickly because you swore you just gave yourself a huge whiplash, but no way on gods green earth was the ‘Rebecca o’olva’ talking to you right now. She was like the Beyoncé of the school and in her world you had to look a certain way in order for her to even acknowledge your entire existence. But anyways there she stood looking gorgeous as always, short dark blue denim shirt with a cute star hemming style, a fuzzy cropped zipper sweater and of course her minions standing behind her like she was their military patrol officer.

Becca was cool. you weren’t allowed to call her that aloud, her group would probably punch the shit out of you if you tried to get too friendly. She wasn’t mean though, just a ‘shy trying to maintain good grades because I come from a uptight family full of assholes that are rich self maker’s who would burn the world to crisps if I didn’t become a millionaire too kinda girl’.Though sometimes she didn’t mind lavishing herself in the wealth and acting like a spoiled brat.

“ oh— uh—I hi?” You said awkwardly, her crystal blue eyes tore you apart as she stood there grinning at you. Her friends giggled but immediately stopped when she turned to flash them look with a not so kind face. Rebecca took a small step closer to you and smirked.

“ you must be y/n. You know me already but anyways there’s a new club that’s opening tonight and everyone’s going” yeah no shit cause your inviting them, but by all needs carry on. “ and I wanted to know if you’re interested in tagging along because I’m one of the host” she finally said with a victory smile as if she won the lottery, well she kinda already did. Well… her family did.

You stood there as stiff as stage four rigga morris. You blinked a few times maybe trying to analyze maybe if you had zoned out or maybe was daydreaming and needed to come back to reality but she was still there with that goddamn hideous creepy Halloween coded smile on her face. And her friends sharp eyes weren’t helping your nerves to cool down . And then you decided to do something even more stupid and life threatening.

“ sorry but I don’t drink alcohol and I already had plans for the weekend with my friends so with all due respect Beyoncé I think I’ll p—“ before you could finish your sentence her four friends corner you and push you back hard against the cold metal of your locker. You winced and tried to seem as tough as possible by standing back up but a Barbie looking one with wet lashes and overlapping Matted lipstick pulled you closer to her by your collar.

“ listen here doormat, she’s kind but we’re not so you better take up the offer” she whispered eerily.

“ and we better see you there” another muttered. You involuntarily nodded and in a sharp instant she released you. Rebecca was still fucking smiling at you but then they all took off laughing. These crazy fucking bitches. You proceeded to quickly empty your bag, deciding to just leave the entire bag in the damn locker since you didn’t have any homework to worry about and school doesn’t reopen til Tuesday so you had time to come back for something just in case . Walking briskly out of the empty halls you waved goodbye to the elderly janitor Mrs. Hanson on your way out.

You sighed as you felt the cool air pressed across your skin and the warm afternoon sun as it escalated down your face and body areas. All the busses were long gone, with the last one pulling out of the drive and taking off into the distance. You sighed again but this time one of stress and agony. You looked around the parking lot and suddenly your entire body freezes and your eyes go wide. Standing not far out was your mom’s best friend. Not the weird old ugly ones that asked you weird questions, hot and steamy mommy coded Marilyn thornhill.

Marilyn always thought you were a rude rebellious teenager when you were younger but it was just you trying to hide your feelings from her. And soon eventually she caught on. There were times in the past when she would tease you, get under your skin. Push you past your comfort zone in more ways imaginable. And you loved it, you neeeded it, you craved it like a drug. You two had a little fling, she was your first and then she just left town and you never say her in the light of day again. So seeing her here now was like seeing a past lover, like the crazy teary scenes in the movies.

Except your heart was going 100mph and your private region suddenly grew a heart beat making you swallow thickly. And you could feel the saliva go all the way down there and soon enough you were becoming insatiably wet.

“ come here baby” you heard her say, leaning against the hood of her car with her legs crossed she took an inhale of her cigarette before it got lost under her boot on the ground. You felt a familiar shiver that only she made you feel. You knew how these interactions ended but your feet betrayed you and you started taking slow strides towards her. And the closer you got the more the temptation of what could happen, what has happened seemed soul demanding.

When walked closer to her you made sure to maintain a perfect gap space in case you needed to run away from her. Far away from her destruction that you so desperately craved. But sensing your hesitation Marilyn smirked and chuckled softly under her breath and in one swift motion captured her lips with yours by using your tie to pull you closer towards her. Your lips fought against each other in a slow passionate fight at first, just feeling each other closer then Marilyn became hungry. She bit down on your lips which caused you to moan as she used the opportunity to push her tongue pass your lips gate.

She wrapped the tie around her hand more tightly pulling you onto her even more. Being so flush against her again did things to you. You felt hot and desperate. Her body heat, her perfume a mix of lavender and something dark and citrus like. Something dangerous, like her. Your nipples slowly awakened themselves to the new found intimacy and a desire that raged war in you. Marilyn’s tongue fought against yours in a war of dominance and obviously she won leading you to just submitting to her, as your chest flattened and your body went limp against hers.

Marilyn smiled against your lips before she pulled away, wiping away any salvia trails that may have connected both your lips like a bridge. She looked down at you and you squirmed under her gaze. She chuckled and gave you a quick peck on your forehead.

“ well hello to you too, my love” she whispered against your lips before they connected with yours again and you had to push her off you before her thoughts got the better of her and she couldn’t control herself.

“ stop it Mari, there’s still staff members here.” You told her and she straightened up, fixing her posture. She looked at you with those ‘ I don’t give two fucks eyes I literally fucked you in your mom’s bedroom when she was cooking’ eyes but she stopped because she respected your boundaries and your body.

“ nice car” you finally said after fixing your clothes and putting a few inches between the both of you so pass byers wouldn’t have rumors to spread.

“ thanks it’s s yours” she said looking at the car then back at you, you laughed for a moment shaking your head at her joke before you realized that she wasn’t joking. Your eyes widen and you felt your feet betray you once more because all of a sudden you start jumping like a like kid who just got told that they were officially going to see Santa. You wrapped your arms around her neck and began kissing her all over her face, the older woman chuckled at your childish behavior and wrapped her arms around your waist pulling your closer.

“ but I can’t even drive yet” she must have saw the disappointment in your eyes because she squeezed your sides tighter forcing you to look at her.

“ I’ll teach you darling, maybe we can even test it out to see if it’s fuckable in” she said whispering the last part, you rolled your eyes and swatted her chest.

“ your hopeless you know that” she chuckled and lead you to the car, not just any car by the way a BMW M8 competition. You loved having a hot milf mommy that’s smoking rich.

——————————-

“ fucking damn it y/n what’s so hard in just putting your goddamn foot on the pedal” Marilyn was starting to piss you off, she had taken you out on some abandoned racing track in the middle of nowhere to practice you on driving and yelled at you every fucking time you messed up. You rolled your eyes and sighed. You looked over at her who was staring daggers at you as her breathing elaborated more and more each time she inhaled. It was like she was the big bad wolf in the three little pigs story.

“ are you fucking stupid or deaf? Put your fucking foot on the pedal!” She shouted more sternly this time, her tone taking no softness. She was angry but so the fuck were you.

“ you know what Marilyn fuck you , how about you take your car and shove it up your ass if you’d like” you opened the door and got out slamming the door after. You heard her grunt as she got out too but you didn’t pay much attention to her as you made your way around the car. You didn’t even know where you were going, there’s no where to go. You were in the middle of no where and she was your only was back to civilization. Before you could process it all you felt a firm grip in your hair as your body got slammed onto the cold surface of the car trunk.

You groaned in slight pain as you turned your head to the side to stare at the culprit. Marilyn’s grip remained in your hair and her other non occupied hand bunched up your platted skirt around your hips and in one swift motion pulled down your panties til they fell around your ankles. You couldn’t lie, something about being in the middle of nowhere all alone with Marilyn made your insides churn and your pussy pulse. Flash backs of you riding her cock at your friends party in her bedroom closet to sucking her off at a birthday party, to her pounding into your pussy out in a dressing room and yes of course the first time she made you cum on your moms bed when she was cooking.

All the memories came back. And this would fit perfectly to the list. You were already completely soaking, probably dripping just for her.

“ you fucking whore, all mommy wanted to do was surprise her baby and teach her how to drive but now mommy got put someone in their place” she whispered against the skin of your neck, her hot breath making you tremble under her hold. She yanked your hair making you prop yourself up onto your elbow. Her hand rested onto your lower back carefully arching your back for you and you complied. Marilyn stared at your ass cheeks for a moment, your round curvy ass bent back, all for her. She couldn’t help but bring her hand to the flesh fumbling with it before a hard swat came down causing you to cry out at the unexpectedness.

She felt you shiver against her and did it again. You whimpered and tried to lay down to give yourself some comfort but she held you up. Tears pricked at your eyes and the wind blowing in your face made it worst.

“ god i missed you baby” she muttered under her breath mostly to herself but you heard and it only turned you on more. She spanked your ass again and the pain slowly started mixing with the pleasure allowing a moan to coarse through your throat and out of your mouth. Marilyn smirked to herself and did it again this time for harshly, making the sore and redden flesh jiggle. You let out a more choked moan this time and she chuckled darkly.

“ yeah moan just like that for mommy” she let lose of your hair and grabbed the underneath of your neck forcing your head backwards to look at her. “ I wanna hear you fucking scream while I milk that pussy like the olden days” she used her forearm to push you against the hood of the car.

“ suck” she spat roughly as she shoved two fingers into your mouth, you gave her digits a few sucks seductively taking your time to draw out slow swirls across her knuckles before she pulled them from your mouth. She thrusted three digits into you in one swift motion causing your eyes to roll back completely. A grutal moan escaped from your mouth and it was a good thing that you both were in a secluded place or maybe the both of you would have been on the news…..

Marilyn’s pace was detrimental. She kept whispering sweet nothings into your ear as her fingers rutted deep inside of you with no mercy. Your nails scratched the hood of the car as a familiar pressure from deep within your stomach started to come back.

“ there she is, i can feel you clenching baby girl, go ahead and let go for mommy” she whispered against your ear, she placed a soft lingering kiss behind your earlobe, your back arched when you felt her cross curl her fingers deep within you as she increased her pace. It was only a matter of time before you came on her fingers with a loud cry. Marilyn smirked to herself and slid her fingers out of you. She gently licked the juices off her fingers while she watched you squirm before the wave of your orgasm. Your breathing was shallow and rigid as you tried to keep it under control and brace yourself for whatever was to come next.

You could hear Marilyn unbuttoning her pants, looking over your shoulder you see her slide her pants down to her ankles before her gaze met yours. What really caught your eye’s attention what the huge purple strap that was attached to her waist ready to absolutely destroy you to pieces. You bit your bottom lip as you looked at the strap and then back up at her, she had the most devilish grin imaginable and you knew her intentions. Marilyn wasted no time as she spread your legs apart, placing one of them up on the car’s bumper giving herself a better access to your cunt. You heard her spit on the strap before quickly dragging her hand up and down her length.

She wasted no time and inserted her cock into you. Your head fell against the car and your back arched. Marilyn held the flesh under your thigh as her hips bottomed out inside you. You felt so full of her. Her cock was pressing against the spongy spot inside you and it felt so fucking good. You missed her and her dick so bad you wished she had a real one. Marilyn withdrew her hips slowly as she watched in awe as your juices coated her length. She grabbed a fist full of your hair pulling you back against her chest as she slowly began thrusting.

“ oh god please—“ your sentence was cut of by a soft moan that was quickly followed by a whimper as Marilyn increased her pace.

“ you stubborn girl, can’t follow simple driving instructions but you sure can take dick” she spat with a small chuckle causing you to whine. Her praises and dirty talk will soon have you spurting to the edge and you didn’t wanna be seen as a slut. But you wouldn’t just be anyone’s slut. You’ll be her slut. And right now, with her cock buried deep within you and her tight grip in your hair you didn’t mind at all. Marilyn released her hold on your hair and used her hands to toy with your nipples. You cursed out a shallow moan and cried. Marilyn laughed mockingly and twisted your nipples between her fingers.

She looked down at where your cunt and her cock was connected and bit her hips before she too released a soft moan of her own.

“ fucking pussy so good” she whispered under her breath. She watched as your pussy pulsed and creamed on her length, sucking in a breath she grabbed your hair again.

“ you gonna fucking cum again? Mhmh? Fucking whore mommy treats this pussy too nice huh?” She tutted as her hips found a new speed now pounding your guts fast and deep, she curved her hips in an angle that made her tip bend against that sweet point deep within you. Watching as your eyes roll back and your legs tremble she spanks your ass cheek and runs her hand down your spine before slipping it around infront to play with your small bud.

“ fuck I—OH GOD MARILYN PLEASE—“ you croaked out, panting you reached your hand around and gently placed it on her abdomen in attempt to slow her hips but she was unstoppable. Your body fell limp against the car as you laid there and took her dick with grace.

“ fuck yes, take it baby, fucking take my cock, your gonna look at me and cum on my dick, fucking look at me” she said firmly going even deeper as her hips rocked faster within you. The sound of her cock moving in and out of you and your moans, the way she was speaking to you and her hands roaming your body and playing with you clit at some point it all became too much and you obeyed her. Turning your head to the side your gaze met hers in a pleading attempt to which it fell on deaf ears. Her pace was brutal and her thrusts were snapping sharp.

“Mary—I can’t—fuck I” she knew what you wanted to say, and she felt it. She leaned down and connected her lips with yours as you neared your edge. In one swift motion she deepened the arch in your back which allowed her strap to be driven even deeper into your cunt and that was it. Your body spammed as your cunt clenched down hard on her cock. You felt your juices release on her cock as you shuttered. You were completely out of breath and tired. But god did you wanna go again. You forgot just how good Marilyn has made you fell, can make you feel. And man did you love it. You turned around and sat up properly on the cars trunk and looked at her.

Her eyebrows quirked and she smirked at you. She kissed you softly but soon it transformed into something rough and passionate. She gently pushed you down back against the trunk and opened your legs to where disaster just occurred, to the mess she just caused you to make.

“ I wanna taste you now…..”

[gortash-did-nothing-wrong]

Enver Gortash Musings 18

Trigger warnings: violence, Enver being in control of everything, Enver telling you how he would punish you, descriptions of another person being beaten with a cane, slight hint at children being in danger.

You can't say you and Enver had never gotten a bit snippy before. Sometimes, he could be mean, callus even. He was not innocent of lashing out at you if he felt weak or too vulnerable too quickly in your presence. Banites had very strict ideas of what marriage should be, and it wasn't a partnership of equals. The little Enver has allowed you to be involved in his cult has shown you a world of strict military like hierarchy with brutal punishments for stepping out of line.

Early on in your marriage, you had seen a man be tied to an altar of Bane and beaten with a cane until he went unconscious. You had clung to Enver's arm in the carriage ride home, quietly sobbing into his jacket as he pet your hair and whispered sweet nothings to you until you calmed down enough to ask, "If... if I ever disobey you, will you-"

"No." Enver had said, softly but firmly. "There wouldn't be any reason to go so far with you."

"Even if I disobey?" You had pressed.

"I doubt you would." He said, chuckling softly as he took out his handkerchief. "But even if you did, no. You're not the type to need such correction."

"What if I do something worse?" You had asked.

"Such as?" He asked, amused as he dabbed the tears from your cheeks.

Finding an example was difficult. "What if... what if I smashed that beautiful crystal whiskey decanter in your office?"

"I'd call in all the maids and make you clean it up as they watched." Enver said. You cringed, imaging the humiliation of such a thing. "Perhaps I'd even make you do a bit more cleaning around my home, until I felt you appreciated my belongings more."

You could feel your face heating up as you pictured it. "Gods, please, no."

Enver laughed, "You see? You're quite easy to bring in line."

You should be angry at that remark. You should want to be difficult to bring in line. Difficult to tame. Fierce and strong-willed and... everything that would exhaust you to pretend to be.

"What if I took a bunch of valuables and ran away?" You asked.

Enver rolled his eyes, "I'd walk calmly to your mother's house and drag you home by your ear."

