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themaribatpit · 4 years ago

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Jasonette July Day 9: Pixie

Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event

Prompt: Pixie

Rated: T

(By popular demand, a slight continuation of Game On @aespades, @certainmuffinbagelcalzone.)

A/n: Edits have been made because I noticed the paragraph errors AFTER posting this.

Marinette was really starting to miss the days of working with Chat Noir at that moment, and that was saying something. “Bugaboo” and “My Lady” were starting to feel more tolerable when she wasn’t being called that every second of the day. Being called “Pixie” regardless if she was Ladybug or Marinette, was really starting to get old, fast. For reasons that she could not understand, that’s what Jason insisted on calling her. Sure, she was a lot smaller compared to him, but that coupled with needing to hang back and let Red Hood and Arsenal deal out the heavier hits was starting to get on her nerves. She was just as experienced as them, she had a mentor just like they did, and had been saving lives for just as long as they had. Ever since she had joined them, she thought that she would be fighting alongside a team again. Now she was either supporting them or using her sewing skills to add improvements to their suits. She was in good hands, some might say hands that were a little too good. All this frustrated her to no end because she liked Jason, she would have thought that someone who had been a vigilante from a young age would understand what it felt like to be constantly underestimated.

“Unbelievable,” she snapped one night as she came home from another mission. She pulled off her pink flats and threw them across the room as she entered her apartment. She didn’t even get the chance to use her Miraculous, she was effectively closely guarded bait on that last mission. She slumped on the bed in frustration and Tikki hovered over to her, her antenna drooping in concern. “Some days I want to wipe that smile off of that stupid face, just to prove I can.” Marinette grumbled into her pillow. She didn’t hate Jason, she knew that there was some good in him. Roy was the more optimistic and cheerful of the duo, like Jason, he had also been mentored by a more experienced hero. Jason was a lot more reserved and cynical by comparison, though he wasn’t a complete Ice Prince like his brother Damian.

“Maybe it’s because they’ve been doing this for a little bit longer.” Tikki suggested, after Marinette complained about it for the umpteenth time.

“Batgirl and Black Bat are only a few years younger than me,” she reminded her, “and there’s no doubt that they could hold their own in a fight. No one gives them stupid nicknames, just shortened versions of their real names out of costume.” Tikki awkwardly scratched the back of her head. “I bet you that he barely remembers what my real name is.” Marinette was getting increasingly furious at the thought “it’s always ‘Pixie this’ and ‘Pixie that’. I know I’m shorter than him, but I have taken on giant robot dolls, literal monsters, and I once rode a dragon!” Marinette yelled.

Marinette throws a pillow at Tikki, only for it to phase through her. “What does he think I do as Ladybug? Create Christmas presents with my Lucky Charm?!”

At this very unfortunate moment Jason happened to return back to their apartment with Roy in tow. “What’s got you riled up, Pixie Pop?” Jason quipped after seeing the frustrated look on her face. This was the last straw for Marinette, “Stop calling me that! Does it please you to demean me? Does it bring you joy to fucking bully me day in and day out?” Jason and Roy take a step back from Marinette’s outburst. Marinette continues “I have kept Paris safe ever since I was 13, I didn’t have the World's Greatest Detective or a Robin Hood cosplayer helping me. It’s always you two off saving the day while I’m the distraction. Do I have to remind you that I’ve beaten Robin and Red Robin?”

“So have we, right Roy?” Jason says look backwards to Roy. Roy meanwhile was slowly walking backwards with his arms up in surrender.

“Don’t drag me into this please.” Roy pleaded.

Marinette continued her rant, “So why do you keep calling me Pixie Pop like I'm some pet or stuffed animal?” She storms up to Jason and pulls him down to her height by the collar.

Roy sensed the tension and wanted absolutely no part in making it worse, “You know what? I’m gonna go get us some shawarma.”

Jason looked over at Roy “Really, Roy?” A slight scowl made it clear he knew Roy was essentially leaving him to face Marinette’s wrath.

“All I know is that they are open at four in the morning and I’m hungry, so I’ll be right back.” Roy said, and he left the room. Just as he thought Roy was out of earshot, Jason heard sprinting down the hallway. Roy had abandoned him to face the burning blue fire in Marinette’s eyes.

Marinette let go of him, she didn’t need them, she had made that absolutely clear.

“I’m done, I don’t expect you to understand what it’s like to be underestimated all of the time.” she muttered harshly, “to always be kept at arm's length, because no one trusts you to do anything right.”

Marinette had no idea just how deep her words cut him, and Jason couldn’t really blame her. As far as she knew, compared to his brothers, he might as well just be ‘the one with the guns and leather jackets’. He hadn’t really told her about what had happened all those years ago, he didn’t even like to think about it himself. Roy was one of the few people who understood what he’d been through. It was true that both of them started out as sidekicks, maybe the red in their costumes helped them stand out from their mentor’s shadows. Their time as young crime fighters had left their scars. They were blindsided when they found someone who had been a heroine since she was 13, and took to it with the same determination they had when they were younger, more innocent, more naïve.

As Marinette flitted around the room, gathering her things, every nerve in Jason’s body was screaming at him to stop her. He reached out and grabbed her by the arm, trying not to think about just how small it felt around his hand. “Look, I’m sorry,” he began. What could he say to her? That he knew exactly what that felt like? That the last thing they wanted was for her to end up like them? That every hit they took in a fight was one that she wouldn’t have to, so that she wouldn’t turn out broken like they were? The problem was she didn’t see them as broken, she saw them treating her like glass. If she was put through the same ordeal, Jason had no idea what he would do. If she shattered just like they did, then in a way, they would have failed her. If she came out still whole, still brimming with light, then what did that say about them?

Marinette pulled her arm away, “I’ll show you, then you’ll be sorry” she told him bitterly. With her backpack in hand and shoes on her feet, she pushed past him and walked out the door.

Jason remains staring at the open door, regretting how he had treated her. He grew fond of her during their time together as ‘Red Arse Bug’. She had a cute face, cute voice and she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. “Stupid, stupid” he says to himself, facepalm at each syllable. Even with the now hostile relationship with Marinette, he knew he had to follow her. He had to stop her from making the same mistakes he did, so that she would not become like him. He put on his helmet and left to search for clues as to where Marinette would go and what she would do.

Marinette wandered through Gotham city, unsure what to do now that she stormed out of the apartment she shared with Jason and Roy. She felt like everyone belittled her, Selena did, and now so did Jason. She needed to do something eye-catching, to prove to everyone that she didn’t need their help.

As she wanders past the Iceberg Lounge, she gets a spark of inspiration. If she could take down the Penguin single-handedly, nobody in Gotham would doubt her ever again. With unyielding determination she calls out “Spots On” and turns to Ladybug, ready to take on one of the cruelest crime lords in all of Gotham. Ladybug walks up to the front door and kicks it down, sending the door flying and knocking any unfortunate goons behind it. Penguin’s gang whipped out their guns, tire irons, pipes and anything that could count as a weapon and were now charging in to stop the intruder.

Marinette swings her yo-yo to wrap around one of the goon’s ankles, before swinging him around crashing him into several others. A guard points his rifle behind Ladybug, she spins around, sending her yo-yo towards the gun and pulling it from his hands. As the guards begin to group up together in an attempt to minimise the effectiveness of her yo-yo, Marinette looks up and begins to smirk. She flings her yo-yo upwards and hooks it onto a chandelier. She yanks it down, sending the chandelier crashing onto the unsuspecting guards.

Marinette dusts her hands and proceeds to walk through into the main hall. She proceeds to kick down that door too, she is then greeted by The Penguin surrounded by his gang. “I’m taking you down Cobblepot.” She shouts, swinging her yo-yo as if it was a lasso, preparing for a fight.

The Penguin stands up from the seat of his large chair. “What are all you idiots waiting for?” He shouts all around him. He points his umbrella at Ladybug, and begins shooting his umbrella gun. “Get her!” The penguin roars, at this cue every gangster charges at Ladybug.

Marinette gracefully dodges and weaves around Penguin’s army, knocking each one out one by one. Until only The Penguin remains, she wraps her yo-yo around his umbrella, easily disarming one of Gotham’s most wanted. She walks towards The Penguin, slowly unravelling her yo-yo in anticipation of tying him up and sending him to Arkham Asylum.

The Penguin takes out a little remote control from his suit pocket, “It's not over yet.” he snarls and pushes a button. At that moment the entire building shakes.

“Born on a Monday” a voice groaned, followed by another loud thud. “Christened on a Tuesday.” the same voice groaned. Then a giant hand shoots up from beneath the floor, “SOLOMON GRUNDY” roared the giant as it emerged from the floor.

Red Hood and Arsenal had been watching the fight from a careful distance outside the Iceberg Lounge. “Well, she’s managed to take on Penguins goons just fine,” Arsenal observed through the small pair of binoculars, “she’s certainly had plenty of time to get very creative with that yo-yo”.

Red Hood’s hand was still itching to reach for one of his pistols, ready to jump in at the first sign of trouble. “By the way, how was your shawarma?” he asked sarcastically.

Arsenal looked over at him, raising an eyebrow “Hey, I’m not the one who said the one thing that just made her angrier, you were on your own there.”

“Nice to know you had my back.” he grumbled.

“Oh I do in a fight, you just decided to be an ass and poke the angry girl with a stick.” Arsenal pointed out.

Their banter was interrupted by an earth shattering thud, following a loud groan “Born on a Monday.” At that moment their blood ran cold. Red Hood and Arsenal rushed towards the Iceberg Lounge. Both worried for Ladybug and aware of what comes after that dreadful nursery rhyme.

“What are you two doing here? I can handle this.” growled Ladybug as Red Hood and Arsenal arrived.

Before either Red Hood or Arsenal could answer, they were interrupted by Solomon Grundy smashing the ground where Ladybug was standing. Ladybug gracefully dodged the punch, grappling onto a ceiling lamp to swing towards Grundy with a kick.

The giant grabbed Ladybug while she was mid-air and threw her towards her partners. Red Hood catches her, holding her tightly as the two fly across the room. He shields her from the shock, taking the brunt of the impact as they crash into the wall.

Red Hood groans “You okay?” Ladybug looks up to see she was relatively unharmed, but Red Hood had taken the brunt of the throw. Concern visible on her face as she sees Red Hood’s damaged helmet, and the bruised and bloodied face beneath.

Their quiet moment together was interrupted by Arsenal's cries for help. Every arrow he had in his quiver wasn’t making a dent in Solomon Grundy. Ladybug decides to cast Lucky Charm in desperation, and swings her yo-yo up. The ladybugs converge to form...a polka-dotted stick of dynamite.

“Arsenal!” She called. “Tie this to the end of an arrow, Red Hood and I will keep it busy.” She tosses the dynamite to Arsenal and tells Red Hood to tie Grundy down.

Ladybug using her yo-yo grabs on to Solomon Grundy’s left arm while Red Hood uses his grappling hook to hold on to his right arm. Leaving Grundy exposed and immobile, giving Arsenal the opportunity for a clear unobstructed target.

Arsenal draws and aims the special Lucky Charm Explosive Arrow. The giant zombie growls “Arrow Boy no hurt Grundy.”

“Arrow Boy yes hurt Grundy” quipped Arsenal, before releasing the arrow causing a thunderous explosion into Solomon Grundy’s face. The giant slumps, Ladybug and Red Hood quickly release their hold and watch its body fall back into the hole in which it came from.

Solomon Grundy’s body lays motionless in the basement of the Iceberg Lounge as the three peer over the hole in the ground, “Let’s get outta here before the GCPD or worse, Batman arrive” Red Hood points to the front door, and the three of them leave the lounge to head back to their apartment.

As the three arrive home, they each find a nice comfortable spot to collapse onto. Jason claimed the sofa, slumped down Roy in the middle of the living room floor and Marinette sat at the dining table. “I vote for a week off.” groaned Roy.

“I second that motion” agreed Jason.

“I still have design work to do.” Marinette told them, not really looking at either of them at that moment. She was torn between appreciating their help, and frustrated that she hadn’t been able to handle the situation herself like she thought.

“Still that was one hell of a fight, and hey, you still managed to take on a squad of goons by yourself.” Roy said, “I’m so proud” he said dramatically pretending to wipe away a happy tear.

He nudged Jason in the leg, “um, yeah, good work” he said awkwardly, slightly lost in thought. Marinette smiled slightly, before turning her attention back to her little fairy friend perched on the table.

“So does this mean Red Arse Bug is back together?” Roy asked enthusiastically, Marinette wasn’t really paying attention.

The name still needed work, for one thing. For once Marinette felt like her powers were being used in harmony with their abilities, but she wasn’t sure if it was a feeling that she should get used to. Marinette could still vividly remember seeing Jason’s bruised and bloodied face beneath his helmet. Jason stood up and walked over to the fridge, looking for ice to dull the swelling on his face.

“Not with that name,” Jason grumbled, not entirely sure if Marinette was willing to stay after their argument. Someday, somehow, he would tell her the full story of what happened to him. Right now, that was a whole Pandora’s Box that he just wasn’t prepared to open. Nestled at the bottom of that box was hope, a hope that no one else would meet that same fate.

“...Lucky Shot?” Marinette suggested as she carried Tikki over to the sofa and sat down. Both Jason and Roy looked up, it made some sense, seeing as they both used projectiles and she had her lucky charms. Jason tentatively made his way back to the sofa, ice pack in hand.

“Sounds better than ‘Red Arse Bug’.” Jason remarked, as he sat back down.

“Well, let’s see if our little adventure made the news” Roy said, as he reached for the TV remote. Jason tuned out Vicki Vale’s voice as she reported on the fight that took place at the Iceberg Lounge.

As Roy slept at their feet, Jason knew if they were going to continue working together as a team, they couldn’t keep her in the dark any longer.

“Hey Marinette.” Jason speaks softly. Marinette's ears perk in surprise, hearing speak her name for the first time. “I’m sorry, for what I said and how we treated you. You’re right.” He gestures to the sleeping Roy on the floor, “Both of us started out as sidekicks, we both grew up in the shadows of Batman and Green Arrow. Both old men with impossibly high standards, everything we did was never enough.” Marinette listened intently as she shuffled closer to him on the sofa. “We’ve both been to hell and back, Marinette. Literally in my case.” he explained, Marinette glanced down at Tikki for a moment, as if silently asking if her magic was somehow involved in this. “But always remember, we have each other’s backs, just like The Three Musketeers.” Jason told her, Marinette giggles at his literary reference.

“Roy’s Porthos, you’re Aramis, I guess that makes me D’Artagnan.” Marinette chimes. Jason loved to see that hopeful smile on her face. What scared him the most was the idea that something or someone would try and take that away from her. They couldn’t keep treating her like glass, and they couldn’t keep treating her like a sidekick if they wanted to keep her from making their mistakes. They were all going to fight like hell to make sure this world didn’t break her the way it broke them. Marinette leaned in close and rested her head on his shoulder. He felt her calm even breathing, fanning his neck as she slept peacefully at his side.

#jasonette #jasonettejuly2021 #maribat #ml x dc

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whooshwinks · 5 years ago

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Obey Me Brothers as Social Media (Pt. 1)

Lucifer

Of course, we all know that Lucifer would be Facebook.

He seems nice at first, but beware, he would have no problem going behind your back and selling your personal information and data.

He has spied on you through your D.D.D a few times. (That’s because you weren’t doing your tasks…)

His humor is very, well outdated. It’s not like he wants to research what the younger generation of humans now find ‘funny’. He doesn’t have the time and would rather stick to his sense of humor. Even if it’s hard to tell when he’s making a joke or not.

He also has strong political views, and it’s very hard to change his views when he has made up his mind about something. Especially humans, good luck with that.

Lucifer has been caught numerous of times in multi-billion grimm lawsuits, but with his smooth mouth (and with the help of Diavolo) he has been able to wiggle his way out consequences and keep Diavolo and himself in the graces of the public eye.

Mammon

I’m not sure if you were expecting this, but Mammon would be TikTok.

It would make sense, since all the rich boys and girls are always making the lamest video trying to stupidly stunt their wealth and fame.