You frowned, "No, I mean left the city. Went on the lamb!"

Enver sighed and patted your head, "Yes, I'm quite certain you'd get to the gates of the city and then get frightened and come back home. But, for arguments sake, let's say you did, in fact, leave the city. I'd send some of my subordinates after you, and once I got you back, I'd put a lock on the outside of your quarters, bar the windows, and keep you right where you belong until I felt you could be trusted again." He paused, considering something. "Perhaps I'd allow your mother to visit. I'm sure she'd be quite cross with you."

She would. You'd be shaming her not only in the eyes of the nobility but also in the eyes of the Cult of Bane.

"... is there nothing I could ever do to make you angry enough to hit me?" You pressed one final time.

Enver sighed, "... Perhaps there is. If you ever struck one of our children I... I may be inclined to strike you the same way."

You nodded slowly. "I'm terribly nervous about being a mother. Terribly. I don't even know how to raise a child without physical punishment."

Enver kissed your forehead. "I'll give you some books to read. There's a few associates of mine who don't use physical discipline on their children, I'll set up a meeting between you and their wives if you'd like."

You rested your head on his shoulder the rest of the way home, enjoying the comfortable silence and contemplating why you seemed to enjoy letting him be in control so much. You figured it had something to do with feeling safe, but Enver wasn't a safe man.

And now, nearly a decade and three children later, you laid alone in your bed after Enver had quite coldly sent you away after asking too many questions about his past. The knowledge you gained seam through your head. Avernus? Enver had lived in Avernus? For how long? When? How old? Why? How did he even get there? He wasn't a damn warlock, he couldn't be.

You tossed and turned for a bit before getting out of bed and walking to the nursery. If you were going to stay up, you could at least relieve whichever nursemaid was on bedtime duty.

You walked into the nursery, seeing your oldest two children fast asleep in their little beds, and an unknown servant gently bouncing your newest baby in their arms deeper in the nursery by the window.

You walked forward, checking your oldest two and tucking them in a bit tighter before moving towards the servant. He was a masculine figure, and clearly not one of your nursing staff. Had one of them gotten sick, or needed to leave to attend a family matter? Sometimes, it happened, and a normal servant covered their shift for a few hours.

You could hear him now, as he whispered a beautiful lullaby you recognized as Cormyrian poetry to your daughter.

"Good evening." You whispered.

The man turned towards you with a pleasant yet unsettling smile. Something was wrong. He wasn't wearing a servants uniform. His face was unknown to you, and while you didn't know the name of every servant in your employ, you knew for sure this was not one of the servants approved to care for your children on short notice.

"Good evening." The man purred. "Forgive me for the poem, but the little one was getting quite fussy."

You looked past him, seeing Hilda, one of your nursemaids, asleep on the ground. You hoped she was asleep.

You looked back up into the strangers eyes. "Who are you?" It comes out as a whisper when it should be a shout. Something to wake Hilda. Wake the children. Get them to run, to scream, to cry. The guards would come. Or the servants. Enver perhaps.

"Oh how terribly rude of me." The man says, before making a show of shifting your baby in his arms to make an elegant bow. "I, am Raphael."

[lilweaselhub]

Okay so no one asked---but time for me to randomly be feral about Spinel. I don't plan on making this SUPER coherent or anything mostly because I've been running on fumes for a MINUTE now.

But recently, I was asked what I think the difference is between good spinel content and bad spinel content and well thats a loaded question.

Before I say ANYTHING about anything for anyone who reads this, I would like to preface;

These are my personal opinions on her character and I really don't care too much if you agree or disagree. Whatever makes you happy is fine with me. You can disagree and be entitled to that opinion.

That being said; I'm just going to come right out and cut to the chase before we even get started.

I don't like how the Steven Universe movie ended. I don't think Spinel going with the Diamonds was a good idea && Spinel in SU future was a major let down for me.

There. if you don't like ^^^^ that statement right there && if you don't think you can handle someone disagreeing with how she was handled I'd stop right here.

For anyone else; Allow me to explain.

When Spinel is introduced in the movie, it is immedietly clear that she is no typical adversary of the crystal gems. Shes incredibly cunning, and actually acknowledges steven as his own person. -&& seeks vengence anyway.

Despite KNOWING steven is a stranger.

Something we don't see in any other gem that the crystal gems go up against from homeworld. I'd argue this makes Spinel one of the SMARTEST gems we see.

The other thing thats immedietly apparent is just how VIOLENT and ANGRY she is. Her entire song 'other friends' gives the audience immediate insight that she knew pink diamond and knew pink PERSONALLY. She has a very personal vendetta, and is lashing out.

now im not going to analyse every single scene in this movie. I'm far too tired for that. Besides, we know it by heart by now. Everyones done it. But all of this to SAY-; what many people have pointed out is that Pink was akin to Spinels favored person, something a lot of people who struggle with mental illness have.

ESPEICALLY those with BPD, something that has been near universally agreed on with her.

During the first half of the movie, leading up to the garden flashback. We get to see Spinel as she was made--; before she was traumatized. How she was initially. Happy, bubbly, fun loving, and sweet. In my mind, this always was reminiscent of an allegory for childhood innocence.

A type of innocence one has before the real world hits them before they experience heartbreak, trauma, or real raw grief. Spinel in her beginning was NAIVE, and had no idea that Pink Diamond did not have the same undying loyalty and love that Spinel herself was programmed with.

Spinels feelings were not mutual, but she was too innocent at the time to really SEE This. She was too naïve and optimistic. During this time she was very much mentally like a young child.

Time passing && the garden itself dying could even be an allegory for the death of ones childhood innocence and wonder.

What being abandoned by pink can really be alikened to with Spinel is the experience of TRAUMA. Something that udoubtedly TRANSFORMS a person---; Much like in the movie. (That whole anime girl transformation as out of left field as it is, kind of makes a lot of sense to be emphasized. Its getting a point across.)

Trauma PERMENANTLY changes a person. For better or worse.

In spinels case--; it could be seen as a metaphor for trauma, and the effect it has on someones mental health. The Childhood innocence dying and growing up after experience significant trauma.

Spinel post transformation && in the very beginning / climax of the movie is much less naive. Much more cunning, and carries herself much older than when she was first created. While Spinel in the beginning was reminiscent of a young 8-10 year old child, spinel now reads more as a rebellious older teen to young adult. She does not have that mentality of a child anymore. She's impulisve, shes cunning, shes sarcastic and shes mad as hell.

Spinels trauma not only mentally changed who she was as a person--it PHYSICALLY altered her. It changed her entire person. This is what trauma DOES. this is what experiencing all the grief and negative experiences of growing up DOES to you.

Abandoned, forgotten and spiteful, Spinel sets her sights on steven && co in a last ditch effort to get her version of closure---revenge on those that wronged her and threw her away like garbage.

I would easily argue that the climax of this movie is were Spinel's character SHINES the most. This in my opinion, is one place where the movie SUCCEEDS where Future FAILS.

In the climax of the movie, we really see the moments that clinch that BPD allegory. The Back and Forth between her emotional impulse to spiral and lash out, and the desire to be better. It doesn't shy away from showing the UGLY and sometimes AGGRESSIVE symptoms of mental illness. But it doesn't necessarily villainize her.

Steven himself realizes that Spinel is not thinking logically, she's lashing out and letting emotions DRIVE her impulses.

It shows her as she is now, flawed, impulsive, and hurting.

" Why? Why do I wanna hurt you SO badly??"

" When you change, you change for the better---when I change I change for the WORSE."

" At least you liked the old me--"

Spinel herself acknowledges that she's changed. That experience has Permanently changed who she is, the person she once was is gone. She is mourning not only the relationship she had but the person she once WAS.

Now;------After this point in the movie is where I start having gripes. As spinel is shown through most of the movie as such a dynamic, interesting character and actual RAW representation for people who STRUGGLE to be a good person after what they went through. Individuals with UGLY symptoms and sometimes SCARY symptoms of mental illness.

Things that are strongly stigmatized in this society we live in. It was refreshing to have a character SHOW this side of mental illness and still be treated like a person, and not a MONSTER.

&& Before I start this next section, let me preface by saying i am ALL about healing journeys. 100%. I would love for Spinel to be happy, I want her to find a place to find her own and feel safe.

That being said, I want healing journeys for a character to be realisitc. I don't want a FIXED character, I want a REAL character. A character that feels like a person. A real one. Not sunshine and rainbows and a "love fixes me" type. (Ty @veroxins for verbalizing what i never quite could with her arc.)

Unfortunately that is EXACTLY what ends up happening to Spinel though. Suddenly it feels as though they run out of an idea for how to continue her arc. && At the end of the movie they decide that the diamonds finding her amusing and bringing her back up to homeworld would be the best course of action.

&& I'd argue that at this point in the movie spinel's characterization already starts seeming odd / contradictory comparative to what we JUST saw. && this only continues with her appearance in future.

Suddenly Spinel is Happy, bubbly and kinda...naive again isn't she?

Spinel in future (and partially at the end of the movie) is kind of reverted back to her old persona. The diamonds 'love' fixes her.

" Steven: Wait a second, you used to have vengeful thoughts. Oh, yeah! But I don't get 'em anymore. Steven: How did you make them stop? I met a little someone named "Steven Universe"! And he told me ♫ IIIII- I CAN MAKE A CHANGE! ♫ "

Whats worse than that in my opinion, is that not only do they take this representation away---and make the case that love just 'fixes' a person and puts them back to how they were--but they make spinel a joke.

They didn't even have her take stevens on struggles seriously or have them relate to each other in any meaningful way.

I like many others, hated peridots treatment for this very reason.

Not to mention--- a very important point. After all this time emphasizing how absolutely UNHEALTHY and TOXIC the power dynamic was between Pink Diamond and Spinel. WHY on earth would putting her right back in that power dynamic (x3 mind you), be condusive to her healing? At all?

I'll tell you---it wouldn't be. She's put right back in the position of being ENTERTAINMENT, a TOY. && Not being even given the CHANCE to discover her own personality, who she is now, or hell--who she ever was outside of pink.

I noticed that a lot of peoples fixation and interest in spinel greatly reduced after the future airing and I really don't think thats a coincidence.

&& AGAIN i have to PREFACE. ;I want spinel to get better. I do.

I have no issues with that.

But trauma permenately changes someone. Thats just how it functions. Spinel is not going to just go back to how she was before her trauma. && I think it sends a more powerful message for her healing to have her find a place as she is now, and be loved for her flaws and all, while making a conscious effort to be better.

For it not to be just a quick fix, and shes back to how she was, but to have her come to terms with the new her, and find a way to reinvent herself, with her flaws and still be loved as she is. Even if she still slips up from time to time. Because mental illness is not a straight and narrow road. it has its ups, it has its downs. you get better, you relapse and then you pick up the pieces again and keep going.

Tdlr; All of that to say. Spinel is a character that was REALLY important to me, a character that showed ugly mental illness symptoms, and didn't glorify or villainize it. A character that wasn't nice or tied up in a bow, but deserved to be loved, and deserved to have the chance to be her own person.

Outside of the diamonds, outside of pink, outside of her TRAUMA. and she never got the chance. She deserved better.

Also---sassy, chaotic, morally grey spinel is just superior in general. She's the goat and i want her back. rn.

[nobodys-fuckin-cuck]

Literally everything is your fault. Play victim. Cry boo hoo all you want. I'm no one's fucking cuck and the way you just tried to cuck me was not only disgusting and pathetic it legitimately was unhinged.

You're nothing to me anymore. You've destroyed everything. You don't listen, you don't care about anyone but yourself.

For a long time my greatest fear was waiting for the day you say you hate me.

Well today your choice and actions spelled out crystal clearly that you do in fact hate me. You never cared about anything but what you could gain. Your oaths were just manipulation to get what you wanted. You claimed to want to submit to me but all you wanted was to defy me. You never even tried to pretend to submit to me. Even the smallest ask of you was met with heavy scoffs, disdain, an unwillingness to actually do anything and when you did do the very rare thing after fighting me about whether you should, you did it with heavy hesitation and eye rolling and annoyance.

You call me Master then say I deserve to be treated like shit. You destroy everything that is good about us then tell me how sad you are hearing only the bad. You actively and intentionally hurt me then refuse to apologize.

Well congratulations. All you've done is create bad and refuse to take responsibility for your actions. Play victim. Play innocent. Project.

All while you choose to lash out. Choose to inflict harm. Attack me because you don't think you're getting enough sympathy. You feel entitled to pity and you don't care what you've done to me. All you care about is how nice you are. So nice. So so nice. You listened to me talk for ten whole minutes! But then I interrupt you cuz I'm just a big ol meanie. Nevermind the fact you're lying and trying to make your actions justified. And what I was saying to you is how you completely destroyed me as a person and the FIRST THING YOU DO is ask me if I'm actually sure you are the one who made the post in question. First thing. Deny. Deflect deflect. Claim ignorance because you don't "remember" doing it. Then come at me saying I never tried talking about it and that's my fault. But we have had multiple conversations about exactly this same thing in question and you already admitted to it being your post and I've seen the post on your phone in your account.

But can I really be SURE you said that? And now that I am sure and you've fought me on it am.i just over reacting anyways? It's just an emotional post on an anonymous app so that you never had to admit you wished you never left your abusive ex to begin with.

Years telling me you'd kill yourself if I compare you at all to any girl. Years telling me you loved me and only me and I was so much better than your abusive shit ex. You'd never get with him again. He makes your stomache stick and you can't believe I'd ever ask if you'd allow any sexual thing to ever happen between you and any other person at all. How could I? Your BODY belongs only to me and only I can dictate what penetrates it. I alone am allowed to touch you. And in fact it matters so much to you that the last person you let touch you sexually was me. You made such a big deal over how important that was to you. You'd never make me feel like he was more important than me and if anyone at all tried to be sexual with you you'd tell me immediately because you're mine. All mine and only mine and you swear it on your life. Your bond. You swear it on your future ability to have children. On your very soul and regardless of anything else in existence you'd keep this promise to your dying breath.

By everything. So many times you swore it and got to the point of angry with me for even being insecure.

So fucking dramatic you got. Hysterical.

And you wish you never left him in the first place. You consent to and negotiate prices for different sex acts. The only reason you do not have more sex acts with him is because he doesn't have more than 150 dollars.

150 dollars.

That's it. That was the price of consenting to letting him be the last person to be sexual with you.

150 dollars. A single monthly bill. One hundred fifty dollars.

And every oath on your life, soul, future child bearance, everything.

For 150 dollars I was offering you for free to help out.

You just had to do the worst things in the world to me and lie to me. You had no choice because talking is hard. You never get the Chance to explain yourself or do the right thing, you're just too busy doing the wrong thing to find the time to show me even a tiny glimmer of respect or love.

It's simply remarkable how easily and loudly you scream in my face and attack me just because you want to but when I ask you to stop and tell you to leave and you scream no, I have to threaten to call the police because you don't give a fuck about being told no. For someone who was just raped and made ME fix the problem for her you'd think when someone repeatedly said no to anything you would respect it.

But no. Even when you're trying to scream about how you were screaming no, and for someone to help you, and want me to feel exactly how horrible that felt..... you have to scream it over me telling you no and to stop and I didn't want to do this. But you never care about me. As long as you get to do what you want right?

Your actions tell me everything about how much you "love" me. How much you "care"

You sure demonstrated understanding about what I feel. I'm in shock. True amazement.

You really are a whole other level.

Congratulations. You must be so proud of yourself. The only thing you love more than me, is hating me.

[systemadministratorclu]

OP here. To address the Helga thing (and I will preface this with the fact that I am a bit biased because she did and still does creep me out (Rourke never did. I just thought his hair was cool and then I noticed he makes funny/relatable/meme faces and his silly hat makes me laugh) so I was not angry about her dying, since I don't like her)

Rourke was (figuratively) blind by that point to everything but completing his objective, because that's what he's trained to do. Do whatever it takes to try and make an escape, as he was losing the battle by that time and he knew it. So his mind shifted to just running to complete his 'mission' while The Enemy (Milo & co.) was distracted by the fighting. Which means leaving everything and everyone because the objective is more important. If it comes to a crisis, the team is as expendable as the equipment and may have to be sacrificed in order to complete the job. And they all know that and should be willing to make that sacrifice (in his mind). That's what happened with Helga the first time.

The second time, she was essentially a mutineer, which counts as The Enemy in the midst of a fight. So of course, Kill The Enemy.

He was basically cornered and in panic mode at this point. I think somepart of him knew he screwed up, but he was way past the point of no return, when both his training and his panic took over and clashed with each other, contradicted each other. And much like what happened with Hal 9000, the clashing and contradiction caused a complete mental breakdown.

His death is kinda sad though, because the way it happened, I'm not sure he was Lyle Rourke anymore at the time of his death. He was morphed and mutated inside and out. And when his brain was mutated, it was probably wiped, as the crystal creature just stays put for a moment, as if getting its bearings. It doesn't know much, but what it does know is that it's in pain, and the one who hurt it is probably still there somewhere (unclear if it knows that's Milo or not). It's a frightened animal, lashing out either in defense or fear at Milo. It doesn't understand what's happening. And then it is horribly (accidentally) killed (i will never believe Milo was intending to KILL, he just doesn't seem like someone who would do that, and he was probably incredibly traumatized by the fact that he DID kill someone and in such a horrible way.

//I'm aware this one sucks ass. I did not put in much thought upon multiple rewatches beyond "yes, yeet the creepy one i don't like!!". (Helga was apparently EVEN CREEPIER in earlier versions of the film, while Rourke was more of a humorous caricature of 'Army guy' stereotypes who always had a comically big cigar and in some versions looked like an Elmer Fudd cosplayer). So I apologize (I do allow my AU Rourke to kick the canon version's ass in my head, though, so I'm not ENTIRELY defending Canon)

Rourke isn't as evil as people think.

Hear me out on this

Rourke may not have gone through with the plan if he actually had any idea of what the Big Shiny Thing was actually capable of.

Remember, Rourke thinks it's just "some kind of a diamond" as Milo puts it. Even if Thaddeus had told him otheewise before, he clearly didn't believe it, as shown by the line "What's to know? It's big, it's shiny, it's gonna make us all rich." He's not buying Milo's "you don't know what you're tampering with", because in his mind, Milo is just trying to intimidate him out of his plan. Since Rourke doesn't know about Milo reading the murals (thinks he just went swimming), he thinks Milo's BSing the whole "it keeps the people alive thing". That's important too.

Rourke does not ever truly believe the crystal is keeping the people alive.

And why would he? The idea sounds completely absurd to someone with zero knowledge beyond "it's big and shiny". Even after Kida is transformed, though he's a little more wary of the crystal, he hides it and tries to go through with the original plan, because that's what he's been trained to do, to see a mission through to the end no matter what obstacles arise or what personal thoughts/feelings he has (Kida is an unfortunate casualty of the kind someone like Rourke is way too used to, a civilian caught in the midst of military combat, though to him, she's a civilian from the Enemy side). But he still does not believe in its connection to the people.

He also doesn't ever know that the crystal itself can be a weapon, and a catastrophically destructive one at that. Milo only finds this out after Rourke leaves, when he visits the dying king (if the mushroom cloud at the beginning of the film is any clue, the thing is like a very, very powerful nuke). And had that information been given, the difference between "diamond" and "superweapon" might have been drastic enough to at least make him pause and consider the outcomes. He'd sell a giant shiny rock to other countries, but he doesn't seem like someone who would knowingly give an enemy (or potential enemy) of the US a nuke-on-steroids during a war (WWI started a few months before the film takes place). And if he'd taken that pause, it may have been enough time to convince him of just what the crystal truly is to Atlantis. Maybe even enough time to fully dissuade him from taking it.

But without knowing what it is, and just seeing Kida transformed, yes he's more wary of it, but in his mind, he's in too deep at that point. He's passed the point of no return, there's no option to abort the mission anymore, not without risking a mutiny from the soldiers with them, so he has no choice but to continue. If he was truly out to kill people, he could easily have just shot Milo and the other deserters or had the soldiers shoot them. He never does, never considers it. After Kida transforms, he never points a gun at anyone or has someone else point a gun at anyone until the battle in the volcano starts. The two soldiers who shove Milo back don't point their guns at him, they cross them to form a barrier and push him. They don't use them as guns.

I guess my point is that killing people was never a part of Rourke's original plan, and is never his actual goal, and that seems to be hugely overlooked, despite how very important that should be to any analysis of him as a character.

[queenimmadolla]

hope you're taking requests cause hear me out: what about reader waking up from a nap and eddie goes to hug her and realizes that she's really angry because she had a nightmare where he cheated on her with another girl. He's like wtf and she's like yeah you know what you did asshole (except he doesn't). Pls i am so in love with joseph quinn that i've been thinking about this all day 😩

I can't blame you, I think about him all day, too. This one was quite easy for my fingers to runaway with. Hope you like it!

����𝐧 𝐌𝐲 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

(Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader)

warnings: little bit of angst, imagined infidelity, plenty of comfort and fluff.

Your eyes glare daggers at the back of Eddie’s head, simultaneously willing him to look at you while also kind of wanting his hair to spontaneously combust into flames. You were curled up on his bed, bundled up in blankets with your head pressed into one of his flat ass pillows. You’d been awake for a good ten minutes, having ‘accidentally’ fallen asleep when Eddie brought you over after school and you immediately settled into his bed with the excuse that you were simply resting your head and would not fall asleep on him, fully knowing that was your intention from the moment you’d sealed your fate last night and watched The Dark Crystal again. You’d stayed up until almost 3:00 a.m. to finish it. But it wasn’t your fault! You couldn’t be blamed, it was due back at Family Video and your mom planned on dropping off the rentals on her way to work so you had to squeeze in one last watch, for Fizzgig.

You were regretting it now as a mixture of anger and anxiety swirled deep in your stomach, you’d had a bad dream, a nightmare. Not anything gory or violent, although you thought you may have preferred to have Freddy make a shish kabob out of you or even Jason shanking you with his machete, anything over seeing Eddie cuddled up with a girl who most definitely wasn’t you. The longer you stare at the back of his head, at the frizzy mess of curls while he scribbles fervently in his DnD notebook on the ground, back leaning up against the bed, the more you think about the evil scene you’d been forced to witness in your own damn dream. It felt so real, and you hated it.

You’d been on your way out of the school, easily maneuvering through the crowd also headed for the school entrance to flood out into the parking lot where you knew Eddie would be waiting for you by his van. Only he wasn’t waiting for you. He had Roxy Campbell—the pretty, stupid Volleyball player who made her interest in Eddie ridiculously clear despite the fact that he was yours—pressed up against his van. It was obviously an intimate moment, you could see her stupid, pretty blue eyes staring coyly up at him through her lashes as he pressed his forehead to hers, whispering something that made the corners of her lips curl up into a flirtatious smile as she reached a finger, you wanted very desperately to break, up to twirl a lock of his hair around before she grasped the back of his head and yanked him down to meet her in an open mouthed kiss.

Your eyes had shot open the moment you had felt your dream heart plummet from its place in your chest to a deep, dark cavern you didn’t know existed in you. Your actual heart was beating wildly, tears already prickling at your waterline regardless of having just woken up. And despite your biggest fear coming true in a hellish nightmare, your Eddie wasn’t making out with Roxy by his van. Yet.

You’d allowed yourself to just lay there as your anger brewed, mind racing with various scenarios regarding what the dream could have meant; all of them coming to the conclusion that Eddie fucking sucked. The girls on the Volleyball team were well known for their asses, mainly because of those ludicrously tight, booty shorts they wore, but your ass was significantly better than Roxy’s and you both knew it. Along with being with Eddie, it was one of the reasons why she despised you and you were proud of that. So why would Eddie want her instead of you?

Think of the devil, Eddie glances over his shoulder, his dumb beautiful, baby cow eyes lighting up the moment he realizes you’re awake.

You scowl back and hiss out, ���Bitch.”

Then you yank the blankets up just below your nose and roll onto your other side, leaving your back to him.

Eddie’s mouth drops open, eyes wide in disbelief at the sudden anger you were directing at him. The fuck did he do?

“Excuse me?” He closes the notebook, before tossing it and his pen aside as he stands and leaps onto the bed. You pay him no mind, scowl deepening as you’re jostled by his actions. Eddie doesn’t let that stop him; despite how tense you forced your body to be, he drags you into his arms, attempting to cuddle you.

“I didn’t quite catch that, wanna repeat it for me?” He mumbles, nuzzling his face into your neck as he presses a kiss just below your jaw. You refuse to budge, aware that he’d heard you in the first place. When you don't respond, Eddie just keeps pressing kisses to your skin, nose brushing up against your neck as he begins to trail kisses up towards your ear. “I said say that again, baby.”

But you refuse to comply, it was obvious he was daring you to repeat your insult, goading you to give him a reason to snap. Normally, you loved to play his games, but you weren’t in the mood now.

“‘Lemme alone, don’t act like you don’t know.” You demanded, voice muffled by the blankets but you knew he heard you when he went taut and then he pulls away, a ring covered hand grabbing your shoulder to press your back to the mattress, forcing you to stare up at him.

Eddie’s eyebrows were pulled together in exasperation as he glowers down at you. In any other circumstance, you’d find him and your current position ridiculously hot but right then you could only feel satisfaction at having got on his nerves. Serves him fucking right.

“Okay, what the fuck is your problem?” Eddie cuts straight to the point. He’d tried playing nice, but he knew you; knew you wouldn’t succumb to his seduction, encouragement or coaxing and he knew he didn’t have the patience to wait around for you to eventually tell him what had you so upset because you were prone to holding everything in, happily hanging on to any grudge you could develop, so there was a legitimate chance that you’d just never tell him and hold it against him instead of working it out. You loved to self-sabotage but he wasn’t about to let that happen.

“You!” You lower the blankets, reaching a hand to push him off of you. Eddie was much stronger than you, though. He didn’t budge, still glaring down at you as you try to wiggle away.

“Me?” Eddie’s annoyance morphs into confusion, nose scrunching up as his eyes squint, “What did I do?”

“You kissed her!” This time when you shove at him, Eddie’s body gives away, he allows you to scurry off the bed, though you didn’t do much but crawl towards the dresser, back pressed up against it as you turned to face him, expression still set in a scowl. Despite your current brattiness, Eddie couldn’t help but think about how fucking cute you looked all worked up. Your hair was a mess, but that just made him want to tangle his fingers in it, and your lips were pursed in a pout that he was fighting to not kiss away.

Speaking of kisses, “What?! What are you talking about? I haven’t kissed anyone but you!”

“Roxy!” You spit out, body heating up with your anger.

“I have never, ever kissed Roxy. Nor do I want to, where is this coming from?” Eddie moved to sit on the edge of the bed, legs spread out as he leans his elbows on them, watching you with careful eyes.

“You kissed her in my dream,” you knew the moment you said it, he’d probably think you were being irrational but you didn’t care. He wasn’t the one that had to imagine the person he loved kissing someone else.

Eddie’s exasperation returned, “You’re mad at me for something I did in your dream?” See? You knew it! He was making it seem like you were being childish and maybe you were but, again, you didn’t fucking care!

“How am I supposed to control that?! It was just a nightmare!”

“If it was a nightmare, then why did it hurt my feelings?” You snap back and Eddie softens, he had chalked this all up to you being bratty but it was obvious to him now that you were genuinely upset about it. He could see how glossy your eyes were, and now he could make out the hurt beneath the rage. You’d had a nightmare about something you were insecure about, you were hurt by a version of him—trusting and loving all versions of him—so you lashed out and here he was being an asshole instead of comforting you.

“Dreams mean things, Eddie! This one was a-a bad omen! Or something! Clearly, you want her or you’re interested in her, or there’s some sort of underlying issue!”

“Oh, there’s definitely an underlying issue,” Eddie sighs and stands, making his way over to crouch near you and you tensed further, like you were waiting for him to confirm that you were right and that makes him feel even more guilty, “the love of my life believes there’s a chance that I’d want someone else when I’d rather die and go to my own personal hell where I’m forced to watch a cheer squad composed of clones of Principal Higgins’ in a pep rally, that never ends, than be without her.”

You want to be angry, you really do because the moment your anger is gone you’ll just feel silly but you can feel the tension easing away from your body and you play with your fingers, refusing to meet Eddie’s eyes, “. . . Really?”

Eddie hooks a finger under your chin, tilting it until you’re forced to look at him and you can see the sincerity and love in those pretty, chocolate eyes. You’re positive you’re melting. “I’m in love with you, only you. Told you I’m gonna marry you someday, and I mean that. Besides, Roxy tries to steal Jonathan’s seat in front of me during History sometimes and I’m now keenly aware that she doesn’t wear deodorant or any alternative so I promise you, baby, she is not and has never been your competition. No one compares to you. Even if she did smell decent, you’re the only person I’ll ever want, ‘kay?”

You launch yourself at him and both you and Eddie go crashing to the floor behind him, though he breaks the fall for you, arms winding themselves around your waist to hold you tight against him as you pepper kisses all over his face. When you pull away, you admire the kiss stains, left behind by your lipstick, that map his face and he’s staring up at you, looking absolutely love sick, if he were a cartoon character, his pupils and irises would be heart shaped. You were wrong; Eddie doesn’t suck. He’s the most loving boyfriend to ever exist, and he’s yours. And your Eddie, in the flesh, is better than any Eddie that can exist in your dreams.

“I love you.” You smile, leaning down to nuzzle the tip of your nose against his before giving it a kiss.

Eddie’s hands finally get to tangle in your hair as he angles you down for a kiss, if it can even be called that. He’s smiling too much for you to even do it properly but you don’t really mind. “And I love you. I’d fuck up that other Eddie though, no one hurts my girl’s feelings and gets way with it.”

[highlifeboat]

You got me hooked on mercenaries mode being angsty from the daughter's perspective. And I just can’t help but think, in the game, Miranda gives the basically nuclear kill order to kill everyone in the castle. (If I remember correctly)

What if that kill order had gone only to Alcina, and when Miranda said everyone, she meant everyone.

But of course Alcina isn't going to kill her daughters, she was ready for treason the second Ethan shot holes in the wall and killed one of said daughters and Miranda didn't have a care to give. Alcina threw a vanity and went "to hell with it, revenge it is!" And rebelled against Miranda to try and kill Ethan.

But Miranda wants the slate clean if she's going to bring back her daughter. No failed experiments are allowed in the presence of her grand and perfect daughter. Her Eva. And she has to start somewhere. So she starts with the deadly Lady Dimitrescu

She figures, to repay Alcina for all of her loyal years of service (and because Miranda is a sick twisted person), Miranda had given Alcina an ultimatum.

Either Alcina kills the girls, or Miranda will come over there and do it herself.

Because after all, Miranda only gave the girls to Alcina when they proved to be failures. And such failures cannot be tolerated in the new world she's planning on making.

And both Alcina and Miranda know if Miranda kills the girls, she'll make it hell.

So, Alcina has two choices, mercy kill her daughters before Miranda gets to them or try to protect them only to let them suffer a slow and torturous death for Alcina's failure to do as Miranda ordered.

Alcina is shown to be angry and pissed off in her grief, so no wonder why she seems absolutely ruthless when she kills her daughters.

The girls realize their mother is a monster. They'll never know she was trying to protect them from one.

Holy FUCK this hurts. I love it. I LOVE THIS.

Because imagine the aftermath.

Alcina has killed the children she'd sworn to protect. The girls she'd raised from "infants". The ones she always promised she would never hurt, and never allow anyone else to hurt. Her poor daughters, who loved her unconditionally. Who she loved more than anything. Who cried and screamed and questioned why? Why was she hurting them? What had they done wrong? Who would never understand she was giving them mercy, saving them from something far more physically painful.

Her poor little girls, who felt nothing but betrayal and never stood a chance against her.

Miranda comes to make sure the deed is done, prepared to end thing herself, but walks in on the scene of Alcina cradling the crystalize busts of her children. She's a sobbing mess over them by this point, choking out apologies and begging for forgiveness. Praying her daughters won't resent her wherever they are now.