Also, the large portion of TikTok boys desperately trying to achieve fame by pushing their hair back, biting their bottom lip and dangling their golden chains in front of the camera. Mammon would be that. No– Rather, Mammon is that.

Mammon obviously thinks that he is hot, I mean how are you not stunned by The Great Mammon’s beauty? He’ll always try to prove it! Though, he always make a fool of himself trying to look sexy, because he’s actually a cute bumbling fool.

Obviously, we all know that Mammon would bury all the posts from poor people. Only the best of the best could be displayed from The Great Mammon! Oh god, the backlash he received when everyone found out about it.

Most people have a love/hate relationship with him, people always say that they hate him at first…But as time goes on they slowly get more addicted to him, it always works like a charm baby! (As in the main story, *coughs*)

Mammon will always start the weirdest trends. Rather it be doing something completely dangerous, that will always land you in some sort of trouble, possibly hurting yourself in the process. Or, some weird stuff that will be so bad it’s funny.

As for the meme side of Mammon? Well, we all know that Mammon is a chaotic g o d. He will always try to do something stupid while getting his brothers involved.

The one time he tried to involve Lucifer…The one time…We don’t talk about that.

Leviathan

Of course, Leviathan would be Discord. No of course he would be 4chan...The hell were you expecting?

Of course, Leviathan is the absolute G O D of 4Chan. He gets on the forums every single day and talks about TSL in long, long paragraphs. Non-stop ranting, talking, fanboying.

There a now a bunch of weird, introverted loners just like him on this God Forsaken website. He would stay bunched up in his room for a ungodly amount of hours, even more than usual. Just because he was fighting with another idiot about who has more Ruri-Chan figures, and who was the bigger fan. (Of course, it was him.)

Of course, Leviathan doesn’t really understand how to set up a website, and how to properly keep all the creeps off of it. He never really expected to blow up as much as he did, as he didn’t expect there to be so many people out there just like him. So, it soon spiraled out of control.

Leviathan didn’t place any rules on his site either, because pfft. Only normies need rules right? And everyone would get along and be fine, so he saw no need for them.

He never really noticed the other forums forming about different topics, he always stayed close with his own topics and stayed specifically in there. He never really noticed how bad the other people on the website were getting out on control with their content.

It took his brothers confronting him about what was really happening for him too take notice, and even then, he still didn’t believe it until he had to look for himself.

I got lazy, please help me through giving ideas all the other brothers will be! What will Diavolo be, if you wanna include him? See you next time. ^^

(This is a repost from my OM blog since it flopped last time, oof.)

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shadowed-dancer · 4 years ago

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My Thoughts on the New MHA Opening and Ending

I have thoughts, and I will share them because oh boy if I don’t get this out I’m gonna explode

Vague Spoilers for the manga (up to chapter 258 and vigilantes) because I discuss the upcoming arcs, but I don’t discuss any major plot points in detail. Still, proceed with caution if you’re anime only

Keep in mind, this OP and ED will cover the Endeavour Agency Arc and the MVA Arc, so I will be judging them accordingly.

First, the OP

This is a good OP... in theory (that’s going to become my catchphrase for this post). It’s nice to look at and flows pretty well, but my biggest problem is that it doesn’t do it’s job. An OP is supposed to be a sort of... summary (?) of the Cour it plays for. That means any cool plot points, emotional beats, and important characters should be featured in some way, shape, or form. We’ll talk about that more later, but first let’s discuss the music.

The song is really good. I have a feeling it will continue to grow on me as I listen to it more often, but yeah my first impression is that the song sounds great. My only complaint about the music itself is that it ends kind of abruptly (I noticed this is the JT opening too). The previous openings used to have a bit of instrumental to “play us out” and lead us to the end card, but this one feels like it ends very suddenly and unnaturally.

As for the visuals...

Yeah alright I’ll admit, the visuals are stunning... in theory. I appreciate the variety in backgrounds and colours, it makes the OP really interesting to look at. This was actually one of my biggest problems with the JT Opening, it all took place on the training grounds, so there was no variety (everything was metal tubes with a blue sky, with only 3 shots set somewhere different). I appreciate the style of this OP.

But like I said, that’s only in theory, as in, through screenshots these are all pleasing to look at. The pacing of this OP is wild, and I truly don’t know who to blame for this.

That sunset shot above? It lasts approximately 12 seconds, zooming in every few to make it seem like something is happening (when in reality it’s still the same poses, angles, etc). While there’s nothing wrong with a nice, drawn out shot, it becomes irritating when compared to the pacing of the rest of this op.

At the 41 second mark, we are given the shot above. It has flowed directly from the previous sunset scene. We still have not moved away from the image of the trio (aside from the opening shot and the title card) yet we’re approaching the halfway mark of the OP.

The next shot is the MLA, which lasts about 5 seconds. Ok, perfect. Not too long, but also not short enough to be confusing. It cuts away a little fast once the dude on the far left appears, but does anyone actually know who that is? No, seriously, I’m asking. I don’t remember his name and he’s not on the wiki, so I can only assume he’s not important. Therefore, it’s not all that bad if the shot cuts away shortly after he comes into frame. The audience is able to take in the scene without having to pause...

... And then the problems start

While this shot is fine in theory, it pans up fast and cuts away quickly. You know how hard it was for me to get this screenshot? Really hard. You want to know why I struggled so much? Because, due to the timing of the cut and the way it pans upwards, it’s almost impossible to pause on Dabi’s face. I literally had to go frame by frame to get it, because he’s in shot for so little time that naturally pausing is guaranteed to miss him.

When watching this in real time (without pausing) the cut away makes you feel as if you missed something because “something was there, I just couldn’t register what because now it’s gone”. Unlike Compress, who wears a very colourful coat you can recognize the entire time, Dabi’s pants are more blended into the background.

It also doesn’t help that this shot is literally composed to draw your attention away from Dabi until the last possible second. Due to framing, your eye is naturally drawn to the brightly coloured Toga in the foreground, making it super easy to miss Dabi in the back (until, of course, his bright face appears and contrasts against the background, drawing your eye just in time for the scene to change, leaving you to wonder who or what you missed).

I know this sounds like nitpicking, but this shot is the only group shot we get of the League, and is also the start of a seriously weird trend for the villains in this OP getting the short end of the stick.

Anyways, then we get what I’ll call “The Carousel Shot” in which every Class 1A kid shows up and poses dramatically, as if they were on a carousel. It’s a lovely sequence and I really enjoy watching it but... why is it in this OP?

Seriously, this is a genuine question. Class 1A barely shows up in the Endeavour Agency Arc, and NONE of the students are in MVA. This sequence (not counting the three boys at the end) lasts 8 seconds. Why is this much time dedicated to characters who are barely in the arc? (Unless Studio Bones extends their work studies into fuller plot lines which oh my gosh please don’t do that, or if they do, do it quick).

We then get what I call the “Oh God I Blinked And Missed Everything” sequence, which lasts 3 seconds (not including the longer, moving shot of Shigaraki at the end) and features NINE INDIVIDUAL IMAGES, none of which are related to each other. Not only is this 3 images per second, but the fact that they are all unrelated means you can’t even use previous information to fill in the blanks.

What do I mean by that? Well, imagine if I show you 9 images of various pro heroes posing. If I play that in 3 seconds you’ll absolutely miss some of them, but as long as you catch some you’ll still get an idea of what I’m trying to show to you. Your brain is able to fill in the gaps that “I recognized 4 pro heroes, therefore the rest must have also been pros” even if you didn’t register every single frame.

That doesn’t work if every frame features a completely different subject. The shots in this sequence vary so widely that it’s impossible to find a through line. Some feature multiple characters, some feature one, some are closeups, some are super far away, some are character’s we know, others are characters we don’t. It’s impossible to get a solid read on what you’re being shown.

Now, again, there’s nothing wrong with these super quick shots... in theory. The problem comes from the fact that these shots are the only indicators for some of the major themes that will be explored during this Cour (like Twice’s growth and young Shigaraki).

That being said, let’s move away from criticism and talk about speculation, because hidden amongst this sequence are two... interesting images.

This All Might one is very reminiscent of the shot in Chapter 257, where Aizawa and All Might have a conversation while staring up at the stars. However, this is technically the start of the “War Arc” (or the “prologue”, if that’s what you want to call it), so this might indicate that we’re going to get farther into the series than a lot of us guessed.

(Many people suspected we’d get to that cliffhanger at the start of the season (if you read the manga you know the one), but after seeing the pacing for JT a lot of us assumed we’d be lucky to even finish Endeavour Agency. It seems we’re back to the cliffhanger now though lol).

This is another really interesting shot because it’s indicative of Shirakumo, meaning we might get to see Aizawa and Mic confront him some time this Cour (this also makes sense, since this confrontation technically happens before that All Might scene I mentioned in the previous paragraph).

But the cat specifically is a really strange addition. That cat is named Sushi and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Sushi is ever mentioned in the main series. I think he’s only in Vigilantes.

This might just be a little Easter Egg for Vigilante readers, but I’m personally hoping that they’ll add at least a few Vigilante shots in there to really tug at the heart strings. I’d say I want a whole Vigilante episode but I don’t think they have the time (unless they really cram MVA, which I do NOT want).

I don’t have much to say about the last bit of the OP. The action shot between the 3 boys was nice, and it follows the sort of narrative through line they established from the early shot of them sitting at the sunset. I also like the shot of Endeavour fading in to replace All Might, even if it’s very simple.

But I want to talk about an overarching problem I touched upon earlier in that villain shot: the way the villains are handled in this OP.

This is a good OP... in theory. The problem is, it doesn’t represent half the arcs in the cour! Every shot of the League is so rushed that you can barely register that they were on screen before they’re gone.

I have no idea how many Episodes Endeavour Agency will take, but I’d assume 3 (4 if you count the Christmas episode). 12 episodes for this Cour minus 3 for Endeavour Agency = 9 episodes left. If we truly do get the prologue for the War Arc (and if we assume it’s only 1 episode) that leaves us with 8 villains episodes.

8/12 episodes (aka two thirds of the Cour) will likely be about the villains. And yet they’re pushed to the background so hard in this OP.

I want to dream, and I want to believe that this OP is going to magically change when MVA starts. The song fits super well, and I can imagine like an inversion of the OP but from the Villain side! Wouldn’t that be neat? Imagine right after the “it’s alright” part Shigaraki just freaking decays the title card... oh man that would be so cool. But, alas, I highly doubt they’d do that.

Side rant, but you know what was so fun about MVA in the manga? It’s that, for 21 chapters, we leave the kids behind and the villains become our protagonists. Suddenly Shigaraki is the one we’re rooting for, suddenly we’re learning backstories for everyone, and suddenly we find ourselves just as attached to the villains as we are to the kids. It’s an inversion that’s SO RARE to find, and I think many people (myself included) were hoping it would be reflected in the OP.

A big part of being the protagonist means featuring heavily in the OP, and a lot of us just wanted the villains to get that honour, even if only once. As is, the OP still treats them as the antagonists when... really they aren’t. Not right now, at least.

So yeah, final thoughts on the OP are that it’s good, it’s just not very representative of the arcs it’s supposed to cover. If this was just for Endeavour Agency, I’d say it’s actually really cool, but if we assume that this is what will play for the Villain Arc, then it simply doesn’t do it’s job. And it makes me sad to say that because, again, this OP is really well done.

If I had to rate it? Hmmm

If Studio Bones actually grants my wish and creates a different visual for the Villain Arc (while using the same song) and then this version only plays for the Endeavour Agency Arc and the War Prologue? I’d give it an 8/10. It’s really good, but it could use a few more elements that are clearly derived from the Agency Arc (ahem, Todoroki siblings).

But if this is the OP that will play for the entire Cour? a 6.5/10. It’s nice, but it’s not representative of one of the arcs it’s going to cover. And, unlike other arcs like Pro Hero or Summer Exams, the villain Arc is so important and takes up so much time that it honestly feels like a bit of a disservice.

Now for the Ending

I want to say that I appreciate how soft this ending starts. This cour will likely feature a lot of episodes that end on... heavier themes, and I think the sight of peaceful, falling raindrops is the perfect way to let the audience process their emotions before starting the ending in earnest.

The song itself is very nice, and I like that it’s a bit slower than the more recent endings.

(Side note, but the FUNNIEST moment in the entire series is when Sir Nighteye dies because it’s so emotional and everyone is standing around his bed in his heartwrentching silence, only for the ending to come BLARING IN out of no where. If you forgot how jarringly hilarious it was, go listen to the Eri ending and tell me that’s not the funniest thing this series ever did. Anyways yeah I’m glad that’s not gonna happen this Cour).

This ending is a bit all over the place in terms of it’s visuals, but honestly I think it works. Most endings usually have a theme tying them together (all the Class 1A girls, a fantasy AU, old photographs, planning a party, etc) but this ending’s theme is a bit harder to identify.

That being said, I think it’s just supposed to show everyone going about their day. It’s calm, it’s peaceful, and it’s just very sweet to think about

I like this shot. Actually, scratch that, I like this whole sequence. I enjoy anything that allows Class 1A to chill and have fun.

Hawks is featured quite heavily in this ending which, fair. He’s pretty important in this arc.

I really love the shot where Endeavour immediately switches to Hawks, I thought that was a lot of fun, and very good symbolism on how Hawks wants to be like Endeavour. I also love all the shots of Baby Hawks, because it’s adorable.

Something about this shot is just so cute. It’s the little domestic things like waiting for a bus that make this ending feel... idk the word, real? It shows a side of the characters that we’ll never see in the episodes, but we know have to exist.

Like yes, of course the kids have to wait for the bus. We never see it, but of course there are those moments of quiet. Agh, I love it.

The villains also make an appearance and I’m very happy about that (I’d love to see more of the villains just chilling around, I think they deserve it). I kind of wish they weren’t sitting in a dark room for the sake of being edgy, since I think it would be nice to see the villains just... sort of existing, but honestly it’s still a nice shot. I also like how this shot sort of mirrors the first one with Class 1A (someone coming in while everyone else is sitting and waiting for them).

That being said, as much as I love looking at Dabi and his stupid face (affectionate)... why is Dabi the one getting the closeup?

Mind you, endings don’t need to be connected to their Cours (they can be, like the Eri one, but they don’t have to be). But this ending does seem to be connected to the arcs it intends to cover, given all the Hawks appearances, the boys wearing their work study scarves, etc.

So, I ask again, why Dabi? Out of the six League members, we learn the backstory for four of them in this arc (Shigaraki, Toga, Twice, and we very briefly learn about Spinner). The only two left out are Dabi and Compress.

I can only assume they chose Dabi because he’s constantly in contact with Hawks, and therefore that makes him important? If the OP told us anything, it’s that Bones values the Endeavour Agency Arc over the Villain Arc lol...

... Oh my gosh please tell me that’s not actually the reason Dabi is focused on here BONES WAI-

Anyways, the ending comes to a close with Hawks watching over the kids and Endeavour. The relaxing time is done, it’s time for work studies.

Overall impression? It’s great. It’s hard to screw up an ending, so as long as you have something pretty on screen, it’s wonderful.

I’ll give this a 9/10

#bnha #bnha season 5 #dabi #keigo takami #bnha season five #katsuki bakugo #shoto todoroki #mha season 5 #mha season five #bnha op #bnha opinions #izuku midoriya #bnha hawks #ok to reblog #actually yes please do reblog if you found this interesting #I worked hard on it

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infinite-xerath · 4 years ago

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Runeterra Retcons 4: Varus

Unlike the other Champions I’ve covered, Varus’s history is surprisingly straightforward. He was released all the way back in 2012 and, as far as I can recall, was the first Champion to ever receive any sort of major promotional material in the form of a short comic. He’s very straight-forward in both concept and design: a man willing to sell his soul, his very humanity, for revenge on the people who took everything from him. Given that this was before Kalista was added to the game, Varus had little choice but take matters into his own hands by bargaining with a vaguely-defined Eldritch being who would give him the power he needed in exchanged for taking over his body.

Original lore here

Varus’s lore is a very traditional revenge story, albeit with a slightly interesting twist in that he is the maker of his own tragedy. Varus opted to place his duty over the well-being of family and, in the process, was unable to even TRY to protect them while his village was being reduced to burning rubble. Out of grief and rage Varus turned to bargaining with the very entity he fought so hard to keep confined now that he no longer has anything to lose.

I and many others liked Varus’s story, and to be honest, Riot could have honestly just kept him more-or-less the same when they updated him post-retcon. Just remove the mention of the League and maybe better-define what the black flames were, and you’d be good. In fact, Riot technically did the former, as his second lore is basically identical save for removing any mention of the League of Legends.

Now, it’s at this point that things start to get a little more complicated. Now, if you want a more comprehensive breakdown of the Darkin and their history, I advise you go check out the part centered around Aatrox and his long and convoluted history, but tldr: the Darkin were a race of beings of whom only five remained, and it was later confirmed with Rhaast that they’re specifically a race of living weapons with the ability to possess whoever wields them. Now, while Varus was specifically possessed by an ominous black flame called Pallas, many drew parallels between him and the other Darkin characters, especially since Varus’s also seemed to be alive.

Given that the flames were never really elaborated on or given a proper origin story, Riot decided that it would probably be best to just go ahead and retcon Varus into being a Darkin as well, and nobody had any real qualms with this. It was a common fan theory for years, so why not? Just change the story a bit so that the flames were actually just a Darkin bow all along and boom, you’ve pretty-much done all you needed to properly fit Varus into the new post-reboot Runeterra.

Well, apparently Riot did not feel this way, as it was with Varus’s 2017 retcon that they decided to finally give fans a proper origin story for who and what the Darkin were. That origin story goes a little something like this.

Alright, so Varus is now an alien. They decided to make Varus himself the Darkin, rather than the man who would later claim the bow. OK, that’s fine. I mean, the whole alien thing is kinda weird and still very vaguely explained, but again, my full thoughts on the history of the Darkin as a whole can be seen in the Aatrox analysis. What I think is most important here is that Riot made an attempt, however sloppy, to explain who and what the Darkin were and finally give context to why Aatrox and Rhaast are such big threats to the world.

Now, it’s the next change that got a lot of controversy around it. Rather than just change the name of the Ionian guard who let Varus possess him, the guy who lost his family to the Noxian invasion, Riot decided to replace him with a pair of entirely new characters: Valmar and Kai, a duo of gay Ionian hunters.

Now, I’m just gonna get this out of the way: I’ve got no real qualms about gay relationships in media. Hell, we have a few LGBT Champions in the game already, and even some in the broader expanse of the world. My main gripe comes from the introduction of Valmar and Kai themselves, and how they’re just sort of these… Nothing characters. I mean, in the first lore, we knew who Varus was. We may not have known him well, but we could at least get a general sense of his character: he was proud of his skill, committed to the duty given to him even at the risk of his family, but ultimately succumbed to grief and rage when his decision caused him to lose everything he held dear. Varus was a good man warped by the loss of his home and loved ones, and that made him a fairly compelling character.

Valmar and Kai are… Two gay hunters. That’s it. That’s literally all we know about them from the bio alone. I mean, yes, Riot released a comic to further expand on these characters, but if your answer to the questions raised in your story are “go and read this extra supplementary material for context,” that’s… A problem.

On the topic of supplementary material, Riot also released a music video about Varus. It’s… OK. I personally don’t care much for the song but the visuals alone are really well-done. It’s supposed to detail the conflict between Valmar, Kai and Varus, but most of the context behind it is explained in the comic and short story.

Honestly, Varus’s retcon is kind of baffling. I mean, he didn’t receive a visual rework, his kit remained pretty-much the same as it’s always been, and he doesn’t even have any new voice lines in-game to indicate that he’s three different guys all stuck in one body. In fact, people who play him in-game without reading the lore probably wouldn’t ever be able to guess as much. Riot went to so much effort promoting Varus’s lore update with a music video, a new bio, a new color story, and a three-part comic, but they really haven’t changed anything about him in the game itself. They put more effort into him than they do for most ACTUAL Champion VGU’s. So… Why?

Admittedly, this is where I’m going to delve a bit into conspiracy theory territory, but I genuinely believe this is a case of Riot trying to push League’s first openly queer relationship. Seriously, Valmar and Kai are the first time a character in League has been confirmed gay IN THE LORE ITSELF and not just through a random tweet. Now, the word “pandering” gets thrown around a lot these days, and I don’t really like to use it, but it really does feel like Valmar and Kai were added JUST to have a confirmed gay couple in the lore.

The fact that they’re not even acknowledged IN THE GAME ITSELF really makes the whole thing feel like an attempt to just appeal to the LGBT crowd, though I’ve seen plenty of people in that community react… Less than positively to the portrayal. I mean, two gay guys are literally trying to hold back a corruptive, even influence with the power of love. I don’t wanna delve too much into the political side of things here, but that’s honestly about as cliché and stereotypical as you can get. Fans in general were extremely displeased that the man they knew as Varus, this genuinely tragic figure from the original lore, was replaced by two guys who’s only defining character trait is how much they apparently love each other.

Apparently, these complaints came through loud and clear, as Riot would update Varus one final time after deciding to retcon the whole alien plotline. So, let’s have a look at how his current, canon bio handles him.

Alright, well… Riot heard the complaints, but whether or not they fixed him is another matter. It seems like they tried to give Varus back his original origin story, basically making the archer we new from his first bio Shuriman. The problem is that there’s significantly less context for him now; we don’t know anything about his family, we don’t know why the temple he’s guarding is so important, and the story never even explicitly states that his family died!

I guess it’s implied because the Ascended acknowledged his “sacrifice,” though him being rewarded by becoming a demigod doesn’t quite have the same impact as exchanging his life and soul for a shot at revenge. On top of that, Varus seems pretty quick to give up on the whole “sacred duty” thing, despite the story claiming that being the thing he “he held above all else.” It all feels like a botched effort to mix his original bio with the new Ascended lore that Riot tied in with the Darkin.

Then, of course, there’s Valmar and Kai, who are… Still just gay hunters. They haven’t been expanded on at all. They helped drive the Noxians off from their home, Kai was apparently wounded, and Valmar decides that dipping his lover in an ominous pool of evil to save his life is a bad idea. Seriously, the bio states that they “inadvertently” freed Varus, but there was nothing accidental about it! There was no bargain, they weren’t tricked, it was literally just one guy making a stupid decision that got him fused with his lover and an ancient evil being.

Also, can we address the fact that Varus still wants to avenge the destruction of his race? Who does he want to avenge? The other Ascended? The Ascended who literally warred with each other for centuries? The same Ascended that HE FOUGHT AGAINST during the civil war for control of Shurima? Did Riot just… Forget that he’s not an alien anymore in that brief paragraph? They stated earlier that he was a cruel, merciless killer who just went to slaughter whoever he was told to slaughter, so for some reason I don’t feel like he’d care all that much about his “race” being felled. Oh, and there’s also still the unnamed warrior queen, who I THINK is meant to be a precious Aspect of the Sun? It’s never really stated in the bio itself.

Alright, enough ranting. Varus’s current lore suffers from one major fault: it is trying way too hard to tell several stories all at once. It tells the story of Varus as a human, Varus as an Ascended, Varus as a Darkin, the “story” of Valmar and Kai, and how they got fused with Varus. The writers tried way too hard to cram everything into a single bio and, as a result, nothing is elaborated on. Nothing is really explained, we don’t get to know the characters who are involved in the gestalt entities now known as Varus, and reason for his current existence AS a gestalt entity are just kinda silly, if we’re being honest.

So, how can we fix this? I admit: this was a tough one. There were a lot of different directions I could go when rewriting Varus’s lore, but I decided to take the Kayn approach, where the human host in the focus of the bio. Originally, I did have a whole bio written out for Varus and how he became an Ascendant, but I ultimately realized that I was going to run into the same issue Riot did: trying to cram way too much into a single character overview. So, instead, I chose to focus in more on the story of Valmar and Kai, and how the Darkin Bow was freed after ages of confinement. Without any further ado, please enjoy.

For years, the Darkin Bow has remained confined within the Ionian city of Pallas. The bow’s true nature has long been lost to time, though legends say it holds the spirit of an ancient god from a vast desert land. Others claim that the bow itself is something much older and viler than history itself dares to remember. Whatever the truth may be, the people have Pallas have guarded the bow for generations, choosing only their most skilled warriors from the task. Among them, none seemed better-suited for the task than Kai and Valmar.

Kai and Valmar were inseparable since they were children. Kai, a prodigy marksman, was known for his sense of humor and fierce resolve. Though infamous for his pranks, Kai would never hesitate to step in and defend someone in need, no matter how poorly the odds stood in his favor. By contrast, Valmar had trained in the ways of swordsmanship since he was old enough to grip a blade. Diligent and studious, Valmar was what many considered a model samurai in the making, yet he was also unendingly curious about the world and the many wonders it held.

At a glance, Kai and Valmar seemed near-total opposites, yet the two formed an unbreakable bond from the day they met. Kai would often accompany Valmar to explore the surrounding wilderness, only for Valmar to shelter Kai whenever one of his pranks went awry. As each boy matured, mastering the bow and blade respectively, their bond became something deeper than simple friendship. Valmar was a part of Kai, and Kai a part of Valmar. Neither was complete without the other, and so it came as little surprise that when Valmar was chosen to guard the Temple of the Bow, Kai soon followed.

Together, Valmar and Kai drove off many would-be thieves seeking to claim the cursed weapon’s power as their own. The two fought as one, each arrow from Kai’s bow in perfect sync with every swing of Valmar’s blade. Eventually, they came to be known as the Locust and Mantis, for the whirring of Kai’s arrows and the elegance of Valmar’s blade. It was believed that none could stand up to their combined might… Until the Noxians came.

From their post at the temple, Valmar and Kai watched in horror as the invaders stormed their home, setting fires and killing anyone who dared to stand in their way. For the first time, two warriors found themselves at odds; Kai wished to help defend the people of Pallas, but Valmar insisted on protecting the temple. In the end, neither had much choice in the matter, for the Noxians soon had them cornered on the temple steps.

Valmar and Kai fought for hours, their combined might slowly waning against the invaders’ onslaught. Kai’s strength was the first to give out, yet before death could reach him, Valmar stepped in the way to shield his partner from the blow of a Noxian axe. Kai watched in horror as Valmar fell to the ground, lifeless. Enraged, Kai fired all the arrows he had left before taking up Valmar’s sword, slaying the Noxian forces assaulting the temple. Even still, he knew it would not be long before more came, seeking to claim the forbidden bow.

In that moment, Kai heard a voice calling to him from within the temple. It promised him vengeance and the strength to fight back. Driven by rage and grief, the wounded archer let the voice guide him inside, just as more Noxian invaders began their ascent up the temple’s stairs. It was there, in the darkness, that Kai at last set eyes upon the cursed weapon he and Valmar spent years protecting: a bow thrumming with unearthly power. Kai hesitated for only a moment before grasping the bow, letting its power wash over him.

Kai’s mind was filled with images and thoughts not his own: a vast desert empire, a man made a god, betrayal, war, and finally, imprisonment. These were the memories of Varus, an Ascended being who devoted his life to serving Shurima, only to be abandoned in his time of need. His bitterness and hatred had summoned the Darkin Bow, granting Varus the opportunity to seek revenge on those who had wronged him. In the end, Varus was sealed within the bow, becoming one with it… And now, he would become one with Kai as well.

As Varus’s memories filled Kai’s mind, the Darkin’s power corrupted his body. Varus prepared to usurp Kai’s form entirely, but to his surprise, the Ionian’s drive for vengeance matched his own. Kai was prepared to give anything to avenge Valmar, his fallen half, yet he would do so with his own hands rather than entrust the task to a fallen god.

Even as their minds fought, the archers’ new, fused body moved on pure instinct. One by one, the Noxian forces in Pallas were felled by crimson arrows born of pure malice. Seeing the corpses of his kinsmen and the ruins of his home only fueled Kai’s rage, which in-turn empowered the Darkin in his grasp. Finally, the two archers came to an agreement as the Noxians fled: Varus would lend Kai his strength, in exchange for the Ionian’s body once Kai’s vengeance was complete.

Now on borrowed time, Kai has but one objective: to find and kill everyone he holds responsible for the destruction of his home and the death of his partner. To Varus, however, the destruction of Noxus is but the first step toward a much larger goal: revenge against the gods who betrayed him, and the world that sealed him away…

So, that’s my take on Varus’s lore. Now, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that I only have one of the lovers being possessed. Frankly, I felt that this was probably the best direction to go with; Riot still hasn’t updated Varus in any meaningful way to include Valmar and Kai in any of his voice lines, and something tells me that, being owned by a certain Chinese company, they probably never will. Given the circumstances, I figured it was probably best to give him a backstory more befitting of his in-game voice lines, which still portray Varus as a man on borrowed time who’s giving what little he has left in pursuit of vengeance.

Even so, I decided to try my hand at fleshing out Valmar and Kai. The first thing I did was change them from random hunters to trained soldiers tasked with guarding the temple. This not only harkens back to Varus’s original lore, but it also gives them more of a reason to stand their ground against the Noxian invaders. I also wanted to flesh out their personalities a little more, because I’ll be completely honest: I legitimately couldn’t remember which one was which even after skimming back through the comic. I forgot that Kai was the one who was injured in the original story, not Valmar, but quite frankly it matters so little given how poorly their characters are fleshed out.

Now, as for Varus himself… Well, like I said: I did have a whole bio written out for him that ties into the new Darkin lore I introduced in my Aatrox analysis, but I decided to focus the story more on Valmar and Kai and only have that backstory briefly alluded to. A tad disappointing, I know, but hey, it’s still more than what we learned about Rhaast from Kayn’s bio.

So, that was Varus, the Arrow of Retribution, otherwise known as Riot’s botched attempt at LGBT representation. He’s a far cry from what he started out as, and yet, hilariously, he’s really not on account of them still not updating anything about him in-game. In that respect, the Varus you play as in League isn’t really even the same character(s) presented in the lore. While I still firmly believe that his backstory never needed to be changed so drastically in the first place, I least wanted to present the potential that this direction held, and how badly the opportunity was squandered.

Oh well. At least the music video still looks nice.

#Runeterra Retcons #Varus #League of Legends

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jerepars · 4 years ago

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Ape Dos Mil Extended Chapter Notes

6 / 9 Pure Love

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile and the dashboard). The story is posted here. Direct link to this chapter is here.

As it turned out, when James had to go dark for 48 hours, it pushed Teresa deeper into the cave. James sat in a hotel room on the other side of town while Teresa bought a hotel. James looked into Isidro Navarro while Teresa got ready to make her pitch to the guy and expand her business to Europe. While she dined, James was on the wrong side of the day.

When I first introduced lyrics from Glassjaw’s “Ape Dos Mil” into the story in the second chapter, I mentioned it was the lyrics and mood of the song overall that inspired the story. This paragraph is borrows from the main verse of the song:

Yeah, it's over You can bet in mid October I will still be ranting 'bout most early May Yeah, he's a winner He's a goddamn sinner While he dines I'm on the wrong side of the day And I said, "I don't understand why I'm fumbling after" You're the reason i cannot forget this season Or the letter when you first referred to it

She was going to go her own way, make all the deals, gain more more more. James had to be down for that not just because he was in love with her, but because he had a higher purpose—thanks to the universe—when it came to Teresa. But James wished she didn’t go around ignoring all the signs of danger. He wished she didn’t walk around like nobody was going to break her heart or like she could elude death. Hadn’t she learned, losing Tony, that the #1 special on the menu in the underworld was breaking hearts, one way or another?

There’s a Mac Miller song, “My Favorite Part” with these words: You walk around so clueless to it all. Like nobody gonna break your heart. It'll be alright babe, see, me, I got you covered. I'm gon' be your lover, you might be the one.

So the line in the paragraph about queenpin Teresa walking around like nobody was going to break her heart is a reference to that. There’s also a line in the song that goes, The universe couldn’t keep us apart--why would it even try? Very soulmate-y but different in that for Jeresa it is because of the universe they are soulmates.

But nothing moved Teresa. She didn’t let up. She wasn’t going to confess to using, since she was going out of her way to hide it. She didn’t own up to the responsibility of being targeted and putting them all in danger unnecessarily because she had to have Europe.