And Miranda, not caring for the sentiments, scoffs a little. Alcina wants to lash out at her, but she doesn't. As her daughters stood no chance against her, she would stand little chance against her own "Mother".

Miranda tells her not to fret, that in a matter of moments Alcina will be joining them. Despite her own sense of betrayal, Alcina isn't surprised. She doesn't want to live in a world without her precious daughters. And perhaps this is what is owed. Miranda approaches, the Dagger of Death's Flower in her hand. Alcina can see it glinting in the light. She swallows.

And, for what feels like the first time since her mutation, Miranda gives her praise. Says that she's happy to know Alcina still had enough of a head to make smart decisions. She's happy with the work Alcina has done that day. Perhaps even cups her cheek with one hand and tells her she'll grant the mercy of a quick death before plunging the dagger into Alcina's throat

And it burns. Far worse than Alcina ever could have imagined. The busts fall from her arms, Miranda pulls the dagger out, simply watching the black blood ooze from the wound. To her, Alcina is just another failure. A blight on her new world.

All Alcina can do is prey she'll see her daughters again when she join the Black God, and pray even harder that they'll forgive her for what she's done.

[thequiver]

Part 2

A continuation of the above meta is under the cut!

So as we left off in the last section of the meta- Crystal was so happy and excited to be free of her husband who....as we saw was NOT doing well. We next see Pietro in West Coast Avengers (1985) # Annual 1, where he's gone off the deep end but at least he's sticking up for himself? And let's just say....that Crystal's cheating, his constant exclusion from the group, and Wanda's insistence that Pietro establishing boundaries with his cheating wife is hurting her somehow have.....done a number on him. But let's see how bad exactly things have gotten.

West Coast Avengers (1985) # Annual 1

Yeah, Pietro is mad enough and hurt enough that he's turned on everyone he's ever loved and cared about. He's now blaming the Avengers for Crystal cheating on him because if they hadn't left him during the Sentinel attack back in Avengers (1963) #104 he never would have met Crystal in the first place. And Wanda's betrayal of prioritizing Crystal over himself is especially taking a toll here (keep in mind too that Crystal and Wanda barely know each other due to Pietro and Wanda's periods of estrangement during his relationship with Crystal, as seen in the issues discussed in Part 1).

We also see that he's very much soured from his past romanticism. He's very much sworn off love, and has especially sworn off sex because "flesh is a runner's enemy." He's not doing well folks. He's not doing well.

West Coast Avengers (1985) # Annual 1

Pietro's scheme of destroying everyone is thwarted by Vision showing him his nephews for the first time. In a truly touching scene were he tells Pietro, "You claim you hate everyone on two worlds- your wife, your sister, your former team- but can you truly hate these two innocents, whose father and mother you will have to murder to establish your claim? Tommy and Billy need their uncle, Pietro- just as your own child needs her father! Whatever we adults have done to you-" ...so Vision might be the only person who's actually like acknowledging that perhaps in fact, the adults around Pietro have contributed to the myriad of issues in the young man's life.

But it's worth noting that while Pietro has a temper and we know he has a temper. We have NEVER seen him lash out like this. And we have never seen him turn his back on those he loves and has sworn loyalty to like this even when angry with them. The worst he's done is stop talking to them. Something is off with Pietro here, and it's more than just being angry that his wife is manipulative serial cheater who belongs to a racist monarchical institution that up until recently practiced slavery.

In Fantastic Four (1961) #304, Pietro kidnaps Johnny Storm's wife, Alicia (who y'all probably better know as Ben Grimm's wife) and takes her to the Bronx in yet another astonishingly racist Englehart story in order to punish Johnny Storm for not fighting harder to keep Crystal and thus allowing him to date Crystal. Pietro then vents to Alicia about what's ailing him- which is y'know the whole "My wife cheated on me because I was trying to prove myself to her and her family as being someone worthy of them- and this is also Johnny's fault...somehow."

Fantastic Four (1961) #304

Throughout this saga, Englehart determines that Pietro's hurt and pain and anger at the situation is "maniacal ego." And Englehart's entire narrative is designed around Crystal somehow being innocent and a victim in her decisions. Ben Grimm even says that he remembers Crystal as an innocent, despite being fully aware that Crystal's relationship with Pietro was started by her cheating on his friend Johnny Storm.

Fantastic Four (1961) #305

Fantastic Four (1961) #305

We can see here, that contrary to what some Crystal fans might insinuate, that up until this issue Pietro has never turned against her. But he turns against her here, because despite her actions being the cause of his upset, and the dissolution of their marriage, she is trying to speak to him self-righteously about the sanctity of marriage, and despite having been in a multi-year relationship with Johnny Storm, who she cheated on, she claims to have been an "innocent" when she started dating Pietro. Crystal has functionally taken Pietro's priority of the sanctity of marriage and his very real role as an innocent at the beginning of their relationship as she was the only one of the two of them with any experience, and claimed that his reality is hers.

And then when talking to Johnny and Alicia, Crystal avoids any responsibility at all for the situation playing out, and knows that she can get away with it, because the Fantastic Four are essentially going out of their way to ignore the fact that Crystal did anything by claiming that it is in fact Pietro's fault that his wife made a decision independent of him. Crystal literally says the year has been rough because she was sick (because she overdosed on anti-pollution poison in order to cheat on her husband) and because Pietro is attacking her friends (this one is actually his decision but we haven't seen Crystal to know how much she actually cares about it given how infrequently she talks to the Avengers at all).

And then the Fantastic Four invite Crystal to join their team. Ben, who has just been made leader of the FF in #304, and whose first plan of action is to make Reed and Sue pay more attention to their child- asks Crystal to join the team, knowing she lives on the moon and has a child. Make it make sense. Crystal accepts, and despite her earlier protests that Pietro's actions on the moon were causing him to spend too much time away from Luna- seemingly has no issues with herself being on a different planet from her daughter all the time.

In #306, Crystal is reunited with Luna and we learn that the Inhumans have granted Crystal and Luna permission to live on Earth and have sent along an Inhuman nanny whose powers allow her to recreate the environment of the moon to protect Luna from the Earth's pollution. Interestingly, we see in this issue, that not everyone seems to be as forgiving and convinced of Crystal's innocence. Her sister, Medusa, describes her as a "trial."

Fantastic Four (1961) #306

In this issue as well, we also see some pretty.....casual discussion about how what they're doing to Pietro is making him worse.

Fantastic Four (1961) #306

And the vast majority of the room is focusing on the fact that Quicksilver is "loony tunes" as Johnny Storm puts it. But one man, Ben Grimm (who just a few issues ago described Pietro as a "Fruitcake" and was asserting Crystal's innocence), seems to have developed some understanding of maybe why Pietro is like this.

Fantastic Four (1961) #306

The next time we see mention of Crystal, Pietro, and Luna is in X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2, where we get insight into Crystal's parenting the how the Inhumans are viewing her actions.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

We learn that Crystal has essentially just....left her daughter, leaving Luna to considered a "royal ward" to be raised by family rather than her mother, and that she traveled without a way back to the moon to rejoin her daughter. We are once again getting assertions that Pietro is selfish and "arrogant" which has some merit when it comes to his pride in his powers and when it comes to the fact that y'know he didn't cheat on his wife or try to convince someone else to just deal with a betrayal like that. But as we've seen previously, Pietro's interactions with the Inhumans have focused on proving himself worthy of being one of them and of trying to be useful to his adopted people and of prioritizing them as his family.

Within X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2, Pietro sees Luna again, presumably for the first time and it causes him physical pain. But never fear, Franklin Richards (who dreamed about this exact situation) is on the case.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

And Scott Summers, Cyclops of the X-Terminators (his team at this point in time), is making good points about how Pietro's behavior is baffling. Everyone is confused by these extreme out of character reactions. And Triton points out that Crystal was lured back to the FF by "the siren-call of an old lover."

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

We've also seen in this issue that it's not just Pietro acting odd, but Lockjaw as well. And it's in this issue that we discover that there is a reason that Pietro's behavior has been so out of character. And wouldn't you know it, it's because he's being mind controlled by Maximus, an Inhuman. We've seen Maximus before, several times, in fact he was the villain in Pietro and Crystal's very first appearance together, and we've seen over the years that Maximus is an Inhuman problem that they refuse to solve- he is the brother of their king and Black Bolt seems unwilling to do anything meaningful to stop this persistent thorn in their side.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

Even though Medusa among the Inhumans is willing to acknowledge that Crystal really did start this, in front of Pietro, she asserts that he abandoned his child after Crystal left to join the FF, which is just not what happened. Crystal cheated on Pietro, he left, and then Crystal left her baby. Crystal joining the FF happened after Pietro had already left.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

Maximus fully admits to mind controlling Pietro, Crystal*, and Lockjaw. I've put an asterisk next to Crystal because Maximus talks more about Crystal later.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

Pietro starts to break out of his mind control when Jean commands Medusa to go up against Black Bolt, his own sensibilities so tuned against spouses causing each other pain that it makes him cry and snaps him out of his mind control.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

And as SOON as he's back to his sense all of his attention is on Luna.

X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2

We then carry on with Crystal and the FF and see her regaling Johnny and Alicia with tales of romantic exploits.

Fantastic Four (1961) #309

And in this issue we see Crystal saying that the marriage fell apart because she wanted a life of action and he wanted to have his own hobby. Alicia tries to be diplomatic and point out the the incompatibility likely stemmed from the fact that to her knowledge, Crystal fell for Pietro while rebounding from her relationship with Johnny and then Crystal points out that in fact she left Johnny, and rather casually refers to her habit of cheating on people with a blithe "we all make mistakes." Johnny immediately calls for a time out after this and then he and Crystal have to go fight an enemy. During the fight Crystal references another one of Johnny's exes, and then following the fight, Johnny compares he and Crystal to Ben and Sharon, who are skirting around a relationship.

In the next issue, Alicia takes a very gentle approach to pointing out that Johnny is her husband and calls Crystal boring while bringing the two of them food. Johnny resolutely makes it clear that he'd choose his wife every time, and Crystal looks deeply upset and then pulls out a business card for Norm, the real estate agent (remember him?).

Fantastic Four (1961) #310

Norm has potentially developed a backbone and we LOVE that for him. He gives Crystal the call-out that she's so rightfully needed.

Fantastic Four (1961) #311

In Fantastic Four (1961) #312, Crystal says that she tries to avoid all X-people because of Pietro. Johnny rightfully points out that Pietro is not representative of all mutants, and it's worth noting that the only mutants Crystal has really met are Pietro and Wanda......who are not even involved in the mutant parade that the FF are looking to watch.

Crystal is continuing to position her joining the Fantastic Four as a way to leave Pietro, when Pietro left before she ever joined the team and as almost every character who's talked about him as said, he wasn't on the moon.

Fantastic Four (1961) #313

Fantastic Four (1961) #317 has Johnny give Crystal a pretty stern talking to in regard to some lingering desires between them. "I just can't get comfortable around you! We were together for so long!...one of the reasons Ben chose you was to get at me--and he succeeded! It's just too heavy having the first girl I ever loved around while I'm spending so much time away from 'Licia." He goes on to say that Crystal is still the most beautiful woman he's ever met but that he won't go back on the commitment he made to his wife even if he's still attracted to her. Johnny is basically telling Crystal that he's not going to do what she did. And good for him.

Fantastic Four (1961) #317

While Crystal is off getting messy with the Fantastic Four, Englehart seems to have forgotten or ignored the events of X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2, that show that Pietro broke free from his mind control and resumed his gentler nature. When we see him next in West Coast Avengers (1985) #34-36, he's still acting as he did while controlled by Maximus. This Pietro wants to achieve Magneto's dream of becoming the king of evil mutants. It's another one of those wildly out of character moves that leaves anyone who's read Pietro's earlier appearances scratching their heads. (Gee, I wonder what's changed since Englehart started writing Pietro this way, oh right, he was confirmed as Romani, interesting).

In an interesting turn of events, Vision (as inconsistent in his views on Pietro as ever), declares that the difference between Pietro and Wanda is that Wanda is capable of love and Pietro is not. Earlier when discussing Pietro, Vision had fully admitted that the issue at hand was in fact that Pietro did love Crystal.

Crystal is seen next in Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21, where she discusses her parenting with Luna's nanny. And let's just say that Crystal sure is willing to allow for herself what she declared neglectful by Pietro.

Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21

Shortly after this uh....touching? interaction between mother and daughter, Crystal is summoned back to Attilan by her sister Medusa and the rest of the Inhuman royal family because Pietro has decided to forgive her and is willing to take her back following the breaking of his mind control by Maximus. In delivering this message, Medusa says that Pietro claims that he was mind controlled by Maximus but she was literally physically present and awake when Maximus admitted to doing exactly that in X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2, so like... as per usual, the Inhumans are being as least generous to Pietro as possible.

Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21

It's worth noting here that Pietro is not at all present for summoning Crystal back to the moon. It is entirely the Inhuman royal family that is responsible for forcing her back to Attilan, but where is he you might ask? Why he's on Attilan, defending the Terrigan mists from invaders despite having lost his superspeed because he still wants to be a force for good in his adopted home and for the people he is striving to find acceptance among.

Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21

During this issue, Pietro wholly and fully forgives Crystal, wanting to make things work for his family and desperate to see his daughter again. He regains his speed, gives Crystal her space, doesn't fight her when she says she doesn't trust him. And is so happy to have his daughter back. We have a scene of him walking through Attilan while holding Luna where he tells her, "so glad you're with Daddy, princess."

Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21

Crystal doesn't want Luna anywhere near her father, and absolutely glowers when Pietro holds Luna and tells his daughter that he loves her.

Throughout this all Pietro is entirely pleasant and civil to Crystal while she is as we can see not the same towards him, she even has to be threatened into pretending to be somewhat okay with her own decision to stay on Attilan. Despite Pietro's never having even been tempted to cheat on Crystal, she feels the need to tell him, "But do not forget, if it had been you who'd had an affair, you'd have been barred from this society forever!" Yeah Crystal...because he's the one who's been having issues staying faithful to his partner.....

Now Pietro absolutely 100% does make a blunder here, but it's not about his relationship with Crystal. While Crystal is requesting alone time, he makes a phone call to get revenge on the "pretender to the Latverian throne, that child, Kristoff." But that doesn't really have anything to do with his relationship.

I am out of images for this part, so I will stop here at their reconciliation and come back with a part 3!

Reading List, Part 2:

West Coast Avengers (1985) # Annual 1 Fantastic Four (1961) #304-306 X-Factor (1986) # Annual 2 West Coast Avengers (1985) #34-36 Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 21

So Let's Talk about Pietro and Crystal...

In this meta I am going through Pietro Maximoff's relationship with Crystalia Amaquelin. This meta is not just going to focus on their interactions with one another but also on the ways that they talk about one another and on the culture/societal structure of the Inhumans and Crystal's privilege which are both major factors in this relationship. This reading list is going to have to be in parts just due to how much there is to talk about in these issues and I want to be able to share images freely! The only edits to any panels have been to arrange them in such a way that they easily fit in a tumblr post and to condense panels from the same comic into one image. The content of any panels has been unchanged, and all panels within the same image are displayed in they order they are found within the original printed comic.

Meta below the cut! This one's a doozy.

Pietro and Crystal's first meeting and then subsequent early courtship happens entirely off page between the events of The Avengers (1963) #104 and The Fantastic Four (1961) #131-132. Within The Fantastic Four (1961) #131 we get like little flashbacks in a handful of pages telling us that this has happened and giving us vignettes into how, but it doesn't really provide us with any particular details- which means that going into Fantastic Four (1961) #131, we know about as much as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), Crystal's boyfriend.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #131

Which is to say that we know that he's come back from a mission only to discover that his girlfriend has been getting cozy with another guy. To Johnny's credit here, he's first mad at Crystal and not at Pietro who as far as we the reader can tell, had no idea that Crystal was dating the Human Torch. Pietro however.....despite clearly realizing that he's the side-piece is still defending Crystal and it's only after his defense of Crystal's decision to be a messy cheater that Johnny decides the two men have beef.