The first line of this paragraph is sort of a reference to the album Still Nothing Moves You by Ceremony.

Teresa was screaming, to feel the pressure in her throat, to drown out the noise in her head, when she took to the neatly pressed blazers along the back of the closet. She ripped as many off the hangers as would go, letting the different shades of white pool at her feet on the carpet. The jewelry station was next—earrings, necklaces, and rings ripping into her hands before she decided there were too many for a few handfuls, picking up the entire velvet drawer insert tray and dumping it to the side, fully enraged.

When she swung her arm around, Teresa caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length three-way mirror. Her breath caught in her throat. She saw herself, and there, over her shoulder, was herself—the girl from Culiacán.

“You forgot the most important thing is survival. You have to get out of here,” the girl pleaded. “You have to go. Run.”

So, uh, I changed a lot from canon. In 5x07, the scene cuts soon after Teresa yells “Fuuuuuuuuuck!” and throws her phone. In the next scene of Teresa, she’s in the sitting area of her room doing coke, and when she looks up at the mirror across from her, that’s when she seems old Teresa in flannel.

I had this scene planned out in my head before 5x07 aired and I always thought, when Teresa found out Boaz killed George, she would react violently and destroy her closet. So here in the story, Teresa is still inside her closet when old Teresa shows up.

“I’m not leaving without them,” Teresa told off the girl standing behind her in the too big flannel.

A reply never came but when Teresa looked back in the mirror, the girl was still standing there with terror in her eyes.

“I’m not leaving,” Teresa vowed.

The girl watched her. Teresa closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. It was the cocaine talking, the two big hits she’d taken while already upset. She knew that. But the girl remained, watching Teresa in silence.

In 5x07, Teresa has this conversation with Avi. But if she’s shut herself in her closet, then this conversation becomes a face-off with her former self. I think I like that better, actually.

It also eliminates the whole exchange with Avi saying James ordered for the plane to be ready and that Teresa should get out of the country immediately. After everything they’ve been through I don’t buy that James would take it upon himself to make that decision for her, regardless of how worried and protective he is. Sorry not sorry, canon, but that just doesn’t make sense for these characters.

Teresa wasn’t sure if she sat there for minutes or hours. She paid no attention to how much light was streaming in through the window. In silence, the tears flowed and brought her back down to earth. She only knew a significant amount of time had passed when the white noise stopped ringing in her ears and a familiar burning feeling took hold in her chest.

That was the universe’s doing. It meant James was back.

She heard indistinct chatter from outside the closet in the main room. She listened closer. There was James’ gravelly voice, then a pause, followed by Pote, low and gruff. They exchanged words and then came a third voice, higher in pitch with a familiar Texas Southern drawl—Kelly Anne.

Teresa sighed. They were back. She’d never been so thankful for the hurt in her chest.

More changes to canon. James gets to Kelly Anne and Pote before Boaz and makes sure they get back to the safe house.

Here’s the thing. I hate the whole kidnapping plot of 5x08 and think it’s unnecessary. Much of the episode is spent on Pote grunting and yelling nonsensically, making lame threats. And what happens? Pote doesn’t save the day. Kelly Anne saves herself. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that Teresa calls Boaz and tells him she’ll give him the business (and she was not bluffing, by the way) as long as he lets Kelly Anne go.

Omg. The action of 5x08 is fine. We get to see James in green. But the actual story...the plot of it...what the fuck is the point? The majority of the episode is wasted on Kote (the season is pretty much #Kote of the South at this point) when really it should focus on Teresa, and on the Castel/Devon/Kostya stuff.

So yeah. I said hell no, unlike canon I refuse to let Kote take over in my story. The queenpin storyline gets abandoned completely in canon with no proper resolution for how Teresa gets back to herself. It’s like she goes from the queenpin, caring about nothing but the business, then suddenly remembers her true personality and is the old Teresa again.

And for what? All because of the kidnapping plot? No. Just no. I couldn’t do it.

Eliminating the KA’s kidnapping doesn’t eliminate the Boaz problem or the Kostya problem or the Devon problem. So I axed it.

She’d said the same less than a week ago in Berlin, looking over the city skyline. But this time it had no bite and sting.

There’s a song by Defeater called “The Bite and Sting” and the phrase in the second sentence above comes from that title. If for whatever reason you decide to listen to it, there’s a line in the song that goes We ain’t seen no Germans for days, because Defeater’s music is conceptual and tells interrelated stories over the span of their albums. The EP that “The Bite and Sting” is on, Lost Ground, is about a black WWII veteran. The song is about being in the war and that’s why the line I mentioned is there. Kind of ironic, because I was not thinking about the fact that Teresa said to James “say it” while they were in Germany.

Anyway, that was a longwinded explanation just to say: the context of the reference and the way the phrase is used in the sentence are not related.

Self-preservation had always been key for James’ survival, and over and over he threw it away for her. So his words hurt because they were honest, because they pointed out the mistakes she’d made when it came to him. But Teresa admired James for standing up for himself and showing his backbone. He was there for her—they were in this together—but he wouldn’t allow himself to be used. She had to prove herself, to somehow make amends. And she loved him for it, to be given the opportunity.

Because beyond striking the balance with herself, Teresa knew that if she wanted the pure love only soulmates who were lucky enough to find each other and chose to be together could have—not just tough love—then the days of shutting James out had to come to an end as well.

In the notes for Good Luck/Bad Days (a completely separate and unrelated story) I mentioned that one of the songs I ended up referencing, “Pure Love” by Hayley Williams was actually meant to be used in this story. I think pieces of the song fit better lyrically in Good Luck/Bad Days, but conceptually (are those different? I feel like they are different) it fits better here. So. That’s where the chapter title comes from.

#je repars notes

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thatoneitaliangirl · 5 years ago

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Obey Me! Soulmate AU’!~ Leviathan

This one I really like! Its a bit longer than the other two. Also, I’m confirming here and now that I’m definitely making part two’s because this one is far from over! OH! And SPOILERS FOR THE GAME I just got to the part where they explain that Satan was born from Lucifer’s anger, like- wasn’t expecting that! I mean, I remember them mentioning that Satan wasn’t there when they were angles, but I never thought he was born that way. Interesting!~ Also also, I’m not sure if I wrote Satan’s character all that well. He’s next up and I’m a bit nervous about writing for him, but I’ll do my best!!

Link to Opening Paragraph.

Leviathan

Having spent most of the day searching for Mammon's soulmate, the seven brothers reluctantly went back to the Devildom to regain strength and think of a more efficient way of searching for the next day. And take showers, because, as Asmodeus had stated previously, the sun was HOT. Nervousness wracked Leviathan's body to the point where he couldn't even work up the nerve to play a video game.

All he could do was lay on his bed and stare at the ceiling, thinking about what his soulmate would be like. Lucifer's was a beautiful, energetic ghost hunter with a tendency to babble, Mammon's was their human exchange student, though there was no surprise there. The two of them were crushing so hard on each other, that the other brothers had almost broken a few times and shoved them in a closet together.

Or maybe that was just Levi? He'd seen it in a couple of anime before and in the end, the two lovers always end up confessing and sharing their first kiss. Was that what meeting his soulmate was gonna be like? Poor Levi barely slept a wink that night. And now, as the other brothers discuss plans for the new day, he still can't think about anything but his soulmate. What is she gonna be like? Will she like anime and manga just like him? Or will she be a boring normie like his brothers?

She is supposed to be his soulmate, so it would really suck if she didn't like Ruri-chan! What if she's never even heard of anime? Then he gets to teach her all about it! "Levi, are you even listening?" Levi jumps, not expecting to hear Lucifer's voice calling out his name. Usually, that means something bad is about to happen . . . "Uh, no, I spaced out." Lucifer sighs.

"As I was saying, Lord Diavolo has made special arrangements for us in the human world. Given his kind and generous nature, he has called in a few favors to help us navigate the human world much faster and through more secretive means. Us getting caught could mean exposure of both the Devildom and Magic and could have devastating effects." "How kind of Lord Diavolo to grant his favorite such luxuries," Satan speaks up as he takes a sip of his beverage.

"Yes. Lord Diavolo's generosity knows no bounds. Now, with that settled, we leave in an hour. I suggest you get your ducks in a row and prepare yourselves. Levi, we find your soulmate next." They leave the breakfast table one by one, all heading to their respective rooms to 'prepare', whatever that means. Levi sure doesn't know what it means.

Does he shower again? Change his clothes? Would he look more presentable in his school uniform or his normal clothes? What if she hates him . . . I mean, he is an otaku. While he takes pride in that, he's not oblivious to the negativity otaku's receive in the human world.

They're generally looked down upon, and though he can take the criticism from his brothers, from the girl that's supposed to love him . . . He doesn't know if he can handle that. Taking his handheld gaming device off its charger, Levi places it into a small bag along with extra games and a manga to read in case he gets bored. Who knows how long their gonna be in the human world this time. Should he take a change of clothes?

Deciding it best, he folds up some clothes and places them into the bag and throws it over his shoulder. He doesn't think that it's been an hour, maybe twenty minutes, but he heads out towards the dining room anyway and places his stuff down. A loud commotion in the kitchen spikes his curiosity, so he follows the noise to find his three brothers, Mammon, Satan, and Beelzebub.

"What's going on?" Satan looks up at Levi with anger in his eyes. Levi has known his brother long enough to not take it personally. The anger is not directed towards him. "What's going on is that the 'help' Lord Diavolo gave Lucifer is a portal key!" Satan sighs at Levi's confused face.

"It's a key that allows us to go anywhere in the human world we want. I've been trying to get my hands on one for years, and now I find out that Lord Diavolo has had one just laying on his desk this whole time?!" He begins to pace, a sure sign that his anger is getting out of control. It's his attempt to try and calm himself before things escalate.

"The worst part is that he didn't even know what it was until that sneaky little butler of his told him to give it to Lucifer!" Mammon, not quite understanding that this was Satan's time to rant, cuts in. "What's so special about it anyway? Sure, it gets us to where we're going, but why do you find it so important?

The only use it could ever have to me is a pretty penny at the pawnshop!" He says, laughing. Satan glares at him. "It's not because it's worth something that I want it. It's because its made with one of the purest forms of magic from the human world! Not even Soloman would be able to comprehend the intricacies it takes to make such an item.

It's the craftsmanship, the number of years a human puts into making the keys, the effort they exert! A fragile human making something so powerful and beautiful? Hardly heard of!" Levi rolls his eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me! How many times have you gone off on a tangent about some video game and forced all of us to listen?" Levi scoffs.

"That's different!" "Not really . . . " The sixth brother Beelzebub speaks up, crumbs falling from his mouth. "Whatever! It doesn't matter anyway. All that does matter is that we have the key now. The faster we find our . . . Soulmates, the better." Mammon laughs obnoxiously while sitting on the counter.

"Good for you, guys! I think I'm gonna hit up a human world casino! My luck seems to be off the walls, so naturally, I'm gonna bring home some intense bacon!" "Absolutely not." The brother's pale as the stern voice of Lucifer breaks through Mammon's stupid laugh. The second-born grunts. "And why not? I found my human!"

"And so have I, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you wander around the human world by yourself. And that goes for everybody. You are all going no matter who you find, so I can keep my eyes on you at all times. Understood?" Satan tsks, and crosses his arms, still slightly ticked off about the key. But, they all agree, mostly because Mammon set loose in the human world sounds like the Biblical Apocolypse.

After the seven brothers finish up getting ready, Lucifer gathers them in the dining room. "This key was given to us by Lord Diavolo. It's true that he . . . Didn't actually know what it did . . . But none the less, we should still keep is safe to return it to him when we're done. Any questions?" The brothers shake their heads, Satan still upset but not wanting to cause another argument.

"Good. Levi, I believe it is your turn." Lucifer hands a confused Levi the shiny golden key. With a deep breath, Levi enters the key into the lock on the kitchen door (put there by Lucifer when Beel's sleep-eating was bad a few years ago) and thinks of a place. A lab of some sort . . . With white walls and lots of windows. Leviathan turns the key and opens the door, revealing crispt white walls and blue-tiled floors.

They all enter, skeptical of where exactly the key led them. "What is this place?" Mammon wonders, scrunching his nose. "It smells terrible." "Sorry, sorry! That would be the bleach!" A voice with an English accent speaks from down the hall and startles them.

"_____ and Joshua spilled a whole tub of vinegar in the main hall yesterday and bleach seems to be the only thing that gets rid of the smell." A man wearing a long white coat comes walking out of one of the rooms along the long hallway and extends his hand.

Lucifer shakes it hesitantly. The man pushes up his smart-looking glasses and smiles at the brothers. "My name is Damian, and I run this floor of Greenville Labs. What can I do for you gentleman?" Levi steps forward, slightly nervous. "We're looking for someone . . . I think you just mentioned her." "_____?" Levi nods.

"Ahh, what has she done this time?" Damian shakes his head and gestures for the men the follow him to the room he had just come out of. "Whatever it is, I'll pay for the damages. No need to get the cops involved."

Levi scratches the back fo his neck and laughs nervously. What kind of person is this girl? "Actually, she didn't do anything . . ." "Oh? Well, that's good. You're probably here about her project then?" "No-" "Yes, that's exactly why we're here." Lucifer agrees, placing his hand on Levi's shoulder.

"Good, good! Uh, disregard what I said before then hehe. They are good kids! When they want to be." The sound of a door slamming and heavy footsteps echo in the hall as Damian's eyes widen. "Oh, Be careful, I just washed the- floor . . ." A young boy comes running in and slips, falling on his backside.

"Ha! Dumbass- gah!" A girl walks in, slipping and falling in the same spot. Damian sighs. "I present to you, Dumb and Dumber." A hand reaches up from the floor and slams on the desk, pulling the girl up.

"What does that make you, Damian? Dumbest?" She pulls herself up the rest of the way and straightens out her clothes. "I mean, who washes the floor and DOESN'T put a wet floor sign!" "To be fair, the only reason it HAD to be washed was because of that rediculous stunt you and Joshua pulled!"

"I thought that was hilarious actually," Joshua says, standing up and leaning on _____. This makes Leviathan's blood boil. He can feel it in his bones; this girl is his soulmate. Who does this normie think he is, touching HIS soulmate?!

"Whatever, I've got stuff to do, levels to beat, Joshua to leave crying like a little baby after I kick his ass in Super Smash Bros. Later losers!" _____ pulls Joshua by the hand out of the lab. Lucifer sighs. This ones gonna be a handful.

#obey me!#Obey me! x reader #obey me! soulmate au #obey me! soulmate #obey me! leviathan #obey me! levi #obey me! leviathan x reader #obey me! levi x reader

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actingonimpulse · 4 years ago

Text

This might be a rant? Idk what its called. Also you don't have to read it. If you want to share your opinon on the matter please do. Its long.

So me and 2 others started writing a book in end of November/Start of December. Me and one other. I'll say they are "J". J and I decided to write a new book.

This was because the other one (b) pushed us to write more and more. First it was during after school and lunch breaks. Then it started to during school. And they started to write for us.

I personally hated the book at this point but kept pushing not wanted to feel like a jerk.

The book was written so we each got a character and we wrote about that character specifically. They wrote me and J's chapters and that was the equivalent of taking away our voice. B was a smart kid and was one of those who didn't need to pay attention to school.

Me and J barley passed the trimester because of stress from the book, using energy and all time on it, and because we were burnt out. We needed to stay on top of things especially since we did well if we paid attention.

I personally stopped posting drawings to tumblr and so my blog wasn't growing like it used to. I was at a peak and I gave it up because she wanted me to draw angst, cover photos, etc. . I took a mental health day so I could maybe get one or two drawings done for my blog. I got asked by B to finish the main drawing, I had one character and shading left.

I was pushed to the point where I lost interest in everything even my own fandoms. I cant read anymore because, everytime I look at a page I can't zone out and get lost in my own world without being interrupted. Staying 4 hours after school talking to people about it, lunch break, during school sometimes I was in a call so the book was up to B's standards.