Within #131 we learn that Crystal found Pietro following some intense injuries sustained in a battle with a Sentinel (during a period of comics in which the Maximoff twins keep miraculously losing access to their mutant abilities at the drop of a hat for plot reasons?) and had nursed him back to health and during the days she spends at his bedside helping him recover, in which Crystal apparently decides he's the one while he's unconscious as the other Inhumans (particularly Medusa) around her begin to call her out on her reasons for wanting to stay by Pietro's bedside.

Crystal and Johnny have a conversation where she begs him for more time, and he reminds her (not unfairly) that she's had years of their relationship to think it over and that "if you don't love me- and only me- by now, it's time for me to read the handwriting on the wall." I'm not saying Pietro didn't see the red flags, I'm just saying he might be colorblind.

Within this issue we also get a taste of the Inhuman practice of slavery, wherein they place "Alpha Primitives" beneath them and we get to see the beginnings of an uprising (yay!), the uprising is presented as a bad thing and we're supposed to sympathize with the slavers (boo!). Johnny is portrayed here as being pro-slavery while Pietro is significantly more sensitive to the whole reality of their being enslaved. This being said, Pietro is still upset that the Alpha Primitives have taken Crystal captive and plans to save her, calling her "the girl I love." Johnny pretty rightfully points out that it's been only a few weeks of Crystal and Pietro knowing one another and Pietro....well...by this point we know he rushes into things. Pietro and Johnny run accidentally headfirst into each other during the revolt and Crystal is only concerned about Pietro's wellbeing and almost makes a threat against Johnny, even though it was Pietro who ran into the Human Torch.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #132 ends with Crystal basically going "this massive enemy that we've been fighting is powered by our own inherent guilt over being greedy enslaving racists (a guilt which has not been shown on page at ALL)." Somehow calling this out and actually triggering guilt does not at all further power their enemy but instead leaves him as an immobile statue and a reminder of how fucking racist they are- and then the Alpha Primitives are sent back down into the caves they live in without any form of reparations: "While the Alphas, free men now, return to their nighted catacombs...their own world...dark, but theirs no less for that. One day, they'll come again into the light and take a proffered brother's hand. One day...but not today." It should be noted, that the Inhumans do absolutely NOTHING to "proffer a brother's hand" in this issue, they just walk away from the Alphas and the Alphas go into their dark caves. In fact, the only Inhuman who seems to have had any kind of fondness for the Alphas is known shit-stirrer, Maximus who is kept in a perpetual open-air prison because none of them trust him. And Maximus was the one who built the machine that's supposedly powering Omega (the big enemy) but it's implied up until Crystal's speech that it is actual physical acts of violence against the Alphas that powers Omega.

Pietro ends this first big Crystal saga, brooding and moping because Johnny Storm has friends and he doesn't (he does...sorta, they're just not with him right now) , and Crystal breaks up with Johnny. And Johnny...does a complete 180 from #131 and is like "oh yeah actually I'm not at all upset that you cheated on me and I was hoping you'd break up with me and actually I have a date with my ex girlfriend tonight." Johnny does cry when he sees Crystal with Pietro, but that's really all we get for the end of their relationship. And for whatever reason the narrative seems to wrap itself around Crystal to make her look good.

Literally one issue later in The Avengers (1963) #110- this happens:

The Avengers (1963) #110

Within this issue Steve Englehart makes the BOLD move to position Pietro as some domineering patriarch when for literally every other appearance he's had with Wanda he has never ONCE positioned himself as "the head of our family." Pietro has up until this point been firm that he and Wanda are equals and just a few issues prior had issued the statement that he would never again even jokingly refer to her as "little sister."

Then in The Avengers (1963) #127, Pietro fails to invite the Avengers to his wedding with Crystal because he's fighting with Wanda and is deemed an "arrogant, posturing fool" by the Inhumans, we're told that Gorgon has "endured a great deal from Quicksilver...for many months." There's only one problem with that, in the blink and you'll miss it Pietro appearances that happen between The Avengers (1963) #110 and the current issue- (Marvel Team-Up (1972) #11 and The Incredible Hulk (1968) #175) We have seen Pietro be nothing but helpful to the Inhumans. And we have seen his help and expertise ignored when it comes to enemies he has fought previously. We have no indications whatsoever that Pietro has been anything but loving and focused on Crystal. It should also be noted that when Gorgon finds out that Pietro didn't invite the Avengers he starts nearly destroying Avengers Tower.

At the wedding, we learn that CRYSTAL HAS INVITED HER EX-BOYFRIEND, JOHNNY STORM, TO HER AND PIETRO'S WEDDING. Johnny is very much a mature adult about things and tells Crystal that if she's happy, he's happy for her. Which is great and lovely and another tick on the box for why I'm a Johnny Storm fan BUT-

The Fantastic Four (1961) #150A-B

Crystal is about to get married and is now suddenly confused about if she's happy or not? That little vague anxiety is never resolved in this wedding arc and in Fantastic Four (1961) #150B, Pietro and Crystal are married. But even the comic is aware that readers might not be thinking this is a happy ending and have an entire panel dedicated to trying to convince you this is happy.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #150A-B

Regardless, these early Pietro/Crystal appearances offer us even more insight into the bigotry on New Attilan. At the beginning of The Avengers (1963) #127, we're told that Black Bolt (who cannot speak) has issued a number of reforms meant to create equality between ALL Inhumans. But upon our first looks at the Alphas, the former slaves of the Inhumans, we see that they're talking of genocide. The genocide mention isn't really resolved here either.

We find out in Fantastic Four (1961) #158 that Pietro marrying Crystal was not enough for him to gain acceptance among his wife's people but that he had to be made an Inhuman by special decree. And yet- Pietro is chained and is willing to die for the Inhumans. "I am an Inhuman since the day of my marriage. From that day until forever, I will live or die- an Inhuman!" This is a sharp contrast to Pietro's issues with the concept of mutant identity that have previously been expressed in: Avengers (1963) #16, Uncanny X-Men (1963) #27, Avengers (1963) #45-49, and Uncanny X-Men (1963) #43A-45A. It's safe to assume that part of Pietro's undying and unearned loyalty to the Inhumans is based around his rushed relationship with Crystal.

I've mentioned above that I don't think Pietro didn't see the red flags, but that he might be colorblind and I'm going to go a little further into that here. Pietro falls in love with Crystal because she is kind to him and nurses him back to health and he's obviously very attracted to her. Crystal falls in love with Pietro while he is unconscious and dependent on her. Even though Pietro is aware that he's essentially Crystal's side-piece in this whole relationship kerfuffle from Fantastic Four (1961) #131-132, he's emboldened by the fact that Crystal chose him. Pietro struggles with self-worth issues (we can see these manifested as well in those mutant identity issues listed above) despite his bluster and pride, and we can see some of that desire and craving to be picked, to be worthy, to be loved, come through in The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #71. But we've also seen so far, how Pietro's loyalty and love for these people who "picked him" by virtue of their princess "falling in love" with him, is largely one-sided as the Inhumans do NOT share his sentiments.

Case in point for Pietro's feelings and attachment to Cyrstal.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #159

Pietro interacts with the Avengers again in Avengers (1963) #137 where he's informed of Wanda's marriage to Vision and is asked to return to the Avengers and leave Crystal because of that marriage. It doesn't go as planned for the Avengers and Pietro refuses. He's putting Crystal above his old friends and family, and we're seeing that he's been interacting more with Crystal's friends and family than his own since they've gotten together.

With the advent of Inhumans (1975) Pietro starts to vocally realize that maybe... just maybe...the Inhumans don't like him very much. And Crystal tries to convince him otherwise.

Inhumans (1975) #3

A few issues pass, Pietro and Crystal are held for ransom, Pietro barely talks at all, Black Bolt screams and destroys the Great Refuge- and then randomly and all of a sudden, Crystal and Pietro are placed as regents of New Attilan? But even with this regency, it's clear that the Inhumans don't like Pietro. Crystal thinks that Pietro is "beyond reason" for questioning Black Bolt and the way that the Inhumans interpret his silence as royal edict. When Pietro makes solid points about how Black Bolt doesn't talk so he can't say anything.

Inhumans (1975) #7

And then in Inhumans (1975) #12, Crystal asks Pietro why he doesn't trust their new leader, and he speaks of the man's lust for power and Crystal goes "well even if his motives suck, he's making progress." She doesn't really take the time to even think through Pietro's point of view, instead meeting him with a "hope you're wrong." Spoiler alert- Pietro was not wrong as we discover in The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 12. And even in that issue, where Crystal is telling the FF about how Pietro was right and how valiantly he fought to ensure the safety of the Inhumans against one who only wanted power- she refers to him as "not a true Inhuman," and in the same breath refers to herself as "I, his loyal wife." And in this same issue Pietro even says, echoing Crystal's earlier wording (which he wasn't even around to hear), "I may not be a true Inhuman, but these people are now my family and no one gets away with killing them." He's continuing to position the Inhumans and particularly the Inhuman royal family as his family, while they continue to keep a distance between them, with his wife referring to him as not a true Inhuman, and others making it clear that he is merely tolerated due to his marriage to Crystal.

Crystal isn't completely without merit here though, her words definitely shine light on one part of her thoughts on her husband, but she also shows extreme care for him and prioritizes finding him over the rest of her family when he's captured in The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 12. This does however fall into her growing pattern of caring for Pietro more when he's dependent on her than when he's able to make his own choices.

And then, at the end of The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 12, we see Crystal grab Johnny Storm's face, look like she's about to kiss him (while giving him "fuck me" eyes), and tell him that she's never going to stop loving him. Pietro sees them, and Johnny is clearly uncomfortable with Crystal's actions (as he has been this entire issue), and he and Pietro make "peace" despite neither of them being the issue here when Pietro basically tells him that he's okay because he's a friend of Crystal's and hopefully a friend of his too.

The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 12

With the dawn of Korvac Saga, we get further confirmation that Pietro is deeply, deeply committed to Crystal. We start The Avengers (1963) #170 with Pietro gazing over New Attilan in a way that's recognized as sad, and then the following exchange happens:

The Avengers (1963) #170

Crystal makes a really great observation about how Pietro's marriage to her has tied him down and changed his life dramatically since his days as an Avenger, but Pietro refutes her concerns saying that what matters to him is that he has her, that he can support her in her place among her people, and is about to say that he'd never leave her when he's teleported elsewhere by agents unknown (at this point in the story at least ;)). This is literally the healthiest their relationship has been to date.

At some point after the Korvac Saga, Pietro rejoins the Avengers, sort of- he's an Avenger again for like a single issue, the whole rejoining thing happens off page, and then come Avengers (1963) #181, he's been kicked off the team and then passes out. In reality we find out that Pietro's soul has been stolen by Django Maximoff who has imprisoned his and Wanda's souls in wooden puppets of themselves. Pietro and Wanda go on a soul-searching journey with Django to discover the truth about their childhoods, learn more about their parentage and then return to Attilan.

It's on Attilan in The Avengers (1963) #188, that Pietro finds out he is going to be a father.

The Avengers (1963) #188

Following the pregnancy announcement, in Marvel Two-in-One (1974) #71, is the first time we see an Inhuman who isn't Crystal be spontaneously kind/nice to Pietro when Gorgon and Karnak invite Pietro to play a game with them. Crystal is also heavily pregnant in this comic so it's safe to assume that some time has passed and that as the pregnancy has continued the Inhumans have warmed some to Pietro's presence among them. With the importance we've seen them place on blood ties and Inhuman genetics in particular, this makes a lot of sense as Pietro is now not just married-in to the family, but is the father of the new member of the royal family.

The next time we see Pietro and Crystal is during Fantastic Four (1961) #239-240, where Pietro has become the sole defender of Attilan in a time of war when all of the Inhumans have come down with a mystery illness. During this time, Pietro continues to be extremely devoted to Crystal and deeply concerned about her health and the safety of their unborn child.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #239

During this great conflict when it seems to be resolved in Fantastic Four (1961) #240, we get another glimpse into the racism in Attilan. The Inhumans freeing those they formerly enslaved is described here as a "mistake," a "failure," and a "noble experiment." The Alphas are still inherently described as being "mindless drones" and as "less-than-human."

The Fantastic Four (1961) #240

It is into this continued dehumanization of the non-Inhuman on Attilan that Luna Maximoff is born. And Luna, is fundamentally not Inhuman nor Mutant at the time of her birth. But for now, Pietro is just concerned with his wife and daughter's health. He looks like the Grinch, but he's happy and that's what matters.

The Fantastic Four (1961) #240

Pietro's bond with Wanda has been repaired and his anger against Vision for existing has dissipated by the events of Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4, where Pietro encourages Vision to hold his daughter. We get a really great moment of seeing that Crystal and Wanda have started to form a friendship and that Pietro's two families (the one with his sister, and the one with his wife) are becoming closer.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4

But this is where things start to get a little dicey. Magneto, having recently discovered that he is the father of Pietro and Wanda, has now sought them out on Attilan (now moved to the moon) and is determined to try to once again get his children to join his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (he's not picking up on the message they keep putting down smh). And throughout this fight, Wanda, Pietro, and Erik all make it clear that Erik has severely mistreated his children and that still, knowing he is their father, he is willing to harm and even kill them. Crystal is there- she is witness to this.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4

And what does Crystal do? But let Magneto hold the baby, before Magneto has even revealed himself to be Pietro's father.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4

Within the pages of Vision and the Scarlet Witch we don't really get to see Pietro's whole reaction to this incredibly traumatizing series of events, but never fear, Wanda recounts more of the story in Avengers (1963) #234 (TW- G slur).

Avengers (1963) #234

Again, all of this is happening in front of Crystal. There is absolutely no way she gets out of this conversation without the knowledge that Pietro and Wanda have been horribly abused by their father and that Pietro is on some level afraid of turning into Magneto and is aware of the temper he shares with the older man and has been actively combating it. It would be reasonable to think that Pietro might need time to process this information.

When we next see Pietro and Crystal it is during a battle on Attilan against the Avengers in Avengers (1963) # Annual 12, inspired by Maximus. Maximus is spared, as always, because Black Bolt loves him too much to actually do anything about the consistent and ever present threat the man poses to the safety and security of their people. (This is a surprise tool that will come back to bite them in the ass). And once again, this issue presents the Alphas as Maximus' allies, continuing to have the formerly enslaved be shown as enemies of the "good" Inhumans.

Pietro and Crystal's relationship goes from bad to worse in The Thing (1983) #3. In this comic, Pietro wishes to partake of his right as an Inhuman father and in the fashion of the Inhumans, his adopted people, expose Luna to the Terrigan mists to spark forth her Inhuman abilities- Crystal does not agree. Crystal brings in Ben Grimm (The Thing) to stop Pietro from following her people's customs in regard to their child, and sends her dog, Lockjaw (who is technically an Inhuman himself but that's never really explored?) to teleport the baby away from Pietro. Crystal's reasoning for not wanting to expose Luna to the mists? She's afraid her daughter will become ugly.

No seriously, that's the reason. Pietro is worried about his daughter's life as one who is both mutant and Inhuman, what her humanity will bring her among her two super-powered peoples. Crystal is worried about her looks. Pietro acquiesces to his wife's wishes following the testimony of their dog/friend(?) and Ben Grimm and is thoroughly painted in the wrong for wanting to raise his daughter as an Inhuman among Inhumans. At least the rest of the royal family was on his side this time?

Anyway, let's remember that Lockjaw is a person and has been a person this whole time and then think back on how Crystal has treated him. Based on Ben and Pietro's reactions to Lockjaw speaking it's also pretty clear that nobody who isn't an Inhuman was aware that Lockjaw was a person and not a dog......anyway....

The Thing (1983) #3

We get a completely different idea of Pietro's feelings towards the Inhumans in Marvel Fanfare (1982) #14B than what we've seen previously. In this issue, Pietro is openly critical of the bread and circus approach the Inhumans take with their ruling, and in a shocking turn of events from the last 20+ issues, explicitly says "I'm no Inhuman, and I give no obeisance to Black Bolt...or to your foolish traditions." Pietro is accused of stealing a royal scepter because he made a comment about not being a monarchist (based) and is lured into a trap by someone he thought was his friend who he has had to twice this issue turn down a proposition for sex from.

Marvel Fanfare (1982) #14B* *editorial says this issue takes place before Attilan is moved to the moon, however, Luna's birth occurred after the fateful move and she was named for the move which puts the actual chronology of this issue in question, but I'm keeping it here for an easy publication order chronology

We get a clear image, even clearer than it's been in the past that the Inhumans hate Pietro for...not being an Inhuman.

Do we all remember when Crystal literally brought in people who aren't even related to her child to stop Pietro from exposing Luna to the Terrigan mists because she might turn ugly? We all remember this? Okay great- because she's now adopted Pietro's anxieties in Avengers (1963) #243.

The Avengers (1963) #243

And though Crystal apparently doesn't trust Pietro's parenting choices she's come around to his same anxieties about Luna's human-ness. Pietro tries to support her and then she goes "well none of us have experience with a human baby, what if we just.... didn't deal with that and hired a nanny." And Pietro goes along with it, trying to track down Bova, his minotaur-esque nursemaid from his own childhood who he's only just learned about and has met but once.

We see Crystal and Pietro together again during the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa, in Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 18. Where we see Pietro brooding over the wedding festivities. Here we learn that Pietro was given no role in his sister-in-law's wedding and that he is still continuously feeling like an outsider, despite all of the efforts we've seen him take in past appearances to be as much of an Inhuman as possible he is still kept at arms length even by these he considers family. Even Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) wonders at the differences between Pietro and Crystal's wedding and the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa- and Reed wonders if the difference can't be attributed to the fact that Crystal chose to marry someone who was not an Inhuman. And it's a fair question. Pietro even asks Crystal if it's okay that he and their daughter stand beside her during the wedding.

The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 18

In Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #5, we see that Pietro has decided to introduce human traditions to the Inhumans with trick or treat, and that he plans to take Luna on her rounds, Crystal along with them of course.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #5

Then in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #6 (that fateful Thanksgiving with the surprise Magneto appearance), we begin to see some strife between husband and wife. According to Crystal, she is "used to being alone." (She is literally a princess in a close-knit family who didn't even stop dating Johnny Storm to start dating her now-husband). And she adds that.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #6

The militia, being something Pietro had discussed with Wanda briefly in #5, is a new responsibility of his entrusted to him by the Inhumans. He is now responsible for training a militia intended for the protection of Attilan. It's the first real job he's had since getting with Crystal and the moment he has responsibilities and focuses outside of her, she's not happy. Also yes, Luna does look like a Renaissance baby in this panel.

A month later, in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #7, we discover that Crystal, who started her relationship with Pietro by cheating on her then-boyfriend, is now cheating on her current husband.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #7

Now, I've shown you all the lead-up there is to her cheating. I've covered all of the Pietro and Crystal interactions, and touched base with every major Crystal appearance leading up to this. There isn't any rhyme or reason to this aside from, Pietro has a job and he's doing it. And beyond this, as we move into #8, we learn that Crystal is planning on spending more time on Earth, and from Pietro's perspective it's to spend time with Wanda, but really it's to cheat on him. Once again, the militia (Pietro's job) is very much cited as the reason for this.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #8

While Pietro runs off with Wanda, Vision, and Luke Cage to make sure that Wanda is safe for the duration of her pregnancy (it's a demon thing, Scarlet Witch stuff y'know?), we discover that Crystal is taking this opportunity to cheat on her husband again.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #8

Crystal's affair goes on for MONTHS, and even her boyfriend is more worried about what all this is doing to Pietro than she is. She overdoses on anti-pollution potion in order to continue to see her boyfriend, and Pietro spends the vast majority of his time at her bedside frantically trying to get someone to wake her up in deep concern for her wellbeing.

In #10, Crystal calls out her boyfriend's name in her sleep, confessing to the affair, and Pietro tries to kill him. He's stopped by Vision and the Inhumans, and then tries to rally his militia against Norm the real estate agent, the man who has stolen his wife's affections. Wanda confronts Norm and he gives her a sad speech about how Pietro is "neglectful" of his wife's needs and ends it with "I'm not making excuses for deceiving you, but you like your brother better than a lot of people do." Essentially saying "It's okay that she cheated on Pietro, because he's Pietro." Wanda then talks to Crystal's spirit and Crystal says "I cheated on Pietro! I'd do it again!"

Pietro and Vision talk and Pietro comments on how Crystal doesn't allow him to pursue any of his own interests, which tracks with what we've seen that now that Pietro is spending time with the militia she's determined him neglectful and is using it as justification to cheat on him. Throughout all of this too, the Inhumans confirm to Pietro that they think lesser of him because he isn't one of them.

Pietro decides that he can't take Crystal back after this betrayal of his trust (fair and reasonable) to which Crystal calls him a "self-righteous pig" and even Wanda insists that he must take her back because he loves her. And in issue #11, Vision claims that Pietro has "run out on his wife" and Wanda thinks poorly of him for establishing a boundary of not wanting to be around a woman who cheated on him. Meanwhile, Pietro is having a mental breakdown about the fact that nobody actually loves him and that the loyalty he shows to others is not reciprocated.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #11

And rounding us out in #12, Crystal tells Norm that she wants to keep seeing him and celebrates the fact that if Pietro stays away for a bit longer she'll be granted a divorce.

Here ends part 1 of the meta (stopping close to image limit at a good rest point) and I'll reblog this post with even more commentary at a later date!

Reading List so far:

The Fantastic Four (1961) #131-132 The Avengers (1963) #110 The Incredible Hulk (1968) #175 The Avengers (1963) #127 The Fantastic Four (1961) #150A-B <- Wedding Issue The Fantastic Four (1961) #158-159 The Avengers (1963) #137 Inhumans (1975) #3, 7, 12 The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 12 Avengers (1963) #170, 188 The Fantastic Four (1961) #239-240 Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #2, 4 The Avengers (1963) #234, Annual 12 The Thing (1983) #3 Marvel Fanfare (1982) #14B Avengers (1963) #243 The Fantastic Four (1961) # Annual 18 Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) #5-12

[xenodile]

Been thinking a lot lately about like, how would Bylgrael feel about Yotsuyu.  Stormblood is A Lot for Byl.  Papalymo dies, Y’shtola is almost killed, Zenos is after her, she’s butting heads with Lyse, she doesn’t like Hien and his fixation on honor, and in the middle of it all is Yotsuyu.

Obviously it’s a bad first impression with Yotsuyu torturing people at Isari because Byl is a good egg, but beyond that, I’m not so sure.  Rage and lashing out is a part of who Bylgrael is.  Her fight or flight defaults to fight 99% of the time, when someone hurts her, her instinct is to hurt back, hell even when she’s terrified and emotionally broken in ARR she turns some poor Imperial into meat sauce on reflex.  Once she learns what Yotsuyu has been through, she’s going to understand entirely.  She grew up with a loving parent and a comfortable upbringing, and even still that instinctual proclivity for violence as a trauma response remains, of course someone that grew up being shown no love, being treated with such cruelty and violence on all sides is going to turn that hatred outwards at everything around her.

To an extent, Bylgrael can almost see some parts of herself in Yotsuyu.  If she had endured even half of Yotsuyu did growing up, she too would hate the world.  So everyone calling Yotsuyu evil and irredeemable doesn’t sit right with her.  Bylgrael’s killed a lot of people too after all, motivated by hatred and a desire for revenge.  The Fourteenth Legion, the traitorous Crystal Braves, Thordan and his Knights Twelve, is she just as detestable as Yotsuyu then?

So when Yotsuyu returns as “Tsuyu”, innocent and free of pain, Byl is honestly kinda happy for her.  To be relieved of all her trauma, to start fresh and be happy, is something Bylgrael herself considered more than once over the course of ARR and HW, though part of her own growth is coming to accept that hardship has made her what she is and she wouldn’t give up what she’s gained for the sake of “fixing” the past.  It does however, bring her into very direct conflict with Hien who seems to lament that honor won’t let him execute Tsuyu.  Not because to murder an innocent woman for his own catharsis is obscene, but his precious code of conduct says he’s not allowed to.  And then when he finds out one of his own is a slaver, he’s all too willing to forgive him because honor.  Bylgrael is already a pragmatic woman that thinks honor is a load of bull, so Hien being so hung up on it and using it to justify his actions is just abhorrent to her.

Naturally, Yotsuyu regaining her memories and the battle that follows tears Byl up because again, this is something Byl can understand.  She knows that horrible cognitive dissonance of being so angry and vengeful, but also grief and self-loathing, of wanting to hurt people and take your pound of flesh, but to recognize by the same token how destructive and cruel your pain has made you and how you will hurt those that care for you if you were to act on your impulses.  She doesn’t want to kill Yotsuyu, but Yotsuyu wants to die, with her dying breaths lamenting that she deserves this end and the pain it cause to those that made the mistake of caring for her.  That’s already a heavy emotional blow for Bylgrael but then it’s immediately followed up by Alphinaud leaving for Garlemald and the fight they have about that, and capped off with Hien having the audacity to be dismissive of Yotsuyu’s death.

And if that weren’t enough, when the Scions start dropping like flies, culminating in Alisaie getting yoinked at Ghimlyt Dark, yeah Bylgrael breaks entirely and is reduced to a screaming near-mindless husk of rage and sorrow, just like what she imagined would happen to her if she had to endure the kind of pain Yotsuyu went through.

So yeah, wouldn’t quite say they were ever friends, definitely not romantic, but like.  Bylgrael would not say Yotsuyu was ever her enemy, or even evil.  Bylgrael would mourn Yotsuyu in that special “I wish things had been better for you because I see way too much of myself in you and I’m not ready to unpack what that means” kind of way.

[hpalways]

since your requests are open can i request an angst/comfort argument scenario with childe?? like he goes too far with his words and only after what he said finally sinks in he realizes his s/o might have left him for good?? while theyre just somewhere to cool down after having stormed off, ty <33

Note: hi, yes! ofc. thanks for the request

In the death of night laid the chance to let unknown truths be known. The darkness offered solace, but it also allowed anger to burn. And that was exactly what you saw on Childe’s face when he approached you, his friendly facade dropping from their usual joking smile. 

The two of you were dating secretly, for given his position, it would be too dangerous to let the cat out of the bag. He was trying to protect you -- no, save you from the evils he had encountered on his own, the same way he was trying to protect his siblings from the raw, ugly truth. That was where he was wrong. He wasn’t protecting anybody. He was protecting himself. He was selfishly afraid that if you were to see his true self, it would make you love him any less. 

Blue jagged crystals were narrowed for his pair of eyes, piercing through your heart in mirth. His expression was serious, accompanied by emotions of pain and longing. 

You supposed you did cross the line today, but you were growing tired of this routine. 

“[Y/N],” he breathed out, sounding cold. “What makes you think you could waltz into the Northland Bank like that?”

Unfortunately, while you tried to dig deeper, you were kicked out by the one and only eleventh harbringer, Childe himself. He was furious then, breathing out raggedly at your mistakes, but now, he was angry in a calm manner, which, to be honest, was a scarier thing to witness. 

“Am I not allowed to visit my boyfriend’s workplace once in a while?” you spat out, returning a glare of your own. 

“You already know our situation,” he said. 

“And I’m sick of it. What is it that you’re so afraid to show me?”

He stepped up even closer to you, where you could see his clenched jaw and the glisten in his eyes. “I have nothing to show you. You had no right to dig into my life.”

Tears began to the prickle the corners of your eyes. “Are you serious?” you sputtered in disbelief. “You’re supposed to be my fucking boyfriend. Why is it such a crime to want to learn more about you?”

“I told you that it was to protect you, not me.”

“Oh, don’t lie now. I can see through your bullshit.”

“Don’t try to wring it out again,” he snarled. “I have no use for a nosy partner.”

A pang slammed you in the chest. You stared at with wide eyes, hurt spreading through your system. You noticed the way he stiffened up and knew he regretted his words, but it was too late by now. “I see. There’s no trust to begin with here.” Spinning around, you stomped out of the room and closed the door shut behind you. 

The ginger was left to his own devices, his head hanging low in pain. He was so angry, so terrified, so anxious all the time that the spitball fire came rushing out at once. He hurt you -- the one he learned to love, despite every obstacle that hurled his way. 

His gloved hand curled around the edge of the window sill, his eyes locked on the beautiful scenery of Liyue Harbor. The glistening lights and lamps were flickered on in the distance, basking the darkness in its glory. Citizens still milled around in this hour, always willing to make business. He wondered how easy life would be if he was a normal person like everyone else was -- not part of the Fatui, not having to resist bloodlust, and not having to hurt the people around him. 

It would be smart to let go of you, but he was selfish. He was selfish because he he loved you so much and wanted you by his side forever, but he could never let his horrid deeds come out to the light. 

If your face of disgust was ever aimed at him, it would be etched in his mind for eternity. 

The next morning he found you in the kitchen, eating a quick meal for breakfast. His eyes softened at the sight of you, hesitantly joining you at the table. He was surprised you were still here -- still having the patience to hear him out. 

“Comrade,” he murmured uneasily. “I’m really sorry about last night. You’re correct about everything. I’m... afraid of it all. But I’m most afraid that I’ll lose you if you learn the truth. I’ve done horrid things in my life, [Y/N]. There were so many sacrifices I had to make in this path I chose. So I understand if--” 

You shook your head, making eye contact with his sorrowful irises. “Do you really believe I would leave you that easily? I know you’re part of the Fatui and I’m still here. Have more faith in me.” He blinked at you in shock for a second, his pain replaced by utter adoration. His tall form maneuvered around the table until he found you. His arms wrapped you in a hug, his face snuggled into the crook of your neck. Your cheeks flustered at his actions, but you hugged him back anyway. “I’m sorry too,” you muttered. His face lifted, so close to your own that you could see his long lashes. 

“None of this was your fault.”

“Yes it is,” you protested. “I shouldn’t have tried to pry into your secrets for something you weren’t ready yet. I say trust, but I wasn’t being so trusting either.”

He smiled gently and kissed the side of your face, leaving you burning in embarrassment. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, comrade.”

[annoyingstupidmiracle]

L.A. Confidential- l.r.h

CONTAINTS SMUT

Word Count: 1876

“My girl might leave me if she hears about this..” That Aussie accent mumbled under his breath as you left marks down his neck in a heated session behind his hotel door. You wouldn’t dare say a word as long as is hands would continue lingering on your skin every other night. 

“She won’t,” you told him as he unzipped the back of your dress. 

Your eyes blinked as you came out of your daydream from only a few nights prior. You stood in line at the red carpet waiting to take pictures of the band of 5 Seconds of Summer. You had began a job of being a professional photographer for popular bands or singers like them and it paid well. The only downfall was the fact that you had fell head over heels for the front man who also had a girlfriend.

Luke Hemmings was all around perfect, especially in your eyes. The way he laughed at your jokes in order for you to take a good picture of him just made your heart stop. His eyes had always lingered on you whenever you were in close perimeter. His girlfriend, Chloe, was a stunning blonde with tan skin and a perfect white smile. She was drop dead gorgeous, but Luke just couldn’t help himself when it came to you. You weren’t famous, only the people in your pictures were, but to Luke you were something else.

As soon as the boys stepped out into the light, Luke’s blue hues scanned the crowd in front of him in search of your beautiful form. You had always surprised him with the dresses and outfits you pulled off at the red carpet walks, interviews, or photo shoots. Tonight; however, you had decided on tight leather pants and an off the shoulder white blouse which had paired with your skin tone perfectly. The shoes you wore had really thrown him off. They were thick, black stilettos that crossed over your feet and allowed for your hot pink painted nails to be shown off. Luke had always been a fan of how you highlighted the best features of yourself. That’s exactly when he decided on how he was going to fuck you senseless over the-

“Luke! Luke, over here!” The paparazzi screamed over the flashes of cameras from every direction. The only camera he looked at was yours. 