I had one chapter i wrote (intro different document) and it blew J away and was excited for the book. J hated Bs chapter because it was self centered. Instead of learning about the character and the land we were in gradually. B tossed the info on the ground, stomped on it, then gave it to the reader.

We are 15 chapters in and there's only 1 not centered or without B's character. Thats the intro where the "bad guy" that taught me made another character get me away from the actual "bad guys" which aren't bad but just confused and sometimes mad.

We took my first chapter and copied it into a different document and the same with the character doc. Changing the characters to be more fun and light hearted. Not constantly arguing but had their differences.

Breaking point for Me and J.

Mine was B when B yelled at J "as a joke" with a vague threat. (Still joking haha!) About a song choice. I dont like her taste in music, I suggested 1 song. She suggested a whole Playlist. I dont have Spotify B does. B thought I was afk because I would have said something. Another breaking point was when she refused to change the skintone of any leaders/characters without a verbal argument. Everyone was white in this and I tried to change it by showing diversity in every example from my own characters which B asked if she could see the document of my characters for my own book.

J's was when B said to me only females can be rulers. Why? Because her character is female. She said if the ruler my character is from had a son I wouldn't have my position. That wasn't true. I was chosen by a magical cat.

Another one for both me and J was we wanted more male characters. Because the only one there was planned to get married to B's character where it didn't make sense. This wasn't discussed, it was pulled out of B's ass like the "Rapidly aging apprentice" spell my character got put under. Without permission. Or any knowledge of.

Some info on the love interest is that Me and J wanted to make him gay. Because we needed diversity.

J came to me yesterday asking if we should revise the book to make our own. We copied and pasted the only 2 chapters we did and edited it to be more learning about the environment. We deleted all of J's because it only talked about B's character. I made this with J's blessing

This paragraph is the last one. You won't miss any by skipping it.

Two trigger warnings: Homophobia. And a suicide mention.

After the discussion about the "love interest" sexuality we were told he is either straight and going to marry her. Or pansexual and kills himself.

We choosed him to be Pan because anything is better than being with her character. We wanted him to be gay anyways. Pansexual was a middle ground for us

#rant tw

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 5 years ago

Note

Was reading your response to the Okumura Ryuji/Morgana fight, and the way the person worded Ryuji's character made me wanna ask... Do you think a bad fanbase is a fair reason to dislike a character? I've heard people say things like "no look at the character too", but... For example, I'm very neutral on Ryuji. When he's good, hes SO GOOD, EXCELLENT BOY, but Ann is my favorite girl. Guess who he pervs on exclusively and is rude to all the time? I've never seen his fans talk about (1/2 sorry)

His rude behavior, or his pervy tendencies, or his more selfish desires regarding the PT. That's fine!! Not everyone wants to constantly talk about bad things their fave has done!!! But people referring to him as a "woman respecting king" so insistently rubs me the wrong way, since he treats Ann Like That. That, and (more personal) i remember making a post/ask thing once about my grievances with Ryuji, esp his perv stuff, and the fans that interacted very aggressively denied his behavior (2/3)

And it even turned into a big discourse on the blog I submitted it to (it was that one confession blog). All the people that responded and just tried moving the arguments to "well Yusuke did this-" or even tried to push blame on Ann "she was asking for it" just kinda cemented my already growing dislike for Ryuji. Super sorry this is so long!!! Final question: is a bad fanbase a fair reason for disliking a character? (3/3)

Don’t say sorry about multiple sent asks, I don’t mind kfdsjla;fja As for the answer, I want to say yes and no, but really it’s just “yes with a side note attached.” Yeah, it’s ok to not like a char because of their fans, but I think it’s as long as you know why you dislike the char beyond the fans (well tbh, imo it’s usually the crazy fans so I think stans is a better word, but even then there’s diff stans). And tbh, I....can’t....think of a character I don’t like that the fandom/fanbase does....but I know nothing about the char all the while (closest and most recent example this....is....I know people dislike that grey haired moe blob on twitter even tho I don’t think they watched the show, and while I’m not a fan of the moeblobness I don’t know anything about the char so I’m personally not upset). I can only name chars I don’t like because of what happens in the text, fandom be damned (but sometimes they don’t help). Which is why it’s a yes with a side note. If you don’t like the char despite not knowing them.....probably get to know the char first even if your impression is clouded by the fandom....at least you gave the char a chance.

Under cut cause length (first few sentences in the first paragraph under the cut/tldr at the end gives you the answer a bit more in depth, the rest is rants related to that and why I get frustrated in a similar sense too, but yeah sorry if I repeat myself, I kinda jumped all over + my tendency to try to nail a point home I feel like might’ve had me repeat a bit more than usual akslfjdakfjaf):

I say this because.....it’s hard....it’s hard to keep them separated, unless you completely isolate yourself from the fandom (which is basically impossible if you wanna keep up with news, even the comment section is part of the fandom tbh...and you might be looking down their for diff reasons). And then.....well...the big reason....sometimes seeing the fans really highlights the reasons you dislike the char. That’s what happened to me and Makoto, specifically cause of....a certain fan (and buddy if you happen to see this, nothing against you, no bad blood, def won’t mention your name I respect you and the debates we had)....AND TO THE TUMBLR READERS WHO GET NERVOUS: It wasn’t on this website in case anyone is freaking out so if you’re thinking “Oh god it’s me” it is most likely not you (tho I think we do know each other on here cause of usernames/saw each other in passing but we def aren’t mutuals last time I checked), and while I do respect that person.......my god did they highlight the reasons I had issues with P5 and Makoto. Ironically in trying to defend her and show off her good sides, I realized the writing issues more and more and her bad sides became more glaring. It turned my frustrating dislike and attempt to try to work out my issues with her and P5 (ironically “working out” in hindsight would’ve been me....denying and refusing to look at P5′s flaws) into....well......the salt factory you know today. (same thing happens with like......Yukari and Junpei fans too tbh...that’s more recent tho, it feels like they are just downplaying their negatives constantly and I’m not about that). Basically, you probably have issues already, they are just more pronounced now.

As for “look at the character”....you kinda already are doing that, and that’s probably where your existing issues originated from (tho if someone wants a more in depth reason as to why, while you DON’T OWE them an explanation, it is also hard for someone to understand your feelings and reasons if you don’t try to explain).

As for Ryu, yea, I getcha, I like the guy, I’m neutral positive on him....was my best bro but he’s 2nd best thanks to post-Kamo writing. I like him because of his positives, but I always keep his negs in mind because. Cause like while I agree with the fans IT MAKES NO SENSE! P5′S WRITING IS BAD! it happened, same as I agree that Anne kicking Ryu’s ass, along with the other girls, is shitty. Hate the scene, and I accept that it happen (low key gonna start some kinda 2nd wave war with this bs cause the fandom be like that, but I’m really surprised no one took Anne smacking Ryu behind the neck cause he was being too loud as super offensive and abuse.......it’s def something a friend might do, not like belting him just a tap, and it’s framed as chill and also as warning him to reign in the volume control, but high key surprised no one has tried to cancel her cause of that). BUT that DOESN’T mean it erases all the creepy stuff he’s done. Is he the goodest boi when he’s being good? The best. Is he always a good boi? No, he def is not. And hearing that he is can be frustrating to people that do see his flaws (cause they are there). And like....you are 100% able to like a character despite and because of their flaws, while also accepting they have those flaws. I do it with Yosuke, Ryuji (for the most part), Teddie, Shinji, Ken, Kanji (when he’s not around Naoto, then he’s in a trash can for me), P1/2 casts, Aigis, Mitsuru, as long as the flaws are within reason and are treated pretty well....then I’m ok with it. (again, Kanji/Ryu have moments when I’m like....NOPE! but when they aren’t doing the bad thing I’m cool with them). As long as the flaws are withing reason (aka they aren’t making a jerk person out to be the person in the right, or the writing is trying to sweep what they did under the rug, or trying to force us into empathizing with them despite what they did while also trying ot sacrifice empathy towards another char.....*cough*Makoto/Yukari/Junpei*cough* if the writing isn’t doing that...... I’m probs neutral to pos on them).

Like I’m fine if they are criticizing the writing and being like “Him doing this makes no sense cause it conflicts with the good boi we’ve already seen!” That’s a-ok! Not only do you recognize your char has flaws, you also are able to identify issues with the writing. But saying “so I’ll choose to ignore that scene” isn’t....ok. Because sadly it did happen, as contradictory it did happen. AU it all you want, but you have to accept it happened outside of that AU. Like, I don’t like the Mika conflict in Anne’s CoOp, by which I don’t like how it went down (100% fine with Mika, and there being conflict with her). How it the whole thing started doesn’t make sense if you put MainStory!Anne in her CoOp. MS!Anne can read the room and other people’s emotions (only other person capable of that is Haru, or at least with Mona), hell she was so good at it she noticed something was up with Shiho without Shiho telling her about it! The issue was the fact Anne’s not a mind reader and could only assume the issue Shiho was going through that Anne was aware of (and that was her spot on the team). Now MS!Anne is not like Yosuke, she doesn’t put her foot in her mouth. She’s not like Naoto who can’t read the room. She’s not super eloquent, but can empathize and when she can interact with people she can do it pretty well. So why the hell does she basically not think before talking and insult Mika? Sure Anne’s not GREAT at school, but she’s not a moron, she can talk to people. But her CoOp makes her a moron all around, 100% airhead, and that’s how her issues with Mika start, by not thinking before talking and accidentally insulting her via blatantly “not caring” about the job to a full time person......it’s stupid, it makes no sense, I hate it. But it’s there, the flaw might not be present in the main story, but for the all around character (cause CoOps are included) it is now and I just have to deal with it. We can bitch about it all day (and trust me I will) but it happened. Basically never frame it as “it didn’t happen,” but instead “It SHOULDN’T HAVE happened.” One is denial, the other is critiquing the text.

Anyway my rant aside, yeah I hate it when...well Ren/Ryu/Yusuke (no one’s said Mona yet, cause....well yeah...which is good they haven’t labeled him as it yet tho), are labeled as “drinking respect women juice” and I’m like “I have one to a few women who would disagree.” I know some people will argue Goro is drinking it, and imo he’s not....he’s just eating the “I don’t discriminate sandwich” which is different. And yeah the “But Yusuke-” yeah yeah we’ll get to him, but right now we’re talking about RYUJI. I’m not a fan of derailing a topic *war flashbacks* *shivers* anyway. But yeah I remember that debate, I was probably one who was like “We’ll get to Yusuke but right now we’re talking about Ryuji” and pushing the blame onto Anne is disgusting and Kamo Arc!Ryuji would be very upset. >:( (btw high key I think I was the first one who started the first anti-makoto war wave with me saying “yeah Anne shouldn’t have apologized Makoto started it and blah blah she was an ass” not the exact words but basically just calling her out on her shitty behavior cause the game certainly didn’t......tho as Miley Cyrus would say.....”I didn’t mean to start a waaaaaar~!” I actually wrote my first Persona Problems on that topic.......but it got lost in the drafts....my photo examples kept getting messed up which is bad considering the whole post really relied on them....I should try to dig it up tbh....)

Tldr/short answer: Yeah, you probably already have issues with the char to begin with tbh, and the fanbase can highlight those issues more. It’s also hard to escape the fanbase (I see stuff I don’t wanna see despite trying my hardest to avoid certain circles, it just happens).

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redeadepression · 5 years ago

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RDR2 ask game - least favourite cowboy and cowgirl?

SO I read this as FAVOURITE cowboy and girl so I have ranted for paragraphs about the wrong thing. Luckily this ask sent twice so I’ll also answer the actual question in another post. 😂

I think it’s safe to say by now that everyone knows my favourite cowpokes are John and Abigail. So for something different I will talk about my second faves.

Favourite Cowboy:

Arthur. There aren’t really words for how deeply I fell in love with Arthur during RDR2. I often think back to when I was watching my husband play, the day before I bought the game myself and I asked how he was liking it. He was like:

“Yeah, it’s good but the main guy sounds like he’s always trying to talk with a mouthful of gum.” 😂 So I stopped and waited around for him to get to a cut scene and when Arthur spoke I was like “Hah yeah I can hear that.”

SO being such a huge fan of John already and my introduction to Arthur being not the best, I didn’t really expect to take to him like I did. I think honestly it was watching him interact with Jack and then later Mary that drew me in initially and after that I was hooked.

I went through a very real period of grief after I finished the game which I have never experienced before over a fictional character. It was very eye opening and the thought of ever replaying the game made me feel sick and raw.

I think due to that, I sort of pushed my love for him to the side as best I could so that I wasn’t just hurting all the time. In the meantime I was forced to play the Epilogue and my love for John resurfaced in a fierce way.

So while I truly love Arthur with all my heart, he will always be second best to my OG boy. But don’t be fooled, the love is there and while replaying the game again I am actually starting to get nervous about the ending because I don’t know if I can handle going through that grief again.

Favourite Cowgirl:

Sadie. I’ve loved Sadie since the beginning but playing online and getting a glimpse of her before she lost Jake has made me love her even more.

The hurdles she had to overcome early game and then the gender roles that were forced on her and she pushed aside without a care for how anyone would perceive her in this predominantly male driven world.

She didn’t give one single FUCK what Dutch thought about her getting around in pants and toting a gun. She just did it because she knew that was what she wanted and she took it with both hands.

She stepped up and took action to get the Gang away from Shady Belle after the bank heist went wrong and she saved all their lives. She stood the fuck up and ordered around Grimshaw who the other women are always seen to be complaining about and somewhat afraid of.

She took action before anyone else to make a move to save John’s life. She had only known him a few months and she treated him better than 80% of his Goddamn family at that point in the game.

She goes for Abigail when Dutch says shes not worth it.

She is a badass bitch but she is also kind and caring when she needs to be. One of my favourite Sadie scenes is when they’re rescuing Abigail and she tells Arthur to stay back and then tries to make him feel better by saying he’s a better shot even though he knows that she means because he is sick.

She gets revenge on the men that did unspeakable things to her and killed her husband. She moves on after that and rebuilds her life in the way she wants it without giving a shit what anyone thinks. She lives a good (we assume long) life and doesn’t let anyone stand in her way.

I will forever love Sadie and I honestly don’t have enough good things to say about her.

#arthur morgan #sadie adler #rdr2 #ask game

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hordakin · 6 years ago

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On the Subject of Hordak, His Parallels with Catra, His Bond with Entrapta, and the Possibility of Him Getting a Redemption Arc

Obviously this is a subject of MUCH controversy within the Spop fandom, and I'm probably just going to stir up even more issues, but the aforementioned things are subjects i find INCREDIBLY fascinating and dammit I want to talk about it, because as usual (almost*) everyone else is glancing over it and not giving it all the in depth analysis it deserves.

Just a preface, my 'screenshots' are probably going to be absolutely hideous because I do not have the time nor the resources to get high quality ones--sooo I'm just taking pictures with my phone!

I'm no good at keeping my posts organized, so please forgive any other messiness as well--I'm hyperfixated and filled with frantic energy.

Lets start out simply with the Juiciest meat on the bone--Hordak's Could-Be Redemption Arc!

This is the topic that has the most people in a tizzy--for completely valid reasons, to be fair! Hordak, as of right now, is a horrible person. There's no skirting over it, there's no sugar coating it, he's a grade A piece of shit manipulative dictator, and things he's done are unforgivable.

What joy it is, then, that being forgiven has absolutely nothing to do with redemption!!!

Redemption is about changing your ways, and doing what you can to FIX or make up for the villainous things you've done--NOT being forgiven for them, which is what seems to be the hang up for a lot of people who are against the idea of a Hordak redemption arc, the people who don't like his sympathetic backstory.

I've seen more than a few posts of people Screaming in fury, proclaiming their anguish and disgust that the writers are trying to make them """forgive""" Hordak, when.... That's. Literally not what the writers are doing. They are just giving a character a backstory and human characteristics. So he'll be relatable. You know, like characters in media are SUPPOSED to be. Funny how that works, right?

Anyway, his frustrates me immensely, especially when these are the same people still pushing for a Catra redemption arc (to be fair, i am still one of those people too, but her choices in the last season have severely lowered my enthusiasm and hopes for it. There’s a long, tiring road ahead of her, as well as for us as an audience, if she is going to be redeemed at all). It frustrates me because of Hordak and Catra's lifestory parallels. These people act as if they are leagues different, when they really... Really aren't. If Catra still deserves redemption because she was abused into thinking the way she does, then so does Hordak, because he was obviously abused too.

The way I see it, Catra is like... A younger Hordak. Hordak right before and during Prime discovering his defects and sending him off to die. For a lot of season 1 and 2, she was in her prime in regards to her standing as a member of the Horde. She became force captain, and she did her work well, just as Hordak had once been Horde Prime's top general--but then they showed some kind of weakness, some kind of incompetence, and then they were cast away;

And it doesn't even stop there! Because right after being exiled, guess what they both do? They take over and begin to Rule the local denizens of the place they were exiled to--Hordak forms the Etherian Horde, and Catra takes one look at the Crimson Waste gangs and says "My City Now".

The main differences I see between Hordak and Catra are, Firstly, their friendships. The bonds they've formed (and broken) during the series (as well as if/how they changed them).

Hordak --

Total number of friends, past and present: 2 or 3 (Entrapta and Imp, 3 if you count Emily)

How much he values them: given his tract record of abandoning and belittling people, he doesn't belittle or mistreat Entrapta or Imp, in fact openly showing affection for/praising both of them rather openly--which is to say, he must value them a lot.

How he treats them: like i said up there--with open praise, affection, and respect. He takes care to never actually harm or yell at them in a way that targets them--when he yells or snaps, its not because hes mad at them, its because of something else. On top of that, he keeps it limited--he does not go on rants. He shouts his bit, takes a breath, then turns around and asks them to leave. Which is something i guarantee EVERY person on the face of the earth has done before. Ppl lose their tempers, it's normal, and does NOT make them abusive.

Catra --

Total number of friends, past and present: 6 or 8 (Adora, Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio, Scorpia, Entrapta, and 8 if you count Kyle 2 and her four armed Lizard friend)

How much she values them: this is tough one. Clearly, her main priority is Adora--shes Catra's endgame Bestie, the person she really WANTS to be friends with the most. She puts effort into her relationship with Adora. Second comes Scorpia--Scorpia is very slowly weaseling her way into Catra's heart, and it shows, especially on this last season. Catra starts to show more vulnerability around her, and they have more emotionally charged interactions, that clearly have a positive impact on Catra. Catra is BEGGINING to put effort into her friendship with Scorpia, but it is a s l o w process. Everyone else.... Catra frankly couldn't give less of a shit about. They're an ontourage to her, not friends. But they see her as their friend. She doesn't put any effort there--everyone else does.

How she treats them: just like i said above again. She doesn't not care about most of her relationships. She fixates on one or two, and leaves the others in the dust until she has a use for them, because she doesn't see them as friends, she sees them as lackeys.

Secondly, another difference is their motivations and the choices they make because of them.

While they were both originally seeking recognition and praise from their superiors--Hordak trying to take over Etheria for Horde Prime to prove he's still useful despite his defects, and Catra...:

And then, after that, the Shadow Weaver issue comes to Catra’s attention, and Catra’s Motivation shifts COMPLETELY, because she hasn’t been given the time she needs to heal and let go of that portion of her baggage.

--I’m losing shitloads of eloquently worded paragraphs sharing my points over and over again so I’ve moved to desktop now because i am NOT giving up on sharing this, let me try again, sorry if it suddenly feels offtrack, i swear the connections are still there--

Now that their current motivations are in play, let’s talk about how their CHOICES (and their friendships) tell us which of them is more ripely suited to a redemption arc at this point in the series.

Hordak makes a friend. This is most likely the first friend he has EVER truly had, but they make it work, because they have similar interests and there is no sense of hierarchy between them--She is very clearly not afraid of him, and he is long past trying to make her afraid. She doesn’t push him to be better, no--She thinks he’s fine the way he is. She has no desire to ‘fix him’, because she doesn’t see anything wrong with him being a ‘bad guy’. However, I will say that (albeit unintentionally) she is... Gently nudging him towards being neutral. Hordak’s goal since day one has been to contact Horde Prime, because he likely had been brainwashed or indoctrinated to believe that there WAS no other option than to do so. Seek approval, and nothing else. “For the Horde” and nothing else. Because he hasn’t fully realized... That Horde Prime can’t touch him. He’s like... A young adult, who just moved out of his parents house--You know the posts! He’d become so accustomed to the lifestyle he had before, that now when he goes shopping and thinks “Hey I want ice cream for breakfast tomorrow!” he deflates and walks on to the veggies aisle because of the parental voice telling him “You can’t have ice cream for breakfast” in his head, but now... The parent isn’t there. He CAN have ice cream for breakfast, it just hasn’t hit him yet. Then, Entrapta shows up. “For science!” she says, and Hordak probably quirks his eyebrow, because she is odd, and thats an odd thing to say--but that, right there, is the little thing that starts to help him realize that, ‘hey.... Horde Prime isn’t here. I can do anything I want!’ And tat Anything can easily include turning around and becoming a better person.

Catra makes a new friend. Catra has had many friends before, at least one of which she cared about VERY deeply, who has since then left and moved on to other friends. She tried to get Catra to follow her to the better, healthier side of life that she’s found, to make friends with the other people too--but Catra refused, and it would not be a stretch to say it was because of jealousy/possessive feelings. Catra is like that toxic friend who lurks on the social media of someone who’s cut them off, simultaneous seething with anger and looking for reasons to hate them, while also vying for the chance to be friends with them again, and go back to the way things ‘used to be’. Now, she has that new friend, who cares about her just as much if not MORE than the last friend did--she sees how Catra wallows in self pity and negative emotions over the last friend, and how unhappy it’s really making her. Scorpia wants to help her move past that--to live her life free from the reigns of her past, and to embrace the happiness that other, new parts of life can give her. But Catra. Doesn’t. Listen. She doesn’t care. She sees the possibility of happiness, dips her toes into it (Crimson Waste party), but then decides “No, I don’t want this. I’d rather be spiteful. I’d rather be vengeful. I’d rather be unhappy, and I want everyone else to be unhappy too.”

People get so mad that Hordak is a trying to take over Etheria, trying to RULE over everyone on it--They call him ‘genocidal’ even though, by definition, he’s literally not--and demand that people admit how bad he is because of it, as if we weren’t already. Yet... The only people I see condemning Catra for doing something SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE for just as selfish a reason, is most notably NOT those people demanding we condemn Hordak left and right. The hypocrisy is extremely thick in this fandom right now--let’s leave it at that.

Point is; As of right now in canon, Catra is LITERALLY a worse person than Hordak, and when you really look at their actions, it’s easy to see that there are many more realistic and easy ways for Hordak to be redeemed than their are for Catra, and that’s the fuckin’ tea!

#hordak #catra #entrapdak #spop #shera princesses of power #spop spoilers #spop meta #hordakwrites

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sweet-cool-twins · 5 years ago

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Thank you Inazuma Eleven & GO

Hey everyone, I do have an important thing I need to share regarding my absence both back in 2014 and 2019. Mostly 2019 after I uploaded my Raimon Junior High Chapter 4. I know people expect a chapter update on my Raimon Jr High fanfic, I’m sorry to disappoint on that.

I haven't been feeling mentally well since 2019 cause I realised that it had been 9 years (back in 2019) since I joined IE and those times were the best days of my life. I got to show my creative side, my love for an anime, and made so many friends on FF.net and here. I was basically the happiest those times. Every break in school I had, on the bus ride home, or even resting at home, I would be thinking about new ideas for stories, or writing them in my phone notes, or just reading IE fanfics.

All those were lost when I went into high school (basically college in my country) and had projects with deadlines to complete which took up majority of my time due to my then pre-formed anxiety issue of not hitting deadlines. Then 2019 came and Idk how I came back to IE (i guess I wanted to watch Kusaka x Morimura, not too sure what happened really), I watched the last Galaxy episode and heard Ten Made Todoke! which is the GO first season opening song which is basically a nostalgia song for me, not just my preference, the tune and music itself would bring up some sort of nostalgia to everybody to be honest. And then they bought back Tenma's dribbles which was the skill Tenma showcased in the first GO season (Holy Road) but slowly lost it when he became captain and Chrono Stone season onwards as he matured as a captain.

Then I felt very mad and depressed cause I knew I lost all my creativeness and writer's sense (if that's what you call it?). I used to be able to picture how the characters would act in certain situations, how they speak (which are quite on-point judging by a review or message from a reader who I could not find the username, such a lovely person!), and these would just flow out of me as I sit in front of my laptop and type in docs page back then. The grammar and writing style was very childish and painfully cringy, but I had a lot of fun writing and it gave me a lot of hope and happiness just from reading the 3-5 reviews from readers (Bless u guys for favouriting, following, and reviewing my stories!).

Still, I sort of pushed myself to publish this Raimon Junior High fanfic as I was forcing myself to get back all the skills I had lost before I came back in 2019. Each time I review my drafts, I'm completely stumped and shocked by some of the phrases I'd used, even some of the conversations don't make sense to me anymore (and I know my past self's character's speech patterns are on-point as stated in the previous paragraph). My brain couldn't even think of those phrases and convos when I was writing this fic. So the depression, stress, feelings of loss, all lead me to slowly delay the update of this fic to practically leaving it hanging. It irks me by the way, to leave it like this. I just couldn't take it anymore and I guess the easiest way was to leave it.

Then my younger brother (I don't know if anyone knows this but yes I do have 1 sibling) and his girlfriend were watching Cells at Work! anime on Netflix and the main white blood cell voice actor is the same voice actor for Tsurugi Yuuichi in GO. Hearing him made me recall back the times I searched about the voice actor due to his singing capabilities (his singing was kyaaaaa (long time no type that lol) in the Onaji Yume Wo Miteru Tsurugi brothers character song) and also 'cause IE GO basically blew up many voice actors' fanbase as it was a pretty popular anime in Japan. So I checked back on IE GO again to hear his 2011 voice and sort of hear his improvements as a voice actor. I knew I was going to feel all the sadness and loss again upon hearing the GO first opening again (which it did), worse the Tsurugi brothers arc made me legitimately cry cause I sort of related to Yuuichi in a way better than when I was in middle school.

The feeling of happiness in the past and having to leave it for 6+ years until the present, to then realise you are probably too old to continue persuing the thing which you love back then (because to start to be a professional sports player, you have to be young like before 22 years old young, at least that's what I've heard of.) and the fact that you have to relearn everything which takes pretty much a long damn time, and even more if you want to do so professionally, is gonna eat up the years you have to pursue the job. This thought hit me so hard that I had a mental breakdown. Their character song (as I said I got back to IE GO and started relistening to the character songs which I've never heard in a lonnnnng time for Yuuichi's voice) added this depression even more. The first line by Tsurugi Kyousuke, "We always used to run together, chasing after a ball..." and the image of the two brothers flashed in my mind would break me to pieces as it was a happy moment for Yuuichi and it reminded me of my happy days here, although now he's stuck in the present with a disability similar to me being stuck with my depression and loss writer sense.

Which lead to me typing this long text out. I've reviewed the existing drafts of Raimon Jr High (they weren't automatically removed yet as 1 year hasn't passed since I updated on FF.net) and just felt I should just end this fic in a way with a plot plan at least because I know the me right now probably could not finish this fic. Please kindly read it and imagine the scenes you could possibly think of for the chapters. When I do get better, I want to edit some of the drafts to whichever chapter I am most confident in completing. The fic itself is following the GO season (1-20), then Chrono Stone (21-30), then Galaxy (31-50). I won't do Galaxy (i will explain in detail in the Galaxy Rant portion in a separate post) as I left the fandom during that time and aren't as close to the characters compared to the previous 2 seasons (to say it nicely).

I want to say, thanks if any of you read this till the end. I really appreciate it. It really irks me to leave this (or any) story hanging, yet I want to at least give a reason why, the process of it happening, and the fic plans for each chapter so you guys at least know roughly how Raimon Jr High fanfic would have ended. I'm still trying to find myself and love myself again like back then. Therapy is terribly slow and sometimes I feel better after a therapy, and then I encounter another negative thing in my life and feel all this sadness all over again (especially any past regarding IE). I dearly wish I could go back to the past yet time doesn't allow that and you have to move on. I don't know what to make of the future. I don't know if I will ever get better. I do hope what when I do get better and gain back the creativeness, I would have the time to continue this fic until the Chrono Stone 'season' ends as that was my main motivation for writing this fic. I do wish all of you the best and all the happiness in the world cause we all deserve it, even if you think you're normal or average. Cause I am average and aren't as happy as I was, and I deeply wish I could feel that happiness again. Thank you guys again! Hontou ni arigatou! (Long time no type that too lol)

#Inazuma Eleven #inazuma eleven go #my thoughts

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doedreamss · 6 years ago

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The Cowboy and the Mustang (Part Three)

links: part one, part two, [part three], part four

Ship: Hangman Adam Page x Jane (FOC)

Summary: Jane and Adam have been dating long-distance for five months ever since their chance meeting on her road trip. They’ve grown closer than ever and the reality of their complicated future is drawing nearer. Jane decides to spend her winter break in Montana with Adam, much to the disappointment of her mother, who was hoping Jane would come home for the holidays.

Rating: Explicit (smut scene, cause these two couldn’t handle a reunion without one)

Length: 7,932 words

Available below the cut or on AO3 HERE

“Are you really not going to be home for Christmas this year?”

Jane worried at her nail, biting it (a horrible habit), as she held her phone to her ear and tried to fight the guilt her mother’s voice plagued her with.

“Mom, I told you already…” Jane started gently and suppressed the sigh pushing up her chest.

“I know, I know…” Her mother said before Jane could start. They’d already discussed it in full length when Jane had gone home for Thanksgiving and first broached the subject.

Adam and Jane had been dating long distance since the summertime when they’d met on her road trip with her best friend, Kate. Jane had one semester of college left after winter break and then, degree in hand, it’d be time for her to put it to use. Jane still wasn’t sure what to do. They were too early in the days of dating to suggest moving in together and the bigger city was still a few hours’ drive from Adam’s. Adam’s town was small and not in need of any type of equine veterinarian. They already had a town vet, and Adam already said the man was still years off from retirement.

Stuck in circles with no concrete solution in sight, Jane decided she’d spend her winter break with Adam and his daughter. It would be a month of time together when they’d only had a few days previously. Jane hadn’t admitted it out loud, but it was sort of a test, too. The way she felt about Adam was exciting, but terrifying, too. She’d dated in the past and even thought she was in love before, but those relationships paled in comparison to this.

Every time her phone rang, and it was Adam calling or facetiming, her heart felt as if it was in her throat. Her cheeks always hurt after they finished talking from how much she’d been smiling. They texted back and forth constantly in paragraphs, trusting one another and letting down the walls past hurt had made them build. Jane had never connected with anyone like she connected with Adam. She considered herself a reasonable person, but they’d only known one another for around five months and she already knew she was in love with him.

Not that she’d told him… even if Kate had tried to convince her that she should.

“Jane, honey?” Her mother’s voice gently broke her out of her thoughts, and Jane looked in dismay to see she’d broken off a tiny chip of her nail.

“Sorry mom, I just have a lot on my mind.” She got up from the couch and started pacing.

There was silence for a few seconds before her mother sighed. She’d already told Jane previously that she shouldn’t be focusing on a relationship with a man when she was so close to graduating. School, she’d said, should be her main priority. Men would come and go. Jane wished her mom could just meet Adam. She’d understand. Adam wasn’t like any man Jane had ever met.

“Well, just know that if you change your mind we’d love it if you were here.”

“I know mom.” Jane’s heart sank. She hated disappointing her mother and she loved being home for the holidays. Her family was the sort that went all out, singing to classic Christmas tunes as they decorated, making a trip of going to the tree lot to pick the tree, dressing in big, comfy warm clothes and getting coffee before they walked the neighborhoods and admired everyone’s light-up decorations, sugar cookie baking and decorating, and so much more. Jane loved it, especially her rowdy, excited nephews and nieces running amuck around the house and filling it with cheer.

“I love you dear,” her mom said gently. It was weird for them to disagree on something. Jane had always made such sound, reasonable decisions, she could tell the way she was chasing her heart with Adam had confused her mother. This wasn’t like Jane.