*

“Well, that was a crazy crowd, Jesus.” Calum said while stripping himself of his suit jacket and plopped himself in the couch of your hotel room. 

“Yeah, well the afterparty is going to be worse.” Ashton breathed out as he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his dress shirt. You had your laptop out at the desk with the memory card inside it, scrolling through the hundreds of pictures you took for the night in order to send them to management for the band. 

They had officially hired you for the full time job for their photographer early last year so, you had made it your full duty to make sure they got the best pictures and publicity you could. Ever since you got the job, the guys instantly made you feel like you were a part of a family. They were your best friends and you couldn’t be any happier. 

“Crystal and I are going out for dinner tonight.” Mikey said as he fixed his hair in the mirror. “And no, I’m not skipping.” He adds before his friends could convince him otherwise. 

Luke took this as his chance to speak up. “Yeah, I’m going to skip out on the afterparty, too. I haven’t gotten that much sleep lately.” Your eyes dart over to the blonde just to see that he was already staring back at you. A blush made its way to your cheeks as you turned back to your computer.

Calum and Ashton rolled their eyes. “Guess it’s just you and I tonight.” Calum said with a sigh.

“Alright, well we’re gonna head out then.” Ashton announces before ushering Cal out the hotel door. Mikey bids his goodbye as well before he’s out the door as well.

Arms reached around the back of the chair, wrapping themselves around your shoulders as lips pressed against your jaw. “Real smooth.” You joked and closed your laptop before sliding around the chair and standing to your feet. You were then pushed back down, but against the bed this time and a gasp left your lips. Luke was smirking down at your vulnerable form while your elbows were the only thing giving you some sort of angle to look at him better. You stared up at him through thick lashes innocently, waiting for him to do something. His hands ached to touch you through those leather pants, he just didn’t know what he was going to do yet. 

Instead of waiting on him, your hand reached out to grab his own and placed it over the leather material between your legs. Luke’s body shuddered with pure excitement as he lowered himself over you against the bed. An elbow plopped down beside your head as a hand stroked your (h/c) hair out of your face. His eyes bored into yours and for a second, your heart beat changed pattern. You had silently hoped that his did the same as you smiled up at him. The smile that got him weak in the knees, which led to his next step of pressing his lips against yours. 

You could feel him growing hard against you as he pushed himself farther against you. Luke pulled away from your lips only to leave kisses down your jawline. There was something about the way he was acting tonight that was different than any other night. Instead of dwelling of the thought, you cleared your throat.

“Is something wrong?” You question while running a hand through your hair.

“You know I got somebody so I can’t fuck with just anybody.” Luke mumbles next to your ear which causes your cheeks to heat up. What is he saying? “But sometimes I get lonely.”

You’ve heard those words before, and it only made you angry. It meant that he and his girlfriend had been arguing. She might’ve been pretty, but she was manipulative and often left Luke a drunk mess, but ever since he met you, he hasn’t touched a drop. You were his distraction, and he loved it. He loved how you made him feel important, and needed. Chloe was independent and would rather spend her time with friends at the club than to have a night inside in bed next to Luke with a movie playing, or to go out to dinner.

“Lu, you know you can always come to me.” You soothed. Although it made you guilty that he was cheating on his girlfriend, you were also glad because there had been so many rumors about her cheating that you’d believe it. He kissed your lips in response and lost himself against you. In that moment, you cupped his face in your hand and flipped so that you were now straddling his waist. In a swift movement, he pulled the blouse you wore over your head and to the floor. A grin took over the frown on his face as his hands roamed over your curves. 

Your hands reached down and began unbuttoning his dress shirt as well as his pants while he shuddered under your touch. A hand reached behind and groped your rear, pulling you against the hard body beneath you. “Hold up.” Luke says while pushing you up to a standing position. He then curled his fingers on the inside of your leather pants and yanked them down your legs. A blush made its way to your face as you laughed. Luke then lifted you from the ground, wrapping your legs around his waist before putting you on your back. He fit in between your legs perfectly. You reached a hand down in between you and pulled his pants down just enough down his legs as he moves the lace covering you to the side. 

Kissing him, you muffled the sounds of your moan as he pulls himself out of his boxers and enters you. He pulled away and placed his forehead against your own, looking in your eyes. “Fuck, Luke.” You breathed out while looking down between your bodies as he pumped in and out of you. His white teeth shined down at you as he grinned. With a swift movement, he wrapped his arms around your torso and flipped so that you were now on top of him.

“Ride me, (y/n).”

You did as told, wincing as his nails dug into your hips. It hurt, but you loved it. He knew how he made you feel while he fucked you senseless. Speaking of, he reminded himself what went through his head at the red carpet. Before he could get too close, he quickly pulled out of you. “Lay over the desk in front of the mirror.” He demanded. This excited you, so you hurried over to the spot he told you to. Grabbing the edge of the table, you tilted your head to the side in order to look at him. 

“Like this?” You asked, but he shook his head. He entered you again causing a gasp to escape your lips. Luke reached around your head and wrapped a hand around your throat, forcing you to look in the mirror. 

“Like this, I want you to watch me fuck you senseless.” 

“O-Okay.” You stuttered, unable to contain yourself as the feel of his hand around your throat caused a different kind of feeling in the pit of your stomach. 

He then began to thrust in and out of you at a fast pace as the desk bumped against the wall repeatedly. There was sure to be a noise complaint. And thank god the rest of the band decided to go out for the night. Your climax began to draw closer as he drilled into you.

“Are you close?” He asked, getting close as well. You nodded, unable to form words as he watched you in the mirror. “I wanna hear you scream, baby.”

“Fuck, Lu.” You cursed while adjusting yourself as the desk dug into your skin.

“Louder, I want everyone in the hotel to hear you scream my name.”

“What about-”

“(y/n).” He warned. You were nearly tipped over the edge as his hand tightened around your neck and your stomach flipped.

“Luke!” Your strangled voice screamed nearly at the top of your lungs as the two of you came together, him filling you up. After a few seconds, he let you relax before pulling out of you to get stuff to clean up. He disappeared in the bathroom, and soon came back to help you clean up. Leaning against the desk, you watched as he wiped the liquid from your skin.

“We’re gonna have to go to the pharmacy before they close.” You mumbled embarrassingly. You often had to make a trip there in order to get plan b.

“I know, why do you think I got out clothes for you to change into?” Looking over, you saw a small pile of folded clothes which belonged to him causing your heart to melt.

“Thank you.”

“You know, I can’t leave her right?”

Frowning, you nodded. “I know.”

“L.A Confidential.”

You nodded again and sighed. “L.A. Confidential.”

[alkja]

I deeply need an episode that is about alternate universes and we get to see one where the period the boys lived in are reversed:

Charles as the proper Edwardian boy - except taken even farther than Edwin because with a shitbag father and even more exacting standards and the far worse racism of early 20th century what else is a boy desperately trying to survive to do?

And Edwin a "figured out his sexuality in the middle of the AIDS crises and pretty pissed about it all" 80s punk with fuck-off boots, ripped jeans, multiple piercings and makeup because this boy may not have gone to hell but still had the unbreakable core that allowed OG!Edwin to survive and emerge sane. Also, let's be honest: Edwin lashes out like a bitchy pro. I can see him reacting to "my people are dying and they're fucking blaming us for it" with "wanna celebrate my death? Let's see if you can handle my life first".

Crystal is fucking delighted, obviously. Just straight up cackling.

OG!Edwin is deeply, deeply weirded out but also weirdly charmed by AU!Charles and sorta impressed by AU!Edwin even if he could never ever imagine him as himself (but God does he wishes he could have a fraction of that brazen courage - poor baby just can't recognize it in himself, what else would you call what it took to confess to Charles on that staircase?)

Charles is just being pulled in so many different directions.

He has a pretty good idea of what is going on re:AU!Charles like only a war veteran can clock another. And yet much as he loves Edwin, seeing himself in his britches is just so so ridiculous.

Re:AU!Edwin... look, that's just not his mate, ok? He's fucking not. He's sharp and angry in all sorts of ways that are not really Edwin and yet the impassioned drive is so deeply Edwin and... wtf? (Also, any and all versions of Edwin who don't seem to need Charles as much? That are not Charles's to keep safe? Pretty much a panic spiral guarantee)

Also, Charles's bisexuality hormones, undefeated by being, you know, dead: he's fucking HOT. Look at those legs! Look at that arse! Ooooh, look at that pretty pretty painted mouth! Look that "might be freshly fucked" hair! Waitwaitwait is that a tongue piercing?!

OG!Charles: H E L P

if we get an S2 I'd like a case where edwin gets cursed and transforms into this eye-liner, pierced alter ego and the squad is just out of their depth and niko is there just squealing cause look at her best friend!

crystal never lets charles live down his reaction (mouth dropping open, frozen for a whole minute, instant disgust cause that is NOT his partner!)

[half-man-half-lime]

OKAY since I'm never gonna write this, here's the premise of my Ward AU, Wisp.

Alternate Therapy Group, a video chat prison group with Sophia as the protagonist.

Sophia, doing vigilante stuff on a corner world, was getting more and more restless and agitated over being controlled during Gold Morning. She remembered the stuff Taylor said about her shard making her more aggressive, and decided to stop using her power so she wouldn't be under anyone's thumb.

The problem is her shard punished her in the way shards do, making her power more hair-trigger. She got so agitated she returned to the Megalopolis, tracked down Amy and demanded she turn off her power, and attacked Amy when she refused. Amy panicked and used her power to knock Sophia out, fulfilling her request in the process. That encounter is the prologue, from Amy's perspective.

The actual story takes place months later, in the Parahuman Prison we see in Ward. Sophia is in a therapy group guided by a counselor who's a major proponent of rehabilitative justice, having had family members in prison themselves. The group, being a prison group, is made up of Parahumans who lost or gave up their Second Chance after Gold Morning, and seem unlikely to be rehabilitated, still not dealing with their issues. The members of this group include:

Sophia. The first combat encounter sees her power break through the block Amy placed, with consequences. Her shard can now forcibly push her into her Breaker state when she's close to her Trigger mentality, in a werewolf scenario- the shard takes over, a more predatory form with claws that disintegrate whatever they pass through. Sophia watches through crystal reflections from a pod in the dimension where her body goes in her Breaker state, a place she's now aware of because of the disconnect. She slowly loses oxygen and nutrients when stuck there. Her shard, unlike Fragile One, is abusive and gets angry when its host refuses to be a good little Predator. Sophia has a strong eye for the kind of systemic oppression that involves provoking a target until they lash out, making the targeting seem justified, since she perpetrated the same thing as a bully; she now sees it as a way the anti-Parahuman groups exert control over people like her. She's also in touch with her surviving brother, who might get powers down the line.

Francis Krouse. In this AU he wasn't sacrificed by Khepri, and he was one of the thralls Teacher gave up in his epilogue, dropped straight in jail. He's desperate for another hit of Teacher's addictive power, trying to rein himself in. He's also completely burnt out from stress and grief, so much that he barely tries to provoke arguments with another therapy group member:

Cody, Perdition. A former victim of Yangban brainwashing, he struck out on his own and he's even more hardened than he was in Worm. He still has his anger issues, but Krouse is too much of a husk for there to be any satisfaction in taking it out on him. It helps a lot that the sessions are over video chat, and the two aren't allowed within fifty feet of each other. He's still a major instigator of argument. But overall he just wants to survive at this point.

Cherie Vasil's clone. Another AU survivor, she was functioning just fine in society, until the Butcher shard bent the rules of its powers just enough to justify transferring itself to her. Now she hears the voices of all the other Butchers, including her other self, and her power has changed to her other self's sensing and broadcasting of negative emotions. She's kept far away from the other prisoners, given food by drone- she did get herself arrested, but this is more a quarantine than a prison sentence. The Undersiders check in on her from time to time. At some point as things go to shit at the prison, Sophia stops history from repeating when she braves the misery field and forces Cherie, a surrogate Emma, to leave the little room she's been hiding in.

Ratcatcher. Technically only in prison undercover, she benefits from the therapy sessions, and really likes her group mates despite their flaws and friction, which she completely ignores. When shit goes down, and Teacher and/or Goddess fight over the prison, Ratcatcher picks her new friends to help stop them. She's very fond of Sophia, who begrudgingly goes out for drinks with Rat after they leave prison.

For the Parian/Sveta analog, I'm caught between a few. Someone in a thread suggested Gully for a Sophia-led team (which I think was the thread where I got this AU idea), I don't love Gully for the Cauldron fiasco, but she's a a good fit, and very sympathetic, a good contrast to Sveta. Bijou has interesting vibes, and is technically a sort of tragic doll girl like her possible Worm and Ward counterparts, but I don't know how her characterization fits the group. Amy would be an edgy pick, but she fits the themes of rehabilitating the tough cases and people who lost their amnesty privileges.

For the Tattletale/Lookout equivalent, I don't have a clear conception of the character, but they'd be a Breaker/Thinker OC whose worldview was broken by their trigger. They pieced together a new outlook after they got their powers, only to have Gold Morning shatter that worldview as well, causing them to second trigger. They're still dealing with the fallout of that, and aren't keeping it together enough to function in society.

I don't have a good Foil/Rain parallel who mirrors Sophia or her relationships, OC or not. Something about leaving or losing family maybe?

[solomonish]

My Personal Simeon Fall AU Headcanons

These are within the same realm of this fic - and it is intended as a Simeon x MC universe! These HCs will focus on his time in the Devildom rather than why he fell, but maybe that information will come eventually...

*some things regarding this war I keep mentioning may not be entirely clear - still working on that! However, I’ll try not to put out too much contradicting information, hehe!

WARNING: some angst, brief mention/implication of torture. forcibly removed memories.

First Days

He came to the devildom in a blaze, much like the brothers did, hurtling down like a shooting star. At the core, encasing him as his wings charred to soot, was a brilliant light blue, rimmed by a dazzling white and platinum gold. At his impact site, parts of the dirt and stone have crystallized in the same colors. The site is still roped off for investigation.

He fell, acting as a white flag for both sides to signal the end of a war very few people knew was raging. The impact sent the last of his holy energy into the surrounding area, and demons near the sight complained of itching and general irritation for weeks after.

The only people at the site who looked into his eyes when he struggled to get up were you, Diavolo, Barbatos, Lucifer, and Solomon. A few curious Devildom citizens were scattered about, too, but Diavolo's authoritative vibe kept them too far to see anything.

Diavolo and Barbtos kept him in one room in the castle as he adjusted to the sudden demonic energy inside him and learned to contain his wrath. You were allowed to see him, but only if supervised by Barbatos or Diavolo in case Simeon tried to hurt you.

He was despondent most of the time, sitting curled up and stiff in the middle of the bed that looked untouched. He spent days without sleep, simmering with rage. You never found out if he bottled it up or if he destroyed the room but Barbatos put it back together before you appeared.

(You might not ever learn that some of the methods Diavolo and Barbatos used to bring his memories back were...extreme. They had no intentions of torture or pain, but they desperately wanted to get to them if they could. That’s where his anger was used up - as he screamed out in agony, either from the extraction method or the feeling of having lost everything yet not quite grasping what that meant.)

Satan suggested books and sent some of his personal collection that helped him gather himself when he was created. Diavolo and Barbatos tried to jog his memories, both for personal reasons and to get information on the Celestial realm, but that was exactly why they were gone. His memories had been magically extracted, but haste made him forget most everything instead of just sensitive information regarding the realm.

Eventually, he was free to roam the garden and some hallways, and when Diavolo and Barbatos concluded that regaining his memories was impossible, he was housed.

Power & Standing

He was a powerful angel, so he is a powerful demon, yet not quite as powerful as the brothers.

Simeon, for the majority of the war, was fighting on the side of the Celestial Realm, so he's generally disliked among the citizens of the Devildom. Our cast are all weary around him for multiple reasons - aside from Satan, Beel, Solomon, and MC (obviously).