“I love you too mom.” Jane said, and then the call ended.

She had two text messages waiting from Adam.

I was just out talking to Lucky and he reminded me I’ll be seeing you in just a few days. Can’t wait darlin. I miss you.

Lucky says he misses you too.

Jane smiled, her heart immediately lifting. A soft giggle and she was quickly replying, texting back.

I knew you could talk to horses! Tell Lucky I miss him too.

Oh, and I miss you too, I guess.

She added a little emoji with the tongue sticking out, then one with a little angelic halo circling its head. It didn’t take long for Adam to reply with laughing emoji’s and then for three little bubbles to appear, telling her he was texting back.

Shit… I guess the game is up, you know my secret that I’m the only person on God’s green earth than can talk to horses. Hope I can trust you to keep it… otherwise…

Are you all packed? Excited? Second thoughts?

They’d discussed the trip in lengths over the last month or two since Jane decided she’d spend her entire winter break with Adam. Initially, Adam had argued against it, not that he didn’t want her to spend time with him, but that he felt it was important she not sacrifice her family traditions and her time to go home and spend the holidays with them. He’d also felt bad, knowing her mother was giving her a hard time over it. But Jane hadn’t budged, and he’d eventually caved to the excitement of getting to have her with him for an entire month.

You know I’m not having any second thoughts, dummy. And I’m so excited I can barely sleep! I feel like this is already my Christmas present, just getting to see you.

She chewed at the inside skin of her lip, yet another of a list of bad habits she had when she was worriedly thinking. She didn’t want Adam to be upset that she and her mom were still on the outs because of this, but she wanted to tell him, too. He was always so good at knowing the right things to say to help ease whatever little aches were plaguing her heart. Jane had never had a boyfriend as sweet, genuine and attentive as Adam was. It scared her a little bit.

This was what love was.

They still hadn’t said those words to each other, but Jane knew. She was completely and helplessly in love with Adam Page, the mustang-taming cowboy and single-father from Montana.

That was what made the approach of her final semester a little scarier as well as the looming shadow of her future, where she’d go, and what choices she’d make. Would she sacrifice her heart for her career, or her career for her heart? She’d spent her entire life, from early childhood, working her ass off to get to where she was. She’d always known she was going to work with horses and veterinary school wasn’t easy, nor was it easy to earn and keep her full-ride scholarship to so she could attend. Her professors were already helping her gain connections with vet clinics across the United States. She could have her pick after graduation and she knew that made her luckier than most university graduates.

But Adam was in Montana and she knew she couldn’t do a long-distance relationship forever. Eventually she wanted to be married, to share the house and the white-picket fence, the ten-acre farm with a few horses, goats, chickens, and dogs. She wanted to hear children’s feet running through the house and their shrill, youthful giggles followed by Adam, laughing warm and happy as he playfully chased after them. She wanted it so badly it terrified her. Jane’s plan had always been to focus on her career until she was graduated and had been working at her chosen clinic for a year before she started dating or even considered the idea of marriage and children.

One chance meeting and everything was being thrown up into the air. Jane wasn’t sure where the pieces were set to fall, either.

Her phone buzzed, and she glanced down, realizing she’d missed a couple texts from Adam. The first had been sent shortly after her prior reply and read: Now hang on, I’m not that thoughtless of a boyfriend, darlin’. You’re getting spoiled on Christmas whether you like it or not. Me getting you for a month is my present, not yours. Keep that in mind.

She smiled. In the absent gap where she didn’t reply, tangled in her endless circling thoughts, he’d just texted again.

Everything alright?

He knew. Even hundreds of miles apart, he somehow knew. Jane didn’t know how he did it. She took a breath and began to text, telling him the truth.

Sorry babe, I just got off the phone with my mom before I text you and she’s still being… well… my mom.

Rather than receive a text reply, her phone started ringing. A selfie they’d taken with Avery in the middle, all three of them smiling wide and happy – Adam distracted and looking at Jane instead of into the camera – flashed up on her screen and made her smile again. It did every time she saw it. She pressed to answer the call and put the phone to her ear.

“Hi baby,” she said softly.

“Hey darlin’,” she heard the metal latch of the gate swinging and locking into place and the air moving around him as he started walking. He’d been working out with the horses while he was texting her. “I’m sorry your mama is giving you a hard time, but you know she’s just worried about you.”

“I know,” Jane admitted, but frustration clung to her tone. “I just wish she’d trust me. She acts like I’m throwing everything away, like we’re not constantly worrying about what the future is going to mean. Like I’m wasting everything I’ve worked hard for just because I fel-” she cut herself off abruptly, realizing with a start as she got worked into her rant she almost said it then and there. Like I’m wasting everything I’ve worked hard for just because I fell in love.

“I know darlin’, I know.” After a slight pause – long enough to make her worry that he’d figured out what she nearly said – Adam spoke. “Just give her time. Do what you think is best for you. That’s all that matters. Alright?” He didn’t corner her or ask her what she’d been about to say. Maybe it hadn’t been as obvious as she thought.

“Yeah,” Jane sighed and wrapped one of her arms around her waist, wishing she could be curled up in his arms again, laying on his broad, muscled chest while he spoke gentle reassurances and ran his wide palm in calming strokes up and down her back. Her heart lifted when she realized that would be a tangible thing she could have in just a few days’ time. It had felt like this vacation would never get here. “I just can’t wait for you to hold me again.” She confessed in a soft, small voice. Showing her weakness and need to someone was strange for Jane, so used to having to take care of everyone else and herself all on her own.

But Adam let her slip. He took the weight of the world off her shoulders without complaint, happy to be her solace.

“Darlin’, when you get here, you’re going to spend all night in my arms. Hell, we might be together so long we’re going to start growing into one person.” He joked, helping lift her weary spirit and making her laugh. “You know… I was going to let this be a surprise, but I think it might help you to know it now…”

“What?” Jane blinked, wondering what trick he had up his sleeve. “What is it?”

“The night you fly in to Billings, me and you are staying in a hotel and heading to the ranch the next day. My ma is watching Avery and looking after the horses, so we can have a little time just the two of us.”

“Oh, Adam,” Jane sighed, unable to keep how happy and relieved by the thought she was. She loved his daughter and she adored his mother. The woman had been a blessing at smoothing over the awkward situation when they’d first met and before they’d parted ways she’d gripped Jane’s hand tight and smiled, telling her she couldn’t begin to say how happy she was Adam had found a good-hearted girl like her. Jane and Avery were still figuring one another out, but Adam assured her Avery would get more comfortable the more time she spent around them. Jane was the only woman Adam had dated since Avery’s mother had left when she was too young to remember her, so it was an adjustment for the little girl.

“That sounds like heaven.”

“Good,” he said, and she heard the happy smile in his voice. “I’m sorry darlin’, but I’m going to have to cut this call a little short. I’ve got a guy coming from out of town to look at some of the colts I gentled, and it looks like he just pulled up.”

Jane hoped the man liked them and bought them. Adam made his living training horses, both clients who brought their horses to him for training and by adopting wild horses from the BLM holding facility a couple hours from his ranch which he gentled into sound, hardy little workhorses. If no one was buying, he wasn’t profiting.

“That’s okay! I need to finish packing anyways. Good luck baby!”

“Thanks, darlin’, can’t wait to see you again.”

“I can’t wait to see you too.”

“Bye darlin’.”

“Bye baby,” she said, and listened for a just a few seconds longer as Adam lowered the phone from his ear and called out in his happy, robust country drawl to the man who’d just arrived at his ranch. The call ended, and she sighed, feeling better and more excited to get to Billings and into the arms of the wonderful man waiting for her.

*****

The minute their eyes met, Adam cut through the crowd of people waiting in the airport lobby for their loved ones, opening his arms and grabbing Jane up before she could say a word. He pulled her close and dipped, pressing their lips together in a kiss that told her how badly he’d needed to do that without saying a word. Jane pulled away dizzy and a little breathless, cheeks flush as she looked up into the face of her handsome cowboy, who made her heart race with just a look.

“God woman,” He sighed and whispered against her lips as their foreheads pressed gently together, “I missed you more than I thought it was possible to miss someone I was talking to every day.”

“Me too,” she said, heart already soaring. Adam was so open about his admiration of her, he never gave her a chance to worry he didn’t feel just as strongly about her as she did him. His hands dropped to hers as he pulled away, wrapping gently around them, squeezing and rubbing the pad of his thumb over her palm.

“Let’s go get your suitcase and get out of here,” he said, grin climbing higher into his round cheeks and making the laugh lines around his eyes more prominent. He was turning away, bringing her with him. “I need to get you alone in that hotel room before I explode.”

Jane laughed softly and blushed – even though they’d slept together, done naughty phone calls, texts, snapchats and facetime calls together, she still felt flush any time Adam’s attention turned ravenous. Sometimes the way he looked at her stunned her. Jane didn’t think she was particularly unattractive, but everyone had their little spots they stared at a little too long in the mirror and she was no exception. Adam drowned her in earnest compliments and pointed out parts of herself she’d never appreciated or took a second to see as beautiful. Seeing herself through his eyes was a new experience and sometimes, when she was having a moment where she felt particularly cute, she could hear how he’d compliment her and get giddy before snapping a picture and sending it his way.

Adam never disappointed. The moment he had a chance to look at it – which was normally quickly after she sent it unless he was working with a horse – he said just what she imagined he would and then some.

The pair retrieved her suitcase and headed out to his truck. As they made their way through the crowds, Jane caught the eyes of other women that were drawn toward Adam as they walked. A small nagging bite of insecurity threatened to wiggle its way through. He was so damn handsome in his Stetson – a black one this time, set on his fluffy, shoulder-length blond curls – workman’s jacket, plaid button-up, dark-wash tight-fit jeans, big silver belt-buckle and brown ostrich leather boots. Jane couldn’t blame them for looking, but she glanced down at herself and wondered what they thought of her. Did they think he could do better?

“Darlin?” Adam’s concerned voice drew her eyes back to his. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she said and smiled, which was easier beneath that Montana summer sky blue-eyed stare. “I’m perfect.” She smiled a little deeper, remembering she was here to be with Adam and he was here to be with her, and Adam matched the grin before ducking in to steal a quick kiss, squeezing their joined hand and maneuvering up to his truck. No one else mattered. A thousand woman could look at Adam, but his eyes were always on her.

Jane climbed in the cab and Adam loaded up the suitcase before climbing into the driver’s seat. The truck started with a gentle rumble and he reached to turn the music station down low enough they could talk if they want to. Before she could buckle in to the passenger’s seat, he gently patted the wide breadth of his palm against the middle bench seat beside him.

“I’ve had enough of getting to see and hear you but not touch you,” he said, “c’mon.”

Jane grinned and let go of the seatbelt she’d just grabbed, scooting over until she could curl up against him. He wrapped one arm around her and tucked her in close as she buckled the waistband seatbelt. As the truck pulled out of the airport lot and onto the road, Jane remembered to ask him about the horses.

“Did that rancher buy any of your colts?”

Adam looked down at her and brightened before looking at the road ahead with a nod. “He sure did! Bought all five I had trained up. He had his eyes on Lucky too, but I’ve barely started ground manners and I told him I don’t rush a horse. They learn at their pace. I told him if he was still in need of good horses by the time Lucky was ready I’d let him know and he could come take a look and see if he was still wanting him.”

Jane felt her heart sink. She knew it was stupid, but she would hate to see Lucky go. She felt like he bonded she and Adam together. The first time Adam had been working with the wild colt was the first time she and Adam had met. But Adam’s horse training was a business and he needed to sell horses to keep it operating.

“That’s great!” She said, because it was true that it was great. Sometimes it took one rancher who knew other ranchers who were looking for new stock to put him in demand. Hell, they might even ship a colt or two his way to have it trained up, too. The more word spread about Adam’s work with horses, the more opportunity he’d have to gentle them in a way that respected the bond between man and horse, and the more chances he’d have to keep bringing in fresh stock and training them up.

“Yeah,” Adam said, “actually, because he bought so many, I figured we could make a little stop before we go grab the Christmas tree tomorrow.” He glanced over at Jane as they stopped at a red light, one eyebrow quirking.

“Oh? What’s that?”

Adam decided they’d wait to get the Christmas tree until Jane was there, and the three of them – himself, Jane, and Avery – would go pick one out, bring it home and decorate it that night. It was a way of helping Avery adjust a little more to Jane’s presence in their little family, even though the situation was a little bit strange. It was also a way to give Jane a little bit of her family traditions when she wouldn’t be back home to participate in them.

“Well, my buddy who’s a handler up at the BLM facility called and let me know they got some nice-looking colts in that he thinks I could do something with. They were shipped in out of state. I figured we’d go up to the BLM facility and see if we might come away with a horse or two.”

Jane couldn’t help the way her heart lifted in excitement. “That would be fun!”

“Yeah, and,” his grin stretched a little wider, “I think it’s time Avery got her first horse. There’s a yearling filly there, a little bay roan that makes me think of her. They’ve got the same personalities, I swear it. They could grow up together a little bit. The filly wouldn’t be ready for saddle training for a year or two at least, so that’d give Avery time to get used to the responsibility of keeping a horse. And they’d have each other for a long, long time.”

Jane’s heart swelled. She remembered being a little girl obsessed with horses, daydreaming about when Santa would finally give in to her pleading letters and deliver a pony for her on Christmas day. “She’s going to love that so much.”

He grinned. “It’s about time, the girl started riding before she could walk, and she’s wanted one of her own for long enough now.”

Adam pulled the truck off the freeway and down to the parking lot of the multi-story hotel. They checked in and Jane’s excitement had her breath hard to catch the further down those door-lined halls they traveled. She was going to have Adam alone again. In person. There wasn’t any phone to clutch to her ear. There wasn’t any time she was going to close her eyes and feel a sharp ache in her heart for how badly she wished he was tangible. She was going to be held in those big, strong country arms of his and up against that broad, thick-muscled chest. When she put her ear to it, she was going to hear his heartbeat.

Jane glanced up at Adam, who she caught watching her. A gentle flush crept across his pale cheeks, just barely hidden by the blond of his beard. She knew he must’ve been thinking along the lines of what she’d been. The last time they’d physically been together they’d been practical strangers, drunk on some powerful, near-divine feeling of soulmate like proportions. Now they’d spent months talking and texting and facetiming on the phone. He’d listened to her meltdown rants about school and helped talk her back up. She’d listened to him gush about how well one of the colts had done or have him pull Avery up to tell her how good she did at school that day. They knew one another more intimately than ever.

Adam’s free hand grabbed hers and entwined their fingers. He gave them a little squeeze and his smile deepened. Jane exhaled and smiled too, heart pounding in her ribcage.

They entered their room. The door hadn’t even swung shut when Adam was on her, hand leaving hers to instead frame her face between his palms. He crashed her back into the wall beside the door and smashed his mouth hot against hers. Jane moaned into his mouth, which stretched hers wider, and his tongue plunged between the open invitation. His hips dug hard, belt buckle pinching into her stomach. His thick fingers curled in her hair, around the back of her head, and held her firm as they kissed.

Jane worked her hands up between their bodies, dragging her nails over his stomach and up his chest. He groaned into their kiss and dug his hips upward between her legs again. She pushed at him, though his strength was immovable. It wasn’t that she wanted the kiss to end, but that she needed to breathe. Her lungs were starved, apparent by the way she gasped for air when he finally pulled his mouth from hers.

Adam’s heavy breaths fell hot over her, body frozen where it’d pinned her, tension leaking slowly from his muscles. He’d needed the breath too but had been so ravenous that he hadn’t been able to break the trance that kissing her became. Now they stood in quiet, chests heaving, ears roaring with the blood rushing through them.

“I missed you,” Jane said, voice small and sad. They’d talked every second they could, but she’d still missed him.

“I missed you too,” his voice was a similar ache above her. He leaned in and pressed his lips in a tender kiss on her forehead.