He isn't an official member of any student council or governing body, nor does he really have a final say in anything, but he does frequently act as an advisor of sorts. He tends to work with Barbatos on that front, discussing in the background anything that might need discussed or worked on separate from the brothers.

Simeon is a wrath demon, though the change in his temper is hardly noticeable at first. He resembles Lucifer in how strict he is, mostly when he is in charge of something, and his anger that releases when he isn't listened to mimics Satan's.

If they are near each other and angry about the same thing, Satan and Simeon can actually feed off of the other's anger and boost their power. Satan does NOT need the boost, but you bet he brings chaos and destruction tenfold is he has it. For Simeon, though, it practically puts him on par with some of the brothers, if only for a short while.

Socially, he is generally ignored, and nobody runs away from him if he initiates conversation - but he doesn't. Simeon turns into a bit of a loner, a large chunk of his personality and memories gone and replaced with anger.

He's still learning how to deal with it.

His demon form consists of black deer-like antlers (not small but just small enough to avoid being entirely cumbersome) and long wings with bone-tipped feathers. His wings are almost always folded against his back and hanging low, the dangling feathers reminiscent of his angelic cloak with the golden charms. He does have a little black deer tail but doesn't like it being commented on.

(Don't worry about aerodynamics or which animal he represents, it's a magical universe its fine uwu)

General Information

He lives in modest home on the outskirts of the Devildom, somewhat close to the castle in case there's some type of emergency that needs to be taken care of but not so close he gets a super nice house and causes some social uproar. He has a small yard and a garden he tends to meticulously.

I imagine the house as a sort of townhouse (although not a for real townhouse because its it's own thing), two stories tall. The downstairs has a small living room, kitchen and bathroom while the entire upstairs is an open bedroom/office type deal. It gives off a gothic cottage type of vibe. No idea if this is helpful so maybe one day I'll build it in the sims.

He keeps his house tidy but has many bookshelves filled with equal parts books and knickknacks.

As stated before, he is a wrath demon, and because of his memories being almost entirely erased, he had a similar fall and adjustment period as Satan. Also, as a writer, he has an intrinsic appreciation for books. He and Satan get along the most out of all the brothers - the fact that Lucifer has mixed (mostly negative)(?) feelings about Simeon makes the deal sweeter for Satan.

Beel doesn’t dislike him, and while he doesn’t trust Simeon yet he’s willing to see if Simeon is on their side now considering none of his family got hurt. Solomon still trusts him though, but he does get a little downtrodden when he has memories that Simeon doesn’t.

When angry, Simeon smiles sweetly but his voice turns dead cold. Whereas Satan goes feral and seeks destruction like a bomb, Simeon feels more like a sniper rifle that needs careful aim and precision with just as devastating consequences. Shouting and immediate carnage are rare and only come after a severe transgression.

Otherwise, Simeon allows himself to be more playful than before. He doesn’t exactly have snide remarks, but he is an expert at stating the truth in a way that feels like a blade cutting through your confidence.

In true "flaunt what ya got without really making it seem purposeful" Simeon fashion, he wears button-down shirts that are almost entirely unbuttoned. They are always patterned and funky, and he wears them tucked into black pants. I'm thinking something like this (he also has patterns that are more "groovy" than vacation)

Will also occasionally sport a deep v like this

He still acts just as naive and confused if you bring up how exposed he is to him, so its best just to suffer in silence.

When making a pact with MC, he makes sure the mark covers a scar he left and doesn't remember from the war on your shoulder. It feels like a longer-lasting apology.

He still calls you "little lamb," but instead of smiling gently at you like a loving shepherd, his smiles look like a predator baring his fangs at his prey. In a sweet way. In a hot way.

What Does He Remember?

At first, nothing. Demonic instinct claws at him and he lashes out at everyone and everything.

He is still a nightmare with technology. Nobody knows if this is residual from how he was before, a result of his memories being taken, or just a trick.

Occasionally, he’ll remember an inside joke, but only halfway. You’ll say something you don’t realize is from before, and he’ll laugh, almost like an impulse. But then his laugh trails off and he gets contemplative, wondering what, exactly, was so funny about it.

The brightness of the Celestial Realm is hard to forget. The rainbow framing the palace and vast fields appear in dreams. He never remembers anything ‘important,’ but it’s enough to remind him that he was discarded.

The Celestial War hasn’t gone away, not in its entirety. There are certain things like battle strategies that he can’t for the life of him conjure up in his mind, but he remembers the bulk of it. It helps him realize why some of the brothers were/are so aloof towards him - nothing was ever as simple as he thought it once to be. Fighting a losing battle isn’t a choice you make when its for love - its simply the only path available.

(Apologies are so, so hard to dish out when you can’t remember most of your transgressions, though.)

He remembers Luke and will worry himself to inconsolable tears at night just thinking about him. Those thrown away don’t get the privilege of knowing what happens to their friends - and even if he did, Simeon wouldn't be so stupid as to put a target on Luke's back by proving that he was still important to him.

But he can only remember Luke's terrified, teary eyes when he realized Simeon was going to turn on the Celestial Realm in the middle of a war, and how he pleaded with Simeon not to. Luke asked what he would do all by himself, and Simeon hopes to his Father for only one thing - that he figured it out.

This is his sore spot. Nobody is allowed to be privy to these thoughts, not even you. But some days he comes to RAD looking worse for wear and you KNOW something is bothering him. He'll just never tell you what.

[dimonds456]

*sees your tags about being salty about suf spinel*

YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT AND NOT SHARE YOUR SALT /LH

Okay, but I'm warning you, you asked for it.

LONG POST WARNING.

LIKE A REALLY, REALLY LONG POST WARNING.

Dimonds456 Presents: How They Did My Baby Dirty: An SUTM and SUF Analysis on Steven and Spinel (Told by a Progressively More and More Angry Narrator)

THE CONTEXT: There was a post talking about how you think a character will fix everything, but then they wind up making it works. My tags were "#*looks at suf spinel* #I am still salty about that like the bitch I am fghdjskgfa"

Grab some water, guys.

Let's start by talking about Steven for a moment. In the original show, when we were following him as a 12-14-year-old, we watched as he built up trauma and then learned how to hide it expertly well, to the point that most of the audience didn't even realize he was struggling.

You can actually pinpoint the seconds he makes those decisions, too. The best example is in "The Test," when he's storming up to the gems. He's pissed. His fists are clenched, he's got that anime eye shadow overlay on his face, he's frowning, all that. the Crystal Gems are clapping for him and lying to his face, and he KNOWS they are because he overheard them talking about how it was "impossible for him to fail" that test (- Garnet).

And yet... he also overheard them saying that they're just trying their best. They don't know what he needs. They never really have. No one is sure. So, Steven realizes that by picking a fight, he would just be making it worse for them because they would know they messed up, and nothing gets solved, and everyone gets more depressed and Amethyst and Pearl go back to fighting each other and- well, you get the picture. He doesn't have a full understanding of what's going on, so his kid brain went "so I can either be angry at them and cause problems, or I can tell them I did a good job to make them happy."

"I can lie to make them happy."

He storms down there angry, still mulling this decision over. He drops to the floor, frowning and pissed, and says "I can't believe you guys." He is so close to yelling at them, and yet, when he looks up at them...

"That was so... INSANE!"

You never would have been able to tell. It was right there. That moment. And then he never stops. For the ENTIRE REST of the series, he NEVER STOPS. He puts the Crystal Gems above himself every time. Think Rose's Scabbard, The Message, The Return/Jailbreak. The Cluster. Peridot. Dealing with Jasper. The zoo arc (ESPECIALLY the zoo arc). Aquamarine. Then pretty much the entirety of Season 5.

(NOTE: I went back and rewatched that scene for the screenshot. There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it lip tremble in there too! D,: )

He lives for the people around him, and not for himself. Almost never for himself.

Put a pin in that.

Now, let's look at his maturity. People thought that was just him being mature, right? That he grew up. No. That was not it at all. He was learning from his own behaviors as well as the people around him, and building up this idea that he had to "fight to be everything that everyone wants [him] to be when [he's] grown" (- Steven, the extended intro).

Yes, he matured, but not because of that. He started making various decisions to benefit the group that oftentimes he wasn't fully comfortable with, but something he believed would be better for everyone.

Put a pin in that.

Then, later in Future, we see it all manifest. He is selfless to a fault, to the point that he can't think of himself in a positive light in the sense that he's good. We see it a couple of times, but especially in "Prickly Pair," when he vents to Cactus Steven about everything that happened. He feels useless, which is taking a toll on his mental health.

"Why do I need to be needed?" He needs to be needed because that's everything he was as a kid. His entire IDENTITY rests on his ability to help other people, no matter what happens to him. He literally sacrificed himself for them countless times (the big one of course being the Aquamarine incident), and now as a teenager, his whole sense of self is wrapped up in this need to get up and do something to make the world better.

And when he can't make the world better, his world falls apart.

Put a pin in that.

Now, let's talk about Spinel, the moment we've all been waiting for.

Spinel, as a gem, was made specifically to be a friend. That is her niche, and her purpose. Her reason for existing. At first, she and Pink Diamond got along very well, as shown in the flashbacks right before Drift Away plays (I headcanon she has illusion powers and was literally projecting her trauma, but that's a completely different post).

She and Pink vibed together for who knows how long, until one day, Pink started to not like being around Spinel anymore, finding her annoying and childish. We don't know what really caused the switch, just that it did happen (but of course, I have headcanons for that, too). Spinel never realized until it was FAR too late.

Steven actually describes his younger self as annoying at one point during the Diamond Days arc, when he decides to throw the ball, so I'm legally allowed to make this comparison.

Steven and Spinel were the SAME. They were both young and dumb, and something that at least a few people found annoying. People put up with their BS though, since they cared about them. But, while Steven realized this and matured because of it (or bottled up his emotions, to each their own), Spinel never did. She never matured. She was never given a chance.

In the movie, we saw her as a child, and watched as she played with Pink and never tried to be or do anything else, to the point that Pink Diamond thought to realize she might be struggling (and maybe Spinel didn't, either!).

She lives for the people around him, and not for herself. Almost never for herself.

And when she can't be friends with this one person, her world falls apart.

Sound familiar? It should. I literally pulled from things I said earlier lol.

Spinel and Steven are mirror reflections of each other. Reset!Spinel is 14-year-old Steven, completely devoting her entire self to one idea. Steven's was helping others no matter what, Spinel's was serving Pink no matter what. Spinel is like a combination of 14 and 12-year-old Steven in this sense, honestly. Goofy, without a care in the world, except one thing: the people around her. She would do anything for Pink, just as Steven would do anything for his family.

Now, Pink Diamond left Spinel. We all know this story. She left Spins there in the garden for 6,000 years because she grew more mature and started a rebellion, effectively forgetting about this one gem she kinda stopped caring about standing there.

Personally, I don't think Pink had any malicious or even intentional intent in that, but this ain't about her. This is about how Spinel continued to sacrifice herself for Pink, even when Pink didn't need her to anymore. She wanted to please Pink 24/7, all day every day, to the point she self-sacrificed and stood perfectly still for her for millenia.

Now, back to Steven. The gems don't need him anymore in Future, right? They've all grown up and matured and headed off towards their own futures, effectively stranding him alone in terms of self-identity and self-worth. But he stays there, ready to assist at the drop of a hat, or- in Future's case- the call of a phone.

Episode 6 anyone? The one everyone says shouldn't be in Future? That it should have been cut to allow more focus on Steven himself? The fusion episode? YEAH. THAT. He is running himself RAGGED to try and help others, to give himself a purpose. He is self-sacrificing. (He's a professional, don't worry. /j)

Steven metaphorically planted his feet down and decided that he was going to devote himself to the people around him.

Spinel's feet were literally tied down soon after she made that very same decision.

Okay, enough with the backstory. Time for the salt.

In Future, Steven is at his lowest low. He is running to the Diamonds for help, to see if there is SOMETHING they can do to help him. And we first see Spinel.

Spinel has been through the ringer on a lot of the same mental problems Steven himself is facing. She self-isolated, watched as everyone grew up and left her, and then began to lash out because of it. She understands what he's going through. We even see her concerned as Steven starts to tell her why he's there.

Spinel takes him from Diamond to Diamond, until he's running out of White's room in a blind panic. Spinel is able to catch up with him, and Steven realizes the same. SHE GETS IT. He turns around and says "Hey, you used to have vengeful thoughts!"

Spinel replies "Ohhhhh yeah, but I don't have 'em anymore."

"How did you make them stop?"

She then goes on to sing Change to him, effectively cutting that conversation short.

On paper, that sounds very in-character for her. She's goofy! And that is what worked for her! But the problem is that they had to dumb her down in order to make that character decision work. In the movie, she was shown to be observant and able to put two and two together, even if she often jumps to conclusions (see her being the one to figure out that the gems needed to remember their "pieces," as she remembers the Garden, her re-realizing what Pink did, and her meltdown later when she reactivates the injector).

Spinel is smart. It should have been in character for her to realize that Steven was panicking just as she had been, and needed to be talked to gently. But no. Instead, she starts belting out Change, which given Steven's situation, would not work for him.

At the very least, she would have started doing little tricks or started trying to get him to join a game, which would have taken his mind off of it (to her anyways, that wouldn't have worked either), which then could have prompted further discussion.

Then, once they finally start talking, Spinel could have been able to share some legitimate advise. She was hurt and lashed out. What worked for her was opening up to others and letting them in, learning to trust again (which Steven also has problems with- he can't trust that the Gems won't break down the second he turns his back. Trust does NOT equal love, there is no doubt he loves them to no end), and allowing other people in.

That is what Steven needed, too. He needed to let his guard down and just talk to someone. Sure, Spinel was not going to be a fix-all, but she could have at least offered some insight on what to do.

She UNDERSTANDS him. They are a reflection of each other.

But instead of offering help, Spinel made it worse. She was dumbed down to allow the rest of Future to happen, to make Steven feel even worse. Because- and here's the kicker- because the one person who MIGHT understand him doesn't, that means there's no hope for him.

At least, that's how he sees it. And so, the denial- and "Everything's Fine"- begins.

Here's the thing, though; they DIDN'T NEED to make that decision. If the Crew wanted to have Spinel not understand Steven, then draw the line of her being a Gem from Era 1, used to the Diamonds shattering people.

Steven has killed Jasper and revived her at this point, so maybe Spinel offers that at least he's trying to get better, just like the other Diamonds! See, they're doing so great now! And then that makes him feel worse since he IS trying to do better, but is only failing, while the Diamonds- who were MADE to be nasty dictators- are doing better than him.

The Diamonds shattered a lot of people, and they're doing better than Steven, who has only shattered one person, and not even on purpose. How horrible is that?

Then boom. THERE'S your angst, with a much smarter, more helpful Spinel.

Look, I knew going in that Spinel wasn't going to be able to help. The finale had to happen somehow, and we hadn't seen Wormy Boi yet. I have always been a storng believer of the corrupted Steven theory, so I knew it was bound to happen. But I was hoping that Spinel would at least try. But she really didn't. She just brushed him off, offering really loose advise that didn't even fit his situation and thinking that would be enough.

No. It's not.

I can see where the Crew was coming from. I still love that episode, and I love seeing Spins in it (until that exact moment). This is probably the only thing in SU that genuinely gets me mad. Or, well, maybe not mad, but definitely annoyed and- you guessed it- salty.

I have an unfinished fic where I kinda delve into Spinel's head for that episode called "A New Start". If you really want my thoughts on where Spinel's head was at, there's a bit in there that really explains it. In the fic, Steven decides to rejuvenate himself and brings Spinel along with him, and that's all the context you need for this.

I cannot explain that moment in the climax of the episode, though. Maybe she thought it would make him feel better, or that maybe he really did just need to open his eyes and see the error of his ways (which doesn't make sense, he KNOWS what he did). Maybe she thought that being silly would help somehow.

But you'd think she'd learn from her time with Pink as she grew more annoyed with her, but apparently not. Or maybe she would realize for a second that being loud and annoying was bad. Or maybe she doesn't learn.

Either way, it- and she- was dumb. And they did my baby dirty.

*drops mic and walks away*