Adam stepped back but let one of his hands catch one of hers. He led her down to where the hotel bedroom opened and turned them, so her back was to the bed. Despite the need built inside him for her, Adam forced his fingers slow as he stripped her clothing. As each new item fell away, his eyes appraised her, and he breathed low under his breath. When he popped her bra off and slipped the straps down her shoulders, he licked his lips and groaned low in his throat.

Adam knelt and helped her step out of her boots and jeans, carefully setting her feet right. He tilted his head back, blond curls barely maintained by his Stetson and looked up her naked body, catching her eyes with his. Jane flushed and swallowed.

“Sit back, angel.” He demanded, country drawl soft, and Jane lowered to sit on the plush white comforter atop the bed. He pinched the crown of his hat and pulled it off, setting it to the bed and running a hand through his hair to smooth the pressed-down bend the band of it had created.

Adam peeled her socks off and fell to holding her right ankle. His touch traveled slow up the back of her leg as he leaned in, gently pressing his lips to her skin. He kissed up her leg, beard scratching her thigh, and drew closer and closer between them. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her and it pulled a moan from her throat just as his mouth settled wide atop her skin. The muscle of his tongue curled, pressed between and drug up, then down. He ate her slow, letting her moans build and spill out of her caught-open lips, her back arched and hips rolling toward him. His wide hands splayed on her backside, fingers pushing and encouraging her as physically close to him as possible. His teeth grazed her raised, swollen clit and made her jerk at the electricity that spread along her nerves and flashed in the muscles of her thighs. The surprised yelp she made had a chuckle rumbling from his mouth and vibrating his lips and stubble against her sensitive, wet, needy clit.

Jane dropped her chin to her sweat-dappled chest, looking down her naked body at the halo of gilded curls buried between her thighs. Sensing her gaze, Adam raised his brow and let his blue eyes meet hers but didn’t once stop the way his tongue flicked and curled, or how he sucked back hard, as if the intent was to drink every drop. Caught in his hungry gaze, Jane’s heart beat quickened, and she sucked in a shaky, needed breath. Her thighs trembled on his shoulders and her eyes rolled back, unable to keep hold of his any longer.

Adam dipped against her with a more feverish passion, concentrating flicking the tip of his tongue over her clit and suckling with his lips. He drove her wilder and wilder, her hips gyrating against his mouth as he feasted. But, he didn’t let her cum. When nirvana was in reach, every muscle in her body freezing tight, fingers curling desperate into the sheets at her sides, Adam pulled away from between her legs and sat back on his heels, watching her body tremble with need. Jane blinked away the beginning phase of fog as her body realized it was left to be driven wild by the sensations he’d stoked, but not offered final reward.

She pushed herself up with her palm flat on the mattress and looked at him where he knelt, smiling knowingly and wickedly at her. Mischief flashed in Jane’s eyes – she wasn’t going to let him look so satisfied – and she pushed herself forward, practically leaping at him. His shocked expression was satisfactory, as was the grunt when his back hit the hotel room floor and he looked up at her, dazed and then amused, and then hungry all over again.

Jane sat with more purpose on his hips, feeling the length of his erection still trapped painfully in his fitted denim jeans. Her hands flattened over the button-up shirt he was wearing – he’d stripped his workman’s jacket off when they’d entered – and she slowly began to slip the buttons through each little hole and pushed the material open. She pushed her fingers through the faint dusting of blond hair on his chest and curled them, raking her nails down his torso and smiling as he sucked in a hard breath, groaned and pushed his hips up toward hers. Oh… she was going to enjoy tormenting him as much as he’d enjoyed doing it to her.

Using his body as leverage, Jane began to rub her hips over his, the stiff denim over his zipper pushing against her clit and making her moan. They may as well have been ruining his jeans, the way Adam was moaning and bucking his hips up to meet her strokes, likely leaking already for her. She didn’t tease him very long – at least not clothed – and only when their breaths were both ragged and he was shaking beneath her did she stop and slowly slide down his body. When she released the tension of his belt-buckle and undid the button and zipper of his jeans, Adam sighed in relief. His cock was swollen thick and had been painfully restrained.

Jane’s hands slipped beneath the band of his boxers and pushed the material down as her fingers slipped around his hard, throbbing cock. Adam moaned to feel her touch on his bare skin. Jane repositioned her body, putting either one of her knees on the other side of his, free hand flat on the carpet by his hip. Jane dipped and opened her lips over his leaking head, tasting the most intimate part of the man she loved. Her tongue swirled and dipped over the sensitive lip. Only the stretch around his girth kept her mouth from curling into a smile at the way he moaned and thrust greedily up into her mouth. The length of his shaft slid atop the bed of her warm, wet tongue.

His long-reach brought a hand to gather her hair, pulling it out of her face and holding it back so he could keep his chin at his chest and watch her bob up and down the length of his cock. She wet it with her saliva and where her mouth didn’t entertain, her fingers picked up the slack, curled around his shape and stroked with a soft squeeze of pressure. Jane dipped and ran the flat of her tongue down his length to his sac, sucking each of his balls in turn as Adam groaned and his muscles in his thick thighs tensed, showing their definition beneath fat. She curled the tip of her tongue and ran it along the taint, then up again so she could stretch her mouth around the head of his precum leaking cock and slide him back inside her mouth.

His fingers in her hair curled tighter and tighter. He jerked beneath her ministrations and leaked a tense curse in a strained whisper. His blond brows knit together and almost made him look angry with the concentration it was taking him not to cum. Adam’s hand in her hair pushed her down, forcing his cock to kiss the back of her throat where she gently gagged and the soft skin there wrapped tight around his girth. He moaned and dropped his head back, chest heaving with a needed breath.

Then, he let her go. Jane slipped off his cock, sucking back the saliva that’d gathered while she’d been held on it, and took a deep breath as she did. Sitting up on her knees she wiped at her lips with the back of her hand and looked down at the half-dressed, ravished cowboy laying beneath her. Adam’s dazed, but hungry eyes looked up her naked body and met hers. They’d been so caught up in how desperate for one another they’d been, it took them until now just to breathe and settle in with what was happening.

But nothing was going to slow down. Jane needed him too badly for that and he clearly felt the same. Adam curled his torso to sit up just enough to tug the long sleeves of his shirt off, uncaring how he tossed it to the ground beside them. He wanted his hands back on her too quickly to bother with it.

Crawling over the top of him, Jane lowered her hips as Adam grabbed the base of his thick, saliva-wet cock and pressed the tip inside her. His hand jumped up to the pinch of her hip and settled heavy, pressure guiding her slow down over the top of him. A moan poured low and long out of his mouth, thick and smooth like molasses. Jane’s muscles clenched tight around him as she adjusted to the feel of his girth stretching her again, head tilted back and mouth open as she voiced her pleasure. For a moment they sat, joined, and then Adam let up on her hip and Jane began to ride him.

Her palms pressed against his sweaty torso as she slipped up and down his cock, taking him in deep. Their hotel room was filled with breathy, heavy moans, soft whines from her lips and occasional shared whispers of their names, spoken with not only passion, but the love they’d found for one another. The stickiness of her wet slick covered her thighs and his hips, combining with the sweat pooled on their warm skin. Adam’s hands were still on her hips, fingers digging sharp into the layer of fat he could grip and pinch. Initially he seemed to hold himself back and let her take the reins, but a few thrusts in his need took over and his hips began pushing up to meet and quicken her pace. He buried his cock up inside her, grunting with each forceful shove of his hips and squeeze of his hands on her hips. She’d be surprised if she wasn’t bruised tomorrow.

Eventually he took over and Jane’s toes curled, nails raking into the fine blond hair on his sweaty chest, mouth locked open and eyes rolled back, body jerking with each hard-thrust Adam buried up inside her. He was going faster and faster, and they’d both built themselves to the brink of pleasure, making nirvana a quick and easy reach. Jane wished they could stay like this forever, no matter how exhausting it’d be. To be intimate with Adam in this moment, as close as two people could be, let all the worries of their future and the unanswered questions remain meaningless. The only thing that mattered was the two of them in one another’s arms.

“Adam!” She squeezed out from her tight throat and forced her chin down, eyes open, so she could look down at him.

Adam’s brow was furrowed hard, jaw clenched, and nostrils flared. The muscles in his arms bulged against the skin as his body tensed and he forced her to meet his driving hips. His eyes met hers and the desperate, feral nature of the beast inside him subsided just briefly, just enough to lock gazes and show her the man still existed behind the need. But there was even something in that – something in Adam losing himself and just fucking her raw and ruthless, that excited her. This man with a heart of gold, who she knew from the instant she met him she could trust her life with, couldn’t help but be so needy for her that he lost all the civility when the doors were closed, and they were left alone.

“Adam!” She cried again, a ripple of pleasure shooting through her body and curling a knot in her lower abdomen.

“Yeah,” he grunted in a hot breath and pushed his cock up inside her soaked lips. “Cum for me, darlin’,” he could barely speak, his vocal chords were so tight. Instead, Adam’s words were a growl from that deep, barrel chest and it rumbled beneath her clinging hands. She hadn’t realized she’d drug red marks down his chest when she’d raked across his skin but saw them then in slightly raised lines.

“Oh, fuck, I’m –” her brows pulled tight inward and her body froze. A small cry squeaked past her lips as her brow furrowed. Adam grunted and plunged as deep inside her as his cock could go, balls sucked up to the base, legs shaking with the effort it took to keep from cumming too soon. Jane twitched, stilled, and cried her release in a mix between a whine and a long moan that filled the room to the ceiling. Those wet, warm velvet muscles wrapped around his driving cock clenched tight around him, pulling and coaxing him to his own release.

“Jane,” he managed, “I lo- nnngggghhh!!!…” Whatever he was going to say was stolen by the force of his orgasm. Adam’s vocals fell to moans spilling in tight together as his body jerked hard enough to nearly unseat her while she quivered and came herself. She felt the heat of his orgasm pouring inside her and knew she should worry – they needed to stop fucking unprotected unless they wanted to further complicate their already complicated situation – but only let a satisfied smile smear across her lips before she collapsed forward atop him.

One of Adam’s arms lazily lifted and rested around her bare back, squishing her sweaty body against his. The haze of gratification fogged their minds and they could only heave hot breaths that slowly melted into gentle laughter shortly after when they realized how crazy they’d been. All their plans – they’d get to the hotel, check in, and then go get something to eat and enjoy the town – had been derailed the split second they had a moment alone. They couldn’t even wait a few hours.

Adam’s fingers raked her hair away from her face, where it’d stuck to the sides with sweat. Jane turned to look at him and smiled warmly, matching the look he was giving her. Her heartbeat felt as though it skipped. He had a way of looking at her like he was in awe of her, like he was trying to memorize every pore in her skin and every subtle dip of her face, so he could remember it to perfection any time he wanted.

“You’re perfect, you know that?” His words were slower, country drawl a little stronger, voice heavy with exhaustion as the adrenaline of their lovemaking gently eased from his body.

Jane laughed. “I think you’re bias.”

“Hmm,” he shifted her body carefully, still tucked hard inside her, both still sensitive. “Maybe.” He admitted, and his grin deepened.

“We didn’t even let you get undressed all the way,” Jane pointed out, rubbing her foot gently over his half-worn denim jeans. They’d only tugged them down his thighs enough for her to ride him.

“I didn’t think it was very polite to stop a lady when she’s on a mission.” He countered playfully, to which Jane laughed. He was good at that… being silly and making her smile and laugh. Sometimes her cheeks ached after they’d talked, he’d teased her to laughter so much.

“Good call,” she remarked, nodding firmly. “I definitely had no intention of being slowed down.”

“Mm, no you did not,” he said, voice low and deep, making a ripple of need tighten in her belly. How the hell did he manage to make her want him even after she was physically exhausted? His fingers skimmed up and down her spine in a delicate, comforting touch. “And thank God for that.”

Jane laughed softly again and then fell to just letting Adam hold her. She nestled her cheek against his chest, still lightly damp with sweat and slowly cooling, just as the rest of her was. Her eyelids threatened to drop after a day of travel and their lovemaking, but the night was far from over. She let her eyes close only to wrap her other senses more securely around Adam and soak in the sensation of being held by him. When she’d had to go back to university she hadn’t thought she’d miss being physically present with Adam so badly – they’d only spent a few days together in totality – but her heart had ached for this. She never knew being with anyone could feel like this.

“Hey,” he beckoned gently after a few more minutes of quiet, his fingers still tracing delicate patterns on her naked skin. “Do you still want to go out on the town? I don’t mind calling in room service and staying here all night if not.” His voice rumbled in his chest against her ear.

“I do,” she said, blinking her eyes open and readjusting to the lights they’d left on in the room. She glanced up at him and smiled. “I was just enjoying being in your arms again.”

He melted at that. “I was enjoying holding you again.” He dipped and placed a sweet, loving kiss atop her head and leaned back down. “But c’mon. Let’s shower, get dressed and head out. I got a lot of people to make jealous as I show my pretty little girlfriend off, and I’ve got a mind to spoil you a li’l too.”

“Spoil me? Why?”

“Because I said so.” His grin climbed a little higher in his cheeks, making them rounder and pronouncing the smile lines at the creases of his eyes.

“We’ll see about that.” Jane said, rolling her eyes, and slowly started to lift her pleasure-tired body from his.

“Mhm, we sure will,” he said and reached to playfully smack her ass as she turned, pushing his jeans off the rest of his legs and climbing to his feet to follow close behind her.

They were delayed again when, in the shower, slipping soap suds along each other’s bodies, Adam got hard again. His touch began to wander down her body and he stirred her again into madness quicker than she’d thought possible. His lips had placed warm kisses against her wet, clean skin, over her shoulders and between her shoulder blades as he wrapped his grip around her hips and sank his cock inside her again. Every high thrust slapped their wet skin together, his balls smacking against her cunt, and droplets of water from the shower stream flying around them. His low grunts and moans joined her high whines, bouncing and echoing in the acoustics of the tiny bathroom. When they finally finished showering and shut off the water, Jane’s palms had indents of the shower tile and the muscles in her thighs ached with exhaustion. She even had to hold on to his firm forearm for leverage as she stepped out, feeling wobbly-legged. He grinned, and she shook her head, mesmerized he’d had it in him so soon for a second round. If he kept this up, Jane wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk the rest of the time she was here.

She made a comment as such, which made Adam laugh that low, warm rolling laugh and melt into an almost sheepish smile.

“You’ve kept me a hungry man, darlin’. What can I say?”

At that she could only grin, and the pair of them finished getting ready before going out to see what Billings had to offer. They walked in the cold along the downtown streets and red-brick buildings near their hotel, peering in Christmas-decorated window displays hand-in-hand, cuddling up and stealing kisses just because they could. Any time Jane got particularly excited about something she saw, Adam encouraged her into the store and tried to talk her into letting him buy it for her. He was relentless and while she was able to argue her way out of a few gifts, they still ended up with a few bags by the end of the night. She managed to buy something for him, despite his best attempt to play down his excitement – a folding knife with a wood carved handle depicting a mustang running free on the range.

They found a cute little diner to eat at, tucked inside beneath the twinkling, warm string lights wrapped around wood beams. They talked and talked, and Jane was amazed they never ran out of things to talk about, even after talking every day for month’s straight. It seemed neither could be without the other’s touch for too long. Jane would lay her hand on the table and Adam’s would blanket it, warm, secure and soft. The pad of his thumb would skim across her skin, inspiring goosebumps.

And when the night ended, and they lay, naked, tangled limbs beneath and atop the hotel comforters, Jane began to drift peacefully off to sleep, never once remembering that earlier in the day, Adam had nearly said something that she was sure was on the tip of her tongue, too. Every second that passed with him was going to make it harder and harder not to say. Every time he lifted her heart and made it race, the words were there, wishing they could be spilled. It drifted in her mind as her eyes closed, but she had enough sense not to say it. Not yet.

I love you, Adam.

Adam sighed a content breath and wrapped his thick arm tighter around her, pulling her closer in. A smile formed sleepy across his mouth, eyelids closed and light lashes gently tickling his round cheeks. He felt more content than he had in years. Like everything made sense. That thought he’d had earlier – the one he’d almost said out loud – drifted across his mind, but he held his tongue and kept his mouth closed, too afraid to add pressure to what had been the perfect day they both so desperately needed.

I love you, Jane.

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